The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 11-14-19

Episode Date: November 14, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 11/14/19The Astros Investigation Is Going To Get Worse (0:00)Ross' Rotten 5 (45:55)Coach Dana Holgorsen on U of H vs Memphis (57:42)Dr. Roto (1:16:01)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12. H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 alongside Ross. And Nick, I'm Matt.

And I know the weather's terrible today, but I have this is the best I have felt in 10 days. Well, that's good, Matt. That means you're going to be carrying the show with tons of energy, spitting hot fire takes, and taking great calls. Well, on second thought, I don't feel so well. Ross, can you finish the show today? Yeah, what do you need? We have a very busy program for you today. Huge, big program. That will include a visit with our good friend Dana Holgerson. That will include Dr. Roto. We'll include the Rotten Five, and it will include hopefully you guys chiming in on a variety of issues at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90.

If you want to reach out via Twitter, you can do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV and at Pro Nick Lowe. Rockets, what a weird, interesting, and kind of satisfying late November victory. We don't really get into a real deep conversation about the future of the Rockets until frankly Christmas, maybe the first of the year, maybe even come playoff time for some. But I just thought it was interesting. Fun basketball game last night. Austin Rivers does not carry the river's name at all when he goes against his father.

When he was asking to get his dad teed up and he did twice, that was pretty much television gold, my friend. And then after that, as he's headed towards the tunnel, he's throwing up the call me signal, I'll call you after the game hand signal. That was just priceless. And apparently he says things. Thanksgiving is going to be a little awkward around the river. Yeah, he tweeted that.

He got it's funny. Retweet on that. Yeah, that was awesome. So if you guys want to get in some rockets conversation, we can do that because today, Rossi, we are gift givers on the show. We are? Four pair of tickets. Not one, not two, not three, but four pair of tickets.

Rockets and Pacers tomorrow and I inside Totis and we are going to give them away today. If you don't win today, I got even better news. You come and see us tomorrow at the billiard factory on the champions location. I'm bringing five pair of tickets with me tomorrow for the game. Okay, so yeah, we got to lay out everything that's going on in the Billiard Factor because it's a lot. We will throw out the course program for sure. But yeah, come out and see us tomorrow. First of all, free lunch, Papa John's dropping pizza off.

So you always appreciate that. In matter of fact, I'll take care of drinks. What? I mean, I can't like buy alcohol, but I'll go get cokes and stuff for us. Oh, okay. All right. So we get free pizza tomorrow plus lots of prizes, and we're going to be out there in the North Area Town. So if you are a north sider, if you will, and want to check us out in the Champions,

location will be there tomorrow and they're giving away lots of prizes including five pairs of rocket tickets for it's the first flashback Friday tomorrow what does that mean there's like vanilla ice going to come out and do half time or no but they're putting the real ketchup and mustard on really not the quasi ones I might have to go all right uh so we will give away four pair of tickets for rockets and pacer sometime today between now and three o'clock we're going to do it sporadically okay but it'll be a good call. I think you should pay attention to the Rotten 5 today. Hint hint, hint, wink, wink. That's coming up. All right. So Rockets' conversation should certainly be in play. Rossi, I am, can I preface something? Yes.

I as a, and I feel like every time I have to talk about this particular topic. Astro buddy, go ahead. Yeah, it's Astro Buddy. I was an Astro Buddy. When I first moved to Houston in August of 1979, I had to gravitate to something. And I did. And I gravitated to the Astros in those rainbow uniforms. And then in 1980, I gravitated towards Nolan Ryan becoming a Houston Astro. And I gravitated into going to the playoffs in 80 and 81. And all throughout my life, now as a 47-year-old grown-ass man with three children,

I still gravitated the Astros. The Astros and Rockets are my teams, period, end of story. That being said. That being said, the Astros are in terms. trouble people. Major League Baseball's investigation is going to now include AJ Hinch, former Astro now current New York Metropolitan's manager Carlos Beltrane, and former Astros now manager of the Boston Red Sox Alex Cora. Rossi, I don't think Major League Baseball is going to mess around with this. I don't think Major League Baseball is

going to put a slap on the hand in the organization. I don't think this is just going to be just a fine. I think if Major League Baseball does a thorough investigation of this and finds more and more stuff from more and more ex-players who are willing to

throw the organization on the bus and show them when the skeletons are, this is going to be very, very ugly for Houston Astro fans. And I'm not trying to be doom and gloom. I'm just trying to be reels with you. That's R-E-A-L-Z.

Reels. Okay, Matt. This is going to get uglier. You're going to ask these guys to speak under oath. They are not going to be able to shift the blame to others. There are too many people with too many stories to tell. And more importantly, Ross, too many loose lips that are going to put the Astros in a very bad position. I think their suspensions are coming.

I think fines are coming. I think draft pick elimination is coming. So the narrative of everybody else does it, this is no big deal, may in fact be true in some regards, Ross. But in this particular case, I think they're the Astros and I think Major League Baseball is going to find a team and they're going to say, you think about doing this ever again, get ready for a serious punishment. Case in point, look what we're about to do to the Houston Astros. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's, I mean, it's. looks like they're going to make an example of them.

And we can argue, I think I'll keep going back to your great analogy from yesterday, Matt, the NCAA analogy. Maybe other teams are doing this. Maybe everybody's doing this. Maybe every single team is doing this. That doesn't matter. What matters is the one that got caught. And that's the Houston Astros.

And when you catch somebody and when NCAA gets a hold of Kentucky or North Carolina or Kansas or whoever, they make an example of them to deter other people from doing it. So that's what's going to happen to the Astros. They're going to be made an example. of. I don't want them to be made an example of, but this is going on, I believe, three years. I think they're going to look at 2017. They're going to look at 2018. They're going to look at this year. I don't believe Major League Baseball is going to leave anything up for conjecture. They're going to have video of guys on the Internet, and the thing that's going to get them more than else, Ross, is they're

going to have people that were within the organization past that are going to say, here's what they did. my wife asked me today, well, how can they go back to stuff to 2017? They don't have to. They'll have five or six people, Ross, the stories will match.

And when the stories match, the Astros are cooked. That's what it's looking like. And, I mean, you just have to grin and bear it. You just have to take it on the chin if you're the Astros.

Because this is so widespread. There's really no denying this. And luckily, they haven't come out and denied it like they did with the other story with the Tobman thing. They said, hey,

we can't say anything right now. I expect them to issue an apology and say, hey, we're going to take whatever punishment is meted out by the MLB and all that type of stuff because this is just looking like it's going to continue to get worse and worse and worse. And Brandon Tomlin's going to speak too, by the way. And his testimony will be damning as well. So again, I'm not trying to be overly dramatic radio host.

I'm just telling you today's new event developments are that they're going to go after people from 2017. Cora, Beltron, Hinch. They're not just going to say, oh, well, everybody else is doing it. Let's move on. Let's give them a fine, a slap on the wrist. Yeah, so looking back in the 2017 Apple Watch Gate with the Red Sox, the Red Sox. The only thing that I could find that happened to them was an undisclosed fine. Correct. Rules have changed since then. Going to that, it happened to Apple Watch guy.

That's all they should get. While it may in theory be accurate, Major League Baseball said in 2018, we're going to keep a stiffer watch on this. Not little like Apple Watch. I mean a stiffer overall watch on this. Right. Y'all got to, I mean, this is just, this is, this hurts me.

This absolutely hits me in the groin in the midsection, in the throat, wherever you want to hit me. It's hitting me. Because my beloved Astros team, the team that I've watched and covered and followed and rooted for is about to get a roasting. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Four pairs of tickets for the Rockets and the Indiana Pacers will start sprinkling those in here

in the next half hour or so. Matt Ross and Nick with you on a Thursday, 7132125790. 713-1-2-5-790. Tomorrow we mentioned this at Flashback Friday. Vernon Maxwell is going to make an appearance on the show to Mark. at 1 o'clock. Very excited about that. We'll have different flashback rockets over the course of the whole season when they play the flashback Fridays.

Oh, wonderful. Yeah. So it'll be Clyde. Akeem will come on. Maybe a little Mario Ellie. Ryan Bowen. No, I don't believe Ryan. Maurice Taylor.

I mean, Mo could. Let's see. Antoine Big Dog Car. He's more of a jazz man to me. Vin Baker. What was your favorite? Rocket game. Favorite Vin Baker is a rocket moment.

I think he played like five games. Well, that's right. That's right in your early wheelhouse as a rocket fan. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Got several emails and several meeting like three. Hey, have the Rock, can the Astros lose their World Series over this?

The answer I believe to that is no. The only way I think you would be stripped of a championship is if you, if the Astros went to the Dodgers and said, hey, we need you to help us when the World Series. That's how you throw a World Series. Like if it was a routing out like 1919 Black Sox situation. Correct. Correct. This isn't that. What I do believe is going to happen. If everything that is being reported is accurate, and there may not be everything that's accurate, we may not know how much it's been done, how long it was done, and how many people knew about it. But if everything that is being at least

portrayed saying that there is quite a bit of people within the Astros organization at the time that knew about this and adhered to this and used it. And there's enough corroboration from others. Good job. There's going to be suspensions and fines. I can't guess what the suspension levels are going to be. I can't tell you who's going to be suspended. But I would think it would include people on the field and in the front office.

Okay. And this suck. I mean, it just personal, forgetting about the microphone that I've got here, This is a fan sucks. Yeah, you still got the championship. You still did. It's like when an NCAA program gets sanctions put against him and, you know, well, those 33 victories from that year are gone from college basketball.

You really didn't win the national championship. Or you didn't win those 11 games and won the NCAA title. Yeah, you did. Right. I mean, like Reggie Bush's Heisman got taken up, right? And some of the wins were vacant. for that 2005 season for the USC Trojans. Like Penn State, when Paterno had his victories taken away.

Yeah, those are bad. Does Penn State fan think about those victories being turned away? Penn State fan is still in the tank for Joe Paterno, I think. Yeah. Well, here's the difference is that, yeah, you go, well, you can't take my world serious from me, which they can't. But there's going to be, there are live human beings that are still a part of the organization that these, that Major League Baseball can now get to. If they believe that A.J. had a huge role in this or knew about it, they're going to suspend him.

There's no way he didn't know about it. Yeah, I mean, you're right. How was there any possible way that multiple players and members within the organization were setting up a video camera? You don't think he had to turned around once with loud trash bang, last trash can bang? Can I be naive? Trash can banging? Yeah, go ahead. I would say sure, there's a possibility.

No, there's no possibility. There's no way. You're right. That's what sucks. Because I am a, I don't know who number one. one and two is, but I'm a top three, AJ Hinch fan in the city of Houston. I just, I think he's fantastic. He's great with me on the radio. He's great with you guys.

I think he peels a curtain back as much as he can. Gives his insight. He's amazing. And I hate this for him. I hate this for the organization. I hate this for y'all. Because we're kind of going through our own little issues here trying to deal with the game seven loss. By the way, congratulations. Justin Verlander won 17 to 13 for the Sion Award. Congratulations. How about that? Two people

could have given us a split Sa-Young. Isn't that strange? Yeah, two people would change their votes. Yeah. Well, again, small sample size, you would have, the chances I'm going to a 50-50 split at Saiong was actually, frankly, close than maybe people thought it was going to be. Two people change your mind. It's a 15-15 vote. And I believe it was the same margin Verlander lost to Blake Snell last year. Wasn't 17-13?

Yeah, again, 30 people vote on these things. So 17 happened, the majority for this time around going to JV's side of thing. 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Rick and Dickinson in the Matt Thomas show. Rick, good afternoon. Hey, buddy. Hi. The last time I saw you was actually at Toyota Center

when I was doing security for the rockets down there in the tunnel. And what I told the gentleman on the phone, I worked for the Astros from 2015 to 2017, doing security. I can tell you, I checked. We had to check under seats, everything out in center field. aside from the national hard camera that you see out there, we never saw any camera equipment, anything out of the ordinary.

