The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Can Texans Win On Primetime? Rockets On An Early-Season Run, Astros Ballpark Gets New Name

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Matt Thomas of the "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" and Dan Mathews of "The A-Team" preview the "Monday Night Football" matchup between the Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys. Can the Texans get back into the win column on the road against an injured Cowboys roster? Matt and Dan also:talk with Bobby Belt of 105.3 The Fan about the Cowboys struggling throughout the seasonreact to the Astros announcing the new name of the ballparkdiscuss the Rockets defeating the Chicago Bulls to extend their win streak to fiverecap Jake Paul defeating Mike Tyson in a rather disappointing boxing matchplay "To Tell The Truth" and more.

Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-01 in H-town. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show today from Miliwake, Wisconsin. I believe that is Algonquin for The Good Earth, is what I've been told in previous movies. The Good Land. Hope you guys are... I knew you'd fix me up, Dan Matthews.

How the hell are you, D. I'm good, buddy. How are you? I've been better. I will not get into a long, exhaustive conversation, but I'm not feeling 100%. And I'm glad I'm in my hotel room. We'll just put that way. Are you all staying at the haunted hotel there?

No, we have not stayed there in a long time. Okay. Yeah, because I know it's really popular in Major League Baseball. Like, I think Mookie Betts wouldn't even stay there when the Dodgers went to Milwaukee. Like, he got his own Airbnb and the stories out there of different supernatural encounters that players have had over the years. Yeah, there are two hotels in sports that have been considered haunted. One is a hotel here in Milwaukee, and the other one is a hotel in Oklahoma City. I have not been a part of either.

I've been in state at both hotels before, and I've had zero issues. And I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but I do not believe in ghost. I don't know. Like, I don't know if I've ever actually necessarily had a supernatural encounter, but as a buddy of mine once said, why tempt fate? Like, why doubt it? Like, why give yourself the opportunity to possibly have an encounter that you don't want? That's true. One of the members of our Rocket Traveling Party believes that he almost had an affair with one of them,

which is really odd, but that's a different issue for a different time. That'll be on the Internet-only show. Dan, I appreciate you stepping in. You'll be with me today and tomorrow as our buddy Ross is, I believe, 7 or 8,000 miles away from us. Yeah, he's in Seoul. And I see that, I mean, no surprise that he's already drinking, so good for him. But yeah, he's literally on the other side of the world right now. Yeah, I need a ruling.

The Wi-Fi for him to fly on the airline that he was on was $35. 15-hour flight from Dallas to wherever he landed for $35. I probably would have done it. I mean, it just depends because, I mean, when he first, flew out, it was a college football Saturday, so maybe that would have been an opportunity for him, although they tell you not to stream while you're mid-flight, which I don't really understand, but either way, yeah, like you said, 15 hours. It's just, I just don't know if I'll ever do something like that because it's hard for me to sleep

on planes. I've never been able to. And when I do, the snoring starts, and that's just not nice to other people. Yeah, but I appreciate you're being considered of other people when it comes of that. The old lay straight back snore is the worst because if you snore like I do occasionally. I don't know very much anymore, but I aggressively wake myself up with these snores. So I know exactly what you're talking about.

All right, Dan and I are with you today until 2 o'clock. We've got to tell the truth coming up at about 90 minutes. We've got Bobby Belt from 105 The Fan joining us from Dallas and a half an hour from night. So, we've got a Monday night football game tonight. And it's supposed to be one

that should fix the Texans ills, right? We're talking about a cowboy team that not only is bad, but they're really bad at home. They've been blown out by multiple teams. This should be, relatively speaking, a get-well game, correct? It's got the makings

for it to be a get-right game, but I mean, you know, it's also, too, with the Texans. I mean, I think we've said that numerous times this year outside of New England because that was really the only game that you went into saying, okay, hey, you could get right. And then we thought they got right.

And then turns out that was the last time I scored a touchdown in the second half. But, you know, not to give away too many spoilers. We had Bobby's fellow co-host, RJ, Choppy, on with us on Friday. And he talked about how bad the Cowboys are in the third quarter. Like he said, they're probably the worst third quarter team in the league. So his point was the Texan's streak of not scoring a touchdown in the second. second half more than likely comes to an end tonight is rj choppy is that like a radio name or is that his name i think it's actually really his name i've i've known him for years and i've never actually

asked him like if you know he has a different name and just said uh you know it's just easier to go by this but i think that's actually his name hmm radio has some weird names i mean you and i have really normal names but r j choppy okay you know what he's in doubt is you doing good I mean, was he the one who got to talk to Jerry Jones when he got all grumpy on them in their radio show? Yeah, so, I mean, it was Sean, his co-host, Sean Sharif, that initially drew the ire. But, I mean, I think that by proxy, he also got the ire of being called a non-expert and all of the things that came along with Jerry being upset with them. Could you imagine if Cal did a weekly show? I can't imagine Cal saying a bad thing about anybody or getting grumpy.

at anything. It'd be kind of interesting. It'd be quite the heel turn. No, I don't know if it'd be interesting. I will disagree. I don't know if it would be very interesting. I think it would be basically Hannah passing Cal notes and him reading runoff script. Oh, okay.

So, like, basically, it would be kind of like I just said, a heel turn. But it's the script writers, the storyline writers that are kind of moving them along. Yeah. Like, he's not, you know, because you know this as well as anyone. Part of a wrestler's charm is being good on the mic. either with promos or being able to control the crowd. I mean, the Rock did it incredibly well, Stone Cold, Hogan, Flair, and now, in the current incarnation of wrestling,

there's not a lot of wrestlers that are really good on the mic. No. Like, for instance, if Cal did a weekly radio hit on the Texans radio station, we would want to have Hannah on because I think we'd get more information from Hannah than we would from Cal, right? Yeah, I mean, because Cal, let's just go ahead and, you know, further the, comparison here. Cal is basically Roman Reigns and Hannah is Paul Heyman.

Yeah. I mean, again, I can't imagine Cal being over mean. I'm like, hey, guys, you're being too tough on us. What's going on? I mean, I'm curious when the last time Cal ever got mad at anything. I mean, first of all, he's inherited a billion dollar product.

Second of all, his team's going to win the AFC South again. Next, he's got Hannah who completely changed the image of the franchise. He's got a very well-liked coach. He's got a franchise quarterback. I mean, the team's not playing great as of late. But, I mean, what else?

I mean, I don't think he puts a 40-hour weekend. I think he's got great lieutenants around the business aspect. He's got football taken care of with Nikki C. I mean, what's the stress in Cal's life these days? I mean, probably the fact that this offense is woefully underperformed. Maybe that would be one. But I'm with you, though. I mean, I've had just a few kind of in-passing,

interactions with Cal and he's always been incredibly nice to me so I don't have any issues with them but I mean it would be quite the plot twist I think if he went that way yeah I don't I don't necessarily think it would be an issue at all I think he'd be

a very easygoing guy and as like I said as long as can't you know maybe like if Cal did a weekly radio appearance and he put an earpiece and so the question would be asked Hannah would have a chance to interpret it and then Cal would say it that's how I kind of feel Yeah, I mean, I, yeah, like you said, I mean, she definitely has probably helped turn around the image of this team because, I mean, that was the thing. Let's go back to even when Nick Casario was hired. It wasn't that, didn't Cal like do like some like prepared statement of, you know, I hope we get to be around each other very soon.

No, no, no, no, no. Casario was when he was sitting right next to him. But it was another one that they had that he gave like a prepared statement. And people were like, wait a minute, the team's owners. Not even here? Like, what's going on here? And I remember that was the, when he was asked about Jack Easterby. Jack is very gifted in many areas. No, he's not, Cal. Get rid of him.

Yeah, it's just really not. Again, I don't know if it'd be overly interesting, but more importantly is I think the owner of the Texans is in a significantly better mood than the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who, by the way, acts as the general manager. And that's the one that we cannot forget. The mistakes that are made by this cowboy organization

are done by the general manager, not by the owner. Jerry Jones has made a lot of money. He has been very prudent. He tells out his stadium. He has multi-billion-dollar marketing deals. He is the greatest sports marketer in the history of sports marketing. He has taken a purely pedestrian cowboy team for a better friend 25 years and has made them the number one watched NFL team year in and year out.

That's why when the cowboys are like four in the event, and they always get the big game, they're on NBC. I mean, hell, Chris Collinsworth said last year, if you could put the Cowboys on 17 times, they would do it. That's how insanely popular the Dallas Cowboys are. And to me, when we're in our deathbed and we're lying around going, what are the marvels that you lived through in your sports career? I'd be in there with my last breath saying,

how is a team that is so underperforming? Why do I sound like John McLean? Why is a team that is so underperforming get on national television 12 times a year? It's Jerry Jones. Well, I mean, that's the thing, too, is, again, that the conversation we had on Friday, RJ brought up a great point. There is the football man, Jerry Jones, and then there's the side that seemingly wins out all the time, which is marketing Jerry Jones. I mean, everything he does has some sort of marketing twist to it. I mean, I guarantee you he's going to somehow find a way to monetize the windowed end zone where the sun peeks through and be able to find some sort of way to,

be able to turn that into some sort of profit for the Cowboys. That's what he does. I mean, you think it was really a coincidence at McCarthy's press conference that they had a sunshade right to his right to block out the sun from him. Like, it's always something with them. And it's always something that makes them want to go viral or that gets people talking about them. I mean, come on, Matt. Do you really think that the whole thing he had with the morning show was something that was not already thought out by him of, oh, because to him, he probably thinks, oh, well, this is going to fire up my team. No, it's not. Your team sucks. There's nothing you can do about that. Actually, it's your fault that your team sucks because

you didn't do anything to fix your team. Let me tell you something. He's got a 53-man roster. 52 of them don't listen to the sports radio. Well, they probably shouldn't. I'm just telling you. Well, I mean, look, on top of it all, too, you've got a lame duck coach, which I think we all knew was the case. But, I mean, it's just, it's, it's almost kind of to a point where I tell people that there is a circle, a yearly circle that never changes of Cowboys fandom. We're at the top of it, it's all of the, hey, you know what, I feel really good about this team, training camp.

You're out in Oxnard, you're having a good time. And then the beginning of the season, they blow somebody out and you think to yourself, okay, hey, this team's really got it. Then you get to the middle lull of the season, about 6 o'clock, and you lose a game that maybe you weren't supposed to lose. But then you get to 9 o'clock. They play somebody on Sunday night football in December. they beat the hell out of them.

And then they finally lose a game that about 10 or 11 o'clock on the clock of either the commanders or the Eagles late in the season, a game that probably they could have won. And then they play the 49ers or Packers in the playoffs and they lose. Losses this year at home, 4419 to the Saints, 28, 25 to the Ravens. They lose 47 to 9 to Detroit. They lose 34 to 6 to the Eagles. They have a single home win this year? No, they don't.

That was the joke that people made about the Jake Paul fight. As they said, Jake Paul has won more in that building than the Cowboys have this year. And it's true. All right. Speaking of that, we're going to talk about Jake Paul today and the fight, the coverage of it, and Netflix. We'll get to that on the show today. We'll also get to the Rockets. The reason why I'm in Milwaukee is they take on the Bucks tonight.

They'll take a five-game winning streak into tonight's game. Did you all watch the Rockets and Bulls last night or listen to them? and kick the crap out of Chicago Bulls. I mean, it wasn't even close. We'll get to that. We have a brand new name for the downtown ballpark where your Houston Astros play. Beyonce is going to be competing or is entertaining us at halftime of the Texans' Ravens Christmas Day games. A lot to get to Tell the Truth is coming up at 1130.

We'll talk to Bobby Bell to 105.3 coming up at the bottom of the hour. And we have the news at noon. And believe it or not today, all straight ahead between now and 2 o'clock. afternoon. 713-212-5-7-90 if you want to jump in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We'll make our predictions on this Texans game, but I've been telling you for a week now, they're going to win by 10, and they better win by 10.

Because, again, the Cowboys have not won a home game this year, and a lot of those games have been utter blowouts. 7-13-212-5-7-90. We're here for two-creeks crossing resort. Finally, we're starting to get cool weather. It means you want to get outside and relax and in a nice. enjoy some peace and quiet in nature. Up in Lake Livingston, there's a beautiful park called Two Creeks Crossing Resort.

If you have an RV, you've got a place to plant that. If you don't have an RV and you're looking for a place like a cabin, a treehouse, a yurt, a glamping tent, they've got all that. Plenty of accommodations and plenty of amazing features like a pool and a barbecue, movie theater, and a nice box bar on the weekend. training facilities, workout area. They've got high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the property. Get a little bit of everything.

Modern comforts and nature at Two Creeks Crossing Resort. And right now there are 40% off those cabin rentals. If you go to Two Creeks Crossing Resort.com, TWO, creekscrossing Resort.com. Up in Lake Livingston, about 90 minutes from downtown Houston. I've been out there. It's so relaxing, so fun, and a chance for you and the family to get away. That's Two Creeks Crossing Resort.com where it's 40% off right now.

now. More Matt Thomas. Now. On Sports Talk 790. We're going to check in with Bobby Bell at 105.3, The Fan. That's what every sports radio station is. They call themselves something like the fan or the team. The zone.

The zone. We just call ourselves Sports Talk 7-Ns. That's what we do. Period. Sports Talk. And call games. you do that maybe we should come up with a yeah we should call up with something funny sports talk 790 the what hmm i think it's open up a pandora's box there i think i was going to say i think that

we probably would get some suggestions that i don't know if we want you're right that's right forget what i just said don't get don't send us any suggestions of what your mentions are about to be filled Yeah, I'm not so as afraid of. All right, 713, 212, 5790. 7132-1-2-5-790. Let's talk to some people, the great people of Houston, Texas, that are, I thought we had a call, I guess it dropped. If you want to jump in, 713-212-5-790 mentioned.

So tonight's going to be interesting for me. I'll have the call on the Rockets Bucks in front of me, and then the computer I'll have the Cowboys v. Texans. So tomorrow, all the intricacies of the game you're going to have to handle because I'll be kind of glancing at it until the Rockets game's over with. Oh, I'll have copious notes for you. Oh, okay, copious notes. I like it. Ultimately, this should be an easy victory. You got Nico Collins coming back tonight.

You got the Cowboys who probably are one step, maybe a step and a half away from getting rid of Mike McCarthy. By the way, does Doug Peterson still own the job of the Jacksonville Jaguars after that beat down yesterday? You know, it's funny. I was watching that game, and even when they put Hendon Hooker in, them being the Detroit Lions. They were still throwing the football. And as I was watching it with a buddy of mine, I go, is he trying to get Doug Peterson fired? Like, that's what it almost kind of seemed like at a certain point. Like, it was like, you could call the dogs off, Dan Campbell,

and he wasn't doing it. And they ended up beating them 52 to 6. And I mean, it was one of those where, I mean, it's to the point where it's already dead. And I think that teams kind of reach a certain point, Matt, where they're like, all right, what really is gained by switching the head coach? Like, obviously for the Saints, it seemingly has worked out. They've won their next two games since they fired Dennis Allen. But, I mean, without Trevor Lawrence out there, I think Shad Khan is kind of like, let's just play this thing out, and then we'll whack him at the end of the season. I'm going to tell you about the Jacksonville Jaguars, and this is a perspective that comes,

obviously not close to where, you know, Jacksonville and Houston are not around the corner. Jacksonville looks like a lost soul of a franchise. They get their amazing quarterback, so good, so amazing, going to be the greatest quarterback ever, and he's pedestrian at best. He's been hurt the last couple of weeks. You've bounced around from coach to coach to coach. You play, like, it feels like 40% of your games in London.

The stadium is old and decrep, but I think they're going to get a refurbished Gator Bowl yet again with the calling it this day. doesn't really matter what they call it. It's a lost soul of a franchise. And when you're a lost soul of a franchise, that really is on the owner. Is it not?

I mean, you can general manager change, you can coach change, you can quarterback change, but that's just a franchise that has just been, and I know they've had a couple of AMC championship appearances, and the Texans have not, so they do have scoreboard over that. But imagine really sitting back

and being a diehard Jaguar's family. I always say this about the Texans. They've given the city of Houston more grief than joy. I mean, now we've got NFL football back for 20-plus years, but there's just been very little satisfaction for being a Javille fan. And yesterday the game was between Jackson and Detroit was shown in Chicago where I was for the Rockets game. And I think I watched 50 minutes of it, and it was like 28 to 3 or something.

I was like, I'm going to turn something else on because it was a joke. They're a joke of a franchise. And I don't even, you know, if anybody was going to really make the big move been playing some games overseas like full time, it might be Jacksonville because they can't do anything right. They've done nothing right for a better part of five or six years. Well, I mean, it's just as you mentioned. I mean, number one is when you miss on the quarterback, then you miss as a whole. And that's what's happened to them not once, but twice now.

I mean, they feebishly thought that, or feebly thought that Blake Bortles was going to somewhat be that guy. It's hard to argue, though, with Bortles. I mean, at least he got him to an AFC championship game. That's much more than we can say about Trevor Lawrence. But that's been the problem is they've missed on the players that you cannot miss on. I mean, when you draft a quarterback in the first round, that guy better at least be serviceable because if they're not, then you have to think about doing it all over again.

