The Drive's Clint Stoerner, Ron Hughley and Tyler Milner react to the Texans' win with another Mad Dog Monday!
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00:00The Drive is live. You heard Clint Stirner, there is Tyler, and some of you call it a
00:05Victory Monday, and that's fine. I know in the Loop, they call it a Victory Monday.
00:11Well, we call it, Ron.
00:12But here on The Drive...
00:14Will you take that hat off when you turn that up, though?
00:16Here on The Drive, we call it Mad Dog Monday.
00:22Yeah, we do.
00:23Mad Dog Monday. Don't shake your head, Reggie. Don't shake your head.
00:28You know what? You ought to be joining in.
00:30Cheers, boys.
00:32Mad Dog Monday.
00:34Clint had to buy the Mad Dog, by the way.
00:36Yes, indeed.
00:37I had Joe Nixon.
00:38First time Tank Dale failed me, man.
00:42But it wasn't bad, though.
00:44It wasn't bad, but...
00:46There they go. The boys are guzzling.
00:49Get on YouTube and Twitch, Sports Radio 610, if you want to watch and enjoy this Mad Dog.
00:53Stirner, the loser this week, baby.
00:56Stirner. Oh, my gosh. Ron is still going.
00:58Ron is still going.
00:59That one right there.
01:00He is still going.
01:02Are you about to down the whole Mad Dog?
01:04Open him lips up and let it ride.
01:05He did. Ron just took out about three quarters of that MD.
01:10Ah, there it is.
01:11Little Mad Dog Monday.
01:13That was a little bit of a burn.
01:14I'll put some hair on your chest.
01:16I ain't used to guzzling things that burn.
01:18I don't know if that's an alcohol burn or just an old, nasty, ratchety burn.
01:23You know, I didn't like the disappointed look on OG's face when we got these because,
01:28you know, they were some complainers about our bottles.
01:31Yeah.
01:32And he had the audacity to throw them away.
01:34We weren't going to drink them.
01:34Well, I'm going to be honest with you.
01:36I mean, if I were in their shoes, I would feel it's very necessary to say,
01:43Ron and Clint, here's the deal.
01:45It's disrespectful for you all to come in here and knock this Mad Dog back and not bring us a bottle.
01:52You should make-
01:53They could have picked all of them.
01:55Hey, man.
01:55That's it, baby.
01:58Could have picked them all out.
01:59How about that, man?
02:00How about that?
02:01The hopefully one and many, baby.
02:03Hopefully one and many.
02:04Ah, who won?
02:06Who won?
02:09I think I win.
02:10Clearly, my start.
02:12Clearly.
02:13Hey, I knocked it down in two.
02:15I can't believe y'all knocked it down in two and a half.
02:17Y'all are about to be feeling a little buzzy.
02:21Oh, no.
02:23What's in that, man?
02:24We going to be all right?
02:25I'm good.
02:26From the text line, Ron is chugging to forget about his blonde hair.
02:30No, I can't forget it.
02:31You should see how those people looked at me at church yesterday.
02:39I'm hiding it with my hat during this football game.
02:42Got a couple of kids that's on the football team go to the church.
02:46Old Darius looked at me and said-
02:49The look on his face.
02:51When he realized it.
02:52As a 10-year-old, the look on his face said,
02:54what in the hell did you do to your damn hair?
02:58I said, Darius, stop looking that long, man.
03:00I lost the bet, man.
03:01Calm down.
03:02Like, calm down.
03:03He just, he just, I mean, just stared.
03:06So, no, I can't forget it.
03:08It's there every time I look in the mirror.
03:09I do catch myself off guard a couple of times.
03:12But, no, man, someone texted in, this is going to be a nasty show today.
03:16Might be.
03:17Well, we only got three hours.
03:20We got three hours.
03:21Not only will you be able to hear, starting on Mondays, five o'clock,
03:26will you be able to hear the coach's show?
03:28Huh?