Yeah. Never saw anybody. I patrolled that during games at times. Never saw anybody with any kind of special filming equipment or anything like that. So if that makes you feel better, you know, like I said, I hope it does. I hope nothing comes to this because there are a lot of good people. people in this organization.

And, you know, I just, I don't know, I just can't see it. The only thing that worries me are that, you know, anytime that you walk on the property at any of these sports venues, you're on camera unless you're in the restroom. So if there is a camera out in center field on the concourse or something, they could have picked it up. But like you said, every team has these cameras, Matt, everywhere in the stadium. You know, we have to.

And you can zero in on a button. on somebody's shirt with those cameras. So, you know, they're high-powered, but, you know, I'm with you. I'm hoping, you know, Brent Strong's a personal friend of mine for his sake, for just everybody's sake that are good people there, I hope it's not true. I want to think that we won that on our skill and ability and, you know, baseball knowledge. But I don't know. Like you said, there are a lot of people that are talking, you know,

that sometimes they're disgruntled employees. and I can tell you personally after going through the Vince McMahon steroid trial, there are a lot of people that have access to grind that, you know, will come and say this or that, and current employees will say this and that. But in the end, I hope they don't find anything. That's what I hope. Yeah, me too. I'll hang up in a list of my appreciation.

Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate it. I hope they, here's the problem. I don't see where the misunderstandings come into play. I don't see, because let me tell you something, Major League Baseball, not going to interview Mike fires and say that's it. You know what I'm saying? Multiple sources will be talked about.

This will be vetted. When the Major League Baseball comes down on the Astros, they will have not necessarily smoking gun, but a preponderance of evidence if you want to call it that way. Yeah, there's no deadline on this. There isn't. I guess in theory next year. I think Dallas Caichol's getting a phone call?

Possibly. I mean... Let me ask you this. do you, if you're good, if you vet it out properly, you don't ask just X Astros employees. You go to Jose Al-Tubei, right? Are you current players and see what they have to say? Correct. Would you right?

Wouldn't that be the fair thing to do? I would imagine they wouldn't be forced to speak, but I don't know that Jose Al-Tuvae would say anything. But, yeah, current players and current, I mean, Jeff Luno is going to be interviewed. A.J. Hinch is going to be interviewed. Carlos Bell, Tron. We know that. Yeah. Alex Corr is going to be interviewed.

Yep, yep, yep, yep. By the way, those two gentlemen are major league managers, giving you the notion of, yeah, it's probably happening elsewhere. But Major League Baseball is growing this huge, huge file on our beloved baseball team. And the file, frankly, isn't there on the Cardinals? Could be. Could be on the Reds, could be on the Rays, could be on the Mariners. this just happens to be a team that's won three straight 100 victory seasons,

has been in two World Series, one of them, three division. I mean, I don't need to give you the resume. They have become one of the premier, if not the premier team in baseball. And others are saying, well, there's a reason for that, which is sucks because you know what, Ross, Jose Altoouet is one of the greatest second, he's the greatest astro of all time. And he doesn't need to be drugged down with this. George Springer is one of the best leadoff guys that meant the best. lead off guy in the sport today.

Justin Verlinter is a six-sum-b. Garrett Cole was amazing. Alex Breggman is top two in the MVP race this year. We're going to forget all that. Do you understand that? Do you understand that everything that these gentlemen have accomplished is going to be overshadowed by a fresh coat of paint that said there was a centerfield camera spying on the teams?

I get that, but they're not victims here. They were complicit. they were part of this. We don't know. We don't know. Yeah, we ever do. If this is happening while they were there and they didn't do anything about it, tell them to stop, then they were complicit.

Well, what if I said, they said that they didn't want to partake in it? They still could have, they could have done something more, I think. You could have said, don't do this or, or, I mean, Jose Altuve is the leader of that team. He could say, hey, Evan Gaddis, says clearly he was the one in the fact of Farquhar, I bet. Evan Gaddis or Carlos Beltran or whoever, don't do this because you're going to get caught and you're going to make us all look bad. They could have said that. And maybe not.

I don't know. But they kept their mouth shut while this was all going on, and we don't know who participated in what. God, I hope there's a lot of negativity out there in that group. I really do. I don't if I believe that, but I'm hoping for it. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90.

Are you ready? Your teams. I love the Astro. The Rock is Take-Coo. Your town. I got all my buddies with me. You're Houston Sports Talk, 790. I don't mean to get doomy and gloomy on the Astros,

especially the weather. Today's weather sucks, by the way. We do have a Texans game that we would like to certainly talk to you about. We'll do a lot of that tomorrow when we go over to Billiard Factory, and we'll be in the Champions location. Ross and I will be there from noon until three. Lots of goodies, including free lunch from Papa Jones Pizza. So if you come by, play some cards with us.

Yeah, well, that's if I leave. y'all any pizza. Have you ever eaten a whole pizza by yourself? Yeah. Small, medium, or large? I've got to look. Have you crushed a large by yourself? I have crushed a large by myself in my day.

I think I've done a small and a medium. I don't think I've ever done a large. In college? Get me a, get me a $5 hot and ready and a bottle of Frank's red hot sauce, and I'd go to work. And the crazy bread, too? No, I couldn't handle crazy bread as well. That's true.

All right. So thank you to Papa Johns to dropping off lunch tomorrow. we'll be at the Champions location, and we'll have tickets for the Rockets and Pacers tomorrow. We have Rockets, Pacers, tickets right now we want to give away. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2. No, wrong number. Wrong number. Let me get the contest line.

Scratch that. 7-13-212-33-99. 7-1-2-3-3-99. Here is the question for this go-round. Clinkapella did something last night. for the third consecutive game. Hmm. What did he do?

Miss a free throw? That's not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something special. What did he do that was special for the third straight time? Lay down the rotation? 713-213-2-32-33-99. Don't listen to Ross. He's just rude.

7-13-2-3-99. The first person knows the answer the question is going to win the tickets for the rockets and the Pacers on Flashback Friday. Ross, they're wearing the ketchup and mustard. Not like the quasi-old judgment. The legit ones. Well, legit with a rocket sponsorship on it.

Well, that's okay. It is different. Have you been bothered by the sponsorship? No, it bothered me. It just taints it a little bit. It makes it a little bit impure in my mind. By the way, there is a team. And it might be the clippers.

It is the clipper. What are you talking about? Their sponsor is Bumble. Bumble. That's exactly what it was. How weird is that? What do you mean? You mean a hookup service?

It's not a hookup service, Matt. What is it? It's a dating app. Uh-huh. That usually means what? That means you could find your next misses on the app. I thought Bumble was, hey, you look hot. Yeah, I'm hot. Are you hot?

Yeah, let's have sex. Yeah, it's completely pretentious and shallow. But yeah, you can meet people off of Bumble. People get married off of Bumble. Let me Google. I'll author the question out of the audience. If you've had a relationship any more than, say, 45 days with Bumble, let me know. Hmm, I haven't.

From what the kids tell me. Bumble's success story, Jen and Matt's surprise wedding. Surprise wedding. What do you mean? What do you mean? Why she's pregnant? I mean she got pregnant. It was a surprise of mom and dad when she said, we're getting married.

Why? We hooked up last week behind the liquor store. And I'm pregnant. Now we're getting married. Yeah, I think Bumble is more about just hookups. Bumble's about finding your next love, Matt. Is that their corporate logo? I don't know.

All right. 713, 212, 5, 7.90. Jaime, by the way, got our tickets for the rocket to go around. We still have three more pairs of giveaway between now and 3 o'clock this afternoon. What Clint Capella has done 20 rebounds in three consecutive games. Wow. It will not be a fourth because it sounds like he's not going to play tomorrow night for Indiana. Yeah, he is concussed.

I also saw that Daniel House is doubtful. Okay, so let's go through this. Doubtful House, no Eric Gordon, no Clinton. Kapella. You know who's going to play the five, I'm guessing? Tyson Chandler? PJ Tucker? I was thinking maybe a little Ryan Anderson.

Can I say Hardinstein back up here? Well, he is. He and Gary Clark are back. Okay. Rino's only thing I can play like one little mini stretch so far this year. Yeah, that's fine. Keeping them safe in the back of the toolbox to surprise everybody, the secret weapon during the playoffs. Well, you got to keep him playoff ready. Playoff Rhino can help you out.

First 45 games, Ryan hasn't help much. Speaking of missing rotations. Hey, he's trying. Yeah, that's fine. Trying Ryan Anderson. We appreciate that. Now, here's the big conundrum.

What did the Rockets do? You know, they don't want to like, they don't like playing Russ and back-to-back. He'll have a back-to-back Friday, Saturday. Can you afford to sit him in one of the two games? And, oh, by the way, yesterday, I mean, not poor James. James makes a gazillion dollars.

He's fine. Russell Westbrook had 4,000. quarter the game last night. Four of them. That's great. The best part of it last night was that I don't know how much if Dan Tony had forgotten about it in the second quarter, but I think he was, you know, I was like, we need Russ, need Russ. And all the coach is like, no, you can't have him. He's like, I need Russ. Just a couple minutes here. No, no, you can. There's no way Russell Westbrook would have been a lot on the court trying to get 5,000 one half. It almost got to it.

He got four. I never, I don't know if I've ever seen. four in one quarter. It's pretty impressive. Well, I've seen four and one quarter with like, you know, big brooding centers that have no skills. Yeah. Not one of the most elite players in the history of the NBA. I don't even could... That's got to be even

a high watermark for Russ to get four personal files in one quarter. What an odd night for NBA basketball. Rockets couldn't miss in the first quarter, couldn't make it in the second. Did you think... I thought Kauai looked kind of disinterested out being out there. He always looks disinterested, though. But boy, when he wants to turn it on, he's fantastic. It was scary to me.

And again, I applaud the Rockets for one of the game yesterday. But that Clipper team can be scary good when Paul George comes back. Paul George gets back. And then, yeah, you have Lou Williams and Montrez coming off the bench and what they have. I mean, they're going to be good. They're going to be the best team in the NBA, I think. Until the Rockets beat him in the postseason. Okay.

That's class half. full right there. That's glass like glass in some kind of fantasy land. It's okay. I can drink it. I'll drink it.

Yeah, of course. That's your job. It's my job and I love it. I would favor the Clippers in a set of game series. Why would I want to say, yeah, all right, so the Rockets are going to play this long-ass season losing the Clippers by.

No, that's not fun. That's not why we watch sports. Right. Only bitter people do that. You can have hope and I'll be realistic. Okay. Call me. That's the name of our new show.

It's called Hope and Realistic. We'll be available on Netflix, starting next year for a full 12 episode. Wonderful. More Matt Thomas. Now on Sports Talk 790. Oh, no, it's not. No, it's still there.

I still love baseball. Still love the asterisk. Don't, don't, don't put this song on thinking I'm going to end my affair for America's pastime. I'm not feeling great. Matt, you can have rocky parts of a relationship. And right now there's a rocky part of the. Rocky, we're in a rough patch. So are we seeing counseling?

We're not communicating. We're getting upset with each other. Are we in therapy? Nobody's expressing their feelings. Oh, I think there's expressed feelings. Mike Fires express his feelings. Talking behind each other's backs. Ken Giles.

Let's run the list again. Ken Giles, yes or no? Probably. And look, can we stop going at Mike Fires? Mike Fires, all he did was tell the truth. Mike Fires got asked a question, and he answered the question. He could have said no comment. He could have said no comment, but he didn't.

He told the truth. Like, that's the thing. This whole, this whole non-snitching culture and all that. You know who it is to protect? It's to protect people who are committing crimes. So, I mean, I don't get the vitriol for Mike Fires who's just asking, answering questions. Ross. Unless Mike Fires went up and said, hey, hey, hey, Ken Rosenthal.

