The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Destroy Pelicans AGAIN, Possible Stroud Regression, Astros Looking For An Outfielder...?

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" and Dan Mathews of "The A-Team" recap the Houston Rockets defeating the New Orleans Pelicans 128-111. The Rockets have the second-best record in the Western Conference and will host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday to begin a five-game homestand. Ross and Dan also:revisit the Texans losing to the Ravens on Christmas Dayevaluate the performance of quarterback C.J. Strouddiscuss the future of the Astros' outfieldtell their "Non-Florida Stories" and more.

Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10-0-2 in H-Town. What's happening, brunch timers? Hello. And welcome in to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We hated Prince because he showed his package. He did?

Justin Timberlake. We hate them all. Prince took it out? Well, I mean, it was, I don't know if he took it out. I think that's what old members do to say, hey, you just can't jump in here and jump in and get and grab our pie. Ross, do you care to deduct the genesis of that call? Did Michael Blue Blase sleep with his wife in the green room? Keith, go ahead and talk while Dan swallows.

What's up, man? I like to lean in the moist. You're going to sneeze? Here comes. One, two. Now you talked about it and it went away. Oh, well, that's good. It helped.

No. Sometimes you've got to get it out, Matt. Wait, who doesn't like the lean and the moist? And sometimes you do have to get it out. Oh, the Friday open. I'm not going to say what you said for me. A staple while Dan swallows a staple of the Matt Thomas show now on Fridays deftly put together by one Connor McGovern.

Thank you to him. And thank you for listening to the Matt Chomis show with Ross on a Friday. No, it is not the Matt Chamas show. It is the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 7. I guess the TH could kind of make it. Matt Chomas, that's actually, yes, that's what we call him. The T is silent. The Yiddish translation, I believe, is what it is.

All right, welcome in to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas is out. I don't know. He's very sweepie. He came in, wait with the wicket, so he needs some sweep. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What nerve this guy has to chide his analyst last night on the game call, Adam Clanton.

Not only at the beginning of the game, but also, too, his parting words leaving the arena last night. And then he takes the day off. That is correct. That is the beauty. Bill Belichick, this guy is not. There are days off for Matt Thomas. The beauty of the hypocrisy. Yeah, see, I believe he was crushing the 18 yesterday and talking to Adam Clinton.

Of course he was. He is off today. That's fine. He's in Houston. He just doesn't want to work. And that's okay. As somebody who takes every last drop of vacation, I have afforded to me, I take it. so I'm not going to crush Matt, but he is out today.

If you hear the voice of Dan Matthews and you say, that's Dan, you are correct. That is Dan. He is here. I am Ros Vireal. You can get in as well. A lot of stuff to get to here on a Friday at 713-213-212-5-790. 7-13-213-2-1-2-790 is the phone number. We have the Rockets winning last night against New Orleans Pelicans.

128 to 11. Don't look now, Dan. your Houston Rockets have won four in a row. They are, okay, not firmly planted in the two seed, but they're firmly planted in the playoffs. Earlier on in the season, I was like, okay, sure, they're the two seed, but they're three and a half games of like the 10 seed.

Well, there's six games from being out of the playoffs, and there's still a comfy four games of being in the playoffs for real, if you're not aware, the top six in the Western Conference, make the playoffs you are in. Seven through ten, you have to go to the play-in tournament, So the Rockets, a four-game cushion of being in the playoffs, I mean, with all the heavy hitters that we thought, the Thunder is a one seed, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Nuggets, Lakers, that's your top six in the Western Conference. And cushion's a good word, too, because you're about to face the tougher part of your schedule. You're going to find out just how good this Rockets team is over the next five games, because you're facing five playoff teams, both in the West and in the East.

So being able to beat up on the bad teams like they've been able to do, aside from losing the Hornets earlier in the season as well as the spurs. But the spurs are still kind of in this thing too as well. So I mean, that's the beauty of being able to do that. And now that you've been able to get some of these wins before you have to play Oklahoma City again, before you have to finally play against Denver, before you have to finally play against Memphis with John Morant, who's just a different basketball team,

It's been fun to watch. I mean, it's definitely been a welcome change from what we've seen the last few years. Yeah. As you mentioned, the tough five-game homestand coming up, starting with a back-to-back last night in New Orleans, tonight in Houston against the Minnesota Timberwolves here on Sports Talk 790 with a 7 o'clock tip. And then it'll be Miami, Dallas, the Boston Celtics, and the Los Angeles Lakers. So we're going to find out a little bit more. Now, we do have a 30-game sample, and the 30-game sample says there's the second-best team in the

So it's not like it's nothing. It's not like it's super early in the season. We are creeping closer and closer to the halfway mark, but we're going to find out a lot more about those Houston Rockets as we go on. And, well, the last two weeks, Dan, we've been finding out a lot about the Houston Texans. Speaking of pointing to spots in the schedule, which we're doing right now with the Rockets,

we did this all year long with the Texans. We said, okay, they start off, they're going to roll, they're going to win. four or five of their first six. Some even predicting they were going to sweep their first six games, and then that's when it was going to get a little bit tougher. You were going to have to go on the road against the Packers. We thought the Jets game was going to be a little bit tougher.

We thought the Cowboys game was going to be tougher because we thought Dak Prescott was going to be healthy. And then we pointed to this stretch with the dolphins, who did turn it around. It weren't necessarily as strong as you thought, but they still turned it around. They're still a good team. They've been winning a lot of games.

So that still counts in the win column as a good win, in my opinion. But then back-to-back games, You lost the thread a little bit against the Chiefs. To me, that wasn't like a complete outclassing, but you clearly were not as good as the Chiefs and up to their level. And then on Christmas Day, we all know what happened against the Ravens. Just coming in the ratings, 25 million average viewers for Netflix, a smash hit for them going up to 27 million when Beyonce hit the stage.

I was going to say, the Beyonce Bowl is when it really pepped up and you got a lot of people watching. But no, you know, it's funny. I've made comparisons to this year's Texans team all throughout the last few months to this year's Astros team and just kind of these similar frustrations that you could have. But I was thinking about it last night, how weird is it that the rockets, I think, are doing what we thought the Texans maybe could do this year? Like the rockets, I think, are probably even exceeding our expectations.

I would say right. They're 57-win pace. There you go. So, I mean, the fact- That's exceeding expectations. It's very much exceeding expectations because I think people's expectations for them was playing round at the least. Maybe you could be the five or the six. That's what I was targeting.

And right now, I mean, it looks like if they continue to just play capable good basketball the rest of the way, maybe they're not going to reach 57 wins, but they could be at worst middle of the Western Conference. Yeah, pretty crazy. So we'll see and we'll know a lot more about this team with this stretch coming up. We know a lot about the Texans, and they have one game left against the Titans, which, in my opinion, should be treated as basically a preseason game to where you see the starters for a couple of series max, and then you sit everybody. Because I think this team that's ailing as much as it has, you can ill afford any further injury if you want to make any sort of noise in the playoffs, which I don't think they're going to do. Now, I mean, I was listening to you and Matt yesterday, and I agree. I mean, this team's cooked.

I mean, they might win the wild card game. I mean, I actually do feel pretty decent about them if they play against Pittsburgh because Pittsburgh is like you. They're slumping. They're going the wrong direction. I don't really necessarily trust Denver just yet. But Bo Nix seems like he's crazy enough to be able to pull off a win. And then L.A., same deal. I mean, Justin Herbert, nice story, good quarterback, all of those things, Ladd McConkey.

But, I mean, I think they can win the wild card game. They go to Kansas City after that. I have zero faith that they can win that game. All right. Well, there you go. That is Dan Matthews. We'll keep looking at the scenarios and talking about the Houston Texans. How are you feeling about them right now? One day later, are you still fire in Brimstone?

This is the worst team ever, and they are just absolute garbage. Or you feel a little bit better? I mean, it's hard to feel any better after this. I mean, you're going to need to get this taste out of your mouth with a playoff win because I went over the Titans with Davis Mills playing. Probably not going to do it. So we are going to be waiting a while before growing any confidence in what happened is what is happening with the Houston Texans. How are you feeling about the squad?

713, 212, 5, 790. How about them rockets? Do we have to get an obligatory rockets call? I am taking more and more on these postgame shows. So you guys want to get in and talk some rockets. What did you have last night? Like four or five? Yeah.

Quite a bit. People were getting in. I don't know people. Rockets fever? Are you catching it? 713-212-5-790. We also, of course, have college games to get to NFL stuff all around the league, NBA. You want to still talk some hot stove, the Alex Bregman holding pattern.

It's an anything goes Friday here on the Matt Thomas show. If you also want to talk about how great the week is in between Christmas and New Year's, where everybody's just kind of hanging out and doing whatever they want to do, that's fun too. Or terrible weather. Anything goes Friday. 713-212-5-790. We'll have non-Florida stories coming up. We'll have the news at noon. That will be at noon. And anything you want to talk about, 7-13-212-5-790. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790.

I just take missing, you know, just wasn't making throws. And at the same time, you know, I've got to find a way to stand in there stronger and make those throws. You know, just some miscommunication with me and some of the receivers. but ultimately, you know, it's up to me to make the throw when the guys are open. So, yeah. Where are we at on CJ Stroud? Still believing him. It's an interesting conversation because, I mean, we kind of talked about this at the beginning of the season.

Myself and Matthew Thomas, as we're here back on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I am Ross of your real. Dan Matthew's with us as well. You can get in if you'd like. It's 713-212-5-7-9. 713. 212.790. To where a lot of times there is a lot of data and history in the NFL.

And when you see things that happen, such as a quarterback, a young quarterback, hitting the scene and performing really well, a lot of time there is precedent for that. And there was precedent for what C.J. Strau did. He was great. He had a great season. He's offensive rookie of the year. The Texans and myself included, anointing him as the franchise quarter. He looked so good, so calm under pressure, so smart, doing all the right things as far as, I mean, from A to Z, from footwork to reading defenses to leadership, to everything you want, every box you want in a quarterback, he checked it.

But talking about that history that we've seen, there have been quarterbacks who hit the scene in their first years and had great years. Dak Prescott, I want to say, or maybe it was his second year. I think Matt Ryan had a really good year as a rookie as well. But that begs the question, how close is this quarterback to their ceiling? Because a lot of times when you have somebody who comes in and they look extremely polished as a rookie, that still begs the question, how much more can they grow and how much ceiling is there from that point? from if you took just what C.J. Stroud gave us in his rookie year and said, this is going to grow and grow and grow. You're talking about literally probably the best quarterback of all time.

So you have to ask yourself, is C.J. Stroud the best quarterback of all time. And right now in the second year, what we're seeing is that he is at least right now, I mean, regressed from last year. And he was extremely close to his ceiling where he was last year. And I will also throw in, I think the interception numbers are. misleading because felt like he had a few that should have been picked last year. And then this year, it feels like a lot of them have come on third and longs to where they're effectively punts. I mean, it's a two-part answer to that.

Number one, he's lost his confidence. I mean, there's zero doubt about that. He can continue to say he trusts his guys up front. He doesn't. He can continue to say he trusts his offensive coordinator. Same answer there. So that's the first part of it all. And you mentioned Matt Ryan there.

I mean, take a look at what Atlanta did. though to help him kind of take that next step in his career. It was the front office there saying, hey, Tony Gonzalez, he's coming to the end there in Kansas City. Let's make a trade. Let's get him here. Hey, on draft night, let's make a massive trade. And along with a guy named Roddy White, let's go out a guy named Julio Jones and add him to this offense and see what it's able to become. And he eventually became an MVP. He eventually became an NFC champion.

I mean, he eventually was able to become one of the better quarterbacks in the league. despite what some people might say, the numbers will tell you. He was really good. So he can get to that. I just think that it kind of becomes a question of the confidence of the people making the decisions that can get him back to that point. With Bobby Sloick, I think there's a belief in that building right now just from people, you know, I've heard talk about what's going to happen with him and what's going to happen with this coaching staff going forward. We had Aaron Wilson on when I was in with Lillima yesterday. it didn't seem like Bobby Sloak's going anywhere,

but it did seem like that Chris Strasser, the offensive line coach, at least if nothing else, is going to conveniently retire. Yeah. And we can get to the Bobby Sloick stuff. To me, it's funny how he was the hottest coaching

offensive mind or one of the hottest coaching offensive minds last year's cycle in this cycle, I wonder if he's even going to get an interview. But on the CJ Stroud stuff, his first year, 23 touchdowns, five interceptions. It's Dak Prescott's first year, 23 touchdowns, four interceptions. And also, I mean, different situations. They had one of the greatest offensive lines of all time in that era with the Dallas Cowboys.

But talking about trying to help C.J. Stroud, Nick Casario did that. Nick Casario did go out and get Joe Mixon, did go with the run game helping out C.J. Stroud and the team as a whole. And then, of course, the Stefan Diggs move was the swing for the fences. And unfortunately, I mean, the way that. that he did, trading him over here, give him a one year deal, you gave the second round pick. I mean, that was a, this has to bear the fruit of

like an AFC championship game or Super Bowl or this was a bad move. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL. Nick Casario can't control that. So I do think Nick Casario did try to go all in on C.J. Stroud in his second year and try to give him every opportunity. Where they have fallen

short, of course, has been the offensive line to where preseason it was, okay, Maybe Kenyon Green can be good. He was a first round pick. Maybe he can bounce back from the injury. Laramie Tunsell, we know what he is. We didn't know he's going to get, you know, he's always been a penalty prone,

but this is up to, I mean, insane level. But obviously, I mean, this is no breaking news. The offensive line has fallen short of everyone's expectations, including Nick Casario, and by the way, you've been beset by injury basically the entire year, shuffling everything around and not allowing guys to get on the same page. I applaud the effort. I mean, for the first point that you brought up there about Diggs and also bringing over Mixon,

but with Diggs, what you were getting out of him was not going to make this offensive lead. He was being a good addition for you. He was not great. For Mixon, I just think that he's underutilized. What did we hear about all last off season? Oh, this guy's fantastic, catching the ball out of the backfield. Look at him. Pass protect.

He's great. And, I mean, it's not so much about the second part of that, but at least the first part. I mean, what do we hear, you know, Bobby Slovak lamenting every single week? Oh, we didn't run the ball very well. We didn't run the ball very well. We had targeted him three times in the passing game. So if you're not running the ball very well and you're so averse to, it's not averse, but you're such a huge fan of using the screen game.

Why isn't he being used in that more if that's the case? You hear offensive coordinators all the time talk about, oh, playmakers in space. Well, then get them in space. Find a way, man. I heard you and Matt talking about this yesterday, too. as well, that you're giving the same looks that you gave early on in the season that you're giving them now.

So you probably have defensive coaches on the other sideline watching you, saying they're really trying this again. Like they think we haven't seen this? There's no motion. There's no check with me's. There's just, there is no creativity. And I talked about, you know,

CJ's confidence being lost. Bobby Sloick has lost confidence this year. That guy is swimming on game day when he's looking at that play sheet. I think, now, it's funny because they do, they do do a lot of screens and they do some with Joe Mix and they do it a lot with the wide receivers. And it's kind of like when the wide receiver screen works, which it was early on in the season, it's great. It's genius. It's a great way to move the chains, get C.J. Stroud and rhythm.

And then when they're not working, when they do get blown up, when somebody's not holding their block, when it's getting blown up by a linebacker or something like that, then it's one of those things that we look at. if it works, it's genius, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. So as far as the screen game, I'm okay with it. They just, as Bobby Sloak has said, as C.J. Stroud has said, they need to execute better and maybe they just need to throw some more wrinkles in there, because clearly it's not nearly as effective as it was earlier on in the year. This doesn't have to be a one-size-fits-all offense, and you just saw it last week with Lamar Jackson in that Baltimore Ravens offense.

Well, having Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry and that offensive line and Mark Andrews, I mean, and Isaiah likely, it's kind of a different. I understand the sum of the parts is different. But where I'm going with this is how Todd Munkin uses his guys. That touchdown run by Lamar Jackson? You've got Isaiah Likling and you've got Mark Andrews in the back field. Yeah, they go wing tea. You're not going to go wing tea.

