The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Texans-Vikings, Astros-A's & Why Won't People Go To Texans Game

Episode Date: October 2, 2020

Texans-Vikings, Astros-A's & Why Won't People Go To Texans Game

So much larger than life. Yeah. Launch timers. I'm on my way I'm making you. Is the Matt Thomas show. 12 o'clock at H-town. Good. Come to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show.

Sports Talk 790. With Brandon and Ross. I'm Matt. You know, I'll say this. I have a lot of vices in my. my life. Like, I love carbs, unfortunately. We all do, Matt. But I don't drink a lot. And what I do is Balconi is still I get some a new jam, thankfully. I don't, I've never smoked cigarette my life. The lungs are in good shape.

The rest of my body is a hot mess. But I can still belt it out when I need to. You've been living in a city with a lot of smog. I don't know how the lungs are, Matt. Oh, God. Now you're just depressing. Damn. So all this non-smoking is not helping me out? It might be. Okay. You still get lung cancer without being a smoker. That's true. I'd have to be around it. Anyways. Anywhoes.

Hey, is it a football Friday? Is it a football Friday? I think it is, Matt. You want to do a full three-hour breakdown, Texas TCU? Here's what I want to do. I want to do three hours in the Texans, straight up. Just every little nugget. Okay, go ahead.

Offense, defense, special teams, coaching, players, front office. Or we could be entertaining and try a bunch of different things. Because that's why I feel like the show is. First of all, it's anything goes Friday. Rossi explained the essence of anything goes Friday. Well, that's anything you want to get to on the phone lines. It's 713-212-5-7-90 where the phones are wide open right now. So wide open.

Two-1-2-5-7-90. I'll say it again since Matt spoke over me. Sorry. 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. Look, Monday through Thursday here on the Matt Thomas show, we just get to about anything. Friday, you get even the longest leash in sports radio. Yeah. Houston gets even longer.

We are the most interactive show in the country gets even more interactive. I agreed. So topics could be Texans Vikings. If you want to, yes. It could be Astros and A's. And one of that, you know, that rat Mike Fires is going to throw in the series. I said, he's a human being, Matt. He's a rat.

Stinky rat. Dirty stinking rat? Dirty stinking rat. Okay. He would ever survive. in the codfather, correct? In the Godfather? Oh, he would have been snuffed out pretty, at least by the third act.

He would not have been at the toll booth either and made it. And, well, you can also, is there any political news happen or anything over? Just COVID. Oh. But, I mean, I would say it's anything goes Friday except politics and COVID. Fair? Because remember we used to do, Brendan, we used to do COVID-free Fridays? I mean, that is crazy.

That's right. When the word COVID has hit, you must hit the buzzer. I mean, it's pretty insane that the president. has coronavirus. It's completely insane. That's huge news. It's huge. Not even the biggest hate. Well, that's not true. I was going to say not even the biggest haters are making fun of this, but they are. They're like,

Oh, yeah. You got scoreboard, bach, and go get your bleach and all that kind of stuff. Oh, these radical lefties. Yeah. So I would not like to talk COVID. I would not like to talk about the president or anything political. And other than that, we can talk about it. We wish Donald Trump the best. Well, of course. We wish anybody. If anybody has

COVID the very best. That's true. It's tough in the leader of the free world. It's the one that's got it. That's insane. It's just insane. Yeah, it is insane. But, you know, it's 2020, right?

Yes. And it's 2020 that the Astros and A's are going to play at Dodger Stadium of all places. Mike fires, Houston Astros, Dodger Stadium. Does he pitch? If his spot in the rotation comes up, I would imagine, what's either a third guy? I would assume, he only, he didn't go two innings the other day. Well, that's true. Maybe he's not.

Maybe he's got a little elbow. inflammation sports RV. Maybe they'll pull him out of the rotation because he's terrible. Wouldn't it be so amazing if he didn't make the postseason roster? That would be like you big Frady Cat. Do you really think he's running away? I think if he gets pulled from... Why wouldn't he pitch against the Astros in Dodger Stadium?

There's really no reason. So he should. If he's a grown ass man and he wants to help his team win and it's a five game series, we've got to play five straight days and you need every pitcher, he's absolutely going to pitch. I'm just saying this is going to be joking, actually. Okay. I'm just saying, I don't even see, like, if he was as scared, what would he be afraid of?

Now, if he was the National League, I might be with you like he'd get thrown at. But it's the American League. He's not going to go up there. No, and it's a neutral side, too. Is anybody going to try to hit him with a comebacker? I mean, there's going to be no fans. There's no worry about coming here. He's not going to the plate.

Right. I don't understand why. If he were afraid, what would he have to be afraid of? The facing his whole team. I'm telling you, Ross, if all of a sudden he comes up on an injury, it will be the injury will be part of the story. The main story will be that he played 10, the A's played 10 regular season games against the Astros

and a postseason series, and Mike Fires, didn't pitch in one of them. I don't believe it to be the case. I believe we're going to see him pitch. I think so too. But I'm kind of rooting for option B. So the rest of America can realize

what a fraud this guy is. An honest fraud, but he's still a fraud. An honest fraud? Yeah. I just made that up. Okay. That's oxymoronic. Yeah.

That's completely axi-meronic. And he goes Friday. Okay. Okay, I should say douche. Oh, hey, I'm down with that one. He's a very honest douche. Is that better? Yeah.

Yeah, he sprayed Budweiser in my eye. Wow. In 2017, when the Astros won the ALCS. Mm-hmm. Okay, declared a statement. That's true. I have nothing to respond to that. There's just certain phrases I hear and I just get uncomfortable.

Why? It just makes- He shook up a buzzer. Budweiser and he looked me in the eye and then squirted it right in you right in your Budweiser yeah right in your eye yeah then was then was sprayed into my eye yes again you're spitting on facts yeah what's the issue? Spitting out I don't sorry about that it's right nothing wrong with it they got in my eye what if what's the issue Matt why are you laughing it hurt it was painful I couldn't see for a good like 35 seconds yeah getting

beer put in your eye or champagne or anything like that is any sort of alcohol in the eye is not good. Yeah. He didn't even pitch in that series. That's right. Did he make the roster? Or was he in the roster didn't pitch? Yeah.

Why should we be shocked if he didn't pitch in this series? He didn't make the 2017 Astros rotation either. But it would be, my guess is if he doesn't pitch, it's because he's put in the, he's hurt or something. Or, I mean, I would say because he's completely ineffective. He didn't he give up like 10 barrels and 10 batters or something like that? Don't you need every pitcher humanly possible to you?

I would imagine he's going to make it. We'll see. I don't know. All right. So anything goes Friday? Well, as you clearly can tell in the first six minutes of the show, 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

If you want to reach out to us on Twitter, you may do so as well. At SportsMT, at Sports RV, and at Brendan Riley underscore. Dusty Baker spoke to the media today. We'll hear that in the next segment. The first question on the gate was, is the rotation set. We'll let you hear what he had to say. Rossi was a brief answer.

I mean, less than three seconds, basically, right? Okay. So let you all try to figure out what Dusty said about his rotation. And the answer is three seconds. It's not really a great game of which talking about Dusty because there's really only one answer, right? And I already heard it. That really ruins the bit. Texans play the Vikings this Sunday, 12, and the game will be played.

There was a little bit of talk of whether or not the Vikings had tested positive and whatnot. and, you know, if there was anything going on. But everybody's tested negative. So the Texans and the Vikings will play 12 noon. Fans are welcome to go. And I saw a tweet, I don't know this for a fact, but I saw a tweet saying the tickets are still available for the game. And it felt like around 13,000 seats were being able to be sold.

Now, again, what the Texans did, which was the smart thing to do, is they said, look, if you don't want to go to games this year and you still want to hold on to your PSL and your season ticket spot, we'll let you do that. We'll let you just forego 20-20. We'll try this again in 2021. Are you all a little surprise if it's indeed, if it is accurate that there are people in the city of Houston that do not want to go to the game? And if they don't want to go to the game, is it because they're mad that the Texans are bad? Is it mad because there's their limited number of tickets? Is it because of COVID? Is it a combination of both? I frankly believe that if you were to take a poll of people that have gone to Texans games in the past that want to go,

The reason would be the reason why they wouldn't be going is not because of the cost of tickets or where their seats might be. I think they just don't like the football team. I think there's a little bit of COVID involved in it. But I think largely most of it is that they don't want to go see two teams that have a combined zero wins. So if anybody knows for a fact there are tickets really available for the game, kind of back us up on this because I did see a couple of tweets on it, but I don't know for fact if it's still available. Well, did you see the poll on these Sports Talk 790 Twitter account? Please put it out there. With tickets still available, why are you not attending the huge?

Houston Texans game this Saturday, this Sunday. 10% fear of COVID. 46% the team is 0 and 3. 43% would rather watch on TV. As I've said before, watching the NFL for me in person is as boring of an experiment as possible. I like being at the games when it's the only game on, like if it's Thursday night, Sunday night or Monday night.

But if I'm in fantasy football or it's a lazy Sunday afternoon and there's a bunch of other games that I want to watch, say, on Red Zone or if I'm flipping, through a direct TV if I had that. The best camera angles, the best shots, the best, you can go to your own bathroom and you can go to your own refrigerator. The NFL's tough. The NFL is a tough for me on a Sunday at 12 or 3 o'clock. There are definitely, I'm on Ticketmaster right now.

There are tickets available. Some of them are verified resale tickets. Some of them are standard tickets. Wow. Group of two. There's a ton of them. 645, 620, 650. I was looking yesterday secondary market.

you could get lower bowl for less than a hundred bucks. I mean, you can't get into a lot of games for less than a hundred bucks. No, not in the NFL, for sure. For that matter, sports, if you think about it, maybe baseball, you can get a lower level for $100. So we're holding off on our million dollar investment of Raiders tickets until next year, maybe? Problem is, what's the PSL going to cost us? For those of you don't know, Ross and I want to buy season tickets to the Raiders, not to ever go, but to sell them to other cities. Yes, because everybody will want to go visit.

it to Las Vegas Raiders. For sure. And we'll get good seats too, right? Yeah, of course. I wouldn't say 50 yard line, but probably... You'll get the 35 lower bowl. 35 lower bowl? I buy a ticket. You buy a ticket? Yeah, we'll be good. Let's go. I like this idea. PSL is going to set me back, man. I need a loan from a bank MT. And we'll call it Sports RV Unlimited. I'll put your name on it.

Just in case there's any legal issues on my side. Just in case there's tax issues. Yes, exactly. It lets you... Plausible deniability. I'll let you handle all that. All right. 713 212 570 7190 7122-5-790 we'll hear from Dusty Baker we'll hear about

whether or not you're going to the Texans game on Sunday and if you're not what is your number one reason 713 212 5790 and remember when Bob McNair wanted the Texans to be the state team I have news for you they've been around 18 years and they are

not even close to the state team of Texas 1213 sports talk 790 with a message here for Big City wings. Half-priced appetizers have to 9 o'clock tonight in any of the eight Big City Wing locations. The best part about Fridays at Big City Wing's, besides their new Nashville hot-flavored wings, besides their brand-new chicken, avocado egg rolls, is Margarita Madness. $3 for margaritas at any of those eight Big City Wing locations. Dine in, take out. They do the alcoholic to-go drinks as well if you're into that kind of thing. They do the door dash, anything

you want when it comes to getting your food prepared right because they are Houston's wing joint. For great burgers, which I had just the other day, plus the avocado egg rolls and the new Nashville hot flavor. And today is $3.00 margaritas. If you're looking to get out of work early today, go have one and enjoy the experience that is Big City Wings. To find a location near you, you go to bigcity wings.com. Back to Matt Thomas. Drives the state to left center field. This is Sports Talk 790. Home of Astros. baseball. Anything goes Friday. Sports Talk 790. All right, Ross. So Dusty Baker met with the media earlier today. And he was asked about whether or not he has his rotation set for the Astros A's

Divisional Series, which will begin Monday. It's five consecutive games, or five, it's five game series, could be played over five consecutive games. So Dusty was asked. So Dusty was asked, do you have your rotation locked and loaded? Do you have any idea of your rotation for this series? No, not yet. Short, succinct. To the point. Here's his conundrum.

Lance McCullors are like, come on, I'm ready. I haven't pitched in a long time. Apparently he pitched a live batters yesterday. Right, they had a workout. They're on the road. They did not come back to Houston. I was a little surprised by that. Once you got in the playoffs, you get into,

you went into a bubble where you were basically hotel stadiums. And that'll be the case everywhere they go. They cannot. No Magic City or? No golf course, no bowling alley, nothing. They're like, I mean, they're, they're basically doing what the NBA did, with the exception of they actually get to travel to different destinations. But there's no extracurricular activity.

Unless you're Daniel House. They didn't work out well for him. Okay. So the conditions. And under him is this. You pay Zach Granky over $30 million. Zach Granky is the longtime Major League pitcher. He's the one that has won some postseason games. Not a great postseason record, but his most amazing postseason mark as an astro was last year in Game 7 of the World Series.