And is this guy going to work? I mean, you know, that's what I think that Indianapolis is kind of running into right now. But look, credit to Anthony Richardson, he gets back in yesterday. and they go up to New Jersey and they beat the Giants, something the Texans couldn't do. So that's just... The Jets. Excuse me. The Jets.

I mean, giants are on the brain because of news earlier today. But yeah, I mean, you know, they were able to do that. So good for them in that regard. But I think they've still kind of or to a certain point. Like, you don't bench the guy that you think is going to be the guy for you. You let them take the job and run with the job, struggle with the job, and hopefully soon enough be able to succeed on it. That's why, I said this before, and I'll keep saying again, as long as the Texans maintain status quo,

now are they close to winning a championship? It feels like they're losing that vibe every single week, but the division is an absolute hot mess. The Texans could probably, you know what the Texans could do, Dan? They can go put up AFC South banners for 2025, 26, probably 27. Would they be the worst thing they could do? Say themselves on labor costs of putting those. banners up at one time? Well, I mean, maybe you go ahead and just get them printed out and then, you know, slowly roll them out. But, I mean, it seems that way. It seems like of all the teams in

the South that you're in the best position. I mean, like I just said, Indianapolis, they hope, but they don't really know about Anthony Richardson. It seems like the script is pretty much written in Jacksonville and Tennessee. I mean, we say right now it looks like they're not going be competitive for a while, but I mean, how many people were saying that about the Texans until they got C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson, Jr. That's right. All right. Let's talk to our friend in Dallas, Bobby Belt

1053, the fan. I don't get the ticket fan mixed ups. Yeah, you got it. It's the fan. He'll join us next. 1028, Matt here in Milwaukee. Dan back in our Houston studios. You guys and ladies are always welcome to dial in at 713-212.

570. Time is 1032. It is a Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross is off on vacation for a while, and we've got buddy Dan Matthews back at our Houston studios. I'm here in Milwaukee for tonight's game between the Rockets and the Bucks, and we say hello to Bobby Belt, 1053, the fan in Dallas. Joining us here for a few minutes on the show. Bobby, it's Matt, and Dan, thank you for joining us. Give me the excitement level for this I-45 showdown in the DFW metro area here this week. Oh, man, I don't know how much excitement there is, maybe morbid curiosity for a lot of Cowboys fans right now to see just how much further this could go off the rails, just because they have been really struggling. I feel like a lot of people around town right now just, you know, there's a little bit of apathy almost setting in for people and that they feel like this Cowboys team has been such a disappointment after what was a very disappointing offseason.

And so I think a lot of people just right now feel like they're just waiting this one out. And so a lot of shoulder shrugging. But, I mean, of course, there's always the Dallas-Huston City rivalry that exists. So there's still some of that for the fans, I think, here in Dallas right now, that they'd like to see this one if they're not going to get any others the rest of the year. They'd like to pick up a victory in this one. If the Texans blow that out tonight, is there any chance Mike McCarthy gets pulled tomorrow? You know, I don't think so, especially on a short week.

They've got two short weeks coming up because they've got the Monday game here, then they travel to Washington, and then coming off of the Washington game, they've got the Giants on Thanksgiving. So just from logistically that point, I don't think so. But Jerry has been, you know, very, very adamant that he doesn't want to make an in-season coaching change again. He did it with Wade Phillips 15 years ago, roughly, and he doesn't want to do that anymore. We talked to him, you know, twice a week on our station here in Dallas. and he is, he's just been pretty adamant the entire time about,

nope, Mike's here for the rest of the season, we're going to ride with that. And I think he also just views it as where they're at right now, how poorly they're playing, I think he kind of looks at it as, what's the point? Am I salvaging a season for a playoff run? Probably not. So let's just ride this thing out, not, you know, rock the boat too much. And then let's head into January and figure out who our head coach is going to be for the next few years.

Bobby, it seems like there was kind of a little bit, of a disconnect in terms of messaging before the season even began, where Jerry is throwing out the whole, we're all in. And then they make little to no moves this offseason to try to improve this roster. Was that more of Jerry just continuing to be marketer, carnival barker, Jerry, in terms of, hey, we're still competitive and really just kind of trying to talk himself into believing something that's just not true? I think so he will tell you, I don't know how realistic this is, when you

listen to the context of the quote, but he tells you and seems to genuinely believe that what his statement was about was about, I'm all in in terms of on, on this core, this core that we have here and we're making investments and we're working to extend C.D. Lam or we're working to extend D. Scott. And I'm all in on, hey, this is the year where we need to make some determinations about Mike McCarthy's future. And so to him, he says that all in is not a, ooh, chips to the table. let's really throw some capital at outside free agents and make trades and things like that. He has said that that's what he meant by All In. Now, the Carnival Barker aspect of that is the fact that he just about every single week

since the summer has used the phrase All In, it feels very intentional and very purposeful when he's doing it. So that's sort of rubbing it in a little bit, I think at times to the media and the fan base by continuing to repeat that over and over again, that's probably more the media master, the Carnival Barker, like you said. But I think his initial comment was he has always maintained that what he was talking about was being all in

on investing in the current core that had contracts that were coming up. And I mean, you know, this was a team that last year won 12 games, and I understand, like I said, they didn't make very many roster improvements, either free agency trade anywhere else. but Bobby, I mean, they won 12 games last year. Like, how does this thing fall off the tracks this quickly? Like, how do you get to this point? You know, it's a question that I think everybody's kind of trying to evaluate and figure out,

okay, where have things fallen off? Why did this take such a sharp nose dive? I think first off, the Packers playoff game exposed a lot of flaws with this team. And I think people felt like, wow, this is a warning signal about where this football team is heading, and they need to make some adjustments, and they need to make some adjustments, and they need to make some acquisitions. They didn't do that. So they sort of ignored the warning signs that seem to be on the table.

Then the other aspect of that is, I still say that when they are completely healthy, Guy 1 through 22, their 11 starters on both sides of the ball, they're still a really good team. They're a really good team with those starters when everybody's healthy. The problem is that you had your depth absolutely decimated this off season by free agent signings, everything else. You didn't do anything to add to that.

So guy 23 through 53 on the roster might be one of the five to 10 worst teams in football. And because of that, as soon as injuries hit, you start seeing that depth really get exposed. And even when they're healthy, there's two rookie offensive linemen at arguably the two most important positions on the offensive line at center and left tackle. And both of those guys are playing new positions there this year. The left tackle was Tyler Geithen, who was a right tackle at Oklahoma. And their center, Cooper Vee, had played guard at Kansas State. And so it was something where he's having to make a position shift. They've been growing pains with that.

So it kind of all comes together to create the perfect storm for this team that has led to them looking as poor as they have absent just the injuries. Bobby Belt 105.3 with us here from the fan in Dallas on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. So Bobby, area of strength right now, or is this the number of losses and the big time losses really just covered up every problem? him that this team has had so far. Yeah, I mean, there's not, right now where the team is at with their injury situation and everything else. You know, Michael Parsons is back. He's obviously a really good player.

They really love DeMarvy and Overshown, the linebacker from Texas, who missed his entire rookie year by tearing his knee, and he's come back this year. He's played really well at times, and he's been one of the guys most invested in the idea of this rivalry tonight between Dallas and Houston, that he's, you know, and he's, you know, He's really leaned into that talking to the media about how, hey, no, we want to represent for Dallas and we want to, you know, win for our city. And we need to, you know, they may be the up-and-combers, but the Cowboys are still the Cowboys. And we need to, you know, remind them who's big brother here. And so, you know, overshone is a guy who I think a lot of people like his play style, the aggressiveness, the ability, and then sort of the, you know, the leadership and the traits that he's shown and some of the confidence and the personality.

So I think the big highlight for them right now is what they're getting from Parsons and overshone and the way they can kind of alternate them as rushers and linebacker play. But other than that, our kicker maybe, he's pretty good. And I'd say the kicker and the linebacker defensive end combination, that's about where the extent of it goes, which I guess if you saw kicking over the weekend of the NFL, then that's not necessarily the worst thing to have good confidence in. But yeah, this is just flat out right now. really bad football team. There's probably

two teams in the NFL right now that I would say confidently I feel like Dallas could beat. So Micah Parsons' comments from last week, were they genuine, or they just off the cuff? I know he had to backtrack a little bit. What were your take on his comments about the coaching staff and the organization as a whole? Yeah, I didn't have a problem with what he said initially. When he first let up to it and he had talked about

when he said that Mike McCarthy can go wherever he wants, that was taking a little out of context. What he was trying to say there was, if this ends for Mike, Mike will have further opportunity and this won't be the end, whereas some of these guys, some of these other guys that he plays with, that Mike Parsons plays with, you know, Zach Martin, DeMarcus, Lawrence, Brandon Cooks, this could be the end of either their careers or their time in Dallas. And that was something that I think he was talking about more. The problem was when he comes on the back end of that and says, you know, he's talking about Mike McCarthy, he says, guys like Zach Martin who put in more time and work than Mike McCarthy ever did.

that's a slip of the tongue at best, and at worst, that is a straight calling out of your coach's work ethic. But Michael Parsons has said that he felt like he was taken out of context. That's not what he meant. I agree the first part of it was definitely not his intent. So I'm willing to at least give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a poorly worded, you know, finish to that statement. But there's definitely going to be questions about Mike McCarthy and how bought in these players are. knowing that he's, you know, a lame duck coach essentially.

And you're starting to see potentially some of those cracks. And Houston might, you know, kick a few more in there tonight. Bobby, I'm assuming you're going to be in the building tonight. What are you expecting that building to look like? It's funny. We're talking about that this morning on the show. I'm guessing 30, 40 percent Texans fans probably. I mean, they've had some issues recently kind of holding their territory down.

There was a lot of Philadelphia fans recently. There was a lot of Detroit fans up their last. last game. Baltimore came in, had a bunch of representation. So some of this apathy that's set in, some of the willingness to, you know, resell tickets on the open market. I know last week, I had, you know, a couple different listeners who told me, we've got tickets for the game. We're trying to sell them. We couldn't get anybody to buy them on the secondary market. We just had to give them away to friends, and we were selling them for face value. And so that's, that's kind of where everybody is. Everybody's kind of frustrated with where this was, given how things ended last year,

the lack of response in the off season, and then, you know, what's occurred to this? season, it just feels like there's a big heavy sigh and shoulder shrug. Go all the way back to Oxnard and Cowboys Training Camp. That was as empty of attendance as we've ever seen in Oxnard, California for Cowboys Camp. And so I wouldn't be surprised if on minimum we're looking at 30% Texas fans tonight, and it may be more. Last question, Bobby. Who cross-checks Jerry Jones? I know Stephen, his son, has been at his side for many, many decades, but who really

says, Jerry, this is not the thing we're going to do. This is not how we spend our money. This is not how we draft. I'm always curious about who he listens to. Is there a confidant inside that building, not named Stephen, that helps him make these decisions, whether it be for the rest of this year or for the long term? Yeah, no, it's a good question.

I think it's something where there's a little bit of a misnomer about how Jerry runs the organization these days. The old wildcat or Jerry gunslinger, that was an accurate depiction of him, you know, even 15 years ago, probably. But in the last 10 years or so, Jerry has really taken on sort of an executive role with a veto pen. And that's what he does. He builds consensus is essentially what it does. So he's got a brain trust in there of, you know, it includes Mike McCarthy, their director of player personnel, Will McClay, Stephen. You know, some of their football administration guys like Todd Williams, their salary cap expert, Adam Pacific.

So he's got a group of people where they talk through decision points and things that they want to do. And Jerry sits over that table and kind of figures out what the consensus is and then applies it. And oftentimes just even if he's got a disagreement, he'll step out of the way if he feels like there's consensus. And so I do think he's gotten better at that. And I don't know if it's one particular person, but I think he just trusts the group that he's kind of built in the front office to help cultivate decisions. and then he just rules on him. And when he needs to step in and use his veto pen, which he does still from time to time, he will.

But, you know, for instance, the Derek Henry thing is the one that's gotten thrown at him consistently in the media. Why didn't you go after Derek Henry? He'll never say it publicly. I think he absolutely wanted to go after Derek Henry. And I think he was told by people, we can't afford it. And it's not going to be possible, so we can't. And Jerry, instead of vetoing it and saying, well, I'm going to do it anyway, he said, okay, all right, this is why have you guys in place,

and this is the decision we're going to make. And I also think that's why he's gotten so frustrated at times when it's come up. It's because I think he feels similar to the people who are asking the questions of why didn't you go after him. And I think he's thinking, I agree, why didn't we go after him? I was told we couldn't. But he's not going to publicly take that stance. And so I do think he's gotten better about kind of seeding a lot of the decision-making or building consensus and then just applying that.

It's just that it's really bit them this off season. Bobby, great stuff. Thank you so much for joining us. I enjoy the game tonight, and we really appreciate it, and we hope to bug you down in the future. Again, thanks for joining us in the show this morning. Absolutely, thank you. Enjoy Milwaukee.

Thanks, Bobby. All right, well, I don't know if anybody can. It's 45 degrees, but that's none here nor there. Bobby Belt, 105-3, the fan, of joining us in Dallas. Great insight from him. All right, speaking of cold, I was called you Ross. Speaking of cold, Dan, we have a colder downtown ballpark, right?

We'll discuss that next. Our time is 1046. It is the Matt Tomaschelle Ross. Dan Matthews filming in today for Ross. 713-212-5-7-90. You need an idea for lunch today? How about going to Big City Wings where they have 13 Houstonary locations

and you can go there and get a lunch bus for $10, which include a main entree, a side, and a soft drink for $10. You can't go wrong with that. 13 Houston locations. To find that one nearest you, you go to Big CityWings.com. If you want to go tonight to watch Monday Night Football and the Rockets on big screen TVs, you can do that as well at Big City Wings. And when you're there, you can enjoy $1 chicken tenders, minimum of five. Then on top of that, you've got $450 big brews, $5.50 premium big brews, $34 ounces of cold, refreshing beer.

As long as you're not driving, enjoy the experience of Big City Wings. So you've got lunch menu specials, you've got dollar chicken tenders, and you got big brew specials at 4.4. $4.50 a pop. All from big city wings and big citywings.com. More Matt Thomas. Now. On Sports Talk 790. Good to have Dan Matthews filling in for Ross as he is 7,000 miles away, I think.

I never clocked it in terms of miles. I think what Beijing, wherever he is. I don't even know what Taiwan. He's in Seoul, South Korea. Yeah, I should probably pay attention more to where he is, but that's not here nor there. He'll be, Dan will begin today and tomorrow.

Gordy will be in Wednesday and Thursday, and I have secured Brian McTaggart to come in for a five years. Oh, tags. He told me, he said he would come in only one circumstance. He wants all the bits on Friday during the show. So we're going to do every single bit on Friday show. To cut into the U of H talk that I'm sure you guys will be very tempted to get into? Yeah, I mean, yeah.

I mean, basketball's doing great. Football did not do well against Arizona over the weekend. No, they did. That was kind of embarrassing, but that's not the here nor there. They're going to be wearing the H-Town Blue Friday, and we just told the Tennessee Oilers or Titans to suck it after that, so I'm very happy about that. All right, so today there was a press conference at MinuteMate,

well, where is it, at Dyken Park? Is that how you pronounce it? I don't even know how you do it. Yeah, I believe it is. We were trying to figure that out, and I guess La Lima had somebody who actually works for the company, get in touch with them and tell them that's how it's pronounced. Okay, so there's a brand-new corporate.

sponsor name to it. Honestly, I don't mean not to have an opinion, but I don't have an opinion, Dan. I mean, you got to, every stadium is built with the intention of putting a corporate title on it for people to make money.

So I, you could call it Twix Park, I wouldn't care. As long as it's helping the Astros put money in their piggy bank so they can pay money to play players, I got zero issue with it. I don't care what it is. I didn't, all of a sudden go,

well my best memories in my life were at Minutemade Park. I mean, I may have had one or two apple juices, but it's as far as it went. Well, I mean, the building is still the same. That's not going to change. So, I mean, the only thing that's different is now Bobby Dynamite's train is not going to have those huge oranges that look like pumpkins in the back of it. Jim Crane says there's going to be some sort of surprise that will be revealed on opening day what that is going to be. I don't know. But as long as you don't bring back Junction Jack, I think we're going to be.

good. What did Junction Jack ever do to you? Well, it's not what he did to me. It was, why would you ever go away from orbit? I mean, orbit is tremendous. Orbit's amazing. Everybody loves orbit. When the All-Star game is in Arlington and everybody wants to boo, he pulls out the

reverse card from Uno to let them know. No, you're booing yourselves. Like, Orbit's the best. He shakes his belly for three hours. Not that difficult. Well, I mean, orbit is the charisma that he has, and it's also too. I mean, cute little fuzzy green alien as opposed to a goofy looking rabbit wearing a train hat. Yeah, again, you know what, if anybody is going to complain about it, it's just not worth it.

You know, you have to put title sponsors on these stadium names. You just do. And, you know, I guess the deal with Minutemade was running out. Dyking stepped in, 15-year deal. It was a minute-made park for 22 years. I mean, that's a really good run for a stadium name. but everybody's getting their names change. It's just a reality.

In the days we were growing up and the stadiums were named after non-corporate sponsors, that's a thing in the past. Well, it's also too. I mean, you've got to think about where most of the money usually comes from in terms of your overall bottom line. It's your TV deal.