03:29You getting a little warm?
03:30I'm good.
03:30Is it hot in here?
03:31I'm hot.
03:31I'm not.
03:32You're always hot.
03:32I got a vest on, man.
03:33I'm good.
03:34Uh, I don't know.
03:35Ripping HEB, I see.
03:36Hadn't hit, hadn't hit me yet.
03:38Uh, but, uh, not only will you be able to hear D'Amico at five o'clock,
03:42starting, uh, this week on Mondays, right here, as we get done.
03:46But you can, coach's show coming up five o'clock.
03:48So stay tuned.
03:49We need you.
03:49You can also hear him at two 30, but at two 30, it'll be different.
03:52You'll be able to hear him in his Monday press conference around two 30.
03:56You'll be able to hear his Monday press conference coming up live right here.
04:00Nowhere else.
04:01Should you be able to hear it live?
04:04If you do somewhere else, they're cheating.
04:05Um, so, um, but, uh, nowhere else will you be able to hear live right here around two 30.
04:11So hang, hang with us.
04:13Um, I guess the first thing in first place I want to go is, uh, what was that?
04:20Where did that come from?
04:23Where did, where did, where did that?
04:26We have talked about it all off season and not just us, but everybody.
04:29One of the major questions is with this run game, the arrows pointed up.
04:34Can the Texans run the football well enough?
04:37Can they do better than we've seen all off season?
04:40And what we've seen in the preseason with the ones and with Damian Pierce and all of that,
04:45by the way, cam makers didn't make it in there.
04:48Inactive.
04:48And, and, and nobody gives a damn about that.
04:50After the run game we saw yesterday, he'll Damian Pierce even was averaging five yards
04:55of carry when he got in there.
04:57But fellas, what was that?
05:00Nobody.
05:01No, I'm sure there are going to be people texting in and say, I knew it all the way.
05:05Nobody saw that level of dominance in the run game.
05:10And I got it.
05:10I got to start it off right now.
05:12Cause Joe Mixon gets the yards.
05:15He got 30 carries, never 30 carries against the coast, but he got 30 carries and basically
05:21a buck 60 and got to the end zone and did that incredulous dance.
05:26Uh, I want to try to perfect that, but I got to give a hand.
05:28Yeah.
05:29Yeah.
05:29I got to stand up and give a hand.
05:34To Kenyon green, who was out there working number 32.
05:37Won't forget about you.
05:39The juice scrubs to Shaq Mason and to Titus Howard.
05:45And you know what?
05:45I'm gonna throw in Kate Stover and actually I'm gonna throw in, I'm gonna throw in, uh,
05:51the other tight end.
05:52Dalton Schultz.
05:53He got in there a couple of times.
05:55Get us a freaking ball.
05:56Congratulations.
05:57Those guys were the difference in the game.
06:00Clint, you said multiple times.
06:03I just want to see one or two times a game where the running back doesn't have to
06:08negotiate a cutback or get around somebody.
06:12And that not just, did you see it one or two times?
06:14I bet you 20 of the 30 carries Joe Mixon and Damian Pierce were allowed to just run
06:23into the hole and then have to figure something out.
06:27There's no secret.
06:28Joe Mixon was significantly better than, than anything we've seen of late at the running
06:32back position.
06:32There's no question about it.
06:33He's an upgrade and he makes the run game better.
06:36But, but we don't, we don't need to spend a ton of time talking.
06:39We all knew Joe Mixon.
06:40Joe Mixon has been a thousand yard back.
06:42We've seen Joe Mixon do, uh, you know, impressive things from the running back position in his
06:47career.
06:48Um, and look, yes, yesterday was great.
06:50I want to, I want to give flowers where they're due, right?
06:52I mean, he, and he gets some, but to your point, this, the, the, the more impressive
06:57part of this, this, you know, um, equation, if you will, is the offensive line.
07:02The, the, I had, I would have lost hell, not one house note.
