Payne & Pendergast React To Texans' 29-27 Win Over Colts

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On a Reaction Monday, Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast dive into the Texans' 29-27 win over the Colts.

Transcript

00:00The Texans are the only 1-0 team in the AFC South.

00:04Welcome in on a reaction Monday, everybody.

00:06Good to be with you, great to be with you.

00:09I'm Sean Pendergast, he is Seth Payne.

00:12And Seth, this is a beautiful day, man.

00:15This is a great day, and honestly,

00:17the way that game unfolded and the way everything happened,

00:20the way they came by their victory,

00:22A, I couldn't be happier about the fact

00:24that it looks like the Texans have a genuine one-two punch

00:27now, that they can beat you through the air,

00:29they can beat you on the ground.

00:32If a team decides, all right, look,

00:34we've got to just try to limit this passing attack because it's

00:37so potentially lethal, then that's

00:40going to end up with 213 yards rushing by the Texans.

00:44That they're very capable with Damian Pierce

00:48averaged over five yards per carry on three carries.

00:51Your second leading rusher was Tank Dell.

00:53Stefan Diggs got in on the rush game as well.

00:57So all of that is awesome.

00:59But then I also do like that it was sloppier than a lot of us,

01:03including CJ Stroud and D'Amico Ryans, would prefer.

01:06I feel like it's the perfect reminder of a good scare.

01:12A good scare to put in of, hey, man,

01:15we've got to clean this stuff up.

01:16We've got to clean it.

01:17You can't be abandoning your cornerbacks in deep coverage,

01:23in quarters coverage, as an offense.

01:28The only guy that looked really, really in sync and ready

01:31that's returned is Laramie Tunsil with his two false starts.

01:34That's a, I think that's a, yeah.

01:36He's committed to his gimmick.

01:37Yeah.

01:37He's right back.

01:38Yeah, Laramie Tunsil committing penalties.

01:40But otherwise, I mean, we'll get into this a little bit later.

01:42Like Laramie, I've been talking a lot of smack on behalf of Laramie

01:46and how well he'd do against Layatu Latu, the rookie of the Colts.

01:48Yeah.

01:49Damn.

01:50OK.

01:51Latu had some nice snaps versus Tunsil.

01:52OK, so he's going to be a problem.

01:54Oh.

01:54Yeah.

01:55OK.

01:55Oh, yeah.

01:56Yeah.

01:57Some nice snaps.

01:58We're going to dig into this thing,

01:59because it was a really compelling three hours.

02:02And obviously, one, the Texans, they win.

02:04They're 1 and 0.

02:05That's the big thing.

02:06They get the season started off right.

02:08Three straight times, they beat the Colts.

02:09They are now nine straight road games in the AFC South

02:12that they've won.

02:13So all those streaks are still alive.

02:14CJ still hasn't thrown an interception

02:16in a divisional game yet, although it was close

02:19a couple of times with CJ.

02:22To me, Seth, the biggest, the biggest thing,

02:25kind of playing off of what you just talked about,

02:27of them being able to beat you multiple ways now,

02:29is that they didn't just run the football.

02:32They ran it well.

02:33Obviously, Joe Mixon, 30 carries, $1.59.

02:38He averaged well over five yards per carry.

02:40But the fact that they ran it in the two instances

02:44that you have talked about and I have talked about that

02:47are independent of the statistics,

02:49independent of averaging x amount of yards per carry,

02:51or independent of being a top 10 rushing team,

02:55they were able to move the ball and score touchdowns

02:58when they got in the red zone, in no small part

03:00because they actually have a threat running the football

03:01now.

03:02I know Diggs got two of those in there,

03:04but two short touchdowns.

03:05Mixon got the other one.

03:06But they were able to move the football in the red zone,

03:08in part because of the rushing attack.

03:10And the biggest thing, that play that we heard at the very end,

03:12when they needed to burn 3 and 1 1 minutes o'clock,

03:15there wasn't any big, great burst run or anything like that,

03:18other than the one that put the game away was nine yards.

03:21But they were in second and seven, and third and three,

03:25and they were moving the football

03:27and grinding the clock.

03:28And they were doing it when the Colts knew

03:30that they wanted to do it.

03:32When the Colts knew the Texans wanted to run the football,

03:35on third and three, to close the game,

03:38this is just our good ones against your good ones,

03:41and we're going to beat you.

03:43And they were able to do that on that play

03:44that everybody just heard.

03:46That's the most encouraging thing to me,

03:49is that, situationally, they were able to move

03:52the football on the ground.

03:53Not just various times throughout the game.

03:55And by the way, Joe Mixon's long run of the day on this buck,

03:5859, was 13 yards.

04:00So it wasn't 159 yards, it was buoyed by a 65-yard run.

04:05He was grinding six, eight, nine, five, 11, 13, 13,

04:11like it was a steady beating by Joe

04:14Mixon in the offensive line.

04:16The one that I got excited about was

04:17when it was second and six, and Joe Mixon ran for three yards

04:20at the end of the game, because it was

04:23against a heavily loaded box.

04:25They were committed fully to stopping the run,

04:28and they ground out three yards, and they end up

04:31getting the first down on the next one.

04:32But that right there is the test.

04:34Can you run effectively?

04:37And that's not technically a win of a run,

04:39but compared to last year, and given

04:42in the full context of what they were able to do on the ground,

04:45it was great.

04:46Boy, one of the best plays of the game, in my mind,

04:50was a Joe Mixon run up the middle on an inside zone,

04:53where Kenyon Green got out in space

04:56and absolutely threw Zaire Franklin out of the bar.