Pts, come here. I got a little something for you. Hey, Evan Drelich. Yeah. Hey, Evan. Yeah, if he's texting Evan Drellich and saying, hey, man, why don't you call, want you FaceTime me, I guess what's stuff to talk to you about? then I kind of get it and he's grudge holding

which is probably grudge holding as is but all he did was get asked I imagine and then and then tell the truth he said the truth I think telling the truth it doesn't pay off get a lie a little bit every now and then yeah

to protect the innocent to protect my franchise in this in public embarrassment well they're not innocent in this case sucks this weather is reminiscent of what we're about to go through the next handful of months.

I've got buddies from all over the country. People here in town, text me, how bad is this going to get? Are people going to lose their jobs over this? It depends on how high up we're going. Because if Jim Crane, the owner of the team, didn't know about this and his underlings were doing all this without him knowing about it, then if I'm the boss, I fire him, correct? I fire them.

for embarrassing me? Or do you not? I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how we are right now in the in-between period. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know how to arbiters. Yeah. We don't know how to arbitrate.

We're not in the room. We don't know who's saying what. Who's fessing up? How much honesty there is being discussed in these phone and or personal visits? How much is it going to matter that, quote, everyone is doing it? How much is it going to matter? that it probably doesn't even help that much. Well, the evidence says it doesn't help that much.

No. But here's the thing. If that is the case, the Major League Baseball can go to the asterisk and say, well, if it didn't help you, then why were you doing it for? That's the thing.

Yeah. It's like, well, I mean, it'd be like cheating in college. You know, somebody to write your papers. You're still getting Cs. Well, then, you know.

Get your money back. Yeah. Or get your Keystone life back. Can kids cheating in college? I mean, I have a sophomore. I kind of need to know these things. You can have somebody write your papers for you. Yeah.

They still do that. But you can't, I mean, you can't go on the internet and say, hey, I need a paper about it could buy grain. Yeah, if it's an original. Now, you can't play. It's much more difficult to plagiarize these days because they can put the, I imagine they make you do it on a Google Doc or something like that. And you can just put this into a machine or a website.

I can't remember what it's called. And then it will tell you if this is plagiarized. It does? There's a service like that? Yeah. Thank God I'm not going to school in 20s at 19 Same It's okay the students have access to it too

Oh there you go Oh so You're going to test your paper first Make sure you're rearranging enough So are we changing around the paragraphs Are we changing around the words? You gotta be creative Okay

Cameron if you're listening to me right now First of all you should be in class That listen to me What if he's off right now There's no chance to listen to my show Zero He's just excited about Texas basketball. Oh, really? Are they going to be good again?

I think so. I got one of the top 20 recruits in the country yesterday. Good for them. I thought I followed high school recruiting, but then, you know... Yeah, so please don't cheat at school. You're going on being cheating in life. I'm a class example of that. Look where I could have gone Ross if I'd have been honest throughout my

college days. What do you mean? You weren't honest? Did you used to plagiarize? No, I never plagiarize. I just gave away sports tickets to help. Oh, my God. I've told you that story. Yeah, I've heard that before. You used to bribe your professors with tickets to the game.

Not bribe the professors, just one. Oh, man. And it worked. Terrible. And it worked. 713, 212-790. Brian and downtown on the Matt Thomas show. Hi, Brian.

Hey, what's going on, M.G? Hi. You know, I don't know what you guys think, but I really believe that this could be the biggest game in Houston, Texan history. I'm hoping and praying Willful is going to be back. But I really think they need to say. stuff out and make a statement this weekend. And I'm really looking forward to this game because they've got a feeling that

they're, that with or without JJ, with or without whatever, that they really, I think the shot is going to show up for real. And I think this is going to be one hell of a game. And I think the Texans are going to come out on a winning side. And I really think they need to. I really think that this is a very important game. What do you think about that, man? What are the all important, Brian?

Yeah, I'm all in on this one, man. So you're only like halfway in on the games against like the Titans and the Bucks, but you're all in on this one? No, I'm all in on this one. I mean, I really think the game is extremely important. I think they need to make a statement. I mean, this team beat the Patriots. We've never been able to do that.

I mean, I think we may have done it once. I mean, I really think that they need to step out and show up this Sunday for real. And, you know, I know you're with me, Matt. Well, I mean, you're giving me a bunch of generalities here, to be honest, Brian. I mean, if they step out and prove a statement and win a game against Baltimore, but yet they blank the bet against the Buccaneers, are you going to feeling differently about this Ravens game if they win that? Oh, man. Yeah, I feel awful.

I'm following you bad. I'm with you, but I just think, but you know, I'm just thinking that, man, they really need to show up. Well, of course they do, Brian. Thank you. Wow. Boy, you're being harsh back there. Ouch. I think we all had enough for that one.

Yeah. I was watching a Time Life infomercial. Yeah. And they had this on there. By the way, it was like the Midnight Special or something like that. People will send me tweets. Like, I'm at Home Depot and I hear Lou Rawls in the background. I think of you.

I'm like, well, thank you. Speaking of Time Live, there's a new Time Live video out there that I almost bought over the weekend. You know, I was pretty sick. I was watching a lot of strange TV. Yeah, right. The Life and Times of Robin Williams appearances on stand-up on his HBO comedy specials, Mark and Mindy, live shows when he was traveling with USA.

I could watch an hour DVD of Robin Williams. Problem is if I'd bought it, I'd watch it, and I wouldn't want to watch it over and over again. Once you see him running around, what do you do at that point? Yeah, this one I was watching was some kind of, it was kind of some kind of funk TV show DVDs. There was like 13 of them. It was like $130.

Yeah, nobody's buying DVDs anymore. Here's the thing about the statement, to Brian's point. Ross, the statement the Texans need to make to me is going to the AFC championship game. That's a statement to me. How would you feel, though, if the Texans sweep three games, how are you feeling on your Texans are never going to the Super Bowl with Bill O'Brien prediction?

I'm firmly convinced of that still. Even if they win these next three games? Yeah, if they win the next three doesn't mean they're going to the Super Bowl. It'll look good, though. It'll look great. So you'll be quaking in your boots a little bit. No. Okay.

Here's what happens. If the Texans go to the Super Bowl, then I will come on this radio show and say, hey, I gave you the hottest of hottest takes of all time, and it didn't work. Yeah. And here I am to beat me,

come beat me up on that. Come on traveling Texan. Come after me. Come on Texans, Karen. I kind of want them to make it now. Just for that? Yes. You want me to feel bad?

I didn't say that. Yeah, you did. You certainly implied it. Be fun. No, the Texans had the talent to go to the Super Bowl in some areas. Deshawn Watson is the area. Coaching is not one of them. Deshawn Watson is the area they have the talent.

The Texans might go to the Super Bowl someday. It just won't be on Bill O'Brien's watch. Okay. And remember, I will be here to eat the. a crow that you will that Texan fan will heap on me when that happens

AFC South Champions That's one thing BT Brian four years out of five It's happening How many AFC championship games in that run? Zero How many AFC division

With one this year? How many AFC divisional wins in that run? Zero. Yeah. How many embarrassing AFC wildcard game performances are there in that mix? Just one or two. It doesn't matter.

Is the Matt Thomas Show. 104 on Sports Talk 790. We've got Ross's Rotten 5 coming up in 15 minutes here now. We have Dana Holgerson at 130, and then Dr. Roto at 2 o'clock for a half hour of fantasy football conversation. Fantasy football is cruel Ross because if you're in the chase, you love the next half hour because you're going to just soak up all the information Roto gives you it too. But if you're like 2 and 9, you're like, I could give too. What if you're two and nine in one league, but you're in the playoff race in your other league?

That makes you're a phony because you need to be only in one league. Why? Why are you a phony if you're in one league? Multiple league guy sucks. Just like multiple bracket guy does. I'm in multiple leagues. Thank you, Nick. I'm in multiple leagues.

I'm getting my ass kicked in one and I'm top of the league in the other. See? Well, that just... It means you're going to be doing a whole lot of nothing. Multiple league guy is not a phony. Multiple league... Dr. Roto is in like 20 leagues. Is he a phony?

No, but it's just a profession. He is a full-time fantasy football guy, so he's going to do it. I think multiple, you ready for this? I think multiple fantasy football league, if you don't have, if you don't have, if you have two quarterbacks, you really don't have one. That's what your fantasy is. If you don't have to do. That's ridiculous.

It's not ridiculous. You're just so in the minority on this. I know I am. We should do an insta-pole on this. No, no, no. I'm in the minority on this. I don't have an instant poll on it. I know I'm in the minority.

At least you know you're wrong. I know I'm wrong. I know I'm wrong. But I will fall on my sword because I only can focus on one thing at a time. And that's one fantasy football league. That's one NCAA bracket, not 19 of them. Multiple leagues is fun. Well, I mean, and to be truthful, it's not, if you look, you've got buddies here at the office.

Do you have a league? You have buddies you grew up playing with. Yeah. If you have a league with your son's kids or whatever. Yeah, again, I'm actually just joshing. I don't think it's that big of a deal. I'm glad we got you to back off on your stance. Okay.

So you just said about 10 minutes ago, Texans go 3-0 during this stretch. That would put them at 9 and 3. That sounds good. With a stretch of four easy games coming up. With four very winnable games after that. Now, look, the Texans can go on long winning streets. We saw that last season. Did we not?

Open up the Euro and 3 and then won like 11 in a row, something like that. Now, the end game wasn't particularly strong. Hashtag January embarrassment. How about this? Remember last year, everybody was complaining, wow, the Texans and Colts get the early Saturday playoff game. No respect. Nobody believes they're sexy. Nobody believes that this is an intriguing matchup. It wasn't. And it wasn't. You really think that three wins in a row is going to ultimately change if you are not all in on the Texas. You think people are going to really flip. Rossi, they won 11 straight games last year, and we couldn't get people to flip. This would be a win on the road against the Ravens,

who I submit as a second best team in the AFC. This would be a win against the Colts, especially if they have Jacoby Brissette. That's a great win. A good solid win. I want to call it great. And then if you beat the Patriots, that's a great win.

That's the best. You would have defeated two of the best teams in the AFC. All three of the other three, if you throw in the Chiefs. And that was on the road. Well, this year's wins would be way more impressive than last year. You go look at that win streak. Last year, like the most impressive.

I mean, the, on that win streak, the most impressive they looked was against Brock Osweiler and the Dolphins on a Thursday night or something like that. Yeah, I will say this. If they can pull this latest string off and run more victories like this, with this coming up, this would be way more impressive than last year. And frankly, we probably should treat it differently if they are able to pull off three more wins.

Hell, I think two and one people should feel pretty excited about. They're going to go one in two, though. Oh, wait a minute. You just sold to the audience about us getting all fired up for a three and oh run. I didn't sell anything. I said, what if? I didn't say it's likely or it's going to happen. I'm not trying to sell you on Texans to the Super Bowl.

I'm not crazy. But you want me to eat the crow. That's what I need. I need it. I don't want you to eat the crow. I need you to eat the crow. Look, I make a lot of U of H season this year. How quite I've been on that?

Just because we've had bad officiating in six games this year. Tell me again how the Dana Holger's and hire is game-changing and he's one of the greatest coaches ever. It will next year. This year we're in hashtag transformation. Tanking for the number one pick next year. No, we're adjusting on the fly. Beset by injuries.

Lack of depth. Okay. But it'll all be fixed next season. 713-2125-7-9. I had a couple folks trying to get in. Nick was taking a nap so he can't. We didn't get to you. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9 if you'd like to join the conversation.

Rotten 5 coming up in about to 12 minutes from now. You know, selfishly, because the rockets just aren't going to resonate until we get later in the year. This is the Texas time. This is the time for us to actually go, okay, so you're saying there's a chance. I just think, frankly, again, Ross, too many people either were bit by the 11-year-year-old bug last year. Like, this is really an awesome team or not enough people did it last year and kind of said, well, there was a reason why we didn't buy all in because of how bad the performance was. Yeah, people weren't buying in.

I mean, I was trying to actually sell. I mean, that was at that time, me and myself and Michael Connor doing post game shows and were like, hey, people, you can get excited about this. These are, like, it doesn't matter if you beat the worst team in the league nine straight times. It's pretty good. And then, of course, they just fell flat on their face in the playoffs like everybody predicted. And here's the thing. We've talked about this before in all seriousness. Buffalo potential first round opponent, Oakland first round potential opponent.