I'm not saying to go wing tea. I'm just saying move your guys around, man. They don't have to just be, hey, it's a tight end. So he's got to be on the right side of the offensive line. You know, here's this formation. So, you know, you're going to have Nico Collins over there on the left side. Oh, we think we have them one. one. You don't have one-on-one. They've had Stover

and Schultz in the backfield of Fairmount, in my opinion. But like, do it more is what I'm saying. Like, switch up the looks, man. There's 52 cards in a card deck, right? They don't all have to be in the same order every single time. You shuffle them for a reason. Yeah, but you're

playing with a 5-2 when you've got Blake Fisher and Kendrick Green on the right side of the line as well. We have to keep that at mind. All right, we're going to take a break here. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross. That is Dan Matthews. you'd like to get in you can. 713-2-2-790 is the phone number.

7-1-3-2-7-90. Tweets to at SportsRV at Dan Matthews, H-O-U. And you can also tweet our producer. He is at Connor D. McGovern as well. Anything you want to get to on and anything goes Friday. 7-1-3-2-1-7-90 is the phone number. 7-1-2-1-2-5-7-90. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with Connor McGovern. Yes, put that all in a business card. All right, 713, 212, 5790 is the phone number if you want to get in. 713, 212, 5790. We're talking some Texans ball, and I am asking you the question. I don't think we've seen C. Dreary Suroud's ceiling, but how close have we gotten to C.J. Stroud's ceiling? How much are we worried about this regression and ham?

going forward to where, as I mentioned, I mean, similar stats to a DAC Prescott, at least in terms of touchdown to interception ratio in their first full seasons to where you have to ask the question, all right? Well, maybe the situation was more ideal there. Maybe we need to look more into how many turnover worthy throws there were at that moment. And then say, all right, have we seen? I don't say, like I said, I don't think we've seen the best of C.J. Shroud, but I'm going to say I'm worried because there just have been a significant drop in just about every metric you can think of with the interceptions way up and really just on the field. As, you know, as Dan is saying about his confidence, he just doesn't look the same and he's not making the same throws. He also has mentioned it was a bite you guys played on the A team. I'm not exactly sure where it is, but he mentioned being banged up. And that's another thing. And that's something that we will not know and they will not divulge.

I mean, normally you're not going to hear as an excuse, but the fact that he kind of let that out, and we heard about it as far back as the Jets game, with Kirk Herb Street on Amazon Prime talking about it as well. He's not 100% to what extent. We don't know. How hurt is he? We don't know.

He's out there. He does not look like he's moving as well as he was early in the season. And you add all that up with the offensive line issues, with no Stefan Diggs and now no Tank Dell. I mean, performance is suffering, and we have to just wonder where we're going to go from here. Well, it's also, if you're out on the field, then you're expected to play and you're expected to perform. I mean, you can say that.

And he even admitted as much the other day when he said he was banged up. That's not an excuse because he knows if he's out there, he needs to be making plays. And he's not making plays. But it's also, it's part of why he's not making plays. Exactly. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying give him a pass and C.J. Stroud is great because he's hurt right now because I don't know how hurt he is. is. But I will say, if you're asking me, why is C.J. Stroud regressing in his second year, I will

bring up that I don't believe he's 100% healthy. I think last year, when he threw those three interceptions, I think against the Arizona Cardinals, I thought he was concussed. Like, I think a lot of times we say, why, why, why? And especially in the NFL, more than any other, you know, sometimes it happens in baseball, basketball, guy needs surgery, you know, Alex Breggman playing with his elbow hurt. What was it a few years ago? Martín Maldonado had a sports hernia, and he had a broken hand. It'll come out after the fact. But I'm saying if we're searching for the why, I'm saying that's perhaps where we can go, where we can look to. I'm not giving necessarily an excuse and saying, because I don't know how he is, but if we're looking for the why, I think

that could be part of it. It's physical and it's part of it. It's physical and it's mental because, I mean, the physical part is exactly what you just laid out. The mental part is his offensive line. He can say everything he wants. He doesn't believe in that group. His receiver group, aside from Nico Collins, he doesn't really trust any of those guys. And that includes St. And that's, I mean, John Metchie showed some good things the other day, but you're not going to win a lot of football games because John Metchie has a good game or two. You need somebody that can be more consistent and be able to get more separation in their routes than you're getting right now.

So, I mean, I think that all kind of comes to a head where he might go through his reasons. he might go through everything that he needs to go through on the football field. But it's pretty much been proven. If number 12 isn't an option for him, then things start to get a little bit shaky. And they've gotten even shakier this year because he's got less time to be able to try to make something happen out of really nothing. Yeah, where we are is to where, to me, feels like where last year C.J. Stroud was raising the level of the Texans.

This year, he's kind of sinking with the team rather than keeping them afloat as much as he's. could. All right, 713-212-5-7-9 of the phone number. Marcus in Cyprus has gotten in here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. What's up, Marcus? Hey, man, I just wanted time in on the sophomore slump he's going through. I'm actually, I listen to you guys a lot on my lunch break. I'm actually a Cowboys fan. And like y'all were mentioning with Dak Prescott, he went through something similar. And in 2017, his sophomore year, that we played in, we played Atlanta in Atlanta. and a guy named Adrian Claiborne

sack them six times and he never was the same for the rest of that season. So I think something similar is going on with CJ just all the pressure he's getting. That internal clock is all jacked up. If you look at his season last year, he was real successful downfield with the beatball. A lot of teams have seemed to shell that off

and they're making him, you know, take the underneath stuff. And I just think that your hope and him is his rookie season. If he was able to go in as a rookie and process all of that, that tells you everything you need to know. The guy, he has it upstairs.

It's just a failure up front. And, you know, that's where it starts and ends and football is up front. And as good as these guys are, I mean, look at Dak Prescott for an example. He had an all-pro season last year. His O-Line was terrible this year. And that's, that's, that's,

what happens when you have a bad line. These guys, they get happy feet, and once they get that happy feet, that's it. It all starts with their legs, and that's, I'm a firm believer in that if a quarterback can't plan his feet and throw the ball consistently with his feet set, they're done, unless you're Patrick Mahomes, and there's only one of those.

I love to tell Cowboys, man, that I'm sorry, but there's only one Patrick Mahomes. You ain't getting one of him. But hey, man, y'all, keep y'all's head up. Y'all are having a good season, even though it may not be the season you want. But just look at that rookie year. CJ's got all the tools. They're going to bounce back into offseason.

It's his turn to make the adjustment. All right. Oh, thank you, Marcus. We are up against a break. Appreciate you getting in. This is where we are now with Texans fans. We're getting consoled by Cowboys fans. This is not good, Dan.

I don't know. This is not where I want to be. I think I take it the opposite direction. I take it as, okay. Hey, maybe the world is healing a little bit. And we don't have to have so much animosity towards each other. They're actually rooting for us, which appreciate that, Marcus. Things are so bad for the Texans.

Cowboys fans are feeling sorry for C.J. Stroud. Let's talk about this. 713-212-5-7-19. What's next? You know, Texas fans are going to get A&M's traditions and be like, oh, God, no. You know what? They're okay. I get them.

I know we're not burying dead dogs at the stadium. I'm good. All right. We're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. CJ's going to be okay CJ's going to be okay CJ's going to be okay There's an off season man

He'll be fine Go to CJ it's not your fault It's not your fault It's not your fault We don't need to Bring back Robin Williams He'll be okay It's not your fault

All right We're gonna take a quick break here On the Matt Thomas show With Ross But without Matt Thomas With Dan Matthews You guys want to get in We're talking Stroud

We're talking Texans We also got rockets It's on a four-game winning streak. Anything you want to get to, it is. And anything goes Friday at 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Ding. More Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Now on Sports Talk 790. 1048 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Ross v. Real with you. Dan Matthews as well. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews. and Connor McGovern. 713-212-5-790 is your phone number.

7-13-212-5-7-90. If you're just joining us, things have gotten so bad for the Texans. We were getting consoled by a Cowboys fan in the last segment. So that's where we are right now with the Texans. See, I mean, sometimes the enemy of your enemy is your best friend. And in this case right here, I mean, we for years have been chiding cowboy fans. And, you know, it's been a little bit of a turn the other cheek.

So appreciate that. I'd love more of that energy from those in the Metroplex. It would be nice. If you are a cowboy fan and very clearly now, Mike McCarthy is saving his job, you think you're a little party who's upset, wishing that Mike McCarthy would have lost? They've won four in their last five.

Mike Fisher, who covers the Cowboys and has covered him for a long time, apparently there's a rumor that if the Cowboys come to McCarthy with a contract, he's going to say, no, it's been real. I'm out of here. Really? Yeah. What's he going to do? Either just.

Go to another opening? Either that or just step away from coaching. Oh, my God. He's 61 years old. I understand the lack of playoff success there, but, I mean, it's also, too, 12 plus wins a season for the last few years.

And, I mean, this year, notwithstanding, has not gone incredibly well. And I think he kind of is just looking at it as, oh, what I was doing was not good enough for you guys. Okay, watch this. And see how good you are after I'm not here. Yeah, that leverage could go out of the window, though. They got the Eagles and the commanders the final two weeks.

of the season. So we'll see where they are at the end. I think they're better than than people thought they would be. Certainly. Certainly. Especially with Dak Prescott going down. All right. 713-212. 5-790 is the phone number. Art in Lamarck has gotten in here. What's up, Art?

Good morning. How y'all doing? Very well. How are you? All right. Well, I hadn't called you all in a while. But anyway, you know, that's just a great thing. You know, like they're talking about Slowak. It's so popular. You don't did a head coach a job that's and that.

And there's two things last year was CJ's first year. He did rather well, and they gave credit both ways. But here's the second year. And the word might be regression. But the coordinator should make him grow, help him grow. Yes, it doesn't, it hurts when you don't have a line. It hurts. I only want to go to Tarsol's name.

It hurts when you lose receivers. But I mean, you know, and then sometimes we listen to too much what we read and too much what they say during the beginning earlier in season. Maybe we weren't what they said were going to be. But again, you have to have a line and you have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to change on the run. And so like when you run it, when you run the ball the first two plays, throw the third down, what is the defense you're going to do? All the time over and over and over again. and we're talking professional football.

We're not talking high school, where they even can adapt after half time. So anyway, fellas, go Rockets, and I'm just what you're not to say. You take care. I appreciate it, Art. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, they need to adapt.

Well, I mean, that's 31 other teams in the NFL that have to do the same thing. I mean, I get what he's saying. And, you know, one thing that's going to be interesting to ask D'Amico Ryan's after this season is do you kind of feel like their shades of 2010. And I've gone to that example before.

I've remembered 2009 season. You're knocking on the door. God, if Cincinnati can beat the Jets, this Texans team is a playoff team. And then the following year, it was, got everybody back. We're good. It's going to be great.

It was an awful season. If you think this is bad, try going when you played 16 games going 6 and 10. You have one of your best pass rushers have his ankle turned sideways. You have Damiko Ryan's rupture his. Achilles and you had a team that just could not get out of their own way and win ball games. And this team's at least a playoff team. They're a division winner.

They've already won nine games. They've won the division. But it's also, too, there's not a single person in that building that's going to say, hey, it was a great season. Everybody there is going to feel like what could have been? You know, what could this team have done better to have been an even better position to maybe make a run in the AFC? Yeah.

I need to know when Shaq Mason and Drew Scruggs if they're coming back. Because, yeah, if this is going to be the offensive line, if it's going to be Titus, excuse me, Laramie Muntzel, Titus Howard, Jared Patterson, Kendrick Green, and Blake Fisher,

that's four out of five spots, not playing where you plan. People who are in that spot are not who you plan to be in that spot. If this stays, yeah, I'm going to agree that this season is completely cooked and they're not even going to win a wildcard game. As far as I'm concerned, you have three starters on the offensive line you have to replace because Laramie Tunsell, he's not going anywhere. Neither is Titus Howard. And it doesn't matter where you have Titus Howard on the offensive line.

He's going to be here next season. So it's going to be, do you feel good about Jared Patterson at center? All right, at least you answered that question. The guards, in my opinion, that's completely up for grabs. You will absolutely have free agent, trade options, even a draft pick or two. And it's also, too, we hadn't even mentioned Blake Fisher in all of this. I mean, I think that we've seen him look like a rookie at times this season. But again, you're only going to know if you play them.

And I'm glad that at least these last few weeks they've said, hey, we know what we have in Kenyon Green. It's not good. So let's see what we have in this guy and figure out at least if he's a capable option. Yeah. You have to take the training wheels off at some point. And it's been mixed at best to meet with Blake Fisher and what he's done in this offensive line.

And that, to me, has been, is going to be, it's been the biggest storyline and it is going to be the biggest storyline in this upcoming off season. I mean, sure. Who knows if Stefan Diggs wants to come back on a one-year deal or whatever. Like, I'm not even necessarily worried about that. You can hopefully find somebody in free agency when it comes to a wide receiver, or maybe even draft somebody, whatever.

You got Nico Collins wrapped up. I'm worried about what is happening with the offensive line. And as you mentioned, the interior needs to be addressed. Because whatever plan that Nick Casario had envisioned as far as his guys and how well they were going to play, you had Jack Mason even before he got hurt. He was taking a step back. He wasn't very good. And you've just got issues everywhere up there.

Well, priority number one for me on the offensive line is center because that guy is the extension of the quarterback. I mean, look at what we saw for years out of Peyton Manning and with Jeff Saturday. I mean, just how good that group was and how much control they had of both the offense in general and just the line in general. Because the center is the guy that has to be the one who knows everybody's role on that offensive line. They have to control that room. I mean, you go to usually teams will, you know, have position groups, their lockers right next to each other. and the guy who's usually holding court for the offensive lineman is the center. That's the guy that's the captain.

That's the guy that makes everything go with that group. So you've got to find that. And, I mean, you mentioned Jared Patterson. I mean, that's what you need to, you know, go back and evaluate after this season. Is he a guy that can control that group? Is he a guy that can be really the alpha of them? And, I mean, if you don't feel like you have that and you don't feel like you have the continuity between he and C.J. Stroud, well, then you've got to find that.

And I don't think that's a draft pick, but at least somebody out there. There's a reason why everybody looks at tackles and they lock them up. But you know who also gets their money and gets to stick around? It's the center. All right. We are going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We'll have a special treat for you coming up at noon that you want to stay tuned for. We're also going to continue talking about the Texans.

Where is C.J. Stroud relative to his ceiling? What is going on with this Texans offensive line? How cooked are they? for the rest of the season. We're also talking about the Rockets. They've won four in a row and are in the second seed in the Western Conference. Are you catching Rockets Fever? 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. 7-13-212-5-790. We'll take a quick break and be back for hour number two of the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas Show. 11 a.m. straight up. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross is here. On an anything goes Friday at 7-13-21-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. I just got a tweet from Ivan who says Correa is coming back to Houston. Book it. This is my nephew with him in camp. Oh, then he said, man, if only, never mind. All right. That was fake news. You are fake news.

Unbelievable. You just got, you just got daked. I just got duped. It's fine. It happens. Send me more tweets at SportsRV. But you love when Twitter, you know, for whatever team, Astros, Rockets, Texans will go full message board mode. Hey, man.

Hey, hey, hey, you know, my buddy is Carlos Correa's barber. And he has told the Astros, everybody, come get them. You know, he wants to come back to Houston. He wants to be traded for. Come on, man. This is ironclad. This is coming directly from the source. Like Bert Steele? Hold on, Bert Stee. You don't know Bert Steele?

I don't know Bert Steele. Bert Steele was, what was the first thing that Bert Steele was trying to break? It was a bunch of fake news about the rockets over the years. Maybe it was Chandler Parsons? Was it a James Harden trade? Somebody tweet me. What was the first big thing, Bert Steele, the story that he was telling? And people thought he might be actually breaking some news

because he had put on his Twitter like formally, worked at ESPN and stuff like that. I'm trying to pull it up his tweets right now. Yeah, I'm not completely familiar with Bert Steele's work. But, I mean, look, every fan base and all throughout Twitter's got them. I mean, Carlos Beltron's niece, remember Carlos Beltron's niece of, you know, spreading the rumor about the buzzers. And then, of course, you know, you had, you know, people's favorite.

