The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Grumpy Bill, Will UH Ever Play & Dusty Baker

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

So much larger than life. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-1 in H-Town. What's happening in Lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. I'm Matt with Ross and with Brendan, and it's nice to have you guys here. The Astros actually did something off. Offensively yesterday.

Oh, not one, but two home runs in the game. They're allowed to do that? Well, there ain't been much of that the last 30 days. With their presumed playoff lineup for the majority of that in the last several days. With one of their playoff starters in Frommbergaldives. Yes. If there is an astonishing, there are two astonishing things about the Astro season. One is that Kyle Tucker is leading the team in RBIs.

Well, there's actually three things. Kyle Tucker leading the team in RBIs, that Framber Valdez, who made coffee nervous a year ago, Rossi, has become a very, very reputable starter for this team. And then the increased drop-off of Jose Altova, whose OPS is now under 600. What? I said my gut feeling he was going to hit over 300 this week.

How did yesterday start off? Is everything okay? Speaking of gut feelings. Three or five? Your gut feeling that didn't work very well yesterday. There's still time. Your was, Brandon, yours was just a crazy one about the sweep. I mean, I go with it.

Now, the Nuggets did win yesterday. Yes. So there will be at least, I have the Lakers in five, so it is what it is. The Lakers got down huge and they rallied back. I thought when they rallied back, I was like, this is it. They're going to win this game, go up 3-0, and put this away. Well, I think you were just being a little hopeful. Probably.

Now, one of the big highlights that the NBA Twitter account put it was a Nikola-Yokic spin turn 360 fall away and it was a wonderful play with just one problem he traveled was it a travel he moved his pivot foot

go look at the play on the NBA Twitter card yeah I know because you are you are the travel maister of the Matt Thomas show this is true

I travel all over the 50 United States of ours yeah and I also see I also know what a travel is in the NBA I don't know if you know Matt our caller Stan weighed in

oh wait maybe yeah he's going to weigh in it's a travel How don't you guys Had that ready so fast? It's her travel What do you mean? Oh, is you that had it?

So stupid. This guy's stand, for those of you don't know, called the show what? Two years ago, maybe? I have this in January of 2019. Okay, so yeah, basically two years. And we were talking about Eurostepping. Well, no, he was talking about the step back three.

Oh, that's right. I got the whole call if you want that. It's about a minute. You know what? Why not? Those of you that are always finding yourself saying, what makes the Matt Thomas show so special? It's moments.

And, Brandon, you should listen to this is classic Matt Thomas Midday Radio. We call it great moments of the Matt Thomas show history. This is about again, James and the extra step, supposedly. Yes. Here it is. Let's go to Stan and Cyprus on 7-9 at 1255. Hi, Stan. Hey, how you doing?

Good, Bernie. What's up? Yeah, just about Hardin. You know, obviously, Curry's a favorite. and Rose is a still good story, you know, so he's getting the vote. Those are all fan votes. But from a guy, you know, I'm 50. I hooped all my life, grew up in it.

Watching James Harden play is painful, and he's painful to all my hooping buddies. We're old school, man. Number one, he's huge. He's massive. Sorry about that. He's massive, but he plays like he's 5-11. He's flopped around like a little Euro soccer player. and that step back that they love the fans of Houston Rockets love that step back it's a travel period

it's not a travel no it's not a trap no Stan Stan Stan I'm gonna be calm about this Stan he does it he's done by you're an idiot it's a travel has Stan called since then I don't know he seemed like he's Stan had something going on man he was not happy if Stan is out there Stan's wife is cheating on or something. He did not seem like things are going like... Maybe he knew about the COVID way back then. I don't know, but... But it's... Stan, if you're out there,

you can call us back. We can be calm and civil about... No. I like how you say, I'm going to be calm about this. Like, you're trying to calm him down because you can tell he's hitting his boiling points. Me and all my hooping buddies. We're old school. He's 50. Yeah.

See, Brendan, that's what you're going to work with the next handful of years. People like that. I was so excited to listen to that, and it paid off entirely. It did. It did. All right. So on the show today, Dusty Baker is going to join us at 1245. The Dusty Baker?

The Dusty Baker. Wonderful. Joe Clyde joins us at 1.30 this afternoon. Wow. We'll talk about how fun his trip was to Waco for how many hours it was. Did he go? Yeah. I mean, they get there the day before the game.

Yeah, we found out about it, what, around 1 o'clock or something like that? Yes, I was really. I'm still pissed about it. about it. You struck a nerd already. I can tell. I knew you were really upset when it happened. Yeah.

And then now I've come to find out that maybe they weren't ready to play. Hmm. Okay. It's incredible how 10 offensive linemen can't go. And you don't find out about this until, you know, the day before the game. 10. 10. At least.

Maybe even more. Sounds a little fishy. Okay. And then Mack Road yesterday, Athletic Director, who I was, like Mac a lot. He called Chris Pezma to admonish Dana for saying what he said. What exactly did Dana say? Dana's like, yeah, we were there.

We were ready to go. How do you do that? How do you call a game off one day before this knowing that you've got one position group that's unavailable? It's pretty weak sauce. Yeah. And Dana basically said as much. And Matt Rhodes didn't like that.

And thus he called Pez and said, tell your coach to be nice. Now they got beef. So I, you know what, I don't even know if the Baylor-Huston series is going to go on. Because the original thing when they were going to sign the, when they signed the deal was, we play this game last Saturday, and we're going to add two more games of the series.

Home and home, yeah. Well, when the announcement was made that the game had been postponed, they had said, well, we'll still keep the Baylor-H-H-Stars series. It's frankly good for both schools. But now maybe-Belah gets a nice cupcake, and then U.S. can get on a national television game or something. No, Baylor would get a cupcake when they face Texas on a regular basis. they play Houston, they get to amp up their non-conference slate,

and it would help them in a potential national championship brand. Oh, was that record last year? Yeah. Huge, uh, seven, five, eight and four somewhere in that range. Point being is this, I don't even know if that's going to happen now, because everybody's just going to mad at each other. By the way, did you see Deerick King? No.

He's playing really well for the Miami Hurricanes. Yeah, but he, who are they playing? Like Florida International or something? Uh, they played a conference game last week, didn't they? Okay. Yeah, Derrick King. Yeah, Louisville. Yeah, but Louisville's barely division one now.

Once Lamar Jackson left, they were barely division one. Deerick King recognized nationally. Deerick King shines in debut. You know what? Kids can move on. Deerick King, Maxwell Award, Player of the Week. Who's Derek King's head coach? Mani Diaz.

Yes, and who have you hated more than life itself the last decade? Mani Diaz. There you go. What does that have to do with anything? He's not a good coach. He's not a good coach. He's just telling you. Then my guess is that...

He felt bass backwards into that gig because nobody else wanted it. fall back to the norm and there'll be a 7 and 5, 6 and 16, despite the fact they live in one of America's most beautiful cities, great campus, beautiful stadium. Derek King reintroduces himself to the nation. Okay, you done? Oh, I was just reading some headlines. Sorry, go ahead.

All right. Joe Clat 1.30. Ross is rotten 5 at 2.30 today. I'm very curious if a certain NFL team that calls NRG Stadium home will be in the rotten 5. you'll have to tune in and then we believe it or not today at 250 we're giving away movie passes and

brand new Heineken non-acoholic beverages Yeah the category is uh who's the guy that died Well there's actually two people that died Uh-oh Gail Sayers passed away Uh-huh The long-term, long-time Chicago Actually not long time but

Very, very successful Chicago running back back in the 60s And then um one half of my favorite all-time tag team In fact Hollywood Hogan No animal from the Road Warriors passed away. Would you like something to kind of fire you guys up on a Monday and on Wednesday here? Not really.

That's too late. I want you to go to the audio and I want you to hear. This is now, unfortunately, Animal and Hawk have now passed. Joe Lorinitis was his name. Joe's son, James, was a longtime NFL linebacker primarily with the St. Louis Rams. Okay. Went to a house that you know who James Lorinus. Joe's his dad.

He passed away at the age of 60. when I was a kid, I used to watch TVS wrestling on Saturday nights. And the Road Warriors were supposed to be bad guys, but Rossi, people loved them so much that they became so bad they became good. Sort of like Steve Austin. You know how people were, yeah. So here's a little sample to get your Wednesday off to a good note, get some of this yucky rain out of the area. This is how the Road Warriors would get you fired up to watch them compete. President in the ring and best president in the gym.

We ain't playing around. We've built our reputation on being a couple of bad apples of Chicago, being the strongest man and professional wrestling. And we ain't going to let you or anybody else trying to ruin our reputation. Tell them, Hawk. Oh, boy. Hey, listen up. There's been a lot of sports writers.

sports centers flapping their yaps about us getting soft. Ah ha ha ha ha is this look soft to you Paul? There's one part of our bodies that's soft and it ain't soft all the time if you catch my meeting. Rick Flair, New York City, Rick Flair, you're gonna find out what hard is. How about? Because of the time I get in the ring with you, Gopi. it's going to be a hard night all night long

and you can forget about your limousines your pretty girls and your diamond rings because they don't mean diddly do squat when I get done with you when I get done with you

speak mode to be closed for repairs yeah we snack on danger and we dine on death RIP R&P, road warriors a lot cocaine in the 80s Well, they were, yeah, especially with hawk. Don't know about animal.

Cause a death by the way, not unknown, but passed away way too young at the age of 60. And Gail Sayers. So it's, you know, things, unfortunately, the kids said things happen in threes, right? That's true. So who's the third? I don't want to presume on what celebrity is going to pass, Matthew. But there are always some candidates. That's quite macabre.

Yeah, it is. But this show is anti-macabre. And it's anti-Dama McNabb. What happened? I don't know, same. Just McCab McCab. Okay. All right.

Anti-McRib as well. Oh, that's a lie. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. The Astros magic number is down to two. Bill O'Brien is grumpy. What? We'll let you hear how grumpy he is at 1230.

And on the radio show today, you can't trust a team doctor, Ross. when it comes to pain-killing injections. The latest example of that also kept a go. I thought Mr. Malpractice, David Chow, was not the Chargers team doctor anymore. That's not nice. At Pro Football Injury, Doctor, whatever the hell is on Twitter. 713-212-5-790.

I'm going to pour one out tonight for the Road Warriors, my all-time favorite tag team, and I'm going to do it with Balconi's distilling. You know, they make some of the best whiskey in the world. It's made grain to glass, and it's made right here. in Texas and Waco. I got to tell you, it is an award-winning spirit. I mean, they have won over 350 awards. I am not kidding you. National and international awards, we're talking about one of the best distilleries in the entire state, and it comes right here from Texas and in Waco. They've

got baby blue, they've got Texas pottesdil bourbon, they have Texas single mults. Again, they're very proud of their Texas heritage. Their employees are all from Texas. A lot of them from Central Texas. And if you're a whiskey or bourbon fan, as you salute the one, the great animal from the Rotor Warriors, you should do it today with a Balcones Distilling product. Distilled to appreciate, remember, stop by your favorite store that sells spirits of your choosing.

Walk in and say, hey, I heard Matt Thomas from 790 talking about one of the best award-winning whiskeys you can find that's Maineco. And they say, yes, I've heard about Balcones Distilling. You should try some today. That's Balcones Distilling. Hey, it's Jeff Blum. Blum fact number 14. I was on the White Sox in 2005.

Yeah, sorry about that sweep, H-Town. But we're all good right now, right? World Series champion. Back to your lunchtime champion, Matt Thomas. 1219, Sports Talk 790. The Astros did do something offensively. I'm kidding you not. Yesterday, Martine Malden, I don't at the plate with two on.

And Maldonado drills this one. Deep to left center field. See you later. Into the Mariners bullpen. A three-run home run for Martin Maldonado. That's how you end in 0 for 19. And the Astros lead is 6 to 1. And that's how it happened.

That's how it ended. Six to one, the final score is the Astros get a victory. Manchin number down to 2. Rossi, I wish that could get people fired up. But frankly, it's a 500 baseball team. It's hard to get fired up over being pedestrian and average. That's what the Astros have been this year. You think it's going to get the people going?