He labored in game one of the wild card against Minnesota, got through four, and that was about as far as you could go. Wasn't brilliant. Hadn't really great the last month of the season, right? But he is Zach freaking Granky. He is your guy. agree. Meanwhile, you have Lance McCullors, who's young, spry, got off of Tommy John surgery, ready to go. Beautiful flowing hair. Beautiful flowing hair. Super good guy. Good charity. I mean, just a really good person. Is great through the first and second time through the order? The third time is a hot mess. And frankly, when he wears the gray uniforms on the road, he's a hot mess. True. There's your conundrum. What do you do? I don't think you want to wait to put him in the third spot. The question I think is either Lance McCorme. color starts or goes in game two.

My guess is they don't think they want him to go would be basically about what, almost two weeks without start. And pitching the live hitters and a warm up and a workout is one thing, going against a real competitor is another. And as even Dusty talked about during the Zoom call today, he can't treat his pitching staff like he did in the Walcott as we talked about yesterday because it feels like Jose Orkitti and or Christian Javier or and or Vronber Valdez is going to start a game.

Or they all may have to start. Yes. It's possible they all. So what you saw in terms of how to stack a pitching group will be nothing close to what you saw in the Wal-Card series. It'll be interesting to see the approach because it's possible you need all five of them. But what if you start down 02 and then you've wasted an opportunity to maybe use a couple of them in relief? So there are a number or if you're up to O.

and you don't maybe you want to close them out in a game three and in I just I just wonder what's going to happen where is he going is there going to be some sort of compromise between what you would normally if this is regular season right it would be Grinky McCullors or Keity Valdez Javier in some order whatever order that's pretty close you know it doesn't matter so it but it's not the regular season so will he try to burn one of those guys if if the situation arises and what if he does and it doesn't work out he's going to get completely crushed if he does it and it works out and you win a short series, you win in three or four, and you don't need that fifth starter, then he looks brilliant. So, I mean, there's a lot of different ways this can play out. And that's why I've said this many times for postseason baseball managing is so far from the everyday grind of 162 games. It's weird how it goes. Because think about this, A.J. Hinch, largely considered a very, very successful manager, but only gets ridicule when something doesn't go wrong in the postseason.

Same thing happens with a lot of managers. Everybody micromanages. They think they're the manager. Fans don't want to be the manager in July 19th. But when it comes October 15th, they know exactly how you should manage a baseball game. And really regular season managing. I mean, for the most part, it can be done by an eight-year-old.

Well, it can be really usually set and forget. Yeah, I would say that the managerial role in baseball is largely, and again, it's part psychiatrist, it's part gut and feel. but you have to make tactical decisions in the month of October. And that's where you separate the really great managers from the ones that, you know what, can just kind of get out there and clap hands and root the guys on. But Dusty so far in the, and again, it's a very, very small sample size. Push every one of the correct buttons in the first two games.

In first two games, he was under fire at least via Twitter, and that's where we get live reaction during these types of situations and people were upset with things he did. Everything he did worked out. All right. We'll get more on the Astros of the day progresses. We also want to ask you again. There are tickets available for the Texans game.

Again, they're expecting, what, about 13,000, I guess, max in the stadium. Yeah, I bought you a couple, Matt. I hope you didn't. Very busy. Oh, geez, forget it. I want to watch the game on TV. You can't tailgate, so what's the point? That's right.

Speaking of TV, real fast, then we're going to get to the phones. So you mentioned this to me before the show started. When Bob McNair bought the Texans, part of the reason why he named the team the Texans is because he wanted the entire state to embrace the team. Yes. He wanted to be Texas's team. You could have called them. the coconuts.

And if the Houston coconuts would have won a pair of Super Bowls in the last 15 years, it doesn't matter what the name of the team is. There would be people that would gravitate towards them. And then when they lose, you said, man, they got toasted this weekend. Correct. And sometimes you feel like a nut

and sometimes you don't. Yes. I mean, there's all sorts of things. So the coconuts would have been great and it would have been the team. It doesn't matter what they're going. And Abileney would have loved them. Corpus Christi would have loved him, San Antonio. Yeah. Green Bay Packers is a terrible name.

People love them because they win. Correct. So here's the bit. So they haven't won. They haven't gone to a championship game. And while the Cowboys haven't done anything either, they have 25, 30 years ahead of them, and they have Super Bowl victories.

And they have a brand. And you have generational fandom. Correct. There's a lot of people who are Cowboys fans around here because of their parents. And because of that's what they were when they were kids and they won. And that's really how you ingrained.

Think of all the young Astros fans that we have right now that we didn't have even five years ago. And when the orders left, there were some people that joined the Cowboy fan club. So the reason why I'm bringing this up is the following? Call me out like that. There's a website that it's called the 506.com. And it kind of shows you what games are being shown to what

parts of the country. And I'm very fascinated by this. I think actually a lot of people are more than I ever thought they would. It's very popular website. Never heard of it. Well, Michael Conard did, so he's a good person and you're not. The 506.com. The 506. I think it's either that or 506 sports, one of the two. But I just go, it's

marked. They tell you which games are being shown. The state of Texas this week has two games on Fox at the same time involving Texas teams. Cleveland against Dallas and Minnesota versus Houston. They're both Fox games. Every single market in Fox in Texas is carrying the Cleveland Dallas game except Houston. Houston's going to do the Minnesota Houston game for obvious reasons. And while that shouldn't surprise you, my guess is if you look at the games, if Fox, if the Texans and the Cowboys were on the same network at the same time, it probably went that way in any, Ross. But what kind of blew me away was Victoria,

College Station, Beaumont. Three towns. They're not cities. They're towns, right? Yes. But they're all television markets. They're all very low,

but they're all television markets. that are all within within two hours of Houston. All three of them, including Beaumont, the one that, Beaumont really throws me off. All of them are carrying the Cleveland Cowboys game.

The only Fox station in Texas that is carrying the Minnesota Houston game is 26 for obvious reasons. I was just kind of, I wouldn't say super surprised by it, but man, it just further shows you than a very average Dallas team against an underperforming Houston team

and Dallas is going to win every single time. Golden Triangle is Cowboy Country. We remember we had Bud and B. on. This was maybe four or five years ago. He called and talked about because he's from Port Arthur, of course. As you know, Matt, PA, Texas. But it's Cowboy Country out there. It is. And the only way you could ever change that

or make people start rooting for the Houston Texans is when, and they just haven't won. But you would think, but you would think, but you would even think a city 75 miles. I mean, Beaumont's really close. Yeah, you would think. Brian College Station, really close. Yep. Still Cowboys territory.

To the phones next, we promise. 1227. Anything goes Friday. Come on in, join the conversation. We'll start with Will. John, the rest of you come on in. Also, Gordy's parody is coming up in 20 minutes from now. Aaron Reese on the Texans at 120.

Our Schmo's picks are coming up. Brian T. Smith is along the way as well. And we have hellier or not. So a busy show today. 713-212-5-790. This is Carlos Correa. Sports Talk 790. Check for the Astros!

Insert home. Busters baseball. Carlos Correa, feeling sexy about his Astros. We don't know the game times yet. I have a feeling we're going to be doing a first-hour Texans get their ass beat by the Vikings and then under Astros coverage. Whoa, Matthew. Why?

You don't think so? The Texans are going to get their ass beat by the Vikings? Well, we'll make the Picks at 130. Look. They've got the wrong defense to stop Dauvin Cook. And remember, you're getting four points. No, you're giving four. Standings, by the way, on the schmose.

Ross, last week you went three and one and you made 4,000 M.T. bucks. Brendan, you went two and two. You lost 4,000 MT bucks. I went two and two and got zero. So for the season, Brandon has eight wins compared to just four losses. He's plus 6,000. Wow. Ross, you are 5 and 7 on the year and you are plus 2,000.

We got to get better. I am 6 and 6 and minus 2,000. Did you guys catch how painful my losses were? Not really, no. The Rams who took the lead and lost it last second? That's a shame. And the Titans who hit a game-winning field goal, I needed them to win by two and a half. You know what you are?

You're a whore for the Rams. I lost, I am, but I lost two games by a total of two points. It's called gambling, pal. I don't like it. You probably won a couple by two points this year and you haven't said anything. Of course not. Why would I do that? Exactly.

But, so Ross, you have the honors are going first this week. Oh, wonderful. We'll do that at one third. I don't know if you know this, Matt. We've entered October. You're the worst. Will and Montrose at 1233 on 790. Hi, Will.

Hey, how's it going? Wonderful. Thank you. Great. You said, you're good for a minute. You did radio in me, correct? Said that one more time? You did radio in Minnesota, correct? I did, yes, for three years.

Yeah, what radio station? AM 1500, the home of the twin at the time. I used to listen to that station a lot when I was there. I grew up there for 24 years. Yeah, it's a great. I love my friends in Minnesota. I still love it. The weather blows to unbelievable proportions.

It's just, it's, I don't know how humans live there seven months a year. Five months a year, it's fantastic. Seven months, it's just the worst. Because I see the Vikings, well, I mean, down here, you know, about every two years, the schedule flip. I mean, and I'm a Vikings fan. I'm never seen Minnesota fan except for baseball. That happened when I came to Fort Hood in 2001.

I became an Astros fan. I got you. I want to go because, for one, the tickets are ridiculously cheap. I mean, you can get, you know, like you said, a lower bowl for $100. So did you buy your tickets yet or no? I just got my babysitting situation. Oh, there you go. Okay.

Well, good. Well, hey, do me a favor. Well, call us back on Monday. let us know what it was like and wearing the mask and being in the stands and that kind of thing, kind of give us a eyewitness report. Can you do that for us? Yeah, I will. Very good. Have a good weekend. I appreciate you listening. You want to go if I gave you tickets? Would you go? How many? Two? No.

Yeah, I don't like going. I'll tell you what makes part of the game day experience worth it. And this is actually a huge part of it to me. Is the tail getting there early, hanging out, listening to music, having a couple of beers, vomiting in the trash can on the way to the stadium. Hitting on girls. Yeah, striking out like nobody's business. No, but really, the tailgating, to me, that makes the game day experience and going to the game worth it.

If I'm not going to do any of that stuff, I'm going to show up. It's going to be tough to park. You're going to be waiting in traffic forever, especially on the way in and on the way out. Well, maybe not with 12,000 people. Yeah, that's true. But still, it's a lot of people, depending on how many lots are open and all that type of stuff. And then I'm going to be missing all the other games. you're going to get home probably depending 4-4-30, so you've missed half of the 3 o'clock games.

To me, it's not worth it unless you can make like the game day experience. See, I will tailgate at a college game like nobody's business. The NFL tailgate, for me, it's just like that. Getting up super early on a Sunday, that's the one day we get to kind of decompress your life, and then missing the other games. Because I love fantasy football. Yeah, exactly. I think that to me.

Not an indictment against the Texans or the NFL, I would say that same thing. Now, I will say this, my greatest experience is going to games involved the Texans playing when they didn't play against anybody else when they were the only game going on. Monday night football, Sunday night football. I went to Green Bay twice to see a Vikings Packers game when I lived in Minneapolis. Those were both on Monday nights. I love that experience. But I wouldn't want to be in the stadium. Think about this.

The Wi-Fi, typically at stadiums is terrible. So you can't check your fans. You can't check your scores. it feels like the game slows down when you're in a stadium or at least if you're in a commercial break you go to the bathroom, get your own food, flip your television to see what else is on. Yeah, those TV, you really notice at an NFL game,

the TV timeouts where everybody's just standing around, it really is much more noticeable when you're in the stadium. And maybe it's just in my head, but that's just how I feel. Let me go to John and Cyprus at 1237. Hi, John. Hey, MT, how you doing today? Well, Fran, what's up? Anything goes Friday, right?

I mean, I'm telling you anything. All right. Well, you know what time it is, isn't, don't you? 1237. It just said it? Nope. It's time for a Texas instant poll to see who wants to go to the Texans game if they do or why they don't. So you're saying you want me to ask seven random people if they want to go if they're going to the Texans game.

You know how I know John listens all the time because he just did Texas. He did the right inflection of what Matt Thomas guest. I have serious respect for you. For an Insta poll. Okay, well, let me do this, John. Thank you, John. Let me see if I can phrase this. Okay.

How about this? If I gave you two tickets for free, would you go to the game? Now, let's make sure, let's talk about where the tickets are. Now, since you and I are not made of incredible wealth, let's put them in the, what's the section above the club?

Is it the high 600s? Above the club, I think so. Let me find. I'm Googling seat map. me a very average ticket location. Not at the 35, not the 50. How about second level end zone? Okay, here it is.

Three, well, or you want third level? Third level end zone first row. Six 48. Let's do that. Okay, section 648, row one, seats one and two. If I had two tickets to give you the Texans game, would you go to the game? When you hear the music, you know what that means, we're all. What does that mean, Matt?

It's time for an insta poll. If I gave you seats, first row, third deck, end zone, two of them. Would you go? 713-212-5-790? 7-13-212-5-790. Would you go yes or no? First row, third deck. Line one in the insipole, would you go?

Yes or no? I think I have a whole and else scheduled for that day so I don't know you just said I don't know he said hell no oh okay that's much better

thank you buddy appreciate it line two in the instapole would you go first row third deck yes or no all right that's

what does the insipole Ross tell you it never lies yeah never lies especially when it's the advantage to me line four on the instapole would you go

first row third deck yes or no two tickets Oh, hell no. Okay. I feel this is Ross, not about the ticket location. I think it's about the anti-Bill O'Brien. I really believe that.