Bert Steele, I'm hearing rumblings that the rockets are all in on DeMarcus Cousous. If Mori can pull this off, the hooker's cigars and scotch are on me. That was in 2015. So it's been a while since Burt's contributed to the sports media landscape? Yes, I think it has been a while. Oh, here we go. Inside sources have told me that Mello will 100% be a rocket by Tuesday. You heard it here first.

They got a thousand retweets. So maybe he was first. Maybe it was the Mello deal that he was first in on. Anyways, but yeah, you know, you got to keep an eye on these folks because sometimes they're right. Sometimes you read your call from the inside information. I remember it was happening here. People were calling us and saying that they saw LeBron James at like some private school and that he and he was going to be coming to the Rockets. Oh, that's, yeah, that's always that.

I mean, there was that with Chris Paul and turned out to be correct because, I mean, I guess he was really looking at schools and seeing where he wanted the young kids to go. Yeah. All right. 713-212-5-790 is a phone number. We've been talking a number of things, mostly Texans here, as we are now two days removed from the double. The Backel, the Christmas nightmare? I don't even know. We got to come up with a name for that to reference it years down the road because it was just an absolute nightmare.

The ratings were good, though. Netflix averaging 25 million viewers for that. Sunday night football this year is having one of its best years in like almost 10 years. It's averaging 22 million. You got a 25 million average and it bumped up to 27 million during Beyonce. Yeah, sorry, LeBron James. The NBA, it's no longer your day. I even look up the Lakers and Warriors ratings?

I think that I read this morning that the NFL numbers were five times what the NBA's was. I mean, look, aside from a couple of players in the league right now, people don't care unless you have a direct rooting interest in the NBA right now. Well, this is good. 7.76 million viewers for Warriors and Lakers. It was actually a good game. anywhere close to $25 million on Netflix, mind you, on a streaming service. And it was on ABC, I believe, and ESPN was Lakers Warriors. But that's at least a step in the right direction for the NBA ratings,

which have been tanking hard this year. And it was actually a good game, too. I mean, that was the only of all of the five on NBA Christmas Day that I watched. And both stars showed up. That's another good point. The ratings up there where it was good games all day. I think every game was within, single digits for the NBA all day long.

Both NFL games were duds. Like if those were good games, if those were close games, if somehow we lived in one of the multiverses where the Texans were keeping close to the Ravens, that they wouldn't even, it would have been even further of a gulf in between the two. No, because, I mean, it'd be interesting to see the third and fourth quarter numbers. I mean, especially after Beyonce performed, where it's, all right, what is there really to watch now?

You're saying there was a steep rise and then Beyonce left and then there was a, planes make slower descents into airports than what you saw right there it was a complete nose dot flaccid is what you're saying it was leading to that it was the nose dive before the flaccid

state all right anyway 713-2 that's my phone I did that 713212 I walked into it I know what the room is here I'd like to apologize here so I'd no one to blame but myself on that one I'm going to look in the mirror I'm going to try to get better and you know we're going to come back and

and next man up and next segment up. The precedent has been said. You know who you are. You know what this show is from 10 to 2 every single day. It's just maybe every once in a while a different voice in the room. That's all it is. Dad jokes and double entendres. The Matt Thomas show with Ross, 10 to 2 here on Sports Talk 790. Last night on the Rockets wrap, I was like, be on with you guys tomorrow at noon. Oh, wait, no, 10 to 2 here on sport. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. We're on 10 to 2 here on sports talk 790. Matt Thomas is out. We're talking a number of things going on. But I was also, as we were talking about the offensive line, it's funny because I kind of

see this a lot, Dan. People are like, just tell Nick Casario, you just got a drafted offensive line in every single round of the draft. Just do it, just like Nick, do it. Well, the problem with that is Nick Casario drafted Kenyon Green in the first round of the 2022 draft. Nick Casario drafted Juke Scruggs and Blake Fisher in the second round. So there has been draft cash. spent on the offensive line. They're doing the right thing that way. They're just not finding their guys. If you take a center in the second round, he's supposed to be really good.

If you take a guard in the first round where that, what was it? What was Kenyon Green? Was he 15, 15, 20-ish somewhere in that neighborhood? Yeah, it sounds about right. So, I mean, if you take somebody that early in the first round at guard, it needs to be a can't miss. So clearly is what I'm saying is, A lot of the blame needs to lie on Nick Casario in these draft picks that have been spent high draft picks. Blake Fisher, TBD.

We're not going to say that he's a bust or anything like that. He's coming along. He's at least playing better than he was early in the season. He needs to gain some strength. We'll see what he can do as far as a tackle going forward. I think that was a good pick. But right now, those three guys that I just mentioned in the last three years, you've taken those guys in the second or first round.

So draft capital is being spent on the offensive line. It's just not bearing fruit. That's why I think the concern is valid. I mean, certain GMs do have a blind spot to certain positions. I mean, I brought up the quarterback example before. There's a reason why teams and certain GMs have not been able to find a quarterback. They just might not know how to evaluate a quarterback as well as other positions. Nick Asario has shown you he can evaluate linebackers, for example.

He can evaluate defensive backs. We've seen that this year. The defensive backs he brought in with this draft class been fantastic. and Lasseter and Kaelin Bollick. I mean, probably even the second guy is exceeded, far exceeded expectations. And he might just not necessarily be as a depth at being able to evaluate good offensive line play. It's a difference between seeing what the guy is able to do in college because sometimes it translates, sometimes it doesn't. But clearly, you know, I don't know if he needs to get another set of eyes as part of his support group in there.

with scouts and assistant GMs or anybody else to kind of help them out with that. But maybe that's one of his shortcomings. Yeah. I mean, in theory, this offensive line coming into this season was one of the highest paid tackles in the league at left tackle. It was a first round pick at left guard. It's a second round pick at center. And it's two fairly higher priced free agents on the right side. So in a vacuum, saying all that without any of their names, you're like,

okay, we got a first round pick, a second round pick, and three highly paid free agents. This should be a really good offensive line. It just has not materialized at all. Well, and that's the thing as well. I mean, you're bringing up the draft example of, oh, go draft this guy. Go draft that guy. You know, go do all of that. Well, you have to get them right.

Exactly. I mean, that's really the heart of it all is getting the, you know, the individual player is not a hard thing to do. It's about making sure that that individual player is the right guy. and clearly for the examples that you gave out, he's not had a very good batting average when it comes to being able to identify that guy. Yeah, so he's due. He's due.

Maybe Blake Fisher will turn out to be a stud and then he can get somebody in this upcoming draft that's going to be really good and you'll be set. I still maintain that the majority of the offensive line changes you're going to have this offseason will be either through draft or a draft, through free agency or trade. Yeah, it's,

there's just no, easy way to do it because all 32 teams it's every 30 look if you reach general manager of the NFL obviously they're going to be guys who are going to be boneheaded make boneheaded moves and some are going to be better than others but if you ask 32 general managers how important is offensive line

they're going to tell you it's of the utmost importance well I mean and that's what you heard the head coach saying last year but he was more talking about the defensive line just because of how badly they got physically just crushed dominated by the Ravens in the second half of that playoff game and I remember that Monday where he talked about we have to control

the line of scrimmage. I would probably do that on Wednesday. I would probably guarantee you that when that final press conference of the season comes, which it will come sooner rather than later, you're going to have him talking about that on the offensive line this year. Yeah, you have limited resources, and it's the beauty of the NFL, is that

it is a hard-capped league. That's why, to me, it has the most parity. To me, it is the most interesting year-to-year because of that hard cap. So, but that's, those are the rules you play by. You can't sign everybody. You can't draft everybody. You can't keep everybody. Nick Casario's got to figure this out.

And offensive line is priority number one in the off season. Well, you better make sure you get it right this next year because after this, all of the fun things you just talked about, they go away. Because you've got to sign the quarterback. Yes, you do. And when you sign the quarterback, that's... Well, unless he's terrible again. Then you can think about it. He's going to be signed to a long-term extension.

I know. He'll be better. I mean, he... You don't let a guy like C.J. Stroud go. He's not hitting free agency. 100% with you. I get you. So we'll see what happens with this offensive line as it continue to try to build it. I mean,

and that's really the only choice that you have. I mean, you know, you wanted to be able to go into this next offseason by being able to add more toys, either at the receiver position. Maybe you go get a really good tight end out there. Dalton Schultz, you've been fine, but I'm not going

to get where I want to go because of Dalton Schultz. Now he could be part of it, but he's not going to be the reason. that I'm there, there's improvements to be made at the skill positions. There's zero doubt about that. Yeah. But it feels almost like we're similar to where we were last year. First and foremost, I mean, there's people who get their foundation of their house reworked on for a reason.

You've got to rebuild the foundation and the foundation's the offensive line. All right, we're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. You want to get in. We're talking some Texan 713-212-5-790. Has your trust in C.J. Stroud wavered. Where are we out on Nick Casario as well? As I bring that up, all those picks on offensive linemen, and none of them have been smash hits at this point. And Kenyon Green, to me, I mean, he's a bust right now.

He is. It is what it is. And to be determined on Blake Fisher. 713-212-5-790. The phone number if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. News at noon. And a special treat for all of your ears coming up at noon as well here on Sports

Sports Talk 790 and the Matt Thomas show with Ross. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. DJ Kahnishan, Sunny, Sunny, yeah. Continuing along here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews. Yeah, I'm here.

And with Connor McGovern as well, producing playing the ones and twos. I like you when you go to the Irish, Connor McGovern. More. Oh, Connor McGovern. fine lad from Limerick. He's one of the finest He's from Limerick now.

Okay, I always thought he was from Belfast. Strong as an old oaken bucket. Although, you know, Belfast, isn't that? Or is he from Belfast? Isn't that those Northern Irish? Oh, is he from Dublin? I don't know. All right, welcome back here on the show. Got to watch out for those Northern Irish now.

Ross, Villarreal here as well. We'll go into the Spanish accent. And we're with you until 2 o'clock. We've got news at noon coming up, and a special treat for you as well. In the meantime, you can get in, 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90.

A quick shout-out. Jonathan Fagan. Yes. Been covering the rockets for, what, 30 years at this point for the Houston Chronicle has announced his retirement. I'm going back to look for the official statement. Yeah, today is his last day at the Houston Chronicle. He is hanging them up. And Jonathan Fagan, shout out to him.

I mean, as far as you wanted Rockets News from a reliable source, you turned to Jonathan Fagan. I mean, I used to read him in the newspaper back in the day and wishing him the best in retirement. He's been great. Same as you. I mean, I remember, you know, trying to rip away the sports page whenever it would come to the house in the morning. And, I mean, yeah, he was a constant. And, you know, I remember the first time got to meet him when I started doing this work back in 2009 and professional in every sense of the word. I mean, it's a massive loss for not only the readers.

but also too, I mean, just the fans in general, because you knew that if you're getting the story from him, it was well vetted, it was well sourced, and it's going to be a little bit different seeing somebody else on that byline. Yeah, and as somebody who, you too, as well, Dan, you've been in media scrums, and then there's people sometimes, you get eye rollers. You're like, what is this person doing? They're asking questions just to ask. Jonathan Fagan, a professional in all of the press availability, he asked good questions, he asked the right questions, he asked the questions that us as fans and readers and listeners want to know, need to know, he is always

like he's got 100% hit rate with questions where he's talking to the coach, talking to the players or whatever. That is an underrated skill in this day and age, but something that he is so good at. Well, it's doing the job the way it's supposed to be done. You do the job. You don't look for extra commendation. You don't look for any sort of notoriety because, oh, you ask the question. I mean, you're exactly right. He's there to do his job and really not concerned with anything else. And you're right. I mean, a lot of times in a scrum, less is more. You don't have to ask a question. It's already been asked, then it's fine. I mean, you know, I don't need to know why Bobby Sloick was not wearing a hat on the side. What does that do for me? What does that do for anybody? You think the fans care about that? No, I don't need that question. Exactly. So Jonathan Fagan now retiring from the Houston Chronicle, wishing him well in a retirement and a great career. It has been here in the city of Houston. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Chris in Jersey Village has been holding. What's up, Chris? Hey, Ross. Good afternoon, guys. A couple of points. First, earlier this week, I posed. the question, what do the Texans had to play for on Christmas Day? And I couldn't agree more with

what Dan said. Dan said everything made it sound like our season was on the line. We had to play this game like it was a win or lose. That's the way it sounded Dan. But I have to say, playing Pittsburgh with losing to Baltimore is probably the best thing we could have done. So I totally disagree with our decision to play CJ the entire game and play some of our corner Stone players the entire game. I think they needed a mental break, especially playing so many games in 11, 12 days, whatever it was.

And I just felt like that was a mistake there. And you guys were talking about the offensive line and all the high draft picks. You know, maybe these guys were drafted before Bobby Slovak in this zone scheme blocking that we're doing. Maybe these guys that were drafted before Bobby got here

were better suited for other schemes. And I think that's what a lot of us are saying right now with Bobby Slovak is, yes, we have hurt players, so you have to adapt and play to your player's strengths. You know, I think that's what happened in Baltimore. For the first couple of years, when the quarterback was there, they didn't play to his strengths. They changed offensive coordinators,

and now they do a different scheme. So maybe that's part of it. these guys were drafted before Bobby got here and we're trying to fit a square peg and a round hole. Good show guys. I appreciate it. I mean, I was more coming at it from the standpoint of you're not going to beat Baltimore twice. You said to rest your start, the starters? I didn't say, no, no, no, no, no, I know. I was you to clarify that. I was saying, I was saying it from the standpoint of if you can get to the three seed, I think you feel better about your chances of being able to advance in the playoffs. If you have to play Baltimore again, maybe you would have beat them

the other day, which obviously you lost by 29 points. So that's out the window. But the point is you aren't going to beat them twice. You're not good enough to beat them twice. That's a really good coaching staff. That's a really good team. And even though it would be back at your place again, it's a blessing in disguise that you don't have to play them again,

more than likely until you maybe get to the AFC championship game. I think you get to the AFC championship game. Everything else of this season has forgotten about. because it's, hey, this group got there. Now you really are seeing progress. Now we can truly believe that next year is a massive step forward season. That's where I'm going out from. It would take winning a home game against the Steelers,

possible, and then going on the road and upsetting, I mean, depending on who it's going to be, as of right now, it would be the Kansas City Chiefs. But did you, unless you get an upset lower in the playoffs, because thankfully the NFL is smart and they received the playoff. playoffs. Here's the thing, though. I mean, do you necessarily believe that the Texans came out of that game against Kansas City feeling like we were overmatched? We can't beat these guys. We can't play with these guys. I don't. That's another thing. I know it's a hard sell for me to say that we're

overreacting to a 31 to 2 game. It was an absolute abject failure in all three phases of the game. It was embarrassing. It was on national television. 25 million people tuned in to watch the Texans get eviscerated. But the week before, as you just said, they played pretty close with the Kansas City Chiefs. They led that game 10 to 7. Now, clearly the Chiefs were better in that game, but I didn't come away from that game saying the Texans aren't anywhere in the Kansas City Chiefs League. So this being a week-to-week league, and I know, again, a hard sell because this was the absolute, this is the worst game the Texans have played in what? Years and years, it feels like. And the stage that it happened and not looking anywhere close to the Baltimore Ravens.

But if you get 10 days of rest, you played your starters just a smattering against the Titans, you get back in rhythm, you get a little bit more rest that way, and that you've afforded yourself the luxury of winning the division, and this is being class half full to where you get all this rest, you don't really play your starters in the Titans, and you're fresh and ready to go in a couple of weeks for a home game hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's not the worst situation in the world, as long as you get your guys back on the offensive line.

See, here's the glass half full scenario, exactly the way that it played out, because let's just say that the results with both games you lost, So some people might say it doesn't matter. But if you went to Kansas City and you lost the way that you just did on Christmas Day, you're probably saying, man, maybe there is something about this place having magic for them here. You know, maybe it is mental when you face these guys. I don't think that that's the case.

I think the fact that you went there, you had a catastrophic injury to one of the guys that was really having a really good game. And I think for the most part, people are looking at Tank Dell and looking at Bobby Sloak and saying, dude, where was this? like why why wasn't this considered more? Why why wasn't this part of the game plan more? And once that happened, the air completely came out of the balloon for that one. Yeah. And I mean, I know that you're not.

