The Texans' 32-27 loss to the Titans at home is one of the worst of the DeMeco Ryans Era. Have you lost faith? In The Loop talked about that here.
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00:00I did ask, with this loss, which one of the worst, if not the worst in D'Amico Ryan's
00:05tenure as head coach here, changed your level of faith in this team at all, but I did want
00:11to go back.
00:12We got a text that came in from the 832, I blame y'all for the Texans losing.
00:16What is it with this, we need to blow this or that team out to be satisfied?
00:20Who the hell are we, as Texans fans, to think like this?
00:23Well, I appreciate you texting on the 5-iron NG fan line, friend.
00:28The place that that comes from, for me, I can speak for myself, you guys, feel free
00:32to agree or disagree as you want.
00:35It is more about being able to predict future performance.
00:40If I see a team that you are better than and you treat them like you are better than them
00:43by handling your business to the point of blowing them out, I think then I can predict
00:48performance, I can predict that that is a level of play that maybe you can sustain when
00:53you go out and you play better teams, essentially, also, when you play in the playoffs you'll
00:57be playing better teams.
00:58When you do not play up to the standard in certain situations, or you play just well
01:02enough to just get by a team that you are clearly better than, I can't then predict
01:07that performance forward.
01:09That's my general mindset.
01:10That's how I operate in that, and that's why I talk about that in the way that I do.
01:15And I can tell you, that's going to tie in directly with the conversation we're about
01:19to have with D'Amico Ryans.
01:22Now, certainly, we talk about, and not just us here in the loop, you, me, and Figgy, but
01:28also our station and a lot of people around town, people who cover this team, that we
01:33need to see better.
01:35We need to see more.
01:36They need to win more convincingly.
01:37We've talked about style points or not style points, but just show what you can do.
01:41I can with great confidence, like great, great confidence, it's not just us.
01:48Not just us that want to see that.
01:49It's them.
01:51It's in that building.
01:53They want to see it as well.
01:54So we might have that opinion, but I can tell you, I can assure you, I can assure you that
02:00from the top down, they feel the same way.
02:03They feel like they've let games go, that they should have won.
02:07They know that yesterday's performance was one that should have been not just gone the
02:14other way, but was set up to go the other way with how the team started, with the big
02:18kickoff and the early touchdown and at home and all that.
02:21So yeah, you know, yes, we will take the blame, but it's not just us.
02:27And I think it ties in directly with what we're about to talk here about here.
02:30You raised the question and I'll give you my answer.
02:32That was the worst game of D'Amico Ryan's career here.
02:35I don't even think it's close.
02:37I think there are too many, you know, little pieces that doesn't mean we don't have confidence
02:42in D'Amico Ryan's moving forward.
02:43What does that mean?
02:44We don't have confidence that these players are going to reach a level and hopefully within
02:49this season, but if not this season, very, very soon where they can be at that elite
02:53level.
02:54But I'm just telling you where we are right now, that was the worst game of D'Amico's
02:58career.
02:59Yeah.
03:00And the things that were concerning within that, some of them come back to places where
03:05I go, that is the responsibility of the coach.
03:07One of those, I think for me was a being, you know, having your players ready to play.
03:14It's a very general statement, but, and I look, there's not really a great way to quantify
03:19this, but it just, you could sense that these players, the same enthusiasm, the same physicality
03:25is one of those places that you can absolutely get to, especially with D'Amico Ryan's and
03:28his defense and the swarm mentality that he establishes.
03:32It did not feel like that was in the, in the cards.
03:35And then, you know, this is where we can start talking about the things that are quantifiable
03:38penalties start showing up again.
03:39And that's when we start talking about an undisciplined team.
03:42And there was quite a few of them.
03:43Let me get that number for you right quick.
03:45Just so that we, we are absolutely, you know, statistically correct when we talk about this,
03:51but you had a lot of penalties in that game.
03:54One of them, I know that the Laramie Tunsil one popped up and Laramie Tunsil, again, the
03:58most penalized player in the national football league.
04:00That it was funny.
04:01Cause I saw, I was like, CBS was ready with that graphic.
04:04It was in the barrel.
04:05They were waiting for that one.
04:06The safety was not on.
04:07It was in the barrel.
