The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Soren Petro Joins Matt From Kansas City

Episode Date: January 9, 2020

Soren Petro, host of The Program, on Sports Radio 810 AM in Kansas City, joins Matt to talk Texans v Chiefs

This is the Matt Thomas Show. 101 on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show here today from Oklahoma City, where tonight it'll be Russell Westbrook making his return since the Chris Paul trade. This is really strange. Only one trip here to OKC for the Rockets, and it's tonight. We'll have it for you on Sports Talk 790, beginning with the launch pad at 730. Tip time about 840 local time. And Mike D'Antony will be with us in an hour to talk about such events.

And we've got those Royal Rumble tickets to give away and more. But right now, let's go to Kansas City. Very successful, longtime radio host in the Kansas City area. Sports Radio 810, WHB. Sarenn Petro with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Seren, it's Matt. I appreciate you coming on the show this afternoon. I want to give you a few general questions because we're always being teased about the fact that Bill O'Brien

gets a lot of criticism from local fans that Bill O'Brien doesn't know how to manage the timeouts or the challenges. The running joke around the NFL, whether it's fair or not, is that Andy Reid is not a spectacular two-minute drill coach. Is that too much criticism, or are there still issues with how he manages things late in games? Yeah, you know, listen, the fans will tell you yes, right? That after a game, you're immediately every fan,

the problem was the office play calling. I remember taking calls after the Chiefs lost to Rams on Monday Night Football 5, 54-51, and the first three calls I counted it in saying anything until we got somebody finally bring up the defense. The first three calls were complaining about different calls he made on offense and how it created a turnover, and nobody wanted to talk about the fact that they became the first team in the history of the NFL to lose a game when scoring 50 points. That was a couple of weeks after becoming the first team in the NFL to lose a game after scoring 40 points up in New England, and yet the calls were still about the offense.

I think, you know, the casual thing gets offense more, so it gets the spotlight shined on it more. I think Andy Reid is probably an average clock manager, an average two-minute drill guy. What I've told people is, and if you look at it, we don't hear that as much. We hear it as well wait until they get to the playoffs. That's the new adage from a lot of folks. We don't get it as much here in Kansas City because we watch game in, game out, Andy Reid work with Patrick Mahomes. I would contend, listen, I'm a Syracuse grad when I say this,

said Donovan McNabb is one of the more overrated quarterbacks ever. He owes everything he's got to Andy Reed. He fell off a cliff at age 33, not 38, at age 33 when he left Andy Reed. I think Andy Reed has been working with quarterbacks that are okay. Alex Smith is okay. Now, he took a knife into a gunfight against the Patriots and Tom Brady and would be there at the very end. So is he the best?

No, I can't say he's the best. But we may say that he's a lot better than we ever thought. He only watched six, seven, eight, nine years of him working with Patrick Palms. because there's no doubt they're much better. So you lose the game the Chiefs do in overtime to the Chiefs, or to the Patriots, I should say. And so I'm going to assume that when you were going to training camp and talking about this team that it was Super Bowl or bust in 2019,

and now 2020, is that still the framework, or have things changed a little bit because of the fact that all of a sudden this Baltimore Raven team has certainly beaten everybody up over the last two and a half months, Lamar Jackson is going to win the MVP, and they look like they're a freight train right now. Yeah, I think it is still the mindset for the team. It's definitely the mindset for the fans when you're that close. And, you know, again, you zero in on one thing at the end.

And D. Ford lining up off sides, which negates an interception, which would have sealed it. You know, that's where everyone's mind has been. And that's a dangerous thing. You mentioned back in training camp. I talked to a lot of the guys about, listen, do you worry about getting off to a slow start? Because everybody wants to line up and play the championship game again. But in reality, you've got at least 17, if not 18. games to play before you get there.

So, you know, they got hurt. They got banged out that in a way may have helped them dealing with losing tired of kill in the first game. Patrick Mahomes getting hurt. Eric Fisher, they're starting left tackle going down. Wiley, the left guard went down. Chris Jones went down. Their best pass, pressure, Frank Clark, their big

acquisition in the off-season play with a neck and shoulder injury, and he wasn't really himself. And then he had stomach problems. You know, they really kind of had injuries to where they could never really get a big head. Now, they get held. be largely Alex Okopor

and Emmanuel Algui did a good job of giving them good solid depth along the offensive line and they won't play and of course they lost their

first team all rookie safety Warren Hill and that definitely hurts and maybe something that the Texan passing game can

can really exploit in this game but I think now it's maybe the first time that they would run the risk of being like okay let's play

the Ravens for all the reasons you just said I think it's good for them that they get the Texans I get a feel that it's good

that they get protection instead of the bills because there is that revenge factor. There is a very easy reminder for the coaches to turn the tape on from week six and say, okay, don't get a big head. Don't start thinking about Baltimore because this team control the ball for 40 minutes, ran for 192 yards, and make you guys look silly.