07:07I'd have lost 10, 15, a year's worth of house notes.
07:10Um, I never in my wildest dreams thought that this offensive line was going to go from what
07:16we've seen them be to that kind of dominant performance against a pretty damn good front.
07:23I just, I didn't think we would see it.
07:25Um, it was, it was unbelievably impressive.
07:29And I'm going to tell you, Ron, we talked about a conversation.
07:32We had a conversation after Thursday night football.
07:35Do I think the Texans are in that category and ready to, ready to, to, to be in that
07:40conversation with chiefs and Ravens?
07:43And I said, not a chance.
07:44I got to see more that performance by Joe mixing in this offensive line.
07:48I'm ready to have it.
07:49Yeah, that is, that is a super bowl caliber football team.
07:54We watch play football on Sunday run game, obviously like there's some other parts that
07:59got to get better, but the right, like they can run the football like that.
08:02We talked about it, right?
08:04We talked about it walking in and we'll, and, and I can't wait coming up there in a little
08:08bit.
08:09And I think there's something we'll do every Monday is get your grade on the quarterback.
08:12Hopefully it's CJ Stroud every week.
08:14Uh, but yeah, true.
08:16We talked about, and how many times with this schedule can they win games where CJ Stroud
08:23doesn't have to be, you know, over my dead body games or drag them to the,
08:29like I said, we'll get your grade on the quarterback coming up here in a bit, but
08:34I mean, CJ, CJ made some plays, especially on third and fourth down, but CJ made some
08:40plays.
08:41I think he was not, um, but Clint there's, there's multiple players that you get to on
08:48that offensive side of the ball before you get to CJ Stroud, who were huge in this game.
08:55And this was to me, this, this to me counts as a game against a quality opponent in which
09:01CJ Stroud didn't have to be great to win the game.
09:05In my opinion.
09:06And, and you won the game and controlled it.
09:09Clint.
09:09They had the ball 40 minutes of a 60 minute game, 40 minutes dominated time of 40 to 20.
09:18Right?
09:18Like, so, I mean, I mean, they, they help their defense so much.
09:23Like, I don't like, I don't know what Jonathan Taylor would have done if he had the ball
09:2710 more minutes or if it was more even, I don't know, but man, that was that, that it
09:32was so dominant.
09:33I've gone back and rewatched the Clint.
09:36I mean, they were, I mean, they were, I mean, and this isn't, this is Buckner.
09:40This is some of the guys up front.
09:42Clint, they were pushing them back.
09:44They had no answer for that.
09:46No answer whatsoever.
09:48It didn't matter if they were going, they were going past going to Laramie side or, or
09:53Titus Howard side.
09:54It was, it was the best performance I've seen from an offensive line here in Houston and
10:00the four plus years I've been here.
10:01Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt.
10:03I mean, look, here's the Texans just scored 29 points and one.
10:08What I would say is the most difficult and, and the most important in division game that
10:14they're going to play this year on the road versus the best division opponent, which I,
10:18you know, that's my opinion.
10:19I think Indy's going to be the best opponent and they went into their building and they
10:23won that football game, scored 29 points.
10:26They did it with a rusty CJ Stroud with below average pass protection, definitely below
10:31the standard of the Texan set last year, below average pass protection.
10:35Clearly CJ wasn't seeing things clear, you know, as clear as he did last year.
10:39And they did it on the back of a dominating run game.
10:43I, I, I, again, I, I just, I thought there was a chance Ron, because clearly, no, no,
10:50no, no.
10:50No, I thought there was, I thought there was a chance Ron that we would say by week eight
10:55run games coming around, they got, they got a good complimentary run game now that now
10:59we can talk, talk Superbowl.
11:01It happened week one, bro.
11:03It happened from start to finish week one.
11:07They ran it in the red zone.
11:08They ran it in a four minute offense situation.
11:11They ran it to put the knee in the turf in Lucas oil stadium in Indy.
11:16And that, that was as impressive a victory as the NFL had this week.