04:08But on that play, on that play, you could have, you could have called that on 71 instead
04:12of 78.
04:13Cause on the other side, uh, you had Titus Howard who, uh, moved early, but yeah, you
04:18had penalties to the accounting of, uh, 11 penalties, 81 yards.
04:23Yeah.
04:24Well, let's start right there.
04:25Okay.
04:26Let's start right there.
04:27Uh, because I think it speaks to D'Amico and, and you use the magic word that coaches hate,
04:32but it is absolutely accurate.
04:33And I was going to use it too.
04:34His team doesn't have discipline in that very one specific place.
04:39How many times early on in the year when it was really bad and then it got a little marginally
04:43better.
04:44Did we hear, you know, D'Amico and others, but especially D'Amico say, we got to clean
04:47that up.
04:48Got to clean that up.
04:49Well, it's a mess.
04:50And you know, you might've cleaned it up a little bit, but it's in a mess.
04:53It's like, it's like when my mom tells my little brother to clean his room.
04:56Yeah.
04:57He's like, I did.
04:58And it's like, no, he shoves everything under the bed.
04:59Yeah.
05:00Yeah.
05:01That's a great analogy.
05:02You got to, and he pushes everything behind the couch or, or under the bed that that's
05:05what's going on here.
05:07That is a, that's a reflection, man.
05:08I'm sorry.
05:09You know, I'm sorry.
05:10I wish I wouldn't this way, but it is absolutely.
05:13These penalties were the worst timed, the most debilitating of any penalties that the
05:19Texans have had this year.
05:20One nullified a touchdown.
05:23There's one right there that nullified a touchdown to Niko.
05:26Correct.
05:27They backed the team up in the deep in their own territory, uh, on special teams and you
05:32just that back to back penalties back to back on Laramie Tunsil and juice grugs that were,
05:39you know, just horrible.
05:42And you said it, you have the number one, most penalized player on a team that is the
05:48tide for the number one, most penalized penalized team.
05:52And I'll go back to what I said and how we started the show Thanksgiving week, man, that
05:56ain't going to change.
05:57And week 12, man, that ain't going to change.
06:00And you know, in, in the thing about discipline is like tackling is one of those things that
06:05you know, is a, is preached.
06:07And this is where I can understand if you go, all right, D'Amico Ryan's it's his responsibility,
06:11but also there's some other places that you need to look because D'Amico Ryan's has talked
06:15about, like, there's some things that D'Amico Ryan's we'll talk about, like, you know, in
06:18a public setting that you, and especially in like a general way, I'm tackling is one
06:22of those things.
06:23And he's like, you know, we gotta be able to tackle.
06:24That was, that was one of the things that was clearly missing in this game.
06:28And so I know that he's definitely talked about that without, you know, without having
06:31to do very much.
06:32I know that he's talked to these guys about that, but it, it clearly did not resonate
06:37enough to show up on this particular occasion.
06:40So that's one of the things that that's a frustrating for D'Amico Ryan's.
06:43Another one that shows up and it shows up periodically, not a lot.
06:47But I do wonder if we have to have some level of consideration about it as some of the decision
06:51making at times.
06:52D'Amico Ryan's cut 10 here.
06:55There was a play, it was very early, I think it was their first offensive possession in
06:58the third quarter.
06:59Was it not?
07:00Coming out of that halftime?
07:01Yeah, we were in the suite.
07:02And you have...
07:03Wait, we watched the first game, the first half in the press box, went by to see our
07:07friends in the suite and then I went back, you know, to the stands and all that stuff
07:10and you went back to the press box.
07:12So it was clearly early in the third quarter.
07:14Yeah.
07:15But you have a possession where you get the football and, you know, three plays, nine
07:20yards, it's fourth and one.
07:22And it looks like you're going to line up to go for it.
07:24And ultimately you punt.
07:25D'Amico Ryan, what happened on that play?
07:27Nothing happened.
07:28I decided to punt the football.
07:29Okay.
07:30There's been some instances where, like, the decision making on playing for field goals
07:36or...
07:37No, I said okay sarcastically.
07:38No, I know.
07:39And I hear you.
07:40But, you know, there's been some of these instances where the decision on when to go
07:43and when not to go has been a little interesting.