Pittsburgh. Yeah, Mason Rudolph. These are people that we should not be scared of. The original round would be... Baltimore or New England, depending on where things seated. And by the way, the Texans beat the Ravens tomorrow on Sunday. They'll be the second best team in the AFC. Yeah.

That's what I said when they won at the Chiefs. Now, if you went six degrees separation, if Baltimore wins over New England and the Texans haven't played the Patriot yet for two more weeks, why wouldn't the Texans maybe even a bigger run, maybe even being better than potentially New England? That's when the seeing-eye test comes in the play. It gets a little bit dicey when you start playing the opponent.

Yeah. Common opponent game. No, that's why I think we've talked about this, that this is a stretch of three games to consider. If the Texans go one and two, and the only game they beat is Indianapolis, there's not going to be enough people that are going to flip and say, all right, this is a different Houston team.

What if they go in three? then Bill O'Brien will need to be fired according to those. Not me. Because Bill O'Brien's not being fired. Bill O'Brien carries way too much weight. Bill O'Brien has actually done a decent enough job as a general manager this year. He's not getting fired. Any talk of Bill O'Brien being fired is just you're wasting our time.

But if they go one and two with the only one being against Indianapolis, there's going to be, this is great. Yeah, you're fine. No, this is fine, as we used to say around these parts. This is fine. because what they're going to do is they're going to beat Tennessee at least once or twice. They're going to beat Denver. They're going to beat Tampa Bay. They're going to end the season in 10 and 6. And there's going to be just about the normal playoff buzz for a football team that couldn't beat the two best teams on their schedule.

So what you're saying is the Texans are going to Texan. Well, what they're going to do is they're going to go to a familiar pattern. Yeah. They're going to Texan. That we have seen for a very long period of time. They've gone bad. Hey, they draw flies. Ooh, it's Ross's rotten five. This don't smell quite right.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, Ross is here to tell you not who's so awesome. That's easy. Who sucks? Hi, Ross. Hey, Matt. How are things going with you? They're rotten. Yes, things are rotten, and they are rotten on the rotten five.

So let's go ahead and get this started off with the New York football giants who continue to pay for sins of years past, mainly believing that Eli Manning was a viable quarterback the last several years. Daniel Jones has been solid enough and even through four touchdowns in his last game, but the defense has been awful in giving up nearly 29 points per game. Add in that Sequin Barkley just had his worst game as a pro. He's been injured this season. Evan Ingram has been out as well, and the wide receivers haven't done much all season, and the New York Giants are the fifth worst team in the NFL. Yes. Yes, it's a whole. Huddlew.

Well, once again, expectations are so low for the Miami Dolphins that we get to congratulate them for being on this list. After it was looking like they'd be dead last for the entire season, they've now won two straight and are looking on the up and up. The Dolphins are on a wild, Fitzmagic carpet ride and on an actual winning streak, so congratulations to them. The Dolphins, you are only the fourth worst team in the entire NFL. Oh, no, it's bad.

It's real bad. And how about some more congratulations in order? How about the New York Jets? They won the Battle of New York against the Giants who also appeared on this list as they finally got their second win of the season. However, their offense is still dead last in the NFL. Levion Bell has yet to get it going. Sam Darnold has had issues as well.

Even though he was coming off a mononucleosis and saying they were going to win games, that has not been the case. The New York Jets are the third worst team in the NFL. They can't stop a nose, bleak. And let's move on to the Washington Redskins. Now 1 and 8 on the season with the only win coming against the lowly dolphins. There is some good news, however, as Duane Haskins has been named start for the remainder of the season, and running back, Darius Geis should be returning soon from injury as early as this week.

Two of the next three games are winnable against the Jets and the Bengals, but as of now, the Washington Redskins are the second worst team in the NFL. We have some bad umbris here, and we're going to get them out. I know, Donnie. I know. All right, the Cincinnati Bengals, they continue to be winless, and therefore they continue to be at the bottom of the Rotten 5. Turns out maybe Andy Dalton wasn't the problem as Ryan Finley stepped in and really didn't do much for the Bengals as they got destroyed, absolutely destroyed, and looked like just a shell of themselves as Lamar Jackson carved them up for 49 points. The Bengals, they are bad, they're winless, they're the absolute worst team in the NFL. I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

And that's your run five. Perfectly done. Thank you, man. Music match, sound bites, analysis. No other radio show the marketplace can give you the five worst teams. Frozen laptops. It's great. You did fine.

You'd fine. Let's go to the phone. So say hi to Kevin and Pearland at 120 on 790. Hi, Kevin. Kevin. Hi, Matt. Are we allowed to? Yes, I'm here.

Go ahead. Go ahead. What's up? Can you hear me? Okay, yeah. Are we allowed to ask about fantasy positions at this juncture? Well, I've already talked to Dr. Roto, but we can help you out the best we can. What do you want to know about? Okay, so I'm in an eight team league, so there's a lot of really good players on every team. I've got Deshaun Watson and Lamar Jackson. Yeah, eight, TD only.

And I've got, let's see, who I got the Pittsburgh defense and the New England defense. Who would you pick between the two quarterbacks and the two defenses? Well, fortunately, thank you for the phone call, Kevin. I've got Dr. Rodo number two here with us. Okay, so Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson? That's like Prime Rib or Chateaumbrillon. Right? I go Lamar. I would go Lamar. Especially if you get, do you get, is it more for a rushing touchdown? Is it more for rushing or passing touchdowns? Same thing. I said both six. Six either way. Six either way kind of brings it closer. I think

I would still go with Lamar Jackson because they're at home. Yeah. And defensively, Pittsburgh's home for, no, they're at Cleveland the night. Can the Brown score points on the road at home on a national TV game? It's between,

he's going between the Steelers and who else? New England. New England. Yep. Yeah, New England's like top three defense all year long. Thanks, Kevin. All right, yeah, don't overthink it.

And again, you can go either way with the shot. 18, when was I'll say you were in an 18 league? Never. I wouldn't even do that. The rosters are going to be too stacked. Yeah. I mean, this is where you become great general managers when you find people you've never heard of helping you out.

When you got Derek Carr as your quarterback, like me. Derek Carr is solid enough. Do you know how many quarterbacks I've used this year? 17. Not that many. I've used Anya Dalton once. Cam Newton. Okay.

Daniel Jones. Yes. Derek Carr. Uh-huh. Gardner Minshu. Gardner Minch. I've used five quarterbacks. Well, if you had just gotten one good one instead of like seven.

you know, mediocre ones. Oh, really? Thanks for that breakdown. Well, Patrick Mahomes was the first one off the board, and he missed a couple of weeks. Yeah. So you never know. As I was talking about, you'll hear this with Rodall. I don't think it's been a great year for quarterbacks, generally speaking.

That's true. It's compared to previous years. Russell Wilson's been pretty good. Okay. That's, you know, you always want to bring facts in the game here. Don't ruin my narrative. Jamal and Katie on 790. Hi, Jamal.

Hey, guys. How's going, y'all? Good. What's going on? I'm doing all right. I just wanted to just give you all my thoughts on the Texan game coming up this weekend. I wanted to get y'all rebuttal to it. So pretty much when it comes down to the Texans,

I've kind of been in much of apathy mode, most of the Bill O'Brien area, just not really think they're going to do anything when it comes to the playoffs. But for some odd reasons, this season, I feel different. I don't know why. I look at the roster. This is probably the worst roster he's had from when you combine offense and defensively. But I just, I don't know,

I think because of the moves made, they're shown that the franchise was kind of like hedging all their chips in on Deshaun Watson. So the next three games, I was looking at the next three games, I was telling myself that these next three games will tell me a lot. If they're going to be, you know,

same old Texans or to take them any seriously this year. Now, I said they'll have to go at least two and one or bitter. You know, if they can go on three, that's even good. But I'm looking at two and one. I think the one game that they have to win is obviously the coach game because it's divisional. They already got one on us already. And then I think the other important game out of the three would be the at-home game

versus the Patriots. And the reason why I think, you know, now it'll be great if they can go and beat Baltimore on Sunday. But I think the game against Baltimore on Sunday is kind of like the gravy on the steak, where if you get the other two, you may see Baltimore somewhere later on in line in the playoffs or something like that. And that'll be the game, you know, you will want to beat then. So I just wanted to get your guys' thoughts on that. Thanks. Thank you for the phone call. You know, actually, Ross and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to diagnose which ones are the ones that the absolute must have.

as I've said before, I don't know. I don't, the Texans Patriots just never gives me good vibe at all. I don't care what stadium it's in. I don't care. Primarily, it's been Foxy. I don't care if they play on Mars. I think they got a better chance of winning this week than they would the home game against New England.

I just do. Okay. So if that's the case, if I think they're going to go two and one, once I don't, I would the two wins they would get would be the ones that would be Sunday against Baltimore, the home game against Indianapolis. Okay. I think that's fair. I think the Patriots are vulnerable as well.

Although we saw, I mean, the running game, what has really been working for the Texans is the running game with Carlos Hyde. He's had the highest yards per carry that he's ever had in his career. Right. He's looking to get his first thousand yards season. And we saw that's basically what the Ravens, the blueprint was to beat down the Patriots because they have a great secondary with Stefan Gilmore as a lockdown quarterback.

You just run against them. You just run, run, run. And then you can have a, and you can have a, they have problems with mobile quarterbacks, which everybody does. And so that to me, I feel like it. And you add in the fact that it's at, home, that to me seems a little bit more

winnable than the Ravens game, but both of them are close, and both of them I bet we'll see about the same spread. Well, I mean, what do the Texans do really well on a defensive standpoint? When's the last time in a running back had a huge game against him? Yeah, I guess nothing's really coming to mind.

Nothing's coming to mind. So, stop the run, keep Jackson under control. They already know what it's like going to get to... They practice against a scrambling quarterback every day in practice. That's true. He's not as dynamic a runner as as Lamar is.

No. But I'm just saying that it's not like when they go to Baltimore they're going to be surprised by anything they see. I don't think Lamar Jackson is going to necessarily. I mean, the game playing for the Ravens has been pretty simple week in and week out.

It is he throws when he wants to, but it's more his legs than anything else. It's the constant third of him taking off, which scares teams. Well, he has two games of perfect passers. rating in a single season, which is only done by one other quarterback ever in the history of the NFL, and that's Ben Rothesberger. So he's done something that hasn't been done.

It's not just, you know. As you say that, though, what does everybody say about Lamar Jackson? Better runner than throw her. So why? He can throw, though. He can. But so can Deshawn Watson. Right.

Yeah, okay. Again, I don't, I don't, to me, the Texans have been able to win in some really impressive road games this year. They're not afraid of the big stage on the road. I think the home stage against New England is a much bigger stage, frankly. That's just my assessment on it. I don't have the fear in Baltimore like I do the New England Patriots. Because Tom's been there, done that.

That defense is amazing. And the Texans just every single time against the Patriots just don't show up. We'll see. That's why they play the games. That's why it's going to be fun. It's the game of the day on Sunday. It's crazy, though, that everybody is... It's a game of the weekend.

Everybody's presuming that the Texans are going to beat the Colts at home. That's everybody is saying. That's not a guarantee either, for sure. Look, Lamar is having a fantastic year. They could go win the, winning against the Ravens this week and then lose at home very easily on a Thursday night against the Colts, special with their set pack. How much have you seen Lamar throw the football of the course this year? I haven't watched a ton of Ravens games, but I mean...

Ravens games here typically. Yeah, right. Yeah, I mean, you know, I want to see him for three hours without the YouTube video and Hollywood games. And Hollywood Brown. In Hollywood Brown. Yeah. Hollywood.

As Bill O'Brien calls him. Does Bill O'Brien call other teams and guys' nicknames? I don't know. Does he call, would he have called Ezekiel Elliott Zeke? That's ridiculous. I'm just saying. We can't do that. Your hoops.

