The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 11-04-19

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 11/4/19London > Miami (0:00)Popeyes Chicken Sandwiches (21:20)Where Does Gerrit Cole Go? (40:12)Ross' NFL Recap (1:01:41)Wedding Music (1:21:47)

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. H-Town. What's happening at lunch-timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Coming to you today from Memphis, Tennessee. Where tonight the Houston Rockets will wrap up their four-game road trip against the, I would say,

hated Memphis Grizzlies, but how do you hate a Memphis Grizzly? They're one of the worst teams in the NBA and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately the Rockets, oh my gosh, Ross, I was having to go to filler material in the second quarter last night.

I don't often do these things. Yeah, what's that like? You're probably just breaking down the Will Smith Miami video in the middle of the second quarter talking about the plot to Bad Boys 2. What else happened to Miami? Miami Vice episode recaps. I was thinking about should I go get a snack at halftime, should I get with something that's a Miami flare or maybe something more traditional that you would find in a normal NBA arena.

What's a Miami flare? Oh, you know, like the tacos or maybe some of the Cuban stuff they have. You know how every city has their own kind of vibe of what they put in their arena that's like barbecue in Houston, that kind of thing. Just trying to do something different. Okay. Okay. What'd you get? Nothing. Oh. Yeah, I know.

it was a bad bad night that's why I put on Twitter earlier today London greater than Miami it was awful it was just terrible at least they only lost by 29 at the end of the day could have been a lot worse you know I was hoping you know was it 59 16 or something like I don't remember

they were down 41 I'm thinking all right you know there are there can be a 41 point comeback at least the deficit was was accomplished early in the contest Yeah, that's what I was doing for a better part of two hours last night in South Florida. But we do have some more positive news to get to, and that is, Rossi, our beloved Houston Texans, I don't know if I have misread a franchise anymore this year than I have the Houston Texans. Because I'm going to tell you this. If you and I would have, now I woke up early to watch the game, did you DVR?

did you actually get up in live and see it? I got up and watched the second half and then I went back later and watched the first half. We'll watch the whole thing again. Okay, so let's say I called you at 745 yesterday, which would have gone straight. Yeah, I would not have picked up. It would have gone straight to voicemail. And I would have said, hey, we're about to watch an awful football game in London, which is par for the course. They never have great ones there.

But I'm going to tell you that the Houston Texans are going to dominate the Jacksonville Jaguars. And they're only going to give up three points with the fact that their secondary is beat up. and J.J. Watt is done it for the season, and Garner-Mitchie is having a really nice renaissance since making his first start against the Texans back in week two of the season. If I would have called you at 7.45 of the morning and told you that and put that on your voicemail,

I'm assuming you would have erased that immediately, correct, and began to laugh. I would have erased it immediately no matter what, because that's just what I do with voicemails, but I would have been shocked. I wouldn't have believed you know. It was not only that they won, right? That's not the shocking part, Matt.

It was that how in the fashion with which way they won, that basically out and out, especially in the second half, domination of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who couldn't get anything going. And Gardner-Mintu just looked exactly like the rookie that he was. It was, I'm with you. I said on Friday, when we did beat the Shmows, I said, actually I think the Texans are going to win a close one,

but I've been picking them wrong, so I went Jaguars. I tried to go George Costanza in the opposite. It didn't work out. But I didn't think this was going to happen. think anybody saw this coming. Well, the key in the first half of the game was the fact that they just never let Jacksonville have the football. I mean, the way to keep a suspect defense, which by the way, wasn't suspect after all, again, one game doesn't make everything, but was to keep them off the field. And the drives, the Texans were running. And it's not the drives that Texans

collectively. It was what the Sean Watson is doing. I'm trying to figure out a good example of what one player means to a team. You see that all the time in the NBA. Like, you know how LeBron willed the Cavaliers during their sucky years before they started to gather players together, and he would just win 55 games because he was LeBron James?

Yes. Is that what Deshaun Watson is doing right now? Because, let's face it, DeAndre Hopkins is a good wide receiver this year. He's been elite, but he isn't having these amazing type numbers. The running backs were really good yesterday. Cardless side bounced back. Duke Johnson was used not only as a pass catcher, a lot of it, but it was a little bit of a run or two.

And so, you know, they've had some nice numbers, but nothing would blow you away. The offensive line still continues to commit penalties and whatnot and has injury status, although having Titus Howard back out there certainly helped the cause. Help me, Houston, Texas, equate the excellence that is to Sean Watson. to this football team. Because here's the bit. I don't think there are anything close to New England, although New England got its brains beat out yesterday by Baltimore.

I don't take one week. I think the Patriots defense just had an off night. Baltimore clearly is ascending. The Texans are clearly ascending. But the Houston Texans, in large part, if you took every week of the season, because some weeks the Texans defense is bad, some weeks the offensive line doesn't protect,

Some weeks, Donnery Hopkins can't get open. Some weeks the running backs don't do their thing. There has been really one consistent thing, and that's the excellence of Deshaun Watson. And I don't know if it's the Bron to the Cavaliers. There may be some other examples of how one player can so be a huge, huge part of a team's individual success. It's got to be him. He continues to elude rushers. He continues to scramble.

He's making, you know, last week, yesterday, very, very few poor throws. He had a little bit of an interception run a couple weeks ago, but that seems to be in the rearview mirror. I wish he could win the MVP. I don't know if he is, but he's certainly yesterday, based on what he did, is getting closer and closer to being in that top two, top pre-category. Yeah, I would say you were looking for a comparison. I think who you were just talking about MVP conversation.

I think Russell Wilson is a definite comparison right now in the NFL. What he's doing with the Seahawks. I mean, I don't think they have a whole lot going on outside of him. Yeah. But I would also have to, Matt. I think we have to give a little bit credit. Well, first to the Texans linebackers, I think they're playing well. Right.

And the secondary, and Gary on Conley actually had a decent game as well. He had a really good. He was a better Conley of the two on the field yesterday. But I think we might have to give a little bit of credit to Bill O'Brien. Matt, I don't know how you're feeling about that. I mean, the offensive game plan with the misdirection and the motions and some of those. The RPO with the tight end all the time. I mean, how many weeks has that been on film and team still can't stop it?

Yeah, I thought the offensive game plan was great and it worked perfectly. And the Jaguars more often than not just look completely lost out there. Now, of course, there were a few times where I think Bill O'Brien's best play is the one where the offensive line breaks down and then Deshaun Watson scrambles around and makes a huge incredible play. But outside of that, there were some good scripted on schedule plays that were called by Bill O'Brien that just kept the Jaguars' defense on its heels. Yeah, the only thing I was mad about Bill O'Brien yesterday was the fact he was screaming at Deshaun Watson one time. Let me tell you something. You just talk to him nicely. You don't get to scream at your Deshaun Watson.

He is saving your bacon single-handedly. So no screaming aloud for the head football coach to his player. I know it's coached a player, but I just think. I thought that was kind of, and I was being half-jokingly about, you know, don't yell at him, because coaches are going to yell at players all the time. But he has been so good. And Bill O'Brien's game plan has been good. He's letting Romeo Cornell.

I don't know what Romeo Cornell is dialing up, but whatever it was yesterday was fantastic. Because Garner-Menschew, I mean, Leonard Fournett was what, the leading running back in the AFC rushing-wise coming into the game yesterday, he was a non-factor. Menshue looked out of sorts. He looked like a guy was making his first starters compared to a seventh or eighth. And you got to remember, Ross, Nick Foles is close to coming back to quarterback the Jacksonville Jaguars. And this was kind of Garner's last opportunity to say, hey, there's no need to change things up. Garner mentioned you in the second half was awful.

Absolutely terrible. The routes weren't good. He was underthrowing and overthrowing. He couldn't hold out of the football. So credit the Houston Texans defense for doing something he did a lot last year. And that was force turnovers. Jacksonville, four of them yesterday, and the Texans throttled. And we can talk about that today.

Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, a little luster off the Gardner issue. I mean, a couple of the wins that he had. He was on a two-game winning street, but it was against the Bengals and the Jets. Yeah, that's right. I wonder, I would see, I'm going to guess we'll see Nick Foles back when he's healthy. Well, I mean, he's the huge free agent acquisition.

Yeah, for sure. I think that Nick Foles gets it. I mean, Menshew was terrible. The AFC South is terrible. and by the oh by the way Jacoby Brissette hurts an ankle yesterday in the Pittsburgh game in which Adam and Terry still had a chance to lead the Colts to victory

in Pittsburgh and then misses the field goal so I mean look I had this team at 7 and 9 I will eat the crow when they get past that I just did well I mean obviously Andrew Luck being gone for the year or retiring help the cause

Tennessee's quarterback futility is well documented and the fact that Jacksonville just keeps being Jacksonville the only thing that really, really bothers me after the game yesterday, and there's really very few things, is the Texans, you know, everybody's worried about all these penalties in the NFL. I just think, Ross, it's just the Texans. They are just committing one illegal shift after hold, after offsides. They're the most undisciplined six and three team in the NFL, I'd be very safe and saying. Yeah, what do you think the people of London felt like after they go out there and they spend money to watch a game?

like, oh, we're going to watch some American football, and then they just see flags get thrown on basic almost every play. I mean, wasn't there a time where they had like first in 35 the Texans? It was absolutely awful. And thankfully, the Texans were able to fight through that. So if you want to brag on your Texans, you can do that right now because they deserve to be bragged on. Rockets do not deserve to be bragged on.

An absolutely embarrassing performance last night in Miami against the heat. They're here in Memphis, hopefully to wrap things up and get this winning this road trip to a two-and-two finish. 7-13-212-5-790. Hi, this is former running back of Hirsch-Walker. You're listening to Matt Thomas in the Sports Talk 790. The eye's great. I tell you the key.

The key is, it was the Popeye spicy chicken sandwiches that I ate this week. That helped the eye, so. You know, I'm not a doctor. But I can't imagine. that Deshawn said, hey, Doc, my eyes not feeling good. And I'm really, it's really sore. I can see okay, but it's really red. Is there anything you can do?

Well, Deshawn, I could give you some eye drops, or you could go get a chicken sandwich for Popeyes. That'll fix everything. Is that how the conversation went between doctor and patient? I don't think it was a, what do you call it, prescription? I don't think the doctor prescribed a Popeye's chicken sandwich. I need to know how he got one. Did he get one in London?

Well, here's, no, it had to have been. in the, obviously in the States. But there wasn't available until Sunday. That's right. Can I give you the quick Popeye story? Because look, I'm an equal opportunity fast food. I love it all. So my wife texts me at about

1145 yesterday and says, guess what we just had? And I'm thinking, okay, well, she knows I love Lupi Tortillas from Mexican, which would have made me jealous. We have a Chinese place right down from our house that I'm a big fan of their general soes. But she wouldn't have just texted that

just to say that. So then I'm thinking, you had a chicken sandwich. And she said, yep, I saw it was in Porter because my daughter was spending a night at a friend's house. So she went to go get her. And it was about 10 cars deep. And it said, chicken here and we're open on Sunday. So it was a dig towards, obviously, towards Chick-fil-A. So she orders some for her and my kids, two of them, my three kids at her home.

