The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Chiefs To Exploit Texans Who 'Haven't Performed Well Against The Blitz'

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

The Houston Texans will look to take down the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday in an NFL Divisional Round matchup. The Texans are coming off a 32-12 win over the Los Angeles Chargers during Wild Card weekend, while the Chiefs emerge from a first-round bye following a 15-2 season. Many starters on both sides of the ball for the Chiefs have not played since their Christmas Day matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers, giving them plenty of time for recovery. "I think you'll see a different Travis Kelce," Sam McDowell, sports columnist for The Kansas City Star, said. Defensive tackle Chris Jones also benefited from rest and returned to practice as a full participant Tuesday after suffering a strained calf against the Texans in Week 16. However, with multiple weeks off and the Chiefs' 15-game winning streak in games decided by one score or less this season, the Texans hope to complete the upset and advance to the franchise's first AFC Championship. "I definitely think the Chiefs are susceptible," McDowell said. The Texans' offense had one of their best performances of the season in the win over the Chargers but will have to overcome protection issues against Steve Spagnuolo's strong defense to earn a victory in Kansas City. "They haven't performed well against the blitz all season," McDowell said.

We say hello to Sam McDowell, who is the columnist for the Kansas City Star with us here on Sports Talk 7A. Sam, it's Matt and Ross. Thank you for joining us. First question out of the get-go, I guess we're all trying to count the number of days since the last time the starters played for the Chiefs. Are you worried about this supposed 24-25-day layoff, or is this just a storyline that people are trying to figure out how to make a time before the game coming up on Saturday? No, I mean, it's a great question, man. I mean, I think that at some point there is too long of a layoff, right? I mean, you couldn't take two months off and expect the guys to be fresh.

So there is a point where it becomes too much. I mean, but over Andy Reid's history, and this is what would have guided my decision, had I been Andy Reid, he performs extremely well when his guys get time off. And it's even better when he's the only team with time off. So over his career, Andy Reid is 29 and 3 when he's the only team operating with a by week. Now, obviously, this is two buy weeks, essentially, when you give the starters week 18 off, and then they have the natural buy in the playoffs that they're in with the number one seed. And so that's where the equation potentially becomes a little different.

But the Chiefs did switch up practices a little bit. They actually played ones against ones, which they had not done since training camps. So there's some, you know, at least attempt to try and replicate what the speed of a playoff game will be like. But, yeah, I mean, I think regardless of what happens in this game, people will use it. as a sample for whether or not it worked, even if maybe the correlation doesn't necessarily equal the causation of the result. Among players, skill position players that we know and recognize, who was beat up during this time off and who was getting the most recovery?

And again, the number one question would be is how is Pat feeling going into this game? I'm sure practices have been light and they'll start to ramp up the last couple of days. Yeah, I mean, Patrick's ankle was obviously an issue earlier in the season, and actually, you know, kind of late in the season, but he's fine. I mean, he looks fine at practice. The guys that I think really benefit from this are, one, Chris Jones missed the last two games. Now, the last game of the season against the Texas. Now, against the Steelers, sorry, versus the, and then against the Broncos.

Now, part of the reason he missed the Broncos is just because that game didn't mean anything. I think he would have pushed it had the Chiefs needed him. But certainly that's a guy who can take advantage of a buy. But the other guy who hasn't been heard that can take advantage of it, is Travis Kelsey. I mean, it's no secret that Travis Kelsey is on the older side. He's 34 years old. And a year ago, it made

a statement in the locker room when Travis Kelsey voluntarily took the last game off to end his streak of consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, but he looked in an entirely different player once the postseason arrived because of that week off. So I think you'll see a different Travis Kelsey, even if it's more

minimally so than the drastic difference we saw from him in the postseason. I think he's really the guy that they could benefit from, you know, this 24-day layoff that they've got. What about in the backfield, Sam? We saw last year Andy Reid really rely on Isaiah Pacheco to be the bell cow. How do you think things shake out this year as the playoffs coming along for the Chiefs? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we saw a lot of Cream Hunt in the last matchup,

particularly to try and close out that game and prevent the Texans from getting the ball back late in the fourth quarter, and Cream Hunt's going to be part of the game plan. And there's some similarities with the way they run, you know, as far as they both, don't shy away from contact, but I think that's deceptive because I do think they are different runners. You know, Cream Hunt is a guy that does not get explosive runs, but he does not lose yardage. You know, he tends to fall forward. When you look at success rate and rushing in terms of getting four yards on first down and getting, you know, two-thirds the way there on second down, cream hunt has a very high success rate, even though his yards per carry isn't great.