No. Me either. No. But I will say this. This wacky baseball season with the 60 games and playing only a certain number of opponents, I would not be surprised of an 8 beats of 1. Remember, it only takes two out of three. Oh, we're going to see wacky stuff in playoffs.

Even the worst teams in baseball. I mean, perennial, the Baltimore is the Detroit's that lose 100 games a year. they beat the Yankees 2 out of 3. They beat the White Sox, I mean the Red Sox 2 out of 3. There's no reason why anybody that makes the playoffs should be in a position to think that they don't have a chance to win it. Now, the longer these things go, best of five, best to seven, usually the better teams come out of it.

But it's not necessarily true. And so that's why, you know, that's why I'm not in a position to go, well, while again, people aren't overly excited, I think maybe beating the wildcard team. team movement may be, and it either could be the A's or the White Sox, because the A's keep winning and the socks have dropped three straight. The White Sox could drop to three, which means the Astros could take on Dallas Keikle in the first run of the playoffs starting next week.

That would be interesting. White So White Sox hit a bunch of home runs. And they've got good front and pitching. I don't know enough about them, frankly, and we will do a little bit due diligence on them because I've been focusing primarily on the A's. Yeah, we'll get Adam Sanger on. He's, oh, is he our White Sox? He's Mr. White Sox insider? Yes. Southside Insider.

Does he do a show called Windy City Saturdays on the weekends? No, Matt. That's Space City Saturdays with Joe George and Adam Sager. Yeah, that's, um, yeah, so I don't, I don't particularly care. And there's no fans in it. It's not like it's going to be, I mean, it may be a little cooler in, I don't know, the both cities are going to be cooler this time or you would think. It doesn't really matter to me.

There's a part of the Astro fan base that wants this season just done with. I'm not that person. I never, I never want a, a team. team to end no matter how dysfunctional it was. Remember when the Rockets were 41 and 41, and they kind of backed their way to the 8th in the playoffs? There were some people that were like, you know, just lose four straight, get out. Yeah, they were going up against the warrior, the dynasty warriors at the time.

I like playoffs. I just do. Yeah. And so, yeah, they lost in five. They didn't get one victory in the mix. Yeah. Do you remember James Hardin hit a game winner in that game? And everybody thought that Dwight Howard looked like he wanted to go to Cancun.

And he looked like he was upset when they made that shot. Was that the Memorial Day flood game? Perhaps. I get my dates mixed up. I think they're on the road when they won the game. No, I can't remember. Well, whatever. I'm always going to be the belief, get to the playoffs.

Because, again, the Astros' draft position doesn't particularly, doesn't change at all because of what they do or do not do. So just get in and go. I was going to say, the amount of to them draft. Nobody's draft position in Houston is getting altered drastically for the next couple of years. So my philosophy is, go win the games. Yeah, why not? Why not us is what they should be saying?

Best of five percentages go down. best of seven really go down. But even so, you've seen baseball teams. I think baseball's perhaps a little flukier than the other sports. Now, in football, one game, it's one game. Basketball is very rare that you would see. Like Denver was down 3-1 to Utah,

but Denver was a better basketball team. Denver beating the Clippers. The Clippers on paper were a better basketball team, but there was always, in my mind, chemistry issues, and sometimes chemistry issues you don't see on the fan graft, so to speak. And you saw that. Yeah, maybe Lou Williams had magic. City on the mind.

By the way, did you see if you go to Magic City, you can get the Sweet Lou Wings? Yeah. They've named him after him. We talked about that when it happened. That they've actually put his name attached to the wing? Yes. Well, I want a wing flavor. Did you have a concussion that week?

No, I don't remember that. Yeah, there was Lou Williams, it's like Sweet Lou flavored wings or something like this. This was before, this is what it was all happening. He's had wings named after him for a while. Well, Big City, what are you waiting for? For what? I want a wing flavor. What?

Yeah, I deserve one further. After you? Why? I think it's delicious. What is it? Um, I don't know. Because I love garlic palm. I love the cool ranch. I love the sour cream and onion.

But I also like, I mean, yeah, those are all have names. Yeah, I don't think there's a new flavor out there yet. I don't want any of Matt Thomas's sauce. Let me tell you something. You put Matt Thomas's sauce in your wings and you'd be like, damn, give me some more in that sauce. I'm good. No, no, no. I think you should try it.

It's probably, I'd probably be a dry rub. I'm going to go in the laboratory and I'm going to get us, I'm going to get a Matt Thomas wing flavor. Do you think this is marketable to the people? I don't know. It's worth a try. Got to expand the brand, Rossi? That's good. All right. Dusty Baker joining us in 20 minutes here on 790.

Larry and Laporte's on the Matt Thomas show. Larry, how are you? Oh, I'm feeling pretty good. Oh, hold on, hold on. Larry, I know who you are. Larry, I know who this is. All right. Do you see Martin Maldonado hit an outside pitch yesterday? He had an outside pitch, Larry?

Yeah, he could hold class for Al Thuva, Correa, his first at back. They were pitching him outside. The ball he hit was off of the plate. He drove with the left field. Okay, the pitcher knew he couldn't pitch him outside again, so he stuck the time up. He decided to pitch him inside. What did he do? He looked down on the left field, right field line.

In other words, he's taking the pitch and pitch and Redick are trying to hit their pitch. If you can't hit the pitch's pitch, why should he throw you your pitch? They are trying to pull the outside pitch and it ain't happening. Thanks, Larry. Larry, okay, that's fine. Larry's been calling for three years the same material. Well, yeah, he wants the Astros hitting coach job. I guess Larry would think he could walk in and say, I got to figure it out.

Yes. Take the outside pitch and go with it. Over and over and over again. Michael Brantley does that a lot. And yeah, I was going to say Preston Tucker. Kyle Tucker has been doing that as well. You've got to go with the pitch, Matt. You can't pitch with the pitcher's pitch when he's trying to give you the pitcher's pitch.

What? That's what Larry just said. Yeah, that's true. Because if you take what the pitcher's pitch is doing, and then you take that pitch and go to the outside with it, the pitcher's pitchers pitch may not work as much. You want the hit to hitter's pitch while the pitcher's pitch while the pitcher's trying to pitch the pitchers pitch. But as long as the pitch is on the outside, you hit to take the pitch.

That's true. Okay. I think everybody's got it figured out by now. I think so, too. And I get Larry credit. You think you like records his conversation and then just replays it? That sounded like exactly the same call we've been getting for three years. Could you imagine if this show was the same thing every day?

No. Like we spent, we're on the air 15 hours a week. 15 hours a week talking about one thing over and over and over again. The 2020 election? No, that's not going to happen. No, no, no, no, no. I know you love political talk, man. I hate political talk.

Oh. But if we talked, I mean, look, I love me some rockets and astros, but I can't talk 15 hours about the next head coach of the Rockets. I can't talk 15 hours about a baseball team that apathy is kicked in. And I'm not talking 15 hours about a football team. it's 0 and 2 and that there's a decent chance they're going to go 0 and 3 this week when they play a Pittsburgh's dealer defense. It's quite feisty. It's a variety platter on the Matt Thomas show. Yeah, I agree. And that's why I like to join the show because we just don't beat over a dead horse on something. Right? I agree. Okay. Thanks for the phone call, though. But we, I will,

promise you, Larry, we will tell the Astros to take the outside pitch. I don't know if they're going to listen to us, but it's worth it. All right. James Click was on the, uh, Sean Salisbury Show this morning. Real quick, I want you to hear this comment from him, and then we'll comment about that coming back. This is Sean asking James about the future of George Springer. And it's coming up right now. Okay. Take your word for it.

Well, that presumes that we haven't already approached the Springer situation. Have you? Have you? Look, George is, we're not going to get into whether or not we're having conversations with these guys or not. But the point is that it's our job at all times to try to. to put this franchise in a position to be a sustained, successful team. And George has been a huge part of that, his entire career. And obviously, we would love to try to find a way to make that happen going forward.

But at the same time, I think he's earned the right to go out there and see what the free agent market has for him and what it shows and how it values him. So look, we're going to do everything we can, but we have to be responsible about putting the entire team in a position to be, basically. successful going forward. We'll discuss whether or not that's genuine or that's just going to be a courtesy offer to our favorite center fielder. Time is 1229 and it's a Matt Thomas show 713-212-5-790.

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All the chickens play. All in for Houston all day. This is Sports Talk 790. Dusty Baker will join us in about 12 minutes here on the Matt Thomas show from Seattle. Bill O'Brien will never join us here on the Matt Thomas show. I mean, I'd like to have him on, but it's just not going to happen. So we have to play soundbites. Could.

No. He's not coming on. I think it's fired and becomes like a, he writes a book or something. Oh, yeah, for sure. But it won't be as the current Texas coach. No, of course not. All right. You tell me if this is cranky or non-cranky about the team's offensive woes.

Here comes. Yeah, we got a long way to go here. We've got to get going here this week. We've got to score more points than the other team. We've got to get going. So it's not where we want it to be quite obviously. But working hard to get it better. Is he being matter of fact or being a little cranky?

A tiny little tinge cranky. When you be cranky, here's the thing. Why doesn't anybody believe you when I said the first two weeks don't count? Because they do count. They're o' and two. In my mind, they don't count. Okay. In my mind, the Texans are zero and zero.

Why? Because they weren't going to win the first two games. They beat the Chiefs last year. But the Chiefs are better. Way better. Yeah, but you can win a game where the team is better than you? No. the Chargers almost beat the Chiefs.

That's right. But the Chargers... The Patriots are better than the Texas last year. They beat them. Nope. Not in this case. Okay. The Texans were never going to go to Kansas City and win the game.

Now, could they have been competitive? Sure. Could the offensive line have done a better job of protecting Deshawn? Yeah. Did Deshawn not throw interception? Yes. But they weren't going to win the game. You should have mortgaged the money line then.

I... Yeah, but I felt confident they were going to be blots. I should have just taken the points, right? Yeah, or that. But see, the problem is I'm afraid to go to Vegas with that kind of stuff. Because if I send all my money to Vegas and I lose and then you come back in the following Monday as I'm looking for work, you know, like because I got to get another job as a barista because I'm broke. Yeah. You just said you never should have a nice car, Uber XL.

I don't like to drive that much. That's why I think sports Uber has to work. You drive and I'll talk. That's a lot of split fares, Matt. I better get them a chunk of the larger chunk of the change. I'll give you 70%. Okay. Oh, deal. You don't have to talk to them. I'll do all the talking.

I'll get, I'll open the door for them, get their luggage out. I mean, I'll do the heavy lifting on this. All right. So Bill O'Brien is on that. I just don't think this is the week. They're going to get fat and happy against Minnesota. I'm just, I thought I was feeling better about Pittsburgh, but doing a little bit of looking at Steelers, Rossi. As even Bill O'Brien said today in the media,

get together, it's a big, physical, rough want to beat you up type defense. They're basically the road warriors. Hmm. I'm not some of the road warriors. You're saying they're on the road? You're saying they're on Roitz? No, I'm just saying that they're big and physical and tough as compared to other NFL teams that are soft and finesse. They got a lot of face pain on?

Well, that wouldn't be surprised, right? Okay. If I was in the NFL and I was a big mean lineback, I put face bait on. Okay. Do whatever I can to intimidate you? All right, what else is B.O.B. Well, how about the five NFL head coaches were fined for not wearing a mask, including their organization? So $1.7 million dollars last week that,

the NFL made, we're not made because they're going to send it to charity off of coaches not wearing masks. And Bill O'Brien has been wearing his, though. We're doing our best to keep our masks on. I mean, you know, I think that's the key. I mean, nobody wants to get fined. I mean, we're all doing our best. That's what the NFL decided. I'll probably just reserve comment on that. But, you know, relative to the mask and the communication, you know, into the headset and things like that, sometimes your voice is muffled. So, you know, we're just all trying to do our best. And, you know, that's just all I can say to that. Did Bill have coffee today? Because he needs a little energy boost.