And I said, so how was it? She goes, worth the weight in all caps. I still have that one. Yeah, and I have it either. Usually when a woman text you back something in all caps, it's either very excitable or she's really mad at you. Yeah, you're probably in trouble at that point when you're getting the all caps. I would say in the history of my life, all caps,

my direction has hurt me more than it's helped me, frankly. Yes. So apparently it is, everything is advertised. According to Mrs. Thomas. According to my two children, too. And Sean Watson. And Deshaun Watson. That's true.

I know four people in my life that have had a chicken sandwich from Popeyes, and they're all getting. And apparently Popeyes cures eye issues and makes you play better. And Alzheimer's. You know what I'm thinking? Maybe. And cancer. Maybe I should have a Popeye's. Yeah.

Maybe I should find a Popeye somewhere around here. Maybe my broadcast has to be better tonight. Maybe we need to have one of the post-show. We've still got to have an impossible whopper and now a chicken sandwich. I feel like the rest of the next week we're going to be going to severe. various fast food restaurants and eating things and deciding whether or not we like them or not. How's that any different? It's just except we'll have a video camera this time. That's true. Do they have an impossible chicken sandwich yet? No. That would sound gross.

We don't even know if we like the impossible whopper. We're just guessing we might. I think I'm going to. Here's the bit. When we go to have the impossible whopper, we've got to take the lettuce and the pickle and everything off. Just the plant and the bun, right? No. Are you eat it however you eat it? I'm going to have mustard. lettuce. Michael's mayonnaise on. Okay. Cool. You're mayo over mustard on a burger? No, I'm both.

Okay. But, I mean, not both together. I can go mustard with you. I'll go mustard and then I'll go mayonnaise on a second chair. If the impossible burger is good. I don't eat mayonnaise on burgers. Whatever. Okay.

So, Rossi, we have a Houston Texans victory. And when the Astros win games, people tend to be pretty excited, right? Yes. When the Astros win games, when the Rockets win, people tend to be excited, Although that hasn't happened a lot last couple days. It's been a rocky start, Matthew. So let's check the phone lines at 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 7. I can see how you guys are feeling about what was.

I mean, that was one of the most impressive wins of the year. I mean, they're all impressive because, I mean, Kansas City at Kansas City certainly helped the cause. But going to London, where the Jaguars have played, and the Jaguars have been a franchise that, you know, you thought it was on the upper end of things because they had won two straight games, Arna Minchia was gathering more confidence, and the Texans crushed their souls in a matter of a week. And even though the division race, relatively speaking, is close between Houston, Indianapolis, I mean, all the teams coming into games yesterday were at 500.

The discrepancy between who is and who is not in this division is pronounced. I thought Tennessee was awful yesterday against Carolina. That should be no surprise. They're having quarterback issues. The only team in the division that's not having a quarterback issue, issue is the one that's going to win the AMC South. And Rossi, they might be, hell, they could win 10 and be comfortable. Now, I will say this.

You do have a very challenging slate of games after this. I believe it's at Baltimore. Yes. Then a Thursday night home game for Indianapolis that will essentially decide the division. And then I believe they're also then are home for New England after that. If I'm correct. That's where you get to really beat your chest if you're a Houston. and Texans fan. Or you go

0 and 3 and then you're back at 6 and 6. You know what? The thing that bothers me, again, about the Texas is the discipline issues. And against really good teams, when you commit that many penalties, you do typically lose. I mean, look at the Colts game. All the penalties they had in that contest, how

it really hurt them. And you're not going to win at Indianapolis if you continue to have those types of problems. That's on me. You can survive against Oakland. You can survive against Jacksonville, which are very average middle-of-the-road teams in the AFC. I want the Texans to clean up their issues with the false starts, illegal ships, all this other stuff, defensive holdings. And if they can beat, let's say Ross, they go two and one in the next three games.

That would be very, very impressive. Because in that batch, you have the number one seed in the AFC, and you have the number two-seat. So if you're going to, you know, if you give me a two-and-one split over the next three games, I think we can really stop worrying about whether or not this team is real. Do we have a word on how long Jacoby Brissette's going to be out? No, they don't know if he's going to, you know, they have not been an official word. He might even play this week against Miami.

Okay. So my guess is if I'm the Colts, I let Brian Hoyer play this week. And it's Miami. I mean, oh, by the way, speaking of depression. Wow, Brian Hoyer versus Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Battle of Texans Cubies passed. So I'm watching this Texans game, obviously, an NFL network. and I'm in Miami yesterday before the Rockets game. And I don't have direct TV in the room or Sunday ticket or whatever,

so you have to kind of watch what's there. So the 1 o'clock game Eastern Time, because I'm in Miami, is the Jets and the Dolphins. Do you know how clinically depressing it is on a Sunday afternoon have to watch those two crappy teams? Wait a minute. Why was it Jets and Dolphins? Because I was in Miami.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oof. Did the city go crazy? You got to make a bet on that point, just so you can be interested in it. I almost went to the World Wide Web and said, can you please give me an illegal feed of some game?

I could have a hook you. Well, I know, but I didn't want to say it publicly. Was there rioting in the streets of Miami after that game? Riding is a strong term. Miami, by the way, for those of you that don't have never been to Miami before, is maybe one of the top two or three people watching places in the country. I would put Miami, New York, and Las Vegas. Probably Las Vegas one, because there's people from all over the world in Vegas.

And by people watching, you mean creeping on hot women. I like to call it people watching. Point being, it's a great people watching place. I don't think the city of Miami was fully enthralled with the Dolphins versus the Jets, except unless you were there at the game. But yeah, it sucked, and Fitzpatrick sucks, and the dolphins suck, and the, ugh, it was terrible. So, yeah, that's why I enjoyed watching the Texans dominate because I knew what was ahead of me, and that was the Jets.

And then the late game on, because the Jets were on, the Dolphins was Tampa Bay and Seattle. I mean, you know what? I'm going to try. I should have put on the Lifetime Movie Network. I probably would have had a more enjoyable experience in watching those two bad football teams. All right, 713, 212,790. I'd like to ask a simple question. And I got a lot of responses on Twitter yesterday, and I'll get these, I'd like to get them from you at 713212-5-790.

How much do you love Deshaun Watson? Rossi, that little lateral play, was it to Carlos Hyde? Is that what it was yesterday? I forgot who it was. Yes, it's Carlos Hyde, I'm pretty sure. Can I just tell you, I love that play? I love that play more than any scramble, more than any five or seven-step drop. He just won't let a play die.

And I know that a lot of people get mad at maybe the sack he may take or a fumble he occasionally does or maybe he throws a poor pass. But I'm going to live and die with how Deshaun wants to keep a play alive. And because he does that, he is in the MVP conversation. He is so ridiculously valuable to your football team. So how much do you love Deshaun Watson? 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9.

If you want to reach out via Twitter, you can do so at SportsMT, at SportsRV. Altube pokes one to left field fairly deep. It's ends back gardener looking up. Sports Talk 790. Jose Al-Tube puts the Astros up. You're a home of the stroke. 76 Watson throwing it and Watson is finally taken down

though he flips it out to hide he actually got the pass off and it was behind to hide and now move the chain part of a hundred and sixty-yard day for Carlos Hyde 19 carries he had a 58-yard run which would have been a touchdown Ross if not for the fact

that he didn't hear the rumblings of the defender coming back and swiping the ball away from resulting in a touchback. That was the only blemish offensively for the Texans. That and a few penalties here and there. Yeah, that was a crazy sequence, right? You had the interception and then you had that and then immediately Gardner-Minshoot throws another interception. He was awful. I mean, and he's my fantasy quarterback, not because I want him to because I just have no healthy players left. You're taking an L this week?

Oh, you got to be right. I'm down 50 points. By the way, I don't like, what was that? Who does the, oh, it's magic song? Pilot. Pilot. I much prefer this version. They're not the same?

No. Fitz magic. There you go. I'm more of a fan of Fitzmagic myself. This is a horrible auto tune singing. I don't ever drink before the game. Why not? I almost started, because you have to be sober when you're broadcasting an NBA game.

It's kind of the rule. Oh, well, you didn't do it when you were doing Arena League. Allegedly. That was one beer 20 years ago. Thanks for bringing that up. Point being is this. To watch the Jets and Dolphins make you drink. By the way, if you ought to go have Sunday ticket and can you send me your pass code,

I'd appreciate that for any future Texans road trips or a rocket's road trips I have the rest of the way. You're making that Matt Thomas money. You can't pony up for the ticket? Sophomore at Texas Tech, private school for a junior, and club volleyball. The answer is no. Wow, so at the end of the day, we probably make close to the same. I have none of that. No mortgage, no car payments.

Texans were they, an impressive, that's what it is, an impressive win. Line one, let's get to it. Okay. That's fine. Line two, you've got to be pumped up for your Houston Texans. We're going to talk about it because they deserve to be talked about. Because, let's face it, Ross, the Texans have taken the back seat in the terms of sports landscape the last handful of weeks. because of the fact the Astros are making the World Series run.

By the way, not news, but predictions on Garrett Cole coming up in the next segment of the show. I would say you're not going to want to miss it, but you may want to miss it because it's going to make you sad. Because if numbers that one person thinks are true about him, no chance, no way, no how. He won't even get, they won't even have a phone conversation, meaning his agent, Scott, Boris and the Astros. But back to the Texans. So Deshawn Watson completes 22 of 28, has two passing touchdowns. Could have had a rushing and a passing touchdown about for the fact that they called him out the half-yard line late in the contest. He got Duke Johnson involved, which is one of the things that, remember when the Texans traded for him from Cleveland?

It was, hey, this guy's one of the best pass-catching running backs in the NFL, and we had seen small signs of it? We saw a lot of the signs of it yesterday. He had five targets. And for DeAndre Hopkins, who did score a touchdown, a little one-yard toss, he wasn't even that big of a factor in the contest. Just to show you how clearly dominant the Texans' offense was with Deshaun Watson, here is a guy that threw to his main go-to guy all the time, but it wasn't like he was stretching plays. He was very average. He was 8 for 48.

It was Johnson doing a lot of the great things. Kenny Stills, sneaky, sneaky good pick. And I'll say this, Ross. And look, I am not a fan of Bill O'Brien under any circumstance. But some of the things he has done, like the play calling you mentioned yesterday was very, very good. And some of the acquisitions. Kenny Stills stretches the field. Carlos Hyde is better than Lamar Miller.

Isn't that weird that the guy that you had is your starting running back, one of your big free agent acquisitions of a couple of years ago, this is his last year, contract year. and usually guys play after their contract, and you don't miss him at all. Well, I said that before the season. When he went down, to me, Lamar Miller's just a guy. That's one of the reasons.