The Houston Rockets. Your hits. And the Astros. And your honest opinions. All the Dixon's play. All in for Houston all day. This is Sports Talk 790. Oh, it is music to my ears.

Our beloved Houston Cougars, back on the field Saturday, TDUCU Stadium, 2.30. Should be glorious about 65, 70 degrees. I would assume Dana Holgerson, no better place to spend two and a half, three hours watching college football than on the campus University of Houston. Is that fair to say? Yeah, I'd say it's fair to say. Homecoming.

You know, I've been watching this weather all, all week. It's been a little chilly out there for the last few days, but you're right. It's now forecasted for about 65, and we'll probably keep going up. That's a beautiful fall day for a pretty good matchup here, I think. How often did you send the kids outside in Morgantown? I mean, was that a regular occurrence, especially this time of year, or was it, did you have an indoor practice facility there? Well, not like the one we have here. It's about half that. So, It was a little bit more challenging. There I was, you know, I would get forced inside due to just, you know, whether it's lightning

or, you know, have to make the decision to go inside and really didn't want to. You know, here I've got to make the decision if I want to go outside, you know, because of the indoors. So functional and we've got so much space. But my goal is to try to practice throughout the course of the week the way the weather is going to be. be like on game day. So if you're getting 30-degree temperatures and you've got to play in it, then we're going to be outside and we're going to practice in it. You know, it was pretty tough earlier in the week when it was 39 degrees out and a little

wet, so that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Not going to play in it like that and really want to get our work done. So we were inside for a few days. We'll go outside tomorrow. And then obviously it's going to be pretty excited about Saturday as well. And look, you and I will laugh about this a couple of years from now. I know this has been a tough season for a lot of folks on campus. But just as a whole, it's been wacky that you've had two off weeks,

a bunch of games in a short period of time, some Thursday games, a Friday game in the mix, and a second biweek. I would assume that the byway doesn't come in a terrible time because you've been beset by some of the injuries that it gives a chance of guys from healing, like Clayton, for example, in your offensive line for sure. without a doubt it's the worst schedule in the history of college football i don't now i don't know how i don't know how else to put it i mean and nobody that's not an excuse or anything it's just uh you know some of it can't be controlled uh some of it can't be controlled the conference

makes decisions which they've i've expressed my my anger towards uh the american when it comes of what they did with us on a couple of these games and all that but i just i just wanted it even playing field more than anything i mean i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't i'm I don't think that's too much to ask for, but we've had four short weeks. I mean, it's very rare that a Power 5 school has any short weeks. We've had four. And then this by week, it's a little late for it. You know, I'd like to have it a little bit earlier in a year and break up some of those short weeks.

But, you know, we have one this late in the year. It did allow us to be able to get healthy. And as healthy as we can. We've got 17 guys on the long-term can't play list. But a guy like Clayton is going to be 100%, which is going to vote well for us. We're excited about that. Speaking of bi-week, Tulsa's on a bi-week this week. They don't have to play.

And that gives them two weeks to prepare for us. And we only get one to prepare for them. So there's another American group, if you ask me. You know what, I'll call Oresco right now. This will never happen again. We're going to play all home games next year, no road games. He'll be here Saturday. I'm going to keep complaining.

I would like to be a fly on the wall on that one, that's for sure. Let's go to the UCF game for a little bit. It was a couple weeks ago. I was actually in Miami as you guys were playing, and for the first half, I mean, the offense was just moving along. What happened late second quarter? Did you feel like there was even some more points left on the board that could have maybe extended things

and made things a little more comfortable for you in the second half? Yeah, I think, you know, I, I thought we left 10 points out there. You know, we moved the ball up and down the field. I mean, I thought our game playing was excellent. The guys were out there. They were motivated to play. We were executing.

We rushed for over 200 yards in the first half. You know, I had 23 points on the board and up by two, but I thought we should have had another 10 points and been at around 33. You know, and then our defensive coordinator, Joe Cothern, says, they got 14 on us. They made really good plays, but they shouldn't have got. seven. So it should have been 33 to 14,

which would have made them uncomfortable in the second half, you know, but it was 21, 23, and I'll be honest with you, they got a lot more depth than we do. And just we got war out. You know, we had a couple of guys that got banged up. You can see, I mean, we were trying, man. And, you know, we just didn't have the juice

and we just couldn't hold up. You know, it's just a situation. were in. They're hard to beat there now. I mean, it was hot and it was loud and they had a good atmosphere and, I mean, they haven't lost them since I think 2015. So there's a reason for that, you know, just they got some pretty good stuff going on. They're a lot better. It doesn't, it didn't surprise me that they lost that Tulsa last week just because of their road records, not nearly as good as their home record. But proud of the way the guys played, we're ready to go. just didn't have enough juice and gas in the tank to be able to finish that thing off.

You know, Dana Hulgerson with us here brought to you by the joint chiropractic here on the Matt Thomas show. Coach, and you, this is, look, this is not your first go-around with the Cougars in the American Athletic in a group of five schools in a group of five, in a group of now, having been on all sides of it, is depth of this league? Is that the number one thing that really separates the group of five from the power five schools at this point, do you think? Yeah, and we dealt with that previous place I was at, too. You know, I mean, we were, you know, going back my first year at WVU were in the, but basically, you know, that version of the American, when I was here at Houston, we were in Conference USA. When I went to West Virginia, we were Big East and basically half the Conference

USA and half the Big East formed the American, you know, so a lot of the same schools. And, you know, that, going into the Big 12th, next year. It took a couple of years to be able to build the thing the right way to be able to hold up. I think this league's done a great job of doing that. You know, the whole Power 6 thing is a real thing.

I mean, this is the next best conference. And you can even make an argument that the American, based on the fact that we've had I think five teams ranked throughout the course of the year is in better shape in some of the power conferences right now. So it's just, you know, I think this league's done a great job of continuing to build up. Memphis is rolling and Central Florida is rolling.

Cincinnati's done a great job. SMU's building. So it's just a challenging league. And we've got to build our program the way that we know how to build it to be able to compete in this league. I don't know. Look, not that I'm carrying the banner for the conference, Dana, but to see SMU Memphis play, the primetime game a couple weeks ago, jam-packed crowd at Liberty Bowl,

it did give the opportunity for the lead to kind of beat its own Chessable because it was a great game, huge crowd, and it was in a good primetime spotlight. So I don't know, again, I don't know if Houston fans are doing that, but I actually sat down and enjoyed that football game because these are teams that you want to go beat next year for a conference championship. Well, there's no, there's no doubt. I mean, that's who, that's who we're, that's who we're, that's who we're, that's who we're, in the conference with.

I mean, guys like Houston and Cincinnati and, you know, South Florida's been there, and Central Florida hosted game day last year. Houston hosted game day a few years ago. You know, Memphis did this year. Cincinnati's the top 20 teams. So, I mean, it's a league to be proud of, and it's a really good football. And it's getting better. The thing that encourages me is it's getting better.

I mean, we know where we're at right now is not where we're going to be next year. I mean, this thing is going to continue to build and get good. But we're going to have to be – it's not like we've got to build it and we're just guaranteed championships. Yeah. We've got to build it the right way, and then we've got to compete. And there's some good teams on our schedule. You know, it doesn't get any better than Houston, Memphis, Saturday at 2.30.

That's a good football game that's going to be played here in TCUD Stadium. All right. You mentioned Clayton's ready to go 100%. How's your running back health right now? It's good. You know, Patrick Carr should be back, ready to roll. Kyle Porter's ready to go. You know, we got a full stable of them back there.

That running back position usually need three or four of them, but they're all ready to roll. All right, Dana, thank you for the time. Best of luck Saturday. And again, 2.30 and a glorious Saturday. Hopefully that good crowd will be out there. Thanks for the visit as always. Thanks, man. You got it. That's Dana Hogerson brought to you by the Joint Chiropractic, the official chiropractor of your Houston Cougars.

First of all, he's a great guy. He's a hardworking guy. It's Matt, and he's back. Brings his lunchtime Houston Sports Talk. The Matt Thomas Show. on 790. Rossi just got a tweet. Was I on that tweet as well?

I don't know, maybe. I think so. Explain what you just show me during the break. Jimmy and Tom Ball, who has been a loyal listener for a while. Yes, he tweeted both of us. He showed us a picture. He had written the Rotten Five down in full

on his garage, and it looks like on wood, on paint, like not just on a piece of paper. By the way, our winner, were John and Cyprus and Robert in Cyprus. I mean, Jimmy showed us his picture of him writing down the Rotten Five. We've got to get him some tickets, right? Yeah.

Jimmy, because you took the time to destroy a piece of nature for the Rotten Five, we're going to give you a set of tickets as well. So Rossi, please work with Nick to get the winner sheet to Jimmy so he can win it as well. That is dedication. Now, the best dedication would be if your wife is attractive and you wrote the Rotten and five on her chest is because you had nowhere else to write. Ross, that would be the ultimate sacrifice, would it not? I guess.

If you want to turn it that way, if you want to turn it into something sexual. I don't think it's sexual. I think it's, it's, it's, oh, you said where, you said right to mom where? If she's, like if he had said person is nowhere else. Why would he use her arm? Why has it got to be her breast? Because maybe there's just more room up there. What if there's not?

What if there is? Jeez. You always have to turn it. You always have to just turn it dark. I don't. I'm not turning it dark. Or you always has to take a creepy turn with you, Matt. No, it doesn't.

I'm just telling you, there's just really interesting ways to, you mean to tell me that FM radio shows don't have guys do crazy things for their wives to win prizes? That's what we actually need to do, Matt. We need the morning FM gig. You know, it's money Rod Ryan's hauling in

and the guy plays music like a third of the time. Let me give you a little background on an old FM radio guy. Oh, they're so amazingly talented and they're so interesting. Hey, what's the, what do you put in your coffee? 713, 2125, 790. And oh, by the way, we're going to play number one hit songs over and over and over again. What's in Ross's box? And I'll see, you have to guess what's in here or what's in the envelope.

Yeah. And when we run out of interesting material, we're going to play six songs in a row for you. Fake misconnections, bits and stuff like that. Steel, it may are the, they all sit each other's bits. Mm-hmm. Wait, I missed something. What's in Ross's box? This week it is a chopsticks. Chopsticks. Chopsticks, really?

Yeah. That's interesting. Last week, it was crushed pineapple. Yeah. Do you use the chopsticks to style your hair? Yes, I do. And my next slide coming back is a left-handed reliever, backup quarterback, and an FM jock. Yeah. You get to wear Hawaiian shirts. Like, I have a good friend of my who just retired from Minneapolis.

He's a sweet man. Mm-hmm. But he was like, oh, I wrote this. I wrote my show out for today. And I'm like, oh, give me some layers. Like, you know, are you tired of pepperoni on your pizza? And then I'm going to play Taylor Swift. Okay, next, I'm going to say, you know, does the, does your, does your, do people talk to you too much in the elevator?

Followed by a hit from Bruno Mars. I mean, yeah, really get, really get breaking on that one. And did you catch what Kanye West said on the Jimmy Kimball show? We'll play it for you next. Here's some tool. Yeah. here's one number one hit out of the other, and we're going to put 30 seconds of mindless travel.

It'd be like us. The equipment would be, hey, here's horrible sports takes, and coming up next on the show, Shaquille and Eland Studio. Wait a minute. That's what we do give you. Oh, we do. We do give you decent guests, though. That's true.

Nobody brought you Ian Eagle and Joel Klatt the same name like I did. No one's going to bring you Dr. Roto like we're going to do. And Dana Holgerson. And Dana Holgerson? They had slim thug yesterday on the FM side. Oh, that's a good get. That is a great get. Yeah.

We don't have athletes parading around here. Although tomorrow, glad you brought that up, Nick. Vernon Maxwell. Awesome. At billiard factory? No, he's here. Oh. Yeah, I get to hang out with Bernie.