He sounds like someone shot his dog. Is everything okay with Bill, yo? Here's the thing. And I, you know I talked about this yesterday. I don't believe these are coaches that are giving a middle finger to the NFL's mass policy. It is a little hypocritical. The players don't have to wear masks, but the coaches do. It's just weird, yeah. But I really, unless you want to call me Mr. Knight, uh, Mr. Naive. Isn't it just they just want to speak and talk and they want to tell their guys what they need to do? And it's harder to do with the mask on.

I think that's what Bill O'Brien was just trying to communicate. It's a little hard to have the mask and try to communicate. I'm with him on this. Because they have to have this big gouty headset so they can get the Bose thing on there so they can make money off of that. If you can get like a little, like you know one of those like a little like a Britney Spears line microphones that goes to your mouth. There's no way to put a corporate logo on there. Yeah, exactly. So you can't do that.

unfortunately. You got to have Bose plastered all over everything for overpriced audio equipment. My guess is that that equipment is work is good, though, because it's so much noise on the ground that sometimes you need a bigger earphone. I would necessarily say, I mean, I'm sure there's financial to it for sure. But I think you do, I think one of those thin ones would probably be hard for you to hear stuff. But regardless of that, they just want to scream and yell at their players. That's what coaches do. It's true. You can't scream and yell with a mask on.

Well, it's like Pete Carroll said, you have to have, you know how they have a sideline coach to keep you on the sideline and so you don't get a flag. Now you've got to have a mask coach to save you 100 Gs. Well today I went to the foot doctor and I had to wear a mask and I had a cup of coffee with me.

Well, I'm drinking the coffee. So basically the mask was at my chin and I was drinking the coffee. Uh-huh. Somebody say something to you? No, but it was just like, that's how you get away with it. If you have a constant cup of coffee in your hand, maybe you get away with it that way. you're drinking coffee while somebody's working on your feet? No, before.

Okay. You don't want to spill it or something. No, I wouldn't think so, no. Yeah. You're spilling on the guy's head while he's working on your foot or something. Right. How the feet doing? Your dog's barking, you all right?

One's painful, really painful. Okay, I'm sorry. I had a call's removed today that it was disgusting. Yeah, you can just go back to wearing socks, Matt. Think that's what it is? Yeah. Okay. Sox were invented for a reason.

Now you got trench foot. That's true. I just let my boat shoes so much. I don't even go on a boat. Put socks on. You know, you can get those no-shows. No-show socks. Oh, I got some of those.

Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. If you're that concerned about the fashion. Because you know, you are the official fashion-eisa of 790, Matthew Thomas. That's true. I am among the more fashion. And by that, I mean your wife because she buys all your shoes and clothes. There goes.

Anything else of Bill O'Brien, we've got to pass it on. Yeah, how about the offensive line? Laramie Tonsel's been decent. Is he going to be cranky? Nick Martin's been pretty good. good and outside of that? Okay, go ahead. You know, look, I think we, I think we've done some decent things.

I mean, you know, again, people look at, you know, quarterback pressures and things like that, quarterback hits. But, you know, a lot of that is, it's not just the lie, you know, everybody's involved in it. So I think that the line will always work hard to improve. You know, I think that they'll get better and better each week and they need to, you know, everybody needs to, everybody's got to improve. But, you know, I think our line will,

continue to work hard and will continue to get better. Man, he just sounds like he's ready for a nap. Did he just pop his annex before this? Well, maybe he's saving his energy for the big tilt in Pittsburgh. Oh, that's what it is. He's up all night watching film. Now, you and I argue about must wins. Oh, boy.

On the Damie need this badly win list, how big of a number is this? This is not a must win. And that's all I'm going to say. They're in all likelihood going to lose. Yeah. They could surprise. One in three would not be a surprise. All right, Dusty Baker joins us from Seattle next after I tell you about TGS Insurance.

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This exclusive Astros segment on Sports Talk 790 is brought to you by Expedity, The Future of Awesome. It's awesome. Dusty Baker is going to join us in a manner of moments. It is the Matt Thomas show. sports talk 70. I'm going to text the person that's supposed to handle that while you go over a couple of things grow quickly, if you don't mind. Sure. How about the phone number? 713, 212, 212, 790. 719. 7.1.3, 212, 790. Dusty Baker coming up in a matter of moments here on the Matt Thomas show. They won yesterday, thanks to hitting a couple of home runs, a huge.

It's weird to say that a late September game against the, well, quite frankly, not very good Seattle Mariners was huge, but it was a huge one. yesterday. Yeah, it's funny because now the magic number to eliminate the Mariners is one. The angels have actually taken over third place in the division. So the magic number is technically two. So they did cut the magic number in half from four to two, but now they've got to watch the angels. The angels will put the San Diego Padres that I believe is what they're playing. So if the Astros win, they'll eliminate Seattle. And then if the Padres beat the Angels, then the Astros will have the second place spot. By the way, you don't celebrate for second place in the American League West.

You start popping champagne. You're all mobbing each other. Certainly not in social distancing times, Matt. Well, that's true. Because people in the past have celebrated wild cards. That's true. Because you're in. There were two wild cards.

And now there are five. The three second place teams. And then the two best records after that. Yeah, I remember people being mad. Remember we would take calls of people being mad when they would celebrate getting into the playoffs and then they would celebrate the ALDS win and they would celebrate the ALCS.

Hey, you gotta wait until you win it all for you celebrate. Was it last year we got a call on that? I think so, yeah. Yeah, it's what you do in the past. It's history. It's tradition. And tradition is that you win a series

because it's so difficult you do celebrate after every one of them. So you go get some champagne in your eye or you wear goggles and make sure you're prepared. Well, here's the thing. We'll never know that anymore because I I don't even think the national TV networks can put cameras in the clubhouse, but that'd be about it. They're not bringing reporters in there.

I thought there was a story. Was it baseball? They're banning champagne celebrations. I think it might have been baseball. Because that would naturally lean towards intimacy in terms of people getting close to each other, hugging and out and whatnot. Yeah, because I'm going to go and pour champagne all over your head, Matt. I've got to be usually within six feet. Yeah. Or I guess I got to shake the bottle up really good and try to get you from six feet away. I like to taste of champagne.

Do you? Yeah. It's okay. But you never had a glass of wine. No, that's not true. I've had a glass of wine. I just don't like wine. I thought you said you've never had a glass of wine.

No. I've had, yeah, I'm not a, I'm not a wine connoisseur, but I do like champagne. Okay. That's a very fancy mad of you.

It is. Well, I think what should happen. I'll have the champagne. You'll have the champagne. You'll have the champagne. Dusty, you guys clinched tonight.

You're going to have a glass of champagne on the flight to Dallas? Well, I'm not a champagne drinker. Oh, okay. Yeah, he gives me a headache. I didn't get those bubbles. You know, I'm more of a wine and a single malt scotch-striker. But, see, I don't think we can have a celebration with liquor tonight.

So I'm not really sure because I was looking at some of the other teams. It was kind of like a ho-hum, you know, like we won. And this team is used to win, and so I really don't know what we're going to do tonight. So I'm just hoping it's not too long because we've got to get on the plan and get to Dallas. And as it is, I think we get there at 3.34 o'clock in the morning. So you land in Arlington tonight. Will you go to bed right away or are you like watch the early morning news and stock reports? No, heck no.

You know, Jim Gillian taught me when I was coming up with the Dodgers. He says, he says, turn, don't turn the TV on. Because you turn the TV on because one night I come in looking like hell the next day, he goes, man, you've been up all night. you've been doing? I said, I was in my room. And he says, hey, uh, you know, did you turn the TV on? And I said, yeah. And he says, he says, don't turn the TV on if you want to go to sleep. So I'll just go to my room, uh, you know, jump in the bed, send for my bags of the mornings and say, I have no trouble going to sleep. I go to sleep as quickly as any man alive. I just have

trouble staying asleep. I'm what you call it, nid sleep insomniac. Well, you got a stressful job. That makes a lot of sense. two. No, no, but that's how I am. That's how I am, period. It has nothing to do with the job. You know, midnight when you get up to, you know, use a bathroom, you know, your mind says, hey, you're up, so you better take some notes. I got some thoughts for you while you're sleeping. All right, so I'm going to give you a few things to think about next week, because I'm hoping that things get taken care of when you guys can relax a little bit in Arlington once this thing gets clinched. How much deep thought have you had about your rotation and will there be a difficult

decision to make, especially in the fact that you guys will not be getting any days off in between series, it sounds like. Well, yeah, you know, we haven't given it deep thought, but I mean, the way Stromi planned it, he planned it, I don't know, a month ago, you know, our rotation, you know, what could be for the playoffs barring injuries. And so this is something that, like I said, we haven't given it deep thought, but, you know, we've, you know, where our rotation is set up now, you know, it's a good chance that's how it's going to be, you know, in the playoffs.

But we just have to determine which people are going to be, you know, which guys are going to be, you know, in the rotation, which guys are going to be in the bullpen, which guys can warm up quickly. These guys have, you know, have a history of possibly being in the bullpen because, you know, we got a whole bullpen for guys that were starters in the minor leagues that are just learning how to warm up and, you know, not over warm up, you know, to be in the bullpen. So, you know, right now we're just concentrating on trying to win this thing today, hopefully. And hopefully that is the case.

Now, you and I will not visit until hopefully deep in the playoff run. So I hate to put the car before the horse here, Skip. But that's what we do here. We do that. You can do that. You can do that. We're not doing it. I know, but let me ask. What do you think it's a manager in terms of preparing for a playoff if you were to play

the A's who you've already seen a boatload of times or maybe the Chicago White Sox? How does the preparation play into that? and how does your team play into that? Well, you know, there's less preparation for us playing Oakland, you know, because we know them, they know us, and we played them a number of times. You know, we haven't played the White Sox last year, and I had played the White Sox probably six or seven years. And so, you know, I try to watch games.

You know, you can't watch all of them. You know, I don't even know all the personnel that they have. I do know that they can hit. I know that they can really hit, and I know that they have a pretty good speed, you know, good pitching style. But, you know, like, you can't prepare for everybody. Yeah.

We'll see. I mean, you know, we'll see when this thing shakes out. You know, we have time to prepare. But again, you know, like I warn everybody, you just, you've got to play the day. You know, you play the day with a big care of business and don't look too far. you know, in front of future else you can't see what's happening today.

All right, well, I won't look ahead anymore. I want to look behind a little bit. No, no, no, no, you guys can go ahead. You can go ahead. Just don't force me to go too fast. Well, I got my one question in. Let's rewind a little bit. Let me give you the three biggest surprises of your season. And then you tell me if I'm missing anything.

Your Framber Valdez has turned out to be a very, very satisfying majorly pitcher to watch. Kyle Tucker has grown up before our eyes after a guy that had kind of been just languishing back and forth about being a AAA Major League player. And then obviously Jose L. 2-Base season is the worst of his professional career. Is there anything else I've missed in terms of absolute surprises in the 2020 season for you? Probably Marlonato's clutch hitting. Oh, yeah. You know, because without Maldena, I mean, this guy, I think he might be second or third on the team in RBI. And I think he has like six home runs. and 24, 25 RBIs, and this is in, you know, third of the season, actually.

And so, yeah, I don't think anybody counted on that, especially when, you know, out of your eighth and ninth hole. You know, I mean, that's huge because he, you know, he, you know, turns a lineup over. And, yeah, I think he's it. And as well as Tucker, but, you know, Tucker's not a surprise because nobody knew what he could do in the first place. I don't think he knew what he could do. You know, I mean, he thought, I mean, everybody thought it. He probably thought it, but until you actually do it, you know, do you start believing it?

And so the sky's the limit, you know, for Tucker. I see why he's the number one draft choice. You know, a lot of these guys I didn't know. You know, I didn't know Framber. You know, only guys I knew were Yulee from watching on TV, and I knew Maldi when he was in, in Milwaukee. I met Carlos Correa. I knew Bramette me's father. I think I met Bregman one time, spoke to out Tuesday a couple of times, never met Springer. So, you know, this is all kind of new for me, but, you know, I'm glad I'm here. You know, I'm happy. Oh, for sure. Last question. You guys are not supposed to come home for a month of everything turns out really, really well. How do the heck do you pack for that?