It's not like Carlos Hyde has been good, and Carlos Hyde has been up to par and then some, especially when he added Duke Johnson as the change of pace, like you mentioned. But Lamar Miller was never anything special to me. I mean, he would get to 1,000 yards as a Houston Texan, but that was just basically on volume. He wasn't a guy who I thought had great vision or run people over or anything like that.

He was a guy with great straight line speed, so if you get him in space, he can run really fast, but that was just about it. So I will say this. What's the higher grade on Bill O'Brien? Is it a general manager or a head coach? He's been doing pretty well. We like to make fun of the guy,

but the results on the field are pretty good right now. Yeah, I hate him as a timeout guy. I hate him as a challenge guy. I hate him on third and five, because he always dials up plays for four yards. But the Hyde pickup, the Duke Johnson pickup, Laramie Tunsell, who didn't play yesterday, and when he doesn't commit false start penalties,

has been pretty good. You know, street-fury agents haven't been horrible for them either. Yeah, I mean, probably if you were to, and again, the sample size is a lot smaller, but Bill O'Brien, the general manager, is probably better than Bill O'Brien the coach. Thanks, guys. You're welcome.

And that's the great thing about the Matt Thomas shows. We're fair and balanced. When something is going right, we can speak to that. No kidding. When something is going wrong, we'll speak to that as well. It's brutal, Brian. That's Matt. But thanks, Coach.

Fun is winning. That's what's fun. Well, the Texans are having fun this week in London. I bet they're home now, right? I mean, they probably left out of the game. I was going to ask that. You think, you know, I mean, wouldn't you stay in London for an extra day? or two, go see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace?

No. I bet those guys cannot wait to land, go get some sleep, and then go on their vacations for four or five days. Have some more big beans, smother all over, whatever it is you eat over there in London? Can I tell you the food in London blows? I've only been one time. Ross, it's super sucks. Well, apparently they have

regular sucks. Maybe they brought a load of Popeye's chicken sandwiches with them. Yeah, see, I'm trying to still figure out how he got that sandwich in London. Are you sure he got it in London? Well, they didn't bring the sandwich back until Sunday. Do they have a Popeye's on that private jet? They got in London on Thursday.

Look at it. Google it real quick. Are there Popeyes in London? I mean, there's McDonald's. Yes, there is. No, wait a minute. Why do people in London get the chicken sandwich before the people in the United States get it? Because they didn't eat all of them the second they came out.

Hmm Oh so you were saying There was conservation Of the chicken sandwich there? Possibly Hmm There was a lot of people upset at me When I was tweeting about the chicken sandwich yesterday

Why were they mad at you? I think you're Chick-fil-A fans I said ultimate troll move by Pop-Eyes By putting it on a Sunday You've got to respect it And then people were like Well actually

It was just actually a smart marketing move That they should do this Chick-fil-A has nothing to worry about When it comes to Popeyes There was like four people tweeting me all upset about Chick-fil-A. You know what they should rename Twitter? I'm wearing red hats for some reason. Snark.

Yeah. It's like, it's just a joke, relax. Nobody finds Twitter funny. Not at all. Yeah, I know. Nobody finds it 20. And I got people that are following me that always take shots at me. And I don't like, why are you following me?

Just mute a man. I'm so quick. My life on Twitter got 15 times better the second I went straight to the mute button. If somebody's saying idiotic things or just negative, being negative overall, or not getting that things are sarcastic or jokes, straight to the mute button. Okay, that's what I'm going to do. All right, let's take a time out here. We're going to come back, and I'm going to tell you about how one former baseball executive

has his projection out of what Garrett Cole is going to make and the teams that might be interested in grabbing him. It's a Matt Thomas show, 713, 212, 5, 790, 713-212-5-790. Load up on those napkins, straws, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard. Oh, and don't forget duck sauce. It's the Matt Thomas Show for lunch on Sports Talk 790. Time is 1248.

It is the Matt Thomas show. Good afternoon to you. I'm here in Memphis, where the Rockets and Grizzlies will play tonight. We will save our Garrett-Cole conversation. station for the top of the 1 o'clock hour. Ross, please let Nick know we will all rocket calls today, although probably the city Houston is in a bit of a shell shock after what happened last night. I don't know that this.

I don't know how much, I'm mad, I'm sorry. I don't know how much the city of Houston is locked in on the rockets right now. That's probably a good thing because they will lock in once they start playing some defense and Eric Gordon and James Hardin start hitting their shots. Okay, so 2022? No, we're locked. Remember how last year, how sluggish things got started and things fixed? Yep.

I mean, nobody's really running away with it in the West, to be brutally honest. No, grand, we're less than 10 games in. That's why if, you know, I was like, Maddie hit the panic button. No. Am I hitting the what the hell was that button? Yeah. But not the panic button. I'm hitting the we're not winning the championship button.

Don't do that yet. Don't do that yet. Sorry. Mm-hmm. You need average or you need above average defense if you're going to win the championship. Well, once I get to average, so we can. Yeah, let's get to average first.

Small steps, my man, small steps. 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Trevor in the Woodlands on the Matt Thomas show. Trevor, good afternoon. Oh, good afternoon. Mattie, good afternoon, Ross. How are we doing today? Great.

Thank you. Oh, man, I got to tell you. I was the one who tweeted in saying I was sitting in the Popeye's line for 15 minutes. And? And I had, and I finally had my chicken sandwich. And? And it was. Oh, my goodness.

The mayonnaise, the two pickles. If you like Popeye's chicken, the crispy, crunchy parts, it's fantastic. I've always been a Chick-Poy guy. And I swore off of Popeye's when I didn't get a sandwich the first run. But I finally had it. And I'll tell you what, I burned my finger last night on the grill when I saw the rocket score. I just looked down, that burn is gone. And I had a zit on my forehead this morning, I swear to you.

It sucked itself back into my head. Deshaun wasn't lying. He wasn't lying. Trevor, thank you for the amazing report, my friend. I'm just going to tell you right now that your call made my first hour for sure. Thank you. Well, I'm so glad to do that. And I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day like I am.

I'm going to go run a 5K right now. Goodbye. Let me tell you, do you hear that, Houston? This damn sandwich makes you do things that you normally wouldn't be able to do. Now, here's my problem, Ross. My cholesterol is high. Ooh. I have high blood pressure.

Uh-oh. I don't know if the chicken sandwich is going to help either one of those things. Well, if it's helping eyes and zits and burns, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? It's probably not going to help the cholesterol at all. No. Let's be, okay, let me just bear some numbers out to you here. We've been on the air for 51 minutes,

and we have a Texan's call coming up here with Brendan in just a second. The first call of the day following a Texans win, a rocket's horrific loss, and I don't know, just general life was a, chicken sandwich from Popeye's call. What was that? That was probably a plus 800? Yeah. Just put that in perspective of what the sports landscape is in Houston, Texas right now. But if it gets rid of Zitz, makes a man run a 5K, it a race to burn, is the chicken sandwich, does it have mythical powers?

Hmm. What other things can a Popeye's chicken sandwich do besides help a quarter? quarterback with his vision, erase burns and zits, and make normally probably, I don't know if he's in shape or not, but I mean, I don't know how many men run a 5k in the middle of the day during work, but you know what? That's the power of the chicken sandwich. How it tastes so good. It's just like heaven. 713-212-5-790. Brandon and Cyprus on the Matt Thomas show. Brendan, how are you? Good afternoon. How are you? Well. I heard the Texans won 26 to 3.

I didn't watch it. My cable went out. Yeah, they did. It was a dominating performance. Yeah, I watched it on Hulu. Hmm. Well, that was a good backup. Yeah.

So we got air in it anyway. Okay. Thanks, Brandon. Appreciate the update on your television situation. You know Hulu. does have live sports, Matt. Isn't it weird that during the World Series that Fox, the number one

sponsor for the World Series, and it's been this way the last couple years, was YouTube TV. Yes. So essentially Fox is telling you to stop buying cable and satellite and go to a web-based bit. But YouTube TV has Fox, right? So presumably they

pay for their rights. I understand that, but wouldn't you think at the end of the day that Fox would want as many people on regular systems? I know that cutting the cord is the new gen thing the last four or five years.

But at the end of the day, I would think you'd want still more people on the cord than off the cord. I mean, if YouTube TV has Fox Sports 1 and Fox, why wouldn't Fox want them to have it? I don't know. It just seems weird to me. That would be like... It's like taking money from Xfinity or Direct TV or Dish.

But I wonder who pays them more. I can maybe... YouTube TV pays them more. Yeah, because YouTube TV is probably paying them a lot of money because they're just all over it. I'll never cut the cord. I just, I mean, I love being able to watch things on my phone and computer, especially when I'm away from home. But I don't think I'll ever cut it. It's getting too much.

You've got Apple TV Plus now. You got HBO Max. Right. Hulu. You got Netflix. You have, I mean, whatever else that I'm not even forgetting. I'm not even remembering off the top of my head. Apple TV.

CBS, All Access. Yeah, I mentioned that one. YouTube TV, Hulu. I mean, it's just out of control. right now. I just want to go home, turn my television on, and watch things without having to go through internet and dialing things up and stuff. Yeah, and there's the one DeZone that I got this weekend because I wanted to watch the Canelo

fight. Ugh, it's out of control. Yeah. All right. So, our one Texans call this hour is giving us an update on whether or not he watched it on the internet or on cable because the cable dropped out. And oh, by the way, Deshaunewants, it was excellent yesterday. The defense was amazing.

Gary on Connolly, where are those Raider fans Ross that were ripping on Gary on Conley? It's funny, I don't hear them right now. They're probably ripping on Derek Carr. No, they won yesterday, so they're probably feeling pretty good. That's the amazing thing about Twitter is that when Gary on Conley is giving up touchdowns for your squad, and then he leaves and gets traded, you laugh at him. And you're like, please go away. Oh, he's gone. Gary on Connolly may not be awesome.

but on a particular Sunday afternoon in London, England, he was really damn good and needed because, man, how is Jonathan Joseph still playing? I mean, is he like 40? He's always getting hurt, but yet he still figures out a way to make the lineup and still play a lot. And it wasn't like he was being abused yesterday

because Garner-Minchu couldn't throw the ball down the field without it being underthrown, overthrown, and intercepted. Wait, he's only 35. I legit thought he was like 36 or 37. No, no, I thought, well, 35 would be right about the right age. I was teasing him by him being 40. No, I thought he was like 36 or 7, for real. Do you think he dyes his hair at all because of gray's cart come in or not?

Maybe. I would ask him, but I don't think that would be one of the things I don't want to ask him. You know, I'd say thank you for your time. You've been a very good Houston, Texan. He's been one of the best free agent acquisitions. Well, maybe the best in the history of the first. organization, right? Give me a better one.

Aaron Glenn? Nope. Former Nimitz great. Nope. Aaron Glenn made a Pro Bowl as a Texan, didn't he? Yeah, but Jay Joe's been here forever. I mean, he's been in like seven or eight years. It doesn't look like Aaron Glenn made a Pro Bowl.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you did. Yeah, I'm not counting anything from the first 10 years of the Texans. Sorry. That's it. For anybody that wants to make fun, Of Jonathan Joseph, I'm giving you a declarative statement. He is the greatest free agent acquisition in the history of the Houston Texans. And I don't even think it's even close.