That air is not coming back. No, it's not going to. Even next year. So your offense is going to look different if indeed you do get that opportunity to the second time. But it's also too as well, kind of back to the lesson that I said that C.J. Straub would learn. It's you are never out of the fight. I mean, don't ever take yourself out of the fight.

And some people believe with, you know, the way he reacted after Tank got hurt, he took himself out of the fight. So what's a better way to, you know, try to regain someone's confidence? Give him another chance. And if he gets that chance again, you'd love to see if CJ Stroud can maybe say, hey, you know what, I'm still that guy. I can still do this. I just think, I mean, especially if the run game is being bottled up,

it's Nico Collins and a whole lot of, ugh, in the passing. game. So that's going to be tough. It's going to be really tough. But that's, I mean, that's, that's, that's one of the best examples. I think, you know, we played some audio from Chris Sims yesterday. And he was talking about, yeah, Joe Mixon's had a great season, but he's also been able to run against bad teams. When you face a good team, he's not been able to do that. So then Bobby Sloick, let me talk directly to you again. How do you fix that? You get him involved in the passing game. Yeah. And also, I think, speaking of people being banged up, I mean, there's multiple ankle injuries this year for Joe Mix.

And I think these 10 days off plus very light work, if any, against the Titans, is going to do him well and have him ready to go for the playoffs. So I'm starting to convince myself that at least they aren't a complete disaster. Battle Red Ross is back, baby. You are Frank Costanza, where you regain the love of cooking again. I'm back, baby. 31 to 2. I never even saw it.

All right, we're going to take a quick break here. That's the way I always make it. Well, it sucks. With Ross. Coming up, we got the news at noon, a special treat for you at noon as well. You want to get in. Thank you. I was waiting for that, Connor.

713212-5-790. The phone number, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Nothing can stop me. I'm all the way up. 1133 of the a.m. Here on Sports Talk 790. Ross v. Real with you on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan.

Matthews and Connor McGovern. We'll have the news at noon coming up and also a special treat for you there. Is this the Armed Forces Bowl getting, well, getting into the middle of the first quarter as owe you up 14 to nothing on Navy? What's the opt-in rate on this bowl? I think they're only. If I'm not mistaken, did I hear AC say this yesterday or somebody said it that 30% of their roster was in the portal? So, I mean, this might be a... Those who stay will be Armed Forces Bowl Champions game for OU.

So good for them. I think, you know, Danny Stutzman and some of those guys are playing. But yeah, such as bowl season now. That's what we get is... Everybody in the portal. Although, I believe Coach Prime has a lot of the Colorado Buffalo's playing the game, correct? Yeah, I mean, as far as I know, I think you are still going to see Travis Hunter and some of the guys. It's been a lot of hype.

for them there in San Antonio. You know, it's the story to hallowed Alamo Bowl. As a Texas Longhorn fan, I can tell you, the Alamo Bowl, one of the best in the biz. And the New Age college football, that is, two conference teams playing against each other. Two out of the Big 12 right there. I think that, what was it?

Jake Retzloff, the quarterback for BYU, called it the People's Big 12 championship game. This is the People's Big 12 championship game. So, whatever that means. Big 12 supremacy on the line. That's how I call it. That's how I called the two. 2019 Longhorns

NIT championship, the People's Championship. Inside the office building that they call a stadium there, the Alamo Bowl. You're not playing for anything that really matters. You're playing for pride. It's the People's Championship at the Alamo Bowl. We always joke on this show because I've been to like three Alamo Bulls

as a Longhorns fan. Matt always says there is a seat for me, save with my name on it. That's not true at the Alamo Bowl, but have I taken an old Greyhound bus back and forth from San Antonio? You don't want to. With the Alamo Bowl trip in between? Maybe I have. You don't concern yourself with the Alamo Bowl anymore. Come on.

Well, I might be. We'll see. The standards are much higher now where, I mean, it's even getting to the point where I guess there's not really New Year's Six bowl games anymore because they've been absorbed into the 12-team playoff. But that would have been where finally, you know, you know you're in a good place as a fan base where you finally say, we're playing in the Sugar Bowl, not for the whole thing. Yeah, no thing. So I'm not going. Yeah, well, with the 12th team Playoff, the expectation would be to get in every year. But that's also, there's 30 programs

who are saying we should be in the playoff every year. So Alabama says that. They're not in. Lane Kiff and Ole Miss probably says that they're not in. It's going to be a year-to-year thing. So, I mean, maybe it's kind of a case-by-case basis, too, where if you're playing in the Pop-Tarts Bowl, then, yeah, you want to go and you want to get your Pop-Tart.

You're going to go crush some Pop-Tarts. Yeah, that'd be great. Miami, another team, I guess Clemson, is or was in. Which I think they are actually in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Miami is. Okay, good for them. Yeah, they're playing against Iowa State. So, wishing them the best. All right, we are

rolling along here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Christian and Lamarck has got in. So let's go ahead and clear the floor for Christian. Go ahead. You are on the show. Good. Morning. Ross Villarillo.

Dan Matthew and then. Tom, Governor. Yep. Hey. Hi, Christian. How are you? How was your Christmas, Christian?

My Christmas was all right. Average and boring because of the fact that the Texans lost 31 to 2, but all right. Don't let them scrooge it. Do you have Netflix Christian or do you steal somebody's password? No, I was watching it on, you know, the station that Matt Thomas H. Channel 11. CBS? Does he hate them?

Yes. He hated them back when Taitna was having their issues. with DirecTV. Remember? That's right. I remember what you're talking about. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Christian. Yeah, but still, Ross, I just basically learned to ask these two questions.

First of all, even though Houston hasn't really been in the sports spotlight outside of the Astros, of course, losing to Detroit, I just wanted to basically ask, what was your favorite Houston-related sports moment of 2024?

And second of all, with Jonathan Fagan retiring, I'd and read the post earlier this morning about it. What were your favorite memories about Johnson Fagan covering the Rockets for the Houston Chronicle? Favorite moments? I don't have any specific moments necessarily, but just the fact that he was always there. He was a great writer. He always told the story.

He was extremely reliable on the beat. I mean, the quintessential beat writer is somebody who's going to write postgame articles. They're going to write features throughout. the year. They're going to be at press conferences. They're going to ask good questions. They're going to, I just be there for everything you need covering every facet of a team. And on top of that, breaking news here and there, you know, it's not like he's to the level of woe or shams or anything like that. But oftentimes throughout the years, he would break some stories. So basically checking every single box of what a beat reporter is, which is becoming a

lost art. And, you know, as it goes along with these newspapers making cuts, which I hope it wasn't the suffering of a cut for Jonathan Fagan and his retirement, but if I had to guess, maybe it's something like that with the Houston Chronicle. I don't know. But just checking every box, that's what Jonathan Fagan did as a beat reporter for an NBA team. It's the same for me. I mean, you know, as I mentioned in the last segment, he did the job. I mean, and that's something that I think is a law start in this business,

is it's people who want to make a name for themselves. they have ulterior motives for why they're doing the job. And he did exactly that. He showed up. He worked. And he was, you know, able to provide outstanding content in return. Oh, understood. And just to ask question number two, what was your favorite Houston sports moment of the year?

That was actually good for one. I got a loud card game last year. That was fun. Yeah, beating up on Joe Flacco and the Cleveland Browns, that was. was fun. I was like, this team is on. And then we don't have to talk about what happened the next week. Understood, understood.

But definitely for certain, I agree with y'all. That Brown's Texans' moment was definitely worth it. Mostly because everybody was mad that Joe Flacko, who got off his lazy rear-in just to come back and took an award from Hamlin. I mean, just to, I mean, basically, he wanted to come back a war for nothing. and he literally got whooped just because he wanted to come back for Deshawn Watson. But still, though, point of the matter is I agree with y'all. Brown's Texans was definitely the top-notch moment of Houston sports this year,

and hopefully we'll have more in 2025 to look out there. Yeah, hopefully some better ones. Other than that, sports RV, it's been fun talking with you. I didn't even notice that y'all moved up two hours to do four extra hours. Yes. four extra hours of this show. It sucks that the other guy, Northleet, ain't on here anymore, but hey,

hopefully I'll listen to y'all more often and I'll talk to you on social media until then, Ross, it's been fun. Yes, thank you, Christian. Yes, Stan Northleet, speaking of Jonathan Fagan and cuts at newspapers and stuff like that, it happens in the radio business as well, an unfortunate casualty of the business we have chosen, Dan. But, yeah, we are on 10-2-2 here on Sports Talk 790.

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt out today. I think he's back Monday. And we'll be with you, I mean, starting next year. Make a New Year's resolution to listen to all four hours here on Sports Talk 7-80. And plus next week we get D of the year, correct? Oh, that is right. We are going to get D of the year. And as far as, I mean, I'm trying to come up with great sports moments from this year. Maybe Ronelle Blanco is no hitter.

Okay. Yeah. No, absolutely. That's up there for sure. I mean, Jalen Green's March, the entire month of March, he was incredible. and that's when I was like, oh my God, he's unlocking his full potential. He's going to be a star shooting guard. And, well, that hasn't happened, but he did have 30 points for the rockets leading the way in a win over the pelican. So at least we have that. Astros in Mexico City, maybe, because that was fun. That's the one that kind of turned the season around at that point.

And did Frumber get a no-hitter this year? Was that last year? You got another one this year, right? He was close. He was close. No, that's right, because it was against the Rangers. and didn't he give up like a two-run-homer?

Yeah, he got close. That's right. One out shy. That's what it was earlier this year as I pull it up. Two-run homer to Corey Seeger. I remember now. Thank you for jogging my memory on that. But yeah, the Ronell Blanco no-hitter,

I don't know, Jalen Green's March, the win over the wild card win. Back when we really, really believe these Texans were going to be something, Dan, many, many moons ago. The calendar now turns to 2025. I mean, that's the thing, is all from the beginning of this season.

It kind of was a little bit of, is this a harbinger of what's to come? I mean, the Minnesota game, we thought was an anomaly. And then after that, we were like, I was concerned then with all the pressures that are given up for sure. That's who this team is. We kept waiting and waiting and waiting for them to say, look, they're not playing their best ball.

Maybe they'll really start improving and getting better. Kind of what the Chiefs did. They're back-to-back Super Bowl champions, so a different team we're talking about. But Chiefs were winning close games, not looking their best, but they have really rounded into form of the last four weeks, looking like a strong contender, was hoping something like that.

It would happen with the Texans. Unfortunately, that has not come to pass. 713-2125-790 is the phone number. We're going to take another quick break here on Sports Talk 790 coming up at noon. We will have the news at noon as we reset all the news topics of the day. We also will have a special treat for you coming up at noon. I think you know what it'll be. We also will have the special Friday intro.

Oh, my goodness. We might have to push the news at noon back. We'll have to see what goes on here. but we're going to be with you until 2 o'clock. You shouldn't go anywhere. As I said, yes, the Matt Thomas show is 10 to 2 here on Sports Talk 790 at 713, 212, 5790. More Matt Thomas show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790.

Welcome in to the final segment of the second hour of the Matt Thomas show, four hours. Yes, Christian just hearing. For those of you, not aware, we are The Matt Thomas Show with Ross from 10 to 2, although Matt's not here. You know, but there was a little bit of an adjustment for some of the callers because at

245 some days I would get... Still? Yeah. It is... It's tailed off for the last month, but yeah, I'm pulling a play, believe it or not. You know what I need to start doing if I do get any of those today?

I need to... Come on. What was your favorite part of the show today? That's what Matt Thomas would do. The prize horse clocks have not adjusted completely. We are on 10 to 2. There's that. So the believe it or not segment, which is not on today, normally at 145.

So there you go. An hour earlier, so adjust your times accordingly. But it's that. Or it's also, too, the way that we give away our prizes on the A team is we ask a question. So then, you know, of course people will call. I'll usually time it out, you know, count down from 20 and then no. Okay, you know, they heard the question. So let's see if we get an answer.

Oh, man, what was the question? Click. See you. I don't do it. I don't do it. Okay. Thank you, Dan. But one standing ovation I will give today, you notice that I was here with plenty of time to spare before the show.

You know, standing ovation for the drivers out there in Houston today. Oh, because they weren't there. Because you did holiday traffic right. There wasn't 55-mile-an-hour drivers in the middle lanes, clogging things up for everybody else. There wasn't useless breaking at any times. You did it well.

I know that I complain a lot about the drivers of this city, but today A plus work. I feel like Domingo after a win in the locker room. I'm giving out game balls. You guys did a great job. Game ball for all of you out there today. Helmut stickers to follow. Yeah, we're all proud of you. All right, 713-212-570 is the phone number. Dan Matthews is here. I am here. Ross v. Real.

Matt Thomas, on vacation. he will be back on Monday. Larry, in industry, as called in here on the show. Larry, go ahead. Hey, buddy. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. That's great. Hey, how come your voice goes up like a little girl every once in a while? Yeah, what hell's your problem, man? My voice says, I'm more of a cackler when it comes to laughing, but I mean, it's who I am,

and I'm always going to be who I am. I'm sorry if you have a problem with it, Larry. you gotta be who you are, buddy. And I will be, Larry. You wanted to know how to name that game. It's the Grinch game, because the Grinch stole Christmas, and he stole a bunch of money out of my wallet. I thought you'd do it at least... Hey, Larry, how come you tell terrible jokes on air?

Oh, no. How can I? I said, how come? I lost you. I know. You're very lost, Larry. Go ahead. Do you want to make a point about the Texans?

Ah, well, and I just... hope they rest everybody get the back of quarterback in there, get him from reps, and let our quarterback just take a day off and get his mind right for the next game, and we'll hope for the best, you know. Yeah. Do you mind if I ask you a baseball question? Sure, go ahead. Anything goes?

I know we're talking football season, but, you know, we got paraded at third now, so we got Walker at first. We still got to have a right filter. you cannot go in the season with, you know, McCormack and Myers and DuBond. There's no way that works. You agree? I think I agree. I don't know if Jim Crane and his pocketbook and Dana Brown agree.

Well, they need to get that pocketbook out and do something with it. But, yeah. Anyway, I'll let y'all talk and happy New Year, y'all. All right, thank you, Larry. I love to talk to y'all this year. It was great. Thank you, Larry. Appreciate you getting in.

Yeah, as far as, and we do have some baseball news coming up at the news at noon as well, it's going to have to be cheap. Is Jason Hayward going to come back? I mean, Alex Verdugo has been a name that's been floated. They're not going to be big game hunting as far as the outfield. It's going to be a warm body, and it's not going to be anybody that's going to really, really get the juices flowing and get you excited for this Astros off season. I mean, Verdugo, I think, would actually be a little bit more than I would expect.

I would think, I mean, Travis Jankowski is out there. He's somebody that had a pretty good season a couple of years ago. Another one that I would possibly keep an eye on is there's history between Dana and him. And a guy that's done pretty well here at Minute Maid Park, I would probably make a run at Adam Duvall. Now, there's a lot of strikeouts in that bat. I get that. But there's also a lot of pull power in that bat. And a guy that can, in a pinch play center field for you as well.

He's done that in the past. you could do a lot worse than going after a guy like Adam Duvall. It'll be interesting to see. And there will be names. And I think we'll come along and it'll be one of those. There's always the headliners of free agency. It's going to be Juan Soto. It's going to be Alex Bregman.

It's going to be those types of guys, the Corbyn Burns is of the world, Blake Snells. But there will be somebody that's going to be left on the table. That's going to be good value. And I think the Astros are going to be able to find a warm body for the album. Is Dana Brown able to pull off the outfield version of Josh Hader last year? Because remember, it was about, what, mid-January, whenever it was, where you had the Dana Brown. Hey, what about Josh Hader?

Hey, let's give him five years, $95 million. With the Christian Walker deal, they're already into the tax for next year, correct? Oh, okay. So two straight years of doing that. Yeah, so look, if Jim Crane wants to do it, that'd be great. And if he wants to keep doing it, that's not my money. and all the old people calling him cheap can shut y'all bum ass up. He's about to be in the tack for two straight years.