Line 5, would you go to the game? Yes or no, if I gave you two tickets, 648. Hell no. All right, close a poll. That's it. That's a sweep, sports RV. That was very fast. Very, very fast.

Matt in downtown at 1240 on 790. Hi, Matt. Hello, how are you doing this afternoon? Well, well. Yeah, same to you, my friend. Well, concerning a Dallas Cowboys brand and the Houston, Texan, I'm a transplant, came down here eight years ago from St. Louis. And Southern Missouri, Southern half Missouri,

which has got a very strong Southern Florida or whatever, that's a lot of Cowboys fans there, especially when the St. Louis football cardinals left St. Louis in the late 80s. You didn't have a franchise there for eight or nine years, whatever it was. So the Cowboys have a great brand name. are they used to at least. And what I get confused about is, you know, the McBear, who owns the Texans, you folks are so into football here, and that's great.

But I just don't understand how there's more generation to get rid of O'Brien or do whatever it takes to have a winning franchise. Maybe not, you know, the Super Bowl champions every year, but you know they're in the running. And I want to make a point here, the Cardinal fans, and say with those, I think, are as good as any baseball fans. But one reason they're on board so effectively is the Cardinals never tank, and they're always in their running, and the fans know the Cardinals are working to be a championship team.

They may not make it. They get to the playoffs quite often. But I don't see the same, I don't know, energy are certainly decision-making process with the Texans. You know what you did, though, Maddie? And I got a roll. I get to a break. you answered your own question. Bill O'Brien sucks as a coach and as a general manager.

And until that changes, people are not going to want to go to games. Ross Villarreal, what I've been saying for two years now. They're never going to go to a Super Bowl under Bill O'Brien. That is correct. I will lead the biggest bowl of crow that maybe has ever been tasted in Houston sports radio history when that happens. That sounds disgusting. But I'll do it.

But I'm very confident that I can keep this lean, slim figure of mine because I won't up eating that crow. because Bill O'Brien is a bad head football coach and a bad general manager, and probably not a great person. He was very affable our little drinks and get together, but he even got kind of honorary there, too. I think he's an average head coach. Okay, average head coach and...

So far not a great GM. There's no definition of not a great. He's an average head coach and a what general manager? You're calling him an average general manager based off of the decisions made made. three draft picks in the first and second round are gone. You overpaid for a left tackle. You got rid of Deandre Haynes. You brought back David Johnson.

That is a horrific general manager. That is a putre general manager. A future general manager would be two and 14 every year. Okay, so maybe he's, you know what? Maybe he's an average coach, but he's a horrific general manager whose mistakes will cost this franchise for years to come. I will stand by that. How about that? You okay with that?

You okay with that? You okay with that? You okay, good. You know what's up next? What's up next, Matthew? The Chris Gordy, horrible Football Friday parody. This is Carlos Correa. Sports Talk 790.

Back to back deck for the Astros. It's your home. A pastor's baseball. Carlos Correa, feeling sexy about his Astros. We don't know the game times yet. I have a feeling we're going to be doing a first-hour Texans get their ass beat by the Vikings and then under Astros coverage. Whoa, Matthew.

You don't think so? The Texans are going to get their ass beat by the Vikings? Well, we'll make the picks at 130. Look, they've got the run defense to stop Dalvin Cook. And remember, you're getting four points. No, you're giving four. Standings, by the way, on the schmose. Ross, last week you went three and one and you made 4,000 MT bucks.

Brandon, you went 2 and 2. You lost 4,000 MT bucks. Yes. I went 2 and 2 and got 0. So for the season, Brandon has eight wins compared to just four losses. He's plus 6,000. Wow. Ross, you are 5 and 7 on the year and you are plus 2,000.

I am 6 and 6 and minus 2,000. Did you guys catch how painful my losses were? Not really, no. The Rams who took the lead and lost it last second. That's a shame. And the Titans who hit a game-winning field goal, I needed them to win by 2.5. You know what you are? You're a whore for the Rams.

I lost, I am, but I lost two games by a total of two points. It's called gambling, pal. I don't like it. You probably won a couple by two points this year and you haven't said anything. Of course not. Why would I do that? Exactly. But, so Ross, you have the honors going first this week.

Oh, wonderful. We'll do that at one third. Well, I don't know if you know this, Matt. We've entered October. You're the worst. Will and Montrose at 1233 on 7.90. Hi, Will. Hey, how's it going?

Wonderful. Thank you. Great. I used to hear you. You're good for a minute. You did ready for me. Correct? Said that one more time? You did radio in Minnesota, correct?

I did, yes, for three years. Yeah, what radio station? AM-1-500, the home of the twin at the time. I used to listen to that station a lot when I was there. I grew up there for 24 years. Yeah, it's a great. I love my friends in Minnesota. I still love it.

The weather blows to unbelievable proportions. It's just, I don't know how humans live there seven months a year. Five months a year, it's fantastic. Seven months, it's just the worst. I see the Vikings, well, I mean, down here, about every two years, the schedule flip. I mean, and I'm a Vikings fan. I'm never seen Minnesota fan except for baseball. That happened when I came to Fort Hood in 2001.

I became an Astros fan. I got you. But I'm going to go because, for one, the tickets are ridiculously cheap. I mean, you can get, you know, like you said, a lower bowl for $100. bucks. So did you buy your tickets yet or no? I just got my babysitting situated. Oh, there you go.

Okay. Well, good. Well, hey, do me a favor. Will, call us back on Monday and let us know what it was like and wearing the mask and being in the stands and that kind of thing. Kind of give us a eyewitness report. Can you do that for us? Yeah, I will.

Very good. Have a good weekend. Appreciate you listening. You want to go if I gave you tickets? Would you go? How many? Two? No.

Yeah, I don't like going. I'll tell you what makes part of the game day experience worth it. And this is actually a huge part of it, to me. Is the tailgating? No. Getting there early, hanging out, listening to music, having a couple of beers, vomiting in the trash can on the way to the stadium. Hitting on girls.

Yeah, striking out like nobody's business. No, but really, the tailgating, to me, that makes the game day experience and going to the game worth it. If I'm not going to do any of that stuff, I'm going to show up. It's going to be tough to park. You're going to be waiting in traffic forever, especially on the way in and on the way out. Well, maybe not with 12,000 people.

Yeah, that's true, but still it's a lot of people, depending on how many lots are open and all that type of stuff. And then I'm going to be missing all the other games, and you're going to get home probably depending, 4, 430, so you've missed half of the 3 o'clock games. To me, it's not worth it unless you can make like the game day experience. See, I will tailgate at a college game like nobody's business. The NFL tailgate, for me, it's just like that.

Getting up super early on a Sunday, that's the one day we get to kind of decompress your life, and then missing the other games. Because I love fantasy football. Yeah, exactly. I think that's a meaning. Not an indictment against the Texans of the NFL, I would say that same thing.

Now, I will say this. My greatest experience is going to games involved the Texans playing when they didn't play against anybody else when they were the only game going on. Monday night football, Sunday night football. I went to Green Bay twice to see a Vikings Packers game when I lived in Minneapolis.

Those were both on Monday nights. I love that experience. But I wouldn't want to be in the stadium. Think about this. The Wi-Fi, typically at stadiums is terrible. So you can't check your fantasy. You can't check your scores. It feels like the game slows down when you're in a stadium.

Or at least if you're in a commercial break, you go to the bathroom, get your own food, flip your television and see what else is on. Yeah, those TV, you really notice at an NFL game, the TV timeouts where everybody's just standing around, it really is much more noticeable when you're in the stadium. And maybe it's just in my head, but that's just how I feel. Let me go to John and Cyprus at 1237.

Hi, John. Hey, MT. How are you doing today? Well, Fran, what's up? Anything goes Friday, right? I mean, I'm telling you anything. All right. Well, you know what time it is, isn't, don't you?

1237, I just said it? Nope. It's time for a Texas instant poll to see who wants to go to the, who wants to go to the Texans game if they do or why they don't. So you're saying you want me to ask seven. seven random people if they want to go if they're going the Texans

you know how I know John listens all the time because he just did Texas he did the right inflection of one man Thomas guest I have serious respect

for you for an insta poll okay well let me let me do this John thank you John let me see if I can phrase this okay how about this

if I gave you two tickets if I gave you two tickets for free yes would you go to the game now let's make sure let's talk about where the tickets are now since you

and I are not made of incredible wealth Let's put them in the... What's the section above the club? Is it the high 600s? Above the club, I think so. Let me find... I'm Googling seat map for you.

Give me a very average ticket location. Not at the 35, not the 50. How about second level end zone? Okay, here it is. Three... Well, are you on third level? Third level, end zone first row. 648. Let's do that.

Okay. Section 648. Row one, seats one and two. If I had two tickets to give you the Texans game, would you go to the game? When you hear the music, you know what that means, Ross? What does that mean, Matt? It's time for an insta poll. If I gave you seats, first row, third deck, end zone, two of them. Would you go 713, 212, 5, 790?

713-212-5-790. Would you go? Yes or no? First row, third deck. Line 1 in the instipal, would you go? Yes or no? I think I have a whole-and-off speech scheduled for that day, so I don't know.

You just said, I don't know? He said hell no. Oh, hell-no. Okay, that's much better. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it. Line 2 in the instapole, would you go? First row, third deck, yes or no?

Hell no. All right. That's too. What does the interpol Ross tell you? It never lies. Yeah, never lies. Especially when it's the advantage to me.

Line four on the instapole, would you go? First row, third deck. Yes or no? Oh, hell no. Okay. I feel this is Ross not about the ticket location. I think it's about the anti-Bill O'Brien. I really believe that.

Line five, would you go to the game? Yes or no. If I gave you two tickets, 648. Hell no. Close a poll. That's it. That's a sweep, sports RV. That was very fast.

Very, very fast. Matt in downtown at 1240 on 7-90. Hi, Matt. Hello, how are you doing this afternoon? Oh, Baltimore? Yeah, same to you, my friend. Well, concerning a Dallas Cowboys brand and the Houston, Texan, I'm a transplant, came down here eight years ago from St. Louis.

And southern Missouri, southern half Missouri, which has got a very strong, Southern Florida or whatever, that's a lot of cowboy fans there. especially when the St. Louis football cardinals left St. Louis in the late 80s. You didn't have a franchise there for eight or nine years, whatever it was. So the Cowboys have a great brand name everywhere. Are they used to, at least? And what I get confused about is, you know, the McBear, who owns the Texans, you folks are so into football here, and that's great.

But I just don't understand how there's more generation to get rid of. rid of O'Brien or do whatever it takes to have a winning franchise. Maybe not, you know, the Super Bowl champions every year, but you know they're in the running. And I want to make a point here, the Cardinal fans in the same of those, I think, are as good as as as any baseball fans. But one reason they're on board so effectively is the Cardinals never tank and they're always in their running and the fans know the Cardinals are working to be a championship team. They may not make it.

They get to the playoffs quite often. but I don't see the same, I don't know, energy are certainly decision-making process with the Texans. You know what you did, though, Maddie, and I got a roll and I get to a break. You answered your own question. Bill O'Brien sucks as a coach and as a general manager.

And until that changes, people are not going to want to go to games. Ross Villarreal, what I've been saying for two years now? They're never going to go to a Super Bowl under Bill O'Brien. That is correct. I will lead the biggest bowl of crow that maybe has ever been tasted in Houston sports radio history when that happens. That sounds disgusting.

But I'll do it. But I'm very confident that I can keep this lean, slim figure of mine because I won't be eating that crow. Because Bill O'Brien is a bad head football coach and a bad general manager and probably not a great person. He was very affable our little drinks and get together, but he got kind of honorary there too. I think he's an average head coach. Okay.

Average head coach and? so far not a great GM there's no definition of not a great he's an average head coach and a what general manager average you're calling him an average general manager based off of the decisions been made three three draft picks in the first and second round are gone you overpaid for a left tackle you got rid of

of Deidondry Hopkins you brought back David Johnson that is a horrific general manager that is a putre general manager would be two and fourteen every year or I mean there okay so maybe he's so maybe you know what maybe he's an average coach, but he's a horrific general manager whose mistakes will cost this franchise for years to come. I will stand by that.

How about that? You okay with that? You okay with that? You okay with that? You know, what's up next? What's up next, Matthew? The Chris Gordy, horrible football Friday parody. Is the Matt Thomas show.

Anything goes Friday continues. Hour number two or three on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, gang, with Ross and Brendan and I'm Matt. Want a shout out to a good friend of mine? And you guys have seen him on television, I don't know, in Houston, probably since you were in diaper sports RV. Kevin Ashenfeld are going to go into the Houston media, baseball media, Wall of Fame at the Minutemate Park. Wow. Yeah, really happy for him.

Super guy. What? Nothing? You keep looking, you're getting, look, strange looks. I don't know. I'm just talking about it. I didn't do anything. Brendan, you should come in here more often.

These looks at Ross is giving me. I didn't do anything. I'm just sitting here. All right. A little strange look. Conducting the show. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show Friday. Anything goes. Let's go. Ross always has a lot of thoughts in his head that very clearly never come out on the mic. It's like you have your own show in your head.