No, it's not. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Here we go with the hour number two of the Matt Thomas show from Memphis, Tennessee. We're tonight at the FedEx Form, which is literally a cross street from my hotel. The Rockets and the Grizzlies will play to wrap up four-game trip. day the Rockets are home for Golden State. It's an early start time. We'll have you details on that coming up a little while. And then on the road again this weekend for games at Chicago and at New Orleans.

Your Houston Texans with a very impressive win. Granted, Jacksonville is average at very best. Garner Minchu looked like he was a guy that was on the up, and then he got dropped badly. Horrible, terrible performance for Minchu. The Texans had a really good job defensively giving up just three points. Texans offense, Dowling up plays, and Bill O'Brien, for again, we don't think much of him, but you must give credit where absolutely credit is due. Dialing up, he had another game plan to keep his team on the field, and Deshaun Watson is, in my mind,

quickly moving up. I don't know where he is if they were to take an informal poll of MVP candidates in the NFL, but he certainly acts like it every time he takes the field for the Houston Texans. So if you'd like to get in some Texans conversation, we are ready to do that today. all throughout the program until 3 o'clock here on Sports Talk 790. Coming up at the bottom of the hour, Ross's NFL recap, which features, Ross, I don't mean to give you script ahead of time, but I'm going to assume that a certain Cleveland Browns player is no longer active on social media.

Would that be fair to say? I will be talking about the Cleveland Browns, yes. Okay. Also, one college football note before we go to some baseball chat up for just a second, Michael Divinity Jr. is a linebacker. Apparently a really good one for LSU. He's been kicked off the team. This probably isn't a great time,

and maybe we should get our official LSU correspondent, Chris Gordy, on this. But that's not a great time to be doing that when you're playing Alabama this weekend. And I think the game is in Tuscaloosa. But supposedly, AKA the game of the year in college football is this week, and you're losing a guy that had already missed some time earlier this year. He has been kicked off the team due to basketball. disciplinary issue. So Michael Divinity Jr. is done.

713-212-5-7-90. If you want to get in the conversation, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. I mentioned this a couple of times earlier, and I want to play for you now. Here is Jim Crane today, the owner of the Astros. He is at, was at Memorial Park where they were,

I guess, the next round of the finished product for the next year's Houston Open will be 2020. Will be a downtown at Memorial. And he was there. and was asked about whether or not the team is going to make an active chase for retaining Garrett Cole for next year's baseball team. Do you think you would go over the luxury taxis? It's a possibility. Yeah, it's a possibility.

So we're probably over right now. I don't know where you guys' math comes from, but yours is different than mine. So anyway, we'll figure that out. Will it, do you believe it's, before you're at from a business point of view, it's a practical thought of the could bring Garrett back? We're going to take a run out. We don't know if we can get to where they want to get or some stuff to deal with. I don't, you know, last year you saw a lot of those trades, those big trade work really late. I don't think that's good for the market.

And that again, just a couple of comments from Garrett Cole. Now, Jim Bowden is a former general manager and a front office guy. I think he works for ESPN. He wrote a story for the athletic or was quoted by. I don't know exactly where this is from, but it's on our website right now. Jim Bowden projects Ross that Garrett Cole is going to be looking for a deal

in the neighborhood of eight years. That's a lot of time for a major league pitcher. All right. Okay. And how much money? Oh, you wanted to ask about that? Yes, I did.

Eight years, $288 million. My U of H math puts that at more than 35, million dollars a year for eight years two hundred eighty eight million dollars Bowden expects the following teams to be in the hunt the San Francisco Giants the Los Angeles Dodgers the New York Yankees the Los Angeles Angels if he leaves

and I firmly believe he is going to leave. Not because I want him to. I just think the market is going to price him out of the Astros. And not because the Astros are poor, they've just got a lot of money tied up in two pitchers already. Name Zach Granky and named Justin Verlander. Plus a lot of money involved in tied up in guys like Jose Altuve and Alex Spregman. George Springer is going to get a huge payday.

Carlos Correa is due for another year of arbitration. $288 million. Rossi, it will be clinically depressing if he played pitches for the Angels. The Yankees will sting because it'll be the American League. It'll be a team that the Astros will be contending with next year for America League pennant again. And you probably will see him once, if not twice. The Dodgers and Giants, you miss them completely. So we'll see Garrett Cole maybe next October for the World Series.

But the thought of the Los Angeles Angels and the Astros playing 19 times against each other. And the thought of Garrett Cole may be pitching at least three or four times. that's going to sting bad for Houston, Texas, if that happens. Yeah, I know. Sound effect. I'm not happy, Matt. Rossi. Maybe Lance McCullors could just come back and be super dominant.

You know what? Lance McCullors isn't bad. He just can't stay healthy. There's never been a time and I'm like, man, Lance, you're an embarrassing yourself. Lance is fantastic. He's great with y'all. He's great with us. He is a charitable person.

And when he pitches, it's really good. but he has just not been able to stay healthy. Have you designated him IP yet? Yes. Okay. The IP list is strong. Injury prone? It's a really good list of really quality people.

And you put JJY back on there, right? Oh yeah. Third time in this third season ending injury, IP. Whether it's because of physical stature or the way you play, if you can't avoid injuries, your IP. IP guys can be good. IP guys can make plays when they get back on their field of play. But you have to go two to three years without an injury to get taken off.

So is Michael Brangley on the list or off the list? I would say if he plays a healthy season next year, he's off the list. This year he was incredibly healthy, right? Yeah, he was healthy the last two years for the most part. Okay, then yeah, two years in a row, you're off the list. That's the great thing about the list, Ross, is you can jump on the list and jump off the list very quickly. Okay. So at one point your body's injury prone and another point it's not. No, I think it's like, do you get sick a lot?

Yes, I do get sick a lot. Do I get fevers and flu and cold? Yes. Then do you take better care of yourself? Do you drink? Do you take vitamins? Do you drink juices? Do you cover, you know, do you cover yourself up? Do you put blankets on? Do you put jackets on? Yeah, you stay away from the things that get you if you're flu prone. If you're migraine, you know, prone. You know, like remember Steve Francis back in the day, you got migraines all the things. time? I forgot about that. Yeah. Because he kept eating fried chicken all the time. Guess what? You stop eating fried chicken and you don't get injury prone. I don't know. You don't get migraine prone. I don't know there's a whole lot of science to back that up, Matt.

Yeah, what if it's Popeye's chicken sandwiches? Well, no. Imagine how good Steve Francis would have been if Popeye's was around back in the day. It would have cured those migraines that he had. No, apparently he was causing them. Or was he heading over to Frenchies? Frenchies is good, too. God, I want some fried chicken right now. two piece with some red beans and rice I'm going full three piece are you? Yeah

Not going to get in the line for the sandwich No, so here's a bit The line Here's the thing The woman that took my wife's order yesterday She's like, God These sandwiches are back on our line

It was like they were mad They were like Oh God we're busy You think the Popeye's worker Wants to be busy all day? Come on Yeah, they don't make any more money It's hourly no matter what

Let me tell you some I'm all about fast food fried chicken. I mean, because I don't think you can make it at home as good as you can. You know, because it just takes a lot of work. Problem is, I've told you about this with KFC. I love you, KFC. I love your original recipe. But every time I go to get your chicken, you make me wait 13 minutes for it.

Like, how do you not have any chicken standing by at all times? I need a 12-piece with green beans, mashed potatoes, and some biscuits? Well, we got everything there. It's going to be 19 minutes on the chicken. 19 minutes. Let's go. It's called a drive-thru. It's called a fast food, not a slow food.

But I digress. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach us today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Ross's NFL recap coming up at the bottom of the hour. You guys will join me next after I tell you about the big event coming up on Wednesday over at Toyota Center. It's happy hour as the Rockets take on the Golden State Warriors. A special early tip. I repeat.

Special tip time, 6.30. The doors are going to open at 5 o'clock, and when you get there at 5, you get $2 hot dogs and $5 beers until game time. I repeat $2 hot dogs, $5 beers until 6.30, as Westbrook, Hardin and the Rockets take on the Warriors who are beat up and bad. So you get a beat up and bad Warriors team against a rocket team as home for the first time in a while, and you get $2 hot dogs and $5 beers. For more details and get those tickets, go to Rockets.

Rockets.com for the matchup. Eliminator number of tickets still available for as low as $29. Rockets.com for the Rockets and the Warriors. Wednesday, 630 Toyota Center. Be there. Back to the Matt Thomas Show. On Sports Talk 790. For the corner, and that's now!

Home of your Astros. Matt Thomas with you from Memphis. Ross and Nick are back in our Houston studio. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to join us. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Is anybody excited about the Texans? I mean, I'm all in. Astros are in the rear-of-you-mirror.

Rockets have an early slate of games. We don't really get really fired up about the rockets until probably they got out of the slump or Christmas, whatever comes first. I'll be excited about them if they get two consecutive stops at some point. Yeah, you're bitter. I'm not happy, Matt. I know. But I'd like to be able to say there's a few people that are excited about the Houston Texans right now.

I don't feel it, but I'm also 500 miles away from you. Well, the traveling Texans are still jet lagged from London, so maybe they'll call in tomorrow. Is that a cool group? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Larry's in Galveston of the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Larry. MT, how are you?

Good. Wonderful. I've got a question. This is the chance of Jeff Luno working a deal with the GM of Cleveland to swap out Carlos Correa for Francisco Lindor, who finds a way to play the entire season and continues to bat in a really good way. You know, I mean,

I'm just really hard. Well, I don't know. Larry, Larry, Larry, come on. Larry, Larry, you know each other for years, right? Yes. You called me and said, you're going, you want the Astros to get one of the best short stops in the game. and send him here for a very good shortstop who can't stay healthy.

Again, I want you to logically for a second think, why would the Indians want to do that? Think about it just for one second. Why did the Indians want to get rid of Michael Brantley? He wasn't getting rid of. He was a free agent. They weren't getting rid of him. They didn't trade for him.

He was open and he didn't. re-sign there. By the way, Lindor makes almost $37 million a year. You're going to add that to this payroll? I mean, that's going to put them well above the luxury tax, whatever they're calling it. Competitive balance.

Yeah, it probably would. So, Larry, what I want you to do is this. I want you to go outside. I want you to breathe some of that amazing golf air, right? And I want you to think to yourself, I should have called Matt about the Texans' big victory against the Jaguars, not trading one shortstop for the other, because this is just, it's,

it's just not a thought that's crossing either team's mind. I got you, damn, me, teeth. All right, buddy, have a good day. Everything's cool. Bye. All right. Thank you. Maybe he's drinking some of that saltwater, Ross.