11:20There was probably, there was probably only two, and then from the run game perspective,
11:26only like two times that I can even remember, like, all right, a running back got the ball
11:31and then, and then the backfield, a linebacker or somebody was there that they had to kind
11:36of get away from.
11:37But I mean, you let Joe Mixon get four yards of, of a head of steam before anybody's there
11:44for him to deal with.
11:46Well, and we've, we've talked about it too, that what's impressive about Joe.
11:49I mean, I feel like I I'm shortchanging Joe here because the offensive line was so good,
11:52but what's, what's so impressive about Joe is, and we've talked about it multiple times
11:57is the ability to run downhill and punish folks is, is real.
12:03And he's just a big bodied, powerful back that can run downhill as good as anybody in
12:09the league.
12:10And then he has the ability, which we saw a couple of times for him to get bottled up
12:14inside.
12:15And then he bounces it outside.
12:17And even if it's just a five or six yard game, because he, he, he has a speed to get there
12:21and then he's stiff arms.
12:22And even if that guy, if that defender ends up tackling him, he ends up getting four or
12:26five yards versus getting stymied one yard deep in the backfield.
12:30That is, that is, I mean, a huge weapon to have and Joe mixing.
12:35It took him one game in a Texans uniform to prove to be one of the biggest, if not the
12:38biggest free agent sign of the office.
12:40Yeah.
12:40You know, you knew it was to me and I do want to get to Joe mix because I know you want
12:44to, you want to get to him because I know you probably feel a little bit, I don't want
12:49to say vindicated by your comment of the best.
12:52I think it's probably a fair term to use.
12:54I don't know if given, given the response I got, it may be a little early, but, but,
12:58but I, but when I saw Damian Pierce go in and we saw Damian Pierce in what three carries
13:08looked better than he did all preseason, we saw Damian Pierce, like the nine yard carry
13:14right off the bat, where he looked like old Damian Pierce, where he got ahead of steam
13:18and he ran through a tackle.
13:19He broke two tackles to get to nine yards, but, but he didn't have to, he didn't have
13:24to deal with somebody in the backfield.
13:26Like he did during the preseason.
13:27I said, Oh, this offensive line.
13:28He'll, I think Damian had got 95 yesterday and he had, he had, he maybe not, maybe some
13:34of them cutbacks he might not have gotten, but he, he'd have got 95 on them toss plays.
13:38Oh, he would have had a big day.
13:41He'd have had him a hell of a day.
13:42There's no doubt about it.
13:43It don't matter who you put back there yesterday.
13:44They would have had a hell of a day.
13:45That's, that's why this is, this is, it should be all about the office.
13:48But Joe Mixon did make a, a, a big, a big key to this.
13:52He was some of those cutback runs.
13:54Like there were a couple of runs where I'm like, I don't know that Damian Pierce feels
13:57that early, a couple of cutbacks where he's moving and you see him, bam, he cuts right
14:02back towards the a gap and runs up and he's getting five, seven yards, but he's just on
14:07a different level than all of them.
14:08We didn't even see him in the passing game.
14:09Look, it's, I mean, there's, there's a level of vision with cam Acres.
14:13It's not there with Damian Pierce.
14:14There's a level of power with Damian Pierce.
14:16It's not there with cam Acres and Joe Mixon's got it all right.
14:20And so, yeah, I mean, Joe Mixon, he showed yesterday, um, how gifted he actually is.
14:26And, and, and this goes back to Ron.
14:29I feel like this might be a really good time to, to bring back the thought that, that, uh,
14:33that I got, I got text line and, and social media and Larry and everybody else out there.
14:38When I said it, Joe Mixon is the most talented, Joe Mixon is the most talented back to ever
14:43put on a Texans uniform.
14:44I don't know if he's going to have Arian Foster type numbers.
14:46I don't know if he's going to have those kinds of seasons for three years, but when it comes
14:50to think it's a bit early, but that's fine.