And now the Astros are their TV deals. Same with the Rockets. So you've talked about it. You've got to sign players. You've got to be able to build up revenue. And they've been able to do that through the gate. And I'm not sure what the balance sheet is from Space City Home Network, but I'm guessing it's probably not like what the Phillies is.

Like the Phillies and the Padre, well, the Padres old deal. Now the Padres have there's, I think, either in-house or Major League Baseball has it, regardless. But no, I mean, you've got to be able to find ways to generate revenue. And if somebody wants to come to you with a multi-million dollar package for 15 years, then that gives you a better opportunity to bring back Alex Bregman or bring in somebody else. You need money to make the world go around. And that's just what this is. Do you see the rumor about who the Astros may be going after?

I did see that. I did see that. Willie Adamas. Hmm. Well, it's also, though, too. Have you ever to notice that, quote, unquote, baseball insiders are never really inside? Like, they don't command their sport like Schepter and Rappaport do. And also, like, Shams does in the NBA.

Like, it really is more than anything in baseball an educated guess at best. Well, here's the thing. It's when an agent or somebody calls somebody who gets it. third hand. It's what what social media has done is as long as you hear somebody's name being mentioned associated to a team, you got to put it out there. So you can at least say,

hey, I was out in front on this. You don't have to, you know, in journalism days when you were growing up, you had to go to two, if not three different sources to back things up. You don't have to do that anymore in 2025. You just put it out there. And if it sticks, you're a hero. And if you put it out there and it's wrong, then people say, well, you know, people just

like to talk. So, yeah, I take every one of these rumors with a grain of salt. But that's why, again, like in the NFL, if it's Schefter saying something, I generally believe it. If it's Rapid Port, I generally believe it.

If Sham says it in the NBA, I believe in. And baseball, it's probably what Jeff Passing and Ken Rosenthal, basically, give or take? Yeah, that's pretty much. Bob Nightingale a little bit. I mean, he's been better. He is. He is. He is.

His batting average used to not be great, but he completely owned the Shoahe Otani's story. I mean, so much to the point that the guy who brought up the Willie Adama story, John Marosi, got his hand slapped by Bob Nightingale of saying, no, he's not on a plane to Toronto, he's still here. And in a day or two later, we found out it was Otani to the Dodgers. So there's a little bit of that too. It seems like, if nothing else, baseball more than any other sport, it's very, very protective in terms of, no, my sources are right.

No, my sources are right. Like, it seems like there's a little loose collaboration, if you want, will between Rappaport and Schefter. Like, I think they respect each other, and they also realize that they get things done on their own hustle. Well, they don't want to bat $7.50. They want to bat $9.95. They want to be able to be right 99 times out of $100.

I can respect that. Second hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross, with Dan Matthews filling in today, is coming up in a matter of moments. We have to tell the truth coming up at the bottom of the hour. We have the news at noon. Things we have not discussed yet, the Rockets with a five consecutive wins. After last night's beat down on the Chicago Bulls, Beyonce's going to do her things. and the greatest television sports show is not going away.

We'll get to that plus Texans and Cowboys. Are we excited? Are we nervous? Or are we like, you know what? Thank God the Cowboys are on the Texan schedule. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. You're going to watch the Texans tonight.

You're going to watch the Rockets. You know what you can do. You can combo the fantasy numbers from both teams, all four teams. You want to include the bucks on this and make some serious, serious money with underdog. That's right. You're not only going to watch two games, but you're going to also take the numbers that Underdog Fantasy gives you on yards, perhaps of an Nico Collins or a C.J. Stroud. Maybe the points that Alperin Shingoon will get or the number of assists that Friend Bambleed will get.

You take all that together and you go higher or lower on those prices. situations and you're going to have a chance to make a significant amount of money. That's right. Significant cash can be won by going to underdog fantasy. Use the promo code SportsMT where you will get an opportunity to pump up your winnings when you apply the boost to eligible entries. You'll get adjusted projections on certain player stats to give you a better chance at a W. That's what they call a discount.

And you'll get a free pick. Anybody that's a new user will get a free pick. And all you're going to do is take a player that has to get higher than point five for that pick to win. All could be done by going to Underdog Fantasy with a promo code SportsMT. That's Underdog Fantasy promo code SportsMT. You get up to

$1,000 in bonus cast instantly, but you have to use that promo code SportsMT. Must be 18 plus and present in the state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply, concern with your playing, call 1-800 gambler, or visit www.n. ncbgambling.org. Take the Houston teams. Take the Cowboys.

Take the bucks. Make some winning projections all through, underdog fantasy with the promo code SportsMT. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Bambly comes across a timeline screen set by Shangoon. Tick and roll comes out. He's going to go up and jam it down right over.

Zach Levine. An emphatic dunk to make it 11 to 7. 11 to 7? What was that in the early first quarter? Goodness. They only got worse. for the Chicago Bulls last night. What a beatdown. The game was so bad, Dan, you wanted to fly up here and get a couple of minutes in.

I mean, if Jack McVeigh's getting playing time, Dan Matthews can post up with a couple of buckets, right? Oh, absolutely. It was one of those where we finally even reached the point in the game, and I'm interested in this on Rockets Rap last night, which, by the way, I'll have launch pad and wrap again tonight, where it gets to both teams, they know how the game's going to end, and it's pretty much just a tacit agreement between the two, screw it. If I get a good enough open look, here comes a three-pointer. And that's pretty much what we got for about

the final three and a half minutes of that game last night. It got so much to the point that your counterparts on the TV side, Craig, Ryan, and Vanessa started to talk about what belongs on a hot dog and what doesn't. Mustard and onion and relish and sourcrop. That's what Craig

said. He didn't say sourcrow, but he said mustard, onions, and relish. I'm with you on that. Like, I know that Chicago, They've got like the celery salt and the peppers and all that kind of stuff. I don't hate on it. I mean, I think it's probably fine in its own right. And now there is a portillo's here in town. So people can try to check out a little bit of a taste of Chicago.

But yeah, that's where we got. So it was, hey, let's have this conversation now in between people just throwing up three pointers. The only thing that does not belong in a hot dog, which is gross, is ketchup. Everything else is fair game. What about mayonnaise? I know some people do the mayonnaise. Oh, hell no. Oh, hell.

And I like mayonnaise, but no. Come on. Yeah, mayonnaise for sandwiches and burgers only. Yeah, yeah. All right, 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-9. Again, Rockets and Bucks here tonight from Milwaukee. We'll have the launch, man.

We are working you to like a dog. I mean, I feel bad. I mean, I don't feel super bad, but I feel somewhat bad. No, it's fine. I mean, it's all good. I was going to be up here early anyway. I mean, I knew that I was going to be with you today and tomorrow, as is. But, no, it's all fine and good.

We've got the holidays around the corner, so I'll be taking some time. I best believe I'll be taking some time. All right. Yeah, and as soon as Ross gets back, take a week's vacation. Let him do every rocket's pre-imposed for the next seven or eight games when he gets back. It only seems fair. And you know what? You could actually have the Adams do some work, too.

What's Gordy doing? Gordy's punching numbers and putting in things on the computer. He can't do nothing. No, Gordy is definitely. working a full plate right now. So, no, I, I, the Adams themselves, I mean, you know, an extra hour to the show. And it's, it's been a lot of fun of us getting that extra two to three spot right there to go with the three to six on TV, Space City Home Network. And by the way, we were talking about Gordy.

When's he going to come in with the LSU report from this weekend? My goodness. We don't need it. We don't, we don't need it. is your coach just super overrated at the end of the day? I think Tell the truth. I don't necessarily know if it's on him.

I was warned ahead of time about Joe Sloan, the offensive coordinator, and it's pretty much shown that he's in over his head. I think that's going to be a change this offseason. I don't know if he gets fired, but I think that probably you bring in an experienced OC, kind of like what they had when they had Steve Ensminger and Joe Brady, where Insminger was obviously the,

a veteran who had done this for a long time. And then Brady was the hot shot upstart guy that was going to become a star. That's one. They haven't really recruited all that well, but they have a top five class as is. I mean, I guess you could kind of look at it from, you know, the four and five stars that are in it saying, hey, there's a lot of positions that could be up for grabs that I could take immediately as a freshman, or you could take it the other way of why the hell would I want to join this right now. God, and now there's just infighting between guys on the sideline before.

it's a lot of money to spend. And by the way, they have a kid coming there from Michigan. Apparently, it's like one of the top quarterbacks in the country. All it took was $10.5 million of NIL money to get him locked in. Well, I mean, look, you know, what did Ryan Day say a couple of years ago, that he thinks that in order to be a national championship level program, now you have to spend about at least $13 million a year. So, yeah, I mean, that's the world we live in now.

but yeah it does seem like Bryce Underwood's going to be coming there and the funny thing is everybody's blaming you know Nussmeyer I'm like what do you want them to do like there's times they can't run the football then on Saturday they could run the football then they go away from it and run these ridiculous

wide receiver screens or you have a touchdown wiped off the board because a receiver runs into a stationary defensive back and gets an offensive pass interference it's a mess it's they're the Keystone cops I mean that's That's what LSU 2024 football is, the Keystone Cops. Major disappointment.

Let's go to the phone. 713, 212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Jacob on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Dan Matthews filling in. Jacob, how are you? Oh, good. I'm good.

Hey, as a Chicago one, man, you know, you got to admit we got the best-eyed dogs. I don't screw that. Put everything on there if we want to put on there. besides mannays. But the thing is, the hot dog, is the Vienna beef hot dogs. That's what it is. You put what you're on.

But with Texas, man, all they have to do, bro, is win. Just win. I don't care if they win by one point. Win the division. Just win the division. Because if they don't, and they lose to Dallas,

it's going to be upro here in Houston. Now, you're talking about Indianapolis. Indianapolis one game behind them. Right now, one game. Now, if CJ, with CJ and the coach, man, they're only in their second year. I think they're doing with the injuries they had, just like with my guys, the Astros. With the injuries, man, I think they're doing a good job.

And I think they're getting a couple guys back. I think they're going to ride the ship. I don't know who had them going to the Super Bowl after one year. No, I did not have them going to the Super Bowl. I had them at 10 or 7, 11, and 6, and I think they still got a shot to do that. Now, if they got to win in that, man, I don't care if they went by one point. And the Rockets, man, the Rock is going better than I thought.

With that no-name team, man, I thought, I was like, man, they need to get a key guy in here, an all-saw type of caliber. But the no-name guys, they play good to play D and they win-in. So just win. And Minimate. Oh, man, Minimate. They just didn't want to, they must have went selling up orange uses, man, or something.

They got to bring the bag to put the name on the stadium. All right, man. Thank you very much. You gave us a lot to chew on. there. Yeah, the Texans are a game and a half in front of the Colts. If the Texans win the night, it goes to two. If they lose, it's

a game, but the Texans on the tiebreaker over the Colts because they won two games over them. So the Colts would have to actually have a better record. If the two teams were to tie at the end of the year, the tiebreaker would go to Houston. You know, Ross and I always argue about this, Dan,

and he's literal, I'm more philosophical. Philosophically, speaking, the Texans, this is a must-win game. Not literal, not seasons over, not that you're still not in first place, not that you're still not the heavy favorite to win the division. But if you go to Dallas and you lose to a Cooper rush of all people, and that team full of injuries, a team that does not want a home game this year,

and you lose that game, again, a third straight national television loss, no one's going to respect this team. No one's going to think they got a legitimate shot. And I'm telling you, you're going to fire up the Colts fans. Because you still have Kansas City and Baltimore coming up before the end of the year. You have to soon enough show that you're that team. Like you have to soon enough show people, all right, there was a reason why we believed in you is a possibility to be able to make it to not only the AMC championship game.

But who knows? I mean, you get the right path, maybe even make it all the way to New Orleans for the big game itself. So this is a chance to do that. I mean, for all of the doubts that are in the Texans right now, I disagree. I think you have to go out there and you have to handily win this game tonight. The Saints beat this team, 40-something to 19, as you even mentioned. The Saints did that. And the Saints are awful.

They're not a good football team. And other teams who have gone into this building have done the same thing. They have absolutely taken care of Dallas and been able to come out of there with a very comfortable win. So you need to be able to go and handle business. tonight. As we talked about with Bobby, they are not a good football team. They don't have their quarterback anymore. They can't run the football. I mean, aside from C.D. Lamb and Micah Parsons, who do you necessarily look at in this Dallas team and say, oh, man, watch out for that guy. This is a bad team. You beat bad teams handedly. You're going to have to win by at least 10 points.

There's going to be a lot of people wigging out tomorrow even. If this thing is a one-score game or has to be one in the final moments, there are going to be people that are flipping out. You have to just like they did against New England, and it calms some nerves for a while, but the difference is in the fact, and it's just like Dallas, New England was terrible. So you have to go beat a terrible team on the road. You got to act like grown-ups, and you've got to get past this second-half utility, and you're going to have to just go up there and beat them. A, because you're going to have the national stage on. B, you're going to have a lot of your fans in there, but more importantly, you're going to have a bunch of boisterous cowboy fans that think

that their team is, you know, going to be a lot of your fans. You know, going to be even better even when they're down against the Texans team. And lastly, you got the Colts who did come from behind and beat a bad Jets team yesterday, who, by the way, the Jets beat you. So everything lends itself towards going to Dallas on Monday night football and winning this one by 10 to 13 points at bare minimum. If not, it will be a not a lost trip because you need the victory most importantly, but it will be a less than satisfying road trip. And that's the last thing you need, even though the schedule does get softer in the next couple

of weeks. Well, and that's the thing. I mean, you've got to finally hit your stride if you're going to be a viable playoff team. And this is the time of year when you need to do that. And this is a chance. Tonight, next week, Tennessee here in town, then you go on the road to face Jacksonville. And those are three games that you should be able to handle pretty easily. I mean, you know, talking about this last night on the launch pad, you know, the one thing that I was looking out for on the rocket side last night was, are they going to play with their food? Are, are they? Are they? They're going to kind of, you know, come out a little bit flat and maybe, you know, have this, maybe they get a huge lead. Then they hit a huge shooting lull and Chicago is able to get back into it.

And you got to kind of sweat it out. And credit to EMA's team. They said, no, we're going to have a 16 point lead at the half. We're going to start off on a 15-0 run in the third quarter. And we're going to completely put this game away. That's what you need to do tonight. Like that's, you want to take that next step. That's what you do.

And the Texans should be further ahead of where the rockets are. And so far they haven't been. They haven't shown that. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. I want to hear from a couple of cowboy fans. I know you all are bumping around somewhere. Let me hear your, let me hear the boastful, you're boasting of this team.

I want to hear the deep voice of yours like, we're going to go in and beat them Texans. We're the Tech. We're the Lone Star State's team. We're America's team. Come on, cowboy fan. can't be hiding. 713, 212, 579. Word now for Uptown Appliance Repair. If you have something in your home, any one of your appliances that's not working at its finest, in particular, wine cellars, wine rooms, ice machines that aren't to chilling the ice for you, a sub-zero refrigerator

that's not as cold as it should be, any outdoor grills or laundry equipment that's not working, call Uptown Appliance Repair, 281-7589978. 281-758-9978. Bobby Farrow and his team will take care of you. They're a family-owned and operated business. They've got a great reputation with thousands of satisfied customers right here in the Houston area. They're also proud sponsors at a Poulchin Children's Center, and they are BBV-8-plus rated. That's why you work with a company like Uptown Appliance Repair.

No need to buy extra appliances or brand-new ones when you've just bought one, couple of years ago. Get them repaired today with Uptown Appliance Repair. 281-758-9978. That's 281-758-9978. Or online at Uptownappliancerepair.com. More Matt Thomas. Now.

On Sports Talk 790. That would mean everything to us. We can get our fans support there and, you know, we can, you know, cause some havoc for them with their offense. I mean, if our fans show up like that, and that would be outstanding. I know our guys would be very appreciative of that. You know, we've seen that a couple of times in our stadium where the opposing team, their fans have, you know, showing up and showing out and being loud. So for us to do that on the road, we really appreciate that from our fans.

Bobby Bell from 105.3 joined us earlier today, and he says that there could be as many as 30. Well, he's guessing 30,000 Texans fans. I'm going to take the under on that. because here's the bit. If you're going to the game, you have to take today off and tomorrow off too. I don't know if you're going to take two days off to go to Dallas.

If it was a Sunday game, I could see it being there. I mean, they'll be Texans fans and they'll make noise, but I can't imagine 30% of the crowd being Texans fans. Oh, I think that it will be. I mean, I've run into a ton of people who already made their way up there. They were there all weekend. Also, too, I mean, there's blood in the water for Texans fans. They feel like this is a chance to be able to go in there, take over their building,

and also be able to just completely beat them up on the field as well. So you want to be able to be there for that moment. I mean, I think you could very easily. It would be a little bit of a tiresome day tomorrow. But I think you can go up there, watch the game, and come back early in the morning. I don't see why not. It's a lot of work. You know what?