You are very tight with the Chiefs organization, and this will be the second time the Honey Badger takes on his old team in this season. Is there a lot of wink-wink, wink? We'll have meetings. We'll talk about everything about Deshaum, because it's not like he wasn't able to tell the team about Deshawn Watson

when the two teams play in the regular season. What kind of things do you think that Mr. Matthew is telling his teammates that maybe they didn't even notice the first time around about what Deshawn could bring to Kansas City this weekend? Yeah, and I'm driving away from the complex right now. And then Tyra Matthew was the player that they brought up to the podium. And that question got asked to him just a few minutes ago. And he just kind of smiled.

He said, you know, he goes, yeah, I guess I can talk a little bit about you know, some of the concepts he said, but so much has changed since even when I left. He said different personnel, different philosophies, different things that are going on. You know, he kind of shrugged up. There was a smile. I'm sure there's something he can add to it. You know, but I'm with you. Anything he could have added would have been added in the first game, and they still

weren't able to get the win. Now, Sean Wilson did throw two interceptions in that game that just didn't sack Sean Watson, which is one of the things that's been a big story here in Kansas City, a guy that, you know, a sacked 106 times over the last two years, only two games that the Texans was not give up a sack this year, and one of them was against the Chiefs. I asked Matt here, but listen to the fact that you didn't get to him, which is always a tough spot, because, you know, they don't want to throw anyone on the team under the bus, but I said the fact that you weren't able to get to him, and Chris Jones didn't play, did that really disrupt what you wanted to do on the back end,

because you had to go into a game plan thinking we're going to get Watson down, we're going to pressure and we're going to get him off his mark, and the Chiefs weren't able to do that. and, you know, he just went right to the coachby thing and said, well, we all work together, it's pressure, it's pass rush working together, and we've got to be on the same page, which to me said, yes, that was a big problem. We did plan on, you know, Watson being on the run and having less time that we had to cover. So I think that really did cost. I think that's one of the reasons why here in Kansas City there's a tremendous amount of confidence

that the chiefs are going to win. The organization's not saying that. But the fan base feels like left tackle, left guard, starting to be. middle linebacker and pass force. You're getting those four guys back is going to make a major different. And the fact that Patrick Mahomes' ankle got tweaked again in that game, and he now appears to be about how he's going to be. I mean, he's going to need surgery for the dislocated kneecap at the end of the year.

But they're running him on drawers. They're running him with the option play here in order to at least show it and make you defend it. There's a lot of confidence that the Chiefs are going to win this game, and that the spread is not going to be a problem. So I'm Petro with us, WHB Radio in Kansas City. I'm glad you brought up Pat. Let me ask you this, and I watched that Chargers game, because obviously there was a lot to figure out as to who the seating was going to go.

If I watched Pat in the month of December, every one of the games, could I tell that he had gone through the issues and the injuries? I mean, if he's on 100%, where would you put him on the percent scale? You know, I probably put him. That's a good one. Listen, I'm fortunate to get a chance to talk to one-on-one for about 10 minutes every week. And I always look at the knee and I look at the ankle and that was a problem

and see what he's got. Because I get him right before he goes out to practice. And he continues to wear a brace. I mean, that's not, you know, giving any news out. Everybody knows. We got word that, hey, look, how this usually works is you've got to sit him down. And then it's as good as it's going to be. Whatever it is, that's

good as it's going to get. It's not going to get any better. And so, you know, we knew kind of when it would be that he would come back based upon that timeline. And so he wears a brace that's got a pad and looks like it kind of holds that kneecap or helps to hold that kneecap in place. So he's not 100%. But I think if you said, hey, here's game tape for him running around the outside.