Probably not the most politically correct show out there. There are things I hold back on not saying. Okay. But I think that's everybody. You have to filter yourself, Matt. I filter myself constantly. We're broadcasting to the masses. You know what I think is I think my filter is if I pass anything along to you is going into your filter. Like you have the same devious thoughts that I have.

I'm a little more unfiltered than you. Yeah, that's probably true. All right. So, congratulations to Ash. Ash listens to show all the time. Oh, good. What's up, Ash? He actually recites the show.

Like, remember when you talked about this last hour? I'm like, I did? So, Ash, if you're listening, he usually goes out in jogs during this time. All right. Well, appreciate it. I'm sure he got a really nice phone call from the Astros. It was great to hear from him. I only really hung out at once.

And that was the U of H and Texas CBI game, where Prince eBay missed all his free throws in Texas Longworth lost. God, the good time. The continued dominance of Houston Cougars over Texas. In a CBI game? Do you realize in the last 10 years that the Cougars and Longhorns have faced each other twice in something? That and the baseball. And that's it.

Of course, Texas just took out the trash with the baseball. And then that's why you. That's because you bribe the NCAA to have the tournament in Dishfog Field. And then you had to sing the fight song. Yeah. You bribe the incident of a lake because they're corrupt, A.F. Yeah, they're corrupt. I don't need to bribe them.

Red McComb handles that. All right. Speaking of college, we have, like, help me out with something. A&M's playing Alabama around. Shouldn't that just be a Uber big conversation piece? I think this speaks to what we were talking about a little bit in the break and a little bit about the ratings being down. I think it's just, for whatever reason, I don't know, 2020 is weird.

Everything about it, no matter what, trying to do. quantify anything is weird. Yeah, I'm trying to get up for Texas TCU. Like Texas TCU, I mean, honestly, TCU is eating Texas as lunch. I think the frog, whoa. The frogs have won six of eight. Whoa. Two or false.

I look, man, I don't get into stats, all right? Well, I'm not getting the stats. I'm just telling you about the series. But I could understand why Texas TCU is not, everybody's bumping their gums about that. Well, it's like the Texas is, I want to say 13, 14, 14 point favorites. Okay. And in the case of A&M Alabama, Alabama, I think it's like a 17 point favorite. But when you think of it, what I think of A&A Alabama, I think of Tommy, Tommy, Johnny going to Tuscaloosa winning that game.

Well, that's the only time they beat him. That's right. They lose like 77 to 3 or something. Is it because the series really isn't that competitive? Is that the reason why we're just not getting into it? Can we go through the history? I can find it. I don't have to.

I'm just saying. But it just feels like the, and this is one of the things I brought up in the year earlier. I've been doing this sports radio bit of mine for by the first. 30 years, give her take. Okay, so they won in 2012, 29 to 24. That was in Tuscaloosa, right? Since then, they lost 49 to 42. Okay. 59 to zero. Oops. 41 to 23, 33 to 14, 27 to 19, 45 to 23, 47 to 28. Okay, so there's nothing there that says this, if you're going based on history, which you can in college athletics because players change

every three to four years. When Johnny Mansell hasn't been there, they've just been getting completely thrashed. Yeah. but it's outbound. And the thing is most my A&M buddies, they're not, they're not Kalamond fans. They're like, A&M's better.

A&M has got a better recruiting class, but A&M had its first kind of warm-up drill yesterday last Saturday, and they played Vanderbilt to a 17-12 football game. How does a team that barely beats a, you would think on average, a very below-average Vanderbilt team, and how they're supposed to jump on a plane

and go to Tuscaloosa and beat one of the teams that's perennial in the college football playoff? Maybe this is me, being pied-eyed, optimist Longhorn person, but maybe you don't take a whole lot from the first couple of weeks. It was just weird. Weird stuff is happening all over the place.

LSU lost to Mississippi State. You have the OU losing to Kansas State. The Texas game, quite frankly, they should have lost that game. Red Raiders, good gracious. Texas had zero business winning that game. Red Raiders, one of the all-time choke jobs. You can't even be happy about that win as a

Longhorn fan. A week one was just weird all around. And maybe this entire season. Week one of conference plays. Because here's the thing. Maybe everything in sports is weird. Miami was not supposed to win the Eastern Conference in the NBA. The Lakers were certainly one of the co-favorites along with the Clippers. And that's why I think at the end of the day,

we're not going to see a very competitive NBA finals because we got weird quirky things happening, but weird quirky things tend to level off and the dominant team's going to win. And Bam, out of Iowa and Goran Dragach are hurt. And Jimmy Butler took his ankle. He came back in the game. But they're 9.5. Dogs now are the Miami heat.

That series is done. So the upsets are going to do what for a college football? Is it going to spike interest or is it going to have the haters hating on their own local teams more? I think what we like is dominant teams who then eventually face off against each other. So if a bunch of teams are losing to upsets, you say, oh, well, nobody's really good. We like teams who win a lot and then towards the end of the season, they match up. Certainly in conference championship games, which are they still going to have those or what's going on with that? Okay, so in conference championship games and eventually in the playoff, it's more of a build.

I feel like in college football. So I think what we'll do is we'll probably not have as much interest in the week-to-week games, but when they get to the final four, that's when all of the COVID-testing, weird scheduling kind of shakes itself, right? Well. Right? I don't know. What happened to the winter second wave? Is that still a thing?

Are we done? Or is that not happening? Remember it's a co- where's the buzzer? I'm sorry. Where's the buzzer? I'm putting second wave in. Yeah, add that to your mutes. We had dropped it.

doing that for a while. It's back on. Okay. I mean, I'm game. Here's the thing. When the president gets it, we have to hit the buzzer. That's fair. It's just the thing.

Let's see. The Dutch are getting a second wave. Buzer, buzzer. Turn his microphone off. I'm Chris Wallace in this show, and I'm telling you can't bring this up anymore. We're going to mute my mic. Czech Republic, Spain, France. See, this is why anything goes Friday.

713, 2.12. And by the way, my cougars still haven't played a game yet. Maybe next Thursday. Wait, are they on the schedule this weekend? Next Thursday against Tulane. Oh, okay, okay. Or as the kids say, Tulane. Hey, you got to watch out for the Green Wave, Matt.

And doing what? Is that game in New Orleans? No, it's here. Well, maybe we could road trip it if they were any. We were there last year. It sucked. Why? Let me give up a big fourth quarter leave.

Oh, I don't care about that. I'm talking about the city. Is it really leaving the city anymore? Like, Las Vegas isn't really Las Vegas. It's about 50% of Las Vegas. That's true. Is 50% of New Orleans still going to be the New Orleans that we know and love? Well, how much trash juice is on bourbon, Matt?

there's your answer. I mean, is there less vomit on Poitris? Brendan, have you ever been in New Orleans? For a few hours, stopping through on the way here. Oh, okay. So you didn't see the trash juice on Bourbon Street? No. It's, it runs like the river sticks. It's beautiful. I mean, I walked down bourbon, but it was like

7 p.m. Oh, you don't get to smell the urine and vomit then. Yeah. It's part of the charm. That's not the real not the real, not the real bourbon street, for sure. All right. Seriously, is there not a better, is there not a worse smell than a Saturday at 11 p.m. in New Orleans and it better smell at 9 a.m. the next morning because all the street cleaners have come and cleaned it up.

Well, when the sun starts hitting the trash juice around 4 p.m., that's pretty bad. And you had sweat, too, people walking around. Yeah. New Orleans is gross. Go catch them. Oh, it's great. It's gross. You got the Harrah's there.

Bourbon is definitely a frat-boy tourist trap. But, I mean, you have the live music on Royal and Frenchman streets and stuff like that. And the food is just amazing. Love New Orleans. I just know that when the Rockets put the Pelicans and we spend the night in New Orleans, I run into every rocket at Harris. It's just a safe spot. Well, you know, it's not bad over there.

Not bad at all. Certainly if the dice are hitting Matt. So make sure I'm not throwing. Get that right. You are the curse. You think there's a sports empty curse. The sports RV curse on the craps table is legendary. I hit a point that one time.

Yeah. You've been with me 50 times a casino. I've seen you roll one point. I just get happy when I don't throw a tour of 12 in the first role. Yeah, I know. Crave out, 12. What does that mean? You've got to put more money down.

Maybe they don't get a point yet. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Headlines quickly on the Astros. Dusty Baker is not announced his rotation yet for the playoffs. Game 1, Astros and A's will be Monday. What do you think about them playing five games in five days? indifference to it?

No, I think it significantly hurts them because of the pitching. Anybody's pitching. Yes, anybody, but especially the Astros. It's a weak point for them. The bullpen, I think. I mean, you see how scared Dusty was of the bullpen in that two-game series? The A's bullpen is significantly better. Yes.

And that's really where I get scared. And I would think with any series going in, who has the deeper bullpen, who have guys you trust. By you going to Christian Javier and throwing them as much as you did for doing the same thing of Framber Valdez. Dusty does not trust his arms. I like Andre Scraub in August afternoon in Blake Taylor. Wherever, Blake Taylor as well, not necessarily bright lights at 2 p.m., but in playoff pressure situations, guys.

Rayleigh, give up the hit, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Can they perform? Perhaps. Am I confident in it? Not exactly. That's where you have the issues is what's going to happen when you're going deep into

the bullpen. Who can you trust? I think if the Astros lose this series, it won't. won't be because of I think first of all we've had a lot of the low scoring games in the Astro series everybody else it feels like has been playing a lot of runs except that Braves

Red series and it was so one-sided I will I feel like we won't see seven to one games I think if the Astros lose a series Rossi it'll be 4, 3, 6, 5 where the bullpen gives up runs. I think the bullpen if the Astros do not win will be their Achilles heel.

Way more than starting pitching, way more than the lack of consistent bets. That's just my gut on that one. Let's say, we've got to get to a break here. Maybe we can answer this on the other side. Okay. Zach Grunkey pitches game one.

Through four innings, he's thrown 85 pitches. He's giving up one run, but he's a little tax. They pull him. What's the score of the game? 1-1. Who pitches the fifth? Well, we got Aaron Reese coming up, so I can't get, I'll have to give the answer right now.

It will be somebody not named Frommber, not named Christian, and not named, who's my, who's my third one? Fromber Oh, McCuller No, it'll be somebody we've not seen in play a game yet. Blake Taylor.

I'll give you the answer right there. Blake Taylor. Josh James? Deep breath. Could Josh James make a name for himself in Oakland, California? A good name. I was going to say, yes, he can.

I don't know if it's going to be good. All right. On the Texans next with Aaron Reese from the Athletic. It's 113 on 790. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790 where Rockets and Astros play and real Texans talk.

119 on the Matt Thomas show. Hey, we've got our buddy Aaron Reese on who it's like Matt, I must speak to you on Tuesday and I'm like, Aaron, you can't. The Astros are on. So he called me at the house. We talked Texas for 10 minutes.

Now he's kidding. Aaron is a good friend of the show. Aaron J. Reese on Twitter. You can find them from The Athletic. All right, Aaron. So walk me through, in your mind, the rumor mill, how close did the Vikings-Texins game get to being potentially postponed? You know, I don't think it got very close.

I mean, you know, I think it was kind of day-to-day, so it's hard to say, like, one development from one day to the next or kind of how the has been closed with it. But I mean, so long as there were no positives on the Vikings then, they were good to go. But I certainly, I would say this from like an outside of preserver standpoint, keeping up with the news out of Minnesota and talking to our Vikings supporter at the athletic chat graph. I had doubt that it was going to actually have it on Sunday, just given that, you know, some of these got one of the guys who's positive. I think on the Titans played like 51% of the snaps. And, you know, there's another player now who's positive on the Vikings I saw today.

And so I don't know who that was or only snaps he's played. but you think about kind of how often these guys are on the field. Obviously, it's a good thing that, you know, it seems as no Vikings were infected, but it's scary stuff. And I thought I was kind of thinking there was a chance where the game would have it later or get pushed back. Well, it's going on 12 noon Sunday Inside Energy Stadium. Are you surprised that there are tickets available for the game? I mean, nothing journalistic to it, but just as an opinion about that, you know,

we're finally going to get fans in the stadium. and there may be some empty seats available among the, I guess, the 12,000 or so that are available to the audience. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, I don't blame anyone, obviously, for not wanting to go. Both a public health standpoint and a just like how you're spending your money standpoint, right? I mean, well, the economy has come back a little bit, but I know, you know, unemployment's still pretty high, and people don't feel like spending money on a game for two, oh and three teams, in a environment that's going to be a little lackluster because the limit amount of people

and all that sort of stuff. So, no, I guess I'm not too surprised. I think kind of the fan base here is at a point, especially the Texans, it seems like being kind of a little resigned, a little over it. I don't know if like the first thing you're looking, what you're looking to go to during a pandemic is the 0.3 Texans against the 0.3 Vikings. Yeah, I think it's threefold. I think it's disposable income has been cut back.