You've got your co-host taking two weeks off. So time off is to be had. That's true. You should try to go up there, go to the game tonight, and then come back in time to be the show with me tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Imagine how fresh you'd be at that point. Well, I mean, the only reason that I'm not is we've got Rockets basketball tonight. Oh, that works out well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'll be doing like you. I'll have the dual screens going. All right. 713, 212, 7.9. We've got a couple of cowboy fans on the line. Let's hear them. And you know what? I want to be respectful because their team sucks.

and when teams suck, you get a respectful for people that have the nerve to call to show them. For that, we appreciate that. 713-212-5-7-90. Marcus and Cyprus at 1123. Marcus, good morning. Good morning, fellas. Hey, first of all, I want to tell y'all, I do listen to y'all a lot on my lunch breaks, and you guys do a great job. Thank you very much.

I'm not trying to butter y'all up to be nice or anything. This is a part of the game. When we're down, you've got to let us have it. You know, I go and watch this team. I've traveled to L.A. And I've heard it in New Orleans. I hear it. So that's nothing new.

But I wanted to say for this game, I personally have the Texans winning this game. And I don't see it as a bad thing for us because our season is chocked up. We need a top 10 pick. And we need Ben Johnson in here ASAP. However, this is very well a trap game for the Texas. since the Cowboys have decided to go with the heavy dose of Rico Dowdle, why they waited this long to do it. I have no idea, but that's how things work sometimes.

And I believe that if you guys do not contain Michael Parsons, Mike Zimmer is going to give you guys a lot of disguised looks in between that A and B gap. And I know that's where you guys tend to struggle sometimes. If they don't contend that, it can be a long night for CJ. and the Cowboys get a lead which they haven't had all season and get to play with that, I can very well see an upset

happening. What it happened? Probably not. But I don't think that's out of the round, fellas. Hey, you know what? I like the Donald Kid. You're right. Why have they waited so long? Not only is he a good running back, Marcus, a damn good receiver out of the backfield. He catches everything on the backfield, too. Yeah.

Well, in Dallas, if you, I know we can't use curse. but if you complain a lot, the nice word or the B word. If you complain over there, apparently you get your way. So Zich has, he went in the coach's office earlier this year. We played Pitchburg, got a lot of RICO. The very next week, he went away. And there were reports that Zieg went into the coach's office and voices displeasure.

Then, if you guys recall a couple weeks ago when he got left behind some conduct reasons. and Jerry has a love affair with Zeke, and I think he's just too loyal at tons, and that's what you're seeing. It really comes down to this. I've learned this living in Houston is when you start hearing other teams' problems, you start realizing, hey, a lot of us talk about the same things. You know, not this year because we're not good,

But last year, the talks I was hearing was the same that you guys are hearing this year. You can't beat a good team. You know, you beat up on the bad teams, all those types of things. I don't know. I'm hoping to just see a good game. And to chime in on y'all is a 30% thing, I take that there will be 30% Texan fans. My sister is going. Her boyfriend is a Texan fan.

And my cousin, she's going. She's a Texan fan. Her boyfriend is a cowboy fan. So I think so It's not a I mean it's not a bad drive At night it can be when you're coming home I've made it plenty of times

But I went there in 14 There were a ton of Texan fans Why wouldn't they make the drive? It's like high school football at the pro level I enjoy when these two teams come together I came to the last one here When DeAndre Hopkins Put us in a spin cycle

You know I think that was a little payback For when Romo got JJ But man It's fun. I just hope for a good game. And another key note, when these two teams play, there's hardly ever a blowout. I think there's only been a blowout like one time. And that was like in 2008, I believe, when they came down here when Roy Williams decided to have the game of his life.

Good stuff, my man. Thank you very much for the phone call. I appreciate it. You know what? And again, we'll never know, Dan, what the actual number is. But, man, $30,000 for a Monday night road football. game. I mean, I can grant it, it's not a far road trip. Maybe people have had this circle on their calendar for a long time. Maybe you get that

PTO taken care of back in like, say, July when the schedule comes out. Maybe so, who knows? Yeah, I mean, it's also too. I mean, you have to factor in the amount of people who grew up here. It might live up there in the area as well that just say, hey, you know, I finally get to see my team in person. I finally get to stick it to my friends in the workplace who tell me about how great the Cowboys are and how their Texas's team and all these different types of things. I mean, that's not going to change. Like, the majority of the state are still cowboy fans. And we've still, obviously, with Marcus, and I know Melvin, who wants to wait in here in just a second. I mean, they walk

among us. They're here. Whether you like it or not, you see the license plate holders, you see the bumper stickers, all of those things. Cowboy fans are here. So that's not going to change. But if nothing else, you at least get scoreboard and you don't play each other enough for them to necessarily be able to get the revenge. I mean, what, are they going to get that in the third preseason game of the year when nobody's playing? All right, fine. Go ahead and have that. All right.

We're going to push to tell the truth back one segment because we've got some Dallas Cowboy fans that want to get in here. Melvin and Mark will get to you guys. 1-2 coming back. 1128 is our time. Dan's going to have the news at noon. I've got to tell the truth in the 1145 segment. So come on and join us right now at 713-212-5-790. Believe it or not, today is highly goooo.

It has something to do with the stadium name change of the Astros. It's all I can tell you. We'll have that for you this afternoon at 1.30. 1128. This is Sports Talk 790. 1133 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross is on a well-deserved vacation, sort of. Or we can call it suspension, whatever you want to call it.

713-212-5-790. Now, why would you talk about your co-host that way? Come on. I mean, do you think he deserves us full... two weeks of full pay and vacation time? Sure he does. He works with you every day. Oh, that's not nice. Dan Matthews is in today. We'll be in tomorrow

as well. And then we've got Gordy Wednesday and Thursday. Then Brian McTaggart will be hanging with us on Friday. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We'll do the to tell the truth coming up at around 1145, the news at noon. And believe it or not today, again, 130, 150, I should say.

And if you missed our visit with our man in Dallas, We'll talk to Bobby Belt again. The conversation we had earlier, they will reply that around 1.30 this afternoon. All right, so what if the Cowboys went, how's tomorrow show? I'm going to go 10 to 2 here on 70. It's going to be hellfire and brimstone.

We will all be yelling. We'll all want to throw remotes, which, by the way, too, I saw this a little bit last week on the internet. Nobody is doubting D'Amico Ryan's and calling for his job. Like, can we end that right now? Who is doing that?

Certain people in the media. I saw that, and I was like, you're just creating things. Like, nobody has said, that people have been upset with Bobby Slowick and that's warranted people have been annoyed with how CJ has played at times same deal but nobody's saying that about Domeko Ryan's not a single person and if they are that's maybe one of the worst takes I've ever heard of my entire life I mean and I've heard some bad takes oh yeah I mean incredibly bad ones but it's also too I mean

the side that Domingo controls the most has been probably the side that has been the best for this team. The funny thing is, Matt, and I've said this numerous times, and I did this on the nightcap last week. Isn't it weird how the Astros and Texan seasons are pretty similar? Like, the defensive side is like the pitching for the Astros. And we had our questions about them coming in the last season, but then it turned out to be a strength for this team. Like, the defense has been that for the Texans. We were worried about up front on the defensive line. They've been really good, even in the secondary as well. And they've been pretty good. It's just been the offense that were kind of like, hey, we heard you guys were going to be like one of the best

in the league. Like, when does that kind of start to happen? Like, is that around the corner? Like, what are we doing? Well, I'll say this. If you wanted to make a criticism of D'Amico, and look, everybody is entitled to say, hey, I like how this coach does this. I like how this manager does this. How do you improve on this? I do believe there is something to be said. And it's an intangible, Dan. You can't necessarily draw it up on a chalkboard or instill it into a guy's playbook. But I think you

can do some subtle things with play calling and strategy that can make this team a wee more not we more, significantly more aggressive in the second half. I don't think it's just coincidence that every single week it feels like for the last two months, the team has not been able to put up touchdowns in the second half.

I think there has been way too much reliance on getting within the 30-yard line so Kimey Fairburn can barrel you out. with a 55-yard field goal. See, and I mean, okay, if we want to pick Nitz here, like that's one right there. As soon as I saw, Keimi jogging out onto the field for that 58-yard field goal,

I said, this is not going to be good. Even if he makes it, it's still going to be advantaged Detroit to be able to go down the field, and at the very least, kick a field goal and send it to overtime, and Lord knows what happens at that point. I just felt like it was,

trust your defense in that scenario. You send out Johnny Townsend, he punts the football, hopefully pins them back deep enough and you're able to let your defense go to work and who knows, God willing, maybe you're able to get the football back and give yourself a chance.

Kind of like what happened in the Buffalo game and it didn't work out this time. In terms of Bobby Sloic, I definitely see an OC who is not confident in himself. As a matter of fact, I'm seeing a lot of overthinking when he's making these play calls right now because I think he's completely worried about

what's going to happen. Are we going to turn the football over? Are we going to get stuffed here on this run? And then we're in 30. and long and oh my god where's that play on the play sheet you know uh let's go a wide receiver screen right here and it's just it's complete paralysis by analysis is what i'm seeing well let me ask you this though how much of that frankly is because he knows something that we're seeing each and every week this offensive line is bottom five in the nfl and that when you have an offensive

line that has a very difficult time in past protection i don't even count the run protection last week in pass pro it basically chops your playbook in half i don't think that there's any doubt about that but i think it's also not having number 12 nico collins has masked a lot of the issues that the texans have had like it's not like their poor offensive line play just showed up after neco collins was out for the last five weeks like how many times had we seen cj either have to move out of the pocket or move the pocket whatever it might be and all right here i'm just going to throw it up. Oh, good. There's number 12. He's right there. I mean, we saw it in

the Indianapolis game early on in the season. We saw it in that Buffalo game when the Texans were able to win. I mean, so it's not like these things just propped up. I just think that this is an offense that it works fully well when you have number 12 out there. And when you don't, then CJ's not as confident.

And that's what we're seeing. I do also believe there's been a slight, very slight regression in CJ's game. The accuracy isn't as good as it was a year ago. I think, again, I think he's worried about the guys in front of him. And Ross can I argue about this a little bit? I think if we really took binoculars and studied the motion, the feet placement, the calm

under pressure, I think that CJ is feeling it way more this year than he ever felt last year. Remember last year's offensive line, Dan was not spectacular to begin with. They were doing it with just like skeleton bodies going on, the people you'd never heard of before. but this feels like this has just been a little bit different this year. That its main go-to offensive linemen have not been able to give him, so I think he's rushing throws. Every one of the NFL analysts from, and I don't know if you know if Chris Sims you think is any good or not,

or there's been a couple of guys that have said there's just little nuances in CJ's game that looks significantly different from a year ago, and I think a lot of it's because of the number of hurries. Forget about the sacks, just the number of hurries that he's had to endure this year as compared to last. I think there, I mean, everything he just said is true, but I also think, though, too, that he's saying all the right things, but deep down, he knows that that group is not good in front of him. I mean, we've said it numerous times. What do you and Ross say all the time before the snap? Laramie Tunsell's not great, but when the ball is snapped, he actually is pretty good. Your guards have not been good. I guess, you know, the jury is still out on how good Drew Scruggs is going to be. He was okay, I guess, against Detroit. But they still didn't run. the football well. But I think that he also has put a lot of pressure on himself of you've got to be

the guy. And I think a little bit of that is he believes that he can be the guy because he's shown it. But also, too, for every other reason you've just thrown out there. There are times they can't run the football. Then he feels like, oh, man, I really have to be the guy. And then when he's pressing extra hard and he doesn't have Nico Collins out there, I mean, you're going to be the guy throwing the football to Dalton Schultz. Okay. You're going to going to be the guy throwing the football to tank Dell. Well, I mean, it's probably not going to be a downfield throw. That's number

one. And I mean, you know, you throw Xavier Hutchison in there as well. I mean, you're kind of playing with one hand behind your back. One thing that I would like to see a little bit more is I was told that Joe Mixon was really good catching the football of the backfield. Where is that? Like, where is

that in the overall game plan of using him that way and being able to use him to be the offensive weapon that he's been. I mean, I, you know, heaped a lot of praise on Nico Collins, but you won a lot of games because of Joe Mixon this year as well. Like, use what you got, man. I wonder if it's wheel routes or if it's just, you know, initial block at the line of scrimands and then go on in pass coverage over the middle of the field. You mean, you can do one or two ways with that guy.

Well, go ahead. Yeah, no, I mean, and that's just it. I mean, I think if nothing else, just you're at this point, you're six and four. You've got a softer part of the schedule at this point. I mean, this is when you kind of empty the tank and you give yourself every single opportunity to be the offense that we believed that you were going to be. They, they truly are a team that cannot drive in the run with runners in scoring position right now. They've shown you that. That way too many times they've had to settle for Kaimi Fairbair in time. It's great. It's points, whatever. You're ending the drive and the kick. Great. But, I mean, you've got to be able to get into the end zone a lot more than they have this year. And that's, again, the mirror.

to this year's Astros team. That's what this offense has been. So they're getting on, they're getting on base, they're getting the second base, they're getting to the third base and scoring position and they're not coming home. How dare you try to equate the Astros and Texans? Actually, I kind of see what you did there.

Let's play to tell the truth next. It is Sports Talk 790. This is where Dan and Connor tried to decide which one of my four tanks, I actually believe. 713, 212, 5, 790. 713-212-5-7-90. Dan's got the news at noon, and we have you at 7-13-212-5-7-90. With a word now for Two-Creeks Crossing Resort.

I want you to get in your car this weekend, and I want you to relax, and I want you to drop into a Lake Living scenario, and I want you to find yourself a beautiful treehouse, or find yourself a waterfront cabin at Two-Creeks Crossing Resort.com, where you can get 40% off, 4-0 off of those rentals. check out the website at 2Creekscrossingresort.com. There's a catcher release pond. There is a pickleball court. There's a training facilities, workout area.

There's high-speed Wi-Fi. There's laundry facilities. There is a great bar that's open up on the weekends. There's a huge pool, hot tub. I mean, just a great way to enjoy nature. And then you go to the community center. You're like, oh, my God, I'm in heaven here with all the modern amenities that you want. And the waterfront cabins are amazing.

In fact, one of the cabins has a hot tub in it. And it's perfect for one. one or two families or maybe just to get away with you and the bride. Two, TWO, Creekscrossing Resort.com, and the best thing it is about this is only 90 minutes from downtown Houston. Get away for the weekend. Enjoy the experience with Wi-Fi and satellite television, all the good things you want, plus being away and hanging out with the fam, hanging out with the woman, hang on with the boys, maybe a poker weekend in one of those cabins. All the two creeks, TWO, Creeks Crossing Resort.com.

More Matt Thomas Now On Sports Talk 790 Oh but Dan Matthews I do know how to tell the truth I mean I've never known you to be a dishonest person Oh I lie all the time The audience knows that

I mean there's nothing wrong with a little bit of a white lie Just as long it doesn't go too far Mine are multi-colored I will black lie orange lie green lie Black lie white lie to matter I'm a good liar just don't be a pathological wire, which I do not take you as being. Okay, that's where. Maybe I'm not bad.

All right, Matt, here in Milwaukee Dance, filling in for Ross back in Houston. I have four takes, gentlemen. I only believe one of them. It is up for you to tell me and tell the audience which one I am telling the truth on. Number one, boys, this 12-team college football playoff is going to be so popular. You say, well, how popular is it going to be? That by the end of the decade, I would say by 2030, we're going to see the college football playoff expand to 16 teams.

We're going to add a new television partner to it, and we're going to make it in four-week tournament to discern a national champion. All right, because the money from the television networks is going to be astronomical. Number two. excuse me the NBA wants to make this in-season tournament

a super big deal you know the winning team I think gets a half million dollars right they're going to add a layer of playoff guarantee to this I believe that the NBA

if you win the in-season tournament is going to guarantee the winner no worse then the six seed in their playoffs. So let's say the Washington Wizards win the in-season tournament,

even though they are like 34 and 48, they will be guaranteed at least a six seed in the NBA playoffs. Now, if you finish higher than six, you obviously will take that spot. But they want to make sure everybody in the NBA knows how important these games are in November. So put a playoff.

bonus into it. Top six for the Eastern and Western Conference team, whoever wins the whole thing. Top six, all right? That's number two. Number three, baseball is loving this in season term and for basketball. In fact,

baseball is going to give us in the upcoming future a very similar thing. It won't be a fair guarantee of a playoff spot, but it's going to be a winner-take-all event involving the same thing, putting pods together, playing a certain number of games

and determining an in-season champion before June 1st to kind of give us a little early sizzle of what could be a playoff game. So the NBA is doing in-season tournament. Soccer's been doing it forever. Expect baseball to do the exact same thing. And number four, even though I don't like him,

and I think, frankly, his 15 minutes of fame is going to go away. you have to give flowers to a man who has turned around a big-time college football program. When the Paul Bear Bryant Award is announced in January in Houston, Texas, the winner of the award is going to be Dion Sanders. His buffaloes are going to play for the Big 12 championship. Four wins a year ago, ball eligible, and on top of the Big 12 right now,

Dionne Sanders is your coach of the year, in college football, barring some sort of massive collapse in the final two weeks of the season. So let's recap this again. The college football playoffs is going to eventually go to 16 teams. This is a take that I have.

By 2030. The NBA is going to guarantee a top six seed for the winner of the in-season tournament to make it a playoff guarantee bonus. Baseball is going to have an in-season tournament. tournament. And Dionne Sanders is going to be the Paul Bear Bryant coach of the year in college football after turning around the Buffalo program in just two seasons. Gentlemen, which of the four? Am I telling the truth?