Well, and, you know, I mean, we heard Dana Brown talking about how excited he was about Jacob Melton last year is Melton a guy that can break camp. Yeah. It feels like that's a little early timeline-wise, but we shall see certainly. Time for another break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Larry talked about something that we've been discussing. We'll also bring that up. Should the Texans full sit their starters or you treat it like a preseason?

game or do you go full bore all four quarters to build momentum in the playoffs of course that's not going to happen? Should the Texans just give up? That's your question right there. All right. So we'll get into that and Alex Breggman news coming up on the news at noon after this quick break. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 12 o'clock in H-town. Good welcome to our number three of a Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas and with Dan Matthews. This is Sports Talk 790. We hated Prince because he showed his package.

He did? Justin Timberlake. We hate them all. Prince took it out? Well, I mean, it was, I don't know if he took it out. I think that's what old members do to say, hey, you just can't jump in here and jump in and get and grab our pie. Ross, do you care to deduct the genesis of that call?

Did Michael Blueblaze sleep with his wife in the green room? Keith, go ahead and talk while Dan swallows. What's up, man? I like the lean and the moist. You're going to sneeze. Here comes. One, two. Now you talked about it and it went away.

Oh, well, that's good. It helped. No. Sometimes you've got to get it out, Matt. And who doesn't like the lean and the moist? Are you a lean guy or a moist guy? I think the well-done lean is the goat, but you have to be at the right place. Well done lean brisket?

No, no, okay. I don't mean, okay, I don't mean cooked well done. Okay. As an overcooked. Oh, you mean like lean brisket. Done perfectly, well crafted. No, I need perfect amount of the fall apart. Yeah, but when you get the lean done right, it's juicy.

I mean, it's... Oh, geez, I feel like this could all be getting clipped now, too. Yeah, you definitely stepped into it. Maybe I saved you from jumping in there too quickly, which if I did, you're welcome. But I definitely think that the fatiness, you know, it's kind of a lot of, you know, like a ribby. You know, Matthew McConaughey. You got to fight it. Matthew McConaughey taught us on Bustin with the boys that ribby is the steak

and because it's got the perfect balance. It's got really good amount of the cow, but it's also got enough for the gristle to be able to add that flavor as well. Yeah. I mean, ribby is great. Sometimes you've got to fight a ribby though. And that's why I don't fight the ribby. I also like the New York strip as well. Oh, I mean, I don't.

I definitely don't step away from a New York strip, a filet. A really good I put third. But anyways, food talk 790. It's the overrated of all of them, I feel like. I feel like filet. I'm like, hey, give me a little bit of the grisily.

If they have to wrap it in bacon, your steak isn't that good. And a lot of times you'll see bacon wrapped filet on the menu. Anyways, stopping Food Talk 790 for a moment. We got a lot of stuff to give you. We can break steak talking. What is happening in the world of sports? We got to the news at noon with Dan Matthews here on the Matt Tommy show with Ross. Yeah, news guy voices your thing.

Okay, good. You know, I mean, I just show up with the nice... I don't even mean to do it. I just hear this music and it just starts happening. I can't help it. It's just, you know, I've got the nicely crafted suits, though. So at least I've got that to my game. You know, I just, I don't have the news guy hair.

That's the problem. But maybe we can work on that. Rockets beat the Pelicans, 128, 111, New Orleans. Jalen Green, 30 points. 6 of 11 from 3. That's nice to see out of him. How about Cam Whitmore? I think you had a lot of people who were part of the Cam Whitmore fan club calling in last night on Rockets Wrap from what I could hear.

I think he's going into the Hall of Fame actually. He might be on a tour at pace, 27 points off the bench. And it's going to be you again tonight for launch pad and rap. Minnesota Timberwolves in town. City Connect Unis or City Edition. The City Connect is baseball. City Edition is the NBA. So you're going to have the old summit floor.

in the H-town Unis tonight for the Rockets against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yes, the competition ramping up for the Rockets who have won four in a row, as you mentioned. Good shooting from Jalen Green, 6 of 11 from 3. How about Fred Van Fleet getting those numbers up? Overall, career 37% shooter coming into last night under 30% from 3, but a good 7 of 12, good for 25 points. So with this stretch of some tough games coming up in this five games, homestand. If you can get Jalen Green and Fred Van Vleet knocking down threes, that's going to go a long way.

You've mentioned it. We've given our shoutouts, but we can't give enough shoutouts to this guy. Jonathan Fagan's stepping away from the Rockets coverage on the Houston Chronicle, 27 years on the beat. Like you said, true professional in every single way. And the stories, by the way, too, if you see people who are reacting to it on Twitter, both people in the industry, fans, everybody of the sort, it's, hey, we're going to miss you, man. Yeah, he's going to tip a cap from everyone. Zach Lowe covered the NBA for years at the ESPN before getting laid off. By the way, I mean, to me, the best basketball rider on the planet laid off by ESPN.

Don't even get me started with them. But anyways, giving kudos also, what is his name? Matt, is it Matt Miller? Who is Hardwood? Yeah, I think that's. I think that's Matt Miller. It's Matt something or other. Matt Moore, sorry, excuse me, I got it.

There you go. Matt Moore, who is a national. Matt Miller is the basketball guy. So, I mean, Tim McMahon. Everybody's weighing in. And it makes me happy. It makes me feel good because, I mean, what I thought of my head is like, Jonathan Fagan is so good.

As I mentioned, checking all the boxes, writing good stories as far as game stories, writing good features in season, covering the team, answering the right questions. There for every game, home or road. He is the quintessence of a great beat reporter, and he will be missed here in the Houston media, especially for someone like me who we hear on radio, we play a lot of these postgame availabilities. A lot of times these answers we get and we play on the radio. deal or only as good as the people asking those questions.

You're hurting our programming, Jonathan. You're hurting my post games and my pregame because your great, correct, right, necessary questions that you ask are going to be missing. What would Darrell Murray? So I'm upset. What would Darrell Morris say to Jonathan Fagan today? Okay, fine. I'll be, just for this the end of the year, I'll be your performance monkey.

Great loss for the city of Houston and Jonathan. and we've had our battles over the year, but I have great respect for Jonathan and what he's done for a Houston media market over the last several years and are wishing them the best in retirement. Daryl, what were some of those battles? He thought James Hardin wasn't going to win us a championship,

and while he was right on that one, but I ran 765 simulations in multiverses, and we were in championships and 204 of them, So he was wrong in that sense, but in the sense of this is the universe we live in, he was correct. Anything else you want to go in the further detail about, you know? It's a lot of proprietary patents and trademarks, so I can't go too much into the simulations that we run. All right. But Jonathan Fagan going to be missed.

Yeah, and I'm sure Mr. Alexander feels the exact same way as well. On the Texans front, they're off these last couple of days. and Aziz al-Shayr, he's back, officially been reinstated from suspension. Aaron Wilson, the first on that yesterday, to point that out, that Aziz could come back inside the building. Happy day. Yes, he's back from crushing Trevor Lawrence into oblivion. So good to have him back, a good piece, necessary piece.

I mean, as far as the defense, and I'm not saying that he would have been a difference maker in stopping Derek Henry. Oh, come on. He's a 29 point difference maker. You know it. They would have won that game of Aziz Al-Shahir were available. But no, you're getting pieces back. If you get Al-Shahir back, you get guys healthy.

Tankdale, unfortunately, not coming back, stuff on Diggs as well. But you get you Scruggs. You get, who else am I thinking of who's been? Shackmason, Shackmachian. Fully. Fully. You get everybody fully healthy. This team can compete.

Now, they're not going to win. The ceiling is not as high as we were hoping. And I think a lot of that because of the offensive line issues. But you get some pieces back. Things can look better for the Texans in a couple of weeks come playoff time. All right. So I've got a Bregman bit that you mentioned, but we're going to hold that to the end here so we can then carry it over. Let's go a little pop culture here.

Bad news, guys. If you ever thought you had a shot at Duelipa, well, British actor Callum Turner has beaten you to the punch. The singer and the actor now engaged. That's a movie reference for you. The difference where's my ding? You've had more than I have today. It's impressive. You know what, it's your fault.

As Matt said, it's like he gets in your brain, especially whenever you're here. And now whenever we make a movie reference, we're going to get a ding. Hey, look, I mean, I just, I'm picking and choosing my spots. That's all it is. I'm picking when I am going to dial up pressure and when I'm going to hold back and play coverage. Yeah, I like that, Dan. You're picking and choosing your spots. All right, what else?

All right. So you mentioned Alex Breggman. Maybe the Detroit Tigers as a possibility is not off the table. President of Baseball ops, Scott Harris, saying earlier today, that newly acquired infielder Glabre Torres going to play second for the Tigers this season. So a potential Alex Bregman and A.J. Hinge reunion remains alive.

I was talking with a buddy of mine about this earlier today. He had mentioned about somebody from MLB Network. I couldn't remember exactly who it was, but they floated out the idea that Bregman would be looking for seven years to 10. Now, we've heard the rumors that they were looking for a deal upwards of $200 million. So that might be the sticking point. It's not might be. It is the sticking point for teams right now.

Because if teams really wanted Alex Breggman at that price, then he would be on their team right now. But the fact that he's got it so high, I'm thinking he's going to be closer to 180. Seven years. That might even be high. 10 for Alex Breggman. When you hear that, what does that make you think?

And also that is important or notable, I should say, that Glaber Torres could be playing second base for the top. Tigers, does that mean Alex Bregman is going to be reunited with A.J. Hinch and be a Detroit Tiger. We'll talk about it. Yeah, yeah. And we can talk about this on the other side. Maybe there's other concerns for the Tigers. They've got a lot of concerns. They're the Tigers. All right, even though they beat your Astros, our Astros. 713, 212-790. The phone number, we want to talk some Astros. We can do that. We've also been talking about the Texans and the offensive line. Rockets on a four-game winning streak. It isn't anything goes Friday. Anything you

want to get to at 713. 212.125 790. 713-212-5-790. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. 12-19 in the PM

here on Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas with Dan Matthews and Cona McGovern. You can send tweets to at SportsRV if you would like at Dan Matthews, H-O-U as well. and at Cona D. McGovern, if you would like to get to him as well.

It isn't anything goes Friday on the show. We have non-Florida stories coming up at 1.30, and really, that's about it as far as planned segments. So you folks want to get in. Normally we'd be previewing a Texans matchup with a weekend, but, well, they played on a Wednesday night. And judging by the review, or I'm sorry, the viewership numbers that have come out, Dan,

I don't think we're going to ever have another Christmas again without football. You know, that's another thing that I thought of today is not even just Christmas. It's going to be interesting to see how many times on national TV next year the Texans make it. Because I think the NFL could possibly look at it as, well, they didn't do so hot last year. So is it necessarily going to be a novel matchup to have them on TV that people have to watch? I mean, the luster might be gone themselves well. The luster might be gone a little bit. Yeah.

Well, the fact that they're a playoff team should get them in there. I think it'll be dialed back. What was it five? Would we be calling them standalone games? Because it wasn't national television. It was on Netflix and the Saturday game as well. So how many was it? Was it five or six?

Someone like that? Yeah, it was five. You had two Sunday nights. You had a Thursday night, a Monday night. And then, of course, the Netflix game. Okay. So I'm going to bet the under, unless the Texans really make some moves in the AFC playoffs, which I'm not anticipating at this moment,

nor should anybody else. I'm going to bet the under on five games for them next year. But Netflix coming out with the numbers, Sunday Night Football had been averaging $22 million per week, and that's one of their highest averages since 2015. And it was over $25 million for the Texans games, with Texans game with the Ravens, with it peaking at $27 million with Beyonce.

And then I think the first game was like $22 million. I'll have to go back and look it up. But as far as the rating, I guess, but how many actual people watching the game? Because Netflix can get the data better than say what Arbitron, not Arbitron, Nielsen can provide. You're going to get the first place schedule again, obviously, because you just won first place in the NFC South. But you're also getting the AFC West and the NFC West next year.

They'll have another Thursday. They'll be back on Thursday night football. They'll get a Monday night. Hopefully the Raiders still suck, but the AFC West is going to be kind of tough. NFC West. I'm going three. I think that probably I would be surprised if it's more than three national TV games next year.

And then your first place opponents being the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills. Which I think the Ravens would be at their place. Can we get back to the fourth place schedules and the third place schedules? Bills and Ravens guarantee, bills Ravens Chiefs at this moment guaranteed to be on the schedule

that thus, you know, This is the blessing and the curse. Winning your division is also going to get you the tougher first place schedule. So Ravens, Bill's, Chiefs guaranteed to be on the schedule for the Texan. Schedule permitting sports MT trip to Buffalo? It depends on what time of year. And who jumps through the table if we go to Buffalo? If it's September, well, that'd be you, Dan.

Oh, I'd be the one jumping through the table. Yeah, we're putting you through the table. All right. So we make Connemuggar, my do it. He's spry. I mean, one of us, we're old. We're going to break our backs, Steve. I even think there's a guy too that you can either put on a poncho if you want.

Okay. People don't, but there is a guy that you get a hot dog from the grill. And then he stands on top of like a bus or an RV or something and just starts squirting ketchup and mustard down. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I don't want to go to buff. I don't like the cold. Now, first of all, I don't like me 75 freaking degrees every day, which is 75 to 80, which is what it's been here in Houston.

It's muggy and it's disgusting. And it's like, dreaming of a white guy. Christmas. I'm dreaming of Christmas we get under 70. But I also, I don't want cold. I don't like anything under like, say, 35 degrees. It's out of the question. We're not doing it. I'm not jumping through any tables. None of those things.

I'm out. I'm not trying to get frostbite in the middle Orchard Park, New York. I'm good. There's not enough bourbon too that can warm me up. There's not enough layers. It's none of those things. Yeah. I'm out. All right. So Buffalo has been scrapped. That's fine. Yeah. You know what? I have a good time. I'm wishing to the best.

maybe Connor McGovern will go with you if his brother, if his twin Connor McGovern is still on the Buffalo Bills. All right, that's a bet. I like it. I think we can make that happen. I got a jersey. He does. Yeah, you do have his jersey.

Yeah. See, it's like you're like the Wizard of Oz voice. We don't have your camera in here, Connor, so we don't know if you're even here or what you're doing or if you're even paying attention or if you're eating buffalo wings or what. Maybe he's like Matt, although he sounded like he was in less of a corn silo that Matt was when he delivered us his treat.

Yes, by the way, I did want to thank Matt Thomas for calling us from inside of a Folgers can and giving us that wonderful greeting at the beginning of the 12 o'clock. You sure it wasn't the bathroom, like at a restaurant or something? Did you hear a flush at the end of that? I think I might have. I'm just saying, okay, or like an airblade.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Those things are the worst. Why? Save our planet, Dan. Save our planet. You say, you say. selfishly, you want to use all of these paper towels. The trees are already dead.

You're wasting the trees. You have to conserve, Dan. We only get one planet. Haven't you ever heard of Earth Day? Wait, I thought the straws were the problem. It wasn't the paper towels. Straws too, all right? It's going up these turtles' noses, okay?

Leonardo and Michael Angelo are trying to go about their business in the sea, and next thing they know, they got a plastic straw up their nose. That's weird. How do they eat pizza with fins? Yeah, I don't know. All right, that's a question for the animators. I'm not sure. All right. Fair enough. Or the Ninja Turtle's lore.

You know, this is the secret of the ooze, dude. Come on. Raised by Master Splinter. Eating pizza. Depending on whichever major chain wants to sponsor them. Can you imagine like what that, it's not even a focus group. It's what that board meeting is of all right. Hey, the new Ninja Turtles movie is coming out. We have to be the one who wins the bid.

Yeah, that's true. Little Seasons. I think that are little Seasons? Middle Measers. Middle Measers. Yeah, Middle Measers. I think is trying to really raise their game. They are. The quality has gone up.

The hot and ready, man. Don't sleep on the hot and ready. No, I used to very much sleep on the hot readdies. Now, when I was like a broke producer like Connem or Gover and I would just go and spend my five bucks and inhale entire hot and ready and that was my dinner. I was going to say the hot and ready can't be messed with. But the quality of that restaurant has gone up over the years. They've reinvested in their product, which is not.

They've got a new arena up there. So they've got even more revenue that can start, you know, kind of flowing in a little bit. That helps. Normally when people are making money, money like it just goes to the CEO's pocket. It looks like little feels like at least to me, either every other quality of the other chains has gotten worse or Little Caesar has gotten better.