14:53When it comes to being gifted, when it comes to lowering the shoulder and just cleaning
14:58up shop, when it comes to a, the old lines blocking well enough to get you a buck 20,
15:02but you go get a buck 60.
15:04Um, Joe Mixon is the most gifted that I've seen in a Texans uniform.
15:09We'll see if he can live up from a box score standpoint and put them kind of numbers on
15:13a table.
15:13We'll see if this team's good enough to do it for 17 weeks.
15:16But that right there yesterday is exactly what I'm talking about.
15:20That, that is five-star level stuff.
15:23D'Amico looked like he was in a space and you can understand it.
15:26D'Amico looked like he was in a space of, of ready to having another child after that.
15:30And did you see his look?
15:31Did you see the look in his eyes when he, when he saw his team close out the game third
15:38and six or whatever it was, and they hand a ball off and they run it.
15:42And he said, that's what I'm talking about.
15:44It looked like, look out, look out, cause he's coming.
15:47I wanted him.
15:48He lost.
15:49I mean, he, and I meant for good reason.
15:51They closed out however you want to.
15:55There ain't nothing that'll turn a defensive minded head coach on more than, than,
15:58than you're running back.
15:59Just make it running it downhill and making the defense like it.
16:03And then your quarterback takes a step back and puts a need in the games over there.
16:06There's nothing more impressive.
16:08There's nothing more fulfilling than when you can do that.
16:11I mean, that's if you're into winning and you're not into just numbers and I'm talking
16:16about from a quarterback perspective, he knows, he knows as a defender, like, like the coach,
16:21the look on their faces was, I cannot believe they just did this.
16:25They were showing the looks on their faces afterwards.
16:28Like Buckner, some of those guys, Franklin, they could like, they thought, boy, if they
16:33going to do this, they're going to put up 29 points of CJ didn't went off.
16:37No, Jack, it was the other way.
16:39And once that ball started rolling, they couldn't stop it.
16:43And you, we talked about it before.
16:45You can see the three in the middle, them, some nasty mother suckers and I, and I don't
16:51mean nasty, like, you know, the kind of nasty I'm used to nasty.
16:54Yeah.
16:54Not like Ron nasty, that white, white, the top of your lip nasty.
16:58But I mean, they are nasty.
17:00They want to get at it.
17:01And, and we saw it.
17:03We saw it.
17:04If they, and now we'll see, that's one game.
17:06We'll see how this thing continues.
17:08The bears look pretty good in the run game, uh, early, uh, in, in week one, and we'll
17:12see what happens moving forward.
17:14But if they can run the football anywhere close to that, like they don't have to do
17:19that every week.
17:20If they can run the football anywhere close to where teams have to, to actually change
17:26up and look at it.
17:26Cause the bears after watching that, they can't defend maybe the way they were going
17:30to.
17:30They have got to probably put numbers down to Joe mix.
17:34Look, look, the, the, the performance Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts for the Texans
17:38is a put any NFL on notice type of win.
17:42They already know and understand and respect what CJ Stroud and company did last year.
17:49They know that adding digs is going to take that to another level.
17:52What the Texans did was prove that they don't need to get on CJ Stroud's back to win a ball
17:57game.
17:59They don't need CJ Stroud and Bobby slow it to be dealing every single drive in every
18:06single quarter to win a ball game.
18:09If those guys aren't on, or maybe if the defense is just susceptible to the run game, they
18:14can now lean heavily into that and not just be complimentary, not just be average, not
18:19just be effective, but they can be dominant and dominate a game.
18:23And as you mentioned, a time of possession, the, the, the, that, that is boy for a CJ
18:30Stroud, 40 to 12 for that team that we watched last year to now be able to dominate the,
18:34the, the, the time of possession.
18:36We'll grow over into the middle.
18:39Yeah, it's a, that is a, that is a put everybody else on notice that you better be a complete
18:44team.
18:45If you're going to play with the Texans.