Now, I do listen to this show quite a bit, so I do know that Connor really takes this incredibly seriously. So I'm going to yield my pick until after Connor makes his. That's a good strategy. That's a good strategy because Ross and I like to argue a lot. But, hmm, these are good, Matt. Thank you. I kind of could see you believing number one about the 12 team college football playoff going to 16. However, that is a lot more games for the college kids. I don't really think you believe two about the NBA tournament, the playoff spot.

I think that's too much on the line for that early in the season. I could believe three because the NHL's doing their own sort of thing of like an in-season tournament. maybe baseball could do it, but the baseball season's already pretty long. And I don't know what to think about four. So, hmm, I think I might, I think I'll go out on a limb here and say you believe one. It'll go to 16. 16 teams. All right, Dan, what do you think?

Now, we can't we? Because, I mean, that one from what I know about college sports is they always believe that they're hemorrhaging money. And, I mean, for example, the early rounds of the college football playoff for now are being played on college. campuses, that'll change once checks start to come in from Vegas, from Tampa, from Houston, all these places that won in on it. So the CFP will take that money. And the CFP will expand. And they will bring in NBC or Fox or anybody else who wants to give them a nice check to say, hey, let us do some of those games too. So we're both locking in number one. Locking in number one. Baseball is not going to an in-season tournament. It's just to add an extra layer of

scheduling in and doing this, holding games back. Baseball does its schedule a year in advance. I can't imagine them doing that. Plus, again, are you going to jeopardize players going on the injured list? Pitchers being hurt, throwing extra pitches in the first, say, six weeks of the season just for a chance to make a couple of bucks? I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to it, but I don't think baseball is going to do it. Number two, the NBA, you just can't.

On a flukeish year, let's say the Charlotte Hornets were to win it. You can't let a 30 win Charlotte Hornet team who got lucky for a few games in November have the number 60 in the Eastern Conference. So as much as I think it's kind of intriguing, giving them a playoff incentive, you can't do that. The last two are very close for me. I like 16 teams, but it took us forever to get to 12. It's going to take us a lot longer to get to 16. So as much as I don't like saying it, Dion Sanders has turned that Colorado program around.

And friends, he is your college football coach of the year. They've got one semi-difficult game left at Kansas. Then they got a cakewalk against Oklahoma State. They're going to the Big 12 championship game. And I'm telling you, friends, you better get ready for Colorado in the CFP. Oh, I've said it. Oh, Matt, I've said this to you. before I've said it to others. It's a TV

show when it's all said and done. If there is any remote possibility that the CFP committee can put Colorado in this thing, they will absolutely do it. So as much as I begrudgingly say it, you have to give credit where credit is due and Deion Sanders has completely

changed Colorado and he's going to win the Paul Perron Award. And that's me telling the truth. I'm going to disagree with you on the last one. Kurtzignetti's going to win the Bear Brian Award. Oh, and Indiana. Yes. Yes.

The problem is Indiana isn't playing anybody. Well, they're going to play Ohio State this week. And they're going to get their brains beat out. They probably will. But, I mean, it's Indiana, for God's sakes. Like, they don't even have remotely any football expectations. No. And he's got them in position to not only make the Big Ten championship game,

but to get into the CFP and probably get their brains blown in there too. So, yeah. But if they lose 37 to 3, they're going to say they took up, they were a byproduct of an easy schedule. That's just the truth. Still an 11 plus win, Indiana team. That's hard to pass up. Yeah, but they took on all, they took on Purdue and all the second tier Big Ten schools.

Would you say they beat down severely? Tomato cans? Tomato cans, sardine cans, whatever. The news at noon is next. This is Sports Talk 790. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. By the way, I was looking at Indiana's football schedule.

And granted, you are right, Dan, in the fact that, Indiana has never been relevant in football, at least that I can remember, is growing up. Maybe back in the course, though, days. Okay, that's going back to the early mid-70s. There you go. All right, so their wins and league play have come against Michigan State, Washington, Nebraska, Northwestern, Maryland, and UCLA.

I believe those are five of the six worst teams in the Big Ten. Yeah, I mean, it got so bad for Nebraska, they had to ask Dana Holgerson, hey, come save our offense. You should never ask Dana Holgerson to come save your offense. No. And their non-conference wins against Florida International, Western Illinois, and Charlotte. No, Charlotte's not bad. They got that coach that wears cut-off shirts that probably shouldn't be wearing cut-off shirts.

That's true. He's kind of flabby, but that's not that you're nor there. Look, you can't determine who's going to be good and bad in the league. You have to be given the schedule you're with. But... Yeah, just ask Texas. Look at you. That's a little sharp dig.

Well, I mean, it is what it is. And you even supposedly have coaches in the SEC who are like, really? Like, you guys bent over backwards so much for these guys that that's the schedule you gave them. At least they beat Florida, much more than I can say about LSU. All right. So if Indiana beats Ohio State, can I change my take on that? Is that fair to do? Yeah, we'll allow it.

Remember, these are opinions. These are based in fact. These are just my takes. I'm just afraid that Indiana's going up in class and it's going to be rather ugly. I mean, they have to go to the shoe as well. But I mean, you got to also keep in mind, Ohio State kind of like I was talking about earlier with the Rockets, they do the same thing.

They kind of did it with Northwestern this weekend. Like when Northwestern got out to an early lead and you're just kind of like, I thought you guys were supposed to be dominant. Like I thought you were supposed to be like the best team of all the teams in college football. And I do think if Ohio State gets Oregon again in the Big Ten championship game, they would beat them this time. Oregon had to sweat it out this weekend at Wisconsin. But still, I mean, it's a team that's kind of underwhelmed at a certain point. I think that's fair to say about Ohio State.

All right. A couple of other news and notes to pass along. We'll get to that in a moment involving one involving A&M in Texas, one involving another coaching change in college football with a local tie. but first we present to you at 12-06 the news at noon. All right, my man. Are you going to go into your Les Nesman voice like Ross does? You're going to do like a straight man. Straight, straight, yeah.

Nobody wants kitsy. Nobody wants that. I mean, look, I mean, the world has shown you now. They want genuine, Matt. I know what you mean there. That's what I offer. I'm not Dave Ward. You should come on the show sometime, you know.

I am not Dave Ward. I am not any of the legends that have come before us in this industry. All right, Texans are in Arlington, taking on the Cowboys tonight. Seven point favorite for the Texans tonight. So if they do what you said that they need to do, which is when by at least 10, that would be a cover. So the Texans would cover, which for the most part this season they've not been good at. Nico Collins is back. The Texans are feeling the heat.

Colts are coming with them a little bit after winning yesterday. They want to keep that separation. And most importantly, Dan, the Cowboys suck. This should be a Texans win, no matter the venue, no matter how many Texans fans are there, they're going to be, they have spent all week focusing on being a second half football team, especially against subpar competition, and they're going to prove it tonight. Texans win by at least 10. Yeah, because the Cowboys, at least the way their roster is, especially without Deck Prescott,

they're closer to the Patriots than they are, the Packers, the Jets. It's Cooper freaking Rush. I mean, that's it. Period. This is a bad football team. And what do you do to bad football teams? You handle them. You win. You beat them. So hopefully the Texans are able to do that tonight. A game that you saw up close and personal last night, Rockets winning their fifth straight game. They beat the Bulls. 143107 in Chicago.

Freddie W.E. 28 points. Alpern Chingun, yet another triple double, 20 points, 11 boards, 11 assists. Reed Shepherd finding it from outside. 4-3 ball makes new career high, 12 points. for him. Yeah, it was good for him to get some playing time yesterday. And that's the number one thing about Reed. I know some people have been a little sluggish on his opening performance, and it hasn't been great.

But there's just, I mean, you've got a men Thompson, and you've got Fred Van Blaine in front of you. I just don't see where there's the significant amount of playing time. He got it last night, hit the threes. He was signed here and drafted here to be a knockdown, knockdown shooter, and I think he's going to do it. He's going to have to find

his perfect place on the floor to do so. he was given that opportunity in the second half, made the most of us. It was good to see him do it. I thought the defense was great last night. Dylan Brooks forcing an eight-second call. I mean, a lot of veterans could care less about or forcing an eight-second call. I told us to Dylan after the post-game show,

I said, man, you were as excited about that as you were hitting a mid-arranged jumper. Rockets have won five straight. On-paced guy says they're in the third-place spot in the Western Conference. Nice to see Jabari turn a corner too offensively. It looked like it was getting bad for him for a while. Yeah, he had really, he was good against the LA Clippers on Friday,

and then all five of the rocket starters last nine in double figures. Good balance scoring, and you mentioned Alpi, back-to-back triple doubles. That's not, I mean, I don't like the term baby Yokch. I think it's unfair because Yokic is a multiple-time MVP. Let Al-Pie be Al-Py, but to him to do that last night was very, very impressive. He's gotten angry at the rim lately, too. That's been nice to see. Yep, blocking shots and everything, absolutely.

All right. MinuteMay Park is no longer. Welcome to Dyken Park. That's what you're going to be hearing, Bob Ford, say over the loudspeakers as you settle into your seats on opening day. announcement made earlier today by the Astros. A couple of side notes, too, as well from Chandler Rome. Jim Crane, I guess meeting with the media afterwards and talking about still want to try to have the best team without going crazy. Some payrolls pretty high, bigger teams, but talking about them being the fifth highest payroll, first time they've ever done. that we have to withdraw to do what we need to do, but

also too as well, saying there's nothing new to report on the negotiations with Alex Bregman, said to Dana Brown and Scott Boris have been visiting frequently that Crane talked to Boris earlier this winter. We're not even too winter yet. Yeah, but they always call the winter meeting in like November, so

it's, you know, it is what it is. You know, the funny thing, as soon as I saw those quotes, the same ones you saw, I think to myself, when Jim Crane wants something done, he gets really personally involved. Verlander, Josh Hater, I'm sure there's some others in the mix as well. I'm not saying he's hands off on this, but he's letting Dana do all the due diligence on this. I think this, as he's trying to figure out what the market is. Well, perhaps Dana is getting what we hope that Dana would get all along.

Reggie Jackson's no longer in the building. So you wonder if Jim is kind of starting to go away from, hey, let me listen to my trusted inner circle of Jeff Bagwell, Reggie Jackson, and sometimes Craig Bigio. And maybe Dana has said, hey, you want me to do the job, let me do the job. In some respects, yeah. I still think when it's all said and done, if Jim Crane wants something done, he becomes much more personally involved.

Yeah. Like, do you think he's had more conversations with Justin Verland or Scott Barras? Probably JV, because it's probably been, hey, we team off at 730 tomorrow. is that what time we're going off at my course? Jim's smarter than it. He can't have his golfing buddy around be a number five pitcher for the Astros, right? Not to look like he did last year.

If you want to be a serious ball club, no. I mean, he was so bad, he was so bad you couldn't even put him on the postseason roster. If they got past the Tigers, he wouldn't have been there in the divisional round. If JV comes back, it's a byproduct of two things. They don't like the free agent market.

And number two, they don't think that Luis Garland is going to be ready for the start of the season and they probably have not even thought about Lance McCullors. I don't necessarily know if the other two are involved, but I think that it's, you know that you're losing such a huge clubhouse presence in Bregman, if that's the case. So you want to try to offset that as much as possible with a guy like JV. Because we've heard about how much of a huge clubhouse presence he's been. He just needs to join the Matt Thomas show. That's what we finally need to have. Well, we've been trying for that since 2017.

team had been unsuccessful. Now, I was, and you know, I thought better of it because even though I do fill in with you guys, I didn't feel like it was appropriate. But I've been able to talk to JV off microphone a couple of times. And I almost thought about, hey, come on, man, one time. Can we do it once? I want him to do it because he wants to do it and I've told the Astros PR request Look if there's something he wants to promote I'll be more than happy to do it Okay Because I do like JV He's he's a Hall of Fame pitcher

You don't get those around a state A team very much And he has been an integral part Of the Astros success Of the last seven or eight years The icebreaker for me to be able to talk to him Was I was wearing Jordans one day And he complimented me on my shoes

And I introduced myself And we had about a two minute conversation. Wait a minute. You're walking around in the Astros Clubhouse. He sees your shoes and says nice shoes, dude. Yeah, just as I was walking by and, you know, just said, hey, Javy, how you doing? He was like, hey, man, nice shoes. Are you sure you're not, you

know, you can walk over and say, hey, do you like my shoes? No, no. All right. No. No. No fishing for compliments. I don't do. There was a time where I probably would talk to players too much. Now it's more of, if they interact with me, then maybe I'll just say hello. And if it

seems like they're interested in talking, then maybe a couple of minutes, but all right, you got work to do. Okay, very good. All right, what else we got? All right, so I'm going to give you a choice here for the final one. Do we want to go Beyonce? Do we want to go inside the NBA staying together, or do we want to go the return of Tommy Cutlets?

Oh, inside the NBA. All right, inside the NBA. They are going to live on. Ernie, Shaq, Charles, and the Jet, moving to ESPN ABC next season. I had some thoughts on this over the weekend, and people thought that I was crapping on Inside the NBA. And that's why I did the follow-up Insta story last night of saying,

no, you're getting it wrong. I want Inside the NBA to stick around. I just don't know how inside the NBA is going to be able to be inside the NBA whenever the suits up there in Bristol get involved and say, well, you know, Shaq, you know, Charles, let's clean it up just a little. Like, no, you've got to let them be them. And the best part for them is they're not going to work every week. They're going to work a little bit early in the year, a little bit around Christmas,

a little bit towards the end of the season, and then they're going to do the postseason. So they're actually doing less work than they would be because when they were on TNT, they were on every Thursday or Tuesday. I think Tuesday was, wasn't that, didn't they try to do that feeble players-only broadcast, which I knew that that was eventually going to come, that you were going to have some network suits that would be like, well, why can't players do play-by-play? I mean, they played the game. They know.

And it was awful. So what they do now is they put the NBA TNT games on Tuesday because they don't want to go against Thursday night football, which they're right about that. So congratulations. Kenny, I think it's going to origin it out of Atlanta. So they're going to take the TNT show, produce it like they were at TNT,

and then send it to Bristol to broadcast it on ESPN. As far as I know, I think that's an EJ thing because Ernie is Atlanta through and through. and I think, you know, it's also, too, he had made the line about Turner as all I've ever known. Yep. So I think that they probably just said, well, we originate shows out of L.A. We originate shows out of other places. I mean, Pat McAfee does his show out of Indianapolis.

Why not? Yeah, well, the most important thing is please don't put Stephen A. Smith on that show under any circumstances. I was going to say Michael Wilbon. Like, it's just kind of like, look, pardon the interruption, like, had its time. It's nice. But, like, it's just, oh, my God. like ESPN's coverage like almost itself like I can't watch it

it's well you put that's why you watch the game you don't and you just go get something to eat during half time it's so milk toast man like it's just so it's trying too hard like they're trying so hard to be inside the NBA that you're not interesting enough and you're not original enough to be them like what they have you cannot recreate

yep all right that my friends is the news at noon on sports talk 790 Dan Matthews had that coming up, we have got to discuss the Friday night fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. And frankly, to

me, it was more about what happened outside the ring that would happen ever inside the ring. We'll get to that coming up a little bit. 713, 212-7-9 if you want to jump into the conversation. We're getting you ready for Texans and Cowboys as well and the Rockets trying for their sixth

consecutive win tonight here in Milwaukee against the buck. 7-1-3.3. 3212-5-790 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-790 with a word now for affordable tree service. I know that some of you are worried about your trees. A lot of you have built your homes and chosen your plot and your lot of land because of the great trees that are in that community in which you live in. And the folks at Affordable Tree Service have been doing this in September of 1999. So you know something's going right with affordable tree.

service. 713 699-2663. That's 713 699-2663. Full-service tree care. We're talking about pruning, maintenance. If you have a bad tree, you want to remove, they'll do that. Deep root feeding, easy, peasy. They can plant and transplant trees. They can stump grind, they can root barricade, they can do everything that you have no idea what the hell you're doing. That's why you call affordable tree service. Martin Spoonmower is a great friend of mine. He's a little bizarre, but I love nevertheless. 713 699-2663. This is their downtime.

So if you call them right now, you'll be able to get some really good times for them to come out to your house and check on the health of your trees. 713-699-2663. That's 7-13-699-2663 affordable tree service. More Matt Thomas. Now. On Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas show with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. Dan Matthews filling in today and tomorrow for sports.

He'll do a couple more times for us next week. Chris Cordy's going to be on Wednesday. Thursday. McTaggers is going to hang out with us on Friday. You may hang out with us right now at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. This is a call-out for all of you that went to your Netflix account on Friday night to watch Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson.

There were the folks in Arlington that wanted Mike Tyson to win. There were folks that wanted this pompous YouTube sensation, and I use that term relatively speaking, to get his ass kick because he hadn't played, he hadn't gone against anybody. He's been taking all these second-tier opponents, and it's been exhibition's not been real boxing. And I thought to myself, do I spend time watching this, or do I just move along and catch the highlights?

Well, the Rockets game, they had beaten the Clippers, and I got home, and I thought, you know, it's still, you know, 10 o'clock at night. It hadn't started yet. Why not? So all of us in our house put on Netflix just to make sure we get some clean feed. All of my televisions in my house had a hard time getting it to buffer. My phone was the only one that was able to get it without any eruption, so I wound up watching it on my phone.