I'm not sure which. I've got my favorites out there, but, you know, it's every once in a while there's a shopping center near me where I'm like, hmm, hot and ready. That'll do. Well, if you want a sponsor, just go ahead and call 713, 212,000, say you want Dan Matthews to speak for your pizza restaurant. You are the pizza connoisseur of Houston.

Massive, massive, huge. You know, I mean, Huge. Some people might say that Dave Portnoy is the king of pizza. Oh, that's right. What is it the one bite? Yeah. Yeah. I think that I wear that mantle. I wear that crown here in Houston. So you throw in some breadsticks? We're going to call it two bites. Is this like, uh-oh, making another move for a rest. It's six-minute abs. That's it. No, seven.

It's two-byte pizza for views. Step into my office because you're fired. There we go. We're just trying to rack them up for you, Connor. He made me step into that. one. It's fine. I did. I did. You know what? I alley-outed and you dunked it down like Jim Green. I did. I don't let a teammate down. I appreciate that. All right. Time for another break here. It is the Matt Thomas show. Without Matt Thomas, with Ross, with Dan Matthews, with you. We're well, I was meeting to talk about Alex Breggman in that segment. As I mentioned

at the end of the last one, seven years, 210 has been the number that has been floated for Alex Breggman. Also, the Detroit Tigers having Glaber Torres play second. Does that that mean Alex Bregman is slotting into third. We'll talk about it when we come back. We'll also take all your calls if you'd like to get in. It is in. Anything goes Friday at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Matt Thomas, Ross Villariel. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. It's his time, baby. the Jake Myers takeover in the 2025 season locking down the center field spot with gold glove defense, knocking out 13 or so bombs over the fence and striking out on every outside slider that comes his way. It's Jake Myers' time, 2025 Houston Astros. You spoke it into existence. You will it. I mean, it's going to happen.

happen now. I mean, that's exactly If you will it, it is no dream, dude. That is. Yeah. You're exactly right, Walter Sobchek. I just can't stop. This is your fault. It's so fun, isn't it? And it's almost like getting to play actor without actually having to be an actor. I need you to leave, Dan. Just get out of here. I'm making too many movies reference. Get the hell out of it.

It's fine by me. I can go get coffee now. Opening day outfield. I will say Chaz, Jake, Dubon or are we going with any other combination on the planet? Any other combination. It's got to be, right?

I mean, I think that you're going to have a free agent brought in. Is it going to be necessarily the sexiest name? Probably not. But here's another one, too. A buddy of mine brought this up to me the other day, and I agree. Why not make a run at Ben Gamble again? Hey, Ben Gamble is great.

How's he doing these days? I feel like there will be some name that we're not even necessary. putting on our radar that will be found. The thing I've found is, to me, it seems like Dana Brown, speaking of guys like Ben Gamble, you know, Taylor Scott coming out of nowhere, there's some other examples. It seems like finding something that's not really working out in another place and having it work here, Jason Hayward last year as well.

Dana Brown's done a pretty good job of doing that so far in his short tenure as Astro's GM. Well, it's like, you know, when he sat down with me and you last year at spring training, asked him about the Scouts Eye, you know, and that's what he always talks about. Oh, the Scouts' Eye, the Scouts' eye, the scouts eye, and that's the thing. I think he looks for certain intangibles. What can work here? I mean, Hayden Wisniewski, they talked about him

from the pitching perspective of, you know, we see some things that maybe we can tweak here and make him even better. The VLO's there, the stuff is there. I'm like irrationally excited about Hayden Wisenesky. When you look at, like, a lot of his, okay, and of course, we know ERA and other numbers can definitely be

misleading, but I just feel like it's going to happen again. Like the Astros are going to bring a pitcher over here who's got good stuff, as you said, Velo, and then they're going to tweak it, with a pitch mix, whatever, and he's going to be good for the assholes next year. Yeah, he gets Josh Miller who makes that toward pace to the mound.

Keep an eye out for that this year. Whenever Josh Miller makes a mound visit, he walks out there with authority. Like, he walks out there with a purpose. I mean, you know, it used to be Chris DeVinsky had the strut. Like, he doesn't have the strut. He just, he walks out there.

You know, Chris Da Vinci was falling away. He was falling down at the end of his delivery. But then remember, you know, walking off the mound, he was known for that. And I think you guys even brought it to his attention. And he was like, what are you talking about? I'm just walking. It's just like, well, it looks a certain way. But no, I mean, you know, that's another guy that if he hits this year, you can look at Dana Brown and say,

you're pretty good at evaluating talent. Yeah. So we'll see what happens to the outfield. And now, I mean, are we putting the pieces together? Do we think Alex Bregman will be a Detroit Tiger now? That was the Brian Boguset. We did gut feelings when he was in last Tuesday. His gut feeling was Detroit Tigers for Alex Breggman.

Well, I mean, I just, I feel like if he was going to be a Yankee, if he was going to be a Red Sock, it would have already been done. I mean, what's the hold up? What's the weight? The player is not going to improve between now and whenever you would possibly put an offer in front of him. So do you like him or do you not? And clearly, I think those teams are showing you, they are not as high. on him as maybe he is on joining them.

Yeah, 713-212-5-790. Lewis in Sugarland has gotten in on the phone lines. What's up, Lewis? Hey, guys, happy holiday to both of you. Same, Lewis. Hey, I think I must be the only person in this town that actually likes the Kyle Tucker trade. You know, I know they tried to get Paredes last year

at the deadline, But I really like this Cam Smith kid, and the picture they got, I think, is going to surprise a lot of people. And, you know, Tucker missed, what, three months last year? And then, you know, he basically did nothing in the playoffs. And, you know, if he's not going to resign with us, I think we got the best possible package that we could. So I just want to hang up and see what you guys think. And also, you all had mentioned, Ben, Gamble. What do you think about, you know, as a stopgap, bringing back Jason Haywood? I thought

he did a pretty decent job when he was here. Thanks so much and happy New Year. Yeah, thank you, Lewis. Appreciate it. Yeah, we did mention Jason Hayward as somebody, I mean, just made a passing brief mention, but as an Astro, in 24 games, he had an OPS of 756, 218 average, not great. He did have four home runs, plays pretty good defense, and was playing left field for the first time in his career and things a little bit different back there and selfishly great interview. Really great interview. Really great interview.

So I'd be on board with Jason Hayward coming back into the fold for the Astros. And you know what else with Hayward? What are you losing to Alex Breggman? You're losing leadership. You're losing a guy that was someone who kind of had command of that clubhouse. Hayward was only here for a short time. You already had people

talking about, man, what a clubhouse presence. He's great. Like, you know, you had Mauricio Dubon at the end of the season. and talking about growing up in Honduras and watching Jason Hayward and now having a chance to be able to be on the same team and in the same clubhouse with him. So you're going to be looking probably for someone to kind of step into that role. But, I mean, you bring back Jason Hayward.

I think you're able to kind of accomplish that one as well. Yeah, 35 years old on his third team since 2022. So it's not like you're, as Lewis said, stopgap. I mean, not somebody that you're here expected to throw out there. every day and hit you 30 home runs or anything like that. But someone that can be productive if you play platoon matchups, you put them in against the right pitching, right pinch hitting situations, which I would say Joe Espada was great at last year, perhaps can provide some value.

Well, see, you made a choice this year and you're a year ahead of what I thought the Astros were going to do. I thought this year it was going to be, we're not spending money on first base. We're spending money on first base for a guy we can't even use. So that's not going to happen. You're going to have to get creative over there. Remember Dana talking about having to get creative? But I thought that move was going to come next year.

And then they felt like, obviously, when they couldn't get Alex Bregman back, that it was the time to do it. You've got some good first base options right now. Pull power first base options. So that's another thing that can help you at your home ballpark. And a guy that's won three straight goal gloves. So you do that. Next year, maybe you do have to kind of write it out with what you were going to do at first base

and go stopgap as you just threw out there, platoon a little bit in the outfield, not going to be a great offensive outfield. And it is, you know, a little bit of you need Chas to be better than he was last year because last year he was not good. So if you get something in between, that helps. That's what we have to figure out as well.

Man, if I say you're going from Kyle Tucker and right field to Chaz McCormick, it's a downgrade. There's significant downgrade. Across the board for all three positions, but you're going to have money coming off the books next year. Maybe that's when you make a run at a pretty serious outfielder that is able to then have you looking at that group and saying,

huh, man, okay, all of a sudden, not so bad. I mean, just crazy how, I mean, the drop-off from year to year for Chas McCormick. Of course, probably was going to have a drop-off from the year before when he hit 22 home runs because, you know, he was in spot duty. and catching lightning in a bottle, but to drop off as significantly as he did, my gosh. I mean, he needs that banana pudding or what was the bread pudding?

What kind of pudding was he getting? It was banana pudding. Okay. Yeah, it was banana pudding that dusty would bring them. And how funny is it, too? You know, you finally get your wish of Chas McCormick's playing every single day, and people were angry that Chas McCormick was playing every single day.

I know. Maybe sometimes the fans don't know everything, but of course, neither do we sitting in front of these microphones. We're all just talking to sports. I've got a pretty good batting average. Here on sports talk, my batting average is terrible. At 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. 7-13-212-5-790. Those of you own hold, we'll get to you as we continue along.

We've got non-Florida stories coming up at 1.30. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with you until 2 p.m. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. Baseball, football, basketball, and Houston. Home for your home teams. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews at 713-212-5-790. Rosvia Rial with you, Dan Matthews, Connemouth, Governor, as well.

You on the phone lines at that number that I said, 713-212-5-790. You can also send some tweets to at SportsRV. Like it's depressing. It's like a Jonathan Fagan love fest, and that's great. But Houston Media is losing one of its best members today with Jonathan Fagan into retirement, covering your Houston Rockets who have won four in a row. Don't look now. Number two as they will have been steady number two in the Western Conference.

But, I mean, the games keep racking up. We're 30 games into an 82 game season. That's not nothing. And the rocket's still at the number two spot in the West. What's the rule in Major League Baseball? is a Memorial Day. You can start looking at the standings. Yes.

Well, I think the Memorial Day of the NBA season is Christmas Day. Okay, I like this. So now that you're past Christmas Day, you can look at the standings and say, maybe we got something here. Maybe we do. Four game cushion to stay in the top six. I think that should be the focus because it is a tightly packed

and tough top six in the West. Thunder, Rockets, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Nuggets, and Lakers for the moment. Although the Lakers and Clippers, both LA teams tied at seven and a half games back of the Thunder. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. Will, in Memorial. On the phone lines, what's up?

Hey, guys, you know, let me get this out about the Astro before I go to my Rockers comment. I haven't heard you guys mention Nelson Luriano. He used to play. He was actually at Astro's farmhand and played in Oakland, and he finished up. Oh, Ramon Leriano? Yeah, Ramon Leroyon.

I'm sorry, Ramon. Nelson was a former player, yeah. Ramon Liriano. He's been kind of knocking around. He has been a great outfielder, but he's just had some significant drop-off in his game the last couple of years. Although looking at up, he was pretty good for Atlanta. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, I've got to get this comment in. I'm a longtime basketball fan, and I have a privilege to watch Bernard King play. Right? So when the Rockets took Whitmore in the last year's draft, I called my buddy up in Dallas. I said, man, you need to see this guy. I said, this guy reminds me of Bernard King.

And he said, yeah, let me take a look at it. And he has his quick first step. And he's real explosive off the job. And I'm telling you, I think they got a player in Camp Whitboy. I really do believe they have a player in Camp Whitmore. So tell me what you think about that one. All right. Thank you, Will.

Yeah, I mean, Bernard King, one of the great scores of all time. I mean, dropped 50. I think they even had a 60-point game, if not multiple. But I'm not necessarily. I think of, man, Bernard King very unique. But as far as like big stout strong guys, not saying that I've seen a ton of Bernard King games, but I have watched a lot of hardwood classics in my day

and have seen some Bernard King games. More of also kind of like a lived in the mid-range type of guy. And of course, well, with the way the NBA is, Cam Whitmore, more of a three-point shooter. But as far as kind of like the bigger barrel chestered but still fast type of scores, I can see a little, I can buy a little bit of weight. what you're selling there with that comparison.

But as far as, you know, how he fits into this Rockets team, they mentioned it last night. And, I mean, we played some of the postgame audio on the Rockets wrap. Fred Van Fleet and Cam Whitmore himself, talking about scoring and knowing that Cam Whitmore can score. It's about those other things. And I thought Cam Whitmore was some good insight into talking about very bluntly, being trusted by Coach Udoca, clearly saying, without saying it,

that he hadn't been trusted by Coach Udoka in years past, but I thought the effort and energy in all facets of the game was great last night. No, by the way, he scored 27 points. Well, it's also, too. I mean, you're looking towards this year's trade deadline and wondering if this is the year that the Rockets actually do make a move. Because last year you were wondering if they were going to be in position, felt like they were, and they didn't decide to make a move,

where you're looking for some scoring in this team. Either it's from your starting five, which some nights you get it, or some nights it's one or two of the guys are way off and you need to try to find it somewhere else. You're getting performances like you got last night. That knocks off a wish list item for somebody that you feel like you would want to try to add to the trade. Because you've needed three-point shooting on this team. That is by far the weakness on this team. The outside shot is not anywhere close to being a strength for this team.

You get four of eight from him last night, 27 points. That's somebody that you feel like and be. microwave off the bench for you. A little bit more energy to go along with the Terra Twins. Yeah. Well, with Tari Isson going to be day to day, hopefully he'll be back today. I think they're just kind of keeping his injury with kid gloves and treating his injury with kid gloves and making sure that he's going to be okay. So you get Tar Heson back into the fold. You've been getting him in Thompson in the starting lineup. I mean, he only had, you look at the box where you're like, okay, nine points, whatever. Okay, 10 rebounds. That's pretty

good. But he had five blocks. He had huge impact defensively on the game. He was second highest on the team at a plus 22. I'm sorry, third highest. Jayshon Tate, by the way, had a great night as well. But with all these pieces playing well for the Rockets, this came up on the postgame show last night, Dan. What does that mean for Reed Shepard?

Clearly, organizationally, I think if they wanted to put him in the G League, they would have done it already. But it hasn't happened. That's something that a lot of people been talking about, maybe getting him a little bit of seasoning, getting his confidence up, and allowing him to go down there,

for a little bit to the Rio Grande Valley, get some seasoning, and maybe come back by seasons in. One thing you hear from good teams in any sport is practices are harder than the games. So I'm wondering if that's the tack the Rockets are taking with him, is we put him through five-on-fives in practice. He's going against our guys. We know they're physical. We know they defend.

We know that they're going to play him as tough as anybody plays him in this league. And maybe that, in essence, is his game time. That's when he's starting to kind of gain that confidence, earn that trust from EMA Udoka that you just talked about with Cam Whitmore. Because Whitmore was a little bit of a slow study. Last year he did some good things. Then this year you see him down in the G League. You're like, what's up? Obviously, clearly on the practice floor, he was not showing EMA Udoca enough to say, yeah, I can give you some meaningful minutes.

Yeah. And then really by necessity because it was that game in Toronto where the rockets were awful. They were terrible. I mean, and you're looking when you see the substitutions coming in, he and Jay Sean Tate, where that to me showed me, EMA's being serious in terms of you're not giving me what I need. I'll go to these guys. I'll give them an opportunity. I'll give me an opportunity.

Give me a chance. Well, here you go. And they both made the most of it. And now there are even two more guys that he can trust in a pinch. Yeah, it's been great to see the way that this team has grown. and really it's about buying it. And in 2024, you've got to be like a certain type of coach and with a certain, really a type of charisma,

type of like to where you're not going to get tuned out, where you have these young players of Jalen Greens, to Cam Whitmore, or whoever, to really go and buy into what you're trying to sell, what your doka is, is about being a complete player. And I think we're seeing it right now with Cam Whitmore and the way that he's playing. Not that he's locked down defense or anything like that,

but Alperin Shungoon has been improving on the defensive side. You mentioned the terror twins with Amin Thompson and Tari Eason. I mean, then the guys like Fred Van Fleet, Dylan Brooks when he's healthy. I just love these kind of like mallers and brawlers that the

Houston Rockets have become. He's got a perfect balance of what you want for a guy that fits the profile that EMA Udoka has. He's a former player, but he also too has a good, he has a good grasp of letting his guys know, I'm not your buddy, I'm your coach.