Well, don't ask me. You know, the problem is, you know, I don't want to get personal, but I was counting on my underwear, and I got like, 16 pair of underwear, you know what I mean? And I was like, well, that's not quite a month. And so, you know, I got a lot more T-shirts than, you know, the underwear, so it's just you don't want to take too many shoes, but you don't want to wear the same shoes every day. You don't want to take, you know, too many pants, outfits, but how are you going to send them to the cleaners? And I don't like sending my stuff to the cleaners in the hotel because I've lost clothes.

You know, they've lost them, and I never got them back. So, you know, this is all new for us. I mean, we're going to have to take some tips from the NBA because NBA did it pretty good. Yeah. Well, you know, I was proud of how the NBA did it and then, you know, baseball has done a good job. I mean, doing an excellent job. It's tough. You know what's tough was really the toughest part of all.

not going to, you know, to eat what you want to eat, where you want to eat. Like last night I didn't like the food that was presented to us, and it had some chili, but they ran out. That's one of my favorites. So last night I ate a combination of a raisin brand and banana and rice chicks for dinner after the game. So I was like, man, I certainly got to get something to eat now. So that's the toughest part, you know, for me. Well, I hope.

Yeah, well, I hope the food improves as the playoffs go. I hope you're on the road a long time. And remember, skip, 16 days can actually be 32 if you turn the end or inside out. So don't worry about, you know, setting that out. Well, that's fine. I mean, maybe I'll have somebody bringing you something. I don't know. But, I mean, we'll just take it a day at a time and, you know, see what we do.

Well, my guess is a week from today. You'll be playing a game during this time slot or close to it. So we hope to catch up with you sometime during the post season, whenever that may be. Congratulations on hopefully securing a spot in the next day or so, getting some guys some rest, and we look forward to seeing what you guys do come October here. Thank you, man.

You got to take care of yourself. That's Dusty Baker with us here on the Matt Thomas show, a man who is, again, he's raising brand. What do you say, raisin brand? Checks mix and bananas. That doesn't sound terrible at all. He gets the job done. I'm a huge cereal guy.

Are you? I can eat cereal for dinner a couple times a week. I think I've had one bowl of cereal in the last five years, if that. We've done a fantasy five on cereals. Yes, you lost. Well, it feels like any time you're doing a fantasy five, you always say you've lost. That's not true. You beat me on Michael Jackson songs.

I got robbed bad on that one. Let's see. I will bring up something. I think cereal is an underrated dinner item. It's not my fault. You lost. That's because all your buddies is told me. Over two thirds of them.

Joel Clatt in one half hour. here on the Matt Tava show. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790 with a message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Would you like to get an auto loan rate that is really low? I'm talking about 36 months at 1.99%. I took advantage of that. Yeah, I'm a member of the Shell FCU and you can be too. If you live, work, conduct business, go to school, anything in Harris County, you can join the Shell FCU family. And you can get a auto loan for a new, used, or already refined vehicle for 1.99% at 36 months. Plus, you get a couple of skip of pays, you get $250 in cash back, and you can defer your payments for three months. In fact, I'm not even making a payment on my son's car until December the 1st. That's why the Shell FCU folks are so easy to work with.

And again, that interest rate is so ridiculously low. 1.99%. All you got to do is go to shellfcccuh.org. Welcome home to Shellfcccc. is the Matt Thomas show. Dusty was quite jovial. He was the anti-Bill O'Brien, Ross. 104 on Sports Talk 790. See, maybe Bill O'Brien came on the show once a week for 10 minutes.

We could make him feel better. Bill O'Brien laughs like twice a year. You usually got to get a Cor's light joke in there or something and then loosen him up. Hey, guys, you know, I don't drink that. I just drink Cori's light. That's why he and I should get along. because we like the cold, crisp, refreshing taste of course,

like everybody should. But yeah, when somebody says I've only got 16 pair of hinderware, the first thing I thought of was you got 32. You got a flip. That's disgusting. It is disgusting, but you do what you do, what you got to do? 16. I mean, that's, how many pair underwear do you own?

Nobody owns 30, right? I would say, and it's not because I'm lazy and don't want to wash them, I would say just over the years, probably 20 pair? 20? Yeah. Because every Christmas, I always get into my stocking, so I can always assume three to four pairs of underwear coming in the stocking. Oh, that's true.

So you've just accrued them over the years. But I've never... Without any major blowouts. Yeah. I'm getting older. It's going to happen. Since you got to look forward to in your 40s and 50s? Not really.

The unexpected blowout. And foot issues. Yeah, that's not good. Although I feel better today. But yeah, I would say, I don't know. I've gone to a store to purchase underwear in forever, unless I've forgotten them when I'm going on the road or something like that. Okay.

But Dusty, yeah, they're not leaving. They're not, because I don't think if they win a series, Ross, they're not going to have a lot of time to go to the next city. I mean, they're not going to have time to go home, bring clothes and then go. They're on the road. Yeah, they can get some money. There's cleaning services. They'll be fine.

Dusty Baker, I'm not sure what he's making as a Houston Astros manager, but he can afford it. Well, I think he's afraid to, they lose stuff. Like, if you go to your local dry cleaner, you know who they are. They've been going there for years. you feel comfortable. You go to a dry cone in a different city,

they may lose it. Well, then go down to Walmart and buy a pack underwear. You can't. Can't leave the hotel? We'll have somebody go down to wall. You know what? You can get it a...

Can you Uber the underwear? Yeah, it's called Uber Connect. So basically they can go get your household goods. Go buy you a while. Yeah, they'll buy you, or you can do favor. I don't know if Postmates does it too. I don't know how nationwide favor is.

It started in Austin. Why didn't we start any of this stuff? Billionaire startup companies? Yeah. We don't know how to coach. That's not a hell so. Once we do, we're going to be great. Once Matt learns how to code, once Matt learns Python and C++, we'll be all over it.

All right. Let's go to the headlines today. Texans on the practice field getting ready for the matchup of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The line still, what, two and a half, three and a half somewhere in that range? The lion? Oh, the line. The line. I thought you like the lions.

I was like, nobody cares about the lions, man. Not one single soul. Why would anybody do that? The Nuggets beat the Lakers last night to make the series one in favor of Los Angeles. Yes. Astros 1. The heater up to 1 on the Celtics. Somebody says it's going to go 7.

It's a gut feeling they had. Well, gut feelings don't always hit. And we've lost two people in the world of sports. Ant Road Warrior Animal passing away at the age of 60. Gail Sayers at the age of 77 passing away. Texan Steelers at 4 right now. It started at 6. It's been getting bet down, Matt.

A lot of people believing in the Texans or maybe not believing in the Steelers. We're going to go to Pittsburgh on Friday for kind of our enemy enemy lines behind enemy lines it feels like to me that they're they want the game to go low scoring they're not explosive offense but ben rotheltsberger has been

healthy ben rafflesberg what does ben rothusberger do better than many of the quarterbacks in the NFL he extends plays just different ways you know where Deshawn is elusive and runs around I think ben rothosberger just gets hit to the midsection

multiple times and they said I'm big than you. Bring me down. You can't. People bounce off of them. I feel like if you were to take a look at the number of passing yards that Ben Rafflesberger has thrown in his life with a defensive lineman wrapping his ankle or knee around him, it's probably in the 5,000 range. It's probably well above average. Yeah. It's well above like, say, Matt Schaubb who would just turtle up and go down. We haven't had that in a long time. I mean, that's for the things that Deshaun has yet to do in his career, he doesn't turtle up. No, he doesn't. And that's why. Sometimes it was detriment. Well, that's why I said, this guy, meaning me, will not be overly critical of get rid of the football because

that's the easy narrative. He should have got rid of it. Well, you just can't tell a guy. It's like telling Usain Bolt to take it easy, to not run as hard as possible. Or George Springer. Well, that actually helps your point a little bit by, because if he goes 100% all the time, he tends to get hurt more often. But in theory, how do you tell Deshauner? Watson, who has been hit, what, 13 times so far in the first two weeks of the season, to take the sack or to get rid of the football. Now, every quarterback has to learn to take a sack. That just comes to the territory.

But how many plays in the last three or four years is Deshaun saved his team's bacon by eluding the sack? He did it even a couple of times in the game against Baltimore on Sunday. He just does it. I'm not going to tell him, you know what, it's better for you this. around to throw that ball away because, man, the magic he can create as long as his receivers get open. The problem was in the first half of the game in the night against the Ravens, Ross, his receivers were not getting open. I don't know if it's because it's the lack of speed. I don't know if it's because the separation was so good and not good between the Ravens defensive backs,

or the greatest insurance policy in the world for a scrambling quarterback wasn't there to catch a pass for him. And that's what DeAndre Hopkins did. Oh, I thought you were going to say Jordan Aikins. Well, I mean, if there's been anybody that's been catching passes from him on a regular basis, it was Will Fuller in week one, and we didn't hear from yesterday on Sunday's game. Yes. So, I don't know. We'll see.

Low scoring seem about right. Or does the Texans play a high scoring game, push the tempo and force the Steelers to get into a 34th, 31 kind of game. The total is 45 right now, which is one of the lower ones on the board. Yeah. That's a fairly low one. Usually the Texans are going to be in the 50s. I watched a little bit of James Connor in the game this weekend that Pittsburgh had, and he looked good. They got a two-headed monster running back as well.

Yeah, Deontay Johnson and Juju Smith-Schuster are going to be tough to contain. I expect them to have some big week. Have a big week. So what is your semi- Friday will make our picks official? But what do you, have you meant, have you had a lean one direction or the other so far? I want a lean Texans. The Texans could lose 21 to 18. It'd be a cover.

That's true. And an under, for those of you counting at home. But nobody wants to worry about whether or not your team covers or not. We just do it for the sake of a Friday argument. Well, the offense hasn't been good, and they're going up against probably the best defense they faced all year. So the best defense they face going against an offensive line who has graded out an F in an F in two weeks. According to who, John McLean? I think anybody that's a logically thinking Texans fan.

Well, Tentil's been pretty good, but everybody else is not so much. I mean, you tell me, can the Texans, is it schematics that's screwing them up on the offensive line? or are they just getting beat up because the talent level just isn't there? I mean, should Zach Fulton have as much trouble as he's had so far? Titus Howard has not played a lot of NFL football. Missed much of the last season with the injury. Yes. It's not like he's a season veteran out there.

Now, the thing that bothered me was that Max Sharping got pulled in a couple of series, yeah. That means something's not going right with him. And this is a guy that played a lot of series last year. This is a guy that got a year of NFL experience under his belt. He got pulled because he wasn't good. And the fact is, I don't want Celio or Senio or whatever. Cetamante doing anything. Rod Johnson scares me.

As he should probably. There's no depth that's just go out there and pray. Well, they can gel together and start playing better, hopefully. Against the best defense he'll have seen in the first three weeks. Just tell me the truth. Can it happen? Ted de truth. Probably not.

No. I'm not going to hold my breath on that. So then why would we predict the Texans to win? I have not predicted them to win. So I'm just saying if the Texans win, how do they do it? My guess is they force turnovers. They've yet to do that yet. Yes, correct.

Short fields, even short fields of good defenses get exposed. If Kiki Kootchee's active, he should hold onto the ball. How about get Wolfler involved? That'd be not. Well, how healthy is he? Well, he was enough. He was getting stretched out the entire time in the second half. Maybe he has he slowed down a bit? Because remember that was how that was how made him so sexy.

He was a he had he catches in the first week. He's doing the first. He's averaging four games. That's a good average. O'Brien says he feels comfortable about where Will Fuller's at. Yeah. Here's O'Brien on Duke Johnson and Will Fuller. I think it's Duke's day to day. I'd say Duke is day to day. Aren't we all day today? Aren't we all? Yes. All right. 113.212-5-790. If you'd like to do, aren't we all day to day to? Aren't we all. Yes. 113 on the Matt Thomas show.

713-212-5-7-90 if you'd like to join our conversation. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. You guys got a gut feel in the Texans game so far? Best defensive little face in the first three weeks. Offensive line's been a train wreck, running game non-existent last week. We'll get to that. And how should the Astros celebrate if they clinch the playoff spot today? 7-13-212-5-7-90 with a message here for bronze roofing.