Um, first and foremost, why is Rosie Perez doing color commentary of boxing? Come on, she's the first lady of boxing. Who gave her that title? I have no idea, but that was apparently the explanation of why Rosie Perez was part of the crew with Roy Jones Jr. And I don't even know who the play-by-play guy was. He was obnoxious too. Everything about that event was obnoxious. It's boxing.

It's at Jerry's play. so I mean that's gonna all be part of it I guess so you had the pre you had the pre about fights like the host was that set or the entertainer that was doing that too see so I was like most people I was either buffering for a really long time or then it would start on one of the undercard fights so then of course I would try to hit the live tab and when I did that it would give me the spinning wheel of death which I had for a large amount of time

and then I had to resort to other options. But like you said about the cellular signal, a lot of people who were watching it off their Wi-Fi, it helped. Yeah, 5G was your friend on Friday night, not your Wi-Fi at your house. Well, it's just the reality. Either that or you could do it the way that I did, and Antonio Brown came to the rescue. I watched the fight on Antonio Brown's live Twitter feed.

Now, did he commentate during? this or do you just put it up there for people just to watch? Just put it up there for you to be able to watch, but I mean, you could also hear people in the background that were in his suite. And the New York Post says that 7.6 million people watched off his Twitter feed. So, no matter what you want to say about how bad boxing is, and it's still largely, how do I say this, a joke? We as America went to this bad boy and we watched it.

I don't know if it was because of Jake Paul's YouTube fascination, whether it's because it's 58-year-old Mike Tyson, whether it's the pomp and circumstance of having those two guys do their thing in a big stadium. Everything about this was crazy. Well, I mean, it has everything that boxing doesn't have right now. I mean, can you name two or three active boxers at the, this moment. Not really. So there you go. I mean, there's nobody that is captivating enough for you to say, oh, man, I've got to watch that fight. Like when we had Tyson in his heyday, Lennox Lewis, Evander

Holyfield, I mean, you had characters. You had people that were interesting to be able to follow, and you had a favorite fighter, you wanted them to win. I think that people were kind of grasping at this for nostalgia purposes of hoping that Mike could show Jake Paul, like, oh, you think you can do this. I've proven that I can do this and I'm going to show you what this is like. And people thought that it was going to be a real possibility with the slap in the face off that they had. I mean, because people were even pointing out, look how hard he just knocked back Jake Paul. Like the point was that they were trying to make was he's trying to show him like it's going to be worse tomorrow for you in the ring. And the first round, it was fine.

And then after that, Mike Tyson looked like he was 58 years old. And by the way, what a joke. eight two-minute rounds. I mean, it's like you shrunk a sporting event. It's like you had a bunch of 47-year-old quarterbacks and 51-year-old point guard saying, we can't play 40 minutes,

we can't play 48. Let's play a basketball game that's like 30 minutes. Yeah, like five-minute quarter. Everything about it once the fight took place was as expected. There weren't a lot of punches thrown. Mike Tyson looked every bit of 58 years old. And the reality is,

you feel dumber for watching it. I just do. But as I say that, there's going to be Dan, another freakish fight that's going to come up in the next 12, 18 months, and guess what we're going to do? We're going to watch it. Well, I mean, it just depends on who's involved.

I mean, does Evander Holyfield get the itch to do this? I mean, that could be a possibility. I don't know who else is necessarily out there. I mean, who knows? I mean, John Bones Jones just won in UFC. Does he finally say, yeah, I'll put on some bobbing. boxing gloves. I'll fight this guy. I would not recommend doing that if I were Jake Paul. Yeah, I don't know. But I always think like, now, does what, what Saturday did, and we're going to move to a timeout here, what Friday did was not expand the boxing audience. What it expanded was the people that want to see a freak event, want to see a circus.

Well, I mean, that's what Don King made his living off of. I mean, he made it off making this into a spectacle. That's what the fight game is. It's supposed to be every bit of the pomp. circumstance that goes in. Like, that's what cracks me up when people crap on professional wrestling. I'm like, look, professional wrestling doesn't get away from the fact that it's scripted, that it is a show. They just lean right into it and create stars because of it. But in terms of like the overall like expectations heading to this fight, I had none. Like I had zero. I mean, there was no part of me that truly believed that 58 year old Mike Tyson was going to be able to beat a mid-20 something guy, even if he does. have more of a pronounced and more of a professional boxing background than Jake Paul does.

But Paul, I think, is kind of shown you he's at least serious about this. Well, he's trained, obviously, but I think if he's going against somebody who has his age and similar size, there's a lot of work to be done. But yeah, Rosie Perez didn't offer anything. Roy Jones, Jr. kept saying his legs aren't good. His legs aren't, I mean, over and over and over. Roy, he's 58, man. Yeah, what did you expect?

He's 58. Like, yeah, he's not going to have. the same foot speed that he had. He's not going to have the same punching power. And then I guess people were getting annoyed by him talking about his mouthpiece. And I think they even, I think Ariel Hawani even asked him about it

in the ring. And Tyson just said, oh, what was it? Biting his gloves, too. That he said, oh, I've got a thing for biting. Oh, no kidding. Well, of course. Yeah, we know that for sure. All right, 1232. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Dan Matthews filling in today for Ross. If you'd like to jump in on our conversation,

you may do so at 713, 212, 5790. 713, 212, 5790. I want to get a prediction from you listening right now. Texans win tonight, Rockets win tonight, both teams win, both teams lose. What do you think? Let your vote be heard right now. 713, 212, 5, 790. 1236, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

our buddy Dan Matthews is filling in today 713-212-5-790 Dan is the only LSU slash Georgia fan I know in America I tease because I care you know this oh I know this okay so let me trust me if you're not then I have to worry yeah that's right that's right you're fair to about your you know you don't you don't circle it to one person

you disperse it pretty well Yeah. I mean, it'd be like being an Astros and Rangers fan or being a Rockets and a Spurs fan. You know, either a Hatfield or you're in a McCoy, you know what I mean? Well, I mean, look, as I've explained it before, that if pushed where I have to decide between the two, then it's going to be LSU all day. Like, that's never going to change. It's just it's the friendships and the relationships that I've built inside the Georgia program that when they win, I'm happy for them. Okay. Another reference, you can't be a Crip or a blood at the same time. You cannot. We found that out last night on Taylor Sheridan's new show Landman. That's a really good show, by the way.

I miss watching television. I don't even get to watch anymore. It's on Paramount Plus. I think that they just showed it was a one episode preview, but it's streaming right now. Yeah. I'm excited because I'm a huge Billy Bob Thornton fan. You didn't really see much of John Hamm in the first episode, but it was really good. I liked it a lot to go along with Yellowstone, which, which is coming to an end. I think that they're kind of running out of storylines for Yellowstone.

I have not watched one full episode of Yellowstone. I think I'm in a minority. It's great. Not because I don't want to do it. I just, with my schedule, I am so far behind an episodic television that I'd have to just basically have to binge watch it. But everybody else in my family watches it. I mean, I was going to say, when the hell do you have time?

I mean, between the rockets, this, and doing some Astro stuff. Then you got Carly playing volleyball. I'm sure. You got that right, brother. Cam and Peyton have something going on too. You are my official PR agent. For that, I thank you very much. I try, buddy.

I did, however, last time I saw John Hammond's something, I believe he caught Albert Brooks being a COVID hoarder during Kirby Enthusiasm. He did. That's right. He's a hoarder. What? He wanted to have his own eulogy, even though he was alive. He has his own eulogy, and Larry David goes into a room by accident,

and he sees like 80 bottles of Purell, 200 boxes of COVID testing shots, and about 70 things of paper towels in toilet paper. Yeah, well, that was a big thing. Remember, we couldn't find toilet paper anywhere. I remember getting up in the morning during COVID at about 5.30 to get to the Kroger at 6 to make sure we get in line to get our toilet paper. Crazy times, man. I mean, I hope we never have to experience anything like that ever again in our lifetimes.

But, yeah, it was, I mean, pretty much, I, I, I was, you know, getting towards every single week, I just wanted to get to Friday. And once I got to Friday, it was, okay, Tito's and soda here at the house, we'll watch Tiger King or whatever. So we were sustained by either heavy drinking or Joe Exotic. And the fact is our sports programming for a better part of about four months was the last dance, recapping, previewing. And speaking of the last dance, and Clanton actually said this too. that was what it pushed me to the urge to buy a pair of Jordans. So the marketing worked.

By the way, I got to tell you something that my son, Payton, is in line to get Aggies versus Longhorn tickets right now. I saw that. I saw that they started lining up yesterday, didn't they? He is texting our family chat, and he is absolutely miserable. Apparently it's raining in college station. I believe, yes. I think that it was starting to rain yesterday. And of course, you know, you had everybody out there. So this is kind of the Aggies version of Shosheskyville, which your wife's a Duke fan, right? Right. And that's unfortunate. My brother is a proud UNC grad. So we definitely root for the tar heels over that school in Durham. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty much getting their same taste of what the kids there at that school go through for Carolina and them tickets. He is basically saying, he's taking photos of this and he's screaming, he's telling us on our family chat. This sucks so much.

Meanwhile, you've got all of his siblings and his mother saying, hold on, it'll be worth it. And he says, he just texted it as he says, I'm still miserable. This is as of about five minutes ago. I have never been more miserable in my entire life. It's not worth it. So Cameron says, yes, it is. You'll regret it if you don't stay. Mom says, that's right.

And then he says, she says, look on the bright side. you have not camped out for two days well it's also too I mean he would just be sitting in a class lecture right now would he not yeah by the way that game has been set for 630 p.m. on November the 30th

all right so it's going to get the primetime treatment so that means fallor and herb street so game days got to be in college easily that right easily because I mean yeah because Ohio State Michigan's not going to be anything I'd have to look at the schedule of what's going on that weekend but the fact

that whoever wins that game is more than likely going to the SEC championship game. Yeah, I would say that probably that's the case. All right, let's go to some phones and talk to people. Ibra on 790 at 1242. Ibra, good afternoon. Good afternoon, guys. How are y'all doing?

What's up, man? Good, thank you. All right, I just wanted to talk about the Rockets. Dakin Park is now, oh, Midamay Park is now Dakin Park, so I really don't want to talk about the Astros right now. Okay. I just want to talk about how we had that tough stretch losing to the war. After that Warriors game, I think everything kind of shifted in a good direction.

We knew we were capable of, and the terror twins are completely taken over this team. Besides Tari having a bad game yesterday, we were 10-4, so we can't really complain as Rocket's fans right now. No, you can't. It has been absolutely, I don't want to say incredible, because 10-4 is really good, but it's, I mean, Incredible would be like what the Cavaliers are doing. They haven't lost a game yet. It has been real fun to watch, real fun to call these games. A man Thompson has taken his game to a new level.

You mentioned Tar Asian struggle last night, but that was an outlier. Fred Van Blitz's shooting the ball well. Alpi is a triple double machine right now. Dylan Brooks is getting in there helping out on both ends of the floor. It's a real nice, cohesive nine-man rotation. They're very aggressive. They tacked the glass. They get second chance points.

They get out on the fast break. And their defense is really good. And I'm so happy for them at this point. I am beyond pleased at how things have turned out of the first 14 games. That's for sure. Well, and me and you, Matt, sorry, Ibrahim, me and you Matt the other night, we're talking about that, you know, things are great right now. You've got a lot of guys contributing.

This team still needs to add a shooter or two if they're going to have a chance. Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, you can't really rely on. Bree Sheppard. alone by himself, right? I mean, Jabari Smith was 5 for a bit, but he's kind of streaky, and he's only shown that one game. I still feel like Jalen Green's not where he wants to be from the three-point line either. Dylan Brooks, surprisingly, has been our best caution shoot shooter, so he's our best two-way player right now, I would say, from the starting lineup,

but we still need to go out and get maybe like a stretch four or somebody who can space the floor and stuff like that. Well, you know, yesterday, and thanks with the phone call, I don't know if you saw on your Twitter feed, the Yannis rumors to Houston are not gaining steam, but just one person put it out there, and now it's kind of just spreading like wildfire a little bit.

Well, I mean, in fairness, it seems like, you know, rumors like this, and you've been around the league long enough that they kind of start to cook off social media. And then finally it makes its way on the social media. And of course, I think you're talking about the Bill Simmons line about the Rockets and the Nets being in line, and

I mean, I've heard different things. Apparently, I guess his wife went to Rice. She's from here. Apparently, he likes it here. And also, too, I mean, it kind of comes down to he's getting a little older. And is he going to be able to have a chance to go back after Alari O'Brien up in Milwaukee? Or can he team up with some of the guys down here and give it a shot here in Houston? You know, there's a lot of mixed messages about it.

I will say this. Obviously, Janus is an incredible talent. I still think the Rockets probably need one more star to get over the hump, especially as well as the top teams are playing in this Western conference. But I'm also, and I'm mixed on this because I don't want to go to the, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But they're really, really playing well. The question's going to be, would Janus be the determining factor in getting over the hump?

I mean, the simple answer would be, yes, he's that who he is. but is Janice going to be healthy enough to help you down the stretch? He has battled a little bit of ailments here and there the last few weeks. But if Janus can just not shoot threes, he'll do everything else to make your life miserable. We've seen it firsthand and all seen here tonight, obviously, against the bucks. But yeah, that rumor, I wouldn't say, won't go away, but it has certainly gathered a little more interest, say, in the last week or so than it did, say, before the start of the season. 1246, it is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. 713212-5-790.

Dan Matthews filming in for Ross today. We are with you today until 2 o'clock. Believe it or not, today at 150 is very Googlerable, and we'll have that about the move today. That Minutemate Park is no more. It is now Dyken Park, am I saying it properly? Correct. Okay.

And by the way, everybody's trying to figure out a nickname for it. I mean, if it's air conditioning, it's the ice box, right? Thermostat? Which makes it weird because the press box at Minuteman at the park, Dikein Park, is one of the coldest in sports. But the rest of the park is not. Like you're there on a very humid day walking the concourses. You're sweating profusely.

I am at waste. You got to keep it cool. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. I want to tell you about Game Day men's health. I am so pleased that they're expanding to as many locations around town because it gives you more of an opportunity to find a location near you. If you need an improvement in your mood and you want more energy, you want to improve mental clarity and brain function, and you want to boost an immune system and perhaps a little extra libido for the bedroom.

Maybe it's because your testosterone levels are low. That's why you've got to call and check your T levels. And they're absolutely free at Game Day Men's Health. If you get a TRT treatment, you'll get a free vitamin shot as part of it. All you've got to do is go to Game Day Men's Health. dot com slash Houston to find the locations near you. Pearland, Seabrook, Willowbrook,

Cady, North Point, the woodlands are open with locations in east of downtown and spring before the end of the year. Please do me a favor. Get those T-levels check. It will not cost you a cent. Game Day, men'shealth.com slash Houston. That's gameday, men's health.com slash Houston.

The Matt Thomas Show. Back to do it. On Sports Talk 790. Escalated. Home of the Time is 1252. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross and Matthews filling in this today and for us tomorrow. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-99. Coming up at about half an hour from now, give your take. We will hear Bobby Belt from 105.3. The fan was with us very early in the show today.

Good perspective on what's going on with Dallas. We'll let you hear some of that coming up at 130. Believe it or not today at 150 is very Googled about ballpark name changes. That's all I can tell you. What are we playing for today, Connor? I'm believe it or not, do we have the prize vault full of amazing prizes? Yeah, we got tickets to U of H. Cougar basketball this weekend. We also got a pair of tickets to go see comedian Louis Black this Friday. Hmm.

Not bad. Cougars playing, I believe, the powerhouse known as Hofstra. Am I right about that? The Baylor Bears Oh, that's football. I thought you're talking about basketball. Oh, no, yeah. You-H-Kougars are the Baylor Bears. I believe they'll be wearing those Love You Blue uniforms as well.

H-Cown Blue. Don't say Love You Blue. They're going to get you sued. H-Cown Blue uniforms. Six o'clock game, too. So you get a night game to cap off the home schedule this year. Senior night. And we don't have a time yet for that BYU game,

which is a Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'm so waiting for that, by the way. By the way, how about BYU losing it home to Kansas? Yeah, that was a rough one. And, you know, you talked about Colorado earlier. I mean, now that gives them even more of a chance to get to AT&T Stadium for the Big 12 championship game. I'm telling you, 11 and 2 Colorado is in the college football playoff. That's crazy.

Gary and Spring on 7-9. Go ahead, Gary. Hey, Matt, can you hear me okay? Yes, sir. Go ahead. Okay, yeah. I'm not sure if I heard you right before the last break were you asking us to call in. to see if we were picking both the Texans and the Rockets to win or lose.

Is that what you're asking? Yeah, what you got. Okay. Now, does it have to be one way or the other, or can it be split? It's true. You can split it up. Tell what you think. Okay.

All right. Well, the Rockets, I don't see them winning tonight. I'm afraid they're going to go up there and get beat tonight. The Texans are for sure going to win tonight because, guess what? Even though you put me down and made fun of me last week when I called in, the man I called in about Colin, uh, Nico is going to be there and they will score one to two touchdowns in the second half because Nico Collins is there. So I picked the bucks to win and the Texans to win.