Like that's how this goes. I know what you're going through because let's look at coaches who in the past the first time around, it didn't go so well. Jason Kidd. I think it was like he wasn't even a year removed from the game. And he's already a head coach in the NBA. And I remember that the time I was working with Sam Mitchell, former NBA player, former coach. And he had talked about that you have to sometimes learn to stop thinking like a player.

And he didn't think that he had enough time to be able to do that. It didn't go well the first time. Then he got another opportunity with the Mavericks that's going much better. He took them to the NBA finals last year. So sometimes you have to go through those trials and tribulations of making that transition. And E. May Udoka seemingly has that. I know when I've got to be able to press the gas on these guys in terms of getting into them or kind of tail back and say they're professionals, they'll figure it out.

All right. We've got to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Rockets have won four in a row. Oh, big homestand coming up. What is your prediction for how they do with these games coming up? Starting tonight on the second half of a back-to-back against the Minnesota. Timberwolves, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, by the way, no look at Donchich with the calf strain that he has suffered. Then you have the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers after that.

I think we are going to learn a lot about the Rockets on this homestan. We know that they're one of the best teams in the West right now. Some tough, tough tests coming up. about that as we go along at 713212-5-790. We've also been talking some Texans. Astros with the Bregman and the outfield stuff. What do you want to happen there? Anything you want to get to on it. Anything goes Friday. We also have non-Florida stories coming up at 130. A jam-packed final hour of the Matt Thomas show with Ross coming up at 713-212-5-790. Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show.

Our number four of four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross is upon us. Ross v. Real, Dan Matthews, with you, Matt out on vacation, although he will be calling the Rockets game tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Second half of a back-to-back Rockets winners of four in a row. A season high 12 above 500, number two in the West. But a good test coming up in this big homestand with five games coming up as The calendar swings to 2025. We go to the new year.

Pretty good sample size of the season with the rocket sitting at number two in the Western Conference. We're talking about that and many other things with you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. We've been talking about Alex Bregman. Is he going to land with the Tigers? Who was putting out the Glaber Torres news that he would likely be put to second? I saw Chandler had quotated it, but I was wondering the original. source. I'm guessing because

I saw Nightingale had it as well that it was, you know, like Dana did after the Tucker trade, a Zoom call, or some sort of availability with Scott Harris, the president of baseball ops for the Tigers, that not only would he move to second, Torres, that is, that Colt

Keith would be playing first base for them. So, Colt Keith. Colt Keith. Two first names. Yeah. So he'll be over at first. So that leaves third base wide open, who, during the play playoffs. Veerling's back.

Matt Veerling was playing third base. Ah, yeah, and Matt Verling? Okay, because he got hurt right in the middle season. We didn't have a chance to turn this game upside down was the problem in those two games. Interesting. They turned the game upside down. That was the problem. Yeah.

All right. 713, 21, 22, 5, 799 of the phone number if you'd like to get into any of that. We've also been talking about the Houston Texans. A day removed, I mean, we're always, you know, I always, it's funny. when the NFL season happens, I always want to say, like, don't overreact to one game. It's one performance. Things can turn around. Last time they got really destroyed, it was against the Vikings, and then they won their next three games, although a couple of those were really close.

But this just feels different, the way that we're closer to the end of the season, the way that the injuries have piled up with Diggs and Dell not coming back. Who knows what's going to happen? I think that the Texans are better than what they put on the field on Wednesday, clearly by a team. that won nine games. That looked like a team that had never even, it looked like a team of the school of the blind was playing there. So they're better than that,

but how much better is the question? And C.J. Stroud, a big part of that. We were kind of talking earlier, Dan, about how close have we seen C.J. Stroud get to his individual season with the comparison being Dak Prescott early on in his career

with the 23 touchdowns four interceptions in his rookie season. C.J. Stroud 23 touchdowns, five interceptions, and both of them taking a step back in their second year. And really, depending on which Cowboys fan you ask, is Dak Prescott the guy to take you

to a Super Bowl? Some say most say no, and some say, yeah, if the team's good enough around him. And that's not what I want for C.J. Stroud's career. No, I mean, you want him to steadily be able to make that assent in terms of becoming one of the

best in the league. And he looked like he was on his way last year. This year, looks like at the very least, it's a plateau in terms of him being able to ascend to that category of the Mahomes, Josh Allen, you know, Lamar Jackson, who is absolutely at the top of that list in terms of being the best. I mean, that's where you were hoping that he was getting to. A different planet, man, did C.J. Straub, judging from that game on Wednesday. And you want to talk about, too, a great fit with what Todd Munkin has been able to do all

throughout his career. I mean, look at all of the ways that he used him in that game. You need him as a runner, pal. You need him as a passer. He can absolutely do that for you. You need him to be able to kind of extend things so guys can get open. Yeah, he can do that too. He did that numerous times as well in the game. A huge part of it is on him, but it's also, too, as well, you've got to be able to, I just did it. I know that I just did it. You really absolutely need to be able to have a good, strong, offensive coordinator that can even unlock some of those things that you didn't even know that you possessed. And Todd Monkin's done that.

39 touchdowns passing, passing for Lamar Jackson, four interceptions. I mean, yards per attempt of almost nine, the highest of his career. And then that's not even going into what his rushing numbers have been so far, 852 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Is he going to rack up like 50 touchdowns and lose the MVP to Josh Allen?

I mean, it depends. Josh Allen been great, by the way, and is great. To me, those are the two favorites. You know, Adam and Adam were talking about that yesterday on the A team. I think what people are going to use against Lamar Jackson, well, he's got Derek Henry. That's going to be a convenient excuse that people use this year. Because the narrative is going to be, well, look at how Josh Allen was able to raise the play of his receivers when he lost Stefan Diggs. And you had some really serious questions about how good that receiver room could be.

and with Lamar Jackson, it's going to be, it's also a little bit of, well, he's had his time kind of deal. I think that is you can get the voter fatigue type of issue. I think that's what's going to end up hurting him is that it's going to be, well, he's won back to back. Do we really need to give it to him three years in a row, even though he's playing better than he did in those two years? Yeah, Lamar Jackson with four rushing touchdowns, 39 passing. You have Josh Allen with 20. Now, of course, Lamar, with a game up right now. Josh Allen going to play this weekend against a...

Jets. The horrible Jets. So he's got... Over under, not very high either. 2.13 in a hook for passing yards this weekend for Josh Allen. Oh, really? Well, it's probably going to go a lot through the ground, I guess. 26 passing, six interceptions,

11 rushing touchdowns for Josh Allen. But on C.J. Stroud, mentioned this earlier. Here is him talking with the media, and there is a very, very key piece of this that I want talk more about. Here's what C.J. Stroud had to say about the difference in how he's playing this year versus last year.

I try to approach the game the same way I did, you know, and even, you know, I think I'm seeing it better than I ever have, you know, just a little banged up, so I'm not really making plays. And that's a terrible excuse. But, I mean, really just not making plays. That's really the difference between last year and this year for me is just not making enough plays. So, you know, there's times where, you know, the players are to be made and there's guys open and I got to, find a way to, you know, make the play where it makes my amends to do something just that I'm capable of doing, you know, and, you know, winning us a football game, you know, that's really, you know, up to me to lead our team in those times where guys are open and, you know, ultimately

it's just me making plays. That's really how I look at the difference between this year and last year, which, you know, can be fixed. Banged up, part of the conversation there. And also not making the plays, the plays, the that are there for him, but also C.J. Stroud talking about being banged up, something we've kind of talked about. You can't put a number on it. You can't put anything on it.

And as you said earlier, we were talking about this. If he's out on the field, he needs to perform, but also if we're asking the why, why is C.J. Stroud regressing? Why is he not looking as sharp as he did last year? Of course, there's a lot of factors in that, that being the offensive line, that being the weapons as far as the pass catchers,

you're down tank Dell now, you're down Stefan Diggs. Dalton Schultz doesn't look nearly as good and as fresh and as spry as he did last year. And you've missed Nico Collins for a stretch of the season as well. He quickly corrected himself and right for what you just said is he said, yeah, I'm banged up. But that's not an excuse. I mean, he subscribes to the same thing. I don't want it to let it out, but then also like, hey, guys, I'm banged up a little bit.

But also that's not an excuse. But also, guys, I'm kind of hurt. It's not an excuse. It's not anything that I'm worried about. But yeah, I'm hurt. Because that's what he knows will become the story. It's not about, hey, he's not playing well. Hey, he's not being protected.

Hey, he only has Nico Collins to throw two on the field, which that part's not true. Because he's trying to quickly take it away from him becoming the distraction where the Texans got him hurt. The Texans didn't protect him. Then the blame deflex off him and it goes to other people. And he's doing the right thing as a quarterback of saying there's no excuse. I'm out there. I'm playing. If I'm out there and I'm playing, I need to be that guy that I was in 2023. I'm not that guy right now.

No, he hasn't. And to me, the worst, he might have had worse games this year in terms of statistics. Like, okay, zero, no touchdowns, one pick. I feel like he's had worse than that this year so far. But just to me, as far as the looking of loss, the missing of easy throws, the feeling pressure that wasn't there, to me, that's as bad as he looked all year. Because there's been numerous chances. And that's, and that's, why I threw out that tweet the other day. The offensive line still took, of course, the beating that it has all season long on Twitter.

But I truly believe it. He had good pockets to be able to throw out of. He had chances to be able to make some plays. And he overthrew. He led his guys. I mean, he looks lost out there with his feet and actually being able to trust his throws. He has no trust in his throws right now. And you saw it the week

before against Kansas City. Right before the first, I believe, was it an interception on the first drive that he had when the Texans were driving, and, I mean, he had a good enough clean pocket to throw out of. He was off his back foot, and it fluttered a little bit, and it got picked. All right, that begs the question. I'm going to ask all of you.

I'm going to ask, Dan, when we come back, I want your answers. How much should C.J. Stroud play in the game, not this weekend, but next week against the Tennessee Titans. 713-212-5-7-90. How much do you want to save him and bubble wrap him for the playoffs? How much do you want him to get back in a good rhythm against the Tennessee Titans team that is not very good? 713-212-5-790. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV and at Dan Matthews-H-O-U. And you can also call in at 7-13-212-5-790.

Matt and Ross return. Return on Sports Talk 790. As, you know, a lover of fine lyrics, you got to love the lyrics to this one. Percocet. Molly Perkissette. It's a good hook. Molly Perkissette. Welcome back to the What is this? This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

Without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with me, Ross Vioriel, with me, Ross, Villarine, with you at 713, 21, 2.5. It takes a village to make this work. 790. 713212.5-790. Now, I want to be clear, I am not dismissing C.J. Stroud and saying his career is over, and he's, terrible or anything like that. He is the Texan franchise quarterback at the moment

that is available. They should sign and extend him forever and ever. I think this is going to be one of the low water marks of his career and he will continue to get better and better. Got a tweet from Timothy saying Ross, Josh Allen, Lamar both struggled in their second and third year.

I definitely Josh Allen was struggling early on in his career. I have to see it feels like, I mean, just basically from the get Lamar Jackson was special. He did maybe regress some. here and there. And there, of course, were those couple of years in a row where he was missing some games. People got the

IP, the injury prone label for Lamar Jackson. Oh, this style of play, not sustainable. Well, he's played 16 games in back-to-back years, has Lamar Jackson with the 17th coming up. Well, that'd be not after this weekend, but the next week. I would say Lamar's

the larger issue that he had to overcome was he can't win in the playoffs. Yeah, that's still going to be his label. And because it didn't help last year where it seemed like it was tailor-made for them to be able to make it to the Super Bowl and you get Kansas City came in there and beat them. Yeah, and they didn't score. I felt like in that game, I think he did press in that game.

I think he was driving the ball down the field way too much. He should have taken the things that were in front of him. He does have this chip on his shoulder to prove that the people that doubt that he can pass. And so he's done a great job of staying in the pocket, extending plays, keeping his eyes downfield. I mean, the freaking dude has. 39 touchdowns this year passing and four interceptions.

This Lamar can't pass narrative has been long dead. I'm sorry for those of you, they're still hanging on to that. But absolutely, that's the last hump. He has to get over it. Josh Allen has to get over it. But oh, by the way, that Pat Mahomes guy is going to have something to say about it too. Well, I mean, and that's the thing is, I mean, there's

quarterbacks all throughout the history of this game that have that. I mean, Peyton Manning. It was... How many Super Bowls does he have if there's no Tom Brady? Well, I mean, probably four or five? And that's just the thing. I mean, he had that juggernaut standing in front of him, even when he went to Denver, too, as well. Tom Brady was still around. The Patriots were still around. Yeah. And, I mean, at least a couple of times he was able to get past them. Yeah, they did, well, I mean, he was horrible that second Super Bowl they won. But the year before, what was it the year before?

Or the maybe one or two years before when they got crushed by the Seahawks in the Super Bowl? It was the year before. Okay. I can see. That was when he threw like 55 touchdowns or whatever a ridiculous, ungodly number he got to that year. But, yeah, Peyton Manning probably has more Super Bowls, and we might be talking about, I mean, Joe Burrow did get passed once. He's still dealing with it. I mean, even though he's having a fantastic season, and they're still alive for the playoffs, barely. But, I mean, you've already got people who are wondering if Joe Burrow is the second coming of Dan Marino,

where it's going to be, he stays with the same team, and he is never able to get back to the Super Bowl. Because remember, Marino got to the Super Bowl quickly. And people were like, all right, this is going to be a regular. thing. He never got back. Yeah. Last year in the playoffs for Lamar Jackson against the Texans, two touchdowns, no picks, only 152 yards,

but I mean, they were boat racing the Texans, so he wasn't needed to throw the ball a ton. And then against Kansas City, 272 yards, a touchdown and a pick. But as I said, a completion percentage, only 54%. He was driving the ball downfield. I think there were some easy throws he could have made.

They were down one score, basically that whole game. It felt like he was trying to get it all in one play. So we'll see. He's had some good games in his career in the postseason, but he's also had some really bad ones overall. Just a 57% completion percentage, just a 2 and 4 record for Lamar Jackson, and just six touchdowns to go against six interceptions.

And let's see, three rushing touchdowns as well. So he'll have another chance to prove it. He's looking great. He looked like the MVP on Wednesday to me. But time will tell. That's the beauty of sports is when you get into the playoffs, when the games really matter and everything on the line, that's when it's going to get really fun.

And oh, by the way, don't forget, the Texans were horrible on Wednesday, but they are in the tournament. 713-212-5-7-9 of the phone number. Alex and Conroe has been holding. What's up, Alex? Okay, so great show, guys, especially, you know, since you're carrying Matt's extra weight, you're doing an admirable job.

Appreciate it. So I got a couple things. Number one with the Texans, they should absolutely play. everyone on against the Titans. How much? They need, if we're winning at the, you know, if we're winning considerably, then yeah, you know, you sit, you sit your starters, but no, you got to start everyone, especially considering how bad that last game was, they definitely need a tune-up.

Like, if it's been a long time since you've been with a nice lady in a biblical sense, you just, you know, and then all of a sudden you get a date with one, and it seems like she's pretty down. Like, are you just going to go in there? No, man. You got to have a warm-up. You got to find a slump buster first and maybe, you know, get your tune in right, get everything worked out so that you can go in

confident. You can't just go in with a... You can't go in like that. You can't go in with a loaded gun that you don't know if it's going to fire. I don't know if this analogy works for football, Alex. Just FYI. I think

I think it does. You need to have a nice rehearsal dinner. How about that? You don't get married without having a rehearsal dinner. Okay. And I think that they definitely need to have their rehearsal. They're definitely a rehearsal before the main event, for sure. 100%. I guess maybe the Titans are the Texans' and slumpbuster, hopefully. We need them to beat. If we had beat them the first time, then maybe I might be apt to say, just go ahead and let everybody sit. But considering we lost last time and considering we got our abs, our abs.

Bass is beat on Wednesday. Yeah, they definitely need to, they can't be sitting that long and then go back into the playoffs against Pittsburgh if that's how it winds up and expect to perform well. No, come on, you got to know how your car is going to run. Secondly, my anything goes comment, so about 23 days ago, I went on a nice date with the girl. Everything was great.