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is the ball game. Your Astros play exclusively on Sports Talk 790. Flagship station of your Houston Astros. 133, Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show continues. One of my favorite parts of the week as it's been the last handful of years is spending 10 quality minutes with our buddy, Joel Clyde of Fox Sports. Joel, I'm in clinical depression mode right now, my friend. Dude, I can't even tell you how bad I feel for the Houston Cougars football team. Like, I felt sick last week and talked with Dana at length after the cancellation and talked with them at length before the cancellation about how close it teetering on losing,

you know, from a psychological standpoint, the team. You know, and to, they're asking them to do things that are uncommon for college-age kids as far as not socializing and trying to, you know, maintain social distancing and everything like that. And he was so fearful even before the Baylor game, which is one of the reasons why he accepted the game in the first place. He thought they were close to losing the kids, you know, not from a committed to the program standpoint, but just the, what are we doing this for? You're asking them to do things that are completely uncommon. And so now to get this news about the North Texas game, man, I mean, you talk about this is past a punch in the gut. This is just a throat jab of all throat jabs.

Well, unfortunately, it's popping up. Ross just talking about the Tulsa game got canceled. I hate to ask you this, but are you going to be a little leery about jump on a plane and going to Norman this weekend? I mean, do you feel like you've got to call everybody just to make sure it's worthy of you going on a trip again for the second street week? Well, I certainly make my calls, but I also have started preparing for multiple games, which is something totally new to my normal regimen. So I've looked over and made a chart for the Texas Tech, Texas game just in case, you know,

and basically I'm hoping that OU and Kansas State play, although I know that Kansas State is close, that they have struggled with some of their testing and positives. And more than anything, it's the contact tracing. that is, you know, really rearing its ugly head. And I think that the frustration within programs and certainly within the young people is that if you are identified in a contact trace. So let's just say, for example, you know, you and me, and even though we're just over the phone, let's say you test positive. And then you say, well, hey, I spent 10 quality minutes with Joel Klaas. And so they come to me and they say, hey, you're out.

And I'm like, well, I've never tested positive. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, I feel fine. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, let me take another test right now. And I test it. Let's say I test negative. Nope, doesn't matter.

You're still out. Well, let's say a test negative the next day. It doesn't matter. I'm still out up to 14 days. I have to sit out because you said you spent 10 minutes with me, and I can't test my way out of that. You know, when you're trying to explain that to an 18 to 22-year-old who has no symptoms, the person who tested has no symptoms, that begins to be kind of twilight zone type of stuff. And that's what they're struggling with so much.

And I know we're trying to do this out of the abundance of caution. But I think that that policy across some of these universities is just really hindering their ability to compete. So do you feel like, as you look, you primarily have worked with Big 12. You're supposed to do the Baylor game this week. You got a Baylor game. You got Oklahoma this week. is every conference consistent with the contact tracing or is everybody treating it differently? And is that part of the problem?

That is part of the problem. And this goes to the problem with, you know, college football is the only entity out there that doesn't have some sort of overarching governing body and pre-negotiated policy in terms of the procedures of the COVID protocols, you know, like the NFL does or major league baseball, or the NBA or the WNBA or so on and so forth. So just to give an example, I asked Chris Kleinman, the head coach at Kansas State before our first game, I was like, well, so who sets those protocols for you about contact tracing?

He's like, well, we do. And I'm like, whoa, wait, wait, wait. It doesn't come from the Big 12. He says, no, every Big 12 school is different. And I thought to myself, hold on. That means that every individual school across the country is setting its own standard. And that brings into question, Matt, at least in my estimation, are we getting transparency from every single team? You know, I know some we are.

They're canceling their own games, which is hindering their own best interest. But others seem to be playing right through it. And I've heard this from several different people that some of these lower level conferences and their teams are, one, not testing as frequently. And two, they don't have as strict contact tracing rules, which means that they're going out there and playing games that then are hurting the other team as the other team tries to move forward. And I think we're certainly seeing that in the Big 12, which is one of the reasons why I think a lot of people in the Big 12, if they had to do it over again, would have not done conference games or excuse me, non-conference games. I think that the SEC, when it's all said and done, Matt, is going to come out of this looking really smart with the way that they did it. because not playing through the return to campus from normal student population and playing just within your conference,

I think is going to, to some degree, alleviate a lot of the problems that we're seeing in the Big 12. All right, let me ask you this, and I feel like we've been part psychologists on this. If you're Dana, and Dana's, my program is the extreme because we've had one cancellation after the other, there's got to be a hint of, and he even told me this last week, F this. We keep hitting each other. We're tired of hitting each other. We keep getting ready. We keep spending time in the film room. We keep getting ready to get on a bus. Screw this. We'll just try this next year. How does a coach, who is a football coach, not a psychologist, not a de facto dad, although they have to do that. How is Dana and other coaches that have programs being stopped going to keep these young men vested, especially if they've been behaving themselves, like so many of the campuses have so far? Yeah, that's a great question.

and I think that it is a topic that we're going to have to start to address. And that's the fact that we've seen player opt-outs. What happens when a program opt-outs and says this is not worth it for us? That's a great question. And also, let's take it a step further from an individual perspective and talk. What's the minimum level? Like, let's say Houston plays four games. Okay, can everybody redshirt?

Why not? That's the rule. That's the role, right? If I'm a senior, I'm suing somebody. Like, I didn't have a say in the fact that you wanted to move forward with this season, then it didn't really work out. I didn't get the number of games that I really should have gotten. Shouldn't I be eligible next year? Right?

Let's say they play five games, half of what they were intending. Shouldn't I still retain some level of eligibility? and I think that's a question that we're going to have to start posing in particular in a case like Houston. This is five games that they've gotten canceled. What are we doing? Okay, let's get to some football a little bit.

I feel like I'm just making you more angry. Well, you are because, I mean, I have my bag packed. I've been to Waco in a long time. I mean, I heard it's a great place to go hang out. I want to go see him new McLean Cineum. I've known Mack Rhodes and his crew over there for a long time. You know?

The North Texas thing to me, it's just one more thing on the wall. The SEC, how anxious are you to see how LSU comes out of the gate? I've got to be honest, not as anxious as I am to see Alabama play six straight consecutive weeks against league opponents. Okay. You know, I just, I don't know why. I don't believe, I think LSU is going to suffer from maybe the worst national championship hangover that we've seen in a lot. long time. In part because, remember, this was a vastly underachieving program before Joe Burrow and his boys did what they did last year. I think you would agree with that, right? I mean,

they were perpetually 10 and 3. Why can't LSU do? Their recruiting was, I would say, higher than what their results were. So it's a wait and see for me. You know, I don't know if they're a program that can win over different cycles of recruits. So we're going to, we're going to see how that goes with LSU. But for me, in my money, it's like it's the Georgia's of the world that have to play five ranked opponents in a six-week stretch at one point during the season. It's Alabama, who opens with six consecutive weeks against SEC opponents. The last two years, you know, the most consecutive weeks that Nick Saban has had to play SEC opponents, three. So this is such a departure from a difficulty

standpoint in terms of what Alabama's going to have to deal with. That's what I'm more interested in. And they've got a great deep league, I think, as deep or deeper than they've been in a long time. Yeah, I mean, I know Florida's getting a lot of run. It feels like Alabama, obviously, until you beat them, they're not going to get off the top of the ladder either. I'm, I just want to see some football, frankly. I'm looking forward to seeing you, whether you're in Lubbock or whether you're in, I know, what are your possibilities? Norman. Those two, yeah. These are going to be Kansas. Now, I want you to explain to my buddy, Spencer Tillman, if you bump him, and I'm like, come on now.

I mean, he's like, hey, hey, what do I do? I didn't do that wrong. Listen, if there's one thing that I know about COVID, nothing's personal. Yeah. Well, I'm taking this person. I go where I'm told, man. I know. All right, I guarantee you we're going to talk at least four minutes of real football next week, it feels like.

At least four minutes of the conversation. I love it. Matt, always enjoy our conversation. All right, everybody. We'll see you. Joe Clyde. Fox Sports, supposedly on the Kansas State Oklahoma game this week. And hopefully that is the case because my buddy Tim Brando and Spencer Timman will be on the call the Texas Texas Tech matchup.

All right, 143 is the time. 713-212-5-7-90. Is there anybody listening to us right now that as of the belief, and I'm going to presume that you guys are sports fans because you listen to the show, that we should just scrap college football.

Just say this is just not worth it. The postponements, the rearranging the schedules, some teams are playing nine games, some are playing 10, some are playing eight, some are playing a non-conference games. Is there anybody out there that's like, this ain't worth it. Or do you, because sports are that important and sports are cool and sports keeps us thinking

about lighthearted things that you got to fight through it and that because pandemics are not easy to break, you have to keep fighting it. You've got to get back to normalcy. What is your take on this? I'm not endorsing quitting the college football. I'm just telling you I'm an aggravated alum right now. 143 sports talk 790 713 212 5 790 713 212 5 790 coming up at 230 today it's Ross's rotten 5 and believe it or not is at 250 a lot to get to in the next hour and change this is the Matt Thomas show with a message here for oops steam cleaning we've had a lot of rain in the Houston area the last handful of days if any of it got into your carpets and destroyed parts of your home the folks at oops not only will do a great job of cleaning your carpets but they also do a fantastic job of water remediation.

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And that is the ball game. Your Astros play exclusively on Sports Talk 790. Flagship station of your Houston Astros. 133, Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show continues. One of my favorite parts of the week, as it's been the last handful of years, is spending 10 quality minutes with our buddy Joel Clyde-Fox Sports. Joel, I'm in clinical depression mode right now, my friend. Dude, I can't even tell you how bad I feel for the Houston Cougars football team. Like, oh, I felt sick last week.

and talks with Dana at length after the cancellation and talked with them at length before the cancellation about how close it teetering on losing, you know, from a psychological standpoint to team, you know, and to, they're asking them to do things that are uncommon for college age kids as far as not socializing and trying to, you know, maintain social distancing and everything like that. and he was so fearful even before the Baylor game, which is one of the reasons why he accepted the game in the first place, he thought they were close to losing the kids, you know, not from a committed to the program standpoint, but just the, what are we doing this for?

You're asking them to do things that are completely uncommon. And so now to get this news about the North Texas game, man, I mean, you talk about this is past a punch in the gut. This is just a throat jab of all throat jabs. Well, unfortunately, it's popping up. Ross just talking about the Tulsa game got canceled. I hate to ask you this, but are you going to be a little leery about jump on a plane and going to Norman this weekend?

I mean, do you feel like you've got to call everybody just to make sure it's worthy of you going on a trip again for the second street week? Well, I certainly make my calls, but I also have started preparing for multiple games, which is something totally new to my normal regimen. So I've looked over and made a chart for the Texas Tech, Texas game just in case, you know, and basically I'm hoping that oh, you and Kansas State play, although I know that Kansas State is close, that they have struggled with some of their testing and positives. And more than anything, it's the contact tracing that is, that is, you know, really rearing its ugly head. And I think that the frustration within programs and certainly within the young people is that if you are identified, in a contact trace. So let's just say, for example, you know, you and me, and even though we're just over the phone, let's say, let's say you test positive. And then you say, well, hey, I spent 10 quality minutes with Joel Kla. And so they come to me and they say, hey, you're out. And I'm like, well, I've never tested positive. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, I feel fine. Well, yeah, it doesn't matter. Well, let me take another test right now. And I tested, let's say I test negative. Nope, doesn't matter. You're still out. Well, let's say a test negative the next day. It doesn't matter. I'm still out. up to 14 days, I have to sit out because you said you spent 10 minutes with me, and I can't test my way out of that. You know, when you're trying to explain that to an 18 to 22 year old who

has no symptoms, the person who tested has no symptoms, that begins to be kind of twilight zone type of stuff, and that's what they're struggling with so much. And I know we're trying to do this out of the abundance of caution. But I think that that policy across some of these universities is just really hindering their ability to compete. So do you feel like, as you look, you primarily have worked with Big 12. You're supposed to do the Baylor game this week. You got a Baylor game. You got Oklahoma this week.