Yeah, that's not good for you. That drinking saltwater from the golf could make you call a radio show and ask for a trade of one of the best short stops with the game against a good one who can't stay healthy. Who doesn't make $37 million a year? Yeah, I mean, he's not the first person I've heard. Why don't they just trade Francisco Lindor for Carlos Correa? I mean, unless they're just looking for salary relief or something like that. And even then you would ask for a lot more than just Carlos Correa probably

because he can't prove himself to stay healthy. Yeah, I hate to tell you all this Astrofans, but Carlos Correa, with what two years left until he becomes a free agent for a guy that doesn't play 100 games a year, ain't going to bring a haul in. Now, Ross and I do disagree on one thing. I do believe that if the Astros got a phone call from somebody asking about Carlos, they would listen.

Now, will they likely accept it? No, but they would listen. They would listen to any. I mean, Jeff Luno is smart. He would listen to anybody, but I just think there's close to 0% chance of Carlos Correg being moved. maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, I'll put it at 2%.

So you and I are basically in the same category. Okay. So far on the radio show today, we've talked about the chicken sandwichers, which actually is routine. Chicken sandwich talk is flooding my Twitter line. Texan 6 and 3 not. So I'm going to go back to the Texans because I do believe there's a segment of the population that is out there that wants to brag about us team that had Carls

Hyde rush for 160 yards. That forced Garner Minchu to fumble the bulls. They get sacked three times. And remember, Ross, this Texan's defense did not have J.J. Watt out there yesterday. And will not have him for the rest of the season. You know what? You know what they don't really, this is maybe taboo to say. But they don't really suffer when he's not out there.

I mean, he's really good. And obviously, he's been a huge part of the Texan success this decade when it comes to being, you know, a three-time defensive player of the year. but did you miss him yesterday? Or do you miss them when you're going against a really good team, say like Tom Brady or you're missing them against Pat Mahomes? What, you know? Or, you know, Lamar Jackson coming up next in two weeks. Yeah, that's probably when you're going to miss them more is when you really need him.

But there were other guys who stepped up. I thought, especially to me the linebackers, the linebacking crew for the Texans is really strong. Zach Cunningham was all over the place yesterday. Cunningham, McKinney, Cole. And, I mean, there's just. just a lot of good linebacking. The crew's there. I didn't think that the front four, I didn't think that the line was doing much.

I just felt like the linebackers were just flying all over the place, making plays. You had Zach Cunningham, like you said, all over the place. There was a play where he was covering, who is the backup running by, Raquah Armstead and coverage and stuff like that on an out route. It was just overall, I came away really impressed with the linebacking play of the Texans. And it's funny because, you know, Minchu did throw for 309 yards, but it felt like most of that came in the second half when they were trailing and it was garbage and they were giving up 10-50 yards of play there.

And then ultimately, Minchu, you know, it's funny, the Texans get criticized for their red zone efficiency. I thought Jacksonville's play calling was awful in the red zone. There was no imagination. There was handoff here, hand off there, a minchew and a seven-step drop running for his life. And by the way, is there any surprise at Doug Marone and Bill O'Brien or besties? I mean, that is a little weird But I mean, you wouldn't put either one of them

Among the elite coaches in the National Football League Right The broadcast yesterday was showing pitch to them at Georgia Tech There was the side by side We had to hear about how their wives hooked each other up And then got, you know, met each other and got the marriage And all I'm as like This is getting uncomfortable

Yeah, it's I would take Bill, I'll tell you this, I would take Bill O'Brien over Doug Marone I mean, I don't watch a lot of jobs Jacksonville games, when I do, I think, man, this, mm. So, you know, that's the thing about watching the game yesterday and seeing how well the Texans perform is. If you think we got it bad here in Houston, there are a lot of other cities. I watched the Jets and the Dolphins yesterday. Two teams.

Now, Miami feels a little bit better about themselves, Ross, because they've got 95 draft picks coming up in the next two years. But that's an organization doesn't feel good. The Jets have Labion Bell, who they were trying to train. back to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a terrible coach. And Sam Darnal, who's got mono and I guess did okay yesterday, but they weren't good enough to win. I mean, it's funny, when you were in a different city and you have to watch somebody else's football team, you come to appreciate maybe what's good about yours. So you appreciate the text.

This is like a Christmas carol. Like you're Scrooge and you saw the ghost of Christmas pass and stuff like that, and now you appreciate the Texans. You know what it was? I saw the ghost of current NFL. Now, here's the thing. I'm not buying all in on the Texans, but that's okay. I don't think, I mean, clearly by the lack of interaction, I don't think y'all are either, but that's okay. Because I can speak for all of us.

Rossi, if they go two and one in the next three games, Indianapolis, excuse me, they go first to Baltimore, Indianapolis and New England, that's right, the next three in the row. Is that correct? I want to make sure I'm getting the right schedule. Yeah, at Baltimore and then home for the Colts on a Thursday. And then home for the Sunday night football match against the Patriots. If they go in two and one. Just wait until I tell you this.

You will hear a different Matt Thomas. Texan Thomas. You'll think I'm on 610. You'll think that's how much you think that how well things will go if they go two and one. Well, okay, I'll set the over on our own wins on that stretch at one and a half. Where are you going? 713-212-5-790. 113, 212, 570.

Let's ask the audience. We have Ross's NFL recap coming up. If Rossi is set in the number at one and a half in the next three weeks, can they win two? Because if they win two, they're probably winning the AFC South. Because remember, in their back pocket, two of the final three games of the year are against Sucky, Tennessee. Who don't know what the hell's going on. Think about it. Two and one, the rest of the way, helps the win the AFC. 713, 212, 790.

Eliza won. Back to Kenny. Another three. Kenny tries one more. Clutch City. This is Kenny to Jet Smith, and you're listening to Sports Talk 790. 135 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. 713, 212, 790, as your Texans find themselves at 6 and 3.3 and 3.5-790 as your Texans find themselves at 6 and 3. 3 in the AFC South. The Colts yesterday lost on another Adam Venetary miss after winning the week before. And we don't know exactly how long Jacobi Perced is going to be out if he misses tonight. Our next Sunday's game is the Colts take on the Miami Dolphins.

But right now, before we resume on the Texans, the Rockets in their unfortunate ways yesterday against Miami and anything on the Astros, we get to Ross's NFL recap of the NFL Slate from this weekend. Ross, what do you got? Yes, Matthew. Let's go ahead and get things started in Seattle. Ross takes the shotgun snap. Works throws inside. Ball is caught.

Jacob Hollister, his second score. And the Seahawks win in dramatic fashion in overtime here at Century League field. The Buccaneers got up early on the Seattle Seahawks, but they battled back, forced overtime. And then Russell Wilson did that. At an OT to give them the win now. Seven and two on the season. Matt is Russell Wilson, your first half MVP. Nope.

Deshaun Watson is. I'm falling on my sword on that, but that's fine. Did you see him yesterday? Yeah, he threw for 201 yards. I don't watch Seattle football. Is he that amazing? I watch Houston football. Okay.

That's just the truth. That tear the truth. Matt's telling the truth. He got me 79 points in my fantasy. 79. What kind of league are you in? I think this one, it's not the one wearing together. 19 points of touchdown?

I don't know. I don't have to look at the rules on this one. It must be. That's ridiculous. That is out of control. Although I think he did get close to 50 in our league, Matt, because you know you have the six points. Six point touchdown.

Yeah, you need it. How many points did Gardner Minsh you get you? Well, it was like 13 until he kept throwing interceptions. And the very last play of the game, he fumbled. It cost me two more points. So instead of losing by 50, I'm going to lose by 52. That's a shame. All right, let's move along in the NFL. The Cleveland Browns continue their losing ways. They lost to the Denver Broncos, 24 to 19. Odell Beckham Jr. with five catches for 87 yards, not necessarily a horrible evening, but according to Baker Mayfield,

O'Dell Beckham needs to get the ball more and Baker needs to help with that. To take his quote, he said he always wants to be the answer and the solution to the problem. I understand that. I wish I could be able to help it out more and we'll continue to find ways to get in the ball. And then there was at one point, Matt, during the game.

Apparently O'Dell Beckham was refusing to sit next to Baker Mayfield on the bench. Do you think there is trouble in paradise as much as Cleveland is a paradise? Well, first of all, Kloom is on a Paradise. It has a casino downtown, but that's the thing that's got good for it.

Here's the bit. Four straight losses for the Browns. Grumpy Texan fan, you ain't got nothing on Grumpy Brown fan. That's like 15 years of complete ineptitude. Yeah. I mean, they don't even sniff the playoffs. And I think you...

At least the Texans go and lose in the first round. Yeah, but this was supposed to be the year for the Browns. Remember everybody who's there with a hot pick for the AFC North? Hot. Hot. pick. Very hot pick. And then of course, I think you were making mention earlier of Germaine

Whitehead, the Brown Safety who has been released, following rants on social media where he was going after media members and threatening to fight them and shoot them. I'm assuming his account's been deleted. Well, his Twitter

account got suspended. I think he's, I don't know if his Instagram is still up, but it was as of last night. I mean, does an I'm sorry count? Oh, no, actually he is. Instagram is still up, and after being released, he said,

they tell you to take the high road when your whole life you were taught to meet fire with fire. I do apologize for my performance, but having broken hand and a strong fear of letting my team down as my downfall. Whatever happens, happens.

Okay. So asking people that they want to live is a big deal, huh? Or not a big deal? Well, he threatened to shoot people. That's just not a great look. It's going to happen. Everybody who was talking about him missing tackles,

he was trying to fight them on Twitter and whatnot. Gary on Conley took the higher road and look where he's at. He's playing for a team that's in the first place. Well, good for him. Mr. Whitehead, however, is not currently employed by any NFL team. All right, Matt,

you mentioned this earlier at the start of the segment because you're just a Thunderstealer, but that's okay. The Colts had an opportunity to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers at the end of their game yesterday. Here comes the snap. It's down. The kick by Venetary is on its way. It's missed. The Steelers.

Dodge a huge bullet. So Adam Venetary missed his field goal. He's been missing a few the last couple of weeks. Matt, could it finally be the end for Adam Venetary in his NFL career? He is 46 years old, two years short of being the oldest NFL player ever, who of course was. George Blanda. He missed it really badly, too. It didn't like hook at the end?

Yeah. It didn't hit the upright and doink. Maybe it was a bad hold. That's what I would blame it on. Do you know kickers never do well in Pittsburgh for some reason? That's true. Former Texan kicker Chris Brown hated being a Pittsburgh Steeler. He said one side of the stadium, the wind swirls,

and you can never figure out which direction are properly kicked the ball. Adam Vinatari has not missed more than five field goals in a season since 2012. He's already missed five this year. Could be the end for him. All right. Let's move along to Sunday night football. How about this one? Well, Matt, you did pick the Ravens to get the win and beat the schmose,

but I'm guessing you didn't expect it to happen in this dominant fashion. Jackson takes the snap. He wants to keep it, tries to squeeze off right guard and tackle, pushes his way to the one. Backs in touchdown. Lamar Jackson with an unbelievably patient run, and then a burst of power, and the pyrotechnics are firing at the station.