You get to hang. Nick gets to hang out and get creepy with Bernie. You and I are at the billiard factory. Me and Mad Max is going to get crunk. Well, that would be you and Slim Thug. What are your top three favorite song, Matt? You didn't give me enough time of a pair. It's just there's so many.

I mean, I could go to my iPhone and look at one and out to the other. Like a boss? That's a good one. B-A-W-S-E, right? Still tipping? That's a good one. Clinkapel, by the way, concussed going to miss tomorrow night's game. Wow.

Maybe going to miss Saturday's game at Minnesota. Daniel House? Back contusion. By the way, pronounce his first name? Daniel. See, but in his, we have a promo. You know what, Nick, can you find the intro to the... He used to be Daniel.

To the Rockets Launchpad. He says Daniel. He's wrong. He can't be wrong on his own name. But how long ago was that recorded? I don't know. Was it last year or this year? Probably this year.

He was either this year during media days or last year. It's what he says. You know what? An actual idea, it's probably this year he did that. So it's the launch pad intro? I think he got it. Well, just come through it for a second. Don't want to make me look like an idiot.

even more than normal. Well, let's listen to it. I mean, we're going to figure out if you're telling the truth or now. Okay. I think he's... But I've been told... You know me to make sure you're not.

Just play. Whatever. Just play. We don't care. Whenever. Give me a second. Let it fly. Four, three, two.

Rock! Hey, this is Russell Westbrook. This is Daniel House. There you go. Daniel House. He didn't say Daniel. Hello. This is Daniel Howse.

I've been saying a Daniel. He just said Daniel. For a year now. Because I was told it wasn't Daniel. Maybe he says Daniel. Just play it again. I can't ask him tomorrow because he's probably going to play. He's done.

Let it fly. Four, three, two. That's me, too. Hey, this is Russell Westbrook. Hi, Russ. This is Daniel House. Daniel. Daniel House.

Yeah, it's Daniel. Well, you know, I'll straighten this out. Okay, thank you. Get to the bottom of this. By the way, you know what? I haven't been able to figure out. I have not talked to Russell about this because Russ and I don't spend a lot of quality time. Is it okay to call him Brody?

Does he like being called Brody? I don't know. Are you okay? You're really choked up about this. I am. Russ, we're not best. The funny part is I was actually wondering that like yesterday. Because I don't feel like, hey, Brody.

I'm not afraid to ask him that. I just haven't been in a situation to say, hey, I mean, I get the scorers table. Excuse me. Russ, can I call you Brody? Can I compare you to a smack dealer on TV? Me? No, that was Boat. You're talking about from the Wire?

That was Boaty. Isn't that where he got that nickname because he looks like him? Yeah, but on that show he's called Bodie, though. Right, but that's where the... Yeah, this is from the Wire stuff. Yeah. But he's not Brody on that show. He's Bodie.

Correct. That's still the Genesis of the nickname, though. Yeah, the Genesis. The Phil Collins is the nickname. Well, then they're wrong. Oh, now you're going to tell them they're wrong. It's Bodie Brodus. Okay, but they brought us.

But he gets the Brody part from the wire. Not that I've watched it, but I mean, I'm saying that's what I get from. But then why is he Brody? See, this was always confused me. How about this? He and I'll sit together on the plane to Minneapolis after the game tomorrow night. I mean, he looks more like a Ninja Turtle than anything. Is that, is the Ninja Turtle he looks like named Brody?

Ninja Turtle, they all look the same. They just have different color headmands. I think I feel like he's more of a Raphael. Really? Yeah. So let me ask you this. brod. May I call you Raphael? Or it was a Daniel? Oh, now I'm just confused how to hell. The good doctor is back with us here on Sports Talk 790 for a 30-minute conversation about all things about fantasy football.

We'll start tonight with Pittsburgh and Cleveland. This game feels a little more intriguing than might have been maybe say two or three weeks ago. Is that fair to say? Yeah, it's a divisional game. It's two teams that hate each other. It's Thursday night. We're ready for football. So it is intriguing. You know, look, Pittsburgh. has James Connor coming back. I think that is huge. Jalen Samuels is good out of the backfield catching the football, but not really good running the football. Everything will go through Connor and the Steelers will be better.

They needed him desperately. Problem is Mason Rudolph hasn't thrown for 300 yards ever, right? He's had four games of going under 200 yards. So I don't expect a huge day. And the problem is when you've got a young quarterback like that, you know, one player does well, but four players don't do well. And that fantasy-wise is a nightmare. play Connor for sure. Maybe

Juju, the rest of it, I just don't feel great about. For the Browns, I absolutely was wrong about Baker Mayfield. I thought he was going to be a star. But you know that he has more interceptions than touchdown passes? I mean, that's really embarrassing at this point. But look, Nick Chubb is always in play. Kareem Hunt, if you're in a PPR league,

is in play. And Beckham loves the bright lights and he likes being on TV, so he should make a play tonight. You were talking about Rudolph, and I think a lot of it is because of so many injuries of starting quarterbacks, but has the quarterback position this year, top to bottom, kind of let most of us down? I think it has. I mean, I just think that, you know, the game itself, we love football, right? We love watching football, but I don't think the game's as good as it once was. A lot of backup

quarterbacks here, not very talented. Maybe these guys aren't getting enough reps in practice. Maybe they need more. I mean, Rudolph, I loved him in college. I watched this guy play. I was like, wow, this guy could be a pro. He looks lost out there. So, you know, is everybody good? Of course not, but we have expectations that these guys are going to get in the lineup, and they've just been big disappointments. All right, I was in New Orleans last week. The Saints laid a big time egg against the Atlanta Falcons. Can they bounce back at Tampa Drew Brees seem to think they can?

Oh, they're going to bounce back in a large way. So, I mean, the Bucks have no secondary to speak of. Hargraves was cut. Another guy there is injured. They are in big trouble. Michael Thomas should have, I don't know, 27 catches this week, something crazy. Jared Cook is going to score. Kamar is going to score.

The Saints are pissed off. And rightfully so, they laid a big egg. And kudos to the Falcons who played the best defensive game. They played the last 10 years. All right. Let's get to now, Kirk Cousins. We teased it last week about the fact that he plays well in noon games, not so much the other time slots,

although he was really good. So were the Vikings against the Cowboys last week. Are they due for a letdown after that big win at Dallas? Well, look, the Vikings are a solid team. And they are all, they are dependent on the running game. They beat Dallas last week for two reasons. One, Dalvin Cook was the best player in the field. And secondly, Dallas started to run the ball at the end of the game,

which made no sense to anybody on planet Earth. Right. If Dalvin Cook can run the football again, they win. It's as simple as that. Denver's run defense has been horrific, but recently it's been very good. And they've got a shutdown cornerback in Chris Harris who can shut down Stefan Diggs.

I think this is one of those 1916, really ugly games. Maybe Cousins gets 220, 230 yards in a touchdown, but I don't see much more than that. Yeah, honestly, when you say 1960, that means I'm kind of shying away from some of those Minnesota players, right?

As well, you should. I mean, look, we love Cook, we play Cook. But if I don't like Diggs, do we really trust Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith and B.C. Johnson? I don't think any of those guys are playable. I'm only playing Cook happily and Diggs if I have to. All right, Buffalo's at

Miami. The Dolphins have a winning streak. We don't care about the records. We care about how those impact players are fantasy-wise had their skill position players amped up a little bit in the last couple weeks. Well, look, Fitzpatrick is not a bad quarterback. Kaelin Belage stinks.

Never play him, please. Preston Williams, sadly, is out for the year. But Devonte Parker looks pretty good. I think he's a guy that you can play. The problem is that Buffalo's past defense is really, really good. So Tadavius White is one of the best cornerbacks in football. I don't know where Miami's going to score.

their points this week. I just don't see it. Belage is terrible, and if you can't throw the ball, Parker can't get open, they're in big trouble. For Buffalo, I'm all in on Devin Singletary this week. This should be a 20-touch game for him. He needs the football. He's a special player, and I'm going to give you a little narrative

there. He played at Florida Atlantic. He's going to want to have a big game. All right. Can we stay away from Jacksonville, Indianapolis completely? I mean, quarterback unrest or who's healthy, who's not? disappointing performances offensively the last couple weeks. Is there any value in this game at all from a fantasy perspective?

Well, yeah, Leonard Fournett is value. I mean, that's a good player. Now, here's the thing with Nick Foles. Foles doesn't suck. It's just his first game back. And I think, you know, if you look at his schedule, I really like his schedule in the fantasy playoffs. I just think he's going to struggle for the first couple of weeks before he gets

as he finds his rhythm. I like Leonard Fornet a lot. I think DJ Chark is always in play. D.D. Westbrook is always in play. For the Colts, look, they're a much better team with Djokobo Berset back. You've just got to look back at last week and just throw that out. So you had Brian Hoyer there. That was bad.

You've had no T.Y. Hilton. And he's their best player by far. So you're not seeing the true Colts team. The Jaguars can win this game as Nick Bowles plays well. Everybody that caught a pass in the Dallas game was putting up huge numbers. You talked about the fact that they went to the ground game, late in the contest, which made absolutely no sense. So I'm going to presume that it's not like Detroit's secondary is amazing.

Dallas should repeat those numbers again this week, right? Well, they should, but Detroit has very weak run defense numbers. They're one of the five worst in football. So I'm surely going to want to start to establish Zique. But the truth is, Prescott, to Cooper and Gallup and Cobb, it's pretty much unstoppable. I don't see how Detroit can stop those guys. So I think what they just have to run a balanced offense this week, get Zika his carries, but I don't know who did the play calling there at the end of the game. Dallas

lost that game. Minnesota didn't win as much as Dallas lost it, but I'll tell you this, Cooper has been sensational and watch Michael Gallup. If Gallup was on most other teams in the NFL, he'd be a number one receiver. All right, Dr. Roto, how about this Atlanta Falcon team? As we mentioned, surprise the world beating the Saints in New Orleans. We've always been thinking about Atlanta being this high-octane offense, just haven't scored a lot. Could they have some success against Carolina this week? I think that's going to be a high-scoring game. Those teams always play a high-scoring affair.

So let me give you four names, five names on the Falcons. Obviously, Matt Ryan, we play. Brian Hill, right? He's going to be the starting running back. Maybe a lot of people haven't heard of him. He played last week. He played at Wyoming. He was a pretty solid player.

Freeman's out. Eto Smith is on the IR. Brian Hill is legit. You want to put him in your lineups. Julio Jones, we know. Calvin Ridley, we know, and a guy named Russell Gage, nobody knows. but he is the third receiver there. Austin Hooper is out for about a month.

You will see a lot of gauge on the field. So those are the guys you're looking for. For Carolina, Kyle Allen is not a bad little quarterback there, but McCaffrey is the best player in the game. And then I think DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel both have big weeks. Isaiah Oliver might be the worst cover quarterback in the NFL. I think he gets a match up with Moore, Samuel. Whoever he's on, you start that guy.

All right, let's get to one three o'clock game. And we'll go with New England and Philadelphia. The Patriots, people don't seem to be buying in on the 8-1 side of things, more so because the offense has been so sporadic. Are we seeing any consistency in the Patriots the last month or so, or is it more of up and down when it goes with Tom Brady? Well, look, I think that this game is going to come down to one thing, the Philadelphia Eagles' ability to run the football.

The last couple of games, we've seen the Patriots show that their run defense has not been great. If Jordan Howard and Miles Sanders can run the ball, then Carson Wentz can go to some play action passing and find Jeffrey and Ertz and Goddard and stuff like that. If New England is stopping the run, this game is over because you're not going to be able to pass on New England because Alshon Jeffrey's not being able to get open against Stefan Gilmore, who's the best cover quarterback in the NFL. As for New England, never worry about Tom Brady, okay? Never worry about him. Edelman is a star. He's got James White, who's been pretty. Sanoo is getting incorporated into this offense.