I think games on television continue to be the easiest way to watch NFL, and again, zero wins between the two teams. So you were talking to your Minnesota Vikings guy, and I used to live up there, so I know a lot of friends up there as well. How in the world do the Vikings lose to the Titans when they had two different players over 150 yards individually in offense? That just doesn't seem possible, does it? But it happened. No, it doesn't. You know, I mean, I think, you know, it seems like kind of with this Vikings team, you know, obviously the defense has been the identity under Mike Zimmer. But, you know, they kind of were doing this like a rebelled on the fly while remaining competitive type of deal.

Or that's what they wanted to be doing. And, you know, it seems like kind of they've come to admit that the defense is just not kind of where it needs to be in order to do that, given the kind of the sacrifices they've made on offense in terms of trading away step on Dix and, you know, kind of having a weak interior offensive line. And, you know, I think when a situation is not great and that can mean a lot of things, whether it's, you know, things not working on offense or the defense kind of putting him in a position being behind or play action is not so he can lean on. Kirk Cousins is not great.

And so I think kind of all those things are just stacked on top of each other for Minnesota. And that's why they're going to break. Aaron Reese of the Atlantic here on a sports talk 790. Aaron, I found myself watching the Ravens and Chiefs game on Monday night and watching their offenses and how different they are and the motion and all the misdirection and all that types. I mean, I just felt like it was light years ahead of what Bill O'Brien does. Did you ever, I mean, did you watch that game?

Did you get that feeling? And just your overall thoughts of what Bill O'Brien needs to do better offensively for this team because they've struggled obviously so far? Yeah. You know, I think obviously watching that game and then, of course, watching the Texas lose to each of those teams during the first two weeks, you know, kind of the takeaway I had is it's like you watch those guys, and I think it's impossible to think, look at these teams doing everything possible to kind of put their young quarterbacks in a position to succeed, right? And Deshaun Watson maybe exists half a tier below those guys are kind of in the same tier, but the last guy you mentioned in that group.

And I think a lot of that is just kind of the, he's not being put in that same sort of position. You know, this offense is just like, I wrote them today. They've reduced play action at the fourth lowest rate in the league. because of just a number of plays they've had, they've attempted the least play action passes in the league. And, you know, like, all the stats indicate that using play action is good and you really can't use it enough, and you don't really need to be actually establishing the runner

or that sort of old-school mantra in order to see it successfully. If you're going to, you know, run it 13 times with David Johnson on first and second down, maybe one of those times you pull the ball back and take a shot. You know, they have an incredibly accurate quarterback downfield. They have a bunch of speed. That seems like something they should probably do more out. Along those lines, too, they should probably be using a few more screen passes,

which is something that happens have not done for a while now. And, you know, like, he's getting hit all the time, even though they've put all these resources in there off the line. I don't think it's necessarily so much because the talent on the line is regressed. I think it's because this team clearly just does not have answers when they're blitzed and in terms of, like, throw into the hot receiver and stuff like that. So it's just all around. Like, I don't think he's being put in a position to succeed,

and he's still talented enough that at times he's going to break through that and I think you saw that and some of those scoring drivers against Pittsburgh. But as it stands now, they're just playing at kind of too volatile level, I think, to win consistently. This is a ridiculous question, okay? So I'm just going to just get it out of the way. And a nice short answer. Is Tim Kelly in any trouble in play calling? I'm in terms of like, you know, maybe I just gave him the reins too soon. Yeah, you know, I haven't heard that, but I have wondered. I mean, I don't think we're going to, I don't think it will be like next week or anything. But I think at some point, you got a you got a wonder. like if they're basically running the Bill O'Brien playbook, right?

I mean, I don't like anyone would say that they're seeing a lot of new wrinkles with Tim Kelly, which is not that surprising you think about this guy's been at GA with O'Brien. So, you know, O'Brien is at Penn State, like kind of everything he knows in terms of philosophy is from O'Brien. So if you're going to run the O'Brien playbook, I think at some point Bill O'Brien might say, I could do it better than you, right? That's kind of, I think that's the question. But I think it's a little too early because, you know, at the end of the day, They've played two elite defenses in the Ravens and the Steelers.

And I think even the Chiefs defense is better this year than it has been in pastures 13th and DVOA through three games. So, you know, those are three pretty good defenses. I don't think it's time just yet to sound the alarm bells. You know, the Texans have enough talent on offense that they might ultimately disappoint and be this volatile team, like I'm saying, but I think there will be highs that stay in themselves for a full game. And they could, you know, kind of blow some teams out to put a bunch of points at some week. and that might pull some wool over the second's eyes and make them feel like things are going to the right direction

with their offer. Aaron, it feels like that JJ Watt is getting crankier by the week. Is that because he's disappointed with his overall team play, his individual play, or the vibe around the organization right now? You know, I mean, I don't think there's anything for him to be disappointed about in terms of his individual play. I wondered coming into the season because he's, what, 31 now, you know, like he'd been pretty good when healthy last year.

I think he was leading the league in pressures when he was, when he went out last year with that, that peck injury. But I wondered, you know, if he was going to fall off a little bit, just because, you know,

it's football that can happen at any time with these guys. But that doesn't even be the case with him. He still played really, really well. He just seems disappointed in, at least what he said is he's disappointed in, and kind of the defense on their side, and especially kind of the way they've,

they've faltered late and just been bad against the run late, and just don't kind of seem about, kind of fold when opponents are trying to put them away. So that's what he seems he seems frustrated. But I would agree with you there. I mean, I think every week,

the zooms are a little bit shorter. The answers are a little more curt. And if not for the fact that he was playing his brothers last week, I don't know how great his midweek pre-game Zoom would have been either. All right, we're going to make our predictions on our show here in a second.

But since we're going to let you go in a minute, time for you to tell us, do the Texans beat the Vikings on Sunday? No, I made the same prediction that in our preview with our Vikings writer, Chad Graff, the field can read on the athletic. I'm picking the Vikings to win 28 to 24. I just think the Texans don't have the run defense to stop that Alan Cook. See, I'm going to go glass half full and say, well, nor do the Titans defense, but they still won, right?

Yeah, that's true. That's true. But I think the Titans may be a little more offensive consistency than the Texans. Damn, I hate when you bring logic. All right, Aaron. Have a great weekend. And we're going to get back to our normal spot, I think on Tuesday, depending on the Astros. So whatever the case may be, we look forward to reading your work. Everybody, please go subscribe to Aaron does a fantastic job with the Athletic.

It's very affordable. It's the best sports journalism you can possibly spend at Aaron J. Rees on Twitter. And we'll have a great weekend. We'll look forward to reading your stuff over the weekend. Yeah, thanks. Bye. All right. We'll see you later.

That's Aaron Reese from The Athletic. Ross, time for you, me and Brendan, and put our money where our mouth is. M.T. Bucks to spend. Minnesota plus four. Inside Energy Stadium. The Schmows make their picks next. 128. Sports Talk 790. Do you want to jump in after this and tell us who you think is going to win?

713-212-5-790. A guaranteed win for you tonight is to stop by any of your eight, soon to be nine big city wing locations and try their new Nashville hot wings. delicious. A little speck of jalapeno mixed in there, too. Ross loves them to jalapinos, for sure. If you like spicy food, you're going to love the Nashville hot. If you like garlic parm, honey barbecue, mild, sour cream and onion, any of the wing flavors, you're going to enjoy the experience. It is Big City wings. Today, being Friday, half-price appetizers after 9 o'clock tonight at any of the eight Big City Wing locations. Plus, it's Margarita Madness, Margaritas at $3.00. So great new flavors

of wings, amazing sides, awesome appetizers, and the most delicious dessert you'll find out there, including their fried Oreos and their fried twinkies. So good, so delicious. All you got to do is stop by big citywings.com and tell them, hey, Matt Thomas sent me over here for $3.00 margaritas and half-price apps after nine

at Big City Wing. Here we go. Time for us to play Beat the Shmows, where I'm in the last place. Are you? Well, I mean, I'm six and six on the year. minus 2,000 M.T. Bucks. Yes.

Brendan's in first place at 8 and 4. He's at plus 6,000. Ross, you're at 5 and 7, and you are at plus 2,000. Which means basically... I've been hit my big bets, you hit the big bets. Now, last week, you got fat and happy. You went 3 and 1,

and you made 4,000 MT bucks, which gives you the honor of picking the four games, and here's how it works. We do this just amongst ourselves to see who knows what they're talking about when it comes to predictions. We have to pick four games. One of them has to be the Texans. Sometimes we pick a big college game and just haven't felt like there's been a big college game to do that yet with.

Well, we'll keep holding up with that one. We may have to wait for the national championship. We have to bet the Texans and minimum bet is 1,000 M.T. bucks bet is 5,000 M.T. bucks. Ross, with the honors of a three and one week last week, gets to go first. Yes, Matthew, I'm going to go with starting off. Well, Joe George is going to hate me for this one. The Indianapolis Colts giving two and a half points.

Look, Chicago had a big comeback win last week, but it's the freaking falcons. Indianapolis, I think, has been playing better the last couple of weeks. I'm going to go with them giving the two and a half for 3,000 MT bucks. Chiching? Oh, it's my... Chiching? There we go.

I'll take it. Next, I'm going to go with the Buffalo Bills. God, you are all bills all the time. I don't know why I'm all in on the Buffalo Bills. Well, probably because they've been playing great. I think Las Vegas is a mediocre team. I think the Buffalo Bills might be creeping into that second tier in the AFC, maybe even at some point tier number one. I just think giving the three and a half, they're a better team.

I know they're on the road, but road doesn't mean much in 2020. I'm going with the Buffalo Bills for big old fat 3,000 MT bucks. And two large bets so far. Goodness. Next. Against my better judgment. I'm going against the Kansas City Chiefs. I did it on Monday night.

It did not work. But listen to me here. According to football outsiders, the Kansas City Chiefs have the 30th worst run defense in the entire league. New England has a great offensive line. We know they're going to throw all their running backs at him, and Cam Newton is a running threat as well. I think they'll be able to grind this one down. Will they win? I'm not saying that.

But a seven-point cushion, I think, is enough for me to pick New England for 2,000 MT bucks. And my U of H, Matt, that leaves 2,000 MT bucks on the Texans and the Minnesota Vikings. Well, let me say one thing, and then I want to say another. The Texans are going to win this game. It's going to be close. It's going to come down to a last second. The four-point cushion, or three and a half, is a little bit much. I think it's going to be a bar and burner, maybe even a Jaime Fairburn last second field goal.

Dalvin Cook is going to have himself a day, but I think overall the Texans are still going to be better with somewhat of a home crowd, but I'm taking Minnesota plus the points for 2000 M. So Minnesota plus four for 2000, but you believe the Texans win the game. All right. Next, it's me because I made zero money. Brandon lost 4,000 of his bank roll, so I will go next to, although both of us went two and two. Miami really impressed me with their dominant performance against Jacksonville. Now, Jacksonville's not great.

Add on top of that, Seattle has to go from the furthest place to travel for an NFL game. Seattle to Miami, you can't get any further, right? And they had a hard enough time beating up on those Dallas Cowboys late. I'm going to take the Miami Dolphins plus the six and a half. Big bet on this one? 4,000 M.T. Bucks. Miami, six and a half plus six and a half against Seattle. I think Ryan Fitzpatrick might have a big day, man.

Next, I like the Dallas Cowboys getting... Yeah, we know. I just do like the Dallas Cowboys. I always think there are a Super Bowl contender. I think Cleveland is just meh. I think Baker Mayfield. do for a three interception game. I'll take Dallas minus the four and a half for 1,000 M.T. bucks.

Next. The New York Giants are god-awful. The L.A. Rams has spent two weeks on the East Coast, disappointing Mr. Ram over here, Brendan. I think 13 points in a somewhat neutral-site atmosphere, like in L.A. is too much. I know it's traveling across the country. I don't think the Giants are going to win,

but I think that's just too much. I'll think the New York Giants plus 13 or 2,000 MT bucks. My U of H math, Rossi tells me I've got 3,000 to bed on the Texans game. Rossi, how in the world does the Minnesota Vikings lose a game? And I mentioned this with Aaron,

with two guys almost with 200 yards individually in total offense. They might get that again this week, and they will not lose. The Houston Texans are a train wreck. They can't sell out an 11,000 seat stadium. Bill O'Brien just can't coach four quarters an individual game. And the Minnesota Vikings are not supposed to be 0.

and 3. The Texans very well could have been 0. and 3. I'm going to take the Minnesota Vikings plus the 4 for 3,000 M.T. bucks. It's going to be tougher than to get the 9 and 7, start in O in 4, Matt. you're right and I wish I could change my bet on that but I'm not going to it's going to be the greatest

nine and three team the rest of the way Brandon you're up next I'm not used to having to pick from the leftover games here it's a little challenging I'm going to start with Green Bay versus Atlanta

I'm going to take the Packers giving seven in that one I don't think Atlanta's very good and I thought people were underestimating the Packers so far they've only shown me that's true. They might be the favor in the NFC.

I don't mind giving a touchdown. Four? 4,000. Whoa! Dang, that's a lot of chingings. Next. All right, Matt, you took Miami. He did.

I guess I'm fading you here. Oh, hey, Fade and T worked well for me. Fade and T. All right. I think Green Bay is one of the two best teams in the NFC. I think Seattle is the other. They are given six and a half. I'm not really worried about the travel.