Is every conference consistent with the contact tracing? Or is everybody treating it differently? And is that part of the problem? That is part of the problem. And this goes to the problem with, you know, college football is the only entity out there that doesn't have some sort of overarching governing body and pre-negotiated policy in terms of the procedures of the COVID protocols, you know, like the NFL does, or Major League Baseball, the NBA, or the WNBA, or so on and so forth. So just to give an example, I asked Chris Klein, the head coach at Kansas State before our first game, I was like, well, so who sets those protocols for? you about contact tracing. He's like, well, we do. And I'm like, whoa, wait, wait, wait. It doesn't come from the Big 12. He says, no, every Big 12 school is different. And I thought to

myself, hold on. That means that every individual school across the country is setting its own standard. And that brings into question, Matt, at least in my estimation, are we getting transparency from every single team? You know, I know some we are. They're canceling their own games, which is hindering their own best interest. But others seem to be playing right through it. And I've heard this from several different people that some of these lower level conferences and their teams are, one, not testing as frequently. And two, they don't have as strict contact tracing rules, which means that they're going

out there and playing games that then are hurting the other team as the other team tries to move forward. And I think we're certainly seeing that in the Big 12, which is one of the reasons. why I think a lot of people in the Big 12, if they had to do it over again, would have not done conference games, or excuse me, non-conference games. I think that the SEC, when it's all said and done, Matt, is going to come out of this looking really smart with the way that they did it. Because not playing through the return to campus from normal student population

and playing just within your conference, I think is going to, to some degree, alleviate a lot of the problems that we're seeing in the Big 12. All right, let me ask you this, and I feel like we've been part psychologists on this. If you're Dana, and Dana's, my program is the extreme because we've had one cancellation after the other. There's got to be a hint of, and he even told me this last week, F this. We keep hitting each other. We're tired of hitting each other. We keep getting ready.

We keep spending time in the film room. We keep getting ready to get on a bus. Screw this. We'll just try this next year. How does a coach, who is a football coach, not a psychologist, not a psychologist, not a de facto dad, although they have to do that. How is Dana and other coaches that have programs being stopped going to keep these young men vested,

especially if they've been behaving themselves, like so many the campuses have so far? Yeah, that's a great question, and I think that it is a topic that we're going to have to start to address. And that's the fact that, you know, we've seen player opt-outs. What happens when a program opt-outs and says, this is not worth it? for us.

That's a great question. And also, let's take it a step further from an individual perspective and talk. What's the minimum level? Like, let's say Houston plays four games. Okay. Can everybody redshirt? Why not? That's the rule.

That's the rule, right? If I'm a senior, I'm suing somebody. Like, I didn't have a say in the fact that you wanted to move forward with this season. then it didn't really work out. I didn't get the number of games that I really should have gotten. Shouldn't I be eligible next year? Right? Let's say they play five games, half of what they were intending.

Shouldn't I still retain some level of eligibility? And I think that's a question that we're going to have to start posing. In particular, in a case like Houston, this is five games that they've gotten canceled. What are we doing? Okay. Let's get to some football a little bit. I feel like I'm just making you more angry. Well, you are because, I mean, I have my bag packed.

I've been to Waco in a long time. I mean, I heard it's a great place to go hang out. I want to go see him new McLean Cineum. I've known Mack Rhodes and his crew over there for a long time. You know, the North Texas thing to me, you know, it's just one more thing on the wall. The SEC, how anxious are you to see how LSU comes out of the gate? I got to be honest, not as anxious as I am. to see Alabama play six straight consecutive weeks against league opponents.

Okay. You know, I just, I don't know why. I just, I don't believe, I think LSU is going to suffer from maybe the, the worst national championship hangover that we've seen in a long time. In part because, remember, this was a vastly underachieving program before Joe Burrow and his boys did what they did last year. I think you would agree with that, right? I mean, they were perpetually 10 and 3.

Why can't LSU do? Their recruiting was, I would say, higher than what their results were. So it's a wait and see for me. I don't know if they're a program that can win over different cycles of recruits. So we're going to see how that goes with LSU. But for me, in my money, it's like it's the Georgia's of the world that have to play five ranked opponents in a six-week stretch at one point during the season. it's Alabama, who opens with six consecutive weeks against SEC opponents. The last two years, you know, the most consecutive weeks that Nick Saban has had to play SEC opponents, three.

So this is such a departure from a difficulty standpoint in terms of what Alabama's going to have to deal with. That's what I'm more interested in. And they've got a great deep league, I think, as deep or deeper than they've been in a long time. Yeah, I mean, I know Florida's getting a lot of run. It feels like Alabama, obviously, until you beat them, they're not going to get off the top of the ladder either. I just want to see some football, frankly. I'm looking forward to seeing you whether you're in Lubbock or whether you are in, I don't know, what are your possibilities? Norman.

Those two, yeah. It's either going to be Kansas State. Now, I want you to explain to my buddy Spencer Tillman, if you bump him and may be like, come on now. I mean, he's like, hey, hey, what do I? I didn't do that wrong. Listen, if there's one thing that I know about COVID, nothing's personal. I'm taking this person. I know where I'm told, man.

I know. I guarantee you we're going to talk at least four minutes of real football next week. It feels like at least four minutes of the conversation. I love it. Matt, always enjoy our conversation. All right, everybody, we'll see you. Joe Clyde. Fox Sports, supposedly on the Kansas State Oklahoma game this week. And hopefully that is the case because my buddy Tim Brando and Spencer Timmer will be on the call of the Texas Tech matchup.

Stop that wave. Busting the waves since the stroves were in the dome. Who are you going to call? Wave Busters. Houston Sports Talk continues with the Matt Thomas show. 149 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790.

We've got Ross's Rotten 5 coming up. A lot of people are curious if you drop the text. Wait, what time is that? 2.30. I told you that about four hours ago. Yeah, all right. You talk. I've lost you until 2.30.

I'm doing believe it or not too. I forgot about it. I'm glad it wasn't it. I'm glad it's not now. Let's put it in the rotten fire. You want to put the rotten music in right now? We can just improv it if you want to. No, I'm good.

All right. I got to fill it with all kinds of facts and you don't really have to. You don't know if people memorize it. Now, we've given contest away. Yeah, we have. And it took them forever to memorize it. That's not true.

People are usually called right in and know it. What do you talk? But they usually get it wrong. That's not true? Are you sure? What are you talking about? We'll do the rotten 5 at 2.30. And then we will give away a prize right after it.

Yes. So the easiest thing for you do would be to write it down. The prize is Matt's foot shavings. That's gross. That's awful. What does it matter with you today? I have a lot of things. I'm having a very difficult day.

I know. You're so upset about this U of H thing. No, I'm not over that. There's something else is really bothering me. Yeah, it's the University of Cougars. The University of Houston. Houston? University of Houston Cougars. Those two. I'm done. I'm fine.

And it's the University Cougars. No. Other things are going on. There's some cougars on campus. Somewhere. Trying to get their masters or something? Ph.D. Medical school is opening up or already has. They have a U.S. Medical school now? They just opened it up, yeah.

Man, they just do anything. Well, man, don't think. When you are the premier institution in the southwest, you have to open up your horizons. Tell me what, rice? No. U.T. Nope. Baylor? Nope.

SMU. Keep going. UT Pan Am? Tier 1, baby. UT Rio Grande Valley? All right, let's get back to some headlines. U.T. Arlington? Okay, that's enough.

713, 212-790. If you want to chime in, 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Astros today will play an afternoon affair. Boy, I'll tell you what the Clinton boys, Clinton and Wex are really grinding one out today. They're going to go to 430 this afternoon. A whole hour and a half. You think they'll be okay?

Well, you're a pack of lunch. I hope they don't ask for a comp day because of this, basically getting a holiday. The Astros, again, if they win, then they eliminate those Mariners officially. And then if they win and then the San Diego Padres defeat the Anaheimers, then that means the Astros would officially clinch the second playoff spot. And that would then mean the next four games would be moot in Arlington. Now, you would be playing for the silver boot. But who cares about any award right now?

What are the Silver Boots standings right now? Do we know? Well, all the games have been in Houston. Astros have the lead, don't they? Yeah, I think they've got a lead. I don't know what the exact number is. I'll take your word for it. But there's four games in Arlington.

They can flip it, so. Astros are minus 200 today. And the San Diego Padres. Okay, I'm looking at, no, I'm not looking at it. Where are the Padres? Oh, there they are. They are minus 175. So both favorites went out today.

Astros are in the playoffs. Now, how will you celebrate? Well, Dusty said he's going to do it with scotch or wine. Because he doesn't drink champagne. Yeah, he's not a champagne guy. He's not some kind of wuss. So you're saying that people that drink champagne are wusses? I mean, as a regular drink?

No. Look, if you're having a brunch mimosa, let's go. Yeah. But I don't think people go. You got home from work today. I'll have mine with pineapple juice, please. There you go. So there should be no celebrating.

Frankly, the only celebrating you do is the world's, well, that's not true. Yeah. I think if you win the wild card, but the problem is you won't be able to see it because I don't think they're going to allow a whole bunch of television cameras. Certainly you would not want to see any sort of celebration when you are trying to social distance. Yes. They will just give each other salutes or head nods from a safe distance with face masks on. You know what? When they do celebrate, they put the goggles on.

You put a mask on too and then you get you okay, right? Yeah, you could get Josh Redick, give everybody bandanas, put it over their face. Does a champagne-soaked masks still work? No, I wouldn't think so. Well, the air is not getting through still, right? No, but it's just going to be difficult to breathe. I just think they're going to say none of that. Okay.

But how, in all seriousness, how do you... They're going to stop them. If you win a series, how do you celebrate? You get the presidential suite at whatever hotel you're staying at, and you get hookers and blow. And you make sure there's no media anywhere near you. Yeah. Not like the media hanging out in front of the hotel. What were these guys doing?

There's got, there's got to be a lot of secret parting. And don't get on a party bus. The college game doesn't work that well that way. It's true. They have to stay, yeah, they have to make, they're going to get tested throughout the playoffs. So they have to make sure they're good there. So, yeah, you can't celebrate. That's the one thing we've not discussed so far.

You know, majorly baseball, knock on whatever this is, has had very few COVID problems. Really, somewhat about the first. Yeah, first few weeks. Three weeks of the season or so. Everybody's behaving themselves. That's good. We haven't had very many cancellations. Everybody's been playing those seven-in-debill headers.

I don't think, in all honesty, you've got to keep hoping major league baseball has it because they'll have October. Once you get to November and you got more college football and you got deeper NFL playoffs, baseball will be an afterthought. It might be baseball. I mean be an afterthought right now as it is. What's going on with the wildfires? Are we good there? Because we were worried about those, they were going to have games at Dodger Stadium and Petco, right?

Yeah, I don't think there's any... They've been playing games, yeah. All right. So we have it to Dodge, COVID. Yes. Civil unrest, Mm-hmm. Wildfires.

Yes. Anything else who had the Dodge? The hurricane. The hurricane. Tropical swell. They didn't miss games because the tropical storm, but because they're in Seattle. Would a mudslide impact the game?

Maybe. Super volcano? God, this is going to be so bizarre. Watching two American League teams play in San Diego or Dodger Stadium to determine who they go on to play the American League Championship series. Is that just the weird... Is there anything that feels normal about this year? Is there any way the champion doesn't have an asterisk?

No chance. Now, I would include the asteros. Well, if the Astros were taking it off. We've already got enough asterisk around here to satisfy that. I just think it's funnier that way, in a trolling way. The one year, everyone hates the Astros and wants them to win. If they pull it off, they'd be amazing. Do you know all the national media people that hate the Astros have a tweet?

You know, under the drafts category? It's already locked and loaded. First of all, the Jose Alte. too-bay hate. Well, this is... So 2020 season goes into the trash can for the Astros. It's already there. Thanks, Smarmy MLB writer.

His OPS is under 600. Ross, this is like... This is like Pat Mahomes going from throwing 5,000 yards to 2,000 yards with 34 interceptions. Can I just tell you something? My feeling of bones? And we'll go gut feeling again? Sure. I'll make this my gut feeling next year.

Next week, I mean. Okay. He's not healthy. I don't think it's a gut feeling. I think that's probably, let's go get him an x-ray and probably would back you up on that. So I guess your gut feeling is he's hiding an injury. Yeah. Nursing and injury playing hurt.