Here it is before. And after, I don't think you'd be able to tell a difference. There is one. He has said, yeah, I'm as good as I'm going to get. He won't let on to how much it limits him. But I think the eye test, if you knew what you were looking for, you might be able to find three or four or five, 10 percent. difference, but to the naked eye, you don't really see a difference. So one thing that

really kind of manifested itself was when he first came back, there was a lot of times, and listen, the Chesa had a problem handling that interior rush. And, you know, Wyrne Rutter and DuVernet Tardt of the guard-to-guard combo there is really, they were getting pushback and collapsed a lot early in the season. And if they weren't getting pushback, there was kind of a phantom pressure in his mind. And I think it was a combination of one, he'd been banged around, and two trying to protect that knee. But really after the Titan game, he talked to me about really focusing on fundamentals.

And I even asked him, we talked about, are you dropping back? He's got the arm that he can drop back by 10 more yards and still fired in there. It's still a tough of a throw, but he can still do it. And, you know, he wouldn't admit to it at that time, but now he says, you know, when I go, okay, how are the fundamentals been?

He says, well, you know, I'm doing a better job of stepping up in the pocket and making sure I'm getting my feet set. And so I think there was a time where there was an issue, I think it was more about wanting to protect the knee, but now I think he is stepping up. I think you're getting, you know, 85, 90% would be my best guess of what it is with his legs, but 100% of his arm coming at you.

100% of his head are coming at you for the Texans this week. All right, final question for you, sir. And again, we're playing for the Houston audience here because I think most of America thinks Kansas that he's going to win this game. I said this about a half an hour ago. I think Pat Mahomes walks on the field just about anybody against anybody, throws for 275 yards at minimum in three touchdowns.

I said if the Texans are going to surprise, folks, you're going to throw three touchdowns, and he's also going to throw two interceptions, whether it be because of a little bit of pass rush, whether it be because of a deflected ball from off of receivers' hands. Is that the scenario that you could potentially see the Texan surprise, or if it's not that, how could the Texans pull off what will be, again, when you're a 10-point dog, it'll be a pretty significant upset?

Yeah, you know, when the Chiefs have lost, and they lost those back to that games, the Colts the week before losing to Houston, and the Colts ran over, and then they lost the Titans, and the Titans ran for 220 on him. It's keeping Patrick Mahomes off the field. Look, there's going to be a day where he throws three or four picks because he is not afraid of the interception. It doesn't bother him. He has supreme confidence that if he throws a pick, he's ready to go back out there

and keep firing. You're not going to see a guy cave mentally. I mean, listen, I wouldn't be able to see a six or seven touchdown, or excuse me, the interception day out of Patrick Mahal. Because if he's got a shot, he's going to keep firing. And so that scenario could be there. It could be that the Texas come up with a great game plan, and they've got him baffled. I will say, again, I stress, you know, the touch on his passes and the intelligence

with which he digest the game plan are really underrated. He is really a very, very smart guy, and he carries that Andy Reid intelligence out onto the field and uses it along with the physical gift that he brings to the table. I think they're right. I think the Texas too have to take the ball. You know, they had an interception that was supposed to be taken off the board by a foul, by a penalty flag, and, you know, they said, well, the ball wasn't too Kelsey, so it can't be past interference, and the tackling of Kelsey came before the ball was in the year, or after the

ball was in the year, so it can't be holding. Chiefs fans still are upset about that call. Andy Reid still wouldn't comment about it when he was at the podium yesterday. That was big. That was a turnover they got, and it was huge because the cheese shrubbed 17 to 9 and about ready to go in for another touchdown. Then the sack, strip, Bumble, which shut up the touchdown right before the half was big. So, you know, listen, I'm a Kansas City guy born and bread, so, you know, full disclosure,

taking the green a soon. But I don't think the Texans can win without being plus in the turnover differential in this game. Because the chiefs are a lot better. And, you know, we didn't really talk about the defense, but since that Titan game, Steve Feigel's defense has really come together and played at a high level. So I think it's going to be harder for the Texans. They've only given up 95 a game on the ground their last six. so anybody to be comfortable for them to just freeze out the chiefs offense

the way they did with that 40 minutes time of possession last time so I think you're dead on I think they're going to have to take it away somehow to be successful in this game soren petro WHB 810 in Kansas City thank you very much the time for squeezing us in between practice and your show and enjoy the game this weekend we appreciate it as always thank you friend very much absolutely thanks for having me you got it soren petro from WHB in Kansas City