I feel pretty good about that one. I'm going to go $2,000 M.T. Bucks. All right. Game three. Fating MT again, however, a lot less confident. I'm going to go with Chicago plus two and a half at Indianapolis.

I thought, I thought Mitch Trubisky was a backup quarterback. Not that Nick Folls is significantly better, but I trust him to take care of the ball a little bit more. And I don't really think, I'm not a believer in Philip Rivers and the Colts. I'm going to go $1,000. That's a fade RV. That's a fade RV, but I'm sorry. That was, oh, wow, I'm fading you both.

Yeah, how much on the Chicago game? 1,000. Leaving you 3,000 MT bucks on the Texans and the Vikings. Well, you and I are both big bet on this game. I feel pretty good about this one. This Vikings defense is really, really bad. You know how you take your running back out of the game? You get up big.

I think for the first time we're going to see the Texans offense really rolling and stay rolling. I'm going to go Houston minus 4 for 3,000. And there it is. So again, Ross and I both have Minnesota plus four, although I think the Texans are going to lose. You've got them winning a close game. Yes. Brendan, you sound like this is going to be a nice, comfortable day for the beloved Houston Texan. I think it could be.

I don't think the Vikings are a very good football team. Not the Texans are anything special, but... It's the battle of who is the best O&3 team in the NFL. I would agree with that. 142 is the time. Brian T. joins us in 20 minutes. You may join us next at 713. 12-790.

Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. Baseball, football, basketball, and Houston. Home for your home teams. 147 Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. I mentioned Brian T. Smith coming up. Dusty Baker, we'll play a couple of sound bites in the top of him next after we hear from Brian T about the Astros.

We'll get Brian T's thoughts in the Astros A series. By the way, I put a poll question up a couple of days ago. about, actually it was yesterday about Mike Fires and whether or not he is going to throw for the Astros. My question was, let me see if I can find it here. I should have actually had it ready for me. Bad me.

Will Mike Fires throw against the Astros in the series? You know how much I love polls, right? Hope you feel better with that. You know how much I love polls, right? Sorry, my finger slip. The answer is yes, only a force two or B, no, it won't feel well.

I want to say yes when his spot is up in the rotation. 59% said no won't feel well. 41% said yes if only forced to. You love this story. I love it. It's so bogus. There's nothing you're rooting for more than anything than him not to pitch somehow. Yes.

And again, I'm using nothing but logical thoughts on this. Go on. What's the logic? Illogical. Okay. No. There's no foundation of fact of this. now everyone keeps thinking and obviously because we're on the astro side he's going to pitch and get lit up what if he pitches and shuts the astros down then we're going to be pretty quiet that would be the worst buster will be not quiet john hamann will be quiet oh no smarmy passing won't be quiet john haman oh no chance this astros a series please tell me carl ravich and uh tim kirchen learn on the call for you know the call for you

It's TBS. Okay, good. Now, it won't be the TBS A crew because it's not the A series. What? I know. The A's are in it, Matt. The A's are in it, but it's the B games. Okay.

I don't even know who's doing the games on TBS. I don't know. It's Brian Anderson and Ron Darling on doing the Yankees and a race. I don't even hope they have a backup crew. It's like, uh, Morgan Freeman and the guys from Shawshank. I think they're just auditioning people. Like, hey, you ever thought about covering an ALDS?

Live auditions? I like that. Kind of like, uh, you want to kind of, uh, you want to contest. You think you're the ultimate baseball fan? How about calling some play by play on TBS? Well, you know, you can with the Sports Talk 790 with our stream on IHeart Radio, if you're in the geographic location

of Houston area, you can listen to it. That's what I did. I synced it up. Yeah, it's because it was just unbearable. It was just unbearable with guys that cover baseball. And you know, when I flipped to Steve and Robert, I was, you know, I'm not looking for homerific stuff. I'm looking for them to

talk about baseball and what's happening in the game. And that's what was happening. And it was just so refreshing. I'm like, I'm not getting any sort of, I mean, somewhat of a bias, obviously, but the guys are talking about baseball and what pitch and what's he going to throw and storytelling. And that's one of the greatest, great things about Robert and Steve. They're both great storytellers.

They know a lot about the game. That's why they're a good list. And look, they have a rooting interest. Of course. Just like I have a rooting interest when I'm calling rocket. I mean, there's just but at least you feel like you're getting two gentlemen. And that's the thing about he has been to disappoint me so much was that those guys, that's all. Carl Ravich, all he does

is baseball. Tim Kirkson's a full time baseball reporter. Eduardo Perez is a full-time baseball analyst. Someone says Don Orville and Dennis Eckersley? Oh, Don Arcello. He's really good. He is the San Diego Padres announcer. Okay. And Eckersley's good, too. So, yeah, if that's the B group, that's good.

Cellsla's got great pipes. You'll enjoy hearing his call. Okay. And Accuracy's just a guy. I mean, he's good. He's really good. Let's go to Garrett and Cyprus at 151 on 790. Hi, Garrett. Hey, Matt. You know, thanks for taking my call on a good Anytime Friday here. You know, I was enjoying the Texans conversation, so I figured I'll jump in. Go ahead.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, Bill O'Brien, when I think about him, you know, obviously his deficient, I'd say he's deficient in game management. But one of his big successful points and why he's still here, I think, is that he's one of the best season managers out there. And so I think it's real critical this season for the Texans to break down their season in the quarters. And obviously this first quarter, get that one win and be one in three. But in the next 12 games, you've got six divisional games. And so ultimately, you know, if you can win five divisional games or, you know, at least run the table, ideally. But that's another season in of itself. And so, you know, you can make the playoffs a lot of different ways.

And so I think Bill O'Brien, he's trying to manage the season to where, you know, he's got those big, you know, he's got that, you know, he's got that in his back pocket, obviously, to play for the division. But then, in of itself, I think we've got a chance at about nine wins, you know. And so, and that's going, of course, one win at Minnesota, you know, trying to snag, you know, two wins in the next series. and then trying to go three and one to finish out the year strong. And so I think, you know, if we don't look at the games and get too caught up, you know, game by game early in the season, but try to manage it from a season's management standpoint. And I know it's hard to say when you're 0 and 3, but I think, you know, ideally you're going to see where the long-term success of the Texans will roll out.

And hopefully we can bring in another division championship. Sure. Thank you, Gary, for the phone call. I mean, I had them penciled in at 9 and 7. I had them penciled in losing their first two games. I had them going 1 and 3 in the first 4, and that's very well possible that could happen. So 1 and 3 can turn in the 9 and 7. We've seen it done before.

That's not impossible to think that. I will say this. If they go to 0 and 4, they're not going to finish 9 at 7. I mean, that would, that would, I mean, again, you got Green Bay still to play. Chicago apparently is better than what we thought. they were. They have New England who is better than responsible. There's not nine,

they're not nine and three the rest of the way. If they're really going to be a nine and seven football team, which I thought they were going to be, they've got to beat who they're absolutely supposed to beat. To beat Pittsburgh was not a given. There was no chance, no way, no how they were going to beat New England, Baltimore and Kansas City.

They should beat Minnesota. Minnesota's defense can't stop anybody. Minnesota's quarterback is very, very average. There's no reason why the Texans, especially being in home, not traveling. Oh, by the way, Ross, the Vikings have hardly practiced this week because of COVID concerns. That's a good point. So if this doesn't happen this week, they're not a 9-7 football team, and I grossly overestimated how good they could be.

Only by saying they're slightly above average. Yes. Now, the only thing that Bill O'Brien gets, that is a huge kudos in his, whatever you want to call his life as a good thing. coach is those guys don't ever quit for him. There's not at least here's the only time you ever hear back talking is when it comes to contracts.

That's true. If DeAndre Hopkins would have gotten the money that he thought he deserved in which Arizona did pay for, Johnner Hopkins and Bill O'Brien would still be in this, would be still working in the same. Same thing with Clowny. Yeah, Clowning was financial. This wasn't about, now, do I think those guys

guys are best friends. Do I think that Bill O'Brien is kumbaya with every single player? No, but that's not what his job is supposed to be. His job is to control the emotions, the energy, the positivity, the work ethic in that locker room. And I don't think it's ever quite that he's not lost his locker room. And for a lot of bad times and a lot of stupid decisions, he's not done that. So he has to get credit for that. But I think J&J is. being cranky Ross with an 0 and 4 start with a guy that's in the tail end of his prime of his major league of his NFL career I think things are going to start to boil over a little bit if they don't win this game.

He's got to play better himself too though. How would you grade JJ through the first C, B plus? He's got a couple of sacks, but I mean that first sack that he got, when was the game when he had two sacks? It was a week two. Was that against the Ravens? He was completely unblocked. There was a missed assignment on the part of the Ravens.

But it was a non-factor against Pittsburgh. Yeah, I mean, he just, yeah. So he can huff and puff all he wants, but he's taking as much of the blame as probably anybody. Maybe not his fault, but when you are the highest-paid guy on that side of the ball, you're going to carry some more responsibility than say, you know, Roby or any of those other guys. Agree. This is a reason why this game is being only shown to Minnesota and Houston. Yes.

Right, right? This is not a sexy matchup. six combined losses between these two teams. Both have huge holes. Both of them feel like if they lose the game, they can't win their divisions because Green Bay hadn't lost yet. Chicago hasn't lost yet. Could you imagine being the Vikings and maybe being down four games

of one of those two teams? Could you imagine if the Texans lose this to go to 0 and 4? They'd be three and a half behind Tennessee in the division. Eish. Must win? No. it's not a must win. Okay.

It is not a must win for a team that would be potentially three and a half games behind the first place at the quarter pole. Correct. You must be thinking that Tennessee Titans are about to go on a massive losing streak. I don't. The Texans could beat them. They almost lost to the Vikings. Okay. Mr. positivity over there.

Yeah. Let's go. They can rally to eight and eight. I think this is a must win game. I'm saying it right now. I just said it. So if they lose this game, just cancel the season. They lose this game.

They're not making the playoffs. Well, you said the same thing a couple years ago when they started off like one and three or whatever. But I really feel this way. Okay. But I was also the same guy that had them going one and three, finishing nine and seven. Exactly. So they can do what they need to do. They just got to win this one game.

They're only going to be one game off of that if they lose. No, they'll be one and three. Like I just thought they were going to be. That's what I'm saying. If they lose, they'll only be one game off of that. I did not anticipate the teams in front of them coming up being as decent as they have been. Bears are. Three and O, Matt.

So I'm saying, Packers? Da Bears. Well, we knew the Packers are going to be good. Are we sure we were going to be good? I was pretty sure. They were 13 and 3 last year. Yeah, but there was a lot of infighting. And Aaron Rogers, a divin.

He doesn't talk to his family. He's been a diva his whole career. Yeah, I guess that's true. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show with a visit with Brian Tito, open up, plus your phone calls. And on the Astros, will we ever see Mike Fires go against his old team? We'll discuss that next on 790. is the Matt Thomas show. All right.

Final hour, Matt Thomas show. We're bouncing back between the Texans game against the Vikings and the Astros against the Oakland days. Dusty Baker earlier today and now announcing a starter. He was however asked about how often Mike Fires is brought up in the Astros Clubhouse because at this point, during the 10 regular season games, the Astros did not face their former teammate. Here's Dusty's response to that.

I don't know. Nobody mentioned his name. I mean, nobody is even, you know, I haven't heard Mark Fier's name all here until you just said it right now. You know what I mean? So it's like, no, it's like he's, I don't know, he's not even present.

All right, Brian T. Smith, do you believe the manager of the Houston Astros when he says nobody talks about? talks about Mike fires. No. Good. Isn't that right? Isn't it believe it or hell no?

No, it's hell yeah or not. So that would be a big fat knot. No. No, no, no. Of course he's going to say that. Yes, because coaches and managers and players lie. They don't have, they don't really have bulletin boards in major league baseball.

That's more for the NBA. But Dusty Baker's been doing this for a while, Matt, as a player and a manager, he's one of the most experienced people in major league baseballs. Does anyone think that he's going to, you know, say, yes, you know, Mike fires is in the back of our mind. Of course he is. Of course he is. If you're Jose Altuve or Alex Brighman or George Springer or Carlos Freakene Correa, give me a break.

But Dusty played it right. He was, he was wise, he was smart. He said what you're supposed to say. We'll find out when they play. But let me say this. Do they get into it? during this regular season, if not for Mike Fires and the sign-stealing scandal and Hinch and Luno getting fired to everything that's happened. Of course not.

It's not like the A's and the Astros were mortal enemies playing in the AOS in 2013 before the Mike Fires incident. So Mike Fires is obviously, Matt, at the center of all of this, and it makes this series even more fascinating. Dusty got it right. But get ready to hear Mike Fires name, and we've already heard it, mentioned 3,000, more times if this series goes five games. Yeah, it goes without saying, BTS, that the Astros have to hit better if they're going to win this series. But I'm most interested to see how dusty massages, maneuvers the pitching staff in

terms of who starts. And more importantly, the first bullpen arm. And I told this to Ross earlier, I think the first bullpen arm that comes out will be somebody that didn't even pitch in those two wild card games. And I'm using just as an example, Blake Taylor. He can't bury those guys and put them in early because you may need him for games four and five. If that series goes that series goes that long. No offense to the Minnesota Twins, even though they're annually disappointing.