I can say that about him. I can say that about probably Alex Spragman in his hamstring. Anybody else? Springer feels like he's been playing banged up, but he's been hitting at least. Is McCullors all the way back? Pitched well in his return. I mean, he had the next. the neck, weird neck issue for like a week

and all of a sudden that's just completely gone. I don't know, but he pitched well the first seven innings. It was the last outing. Until he gave up the home run, which should have been avoided because of a double play. The Luf two they didn't make. All right, let's get the final hour start of the Matt Thomas show. We'll start at 230 with the rotten five at 250.

It's believe it or not. And your phone calls are certainly welcome in the final 60 minutes. 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790. Once again, a message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union, and I am so happy I joined them because I was able to get an amazing rate on an auto loan. 1.99% APR for 36 months.

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Welcome home to Shell FCU. Astros, buddy. You of H grad, Tex-Mex connoisseur. Well, is there anybody more Houston than Matt Thomas? No way. Back to the Matt Thomas show. 219, sports talk 790. Bill O'Brien telling to a straight sports RV. He wants his offense to do some more things this Sunday against Pittsburgh. Yeah, we got a long way to go here.

get going here this week. We've got some more points to the other team. We've got to get going. So it's not where we want it to be quite obviously. But working hard to get it better. I thought Ross Tim Kelly was going to add a couple of sprinkles this Texan's

offense. What happened to that? Did you? No, actually, I was lying. There was no chance in the world. I thought that Tim Kelly was going to do something different. Well, it's not his fault. Zach Fulton and Titus Howard are blowing blocks all over the place. Long pressures. But there's no, it's a middle of the pack field. There's no

not a lot of no huddle. It's only because they're behind. I mean, the most successful play probably is the slant rod to a tight end, right? So far. To one of the many Jordans a team has.

Jordan Thomas has gone now, right? Yeah. Because they were going to have, that was what Cahili wearing made the team over Jordan Thomas and then quickly went onto the IR. Yeah. That smells fishy too, by the way. Darren Fels is playing well. And Jordan Aikins.

So you're telling me the two main go-to guys in this vaunted Texans offense of the tight ends. Well, so here's the thing. Do we even really believe that this is much of Tim Kelly at all? I mean, is he calling a poorest game or is he calling the game based on what Bill O'Brien wants? Now, again, there's a little bit of, well, your head coach is ultimately the man that that has to run the team.

Tim Kelly is not going to go well Coach wants us to run on first and ten Screw that we're going to do a flea flick I mean there's you have to have chemistry You have to have cohesiveness and Bill is the It's the head coach so everything does go run through him But you feel like some of the best coordiners in the business Are left to work on their craft

And it feels like to me there is nothing innovative Nothing fresh nothing interesting To what I've seen out Texans offensively I mean I think they do a lot of different looks To try to get Deshawn Watson and they did some moving pocket stuff. They do a lot of play action, and that's where Chachan Watson generally thrives.

But the thing is, when you're having moving pockets and when you're doing play action, the offensive line has to hold up for a bit. And they just, quite frankly, have it. Outside of Laramie Tunsell and then some of Nick Martin here and there, it's been really porous. And you are also going up against in the Baltimore Ravens, one of the better front sevens in the NFL,

but you're also going to have to do that against the Steelers. And you want to be one of the better teams in the NFL, and you want to have these aspirations of Super Bowl championships, which I know we can laugh about that, but that's what Bill O'Brien is selling Cal McNair. Then you have to play and you have to perform up against these types of teams. And they just haven't done that. How much watt, watt, watt, what are we going to have to hear about this week?

Oh, how many like a nauseating. The Watts versus the Watts versus the Watts. Right. And they're going to get the subway commercials. Yeah. No, it's going to be mom and dad wish they were here. Are they going to wear? Well, they can't wear, can they wear split jerseys on Zoom, I guess?

You can't wear a triple jersey. Do you think CBS would Zoom in those kids, the mom and dad? Yeah, why not? I think absolutely. Is it heartfelt or is it a little over a little too much? I don't know. The Watts are so popular now with that TV show they did for a while, I guess. The Watts are big now, Matt.

They're the New Mannings. No. No chance. They're as close as they. I mean, I'm not saying they're on that level. They're not on that level, but they're the closest thing. J.J. Watts done Saturday. live.

It was pretty good, actually. Well, it's TJWatt? Probably not. No. No. No. But I'm looking at their front seven. I mean, Devin Bush hits people.

Bud Dupree. He's good. Cam Hayward. Great. Cam Hayward hits people. TJ.Y is one of the best edge rushers in the entire NFL. Joe Hayden's been in the league a while. He's been playing well.

Yeah. I mean, offensively, they don't particularly scare me. But Rothusberger, again, probably in the history of the NFL, throws more passes for more yards when he's got someone holding onto his leg, like Bang Gundy's

leg. His leg. Oh, man, come on. Right? Yeah. I mean, and who's going to get pressure for the Texans? J.J. Watt had a couple of sacks, but I didn't feel like he was getting consistent pressure.

Frankly, is it Donnell doing most of the legwork on the defensive line? You know what? P. Joe Hall actually played okay. Brandon Hall I mean yeah PJ Hall's decent Brandon Dunn is to me

is a nothing Jacob Martin's been all right he's I mean but he's a situational guy he's doesn't playing all the snaps yeah the big money guys for Ross Blacklock and Charles A minah

those guys are just situational you're rotating those guys in the one big money guy that has paid off so far has been JJ I mean Zach's been up and down Whitney's been MIA

and I don't even count Eric Murray because no one thought he was a starting strong safety and it's been terrible to be honest with you You've been okay. Justin Reed's been really good.

Justin Reed's probably their best defensive player, and the problem is it's a significant drop-off after that. Significant. He's playing at Pro Bowl level. Nobody else is close. Yeah, let's go to Jay and Spring at 224 on 7-0. Hi, Jay. Hey, how you doing, Matt?

Good. What's going on? All right, just about to Sean Watson. Before I get into that, I just want to say, well, you can't do play action on 3rd and 8. It seems like Texans run twice and then decide to be RPO or play action on 3rd 8, which foods no one. But about Deshaun Watson, I mean,

this is a bit of exaggeration maybe, but there just seem like the best play we got from him was that six-gain stretch years ago. And isn't that an indictment on the coaching staff? Like, what we remember most about the excitement of the son-watched lately is just that six-gain stretch

his second year or first year or whatever, and I hang up the rest of them. Here's what we're wrestling with. media, fans, observers. There is so much natural talent with Deshaun. I get the feeling, and it may not be right, that people are tired or starting to get a little fatigued by saying Deshawn needs people around him,

that if Deshaun had the arsenal that Kansas City had with Mahomes, if he had the targets that he would have in Baltimore, like Lamar Jackson does, And that's really not fair to Deshaun, because Deshawn's football team from an offensive standpoint, when you lose the best 50-50 receiver in the game, you're not going to be better. You have replaced one of the grates with an often-concussed player who has been traded multiple times and a bunch of possession receivers and one guy who you believe could stretch the field who can't stay on the field. If he could stretch his hamstring.

And when he's on the field, he doesn't get targeted. So, I mean, I want to be very careful as I say this. I don't want to give Deshaun much blame. But I do believe there will be a time that if he can't overcome what is around him and play at a level that the superstar play makes, no matter who is around him. For instance, you know, Peyton Manning, he didn't have pro bowlers on his offensive line. Did he not? I mean, Jeff Saturday was a really good center.

But I remember one time the Texans played the Colts many years ago, and I think two bits of a starting offensive line were CFL guys. Barry Sanders was one of the greatest running backs in the NFL, and he never had an all pro in front of him. Russell Wilson has had bad. This year, I think the offensive line is better, but he's been playing, and that's what it is. You need to be, if you're that guy,

if Deshawn Watson is being mentioned with the Russell Wilson's and the Lamar Jackson's and the Padma Holmes, you have to be like those types where they're elevating the play of the team. Now, Lamar Jackson and Pat Mahomes have pretty solid offensive lines. Russell Wilson over the last several years hasn't, and that's why he's been in MVP conversations. And I mean, they won, what was it, like 10 games last year? And that was because Russell Wilson elevated them to that level. So what I'm going to say in summarizing this is at some point, he's going to have to take his average weapons and be a spectacular player and win despite what's around him.

And I think the biggest defenders of Deshaun have said, well, Deshawn's not doing the same type of things that Lamar and Pat are doing because Deshaun doesn't have the targets. And that's through really no fault of his own, clearly, because he's not the general manager of the team. But he's also the one that just signed a big contract to stay with the team for the long term. So he was obviously comfortable enough with the situation that was around him to say, yeah, I want to make use to my long term destination. So that's why the caller is like, did we see the best of Deshaun? I will say, no, we have not seen the best of Deshaun. but I'm ready for him to play better.

And I feel like we were, and that's why I said, we cannot use these first two games as an indicator because they weren't going to be better than the high octane offense that was Baltimore and Kansas City. Deshawn Watson should be an elite enough quarterback against a stingy defense to be able to pick and choose and find his role and help win this game. There's no reason why the Texans can't go to Pittsburgh.

If they're an AFC Central, a FC South title contender, if they're a Walcott contender. Pittsburgh's not that daunted. I mean, their defense is ferocious, but from an offensive standpoint, they're not going to strike the fear in anybody. So they should go up there and try to win,

and should be very close in this game. There should be no bold odds. It should not be an not competitive football game. I don't know. The more I think about it, the more I think the front seven the Steelers is going to have a field day. And I was trying to talk myself out of that too,

and I cannot. No, that's why they play the games. They do. We'll see. Right. It takes absolutely zero ability to give you the five best teams in the NFL. I can do it right now. Green Bay, Kansas City, Baltimore. the rate is. Maybe, who knows? But it takes a special person to give you the five worst teams in the NFL.

It is a tried and true staple to Matt Thomas show. It is Ross's Rotten Five, and it's coming up after I tell you about Shaw's Jewry at the corner of West Gray and Montrose. And I love those folks that there because they have been that same exact intersection since 1966. How many businesses in Houston have been the same locale for over 50 years? Well, Shaw's can say that. Most jewelry stores pay rent.

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233, Sports Talk 790. Let me go to, is that Janez? Is that right? I can't see. Yeah, Janez, by Hobby Airport on 790. Hello, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's up? Hey, what's going on, gentlemen?

Hope you're having a good day. We are, thank you. Real quick, just want to talk about Tim Kelly. So my thing is, he played the. He played defense. He's a defensive guy. He befriended O'Brien when he was at a penitentiary state, or excuse me, Penn State. And, yeah, he's a defensive guy.

So I think he's really doing a disservice running this offense. And another thing, I really think the MLB dropped the ball with the bubble. Hear me out on this. I really think having the games at minor league parks would have been pretty cool. And to get the minor league, you know, involvement, someone involved. you're just using the fields. Can't have anyone there as it is. So you have them bring small towns into it.

And they could have the World Series. I mean, I'm sure the weather wouldn't have been ideal at the field of dreams. What do you think about that? I'll hang up and listen. Yeah, a terrible idea. No disrespect, but I just, no. No, these are big boy, manjily baseball players. This is, this isn't, as gimmicky as the season is,

you don't want to make it even further trivialize it by putting it in minor league ballparks. I mean, it was hard enough for the Blue Chase to find a ballpark. park in Buffalo that had major league dimensions. No. Look, it's not optimum. They're doing the neutral site thing. It's not, but no, I'm not going to have a game in Knoxville, Tennessee, and then a game in Mobile, Alabama. No, you play him in Major League ballparks because these are Major League Baseball players.

I just would not, I would not try to trivialize it. And as far as Tim Kelly is concerned, Tim Kelly's been an offensive coach all of his life. I mean, he may have played defense, but he's an offensive-minded guy. whether or not he deserved the chance of being an offensive coordinator remains to be seen. And the answer so far through a couple weeks and play calling is, man, now again, he did it last year, but didn't call plays. My philosophy is I'm not blaming Tim Kelly all that much because I don't think Tim Kelly is being allowed to stretch his wings and do what he would like to do.