Bill Belichick, after the loss to the Ravens on Sunday night football, he was as talkative as ever. Here's what he had to say about the game. We competed out there. It just wasn't good enough. So we've all got to do a better job. Start with me. Hey, yeah, you'd thank you, Bill, for that.

Is Lamar Jackson in the MVP race, too? I think so, absolutely. So let's do it. It's Deshawn. It's Wilson. And it's Jackson. Hmm Are we forgetting anybody else?

So it's Watson, Jackson, and Wilson? Yep. Interesting. And probably in that race, Watson is probably third among national voters. Fair to say, or do you think he said? Sounds like a, it could be like an R&B band in the 80s. Or a very successful law firm.

Yes, that's true as well. Also, Bill Belichick was asked about, was seeing Lamar Jackson for the first time, would it be helpful for him down the road? We competed. out there. It wasn't good now. Bill, calm down.

Bill, stop repeating yourself. Here we go. Okay. Or this is just not going to work. I don't know. By another non-on-the-schedule, so I'm not really worried about that. Thanks, Bill.

Is our show better or worse for five-second Bill Belichick soundbikes? I think better. I could listen to this all day. I don't know. By now, they're not on our schedule, so I'm not really worried about that. Yeah, save that for future reference.

We'll save that before the 10th, after the Texas Patriots came in a couple weeks. Hey, Bill, what do you think about the wildfires in California? I don't know. By now they're not on their schedule, so I'm not really worried about that. Hey, Bill, what do you think about those Popeye's chicken sandwiches out there this week? I don't know. By another not on their schedule, so I'm not really worried about that.

Bill, what do you think about the Democrats in their impeachment inquiry? I don't know. By another not on their schedule, so I'm not really worried about that. Is Fox News fair and balanced? I don't know. Right now they're not on our schedule, so I'm not really worried about that. What about ISIS? All right, that's a doubt.

They're not on our schedule, so I'm not really worried about that. We played this out. That's what we do on the Matt Thomas show. And that's your Ross's recap, Matthew. Thank you very much. All right, 713-212-5-790. All right, can I speak the truth for five seconds here? Braddon, Miami is on the line once about the Rockets game last night.

Oh, great. I'd like to avoid him. So here's the thing. If you want to call in about the Texans' really impressive win yesterday, I will put you at the top of the list. If you don't call in, I'm going to Bryant in Miami. You've been warned. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Back to Matt Thomas. Drives the state to left-center field. This is Sports Talk 790. Home of Astros. Baseball. Yeah, yeah, Popeyes, man. Shout to the Popeyes. I shouldn't be eating fast food, but I'm my background. I love it. So, I don't know. It's just kind of, you know, we got ties. Shout out. Ross, you know the game, Family Few, they have a bonus game called the Fast Money Round. Okay.

Where they, you know, they ask you a bunch of questions. You have to get like 200 points to win $25,000 or something for the family. All right? So here is a question that I don't think you can give me an answer to. Name a place where you, you would do the chicken dance besides a wedding? Some kind of polka. Some kind of polka event. I don't know. How many polka events have you gone to?

Ever, zero. Popeye's chicken parking lot. I went to Worst Fest, and they played some polka there in that to New Bronfels. Okay. It's like Bratworth Worst. Worst Fest. Like, do they play this song in the clubs? No.

They only play this at... Weddings. weddings of certain types of people. White. I didn't say it you did. Have any of you been to a black wedding when this song has been played? No, I've been to a couple black weddings. They didn't play this.

I've been to like a dozen Hispanic weddings. I've never heard it. They don't play this in Jewish weddings either. Okay, so tell me, okay, besides a white wedding, where would you hear this song? I've been to a Hindi wedding. They didn't play it either. All right, Billy Idol.

I went to a mixed wedding and they didn't play this. We don't play this at Rockets games. I would certainly unless Clutch is doing something weird in a timeout. That's right. A clutch skit might be in order for this.

And here's the depressing part. This is where it slows down. And then you have Aunt Mildred in her girdle. She's trying to drop down to her knees. What? Yeah. She's going down and then back up. And then that's where her dress splits in half

and it's uncomfortable. And then she went, oh, it's bad. Yeah. Just had too many vodkas. Yeah, this song is at wedding. If you were to create a wedding all-time list of songs, this is on the list for white people. Followed by the O.J. singing a shout. You hear that at every white wedding, too, by the way.

I've heard a number a couple of times. Matter of fact, we'll come back and you'll know what exactly I'm talking about. If you're a white person, listen to the show, you'll know exactly what I'm speaking of. Songs you would hear at a white wedding. That would be one of them. shot by the, I think it's OJ's right, if I'm not mistaken? The first, the Isley Brothers. The Isley Brother.

Well, is that the one that's the one that's the version that was in the John Belushi movie? Not the Isley, but it's the other. Animal House. Yeah, I know you're talking about. That's Otis Day and the Night. That's what I'm talking about. Otis Day and the Nights. That's the one people play.

We don't play the Isley Brothers. I don't know why you hate that one. They're basically the same. No, no, no. OJ's is much better. Way, way, way better. No, you mean Otis Day and. Otis Day.

Same difference. Otis Day and the Nights. Okay. All right. We asked you to take over the phone lines because Brian and Miami is standing by, and you've done such. Let's go to Brian and Conneral on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Brian.

Hey, how you doing? Good. Hey, so one song I want to say you'd see on a white wedding, by the way, would be Brickhouse. I bet there's Commodores at Black Wedding, for sure. but I really want to talk about the MVP, and I think one person you forgot to mention was Christian McCaffrey. I think it's absolutely 100% right.

You're absolutely right. That was pointed out to me on Twitter. It's a four-guy race for the MVP. McCaffrey would have over 160 yards in total offense yesterday alone for them. So, yeah, he's definitely in the mix. Yeah, he has almost 900 yards, I think, rushing, 300 receiving, about 1,200 all-purpose with 13 touchdowns. and it hasn't fumbled once.

And I think he's the main reason they're five and three with Kyle Allen playing quarterback. Yeah. I mean, sometimes backups work out well. And I don't think Cam Newton puts a Panther jersey on ever again, guys. You agree or disagree? I disagree with that. I don't think this season, but I think next season possibly, I haven't seen his contract, though, so I'm not certain. But even, I mean, I'm going to assume, thank you for the phone call, Brian.

Ross, I'm even assuming I don't care what. Cam makes. If Kyle Allen takes him to the playoffs, why would you go back for Cam Newton who looked like he was beat up the moment he stepped on the field for the first time this season? If he's healthy, because my main issue, I think what was wrong with Cam Newton is, I mean, he had the shoulder issue and then the foot issue. If he's healthy, he's a better quarterback than Kyle Allen. I mean, he just simply is. Kyle Allen can't go out and win you games. Cam Newton can do that. Now, he can cost you games too. He's up and down, but I mean, The guys won an MVP.

Look, I am a pro-CAM Newton guy, that's for sure. I'm just thinking that if... Yeah, you need your son after him. Well, that's not exactly true, but that's fine. We can go with it for the narrative here. To me, I think the hesitation about his long-term health, coupled with the fact that I'm sure he's very highly compensated, would make him a very easy salary cap casualty.

I don't doubt that Cam Newton's the better quarterback. that can take you places. But he can't take you places if you're always worried about him, you know, breaking down. And it's not a question of him being entry-prone. It's a question of he's thrown his body around for all these years in the NFL, and it's finally come up and, you know, and hurt him for the first time. I mean, when you have to go to Green Bay, Wisconsin to see a foot specialist, that can't be good.

Who knew? The world's premier foot specialist was in Green Bay, Wisconsin, by the way. I did not know that either. Did you? No. I mean, that's a really odd place. Like James Andrews has been in Birmingham, Alabama for like Tommy Johns and all that. And there have been other specialty doctors in L.A.

There's a Vail Colorado guy that does a bunch of surgeries. When the Green Bay become medical health 101 for injured NFL quarterbacks? All right, let's continue. And again, more of you means not Brandon Miami. Cougar Chris on 790 at 156. Hi, Cougar, Chris. Good afternoon, Matt. I'm embarrassed to say that one place that you could hear the chicken dance was at every U of H home game last year.

Oh, no. Yeah, some unnamed, not Frenchies, not Pi Pi's Chicken Place sponsored commercial at football games last year. And every game, we had the chicken dance deal. So that's another place that you unfortunately hear the chicken dance. But I'm excited because I got my season tickets for basketball in the mail this weekend, and I'm looking forward to Cougar basketball. We have the first exhibition game on Saturday, then the first real game. I think it's on Tuesday.

And I know you'll be on the road a lot, but I know you'll catch a few of those games. You'll get to sit down those really good seats right on the edge down there with Elvin and all those people. So because I see you down there. There's a glare coming towards my seats when you're sitting down there. That's not nice at all. I know it's not nice. Stop stalking me, by the way, too. Thank you very much.

But, you know, I love you like a step-brother. Thank you. But just kind of give me your opinion of where we're going to be this year. You know, I think we're going to be pretty good, especially with the getting, what's his name back? I can't remember his name right now. Yeah, being able to play from the start. So how do you see it shaking out?

Yeah, I think it's going to be fantastic. I think everything that I've been told, and like I said, I've not been able to put my mitts on the program much because I've been worried about everything else going on. But Quentin Grimes, as advertised, could make the Cougars one of the fastest teams in the country in terms of getting up and down and pace of play.

I'm so very excited to see what he does. I think the schedule's going to be good. I think Fabian White's getting bigger and stronger and is now as experience now for a couple of years. Nate Hinton is back after a good freshman season. It's a nice squad. A couple of J.C. transfers have helped the cost, too. They've got a legitimate big man and Chris Harris.

I'm excited to see what he is. He's legit 610. But yeah, everything's going to go around how much of Quentin Grimes, who was so heavily recruited coming out of the Woodlands area, and just didn't really get into the rotation of Kansas, how much of a difference he can make here at Houston, especially because he has been able to be declared eligible right off the get-go. 7-13-212-5-790.

7-1-3-2-5-790. We start the final hour of the Matt Thomas show coming up in a manner of moments. Ross, what is, believe it or not, coming up in less than an hour from now? Crickets, please, Nick, thank you. All right. Have we ever done a Memphis, believe it or not before? I'm positive we have. I think we've even done walking in Memphis.

Huh. An entire one based on that one song? Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. Or how about is this song popular in white weddings? The things we talk about. Aggie Warham, check, chicken dance, check. Copacabana, check.

Van Morrison songs, check. A brown-eyed girl is a big time show. Oh, that is like automatic at a white wedding. Is the Matt Thomas show. Watson gives it up to Duke Johnson, who goes the edge. With a second chance, and this one's box takes his way inside the five. One of the most exciting two yards run ever. That one's thrown to Hopkins for the touchdown.

Flag is down. That's another pass in fears. That's the touchdown. DeAndre Hopkins puts this one in the end zones and seemingly out of reach. We celebrate white weddings and a Texan's victories. We welcome me to the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. Think about what's on the stage right now or on the dance floor, Ross. The bride.