And that's my call for the day. And I, and I hope you start, I hope you feel better, man. I don't like to hear when people aren't feeling so well. I know. Thank you, Gary. Appreciate it from your mouth, the gods ears about Nico Collins. Thank you. Uh, your mouth of God's ears.

tonight, Dan, they've got to score a second half touchdown. I'm sorry. This city is going to flip out if they don't. Well, I mean, especially too. And you factor in, they haven't done it since the New England game. So it's almost kind of like, how does that even happen? Like I talked about earlier when we had RJ Chopie on. I mean, he even asked that question was like, like seriously, how is that possible?

Like, how did you not look into, I don't know, an interception? and maybe you're able just to go 10 yards and you get into the end zone or even a 50-50 ball, you finally just bring it down. I mean, even in garbage time, whatever it might be, the fact that they have not done that is a little concerning. And I mean, like we said, this is a Cowboys team that is not good on many different fronts. They're not good at home. They're not good in the second half.

So both of those, you would feel like if there is a chance to be able to get that right. I mean, we're not talking about being a get-right game. We've said that already. This is a get-right scenario where for 30 minutes, you finally can be able to get into the end zone because this team is just not good at keeping you out of the end zone, especially in the second half. And the reality is, if they go up there and beat the Cowboys by at least 10 points,

you'll feel a lot better about things. You're really going to start feel better about things because the Texan schedule for the next few weeks is soft. At the Cowboys, home for the Titans, at the Jags, home for the Dolpherson. I mean, you know, it's a dog... That could be four in a row. It should be four in a row. It should be, but I mean, this is a Dolphins team, though, too, that they've got two of a back,

and they actually are starting to look like what we thought they were going to look like. So that all of a sudden becomes a little bit of a tougher game. And, you know, we had a caller earlier to bring up about the Colts. They've got the lions at home this week. That's not going to go well. But then they've got the Patriots. They go to Denver. And then they finish out the season with Tennessee at home at New York against the Giants.

and then the Jags who at that point, they're basically just going to be like, all right, what the hell? Let's just get this over. Let's fire our coach and let's continue the process here in Jacksonville. By the way, Detroit now, the Super Bowl favorites over the Chiefs of the first time this year. They should be. They're lost to the bills yesterday in Buffalo.

They're almost too damn good for their own good. Like Detroit, like I threw that out there yesterday and I was like, I understand that makes no sense, but it's just kind of like, can you prolong this? Like, can you continue this all the way through? It's almost like when is that burst in that bubble going to burst? It almost did last week. It should have. I mean, if you're...

Aggie Doug on 790, you're able to. Hi, Aggie, Doug. What do you got today? That was up, fellas. Man, I really need to see a bloodletting because I went to the game and call it station on Saturday. And you know what's shocking is that that place was full for New Mexico State? I mean, I get that a lot of people aren't going to be able to go, you know, against Texas because that... I mean, the prices for those tickets.

I mean, they're over what we pay for World Series tickets. So, I mean, to me, that's just ridiculous. And if somebody wants Aggie Doug to come to their tailgate, you're more than welcome to contact me on Twitter. But I am not paying $1,000 to go to that game. I've seen a lot of those in person. So I'll let somebody that has that bank account go to that. But, man, I think the Texans really need to rip somebody's head off

and you know what, down their neck, man. I mean, I think this is a game that if you really got your quote-unquote, and that's how you see the Cowboys, you better go stomp on their head and step on their neck when you got a chance because if you let these guys up off the mat, and they win that game, and then they go on some sort of stupid run

like they did the last time with Cooper Rush, man, Houston Texan fans aren't going to hear the end of it. So I think they need to go up in the face and just keep kicking their ass all game long. That's what my hope is. You know what? I'm going to tell you something right now. First of all, I wouldn't pay for you to be at my tailgate.

I mean, I love you, I can do it. But you don't bring that much entertainment value. Oh. Oh, I'm just teasing, AD. I'm just teasing. Secondly, for mental health for us as Houstonians, Dan, they cannot lose this game tonight. They just can't.

Well, they can't lose it, but I think even more, you can't have a ho-hum performance, to Doug's point. Like, yes, you do need to finally be that team where you come out of it saying, man, from minute one to minute 60, they seriously just brutalized those guys. And that's what we've been waiting for this team to do. Just kick the crap out of the Cowboys.

That's always applicable, but it means a little bit more this year as this team is struggling in the last handful of weeks. 1 o'clock, 7.90, one hour left to go. Matt Thomas Show, Ross, Dan Matthews, filling in. Do not go anywhere. We got 60 minutes left on 790. Lunch timers.

is the Matt Thomas show. 104, Sports Talk 790. Dan Matthew's in for Ross today. I'm Matt here in Miliwake. Al-Guanquin for what, Dan Matthews? The good land. Hmm. It's funny. I'm not left the hotel yet, so I don't know how good of a land it is.

That was funny when Bobby told you, yeah, I enjoyed Milwaukee. I was like, do you really enjoy Milwaukee? It's not terrible. They've got lots of bars and stuff. I mean, it's not awful. The weather's not great. It's 45 and raining here. but, you know, it's, man, could be 11 snow. I'm not going to complain, honestly. Well, it's also, too.

I mean, places are just places at a certain point, right? I mean, it's hotel room, go to the arena, get on the plane, leave. Yep, yep. And I have been a little under the weather, so that is, I literally went to Chicago, got in my room, shut the door, ordered room service, did the game, took the bus to Milwaukee, and then in the room and I haven't left it. So you didn't go with Craig and all of them to go get deep dish? Uh, no, let's just say, um, my stomach was not in the mood for deep days.

Ah, okay. I got you. Um, Chicago is a great food city, though. I, I, I'm amazing. There, there is to me, Boston and Chicago, late spring, summer, amazing places to be. I'm going to tell you this right now. We were talking about this on the bus the other day. We're, our group is a huge Chicago fan base. Uh, Chicago is not nearly as pretentious as New York is. it's much easier to navigate around downtown you feel like you're with normal people as compared the new york who's just always in a hurry to go somewhere right you mentioned the food there's culture there's the river of great great sports city by the way what a disaster sports day for chicago green bay beats them yesterday on a last second blocked field goal then the bulls get

their ass kicked by the rockets i mean i'm not going to feel sorry for them but um It was, Chicago said better sports days, that's for sure. Yeah, I mean, as I've got a really good buddy of mine, who's a diehard, Bears, Cubs, Bulls fan, he's from up there in the Chicagoland area. And he once gave me a line where it was the night that Mitchell Trebisky got drafted. He didn't get mad. He just calmly looked at me and said,

one way or another, this team always finds a way to hurt me. I mean, there's a lot of NFL franchises that you could adhere that to. I mean, think about it. When we got into sports to be massively disappointed. More often you do. I mean, you know, you could be, say, an Alabama Crimson Tide fan and still be wildly, just have a wild inferiority complex, even though you've had the success you've enjoyed over these last few years.

Think about this. I have been an Astro fan since 1979. They have given me two World Series, a bunch of division championships, a couple of penits. And that's what about, give or take, 12 years? Oh, yeah, I mean, because it goes back to 2015 was when this really got started. Right, and then you had some of the eight,

and then late 90s, and then the 86 team and the 80 team. So I've been a fan of the Astros for 43, 45 years of my life, and 33 of them. I mean, there's only been two times that I thought we were on top of the world. 43 other times we've come up short. Well, I mean, you thought 98 was going to be that.

I mean, you were hoping so. And then... Let's not talk about that. Yeah, and then Kevin Brown and Jim Leritz and Greg Vaughn happened. Sterling Hitchcock. That was awesome. Thank you. But that's what sports is.

Your winning percentage of being a sports fan is minimal. Unless you are a fan of, say, the Celtics, the Lakers, what the Dodgers? Who else has got, I mean, just umpteen championships? You said the Yankees, Dodgers, Celtics, I mean, you know, Steelers, I guess you could throw them in there. The Cowboys have, what, seven? Six. Six, okay.

Yeah. Niners have six, I want to say? I think they're striving for six. Okay. And I guess it all depends on when you became a sports fan. If you became a sports fan in 1998, you're a miserable Dallas Cowboy fan. You don't even know what a victory tastes like. No, I mean, because next year is going to be the 30th anniversary from the last time they won a Super Bowl.

If you're a San Antonio Spur fan since 2001, you're loving enough. Oh, God, don't even ring that bell. You know what's coming next. I mean, if you are a fan of New England Patriots and you've been a Patriots, and you've been a Patriot fan since you were six years old, and you're 27. Guess what? You've had a lot of run. You saw the greatest quarterback of all time lead you to those Super Bowls.

Well, wasn't there that kid at the Patriots victory parade that held up the sign that said, all I know is winning? I want to kick him in the midsection. You're absolutely right. Yeah, and then when you go through security at Logan Airport, they have all the championship banners up there, too. Great. That's why I fly to Providence, much easier.

I don't see that nonsense. Well, I mean, look, if you got it, flaunt it. I mean, the Patriots do, the Red Sox do, the Celtics do, I guess the Bruins do. So why not? I mean, go ahead and- Well, that's what I brought up with Ross on Friday is that for a franchise that hasn't tasted a Super Bowl victory in 30 years, the Dallas Cowboys still have this incredible national cachet. Well, because Jerry is very good at selling you on Hope.

But no, you know what? As you say that, though, he doesn't say you on hope. He's selling you on incompetence. He's selling you on old man syndrome. That's only showing up this season. I mean, as we said, they won 12 games last year. I think they won 12 the year before as well. So, I mean, they've given you reason to believe, okay, hey, maybe these guys can finally kick in the door.

And then they don't because then there's San Francisco, who they can't beat. Or there's the Green Bay Packers. Same deal there. Yeah. Well, I just know that if you're in your 30s, you don't have any idea what great Dallas Cowboy Football is. You know what good Dallas Cowboy Football is, but not great. Well, I mean, that's the point, too, that, like, me and you both know what it's like to be an Astros fan. Connor McGovern has no idea what it's like to be an Astros fan. Like, there's a generation of kids in this city.

Oh, no, wait a minute. Poor Connor. Leave the man alone. He's, you know, his Missouri Tigers lost to South Carolina on one of the last second plays on Saturday. Cut him some slack. No, and I trust me, Connor. I can have as much empathy for that as possible because of the just abominable dross that I've watched the last three weeks of LSU football. But no, I mean, there's a generation of Astros fans who have no idea what being an Astros fan is. All right, real quick, before we get to the break here,

I got, you know, you get those silly-ass emails about variety of surveys that are being taken. I got one that said, I got this morning. 63% of U.S. sports fans want favorite team honored at funeral. Hmm. Some sports platform called, I'm not going to give it to the plug, but it said it conducted a survey of 2,000 sports fans across the United States. It says that Mississippi has the most diehard sports fans.

75% of their fans want their favorite team included in their funeral or memorial service. Oh, I know the joke. Utah ranks lowest at just 9%. Okay. One of three sports fans would like to be buried with memorabilia from their favorite team. 18% want their ashes scattered at a location tied to their favorite team. And one in five plan to leave a donation to their favorite team and their will. You buy any of this?

Yeah, I mean, because like I said, I know the joke. You know the joke, right? that like for example if you're a Cowboys fan you want to be buried in a Cowboys Casket so they can let you down for the last time that's where I thought you were going with this but the scattering of ashes I mean I don't want that that's a public place

I'm going to walk over your loved one I don't want that do you want your ashes spread over a stadium in Houston I don't I would say a golf course probably would be mine

mine's going to be half in Las Vegas and half in Lake Charles. All right, so, I mean, you can lose for one last time. That indicates my problem with gambling, but that's a different issue for a different time. Well, I mean, you know, they've already taken enough of your money. What's having the rest of you? That's right. They took my body.

They took my wallet, and they've taken my soul. There you go. All of it. I've been, not that I've been to a lot of funerals in my life, but I've never been to one with what was sports related. And I'm not saying they don't have them that way. I've just not been to one. A buddy of mine that just passed, he got buried wearing his favorite A&M hat. I don't think that it was any joke.

It was like his favorite hat, and that's how people wanted to remember him. And it was a, I mean, I was a model. You know, I spoke at Model Hamilton's funeral, and we didn't have anything Astros related with him. But it was weird. Apparently, when Milo's wife, Arlene passed away, and I wasn't here for this, I was living out of town. they saying tape me out of the ball game. Hmm. I don't know that to be 100% true,

but I feel like it's about 98% true. Was there any reference to Milo's affinity for certain eating spots here in this town? Because it seemed like... At his funeral? No. Okay. Well, I just didn't know. I mean, because, funny enough,

the two places that he would always talk the most about, the last two times I had gone there, Milo was there. Hmm. I don't think Milo cooked a meal in the last 30 years of his life. Well, I mean, when you're a Hall of Famer, that usually people want to be associated with you.

So, hey, come be seen eating at our place. Let me tell you, cooking is overrated. Damn, I think I was going to tell you that right now. The cleaning is overrated. The cooking itself is fine. It's the afterwards when you're full, you don't want, like, you make pasta or something like that. You don't want to do the cleaning.

Yeah. I do. 115 on Sports Talk 7. No wiser words were ever said on this radio show. Michael Lowellans wants to get into the Cowboys at Texas. What do you want to do? We want to hear from you. This is our last segment where we're taking calls.

So if you want to get in, come say hi. And give us a prediction about tonight's game. Give us a flat-out prediction of who wins tonight's game and by what score. I got the Texans by 10. And I'm kind of saying they need to win it by 10. Or we're not going to be in a particularly good mood tomorrow. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-7-90.

Our time is 115 where I want to tell you about quality home products of Texas. it's time for you to get a generator. If the weather gets bad, and certainly it's going to at some point, whether it's now or in the springtime or the summertime, you're going to lose your power. But let's see you work at home, and you need to keep going, your business growing. That's why you go with quality home products at Texas for a Generac standby generator. 77,000 satisfied customers all throughout the Houston area have taken advantage of quality home products, excellent customer service, insulation process, and financing. options. Please be 77,000 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 and make the investment to get a quality standby generator from Generac and quality home products of Texas. 713 quality. That's 713

Quality. Quality TX.com is a website for all the details. Trust me, you're going to thank me later when that generator is working when everybody else around your neighborhood is thirsting for power. Quality home products of Texas for a Generac standby generator. 3 quality, that's 713 quality. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. Tom Herman out at Florida Atlantic. No surprise. They get beat up pretty bad this year.

Things haven't gone well. No, not at all. He's haven't gone well since he tried to show up my buddy, Cole Kublich, and then the next day he's walking out of the building there at U of H. I think it was our good buddy Mark Berman that caught him as he had just addressed the team. and went up to Texas and, well, they beat Georgia in a meaningless bowl game, and everybody thought, oh, hey, hey, we're back. You weren't back.

Adam and Tomball on 790 at 123. Adam, thanks for waiting. Good afternoon. No problem. How are you doing, Matt? And Ross 2.0, Ross 2.0, I want to say by your side over there. What's up, buddy? How are you doing?

Stan. Good, good. There you go. I don't know. hear you that often. So I hope I just want to say hi to Ross if he's listening. I think he went to Korea if I'm not mistaken, right? He's down there? Yep. Okay, cool. I just got a couple of things for tonight. I think right now we got a pissed off texting thing right now. We're out for blood. We're out for revenge. But yeah, you're right, Matt. I think we really need to just stop a mud hole,

you know and I mean uh go ahead and uh get that I of 45 you know rivalry um back up again and the best yeah and it's going to be the best you know football team in Texas is going to be the Texans and I think it's going to be like that for a while so look forward to that but I got a little gut feeling for tonight as well can I get that in sure yeah go ahead um tray lance siding a tray lance siding I think and uh then that's just kind of like my prediction I think Cooper Rush might struggle a little bit. I know we don't have Will Anderson, but I think our pass wrecks are still going to get there.

Daniel Hunter, he's due, and I just looking forward to a good game. And that's about it. About all got. All right. Thanks for the phone call. I'll say this. To me, it's not about playing the Cowboys.

It's about playing a second-tier team in the NFL, Dan. If this was the Saints, If this was the Panthers, if this was a road game against the Raiders, you got to get fat and happy off this bad boy. You've got to get your mojo back. You've got to act like your team that's going to win an under the division title. And it's going to be a threat to win the AFC. For me, there's nothing special about this game with Dallas.

It's about the fact that Team A, Houston, is significantly better on paper than Team B. Well, it's also, too, I mean, the pomp and circumstance is exactly what Adam brought up. I mean, it's the in-state rivalry, if you want to call it that, although I have been on the record of saying, you need to stop worrying about the Cowboys as much. Like, yes, they lose, and when they lose, everybody wants to pile on, all of that. But aside from that, that really shouldn't be any bearing on you as a Texanist fan, because you play them once every four years. I mean, they're not a rival. You have to play a rival for it to be a rival. Right.

So I concern myself more with the Indianapolis Colts. I concern myself more with the Baltimore Ravens and the Bills or anybody else that's in the AFC that actually might be standing in your way to reach your ultimate goal. But for everything you said, I mean, we wouldn't be talking about this game quite as much. I mean, yes, it's a Monday night, so we still would. If it were any of those other teams you just threw out, we would just be saying exactly what we're saying, go out there and beat their brains in. And if you don't, then we have worries about how good you truly really are. Dallas is not good, backup quarterback, no semblance of any strong pass rush,

offensive lines been beat up, Texans should feast. I don't know any other way to say it. This would be a massive, massive disappointment. Losing to Detroit was disappointing because of the fact you had the huge first half lead. Losing to the Jets was super disappointing because of the fact that the Jets suck.