You would think, because Bill O'Brien is running everything. From the front office to the type of catererade that is being distributed to practice, I don't think you can run into Bill O'Brien's office and say, hey, I want to try some things. What do you think? You may be able to do that, but my guess is that Bill O'Brien will shoot that down rather quickly. Ladies and gentlemen, it takes absolutely no ability to tell you who the five best teams are in the NFL. It does, however, take research, information, analysis, deep thought to give you the absolute worst in the NFL.

We call out the Rotten Five. We've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's Rotten 5. This don't smell quite right. Ah, yes, Matthew, it's week number two of the Rotten 5, and I've got to be honest with you, we could have done the Rotten 11.

11-0 and 2 teams in the NFL, so a lot of options for me, but let's go ahead and start it off. I could not leave the Atlanta Falcons out of the Roden 5. Have they earned themselves a spot on this list after one of the most laughable collapses since? Well, since they blew a 28 to 3 lead in the Super Bowl. The Falcons disappointed in week one versus the Seahawks, and they followed that up by completely co-blapsing against the Cowboys

after going up 20 to nothing in the first quarter. The Cowboys' comeback also featured one of the worst on-side kick recovery attempts in the history of football. It was so bad that after the game, Arthur Blank questioned whether or not his players do the rules of football. the rules that they've been following since pee-wee times. I guess as someone said on Sunday, it's the hands team, not the brain team. The Atlanta Falcons, the fifth worst team in the NFL. You lose! Good day, sir! Another new addition to the list, the Philadelphia Eagles.

They continue to disappoint in seasons following their Super Bowl wins several years ago. They finally have a healthy Carson Wentz, and well, the guy looks completely lost out there. In week one, he was sacked eight. times with an injured offensive line, but was sacked zero times this past week after the return to Lane Johnson and still had a horrific game throwing two interceptions. Carson Wentz, 32nd in the NFL in total QBR, only ahead of Dwayne Haskins Jr. The Eagles getting outscored by 14 points per week, and they are the fourth worst team in the NFL. Well, the New York football giants continue to find themselves on the list, and they got some bad

luck this week as Sequan Barkley tore his ACL and subsequently is out for the season. However, Sequan probably sees that as a reprie from this dumpster fire of a team. When he was on the field, he wasn't gaining yards, and now the Jason Garrett, New York Giants' offenses scrambling and signed street-free agent Devante Freeman. The Giants' 29th ranked offense just lost their most dynamic player. The defense has been playing solid, but still, the New York football Giants, the third worst team in the NFL. You are the best.

I know they really aren't Donnie. All right, the Miami Dolphins, well, for some reason, they thought it'd be a good idea to roll with Ryan Fitzpatrick as their quarterback, and they continue to pay the price. They are now 0 and 2 on the season after losing to the bills where Josh Allen, yeah, that Josh Allen went off for 417 yards and four touchdowns. What is going on with this Miami Dolphins defense? They made some offseason signings where they tried to improve on that side of the ball.

Well, they're 30th right now, and as I just said, Josh Allen, 400 yards. What's going on with Miami Dolphins? Well, you tell me, Matt. Sucky, sucky, sucky. Yes, I totally agree. All right. Well, you would think the 49ers being down Jimmy Garapolo, Rahim Moster, Tavin Coleman, Nick Bosa, and others would mean the New York Jets could steal one against San Francisco. Well, that would make a lot of sense, but you would be completely wrong. Not only did the Jets not steal one, they got completely dismantled by the likes of Nick Mollens and Jerich McKinnon. The offense continues to be uninspired. They have the corpse of Frank Gore is their number one running back, and Adam Gase is the Vegas favorite to be the first NFL head coach to be fired.

The JETS, Jets, Jets, Jets, the absolute worst team in the NFL. This fucks more than anything that I've ever fucked before. And that's your Routin 5. Okay, question to be asked. How close did a AFC South team make the rotten phone? Super-duper close. You know what team has the worst point differential on the entire NFL? NFL? Is it the one that resides in NRG?

It's the one on Kirby. I'm going to assume that worst turnover margin two? They are a minus three. I want to say they're close. One team has a minus five. I want to say it's the Eagles. How can the Eagles been the wrong spot? So they have the Eagles?

I mean, they're terrible right now. But that's not, they're supposed to be like a Super Bowl contend. They were supposed to compete with Dallas for the NFC East. But yes, Matt, you're correct. Worst point differential is going to be the Texans. So that almost was enough for me to put them in there. I really was about to do it. But, and the turnover of the inferential, yeah, they're a minus five.

Vikings and Texans tied for second worst with a minus three. So they lose this one? Oh, they're in the Rotten Five next week. Guess who's at the Rodin Five next week? And Texans, whatever that person's name is, not going to like you. You may be on a follow on Twitter. Well, I'm sorry. Texans, Zach or Texans Cody.

And I'm going to be completely ready. Sometimes I struggle to look for the right drop for certain teams. I got some ammunition with the Texans ones. Well, my guess would be nothing to Bill O'Brien sound, right? You know, some of those. I need to do better. It's a long season, Brian.

I'm not sure if you guys watch the film. Well, I got one. So you think I suck. You think I suck. Yeah, so we'll go. Yeah, we can go with that one too. The you suck too. Right.

Here we go. You suck too. Yeah, I might have to drop all those in there. Will we ever forget, like, if I'm in the nursing home in the next handful of years and you're feeding me putting at night. Uh-huh. Will I ever forget,

will you ever forget him screaming at you suck too in the Denver game at half time? Because you're admitting you suck when you say you suck too, right? I won't forget that. You weren't even here. Are you in town by then?

Yeah, but I wasn't paying super close attention to any of your teams yet. We don't worry about stats. Okay. Definitely going to go with this one. I'm not sure if you guys watch the film. Well, Sarah Barshop saw the all 22, right? Holy smokes.

Well, no. Or did she? I don't think so. Because she was on talking about Russ Bracklock the other day, and he's like, you saw the tape, and I didn't see the infraction. Well, I didn't either, Sarah. Yeah, nobody saw it, but apparently he was told he threw a punch. Well, JJ Watts saw it.

That's true. J.J. Watts not happy. That was so odd, and I don't mean to bring this up again, but it was so out of character for him to throw a team in on the bus. I can't freaking stand, losing. I'm pissed off. This sucks. Maybe that's a reason why.

That might be used next week. Okay. All right, believe it or not today is all things about Gail Sayers, right? Yeah. Best get busy, but first let's get some energy in you first. Oh, you know what? How have you been feeling lately? Are you in this COVID lockdown malaise?

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Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything. Anytime soon. Sorry about that, friends to the North. Back to the Matt Thomas show. All right, Brendan. Do not use the two people that are on the line right now. We're going to do a contest, then another contest, in a very short period of time.

Do you guys know the Rotten Five in order? They can't just name them any which way they want to. They got to name in order from five to one. Five to one. If you know the Rotten Five, From 5 to 1, the first person that gets it right, Brandon, what are they going to win? We got a nice price from them. Do we not?

Yeah, we got a gift card to Golden Crust Caribbean Restaurant and Bakery. Oh, yeah. It's a nice one, too, $50. What? Yeah, what? Go get some Caribbean food. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790.

If you can name the rotten five from 5 to 4. to three to two to one. 713, 2,1, 2, 1, 5, 790. Somebody can. What imagine. Somebody at least try. Try hard. You had to do it right after the Rotten 5.

You let the break happen, Matt. That's where we lost all the momentum. That's what I was looking to see who would pay attention. I don't even remember the Rotten 5, and I wrote it. I had to write it down. I'm proud of you. Let's talk to Gerard before we get to believe in that. Hi, Gerard.

What's up, what's going? How are you guys doing? Good. Yeah, man, quick thing, observation on the Sean Watson. You know, I blame 70% on the coaching and the offensive line, but 30% of it I got to put on Deshawn Watson, man. He still, to me, doesn't see the whole feel well, and he still has problems with the blitz.

Teams are blitzing him, and he's just not reacting well. He's not hitting a hot, making a hot reed, getting to the receiver, and burning the blitz. And that's why the teams continue to blitz him. He's going to have to do that. He's going to also have to learn how to manipulate the safeties with his eyes. You don't never see him doing that. He's got to be able to move the safety over and then create an opening on the other side of the field.

He doesn't do that. And that's a quarterback one-on-one you got to do the, you know, produce and advance at a high, high level. Now, I'm going to compare him to two guys this year that's playing with not a lot of great weapons. Like, you know, he lost, no, he lost Hawkins this past. season, but these two quarterbacks don't have a lot of great weapons, and they're producing at a high level so far that season. Jared Garg with the Rams.

Look at his wide receiver court. He don't have any great wide receivers, but they're producing at a high level. Cam New with the Patriots. He doesn't have a great receiver. You know, Edmond, I know he's one of a Super Bowl MVP, but I don't think he's a Hall of Fame receiver. He's been a solid receiver throughout his career, but they don't have any great weapons, but they're producing at a high level putting up points and putting up massive yards. So I got to put some of it on the Sean Walker.

All right. Thank you, John. I got a roll on that note. We got somebody that thinks he knows the Rotten Five. Jay, the Rotten Five in order, please, from Five to One. Okay, it's from Five to One, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York Giants, Miami, and New York, Yes. God love you. You have given me faith that people listen to this radio show.

You ever get tired of being wrong about? I was worried about my memory, but... You did great. I'm proud of you, Jay. Congratulations. We got to dinner for you coming your way. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we?

We do. We should play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply called it. Believe or not. And here's how it works. You call 713212-570. 7-1-3-2-790. Today's edition of Believe it or Not, brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spots.

Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation in Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today on Believe it or Not is all things about the late great Gail Sayers. Great running back to Chicago Bears. I'll read your statement about Gail. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. If it's your running as full of bunker made up, you will say this. Two, believe it or not,

so on all things about Gail Sayers, won your prize. Brendan, what is the prize? Full car pass to see Sandlot on Wednesday, September 30th, the drive-in at Sawyer Yards, and we'll throw in a new alcohol-free Heineken 0.0 as well. Nice. Zero-point-0 from Heineken and movie passes.

It should be very, very cool experience if you want to do that, but you must first find out if it's a believe it or not. All right, 7-13-21-2-5-7-90. Josh on 7-90, ready to play, believe it or not. Yep. Gail Sayers was at Kansas during the same time as Walt Chamberlain. The two were good friends until Chamberlain's death in 1999. Believe it or not.

Believe it. No, we made that up. Yeah, I know. 7-13-21, 2, 590. 790. Rick on 790, Rick, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Gail Sayers was a world-class sprinter and competed in the 100-meter Olympic trials in 1960. Believe it or not? Not.

That is correct. Ross made that up as well. Statement number two for the win. Gail Sayers scored six touchdowns against the 49ers back in 1965, a record that still stands to this day. Believe it or not. Not. Oh, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, you've got to know records of the bear running backs. Line number four. And Kenny on 790. Kenny, you ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Gail Sayers, number 32 is retired by the Chicago Bears. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, it was number 40. Charlie would have known. Very, very minutia. And you're right, Charlie would have known.

Let's go to Al on seven. 790. Al, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Wide receiver Lynn Swan credits Gail Sayers for his career success after Sayers suggested he also take ballet lessons to improve body control. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, no, no. Ross, you're a rare form today.

You really are. I'm proud of you. Rick on 790, Rick, you ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Gail Sayers held the NFL record for touchdowns in a season with 22, until it was broken by O.J. Simpson. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it is right. Statement number two for the win. There is a bronze statue of Gail Sayers outside of Soldier Field in Chicago. Believe it or not? Believe it.

No, there's not. Should be, though. Thank you, though. Walter Payton and George Hallis, though. No, D-K-K-K-K-K-A? I think there might be a D-K-K-K-A. Maybe a big D-I-T-K-A or a little D-K-A. D-K-A. All right, I'm going to to go watch old road warrior's videos today. Clanton and Wexler up next. Really going to make it?

Really burning the midnight oil here. They're going from 3 to 4.30. I mean, do they even claim a paycheck today? It's embarrassing how little they're going to work. They're up next. They're the A team on Sports Talk 790.