I rode my motorcycle. Everything was cool. After the date, I went to go fill up my bike, with some gas to get headed home, and there was water in the gas. So just as a public safety announcement, don't get gas from the Texaco on 494 in New Paine. You're going to get water in your gas, and then they're going to give you a hard time

and try to tell you that you have to get it fixed before they'll reimburse you. Wow. Don't do that. All right, Alex. Thank you. Appreciate it. $1,300.

$1,400. Public service announces from Alex. All right. Well, I'm going to stay out of that one, I'm going to let you make your comments. We here at the IHeartMedia and our legal department and IHartMedia Houston and our parent company, IHartMedia

at large in Sports Talk 790. Do not necessarily condone the remarks of Alex. We are going to take him at his word and not investigate further. There you go. You said it best. But what do you think? As far as the Texans, how much should C.J. Stroud and the starters play

in a game that really doesn't have any meaning coming up, not this week. but next weekend against the Titans. It doesn't matter. I mean, because there is nothing that leads you to believe that this team is going to find some sort of groove. Stop with the defeatist attitude, Dan, because they're not quitting. It's week 18.

We've been seeing the same script play out over and over again. And maybe they will get a 10, 17 point lead over the Titans. And then it's going to be a, all right, let's not lose this game at this point, as opposed to, you know, all gas, no breaks, swarm, all of these different types of things. they just they don't have that in them like they they have enough to be able to get the job done they're not going to get the job done expertly and exemplary you know in an exemplary way they're just not they're not they're not playing getting into the super bowl they shouldn't even try they should just fold up shop it's not that no it's the joke but i mean but the point is is

it doesn't matter who plays it doesn't matter how much they play they should beat the titans the titans are terrible the titans are not trying to win they bench will levis for that exact reason. Mason Rudolph. He's not the guy. And they also realize it's dumb to win games at this point because... They need to be not trying. They might want to put... Who gives them the best chance to lose? They didn't put Will Levis back in. I mean, is A.J. McCarran still available? Could you maybe go get him if he hasn't played quarterback? I mean, it's just, it doesn't matter at this point. You're not going to find some fountain of youth in this game that's going to all of a sudden have you going into the playoffs and saying, that's it. We are ready to go. the hell with the Steelers, the hell with anybody else, which you might be able to say that for that game, but then going up to Kansas City,

I know that they're going to believe they can win that game. Do I believe they can win that game? No. Okay, well, that's loser attitude. That's loser mindset, Dan. You got to go and try and win. Now, are they going to win? Absolutely not. But they're going to go try. They're going to go try.

I'm not saying don't try, but I mean, I'm also saying that one game is not going to be where if indeed they did go on some miracle run and did find some sort of magical elixir to be able to win four games in the postseason and come home with the Lombardi trophy, it's not going to be them coming back and saying, you know what the difference was? It was us going to Nashville and beating the Titans that day. It's Davis Mills. It's Davis Mills and Mason Rudolph, noon on CBS.

And then watch Daria Gumbawale goes for like 150, 200 yards in this game. And everybody's going to be like, we should play Darya Gubboale. It's Dari Ogunboale versus Tadai. Jay Spears, noon on CBS, although it says TBD Flex. I mean, they're going to put that bad boy at noon. That's that's noon. That's whoever the

lowest of the low in terms of TV crews out there. We'll see you in a minute. Is Don Cricky still around? Could Don Cricky do this game? We're going to have yeah, AI Keith Jackson on the call Sunday here on CBS. Okay, time for a quick break

here on the Matt Thomas show. A couple of segments left. We're asking the question, how much should the Texans starters play in the game against Tennessee. How close is C.J. Stroud to his ceiling? A minor setback for a major comeback? We sure hope so. We're also talking some Texans, I mean, some rockets, some Astros, anything you want to get to it is also in anything goes Friday.

And if you want to recommend a good gas station, Alex and Conrote needs one. 713-212-790 is the phone number 7-13-212-5-790. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. on sports talk 790. Find interesting stories that occur outside the state of Florida and share them with the people. It's time for non-

I mean, my goodness, what do I have to add after that? Welcome into a signature Friday segment on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas remains out on vacation. He will be back on Monday. But now is the time of the week. What are you bring? We bring you stories now. I love, personally, Florida stories.

Matt hates Florida stories because he thinks they're too easy, low-hanging fruit. So we must venture outside the state of Florida. And we do that for this segment called Non-Florida Stories. Dan Matthews, you being the guest here. Let's go ahead and start things off with you. You can't get more non-Florida than Peru. So we go international for this one. Peru.

Policia National del Peru, carrying out a real-life drug bust with officer dressed. in full Grinch costume. The officer part of a raid that took in a suspected drug trafficker. We turn to NBC News for the details. The operation part of the police unit's ongoing tradition of dressing agents in festive costumes when carrying out operations during the holiday periods, such as Halloween and Christmas. On the eve of Valentine's Day earlier this year, an undercover policeman dressed in a teddy bear costume showing up to the

house of an alleged drug dealer to deliver a fake love surprise as part of an operation in Peru. Agents have also dressed up as superheroes and even horror movie characters like Freddie Kruger and Jason in the past. There's even a tweet included in the story of two agents. One dressed as Spider-Man and the other dressed as Wolverine when carrying out such operations in the past. And this one, it was the Grinch leading the way. So the national police of Peru letting criminals know who exactly is in charge. Wow.

I mean, imagine you're just trying to go about your day serving up some heroin to the fine children of Peru. And the next thing you know, you're getting busted by the Grinch. That's tough. I saw the body cam footage from it. It's pretty funny. Oh, really? Yeah.

And I think the Grinch was, what do they call the, you know, sometimes they'll use sludge hammers or they use the battering ram? Yes. I think the Grinch was the battering ram. What? I think he was the one that busted down the door. And then, of course, police, police hit the ground. That seems dangerous.

That seems extremely dangerous. Okay. Dan, thank you for your non-Florida story. I will go next just because I imagine Connor's ready, but I can't see him in there. So, Connor, you're going to go after me. But let me go ahead and take you folks to a place called Maryland Avenue. Maryland actually is the need. Some would say the Florida of the Mid-Atlantic.

Of the town. Thomas Campbell Bowling Von Gates had himself quite a day on Christmas Eve as he was going to church on Christmas Eve. It was

the Holy Angels Catholic Church in Avenue, Maryland, and during a mass, he approached the altar, and he dropped an onion, which disturbed this peace of those attending. Deputies also said a witness followed Van Gates as he was

exiting the church after making a scene to make sure he was leaving, and then he's assaulted another person in the parking lot, apparently, by throwing tangerines at them. At that point, our good friend Thomas Campbell bowling, Von Gates escaped that church. Later on that night, deputies say, Von Gates struck again during a midnight mass at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Linnertown. deputy said van gates disrupted the service by pouring whiskey into the holy water at the mass and threatening to harm parishioners now i think all he was trying to do is he was taking jesus's lesson of turning the water to wine oh except he just went a little more abv literal he wanted to go a little 80 proof he wanted he wanted to go to the hard stuff or maybe it was even cask strength who knows

could have been church attendees then escorted him from the building where deputies say he attempted to successfully hit several individuals with a whiskey bottle. Peritioners were able to deign Von Gates until deputies arrived. He was then transported to a local hospital for medical evaluation. See, this is where the ushers really come into play here. Because, I mean, if you've got ushers who, they run a tight ship, they run a hard line right there, then he doesn't even get to the altar. He's dropping onions, throwing tangerines, pouring whiskey into the holy water,

and then trying to hit people with said whiskey bottle. Is there some church policy against produce out there? He's trying to spread Christmas cheer. What's the church's position on produce? What are the charges officer? Yeah, he was trying to spread some Christmas cheer, but unfortunately he has been charged with second degree assault, disorderly conduct, defacing religious property,

religious crime against a group, obstructing a religious exercise, threat of mass violence and disturbing the peace. threatening mass violence at a church he could be going a long way like you've been going away for a long time yeah I was going to say that gets you in some legal categories but you know what could

also be in play here is I've always been told that nuns are really good at crowd control at least in grade school nuns were known for strict discipline okay so she's going to hit him with a ruler there you go is what you're saying there you got you

no sleeping in class all right there is my non's Florida story from Maryland. Connor McGovern, you may go. My Connor falls along a similar theme with Christmas. In downtown Fort Collins, Colorado, a baby Jesus figurine was snatched from a nativity scene, but was returned in time for Christmas with an apology letter.

The statuette of Jesus lying in a manger, stolen from a public display in the downtown square, was dropped off anonymously at a fire station and was accompanied by a handwritten note saying, quote, I'm really sorry, I made a dumb mistake in the moment. It won't happen again. surveillance of the suspected Grinch appeared to be a young adult, probably a student

from Colorado State. The fire station returned the statue to the downtown square and the business that owns the nativity scene did not pursue charges. So perhaps a drunk college student stealing baby Jesus from a nativity scene feeling guilty and then returning it to a fire station.

Wow. Well, good on the kid for circling back and taking back what he took. An innocent little sweet baby Jesus, eight pound six pounds, hardly knows a word. I mean, people could say that the power of Christ compelled them. Oh, okay. That's two movie

references for those keeping it score at home, Connor. Well, yeah, maybe he felt guilty like he was getting stared into the depths of the eyes of baby Jesus, and baby Jesus was like, you better take me back, bro. Come on now. Have you guys ever stolen anything while drunk? No.

No. No, I have not, and I never would, and I do not condone such activities. Now, you didn't ask have you ever say use the bathroom where you shouldn't have been and unfortunately then there was somebody that may or may

not be in law enforcement that let you know hey you can't do that parking lot at the rodeo who has it's impossible to find when you're walking to the Uber lot it's so far it was a parking lot I've never been more happy by the way this was in college for you know management out there

what's a statute of limitations on that it's over 20 years now close to it but I was never more happy to see a ticket book come out. I was like, oh, thank God. All right. We're going to take a quick break there. Thank you, Dan.

We are going to save you from authorities as the statute of limitations has been hit. So we're good on there. A final segment of the Matt Thomas show coming up here on Sports Talk 790. My name is Rosvi-Real. Dan Matthews in tow. Matt Thomas will be back on Monday. But we'll be back after this very short break here on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 790.

your rockets, your Astros, your voice. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas. He's on vacation. He'll be back on the show. He's not on real vacation. He's on staycation, which I respect a good staycation. Good staycation is needed. Yeah. I mean, that's where you're able to get stuff done around the house. If you want to do that, if it's a good lazy day on the couch or even staying in the bed, it's at play as well. Yeah, I mean, that's fine. He's going to call the game tonight. The Rockets were going against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

7 o'clock start. I will be with you with the Rockets launch pad at 6 o'clock live from the Toyota Center. Good to be back in the arena. I've been missing some time. Did I go last week? I can't remember. It's just been too much going on. But Rockets, as of this moment,

one and a half point favorites over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Aunt Edwards and crew in town. A big five-game homestand coming up as we've been talking about on the show. Timberwolves and then the Miami Heat on Sunday. That will be their third game in four nights. Don't forget that because they are

on the second half of back-to-back. Not a crazy road back-to-back. It was a short flight from New Orleans last night, but still on the back-to-back tonight, three out of four on Sunday. Then Wednesday against Dallas who is going to be without Luca Donchich, Friday against the Boston Celtics, Sunday against the loss.

Angeles Lakers. If this were Tuesday, I would ask you for your gut feeling. So we'll pretend, since it is and anything goes Friday, that means we can, like, grandfather in a Tuesday gut feeling, how the rockets perform on this homestand in terms of overall record. Anything to me, winning record is gravy. Anything above that would be insane. Two and three wouldn't be horrible, but you don't want it any worse than that. Yeah, I was going to say, just with how well they've played at home this year, believe it's going to be a winning record, but I will say going the back-to-back right here off the front of beating Minnesota,

which, you know, they feel like they owe you for one that you got from them up there. So got to believe there's going to be a little bit of added juice to that one. And then you get the heat on Sunday. The Mavericks, even without Luca, that's still going to be a tough game because you've got Kyrie, and you've also got Clay Thompson still on that team. Oh, God. So I'm going to go three in play some. Clay Thompson thrives in the team.

Toyota Center, no matter what jersey he's wearing. And I mean, and even playing them the first time, too, up in Dallas. He was able to have a hell of a game. So I'm going to go in 3 and 2. 3 and 2 feels right. That's what I think I'm going to come away with as well. Now, right now they're the 2 seed.

And kind of we were talking about this with the Texans, ebbs and flows week to week. It's the same thing with the NBA. Like, I took a call last night and you brought it up, Dan. We were talking about it on the post game show, which number one, I love you guys. They're calling me. Keep it up. We've been getting more calls this year than we have in the last like three years combined with the Rockets.

Clearly the interest is up. We are your home for your rockets. I love you guys calling me on the Rockets wrap. I'll be on the show again tonight if you want to get in. But there was a guy asking if I think the Rockets are going to make the finals last night. And it's like, okay, we have to remember now while we're excited, 30 games end, they're the two seed. They're 21 and nine. They're on a 57 win pace. I don't know. Call me crazy. I'm not ready necessarily to put them in the NBA finals. No, I mean, I think that you look at this a lot like you looked at the 2008-2009 Rockets, which remember that that was the team that finally with Tracy McGrady broke through

and was able to win in the playoffs. Well, McGrady got hurt, and then by the end of that playoff series, Yao got hurt too, and it was like the Ron Art Test Show. Yeah. They pushed them to seven. But at least you were able to get to the next round of the playoffs. And, I mean, baby steps here, I think, with this team of, I get it. There have been teams that have been teams that have been able to make support.

prize runs before and maybe the Rockets could be one of those teams this year but I think if you get to would that be the Western Simmies if you got to the second round? Yes. If you got to the Western semis, I think you look at it and say, hey, this group's got something. This group can take this and move forward with it. Yeah, the bubble year, I believe, is the last time they made it that far. That was the Russell Westbrook James Harden-led Rockets that lost in the second round after, was it the tough seven game series

I think against the Thunder, where James Harden had the block against Lou Dort and then they made it to the second round and lost in like five games I think, or maybe six to the eventual champion Alley Lakers. Yeah, winning that Mickey Mouse tournament, which literally was a Mickey Mouse tournament because it was in Mickey Mouse's backyard

there at Disney. Or would you say it was goofy? They could have been goofy as well. Pluto. People sleep on Pluto, man. Do they? Yes, they do. Pluto. I don't know if I'm going to wake up on Pluto is a cute, sweet dog, and Pluto deserves... Did the references count as movie references? I don't know.

Sure, sure. Well, we'll count it. We'll count it. But the Rockets in action tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves bouncing back off of a six-point game against the Hornets. It also was a blowout. He didn't play in the fourth quarter at all. But Jalen Green, looking a little bit better,

a little more spry. Six of 11 from three certainly helps 30 points from him last night. And also very key to me, Fred Van Vliet, seven of 12 from three. If you can get him start knocking down some threes like he did last year where he was almost 39%. A career 37% guy now at 31% on the year. Let's get that creeping up to his career average.

I mean, you know, not only him, but I mean, you've been able to get a nice little energy boost from the bench in addition to Tari Easton, even though he's been out for the last few games. And Amin Thompson of Cam Whitmore helping out. I mean, just trying to find any awesome. Offensive production from the outside is huge because defense is nice. Defense will help get you into the playoffs, but you win in the playoffs by being able to knock down three-pointers. And this is a team right now that is iffy at best when it comes to that proposition. Yeah, that is the long-term concern, of course, for the Rockets.

How will the offense perform? Well, some hot shooting last night. Can it continue tonight? We'll see tonight on Sports Talk 790. We'll hear tonight on Sports Talk 790 with Matt Thomas on the call. 7 o'clock start 6 o'clock rockets launch pad in between that will be a couple of adams my name is rosvi real saying thanks you thanks to you folks for listening to the program dan short notice filling in on and on the holidays i know you're getting working a lot hours i appreciate you thank

you for filling in today for matt thomas it was a good spot start i was ready to go we were we were throwing we were thrown we were thrown good in the bullpen and it translated to the mound on the field i do i do appreciate you i appreciate connor mcouver producing doing a great job Thanks to all you called, listen, got involved in the program at all. Coming up next, it is not only one Adam, it is two Adams. They called themselves the team. And they're next up here on the Sports Talk 790. Talk to you folks at 6.