The groom? Yes. The best man who's trying to hook up with one of the bridesmaids. All right. Aunt Mildred. Children. Children. Your father's boss.

Who he had to invite to the wedding. Your co-workers who are like, who are these strange people I've never met before? Are you here with a date? your bridesmaid your matron of honor who is still looking for that special someone in her life well matron of honor is married right oh i'm sorry i get you right i guess so's made of honor and you've got ushers who are there who are pissed they weren't in the bridal party like the official one uh i do have a text coming in from bun b yeah living on a prayer is played at every white wedding

birthday party, anniversary party, etc. That's truth. Why is Bun texting you and not me? He knows you're out of town. You're busy. It's a different time zone. That's work in Memphis, too. Bunn.

Money, Mone is at white weddings, too, for sure. I'll tell you what gets the people going at every Hispanic wedding. Go ahead. Nick, you got it? Oh, Nick's getting in. Well, that's... All right.

Oh, that's from the... That's from Animal House. Isn't it? That was dramatic. Yeah, I think so. Final hour of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. I'm here in Memphis. First of all, any Selena song is probably going to get the people going.

Is Macarena had a Hispanic wedding? No, that. Come on. No, stop. Maybe that's white weddings. That's a 0.0%. Macarena? Tell the truth.

Maybe in the middle 90s. I don't know. not that I can recall I've been to a literal backyard wedding back in the day all right Hispanic I don't remember I don't remember I don't remember the macarena

getting played at any point okay macarena at a white wedding for sure I get Chumbawamba I get knocked down and get up again that's at a white wedding yeah we could make a whole show out of this actually frankly we have

all right here we go this is the jam right here This is what gets the people going at the Hispanic wedding. Do you like it, Matt? Never heard it. This is the jam right here. This is guaranteed flooded dance floor at any Hispanic wedding. This particular song.

Yes, sir. Okay. I'm sure some people can back me up on that. I got a question for you. Do you ever hear it's football time in Houston in a way? No. Oh, the Cupid Shuffle. Oh, this is a guarantee.

I'll go out there and dance on some Cupid Shuffle. Just to let you know, we are ready to talk about the Texans in their victory yesterday. We are ready to talk about the rockets and what didn't go right yesterday in Miami. And the report today from Jim Bowden, from the athletic, it says he believes that Gary Cole will be looking for a contract of eight years. What was the number I gave you, Ross? I think I lost it here. Eight years, $288 million.

That would put him north of $35 million per year. You say, that's crazy money. Well, guess what? Zach Rankie's getting that kind of money. Justin Verlander's in that neck of the woods. And by the way, Stephen Strasbourg, who declared himself a free agent after the Nationals won the World Series.

He's looking for that too. Rossi, $35 million a year for a person that pitches every five days. That's absurd. I mean, they're absurd deals in sports, but that just might be the most absurd. Although Grinky's making $35 over the next two years, yes. That's what I'm saying. It's out there. It's not, as you think it sounds completely ridiculous, it isn't.

because others are getting it. And Team Boris wants that for his client who test for agency for the very first time this year. 713-212-5-7-9, the excellence that was the Texans game yesterday. Again, from an interest standpoint,

did you notice how Twitter absolutely hated the game yesterday? And I don't blame them. But who cares when the team is up to 6 and 3 now? Not everything's going to be a NFL 100 Hall of Fame classic. Sometimes you've got a terrible games with terrible

teams. Texans aren't terrible, but Jacksonville, every time I want to buy into the Jaguars Ross, they're frauds. They're frauds. Minchu was terrible yesterday. They put a little pass rush on Watson but couldn't get to him. Excited him a couple of times,

but that was it. Most of the dropbacks were clean for Deshawn. And then when they weren't, he threw these incredible little laterals to Cardinals Hyde, who would turn him into big games. And frankly, if not for the fact that Carls Hyde got stripped short of the end zone, this

would have been even a bigger blowout than it was yesterday. But the thing I brought up in the very beginning of the show today, and it's worth repeating, how many of you, as you got up on Sunday morning to watch the game, thought to yourself, the Houston Texans are going to give up three points with a team that had no JJ Watt, half the secondary out, and not much of a pass rush the last couple of games. Ross brought it up a few minutes ago and it was worth repeating. Also, the linebacking core for the Houston Texans is really good and frankly, we don't talk about them enough. And the play calling yesterday was really good.

There didn't seem to be any significant timeout gaps or bad challenges. Speaking of challenges, the National Football League might as well Ross give up the whole pass interference. thing because I watched two different games yesterday. One of them I thought was iffy. One should have been overturned. Neither one were changed. You can't have a past interference change rule if you're never going to change it. Definitely.

I mean, I'm glad they have the option. But yeah, if they're not going to change it. It's just the whole review system has been basically a crock for years now. And by the way, Matt, we do. We will come back with Bunby. I was texting with him. And he has given me the definitive black wedding. Everybody floods to the dance floor song.

We'll get that when we come back. All right. Before we do that, let's tell you about some great folks that's bringing you this Matt Thomas show on Sports Talks. I'm here from Memphis. The Matt Thomas Show. Back to it on Sports Talk 790. Let's go. Home of the Stroves.

Is this the song? Yes, sir. According to Bun B, this is the jam that gets everybody going. It's called Let's Get Married by Jagged Edge, as you know, Matt. Yes. It's the remix with Rev Run, though. I've heard this song in a minute. It's a jam.

I've only been to, like, I don't go to a lot of weddings. Hmm. I've been to one in, like, in the last two years. Well, I would say the heart of your wedding-going career, right, is when most of your friends are getting married. That's around between, like, 25 and 32 or something. Yeah, 25-34 is the prime wedding group. Because in the next round of weddings I go to,

it's going to be kids. We'll be my friend's kids. Right. Well, I worked in the service industry for over a decade, so I've seen every kind of wedding. You've been drunk at them all, Nick. No, unfortunately, I was working. My all-time favorite wedding is when I, uh, wedding crashed in all-black wedding when I was 17. I will say statistically, white weddings are the drunkest weddings.

No. They're the heaviest drinkers, guarantee you. That's people that don't normally drink that get drunk, right? Is that what you're saying that? No, I don't know. I did dance in that wedding that I crashed. People are all drinking, they just can handle it. Yeah.

That wedding, I did crash. I did dance with the mother or the bride. She was lovely. That's good. White weddings get sloppy. It's called white girl wasted. I mean, that's just the fact. You know what you should do for the 30,000 Twitter parties have someone get married there in Vegas.

We could go crash a Las Vegas wedding. Maybe I'll get married. Well, that's not get crazy. Yeah. Well, I'm just going to. 713212-5-790. I'm grooving here. I'm sure you are. Are you doing your robot dance?

I know you are. I had a Pavlovian response when that Suavimente came out. I like started to get up. Like it wasn't going to be my choice. Well, there's a few songs like that. So after we do our fast food circuit, let's do a wedding circle. People invite us to their wedding to kind of see what the new vibe is in 2019. Okay.

Because, you know, you could have, I'll come now to your wedding. I told you I would do that for some people. you did it for didn't you do it for the gorties i did i had i had to record it for the gordon because i was going to lubbock to take camera to school last year my good friend uh haram and his wife uh did their wedding two years ago i introduced a wedding party that was live so yeah i can you got a listener is getting married sometime next year i've already got on my calendar so i'll do it yeah i come just make sure the food and the drink is good and i'll be there i don't want to put a suit on maybe like uh maybe khaki's in a collared

shirt. Nothing crazy. All right. So now that I'm wedding crushing all of your parties out there, 713-212-5-7-90, you saw your reach a show. 7-13-212-5-7-90. So Rossi, Texans have an off-week, so we're going to be not flooded with Texans news. After seeing what happened yesterday, after seeing

Jacoby Brissette go down yesterday for the Colts and then lose the game at Pittsburgh, which, by the way, now Pittsburgh is back in the AFC North Battle. who's winning the AMC South? Or do you want to wait three more weeks to make that ultimate deterrent? No, I'm telling you right now. I wouldn't back off my preseason prediction. You had nine and seven.

I had nine and seven Houston Texans winning it. Now it looks like they might go 10 and six-ish. I'm sticking to where I was, though. Let's do this. Nick, give us some NFL music, and let's look at the final handful of games with the Texans and see. Because I got him at seven and nine, and I'm very happy. happy to eat crow on this. I didn't realize all the things that were happening were going to happen. But let's take a look at the remaining portion of the schedule. And I will go

glass half full on the slate of games remaining. Okay. Okay. Meaning that if I'm if I'm hedging it all, I'll lean towards a victory as compared to a loss. So in my mr. positivity mind, I have the Texans winning two of the next three games. Okay? That puts them at eight and four. Yes. Where do you have them after the next two games? I have them at seven and five.

So they're going to lose two or three. Yes. Okay. So that's the hardest stretch. After that, it appears to be a piece of cake. It's a cake walking. Home for Denver. Listen to this.

Home Denver. You got to do what John Fissinda voice, Matt. Oh, excuse me. Home for the Broncos. But at Tennessee. At Tampa Bay. God, this schedule sucks. Rossi, even if they lost the next three,

they could win the next four. Four and three plus six and three means ten and six. They would have to absolutely. Deshaal would have to be gone for the season for them not to finish 10 and 6. The Houston Texans, here we are declaring it on November the 4th, 2019, at 225, are going to win 10 football games and probably comfortably win the AFC South. Yep. I was off by three games, my predictions.

I think 11 and 5. 12 and 4 doesn't he actually seem completely off the board? If you're going, they're winning two of the next three, and then they could very easily sweep the last four. If I have them winning two or three, and then I'll let's say they win three of the last four. Okay. That puts them at five and two.

That's 11 and five. Now, the bigger question is, is that good enough for a two-seed in the AFC playoffs? Ravens are looking like the two-seed right now. They might even, I mean, but if you tie them, if you tie them, well, you have to beat them.

you'd have to beat them to get the home field. And they've beaten, and that's another thing, they've beaten the Patriots, so if they tie them, the Patriots have one loss, the Ravens have two, so they're only one loss column behind. Okay, so let's say that they finish as the three seat, which would mean they'd have the highest, they would be taking on the six seed.

That would be the lowest wild card. Who's the lowest wildcard going to be in the AFC playoffs? As of right now, that would be the Colts. So it would be a repeat of last year. Oh, no. Thanks for bringing that up. It could be the Bills. I expect the Bills.

I lost my lock of the week because they got a late touchdown. I just still think the – They got a touchdown with two minutes to go. Otherwise, I'm going to cover that. Anyways, bills are still fraud, in my opinion. Okay, so let's do this. It's Buffalo or Indianapolis in Houston. I mean, they're going to beat Buffalo.