Remember, Brady's really been working with one receiver all year. Edelman, it's got no tight end. They've got to figure this offense out. As long as they stay afloat into the playoffs, once they get to the playoffs, it's winning time. All right. More with Dr. Odo coming up, including his lock of the week, plus who is sitting and who is playing in the Texans versus the Baltimore Ravens. But first a word about the Black Friday sales event going on at Beck and Maston-Bewick GMC, where the 2019 inventory is all at Black Friday prices, even here in the month of November.

We're talking about Sierra 1500 at $14,000 off the MSRP, a 2019 enclave, $11,000 off the MSRP. How about a 2019 Acadia? That's $12,500 off the MSRP. Plus, Beck & Masson is going to offer you zero down, 0% APR for 72 months, and absolutely no payments for 90 days, all at either one of their $1,500,000. two locations, FM 1960 in Jones Road and 45 in Fouquet. For great price, great selection and repeat business, that's what I am, a repeat customer. You got to think of Houston's favorite Buick GMC dealer.

Beck and Maston, Buick, GMC. Online, Beckandmaston.com. The Good Doctor with us for another few minutes here on Sports Talk 790 and the Matt Thomas show. Good doctor, I have had to go through a plethora of quarterbacks. I have finally settled in on one. his name is Derek Carr, the Oakland Raiders, sneaking in the AFC playoff chase and putting up some decent numbers for me. This week they're going against winless Cincinnati.

Yeah, no, I like Carr. He's been much better than I anticipated. I don't know if he was going to make it to Los Vegas with him, but he's looked good. The problem is he's never thrown for a 300-yard game all season, but he has thrown for multiple touchdowns. So I think the big problem in this game is that people are going to assume that they're going to like the Bengals up,

and they probably will, but it's going to be with the running game. Josh Jacobs is going to run a muck against the Bengals, probably 120 yards and two touchdowns. I think Carr has a day, maybe 220, two touchdowns, but not the huge day. They're going to need them to be behind. The Raiders would have to be behind for that to happen. Is the Rams offense ever going to wake up this year, or is it just going to be just one of the big disappointment so far in the NFL? Well, look, I think there's two parts.

The first part is that their offensive line is terrible. They lost a lot of guys, and they've had a lot of injuries, and Jared Gop has no time to throw. Secondly, Jared Goff looks skittish on the road. There's something about when he plays at home where he's confident and he goes on the road and it's a different player. I like them this week. I mean, but going back to the last week, Cooper Cup, zero receptions. I mean, that's unforgivable. I've got to think that they write the ship this week. I like Goff at home. Don't love them. This is going to be an ugly game. But I mean, Mitch Trubisky might be the worst quarterback in the NFL, so I'll take the ring. I had a buddy of mine, have Kyler Murray on his bench this

past week. He was going against me in fantasy and took the loss. Kyle Murray's Cardinals don't seem to win much anymore, but is he going to put up big numbers the rest of the year? Maybe your friend should be listening to the Dr. Rodo program here, Mentee. That's what I'm saying. Kyle Murray's a good player there. Murray is a very good young player with one problem. He hasn't learned to convert the field goals to the touchdowns. And when he starts doing that, he's a top five quarterback. Last week, he was able to do that because Christian Kirk just fillet that.

that defense in Tampa. This week is a different proposition, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the 49ers bounce back after that loss. Jimmy Garoppolo did not play exceptionally well, and the Cardinals' defense has stepped up in recent weeks. If Garoppolo continues to play at this mediocre level, the Cardinals can sneak this victory here. Now look, the 49ers, Matt Brida is out, Kittle is out, Sanders is not 100%. So you're looking at Debo Samuel and Kevin Coleman, and those are the best players. I think the Cardinals can win this game. It's going to be a question of, can Murray do enough?

And David Johnson looks terrible. I beg everybody out there who's listening to me, stop playing him. He looks like he runs in 8-2-40. They're playing Kenyon Drake over Johnson. You've got to get him out of your lineup. Did you just say 8-2-40? Yeah, that's how slow it looks, dude. Good gracious.

All right, Kansas City at the L.A. Chargers really in Mexico City. I don't mind the international games, but it always feels like the turf is going to be a problem in Mexico City because of rain or just poor turf conditions in general. Does that make you gunshine anybody involved in this game? So funny you said that because when you started talking about this game, that was the first thing I thought about. There's always bad turf down in Mexico. I don't get it. I don't know why that always happens. So yes, I'm my little skittish.

I don't feel good about it. At the same time, I've got to hope that the trainers know. what cleats to put on and that these guys will play well. There's a lot of opportunity here. Mahomes, right, Tyree Kill, Kelsey, Damien Williams playing again, Sammy Watkins, Philip Rivers, Melvin Gordon has played well recently. Mike Williams hasn't scored a touchdown this year. He's due.

This is one of the best fantasy games of the week. I think we just have to be all in and we just have to hope for the best and hope the turf holds up. All right. A couple of questions coming in from folks on Twitter. Hit or miss on Jarvis Landry. or Cole Beasley, and also is Juju and OBJ still must-starts? All right, I don't know whether Job or Slandry and OBJ can coexist in a game, right? Because you've got the running game.

I think this is more of a Beckham night than a Landry night, so I won't play Landry. I will play Beckham. As for Juju, I just don't feel great about it. I mean, Conno will be back. He'll get his 20 touches. I think Juju gets maybe four or five catches. I don't see him big night. As for Cole Beasley, I love the player, but this is one of those games when you're playing Miami,

they're not going to need him to do that much. What are we looking at 4 for 40 and maybe a touchdown? That's probably the best case scenario. As far as tight end is concerned, who should start? Fells or Rudolph? Kyle Rudolph was good last week for the bikes. He was good, but, you know, that's interesting. Rudolph might be a play because if Chris Harris is covering Diggs, Rudolph might be a play.

I might go that direction. All right. Who would be this week's Jonas Gray, ask a Twitter person, aka a one-hit wonder. You got somebody out there this week? Well, you mean that they're going to be good this week or that they were good last week and bad this week? Probably both. Is there any one-hit wonders out there? I like Jared Cook.

Yeah, I like Jared Cook a lot. A couple weeks ago I gave everybody Jacob Hollister from Seattle. I like Jared Cook this week. Tampa Bay is the worst team in the NFL against tight ends. I think the first or second worst with the Arizona Cardinals. Jared Cook will find the end zone this week. All right. Chubb or Ingram this week from a listener?

I don't really trust Ingram. I don't think he gets enough touches of the football. Chubb touches the football 15 to 20 times. I'll play him. All right. Now, Texans, Ravens, this is to me the game of the week in the NFL with the two of the three or four leading MVP candidates. Let's just get right.

And it's compared to saying, well, you've got to play everybody. what are you anticipating from skill position players from both the Texans and the Ravenside? Yeah, it's a great question. So firstly, Marlon Humphrey is one of the top cover cornerbacks in the NFL. Okay? So he hasn't been shadowing players now that they brought in Marcus Peters. So Hopkins may have a tough day. I mean, he is still one of the best receivers in football, but I don't think he has the big day that we're anticipating.

I don't think this is a Kenny Stills week. Could this be a Stills week? Maybe it may have to be, but Baltimore has been pretty good against tight ends too. So I think this game comes down to actually two players for the Texans, Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson. So I think the receiver is going to be held in check a little bit. They're going to have decent days, but not the big day. If Hyde can run the football, it's going to help them a lot. If Hyde can't run the football, then they're going to have to use Duke Johnson out of the backfield.

And I think he's a very sneaky start. For Baltimore, you're all in on Lamar Jackson. I don't love Mark Ingram this week, but remember the Ravens play this triple tight-end offense. Mark Andrews, Nick Boyle, Hayden Hurst. Andrews have been very solid. The Texans historically have them been great against the tight-ins, even though this year they've been a little better. I would start Andrews, and I think Lamar Jackson's just to be very interesting to see how the Texan's defense do against him. Before we wrap things up, let's get to the one player this week that Dr. Roto believes will be absolutely without a doubt.

a must play. That's Dr. Rottos. Lock of the week. What do you got? Good doctor? Yeah, the lock of the week. I mentioned it earlier is Michael Thomas against the Buccaneers. There's no other wide receiver there. Tracon Smith, Ted Ginn, all these guys aren't worth anything. Vernon Hargreaves was just cut by the Buccaneers. There's nobody to cover him. I mean, if this guy doesn't have 15 catches this week, he should have at least 10, he could have as many as 15. That's how big it could be. All right, and that is Dr. Roto's.

Lock of the week. Good doctor. Remind the folks where they can find you between now and Sunday. Absolutely. You can find me at full-time

Fantasy.com into the promo code Roto 50 for 50% off your first two months. You could find me at s.i.com backslash fantasy.

I have my visionary plays of the week on Sports Illustrated and of course at Twitter at DRROTO. Amazing stuff as always talk again next week. Thank you very much for the time. Good doctor.

All right. Take care. You got it. That's Dr. Roto with us here on Sports Talk 790. Now a message for the Shell Federal Credit Union. Auto loan rates on new vehicles,

use vehicles, and refinanced vehicles available as low as 1.99% APR. I repeat 1.99% APR. Plus, you'll get $250 in cash back. You get two skipapays, and you get to work with a company that has been lending and helping with financial services since the 1930s with 10 Houston area locations. For more details about this great low rate,

1.99% APR. You go to ShellfCU.org. While you're there, you can apply online. ShellfcU.org, because with ShellfCU, together, we're family. Left side to Westbrook, on the baseline for the tie. He makes it, and he's fouled. This is Russell Westbrook.

One thing's for sure, I did not get my amazing style from Matt Thomas. Oh, Hammer job! He wishes he could style on profile like I could. I don't think he does. You've seen Russ wear his gear, and you've seen Russ wear his gear, See me, we're mine. Who wears it better? Russ. That's not true.

234 on the Matt Thomas show. Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join us in this final segment before we get to, believe it or not. Anything is fair game right now. 713-212-5-7-90. We give you a nice steady diet of fantasy football conversation information from the good doctor. Wonderful. I'm still not happy with him educating you over the years. Well, I mean, I am in third place in our league, so I'm very happy about that.

Thank you. I think you're tied for a second. Well, aren't you? Technicality, it'd be third. It's like a four-way tie, though. Yeah, it's right. I am clearly in first place. Yes, clearly.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 if you'd like to join us. On the local front, let's get to first the Rockets. Clint Capelli is out with a concussion, will not play tomorrow. Sounds like Daniel House is also going to be out for tomorrow's game. Russ doesn't typically play, at least the plan will be this year, not to play back to backs, which means my guess is he'll play tomorrow and maybe take Saturday off of Minnesota. Rockets have a game with the Indiana Pacers tomorrow night, which Vernon Maxwell will be on the show tomorrow to promote that.

Wonderful. And then we'll have the Rockets and Wolves Saturday from the Twin Cities. As far as the Texans are concerned, what do you think about this, Hargraves acquisition? The waiver claim off of the Tampa Bay, former first round pick, who lost his spot and then eventually got released because Bruce Arian said he didn't have good work ethic. Yeah, and then Bruce Ariens said he was asked in a press conference. Was it a difficult decision to let Hargraves go? He said, nope.

Wasn't a hard decision at all. So, I mean, maybe if the talent level is there because he has a first round pick, same thing with Gary Young Connolly, who's worked out okay so far as a Houston Texan. So you accumulate talent, see if you can coach it up and see if a fresh start and a new, what do they call it, a new lease on life for Vernon Hargraves as a Houston Texan. I believe that's one of the hardest things to do as a coach is to take a player and try to figure out whether or not he's worth it. Because sometimes players, all they need is a different change of scenery,

a different philosophy. I mean, do you think the Cleveland Browns are really happy that O'Dell Beckham Jr. is doing his thing in Cleveland? I mean, has he really changed who he is? Is LeBion Bell significantly different as a New York jet that it was as a Pittsburgh dealer? He's not having a good season. You know what I'm saying? I mean, don't you think it's the hardest thing to balance is here is this guy, here's a position we need.