07:46And it felt like if you can't pick up one yard in that instance, especially after, you
07:51know, that team double dipped.
07:52Now, they only double dipped the field goals because your defense showed up well enough
07:55to kind of slow them down.
07:56But after they double dipped, you can't pick up a yard there.
07:59Like, that one says something very strong about your offense or in your belief in them.
08:05Or maybe it just says something about how strongly he believes in his defense.
08:08But this is one of those things where it feels like, hey, we're coming back around to a defensive
08:10coordinator in D'Amico Ryan who may be not operating as much like a full head coach as
08:15you would hope.
08:16Well, let me put it this way.
08:18So I'm going to kind of just go through some of the things.
08:21And again, we believe in D'Amico.
08:22That was the worst game of his career.
08:24And let me kind of line it up for you this way.
08:29There was uncertainty on fourth down that you just mentioned.
08:32That's uncertainty.
08:33I don't care how you look at it.
08:34That's uncertainty.
08:35They're out there.
08:36It looks like they're going to go.
08:37Ah, second thought.
08:38Let's get them off the field.
08:39There was the lack of discipline with the penalties, which was it reared its ugly head
08:42again in the worst way.
08:46We can't forget his defense was shredded by Tony Pollard and Will Levis.
08:51Now Pollard, respectable player, like big time, you know, respect.
08:55But I mean, he was gashing you.
08:58They averaged 6.9 yards of carry well into the third quarter.
09:02And then there's this.
09:03And this sort of pushed the old buttons a little bit as well.
09:07He protected his OC again after the game.
09:11And I want to follow up on that.
09:12But let's hear from him first.
09:13Yeah.
09:14So this is D'Amico Ryan's cut five here.
09:15Is there a growing concern that you guys need more from the offense?
09:19The concern for me is we need to play complimentary football, right?
09:24We play complimentary football.
09:25We win games when we don't.
09:27We're not relying on one side, right, to carry the entire team.
09:31So whatever happens, like our offense gave us enough points to win the game.
09:37They did.
09:38So that starts with the defense.
09:39You didn't do enough to stop them.
09:40We didn't stop the run and we didn't run the ball well and we gave up way too many points
09:44on defense.
09:45So our offense did plenty.
09:48They gave us no points.
09:49In defense, we have to be able to stop them.
09:51And he knows it.
09:52They didn't.
09:54You scored 27 points.
09:55One was on a pick six.
09:57Another was on a short field after a turnover.
09:59Yeah.
10:01They didn't.
10:02Yeah.
10:03And I think Seth made a really interesting point this morning, Payton Pendergast, saying
10:07that that sounds like a defensive coordinator and something that you would say to your defense
10:10as opposed to like the entirety of the team.
10:14That is one of the places where I will absolutely say, yo, you are showing that you're absolutely
10:17going against the accountability for that offense because the offense did not do.
10:21The offense was clearly not sufficient.
10:23As evidenced by the fact that you looked at a fourth and one and you said, we got to punt
10:26it.
10:27All right.
10:28We do not want to take this.
10:29We don't believe we can get this one yard.
10:31Coming out of a half.
10:32Coming out of half, man.
10:33And that was a deeply frustrating thing from D'Amico Ryans.
10:38I haven't lost complete faith in him.
10:40Like this is.
10:41No, I have not.
10:42I have not.
10:43But that was bad.
10:44Yeah.
10:45And I think that it's interesting to see the people for whom they're losing faith because
10:47a lot of them, when they point to the idea of losing faith in him, it's because of this
10:51one here.
10:52It is the it is the ways that he has protected the offense and Bobby Slowick in this in this
10:58the way that it's gone because the offense has clearly clearly been bad and people are
11:04raising the question.
11:05Is it time to change the play caller and whether or not you answer yes or no before we even
11:09get there?
11:10I don't know that I think that D'Amico Ryans would be willing to make a change at play
11:14caller.
11:15I can't see it, to be honest, based on the fact that all evidence to the contrary, he
11:21just continues and continues and more so yesterday than than ever before.
11:26You know, protect the offense, defend Bobby Slowick, not throw anybody I shouldn't say
11:32under the bus, but not hold anybody accountable, you know, even remotely publicly.