Well, that's a product of the fact that he does not lose yardage. And I think when you're playing against a team like the Texans that has the third best run defense in terms of DVOA in the league, I think that's a really important thing to have. So I anticipate that Cream Hunt's going to be every bit as part of this game plan as I say at Pacheco will. Sam McDowell with us here on Sports Talk 790. Let's just flip to the defensive side and how it fits against Houston as far as what do you think you saw in the first matchup and the Texans whose offense has been really bad all season long. is coming off literally their best performance of the year. Saw a lot of blitzing. And if you know Steve Spagnola well,

the Chiefs defensive coordinator, that's not going to change. And particularly in this matchup, I mean, as you mentioned, the Texan's offense hasn't been great this year. Well, the primary reason hasn't been great is because they haven't been able to protect for C.J. Strout, and he's not performed well when he faces extra rushers. And that's not all on him.

It's the fact that they haven't picked up blitz as well, but I think some of that, you know, I'm sure that the tech. Texans coaches diagnosed it in the off season. They're probably going to try and educate him better on how to get his linemen better situated for blitzes and oncoming extra rushers. But the fact is right now in the playoffs, they haven't performed well against the blitz all season. And that's a matchup that I certainly anticipate that the Chiefs will try to exploit regularly. Sam, I want to ask you about, and we had a guest down from Kansas City earlier this year when the two teams met during the regular season.

A lot of close games, a lot of fortuitous bounces, the field goal blocked, the field goal made, the call made late. Your interpretation of that as slippage or just creative veteran teams finding a different way to win every single week? How did you see it as the team was not putting away teams like many folks thought are on the league they should have? Yeah, well, I think it can be both. You know, I don't think that this team, you know, the starters went 15 and 1. I don't think this was the quality of a 15 and one team. But I do think that there's something to the fact that they don't blink in the moment. And you mentioned a couple of the examples.

They won six games on the final snap of a game this year. And that does not include the game that I'm sure a lot of people watched against the Raiders on Black Friday, where it was technically the second to last snap that the Raiders fumbled and then they knelt it on the last snap. That's seven of those 15 wins that they've got this year. So I think, you know, it's totally reasonable. a lot of people are looking at this Chiefs team is more vulnerable than they have been in the past because they have been vulnerable.

Some of those games that I'm talking about came against the Panthers. They came against the Raiders. I mean, they came in overtime. And so they came against a non-playoff Bengals team before the Bengals had figured it out late in the season. So, yeah, I definitely think that the Chiefs are susceptible. I mean, they've

proven that they've at least can make it a game with anybody. And the Texans are certainly not just anybody. They're a playoff team. They're a division champion. There's a reason that they're here. They've got a terrific defense. So I know the line is what it is. The spread is what it is. But it would not surprise me at all if the Texans could, you know, be very competitive with the Chiefs and make it interesting in the fourth quarter because I've seen that all year.

Final question. Is there anybody that you have spent time looking at this year that needs to have a better postseason than they had during the regular season? I know you brought up Travis and, you know, age is maybe starting to work off him a little bit. But is there anybody else that you like, you know what? If this team is really going to three-peat, these players have got to. got to step up and maybe do more than what they did. Maybe you saw them during the course of the 17-game schedule. Yeah, sure.

So it's kind of a TBD answer because my answer is the left tackle. And I'm not exactly sure who's going to play left tackle. I think it'll be the matchup that the Texans saw last time they played at Arrowhead, you know, last month, which is having Joe Tunney and all-pro guard play tackle, in which case your guard replacement for him, Mike Calliendo, has got to step up because he did not play well against the Texans. and the Texans have a terrific front. And so they've got to protect Patrick Mahomes better than they did in that first matchup.

Now, the other option that they have, and the reason I said it's uncertain who's going to play left tackles because they signed DJ Humphreys late in the season after he'd been recovering from a knee injury. He played three quarters against the chargers, and then he got hurt, then he missed three weeks, and then he played the finale against the Broncos while all the rest of the starters set as they're trying to evaluate him and he's not playing with Patrick Mahomes, but he's still playing for a starting job. So Andy Reid has been coy so far this week on who's going to have that starting job at left tackle. But however that shakes out, it's going to shake up the left side of their offensive line.

And you guys know better than I do the way the Texans can get after the passers. So that's absolutely going to be key, not just against the Texans, but whoever the Chiefs play in the postseason. Sam McDowell is a columnist with a Kansas City Star worthy of a read this weekend. If you want to get an out-of-town perspective on this game, Are we holding it 25 degrees for kickoff? Is that seem about right on Saturday? Yeah, it seems warm compared to last year, because last year about this time, it was like negative five.

So we'll take the 20s. Goodness gracious. Thank you, friend, for the time. We really appreciate it. Looking forward to reading your work over the weekend, and stay warm. We really appreciate you joining us on the show today. Thanks, guys.

Enjoyed it. All right. Sam McDowell joining us from the Kansas City Star. He is a columnist.