And the first debate, which was horrendous was better than the Minnesota Twins in the playoffs and has been 2004. No offense to the Twins. But that was not a real series. You know, I mean, the Astros did not hit well. They pitched very well, but they piggybacked both games. Minnesota was horrendous. The A's will not be horrendous. This isn't a seven-game series.

You know, I mean, you add two more games every time you get the seven, and the best team, Matt, pretty much always wins. I mean, we're baseball in a seven-game series, which is why, what it matters, the LCS, the World Series, they play seven-game series. Five-game series, anything can still sort of happen, but it evens itself out. And we'll find out. You know, what we'll find out is this Astros team still have enough left from 15 to 19, and you throw all in all the new names,

and they get a clean break, kind of a fresh start, a rejuvenation, getting into the playoffs, because that's what we saw against Minnesota. And that worked, and they did not hit well. You're 100% right, and everyone knows that.

And they still were clearly the better team through two games. But they played sharp defense, and Minnesota continually screwed up late, meaning Minnesota lost that series because Minnesota lost that series. They blew it. They should have won game one. But if you're playing the A's,

with that lineup. I don't put much stock into a 60-game season, obviously, and I don't really care if you win the AOS. But they're A-L-West champions for a reason. They were clearly the better team than the regular season. So this will be the first real test for Dusty Baker and what's left of the 2020 Astros. And Dusty got it right in the first two games,

but it's going to be a lot harder to get it right in a five-game series against a much better team on paper if we're just going off the regular season. Yeah, because he knows he can't go. to Christian Javier. He knows he cannot go to Framber Valdez. He's going to need those guys. The question's going to be, exactly. What kind of leash does Zach Granky get? And when does he go? Does he go in game one? Does he go in game two? Because you've got Lance McCuller sitting there going, hey, I'm ready to go. I want to go to one more thing on the offensive side before we go to the Texans. Yeah. You know, part of the lazy, ill-informed narrative of the ESPN broadcast was the Jose Al-Tubei Angle. Which is so horrible. I know you've been tweeting it.

Yeah. So horrible. I mean, I like, ESPN's been horrible off and on for the last 20 years. Everyone knows that who knows sports. But that broadcast and just the coverage in general post-sign stealing scandal nationally has been so poor and so just overly biased to the point that it's political. You feel like it's red or blue. And if you love red or you hate blue, whatever it is, Democrat, Republican, down the middle, whatever, whatever the other person does can never be right. That's how the cover. It's been so bad. Well, the thing that bothered me was that you had three baseball people doing that baseball broadcast you thought would be a little bit more, you know, in tune with the baseball team. But they weren't.

So they went with this narrative of, well, the world is on, you know, everything is weighing on Jose L. Tuve's mind. Let me tell you something. Jose Al Tuvei has played basically 40 games. If you had the postseason in 42 games, give or take. He ain't thinking about the buzzers. He's thinking about I've got to fix it. my swing or whatever I've got to do or get rid of this season, whatever. What in your mind in your crystal ball is Jose L. Tuva going to be able to provide?

Are we going to see more of the same? Or does the winning of the series, a happy clubhouse, a footloose, fancy, free, me against the world? Can that mentality get into that head of his, which is clearly flustered by everything that has happened so far this year? No, it's a really good question. I mean, very simple. There's no way in the world. The Astros are winning the world, and they very well might not. They may not be good enough, and they probably aren't, but there's no way in the world. The Astros are winning this world, the World Series this year, Matt,

and winning four playoff rounds, opposed to Al-2, they can't, on some level, get hot, you know, during these playoffs. Here's the thing, and I've been thinking this for two months about El-2, babe, but really watch in the last couple weeks. I'm sure the baseball geniuses out there,

like Chandler Rome and the Houston Chronicle, some of the people that work for the athletic and other publications can throw all the advanced stats you want. Okay, and, you know, talk about this and that and swinging at certain pitches, they can do all that. That's great. Without question, there's a little more weight on his shoulders, right?

You throw all that together, but here's the thing. I think any good Astros fan knows, especially someone who has watched this team since 11, 12, 13, 14, you know, Altupe just does not look to say, at the plate. And he's back to swinging at pitches kind of like he did in 13 and 14. Now, he's always extended to strike zone. But he's always had an incredible command at the plate, Matt. And, you know, not so much the plate discipline, but he could get to anything and to be

to have his size, to hit for his power, to be able to drive the ball to all field, all those things you throw in the home run power he developed. He just, and it was a little better in the ALDS a little. and toward the end of the season, he looks so uncomfortable and lost in general at the plate. And that, to me, just, I don't know, no one knows what's missing. You know, I still don't think he does, whether it's a hitting coat situation, where it's A.J. Hinch, whether it's, you know, the corona type of season. I think you've got it all together. He just does not have that smoothness that we've associated with him for the last five to six years. And until that comes back, I don't care what advanced numbers you throw out or you talk about the sign stealing or whatever.

But until that comes back, he's not going to – until he looks like Jose Al-Tuvei, he's not going to be Jose Al-Tubei. Last question. Give us a rundown of what's going to happen Sunday at NRG Stadium. The Texan better win this freaking game. Right? I mean, you're playing Kurt Cousins. DeShon Watson should be able to walk on the field and walk off the field. And he better being the better quarterback in that game. Minnesota was wrapped in all the corona situations.

You put all that together. You're going to have somewhat of a home crowd. By the way, I was just looking on Ticketmaster. You can get pretty good tickets, face value for this game for like 125 sitting behind the end zone. They're going to have somewhat of a crowd. You put all that together. If they can't win this game and they start O'N4, the big cheese isn't going to get fired on Monday, Matt,

but everyone in the world will be demanding it. I expected Texans somehow to win this game. And maybe we see a little better Texan team. But I won't be shocked if they lose because that would be very Texans. But I will actually be surprised. I expect them to win this game. On that note, my friend, have a great weekend. We'll do this again next Friday.

Take care, Matt. We'll see it. Brian T. Smith. You can catch him on Twitter at Crombrien Smith. And, of course, the lead columnist for Houston's leading information source, The Houston Chronicle. 2.13 is the time. And Matt Thomas show continues in just a minute.

If you want to join us, you may do so. Make your predictions on both the Astro Series and the Texan series. Team against Minnesota. 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. With the message here for Shaw's Jewelry, they have been in that same intersection of West Graham Montrose since 1966. Not the same building, but the same intersection.

They own their own building, which means no overhead, which means they pass the savings on to you. Their specialization comes in a variety of ways. One, engagement rings. Two, diamond ring upgrades. Three, the biggest selection of pre-owned Rolexes. They want you to price challenge. They don't mind you going to other stores, but at the end of the day,

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Again, that same intersection since 1966 for a reason. Great, great opportunities for fine diamond jewelry at reasonable prices. West Graham Montrose, that's the home of Shaw's jewelry. Matt Thomas continues. On Sports Talk 7-9th. Your rockets, your Astros,

your voice. There'll be no sports RV show tomorrow. Sorry about that. I know. The people are restless, Matt. That's okay. Nightcap coming up at 6 o'clock tonight. What are you going to do? I'm going to break down the Texans. We're going to talk about the A's and the Astros, and you might hear Aaron Reese.

So basically it's just a repeat of the noon to three show. No, it's funnier and better and more interesting. Well, who's going to be hosting it then? That's me. Okay, all right. 713, 212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-790. Real quick before we go back to the phones.

We talked briefly yesterday about Doc Rivers becoming a, legitimate candidate for the Philadelphia 76ers. Yes. It went from being a legitimate candidate to a new five-year deal to become the 76ers coach. Now, from a geographic standpoint, he loses big between Los Angeles and Philadelphia. I mean, that's like going from... That's like going from the Ritz Carlton to the Super 8. I mean, it is what it is.

That's not very nice, Matt. Philadelphia is a major metropolitan area. It sucks. The Philly stakes are better. Agreed. Everything else about that city blows. Let's see. The weather's worse. Worse. Miener. Uglier. It's cold.

It's still high-priced. Not as bad as L.A. They don't have earthquakes and they don't mudslides. They get the occasional hurricane or blizzard. Oh yeah. I was going to say, don't get hurricane. I don't think hurricanes run through Philadelphia. They might. But just the rudest, ugliest people generally speaking from Philadelphia.

They're ugly too? Oh, my God. There's a casino nearby, though, right? Yes, there is. Does Doc like to throw the bones or anything? It's crime-filled. When your name is Doc Rivers, you've got to like to throw the dice, right? Well, it's driver's license as Glenn.

Well, that's true. But, you know. And he's got a team of ridiculously high-priced players. I don't think they're going to win a championship over there anyways. No. They're behind the heat. They're behind the bucks. We thought that behind the Raptors.

Everybody thought that was Mike Dantonie's job. I did. I'm not saying just you. It was always, I mean, even Woj was to. We didn't know, like, things are trending in the right direction. It's pretty much like it was almost a done deal at that point. So the jobs that are open are Indiana, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, yes.

Am I forgetting? Clippers. Rockets, five jobs are open. It's a lot of jobs. You are a betting man. Does Mike and Tony get any one of those five jobs? I'm really four of the five. I'd take it back in Houston now, right? That would be very 2020, right?

We let bygones be bygones. He thought he had a deal in place with the 76, Sixers. He's like, all right, Tellman, I'll see you, man. Oh, hey, what? They hired Doc Rivers? Oh, no. And what's his, you know, what's his agent's name? Warren LaGerry. Yeah, Warren is calling him up.

Hey, look. Mistakes were made. It's 2020. The COVID got us. Yes. You know, he was decompressing from the bubble. They just lost. He was disheveled.

He wasn't in his right mind. Okay, answer my question. Five jobs are open. Does Mike Dantone have one of them? Absolutely. he has not been mentioned in the Indiana Indiana Pacers game he's been a little bit mentioned in New Orleans

no mention of Houston apparently New Orleans just interviewed Tyloo okay Tyloo is associated with the rockets pelicans clippers nothing about Indiana and I think he was mentioned in the Philadelphia situation

the rockets are going to speak to a bunch of assistant co yes do I want to first again I'm not going to be ultimately upset because we been pretty lucky around here in terms of decent coaches. But it feels like don't you want, do you want some of the experience or do you want a young, I can't say young, an assistant coach getting reins on his team for the first time?

David Venterpool is the guy from Minnesota. Timberwolves associate head coach. He's been their top assistant and previously he was with Portland. Under Terry Stott's, who I think is a very good job. Do you know why those guys get jobs like that is because Nick Nurse is a star. Nick Nurse, first NBA head coaching job, Toronto, Raptors. Yeah. So, you know, you kind of catch lightning the bottom.

I remember when Sean McVeigh was hired by the Rams, everybody wanted to hire the next Sean McVay for their football team. That might be what's going on in the NBA, except in Philadelphia. No, they want the super bright assistant to go in there and take over to him. I don't know. I just think. What do you want, retread? Well, no.

What I want is, here's the thing. James and Russ have got to buy. buy in. Whether you agree with that philosophy or not, they're going to have to, they're going to put their stamp of approval on this. Because that's what, that's what superstar players do. Superstar players get to control who their coaches. And then they come out like Kyrie Irving says,

why don't think of us as having a head coach? It's a collective. What? Well, that make, with the hire they made, that kind of makes sense. Okay. Steve Nash? Yeah. You don't think he's busting tape? Because Steve Nash is the same coming up with sets. Steve Nash probably felt the same way when he was a player. You don't think he's sleeping and breathing? Yeah. Well, he was probably a coach when he was a player as much as Mike Dantonie was.

Yeah, so he's going to understand. Coach on the court. Steve's not getting in the way of Kevin and Durant and Kyrie Irving. He's just not. That's the job. If you want the job that's got the megastars, the Alpha Dogs, the 1-1-A, kind of all NBA players, you have to know that goes to the territory. And that's why the young impressionable or first-time head coach,

I don't know if it would be the perfect fit here. But remember, I'm not doing the interviewing. God, I love it. I love if Tillman just calls it. Matt, look, what are you doing today? Nothing. I got four guys coming. You want to listen?

I think you would be born out of your gourd. Oh, hell no. Yes, you would. Now, I'm telling you, I would be so excited about listening. I wouldn't even want to ask a question. Those things will go for hours and then they're going to talk about, I mean, they're going to come in there with like a portfolio. You want to be a fly in the long on that?

Nah, just tell me who you're hiring. Oh, man. Not for the whole thing. Those things will take, those things can take hours. So you're telling me if Tillman called today. and said Matt or Ross. Yeah. I got guys coming over to the postoque hotel, down the street from where you guys are.

We're going to bring three guys in. So plan out your Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m. 8 to 8 p.m.? We're going to Morton's in between or what? Well, we're going to eat, yeah. Okay. We're not paying for it. Yeah, well, now we're talking, Matt.

So basically you're going for the food. Yeah. You don't care about the conversation. You don't care what the rockets want or what this guy brings the table. Look, if you can send me the highlights. Oh, no. No, 23-year-old. No.

If you can send me that, you know how they, on the NFL game pass, they do the condensed game where it's just the plays. If you could send me the condensed version, give me the spark notes on it, Matt. You're lazy. Ryan and Cyprus are 225. Hi, Ryan. Hi, yeah. I appreciate you guys taking my call. Sure.