11:38I mean, his his starting safety is more so than him from him earlier.
11:44The offensive line still giving up pressures and you're still saying that it's not a problem.
11:48Look, this is this is it's starting to get to the point where he's he's protecting his
11:54guy and holding the line as an old school coach to his own detriment.
11:59Yeah.
12:00And I mean, this is where because I've I've had a little trouble with this is I understand
12:06the people like, oh, man, you know, you don't he doesn't owe you an answer.
12:09I understand how how you get to that place.
12:12But I would like answer sometimes because it would it would assure me that you have
12:16the answers or that you have some idea what the problem is.
12:18Brand on the YouTube gets to this by saying they can't fix the problem until they recognize
12:22the problem.
12:23They refuse to show that they recognize the problem.
12:25And that's that's the thing that concerns me a lot of times, because that right there
12:28felt like a either a unwillingness or an incapable of incapability of recognizing that your offense
12:34is absolutely absolutely was a problem in this game.
12:37Yeah.
12:38Like and there's no other way to cut that.
12:39And that that is a frustrating thing, because I don't know how you get better if you don't
12:43acknowledge the fact that this offense was an issue.
12:46And there were multiple aspects going into it, including your quarterback not playing
12:49well, including your offense coordinator being somewhat predictable or being like just lighting
12:56plays on fire where the margins are razor thin.
12:59Yeah, understandably so, because your offensive line isn't, you know, is not as robust as
13:04you would want it to be and all those types of things, right?
13:08It's deeply frustrating to see that D'Amico Ryan's had a level of protection there for
13:12Bobby Sloak, who is a grown man and is willing to, in his availability, mind you, he speaks
13:16on Wednesday this week, set up, stand up and say when he gets it wrong, I kind of find
13:20it to be interesting that D'Amico Ryan is not willing to point to that as well.
13:24Yeah.
13:25And again, starting to bounce back on him, you know, and that's something that is and
13:31it's not just like, okay, so we went through the uncertainty on fourth down and you know,
13:35his defense was uncharacteristically maybe, or maybe characteristically at this point,
13:40you know, shredded by a quarterback named Will Levis and he protects his own offensive
13:46coordinator.
13:47It's also, you know, the accountability of the players that he's just, you know, hell
13:50bent on just keeping, you know, everything looking positive.
13:54When you see it, you see, they still gave up a lot of pressures.
13:58You still see like the offensive court, I mean the offense in the second half, how do
14:02you say they scored enough points when you've, you've outscored your offense?
14:07The defense has, the defense has outscored the offense in, in recent weeks, uh, in the
14:12second halves of games that, that is going to bounce back on him and it, and it should
14:17at this point.
14:18Yeah.
14:19So I think there, there is a growing, like when I say losing faith, I don't think that
14:24they're losing entire faith.
14:26I think that there's still, and there should be a lot of, uh, appreciation for what D'Amico
14:29Ryan's did.
14:30It's like the, the, the, even just like the messaging of the team, it clearly resonates
14:34with the team.
14:35Jimmy Ward on the postgame show said it and I believe him.
14:38I don't think that he's lying.
14:39Right.
14:40He is, seemed very forthcoming and honest with us and saying that there's, there's no
14:43like kind of chatter amongst the team.
14:45Like I always think of the Jacksonville Jaguars, what was that, 2017, um, when they, when they
14:51went to AC run and then the next year you got the defense absolutely hating the offense
14:56because they are doing the heavy lifting on these teams.
14:59You're not getting anything like that according to Jimmy Ward, it seems like still together.
15:03And so like, I think that is a credit to the head coach, right?
15:06Everybody's still buying in and those things, but there's clearly issues that in week 12
15:12are not being addressed as evidenced by these, a lot of these issues, all of these issues
15:16that we could talk about, the lack of tackling the penalties, uh, you know, uh, various other
15:21things.
15:22I can keep listening.
15:23Um, they've all shown up earlier on in the season and they've all been responded to with,
15:26we have to be better.
15:28And now you come back around and they're still there.
15:29I think they're still saying we gotta be better.
15:31It's, it's, it's reasonable to then go, okay, are you going to, are you going to be capable
15:35of fixing those things?