We need help in the secondary. And man, this is a kid that had first round grade because he was a first round. You are what you're drafted. But Bruce Ariens, who seems like as uber chill of a coach as you'll find him in the NFL, fiery, but yet very much a player's coach said,

you know, my team sucks, but I don't need this kid. We were, I mean, yeah, we were all making fun. of the Cowboys when they traded away a first round pick for Amari Cooper, and he's been really, really good there. Excellent. But I'm just talking about just on the old waiver wire claim, whether or not you go grab a guy.

Because that's what's simple, that every football fan wants. Remember, you know, during training camp, guy gets released. Yeah, we need them. We need them. We need them. Well, the Texans get the tire on. The situations are mad. Since situations are huge in the NFL.

Systems and who you're behind and how coaching as well. So a lot of things factor in. Yeah. A lot of times we see somebody on the field and they're really good and we say, you know what, oh, they're just great. Maybe they're in the right system. Maybe they're the right coach. Maybe they've been put in the right positions.

Maybe they have great teammates around them that are making them look better. A lot of things factor in that we don't really necessarily talk about. Because it is funny. You brought up Gary Ann Connolly and we unfortunately had to go to Twitter the day that the Texans acquired him. Just to get a taste. And it was as brutal as you thought it was going to be in terms of people hated him. Well, actually, Raider fan did. Right.

he's been solid if not spectacular for the Texans. It's not like one of those situations that you're embarrassed to have him out there. And frankly, it's because they've run out of people. They had nobody, you know, Tashon Gibson was gone for a while. Jonathan Joseph's been hurt. Bradley Robey's been hurt. Bradley Robey. They've needed bodies in the secondary.

So, you know, I would just say keep expectations very minimal for a former first round pick who couldn't survive in Tampa. And all I need him for is the back half of the season here. And you know what? Hargrave should be doing, frankly, is trying to change his attitude and think that, you know what, I'm on a better football team. I got a chance to play right away because look, that's what Gary-on-Kinnelly had to do, came into the Texans on a Monday, started suiting up playing on Sunday.

This is a win-win situation for him. if good Hargraves comes in, then the Texan secondary is better, and he's going to have a chance to play for contract next year. If he comes here and display some of the same habits, apparently they got him in the doghouse at Tampa, he's out of work in the NFL. Yeah, I got no problem. Yeah, it's a shrewd move on the part of the Texans.

You don't really have a whole lot to lose. You're not expecting them to be one of your top three guys, and he's got the first round pedigree, and if he can turn it around, if the only problem he has is a work ethic, and this is going to be a wake-up call for him, could turn out to be a good pickup for the Texas. All right.

The local story that we spent a lot of time, at least early in the program, talking about, is that Major League Baseball's investigation. This really comes to no surprise. They're going to ask to speak to the following. New Mets manager, former Astro 2017, Carlos Beltron. They're going to ask to speak to Alex Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox,

who was the bench coach in 2017. And they're going to ask to speak to A.J. Hinch. Also, Major League Baseball intends to interview former Astros assistant general manager Brandon Taubman, though he has retained a lawyer through whom he is commenting and communicating according to sources. If you're Taunman, what are you doing this? Do you go, man, I really goofed up and did what I did? Or are you on the other side of it saying, where were the Astros that had my back when I was helping them build this franchise?

I think he will speak freely. I think he will tell the truth about what he knows. And I wouldn't blame him one bit for it. Well, it's not a question of blaming. Yeah. Well, that's why we're blaming Mike Fires for talking. We're blaming, I mean, not me, we, but people. It was Brandon Tompman's fault that he's out of work.

It's nobody else's fault. That's true. Yeah. The reason, you know, I'm just, I don't know if there's kind of severance. I mean, honestly, does Brandon Tobman feel that way? that's what we don't know. And here's the thing. Brandon can feel any way he wants to. If they say, if you think you're ever going to work in baseball again,

you're going to speak to us and you're going to speak openly about what exactly happened during the time in 2017. Here's my feeling, though, Ross. I don't think this is just going to be about 2017. I think they're going to ask about a lot of everything the asteris have done in terms of their practices. And that's what scares me. There's going to be a lot that we don't know. There is the thought in my mind of, okay, they goofed in 17, they realize their mistakes, they don't do it anymore.

That's the naive part of who I am. The realist says, the Major League Baseball is thinking that you just don't stop doing this if it's already started to work and continued to work. And you have been able to win all these games and be able to outsmart the opponents. You're just not going to stop your habits, even though you won a World Series. maybe the methods had changed because in the original story from Rosenthal Andrelich, they said that they stopped it during the... Two sources said they stopped in the postseason, one said they kept going. And that's what Major League Baseball is going to investigate. It's going to investigate.

Who knew? Who authorized it and how long it went? I think that's part of where the punishment's going to come in, is that this is widespread for a lengthy period of time with numerous employees, both wearing a uniform and not. I think Major League Baseball is coming in with a hammer. We'll see. And that's what I think we all have to be prepared for is this hammer is going to involve people that we like, people that we respect,

and people that help besides the players win a World Series of the city of Houston and put Houston baseball back on the map. And how, I mean, you can't death penalty them. You can't take the World Series away. But does a lengthy suspension to multiple front office slash on field leadership, how does that destroy what is being built right now for the Houston Astros? I don't know. That's something that Major League is going to have to baseball is going to have to decide.

And will you go to draft picks or international pool money or stuff like that? What really would hurt? Draft picks. Draft picks hurt. Yeah. It's the cornerstone of a franchise, especially that doesn't go out there and just throw money at people. Yeah.

If A.J. Hinch has gone for 50 games. It hurts you, but it doesn't prevent you from what. winning, especially not in the future. Hey, it's Coach Dan Tony. Step back three and the quarter is good. Matt Thomas, my favorite voice in Houston. Now, that's the Lord's eyes right now. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

249 on Sports Talk 790. Why is Coach always making jabs? I mean, he could use me for 10 or 12 minutes tomorrow night with the rocket sick on the Indiana Pacers. No, we're good. What would you say your three best basketball skills are? Defense, pick and roll, and shot blocking. That's defense.

Okay. I would say just general rim protection. Okay, rim protection? Yes. The rims of your glasses? Yes. The pick and roll and free throws. Okay.

How about yours? Free throws? Yeah, why not? Wow. I'm a ball distributor, ball handler, and, yeah, I'll go shot blocking as well. Okay. On the help. Nick, what's your favorite three big, best parts of your NBA game?

I'll go with my three-point shot. Yeah. Wow. My, I can't take dunking because I can't do that. Are you sneaky quick? No, not at all. I'm very plotting. I'll go with my 20-footer.

Oh, wow. Darryl Moore wants no part of you. Yeah, you're out. And my technical foulability. That's true. You're not drawing them, getting it. them. I could see that.

Austin Rivers, goading, not really goading. Doc was all already in a frothy mood when he got tossed, but it was funny that Austin came over to mid-court to tee up his dad. Yeah, and then the quotes after, like, he could tell I saw him blinking really fast.

I knew he was going to go ahead and get teed up and all that type of stuff. And then apparently, him, them talking about it on Instagram and stuff like that, it's pretty funny. Austin Rivers, by the way, not Austin. Doc, the coach of the Clippers, is probably top three with talking to fans in the first three rows of the seats behind him. Doc?

He's very chatty. They're getting the business or shooting the breeze? Both. He'll say, the fans will scream, that wasn't a foul. And Doc will say, you're right. Or he'll say, yeah, it was. That's funny. That's great.

I like that. Doc, Doc is one of my top five non-rocket coaches. right in the league. Okay. Yeah. Going around with the list? Do you feel about Popovich? No.

Do not like him at all. Not at all. Boreish. Boreish. I love the new, I love saying just the word boorish. I'll give you, I'll give you another day or so to give me a top five. Okay. Just guys that are just, you would like for him to be your coach.

Because they're just affable. They're real people. Reels, as Matt Thomas says. Yeah. Former Minnesota coach, Tom, Tim. but oh not on that list. Grumpy. God, was he grumpy all the time.

How about Jeff Van Gundy when he was here? Jeff Van Gundy was grumpy back in there. Jeff Van Grumpy. Yeah. But yeah, Doc, I like. I don't think I like Rick Carlisle. He seems like kind of a mean dude. I'll take Rick Carlisleau, though.

Good coach. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest-growing sports game show. We simply called it. Believe it or not, and here's how works. You'll call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90.

Today's edition of Believe it or not is brought to you by Woodhouse Day Spas. Print out your gift card for the gift of relaxation at Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. The category today is all things about Lamar Jackson. I'll read your statement about Lamar. The statement's completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this.

Believe it. If it's erroneous full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Two, believe it or not. It's all things about Lamar Jackson will win you a prize. Ross, what is that prize? Matt, I've got a price. pair of tickets to the just announced Black Crows, Shake Your Moneymaker

2020 World Tour, celebrating the album's 30th anniversary to be played in its entirety plus all of the hits on June 20th at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets on sale now at LiveNation.com. Let's play. Matt on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Belmont Jackson is Louisville's second

all-time passing leader just behind Teddy Bridgewater. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, he's actually fourth behind Chris Redmond, Jeff Brom, and Teddy Bridgewater. Duh. I bet you could name 10 Louisville quarterbacks, and those would be right. A lot of them, you know?

A lot of them in the NFL. He's a cup of coffee. Roger on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. When Lamar Jackson won the Heismanin in 2016, Deshawn Watson finished second in the voting. Believe it or not? Not.

Believe it. Yeah, he did. You got to have that list of. Paisman votes, right? Baker Mayfield was third. Hmm, the things you learn here on the show. Keith on 790. Keith, you're ready to play, believe it or not?

Believe it. Lamar Jackson is twice, had a perfect rating this season, becoming only the second quarterback to ever do it twice in a single season. Believe it or not. You said it early in this show. Believe it. That we did. I wanted to reward the listener.

Keith, I'm proud of you, friend. Statement number two for the win. Lamar Jackson ran a 4.35 second 40-yard dash of the 2018 NFL Combine. Believe it or not. I'm going to say not. Yeah, because he didn't run. Nice job. We're a reward a listener.

I'm happy that Keith won today. Sounds like a great fella. Me too. Listen to the show. Abdul on 790. Abdul, your favorite part of the radio show today. The whole show. Lamar Jackson wears number eight because he was a big Cowboys fan growing up.

up and Troy Aitman was his favorite player. Believe it or not. Not. Statement number two for the win. Lamar Jackson is not have an agent. He is represented by his mother. Believe it or not? Not. Oh, if I've said it once at a thousand times, you got to know which NFL players are represented by their parents.

Felicia Jones. Is she an agent by trade? I don't think so. Okay. You know, James represented by his mother. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah.

Marcus on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Lamar Jackson was childhood friends with rapper Codiak Black, who was recently sentenced to 46 months in prison. Believe it or not? Believe it. I think I said Codiac.

I think it's just Codiac. Codiac is the bear. All right. Statement number two for the win. As a youth, Lamar Jackson playing the same Pop Warner League as future Texans Marquis, Hollywood Brown. Teammate. teammate future teammate marquis hollywood brown believe it or not believe it there you go congratulations

tgs insurance get with them today you text the word money money one at 23 23 23 23 23 and you will start saving massive amounts of money in your home policy you text money to 23 23 23 23 they'll ask for your address you type that back in 15 seconds letter you have the results average customer savings nearly $900. Average customer rating with TGS? Nearly perfect. Save money, get better coverage, and do it with a company that's going to take care of you for the long haul. That's TGS insurance. Text money, M-O-N-E-Y to 23, 23, 23, 23. If you're trying to cut corners, trying to save a little money during the holiday season, this is the easiest place to start with your home insurance policy. Text money to 23, 23, 23 for TGS insurance. Tomorrow, Ross, Ross,

and I will be in the champions area at the billiard factory. Please come by and see us. We're going to feed you lunch. We're going to give you rocket tickets. We're going to give you XFL tickets. We're going to give you Joe Rogan ticket. We might just give you autographs of Adam Wex or two. That might be even a bigger bonus. All that

tomorrow at the billiard factory. A team is next. Talk to you all tomorrow at noon on 790.