Buffalo never wins a playoff game. You can't lose to the Colts a second straight year with you having the home game. right you can't right I wouldn't think so what history are you basing that on I'm because I'm mr. optimism charge so here's the page up into the playoff picture oh yeah like the charges any sort of aFC threat well they Pittsburgh is in a mix they just destroyed the Packers at home gang unless Deshawn gets hurt it's 11 and five yeah jinx it's a three seed no jinx

This is me being Mr. Optimism. Nick, I can go Mr. Pessonism with the best of you. I mean, trust me, I can. And it's a three-seat playing either Buffalo or Indianapolis in a first-round game. And then you win that, and then you go to Baltimore or to New England. Hmm. And that's where it probably would end. Even me being Mr. Optimistic.

Yes? Tell me something that I'm not lying to you. I'm telling you to 100% true. Well, I don't know about it. You're telling me 100% true, but you're saying something that's completely plausible. I just gave you a completely plausible track for the Texans of the rest of the way. For a team that did not address its offensive line into the first week of the season, that has had its lead running back go away, that has been beset by numerous injuries in the secondary,

that lost JJ Watt for the season, that DeAndre Hopkins is having a good season, but frankly not in terms of previous years. aren't there. The tight end has become a factor and you have two running backs you can trust. So I'll ask this simple question. Could you be happy with 11 and 5 in a divisional playoff game? The answer to that would be to me, no. The only way I think Houston is legitimately happy is that this team does something they've never done before. And that's get to the AFC championship game. Hmm.

We've just, you know, we just gave you, we gave you plausible radio right there. No other station, town gives you plausible radio. Thanks, man. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets basketball, I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. 237 on the Matt Thomas show. Ross, what is, believe it or not today coming up in 15 minutes from now?

It's going to be Giants and Cowboys related. Oh, okay. Dallas and the New York Giants tonight from East Rutherford, New Jersey. Let's go to Lou and Spring on the Matt Thomas show at 237. Hi, Lou. Yeah, hi, guys. Just a quick comment. You know, I'm a huge rocket fan.

A lot of the guys and the team and everything. But to me, it seems like the way Harden plays, I think it demoralizes the other fellas. You know, all these guys are winners. They have been since middle school and maybe even earlier. And I don't think any of them get motivated by just watching this guy, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, and get 50. But I don't think that motivates them. Just like your opinion on that.

Lou, I'm going to stay in the line because you get a little connection back, but I want you to answer this. Who's not getting – my question is, who's not getting their shots? The Rockets have put up prolific amounts of offense and scoring and wins. Now, granted, postseason hasn't been fantastic, but they don't all of a sudden turn it off of the postseason. And yeah, he's an ISO guy. And yeah, guys can get frustrated by that at times. But if you're Eric Gordon right now, are you bragging about you needing more shots?

If you are Russell Westbrook right now after the first game of the year, his three-point shot is going away. tell me what all that dribbling has done to lose some really good guys in their jump shots. I don't think your argument of guys that are losing their ability for the passion for the game makes any sense when they're the same guys that aren't making shots right now for a team that, frankly, if it's not James going to the free throw line, they're having a hard time scoring and stretches. I'm not even counting about yesterday. I'm talking about how everybody has, in. And in some former fashion this year, really with the exception of P.J. Tucker in a pronounced outside shooting slump.

So that isn't motivation. That's when the ball in their hands, those guys aren't making the shots. Yeah, but what I'm saying is, you know, I don't see any other team that plays like this. They all move the ball around. The ball gets moved all over the place. And it's a team kind of concept where the feeling. I get that it's James Hardin's show. There's a little left over.

Then the guys, you know, pick it up. But I don't think, I don't like that that kind of play. I know he gets Ws. I know we get to the playoffs. If the other guys being the professionals that they are, it's a good thing for them. I know they make a ton of money and all that kind of stuff. But they want to win.

They want to be a part of it. It's not just James. Okay. Ross, you have to jump in. I don't understand where he's going. with this? I'm very confused but mesmerized by his accent. Thank you, Lou. I do

like your accent, Lou. Please call again under other circumstances. Yeah, I don't understand the equation where he's getting that from. If you're saying they're frustrated by ISO ball, then what you would have to do is do some

things in order to get the ball out of your hands, like become a hot jump shooter or attack the glass or Clint Capella's got to be a better finish. sure. They all suck shooting-wise right now. There's, I mean, there's no way to say it. They suck.

But yet they're still scoring a boatload of points. I mean, they're still number one in the league in the scoring. No, they're also giving up more points to anybody else in the NBA. They're like the early 90s Nuggets is what you're saying? I'm saying that for right now, and I do not believe it's a recipe for success. But right now they're kind of, you know, remember that game around against Washington when they had to score 159 to win it? Yes.

It might be first of 140. I mean, to be brutally honest. But that's not going to happen unless defense steps up, plays a little bit of passion and a little bit of emotion, and then the jump shots have got to start falling. My man Eric Gordon, who I love, love, love, love. I mean, this is about as bad of his stretch as I've ever seen him shoot ever in my career watching him play. James is, you know, James is, what, a 36% 3.4.3.

shooter for his career, Ross. He right now enters play at 22%. Russ is about a 30% three-point shooter. He's at 25. Clint Capella is not becoming a double-double machine. In fact, his scoring, he played less than 23 minutes the last couple nights. He only had five points last night, which I don't really count last night because I got blown out and all the subs went in, but, you know, this is something that can be fixed, but I'm not going to take the six games of this season with a three and three start

with all the points are scoring and all of a sudden say, oh, my God, James is dribbling too much, nobody else is getting their looks. The Rockets will get you your looks, but you have to knock them down, and that just hasn't happened. My buddy, Brad and Miami at 242. Hi, Brad. Bradley. Oh, Bradley hung up, but we're going to go to him. That's too bad.

K on 790. What do you got, K? Hey. Hey, what's going on? Hi. I kind of, can you hear me? Yeah. Okay, yeah, I kind of understand what the previous caller was talking about, and it's not so much

that getting the shots in quantity, it's more so in rhythm. And I think that's what he was trying to get. And sometimes, yeah, you get the shots playing with James and Russ, but it's about the time and when that pass comes. But my thing, what I wanted to talk about more so was on the defensive end, because if you look at the three teams that the Rockets have played, the Wizards, the Nets, and this was the game last night against Miami, these are three teams who outside of maybe Pauly Irvin,

just there's no real dominant guy that they had to worry about. They're not bringing it defensively. That's right. And it's going to like we can just outscore everybody, but that's not going to work anymore. You have to give, that's no effort on the defensive end, and no-name guys are just lighting the rockets up until they decide, we're going to just take some pride in defense and start locking guys up.

I know they lost Biddick, and so I don't know what's going on with the defense. They're not going to win just trying to outscore everybody. Even when the shooting percentages go up, they've got to get stops, and that's all I have to say. Thank you, Kay. Yeah, Ross, to me, it's, and with Case Point, it's all of the last. defense right now. It is. I can go through slums. We can live from them because you can still score. I mean, the Rockets are still scoring despite the fact that three of their players are shooting under 30 percent from three. But when you are defensively just not bringing the

intensity and not communicating, I mean, if Duncan Robinson Ross is knocking home three-pointers left and right, it was going to be a long night. And it was. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790 where Rockets and Astros play. Texans talk. It's time to play America's fastest growing sports game show. We simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Today's edition of Believe it or Not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Print out the gift of relaxation in Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today, I believe, is all things about the Cowboys and the Giants, although I've not received the questions just yet. Having Wi-Fi issues should be a second. All right, well, I'll read your statement about one of those two teams. The statement's completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this.

Believe it. In the same it's erroneous full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Not to believe it or not. So I don't thinks about the Cowboys and or the Giants. Would you a prize? Ross, what is the prize? I got that fat for you, Matt. All right.

Today we've got pairs of tickets to see Joe Rogan on November 16th at Toyota Center. Tickets and information available at livenation.com. Favorite Joe Rogan joke? The one about how kids today have it easy? Perfect. Let's play. Believe it or not. 713-212-5-790.

Let's go to Roger. Roger on 790. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Roger, good luck. The Cowboys and Giants first played each other in 1968 at Yankee Stadium. The game ended in a 31-31 tie. Believe it or not?

Not. Believe it. Oh, that sounded very, very Wikipedia very early on. Thank you for playing, my friend. 7-1-3-2-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Let's go to Daniel on 790. Daniel, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Don't do it. The Cowboys lead the all-time series over the Giants. 67, 46, and 2. Believe it or not? Not. Believe it. Believe it. You can't get a second guess, my friend, but thank you anyway.

Nice try. I love the sound effect. Kevin on 790. Kevin, you're ready to play Believe it or not? Kevin? Yes. The Cowboys and Giants have only... I'm here, Kevin.

The Cowboys and Giants have only meant once in the... Idiot. 832, 4, 7. I'll stop reading his number. Let's play. Stephen on 7-Hun. You're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

The Cowboys and Giants have met only once in the playoffs. The Giants won the game in 2007. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. The largest margin of victory in the series is 37 points. The Cowboys defeated the Giants, 43 to 6,

game played in 1993. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, it's actually 45. Ross, very minutiae today. Very minutiae on that one. Let's go to Billy on 790. Billy, you're ready to play believe it or not? Believe it. Two different head coaches have coached both the Cowboys and the Giants, Bill Parcel and Chang Galey. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, Chang Galey never coached the Cowboys or the Giants. Okay. Yeah.

Thanks for playing, though. 713, 212-5-7-90. Let's go to Rob on 7-90. Rob, you ready to play, believe it or not? Let's get into it. All right. The latest in the season, the two teams have ever met while being undefeated, was in week 8 in 2012.

The 7-0 Cowboys knocked off the 6-0 Giants. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, sorry. Ross, this isn't your best work. What are you talking about? What was the great topic you want to meet to do, Allen's? Or famous white wedding dances, songs?

We already laid all those out. I think you did just fine, Ross. Thanks, Nick. Travis, you're on 7.90. You're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. The Cowboys and Giants played on Monday night football in 1971 in the Cotton Bowl. Believe it or not.

Believe it. There you go. Congratulations. And that... Never mind. I lost your failure. Yeah, that sucked. You get one prize away. All right, reminder about Woodhouse Day Spas. Gift-giving ideas sometimes can be difficult. Giving gifts of relaxation is very, very simple.

HoustonWoodhouspaws.com is the website. Peruse it. Find out what's good for your lady, your mom, your aunt, your sister, your wife, girlfriend, fiance, whatever. And then buy her that gift right online at HoustonWothospas.com. locations vintage for the north siders sugarland for the south siders i've been multiple times ross and i are going to go it some day for a purely heterosexual massage we're going to drink the bourbon bubbler pedicure and enjoy all that wearing a robe and slippers because it's that invigorating and that

relaxing do it for yourself do a couple's massage do whatever you need to do to keep the fire burning with the house and you can do that today by giving her the gift of relaxation at those two locations Houston Woodhouse Spas.com to find the perfect package for your lady this holiday season. Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Darrell Morey, in one hour with the A-Team, I'll join you back in Houston tomorrow with my buddy Ross and Nick, as we'll have a little reunion after being gone on this road trip. Rockets and Grizzlies tonight, our coverage here on 790 starts at 6. Tip is at 7.

I'll talk to you from the FedEx form then. A team is next. This is Sports Talk 790.