Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast discuss Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik mentioning "hot streaks" and the fact that the Texans have had NONE this season, then dive into how Nick Caserio assesses the Texans' execution issues.
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00:00Alright, can the Texans flip the switch possibly this game on Saturday?
00:05Here was Bobby Slowik yesterday on the offense heading into Saturday's wildcard round game
00:11against the Chargers.
00:12I don't necessarily think for us the way we approach it is you're really flipping the
00:15switch.
00:16Like naturally you get to the playoffs and everyone's season's on the line.
00:19I'm sure everyone's talked about it, there's just a different speed to the game, there's
00:23a different physicality to the game, there's a different intensity to the game, like you
00:26can't avoid that.
00:28We know we've had some ups and some downs on offense this year and there's been a lot
00:31of really evolving as an entire group.
00:35And I would say like the last three weeks in particular we've really honed in on what
00:39we think we need to do in both areas, the run and the pass game, really all the way
00:44across the board that we think fits us as a group and who we have out there and our
00:50identity as a team that we can really press forward with.
00:54But then that takes time to even grow into that.
00:58And as we work through some things, even the last three weeks, our emphasis beyond that
01:02was we've got to do everything we can to start to get hot.
01:05And that's really all it takes is if you get hot as an offense, especially around this
01:08time of year, that's a really good thing for your team and your organization.
01:14And I would say probably this year, generally, I think last year we probably had a few hot
01:19streaks in there.
01:20I feel like this year we didn't have as many hot streaks and strides that we hit from multiple
01:24games as an offense this year.
01:26And that's really been our intent, like how on the details can we be as we go through
01:30every single one of these practices and weeks so that we can kind of start a spark.
01:35Go ahead.
01:36Go ahead, Seth.
01:37Well, no, I agree with a lot of what he said there.
01:39I guess it just comes down to like to what degree do I agree with him?
01:42Because I think that there's also the element of, okay, you got a different O-line in there
01:48now.
01:49Titus has been a guard for a few weeks now to where you start to can feel like, okay,
01:51maybe we can do inside zone more than we thought, all that.
01:55But the question is really like, okay, but can we do it versus good defenses down in
02:00the red zone?
02:01That's the hard part.
02:02You can get better at it, but still, man, to really mash the ball, which they were unable
02:07to do in the goal line area last week, but also versus a couple of real stud interior
02:13defensive linemen.
02:14But there's, yes, there is an avenue and there's a little bit of a sliver of like, all right,
02:20you know what?
02:21We're getting into some things more than we used to.
02:23I just, I'm skeptical that it's going to be a huge leap all of a sudden.
02:26Yeah.
02:27Well, he, he cited there the hot streaks, right?
02:30And we're talking about, you know, from our perspective, we're talking about what are
02:34the people's faith, the fans, media, their faith in what Bobby Sloak is talking about
02:39the possibility of happening, happening.
02:42And I would submit where he said, we've had fewer hot streaks this year.
02:45I would submit the reason why people are pessimistic right now is you've had no hot streaks this
02:49year.
02:51Yeah.
02:52They've scored.
02:53The offense has scored more than 30 points.
02:54One time all year.
02:55I know they, you know, they scored 30 in Dallas, but seven of that was Derek Barnett.
02:59Yeah.
03:00The offense has scored more than 30 points one time this year.
03:03And it was against the new England Patriots who were one of the worst teams in football
03:07last year.
03:08He's absolutely right.
03:09They did have like, they had pockets in the beginning and the middle and the end of the
03:13season where you go, okay, we're fine.
03:15Like, yeah.
03:16Like I, like that, that team last year wasn't perfect offensive.
03:19How to bottle some of this stuff up.
03:20Well, that was the reason for the hope in the office.
03:23It was, is what didn't your one?
03:25Yes.
03:26If you can build on that, then here you go.
03:27You're off to the races.
03:28Weeks three and four.
03:29They scored the offense scores 30 against Jacksonville and 30 against Pittsburgh last
03:34year.
03:35Last year, weeks nine and 10, they had the big game against Tampa Bay in week nine.
03:39And then they go to Cincinnati and score 30 in week 10, CJ drew for over 500 yards versus
03:44Tampa in the Tampa game.
03:45Yeah.
03:46I mean, and there were, yeah.
03:47There were a lot of fireworks in those games and they ran the ball in those games.
03:49So at least in the Cincinnati game, they did.
03:51I think Devin Singletary was player of the week in that Cincinnati game.
03:55And then at the end of the year, they, they beat Tennessee, Indianapolis, and Cleveland
03:59in games where the offense looked one 30 points level.
04:03I mean, in, in, in Tennessee, they scored 20 against Tennessee.
04:06They scored 26, they scored 23 against Indy, but that was a game where Nico went off and
04:10had a, had almost 200 yards.
04:12And then the offense scored 31 against Cleveland.
04:14They had the two pick sixes to, to kind of pile on my point being like last year, going
04:19into the playoffs, I felt good about the offense because we we'd seen it spread out throughout
04:24the year and with different combinations of guys, you know, like tank was a big part of
04:28it early.
04:29Well, he was gone by the end of the year.
04:30They were still moving the football at the end of the year.
04:32This year, I got nothing to hang my hat on, not on the 30, I got a 41 point output against
04:37the crappy Patriots.
04:39The tough part of it too, is whatever the hell's going on with the Kiami Lasseter and
04:43my gosh, Kiami Fairbairn yeah.
04:47As of late, we're like beginning of the season, I was like, he might be too good because,
04:52because they're, they're too comfortable settling for 65 yard field goal, kick a 73 yard field
04:57goal.
04:58We'll be fine.
04:59Start.