I just wanted to talk about the Astros playing in Dodgers Stadium over there. Do you guys think there's any credibility to their familiarity and winning those big games? and the late season, postseason games as well over in Dodger Stadium for this series upcoming. I think it is very minimal. I think there's a small part of it because they know what it's like to play in that stadium. They've been there three times in the last four years. So I would say there's a small role, but I would not say it's an intangible that sways the Astros in one way or the other. Yeah, I agree.

I agree with that. And one more thing about Mike Fires, if he doesn't pitch in this series, I'm going to be very disappointed. and I'm really wanting to see that man get up on the mound. If he shuts us down, he shuts it down, but I want to see our boys get out there and drop some balls on him. Completely agree. You know what? Here's the thing, and Ross brought this up earlier.

If Mike Fires can go out there and pitch and he gets the Astros out, then that's scoreboard. That is just is. That's my greatest fear. But if somehow, some way, he doesn't make it out there for some reason. By the way, Rachel, I'm friends. Good night.

I was going to TBS I'm trying to find the baseball. It's one of the greatest of all time. Oh, it's ABC. Goal ABC. Oh, ABC. Oh, you're missing your Bold and the Beautiful. No, that's on CBS.

Oh, okay, you're fine. Point being is this. It will be, Rossi, it will be such a silly storyline that if he doesn't pitch. Or at least if fires goes, we'll have something to say, okay, well, he got on the, he got on the bump, and he tried to get some outs. I would imagine he would, unless they just have zero confidence in him after he got ran under two innings in the last start. Unless he gets some sort of gumpy elbow or something, something made up crap, because he's a wuss.

Two. I shouldn't editorialize like that, but I just did. You are embracing the hate on Mike fires. I am. I'm growing, I grew to, I'm growing to hate national people, and I'm growing to hate Mike fires. All he did was get asked a question and then answer them. He could have played dumb like everybody else in the last hundred years. Athletic came to him.

He could have said, I don't know what you're talking about. That's what most everyone did. Most everybody's done that. Here's a question I'm not afraid to answer. Hey, Matt, you sipping on something this weekend? Yes, I am. Some great tasting whiskey and bourbon from Balcones distilling. Let me tell you, gang.

I have met with these people a couple of times in the last month. They sent me some samples. And now the Thomas family, of course, the adults are hooked. And if you are looking to sip on something while you're watching college football on Saturdays, your pro football on Sundays, the baseball playoffs next week, I want to recommend to you the Texas pot still bourbon. They've got so many. They got a baby blue that one of our listeners sent me and said, hey, you try a bottle of that and you'll be hooked.

Basically, they've got so many different options. But the Texas pot still bourbon is made from roasted Texas blue corn. It is made from Texas wheat and Texas rice. So you kind of get my drift on this. This is a company that is distilling right here in Texas in Waco. And their master distiller is one of the most successful master distillers you will find in the entire country. So if you want to find something that is made and produced from grain to glass, and it's delicious, and it's refreshing, and it's smooth, and it's really good whether it's neat or on the rocks or in an old fashion, like my wife and I like to drink occasionally, I want you to try Belcone's distilling. Once you try a bottle, it will be your favorite spirit.

Speaking of that, go to your favorite liquor store, spirit store, whatever you want to call it, and say, hey, I heard Matt Thomas from 790 talking about Balcones distilling. please get in your store and once you try it, you will be a regular consumer. Friends, you will enjoy the experience of a great-tasting bourbon, a great-tasting whiskey today from Balcones Distilling. Distilled to appreciate.

Carlos Correa. Correa drills this one. 790. Get your strokes on the radio. And that ball is gone. Sports Talk 790. It's your home of fastest baseball. All right, Brendan and Ross,

real quick before we get to our making money here. Trivia question. some fictional cartoon character Fred Flintstone is turning 70 years old today you guys know who it is 70 so that would be 1950

George no it wouldn't be George Jetson Bugs Bunny I'll give you one more hint this this character is associated with television but not exclusively to television Marvin the Martian

no I don't have a guess Johnny Bravo Nope. Still no guess. Frylock. Serious television and print cartoon character. Snoopy from Peanuts.

Very close. Oh, uh, Woodstock. Actually, you know what? I'll give it to you. Peanuts was the first one today. Oh, okay. Charlie Brown, 70 years old today. Okay.

Cool. Happy birthday, Charlie. In my mind, cartoons are all either like 100 years old or like 30 years old. I just didn't realize there was a middle. Yeah, there is. They didn't just stop printing them in 50 years in between. Even when we'd buy papers as a kid, I'd never read the funnies. Really?

No. Every Sunday, I would grab the zest because I would read Ken Hoffman. I would grab, of course, sports, but after my dad had it. And then I would get the funnies. And then I would get Best Buy in Circuit City because I like electronics and stuff like that. Same with me. And parade. There was always one edition of parade

What People Make You ever see that one? No, I don't remember that one Like some would be entertainers Some would be teachers Some would be lawyers Some would be athletes Some would be like postal people

You're like that guy's only making that Or that woman's making that It's called what people may Use a yearly edition And the Zest would have like a movie And restaurant reviews Oh yeah I don't know why I'm like 12 years old

Reading restaurant reviews I'm proud of you All right let's go to Stop Watcher Gerard on 790. Gerard, what's a good word today, friend? Oh, man, ain't too much, man. How are you guys doing?

We're doing great. Okay, first of all, on Dan Tony, man. I think it's a blessing to size, man. I don't think that was going to good fit him in Philadelphia with him Bede and Stenman's who can't shoot three. So I don't think that was really a good fit. I think you see Dan Tony in Indiana with the Pacers. That's what I'm hearing.

He's front run over there for that job. As far as the Rockett's job goes, you know, Darryor Morris stated that whoever he brought in, he would be looking for him to retain some of the coaches that are on staff right now, John Lucas and guys like that, maybe Elston Turner. So that might pretty much eliminate some of the coaches from, you know, considering this job, you know, some of the coaches that are more established who want to be in control of who are going to be on their staff as assistant coaches.

So with that being said, you know, I hear the Rockets are looking at Paul Silas and West Unsold Jr. So those guys will be more, you know, susceptible to their more basically, you know, picking their assistant coaches. So that's why I think they're looking at young, bright minds as far as their coaching, for their coaching job in Houston. So that's why I think Delamore is probably going that route. Paul Silas in Dallas, they want a similar system to the rockets as far as shooting a lot of threes. And they play at a little bit faster pace than the rockets do, but their systems are similar. So that probably would be a good fit bringing in a Paul Silas on board.

As far as out of those two, him and the West Unsell. So we'll see what happens on that front with the Rockets' coaching search. Quick thing on the Astros. The Oakland A's, I think Astros actually got a good path to get to the American League Championship Series. I think the two best teams are Tampa Bay in New York, and they're going to beat up on the other side of the bracket. The Rockers had to get through Minnesota, which, you know,

they had lost with 18, 19 in a row going to the Astros. series. There was a lot of pressure on them, and they didn't produce, so that was a good matchup. Now you got Oakland. Oakland starting pitching is nothing great to write home about. They have a good bullpen. The Astros, I think, got the edge and starting pitching.

Maybe they don't have an edge and bullpen. The A's, I think they're missing one of their best hitters Chapman. He's been out for most of the season, so they catch a break in that, man. So I think with the familiarity at it with the Oakland A's, I think the Astros catch a breaking that series. They got a good chance to get to the Major League Championship.

man, I like him 3-1 over Oakland. If the bats come alive, they have to be able to bring them and those guys got to come alive. And as far as the Texan goes, must-win situation. No doubt if I agree with you. That it's a must-win situation. Minnesota, they got to control cook, man. He's the kid to their offense. They got to shut them down and make the quarterback beat you.

Now, the young receiver Jefferson came alive last week, so that could be a problem with him and stealing. So they've got to be able to shut that running game down to make Minnesota one-dimensional. and they've got to be able to run the ball because I don't think Minnesota defense in line as good as it was last year when they went to the playoffs and upset the Saints.

I think they can run the ball there. Sean Watson's got to produce in the passing game, man. He left a lot of passing yards on the field of the last three games. So hopefully he can produce and make plays through the air along with the RPO's. Hopefully I'll be running that this game too. So I'd like to have Texans 2824 against Minnesota.

Thank you, Gerard. Appreciate that, my friend. that's a recap right there let's make you some money here on 790 play the music loud because all our next guest does is make money for you Paul Nolan I had become obsessed with your show

on the weekends I had this bug convertible that I want to get my son he doesn't like to drive it so I wind up driving it now and I get in the car intentionally at 10 o'clock by the way you guys don't sing your little music for your phone number anymore it greatly disappoints me

Why is that? You know what? I have a really good Hollywood big shot guy who does music for all kinds of TV shows, and he's supposed to be redoing it because me and a couple buddies in mine did it 15 years ago in my little recording studio. And we did it as a goof, but everybody liked it, and then they hated it, and it became too much. So we kind of just stopped doing it because we had people, they could have a call store in the week because they would remember it. But I think it would also drove people up the wall, so we didn't want to. Can I do it one time for you?

Because it's, I'm obsessed with it. One. Yes, please. 8, 8, 8, 8, 366. Free! I mean, seriously, it's just, it's just so annoying. I must sing it constantly. When we would make it, as a goof, we said something effective.

We got to make it like a cross between like, like a jingle, like ESPN and cause for kids. It's got to be stumbling in between me. Oh, for sure. So I'm just not going to, you keep hitting these picks on our show. You've had a phenomenal year with us, then I'm just going to keep singing the damn song. So if you don't like the song, if anybody out there, damn it, you do something about it?

Call one. I like it. Okay, forget. Well, we can go. All right. Let's get to the contest. Freewinters. Dot net, you catch the show on the weekends here with Paul and his crew here on his sports talk,

70. All right. Chargers traveling. across the country to take on the Buccaneers, who by far had their most dominant offensive performance against Denver this last week. Can they do it two weeks in a row? Well, I think we're seeing a little bit – I believe there has to be a little bit of a regression back to the mean. Tampa Bay has been actual, but the defense seems to really be getting started. And this is an offense.

I feel it's going to start to be able to play complimentary football, considering the fact that the defense flies everywhere across the border. I mean, when you look at the speed across that defense, it's so impressive. It's so exciting to watch typical Todd Bowles-style defense. Everybody's reacting and hunting. Jason Pierre Paul's been really good. Ghost has been good. Vita Veeves, outstanding. Dominic Su's really the only weak-length.

Shaq Barrett's been benefiting from, you know, Sue's double teams. It's across the board, Winfield and Whitehead. And Vante David might be the fastest line. back from the sideline to sideline going the corners. It's just the whole thing has been exciting for me. I was a guy of defensive purist. I love it. The charges went from a 3% target share to running backs,

passing the ball with Tyrod Taylor. On the Senate, 25% the past two weeks with Justin Herbert, who's looked pretty good. He still looks like a kid. And I think that there'll be, I think they're going to kind of dump to Austin Eckler. And I do think that Tampa's defense. I'm going to do a really nice job containing who I think is the most underrated fantasy player available. One of the most underrated backs available.

So I really think that matchups here are really strong, especially with some of the key injuries. I like this thing to go under the total. And, you know, I know it's not popular to give out unders, but you're always getting the value on under. The Vegas continually gives, has inflated lines. And according to our numbers, they've inflated this one four points. And that's because so many games have gone over. the officials are not calling holdings, and they're letting the guys play more.

So to me, I know no one loves to bet it on their roofed for nothing to happen, but I think we're getting great value. I feel like it's a four-point mistake in the line, and I think we're going to see a lot of clock management in this one. Unfortunately, the line, you know, has come down from 45 and a half down to 43. So there's a little less value in it than earlier in the week when we first bet it. but I think it's a solid play.

All right. Let's quickly get to New Orleans. Detroit. People are really sour on these Saints offense. Again, so, yeah, and obviously, we've been talking about Drew Brees' arm strength for quite a while in this office. And, you know, it was similar to Eli Manning, his last two years. He had nothing left on the fastball and Peyton Manning. And, you know, you see what it goes on.

I mean, there's nothing you can do about it. I mean, I can't get up and pick my spoon up for corn flakes. at my age, and these guys are firing footballs with 25-year-old, you know, world-class athletes breathing down their neck. So, you know, it just makes sense. But outside of Calvin Camaro, who's just been outstanding at breaking tackles, I mean, but he's going to have to wear it down somewhere along the line. And again, the matchups here tell me with the injuries, this should be another low-scoring, about low-scoring, but at 56 points,

we feel like there's great value here as well. and I almost want to retract because I was on the road and I just noticed that line dropped in the last two hours on the first game I gave I almost want to tell people that that maybe go to the charges instead take them plus seven and a half because that line is seven and a half so I mean you want to do under end charges in the Tampa Bay game and then take under in New Orleans, Detroit

the matchup here is great both teams are going to grind out the clock both teams are kind of going to look to slow down play the fact that Drew Brees' average air yards is 4.8 yards compared to last in the league last year when he was 6.7 yards and with the hamstring injury to

Michael Thomas, I just, and Jared Cook banged up. This is going to be let's