But it was a short week, long time. trip. I can kind of, and you're going to have one of those weeks where you're just, you lost a game you weren't supposed to lose. Losing at Green Bay was not a terrible ordeal, Packers are good. Losing at Minnesota, not a terrible ordeal, they're really, really good. In fact, I probably, if I was to poll Texans fans, they're probably more concerned about the very close games against the second tier teams wins as compared to losing the games I just

brought up, except for the Jets game. Well, I mean, it's, you know, you know how good you are in most of these close games because most of them they've found a way to win. I mean, Indianapolis, twice, that was the case. Buffalo, same deal there. So you've proven that you can win those games. But like, prove that you can get a lead, keep a lead, maybe even add on to said lead, and be able to win a game comfortably. because for the most part, in the year and a half of the Domeko Ryan's C.J. Stroud experiment, you haven't really shown that very often. I mean, the only one we can point to this year, again, is the New England game because the Chicago game was closer than it needed to be. Because, again, you were unable to really put together any meaningful offense in the second half of the game.

Johnny, North Houston on 7-90. Go ahead, Johnny. Yeah, man, the Dallas Cowboy game is a big game. We're rivals regardless of what division, each of the team. teams are in because it's Dallas Houston. That's all that matters. We're a rival. We hate Dallas Cowboy fans here because you're always talking about it all year long. And finally we get to beat them.

Today, we will win and put them in their place. I mean, that's what it is. I mean, if you think about it, no one cares about as a Texans fan playing against Jacksonville or the Colts. We prefer their bigger games when we play Dallas or New Orleans, for example,

because we're a rival, as regional rivals that go way back. So that's just my only point on that. It does matter to us, Texan fans. All right. We'll take it at that. Thank you, Johnny. I think you just don't want to lose to a far less superior team.

We're going to come back and hear with the perspective from Dallas next. 128 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, or in my case, Ross 2.0, who's also named Dan Matthews. Connor McGovern behind the glass. As Matt teased in the last segment earlier, Today we had a chance to catch up with Bobby Belt, part of the morning show with RJ Choppy and Sean Sharif up there in DFW on 105, our 105, 3, the fan.

And we started off our conversation with Bobby talking about the predicted excitement for this game. Oh, man, I don't know how much excitement there is, maybe morbid curiosity for a lot of Cowboys fans right now to see just how much further this could go off the rails, just because they have been really struggling. I feel like a lot of people around town right now just, you know, there's a little bit of apathy almost setting in for people and that they feel like this Cowboys team has been such a disappointment after what was a very disappointing offseason. And so I think a lot of people just right now feel like they're just waiting this one out. And so a lot of shoulder shrugging. But I mean, of course, there's always the Dallas-Huston City rivalry that exists. So there's still

some of that for the fans, I think, here in Dallas right now, that they'd like to see this one if they're not going to get any others the rest of the year. They'd like to pick up a victory in this one. If the Texans blow that out tonight, is there any chance Mike McCarthy gets pulled tomorrow? You know, I don't think so. Especially on a short week. They've got two short weeks coming up,

because they've got the Monday game here, then they travel to Washington, and then coming off of the Washington game, they've got the Giants on Thanksgiving. So just from logistically that point, I don't think so. Jerry has been, you know, very, very adamant that he doesn't want to make an in-season coaching change again. He did it with Wade Phillips 15 years ago, roughly, and he doesn't want to do that anymore.

We talked to him, you know, twice a week on our station here in Dallas, and he is, he's just been pretty adamant the entire time about, nope, Mike's here for the rest of the season. We're going to ride with that. And I think he also just views it as where they're at right now, how poorly they're playing. I think he kind of looks at it as, what's the point? Am I salvaging a season for a playoff run? Probably not. So let's just ride this thing out, not, you know, rock the boat too much. And then let's head into January and figure out who our head coach is going to be for the next few years.

Bobby, it seems like there was kind of a little bit of a disconnect in terms of messaging before the season even began, where Jerry is throwing out the whole, we're all in. And then they make little to no moves this offseason to try to improve this roster. Was that more of Jerry just continuing to be marketer? Carnival Barker, Jerry, in terms of, hey, we're still competitive and really just kind of trying to talk himself into believing something that's just not true? I think, so he will tell you, I don't know how realistic this is when you listen to the context of the quote, but he tells you and seems to genuinely believe that what his statement was about was about, I'm all in in terms of on this core, this core that we have here and we're making investments and we're working to extend CD Lam or we're working to extend DACA,

or we're working to extend Dak Prescott, and I'm All In on, hey, this is the year where we need to make some determinations about Mike McCarthy's future. And so to him, he says that All In is not a, ooh, chips to the table. Let's really throw some capital at outside free agents and make trades and things like that. He has said that that's what he meant by All In.

Now, the Carnival Barker aspect of that is the fact that he just about every single week since the summer has used the phrase All In, and it feels very intentional and very purposeful when he's doing it. So that's sort of rubbing it in a little bit, I think at times to the media and the fan base by continuing to repeat that over and over again, that's probably more the media master,

the carnival barker, like you said. But I think his initial comment was he has always maintained that what he was talking about was being all in on investing in the current core that had contracts that were coming up. And I mean, you know, this was a team that last year won 12 games. And I understand, like I said, they didn't make very many roster improvements, either free agency trade anywhere else. But Bobby, I mean, they won 12 games last year.

Like, how does this thing fall off the tracks this quickly? Like, how do you get to this point? You know, it's a question that I think everybody's kind of trying to evaluate and figure out, okay, where have things fallen off? Why did this take such a sharp nose dive? I think first off, the Packers playoff game exposed a lot of. flaws with this team. And I think people felt like, wow, this is a warning signal about where this football team is heading and they need to make some adjustments and they need to make some acquisitions.

They didn't do that. So they sort of ignored the warning signs that seem to be on the table. Then the other aspect of that is I still say that when they are completely healthy, guy one through 22, they're 11 starters on both sides of the ball. They're still a really, they're a good team. They're a really good team with those starters when everybody's healthy. problem is that you had your depth absolutely decimated this off season by free agent signings and everything else you didn't do anything to add to that so guy 23 through 53 on the roster might be one of the five to 10 worst teams in football and because of that as soon as injuries hit you start seeing that depth really get exposed and even when they're healthy there's two rookie offensive

linemen at arguably the two most important positions on the offensive line at center and left tackle and both of those guys are playing new positions there this year. The left tackle was Tyler Guyton, who was a right tackle at Oklahoma and their center, Cooper Veevi had played guard at Kansas State. And so it was something where he's having to make a position shift. They've been

growing pains with that. So it kind of all comes together to create the perfect storm for this team that has led to them looking as poor as they have absent just the injuries. Bobby Belt 105 3 with us here from the fan in Dallas on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

So, Bobby, area of strength right now, or is this the number of losses and the big time losses really just covered up every problem that the team has had so far? Yeah, I mean, there's not right now where the team is at with their injury situation and everything else. You know, Michael Parsons is back. He's obviously a really good player. They really love DeMarvie and Overshone, the linebacker from Texas, who missed his entire rookie year last year by tearing his knee. And he's come back this year. He's played really well at times. And he's been one of the guys most invested in the idea of this rivalry tonight between Dallas and Houston.

That he's really leaned into that talking to the media about how, hey, no, we want to represent for Dallas and we want to, you know, win for our city. And we need to, you know, they may be the up-and-comers, but the Cowboys are still the Cowboys. And we need to, you know, remind them who's big brother here. And so, you know, overshone is a guy who I think a lot of people like his play style, the aggressiveness, the ability. and sort of the, you know, the leadership and the traits that he's shown and some of the confidence and the personality. So I think the big highlight for them right now is what they're getting from Parsons and overshone and the way they can kind of alternate them as rushers and linebacker play. But other than that, our kicker maybe, he's pretty good.

And I'd say the kicker and the linebacker defensive end combination, that's about where the extent of it goes, which I guess if you saw kicking over the weekend in the NFL, then that's not necessarily the worst thing to have good confidence in. But, yeah, this is just flat out right now. This is a really bad football team. There's probably two teams in the NFL right now that I would say confidently, I feel like Dallas could beat. So Micah Parsons' comments from last week, were they genuine,

or were they just off the cuff? I know he had to backtrack a little bit. What were your take on his comments about the coaching staff and the organization as a whole? Yeah, I didn't have a problem with what he said initially. when he first led up to it and he had talked about, you know, when he said that Mike McCarthy can go wherever he wants. I thought that was taking a little out of context.

What he was trying to say there was, if this ends for Mike, Mike will have further opportunity and this won't be the end, whereas some of these guys, some of these other guys that he plays with, that Michael Parsons plays with, you know, Zach Martin, DeMarcus, Lawrence, Brandon Cooks,

this could be the end of either their careers or their time in Dallas. And that was something that I think he was talking about more. The problem was when he comes on the back end of, that and says, you know, he's talking about Mike McCarthy. He says, guys like Zach Martin who put in more time and work than Mike McCarthy ever did. That's a slip of the tongue at best. And at worst, that is a straight calling out of your coach's work ethic. But Michael Parsons has said that he felt like he was taken out of context.

That's not what he meant. I agree the first part of it was definitely not his intent. So I'm willing to at least give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a poorly worded, you know, finish to that statement. But there's definitely going to be questions about Mike McCarthy and how bought in these players are, knowing that he's, you know, a lame duck coach essentially. And you're starting to see potentially some of those cracks. And Houston might, you know, kick a few more in there tonight. Bobby, I'm assuming you're going to be in the building tonight. What are you expecting that building to look like? It's funny. We're talking about that this

boarding on the show. I'm guessing 30, 40 percent Texans fans probably. I mean, they've had, They've had some issues recently kind of holding their territory down. There was a lot of Philadelphia fans recently. There was a lot of Detroit fans up their last game. Baltimore came in, had a bunch of representation. So some of this apathy that's set in, some of the willingness to, you know, resell tickets on the open market. I know last week I had, you know, a couple different listeners who told me,

we've got tickets for the game. We're trying to sell them. We couldn't get anybody to buy them on the secondary market. We just had to give them away to friends, and we were selling them for face value. And so that's kind of where everybody is. Everybody's kind of frustrated with where this was, given how things ended last year, the lack of response in the off season, and then, you know, what's occurred this season, it just feels like there's a big heavy sigh and shoulder shrug.

Go all the way back to Oxnard and Cowboys Training Camp. That was as empty of attendance as we've ever seen in Oxnard, California for Cowboys Camp. And so I wouldn't be surprised if on minimum we're looking at 30% Texas fans tonight and it may be more. All right. There again is Bobby Belt from 105, 3, the fan in Dallas. We appreciate it getting his perspective earlier today on the show, getting you ready for tonight's game.

720, it will be the kickoff between the Cowboys and the Texans, Rockets, and the Bucks at 7. So you should have two televisions and one radio to listen to me, hopefully, tonight on Sports Talk 790. Let's play, believe it or not. It is highly Googledable. It is about stadium name changes. So if you want to play,

Believe it or not, for a chance to win some Cougar Baylor tickets or a 790 t-shirt. And, oh, Lewis Black tickets. Am I right about that? I'm making that up. Correct. All right, Lewis Black. So a lot of nice prizes to play for him, believe or not. Come in and join us.

7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Believe it or not is next 143 on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Rockets and Astros play. And real Texans talk. Final score tonight, Dan Matthews, will be the Texans 30,

Cowboys 16. I'm going to go Texans 34, Cowboys 10. Ooh. So we're not going to stick around for Scott Van Pelt's post-game show. I mean, I'll come back for bad beats, of course, after I finish Rockets' wrap. All right.

Rockets and Bucks tonight. We'll have it for you here on 790. So you've got your sports plate full. Two games on TV, one on radio. Nothing good on TV besides sports, right, tonight? This is not a good TV night, is it? No, yeah, this is a sports night, especially around these parts. No Bob Hart's Abashola on CBS tonight.

None of that stuff? You know, I haven't watched a network, like, series and forever. The only time we ever do is, you know, you know, stream, like, law and order SVU or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, like I could not tell you any of the shows right now.

I'm trying to think of I can name a network television show. Like, there's a new female Matlock that I see commercials for all the time. You know, Kathy Bates. Kathy Bates. American Idol's still around, and so is Survivor, and so is Big Brother.

But, like a sitcom, like in the 70s and 80s, not even the 90s for that matter growing up you had one sitcom after the other is there a 30-minute sitcom today that we watch collectively as a society not maybe not you per se but generally speaking is there like a really popular 30-minute show i can't think of any i mean two and a half men's not around anymore um i met your mother big bang theory yeah i don't yeah those aren't around anymore modern family's not around no the office isn't around So, no. I mean, it's the only thing I know about with NBC is Chicago Wednesdays

with Med, FD, and PD. All right, I got 20 seconds before we play What is the funniest show on television right this second that's currently running? I need one. It's always sunny in Philadelphia. Yeah, I know that Ross been talking about that for a long time. It's great show.

By the way, happy birthday to Danny DeVito, 80 years young today. Oh, good for him. In the last couple days. I think. Well, now he's, in addition to that, selling us sandwiches, too. Seriously, enough about the damn sandwiches. Well, I mean, the place that he

pumps the sandwiches for, I'm a big fan of. Yeah, I'm good. But I don't ever, like, go, hey, everybody, let's take the family out to dinner. Where do you want to go? Let's go to Remy Rons. Actually, he does, that's named after a state

and a guy's first name. Oh, Mersey Bubbs. Mm-hmm. See, I got that all goofed up. Not bad. Fersy mics. Mersy Mikes. Five minutes.

I have to call this show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest-growing sports radio game show. We simply call it Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Today's edition of Believe or Not is brought to you by our friends at Underdog Fantasy. Go to underdog fantasy, underdog fantasy.com. Use a promo code SportsMT to get a deposit match at SportsMT. Mix your rockets and mix your Texan stat knowledge in to make some cash. An underdog fantasy, promo code SportsMT for a free pick and a deposit match. Category today is, I'm going to give you a name of a stadium that was once one name and now another one. If I'm telling you the truth and the stadium conversion names are right, you'll say this.

Believe it. If I give you a stadium name and I give you a round, wrong stadium name of the second go-around, you'll say this. Two believe it or nots in a row, win your prize. What are we playing for today, Connor? A pair of tickets to see the U of H. Cougars take on the Baylor Bears this Saturday, November 23rd at TD ECU Stadium. A pair of tickets to see comedian Lewis Black this Friday, November 22nd at 713 Music Hall

and some 790 t-shirts. Matt on 790, Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Matt, the Steelers Stadium went from Heinz Field to PNC Field. Believe it or not. Not. That's right. It's Accresure Stadium.

Statement number two for the win. The Pacers Arena went from Conceco Fieldhouse to the D.HL Fieldhouse. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, Cambridge Fieldhouse. Duh. I don't know your Pacers are so many names. Brian on 790.

Brian, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The Hornets Arena went from the Time Warner Arena to the Bojangle. Center. Believe it or not. Not. That's right. Centrum Center. Statement number two for the win. The heat arena went from the American Airlines Arena to the KS. Center.

Believe it or not? Believe it. That's right. Congratulations. Nicely done. Sam on 790 Sam. What was your fair part of today's radio show? The interview with the Dallas Sportscaster. All right. Very good. I'll take that. It happened 10 minutes ago, but that's fine.

the Suns Arena went from America West to U.S. Airways to Talking Stick Arena to Footprint Center. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's right. Statement number two for the win. The Red Stadium went from Great American Ballpark to Kroger Field. Believe it or not? Believe it.

No, it's still Great American. Sorry. I didn't mean to fool you that, but I did. Joe on 790. Joe, you're ready to play, Believe it or not? Believe it Guardian Stadium went from Progressive Field to Procter and Gamberfield

Gamble Field, believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's still progressive. Thanks for playing. Matt on Seven Ony, Matt, your favorite part of today's radio show? When y'all interviewed the Dallas Cowboys announcer? Of course it was. Seahawks Stadium went from CenturyLink Field to Lumen Field.

Believe it or not? Not. It is. How do y'all know these stadium names? Dan, these stadium sponsors are not getting any good run here. I was going to say either that or the nice little trick question there with Great American Ballpark was a tripping point. It was. Matt on 790, Matt, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Buccaneers Stadium went from Raymond James Stadium to win Dixie Field. Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, it's still Raymond James. Statement number two for the win. Tau's Arena, the jazz, went from the Delta Center to Energy Solutions Arena, to Vivin Arena, back to Delta Center. Believe it or not. Believe it.

There you go. Nicely done. We got two winners today. All right. Tomorrow, the show will be about the Texans at least 13-point win. Tomorrow will be about the Rockets at least one point win over the bucks. We'll have gut feelings to get to. And just a lot of energy and positivity because the two Houston teams are going to.

going to win their respective games. Up next, it is Adam Clinton. It is Adam Lux, so we're going to entertain the heck out of you between now and 6 o'clock tonight. We call them the team. Thanks to Dan Matthews for filling in. He'll be with me in tomorrow as well. 10 o'clock until 2 right here on Sports Talk 790.