05:01It looked like an action movie, Sean,

05:03where somebody is falling off a, the hero

05:07lets the villain drop, that just shoves him off the skyscraper,

05:11and they show the scene of him flailing his arms.

05:15That would be die hard.

05:16I thought it was die hard.

05:17Yeah, it looked like there might as well

05:19have been a bad green screen behind it and everything.

05:21Zaire Franklin just lost in space,

05:24like George Clooney at the end of that space movie,

05:26where he goes flying off into the void.

05:30Yeah, it was beautiful.

05:32Gravity, it was Zaire Franklin, stars in Gravity.

05:36Yeah, featuring Kenyon Green, yes.

05:39Yeah, so juice grugs and Kenyon Green, much improved,

05:42and Kenyon Green especially.

05:44It looks like a different human being from two years ago.

05:46I haven't gone through and watched the All-22 yet

05:48or anything, there were blemishes, to be sure,

05:50on the offensive line.

05:51The pass protection was certainly not pristine.

05:55I think, I mean, Laramie Tunsel just, he looks rusty,

05:58he looks like his, I don't know if maybe it was

06:02because they were wearing dark pants and white jerseys,

06:04but I felt like Laramie's legs looked a little bit skinny.

06:07You think?

06:08For coming back from his knee surgery

06:10and the way he looked out there at times,

06:12he didn't look like himself.

06:14He had some really good snaps, too.

06:15I just, he didn't, I talked a lot of smack on his behalf

06:19about going against Latu, and there were some rough snaps.

06:22He did not back you up, yeah.

06:23You were like Matt Damon speaking for Ed Norton

06:26in Rounders, like, no, no, no, I'm good for this debt, too,

06:30mobsters, Russian mobsters, it's fine,

06:32and you look up and Laramie Tunsel's hightailing it

06:35out of the state, and you're left having to pay 15 grand

06:37to Russian mobsters.

06:39A lot of movie analogies early today, I like it.

06:42So that's the offensive side.

06:43We're gonna dig deeper into this stuff

06:44as we roll on with the show here.

06:45Texans win yesterday, 29-27.

06:48How about the defense?

06:49Shutting down, I mean, I know there were three 50-yard plays

06:52that all set up touchdowns, or at least directly

06:54could have been or were touchdowns,

06:57but I think the story defensively is the,

07:02they shut down Jonathan Taylor yesterday.

07:04Right.

07:0516 carries, 48 yards, they cut the head off the snake

07:07with Jonathan Taylor yesterday.

07:08Yeah, I, you know what I was surprised by yesterday

07:10was a lot of people, even after the game, were livid,

07:13like genuinely angry that Anthony Richardson

07:16had so many yards on the ground.

07:18Not, which, to be clear, look,

07:21Anthony Richardson had 56 yards rushing.

07:23He was the leading rusher on the day.

07:25Jonathan Taylor had 48 yards rushing.

07:27That's going to happen.

07:29Richardson's gonna get his yardage on the ground.

07:31That's just, that's who he is.

07:33Honestly, if Anthony Richardson had any semblance

07:36of consistency, he might end up being the best quarterback

07:39of all time, and if he could stay healthy,

07:41but he's so far from that that yesterday

07:44was the full Anthony Richardson experience.

07:47He's gonna get yardage on the ground

07:49because he's a physical freak.

07:52He's like a bulky Cam Newton, but more athletic.

07:55It's crazy.

07:56The Texans linebackers did a really good job

08:00of handling the RPO game, being patient,

08:05staying in coverage until they knew for sure

08:07that it was passed.

08:08I credit D'Amico and Matt Burke

08:10with mixing things up defensively

08:13and how they handled the RPO,

08:15so they didn't give a consistent look

08:17for the Colts to really see,

08:19but I mean, obviously, the big thing is the big plays,

08:22the explosives.

08:27Jimmy Ward's gotta stay over the top

08:29when he's supposed to stay over the top.

08:31He's supposed to, well, even the big long,

08:33freakishly good throw by Richardson,

08:36it looked like they were in quarters coverage.

08:38It's not over the top.

08:38It's just that Jimmy Ward couldn't run with Alec Pierce.

08:43I mean, it's Alec Pierce.

08:45You're blaming Derrick Stingley on that.

08:47The ball was caught 2 1⁄3 of the way across the field,

08:51away from Derrick Stingley.

08:53Jimmy Ward's gotta be better in better position on that.

08:54Where is safety supposed to be in that play, yeah.

08:57It's funny you say that

08:58about the Anthony Richardson experience.

09:00I'm looking, I do my notes that I post

09:02that have all kinds of curse words in them and stuff.

09:05Literally, the drive that ended

09:07with the Kalen Bullock interception,

09:10I literally bracketed that on my notes

09:13and I wrote Anthony Richardson experience in all caps

09:16because on that drive,

09:17he had the 24-yard scramble for the first down.

09:20He had another third and two,

09:21might've been a read option or something.

09:23He ran for two first downs on third downs on that series,

09:26but he also missed a wide open A.D. Mitchell over the top

09:29that would've been a walk-in touchdown,

09:31and then he threw an interception to Kalen Bullock

09:33that looked like it might not have been his fault.

09:35Everybody was slipping on that turf yesterday.

09:38That was the unfortunate thing about yesterday

09:40was it was just, and you know what?

09:42I'm not making excuses for anybody,

09:43but it does contribute to the sloppiness.

09:46Obviously, your routes and everything

09:48aren't gonna be as precise.

09:50I did a live stream yesterday and I was kinda,

09:52I realized afterwards that I had barely mentioned

09:56Nico Collins, which is absurd.

09:59We're just guilty of the same thing.

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