05:00No problem.
05:01I'll kick a 61 yard or here we go.
05:02That's falling apart a little bit as of late, the one thing you can hang your hat on in
05:06terms of real hope versus the better teams versus the playoff teams.
05:09Is it man, the defense is capable of creating just droves of turnovers.
05:17It's just, it's hard to rely on that every single week versus good playoff teams in a
05:22playoff run.
05:23It's just like at some point, kind of like in baseball and your bats, no matter how awesome
05:27your offense is, your bats are going to go dry.
05:29This is the opposite.
05:30And we're talking about the defense, but you're not going to feast on turnovers every single
05:33week against good offenses.
05:35Well, that's, and it's funny you bring up baseball because what Bobby was saying about
05:38the offense there when he's like, you know, just, you got to catch a hot streak here in
05:41the post season.
05:42I'm like, yeah, but think about if a baseball team were, think about if a baseball team
05:46that was batting like two 39 all year, because that's what the Texans are.
05:50The Texans are a bottom.
05:52This version of the Texans offense.
05:54The one that we've watched for the second half to the back third of the season is a
05:58easily bottom half, if not bottom third of the league offense.
06:01And that's, so that would be like a, that'd be like a baseball team heading into the playoffs.
06:05It was very pitching centric.
06:07Same way.
06:08The Texans are very defensive centric.
06:09All we need is a, all we need is to match our OPS as a team is seven Oh four.
06:14Yeah.
06:15But if we can just, if we can just hit that hot streak, but this is the difference.
06:19This is, I'm not, I'm not being the analogy police on you.
06:21Like the good, the good difference is that in baseball, it's a seven game, a five or
06:26a seven game series.
06:27Yeah.
06:28And that's where those things, it's a lot harder to, it's a lot harder to fake it for
06:33five or seven games.
06:34And yeah, that's why, that's why football is as exciting as it is in a lot of ways.
06:39Because man, yeah.
06:40Like the, the, the inferior team sometimes wins or the inferior can go hot streak.
06:46You go, I mean like Joe Flacco in the playoffs, I guess that's, is that what we'd have to
06:50hang our, our, our best hopes offensively is that if they can, if CJ can basically,
06:56I think who CJ, he has very much the potential to be a better overall quarterback than Joe
07:01Flacco.
07:02I don't know.
07:03I don't know if Flacco played out of his brain the year they won the Superbowl.
07:05I am.
07:07I tend to think it's more, somebody made this analogy on my podcast, on the, in the mailbag,
07:12on the utopia football podcast, Flacco is a good one, but Flacco played at a monster
07:17level that post season Eli, the year they beat the Patriots the first time was very
07:23good that post season, but he, I mean, he's the MVP of the Superbowl, but that was largely
07:26because he was the quarterback of the team that beat the Patriots.
07:30That team was built around, was built similarly to the Texans in it.
07:34Their pass rush was what was going to win stuff.
07:36It was, they were, they played a hyper aggressive style of defensive line play.
07:41Like they did, they got up field, they penetrated, they did all those things and yeah, they were
07:46kind of the fuel for that team.
07:47So to answer your question, I think there's a better chance that CJ looks more like Eli
07:52in that post season than it looks like Flacco Flacco was 11 touchdowns and no interceptions
07:57that post season.
07:58Like he was crazy good.
08:01I don't know that this tech, I didn't, and I think CJ himself has that in him.
08:03I don't know that this offense has the support system around him to go on a Flacco like run,
08:09but I think there's enough there to do what the giants did back when they were, I think
08:12they were the four seat also, like they were, they were the worst.
08:15They were the wild, a wild card team or they were the worst of the division winners.
08:19So yeah, so maybe Casario, you asked Casario about this yesterday on, on show we had Nick
08:25Casario on the pain and Pendergast show.
08:27It's a good show.
08:28Check it out a lot.
08:30You asked him, why have there been execution issues on the offensive side of the football?
08:35Yeah.
08:36And it's never one thing said, and I'm not trying to like be ambiguous here, jump around,
08:39but I would say sometimes it's a defensively, like they have a call that matches up with
08:45your call and you know, puts you in a disadvantageous position or decision-making instead of throwing
08:50a ball away, you know, maybe you try to do something more than there is.
08:54So it's never one thing usually goes back to the fundamentals.
08:57Are we getting the blockers distributed in the proper way?
09:00Are we making the right decisions?
09:01Are we taking care of the football?
09:02Is the route depth the right?
09:03Are you in the right spot?
09:04Did you have an ME on the play?
09:06So it's never one thing.
09:08So it's always probably two or three different things.
09:11And at times we'd be able to get the ball in the red, in the end zone down in the red
09:14area.
09:15And other times we haven't, we had some opportunities even going back to the Tennessee game.
09:18We got the ball in the red area there on a first drive, scored a couple of touchdowns
09:22in the beginning, got stopped there in some other situations, missed a throw, could have
09:26done something a little bit better.
09:28So it always goes back to basic fundamental execution.
09:31And sometimes the defense does better than the offense and vice versa.
09:35And that's part of the cat and mouse game, you know, when you're playing.
09:38I guess the big thing about that is that everything you described, I think is things that I was
09:46thinking about.
09:47And yes, there are some times where like just by luck of the draw, it's the wrong call versus
09:51that defense.
09:52And that happens to every single offensive coordinator.
09:54So I guess it's a matter of frequency with which it happens and with the players, with
09:59their lack of execution.
10:00I mean, there's, there's something to be said for a man.
10:03If you can just now and then like blunt force trauma is the best course of action.
10:08And you can get away with your technique failing a little bit, or maybe the imperfect play
10:12call.
10:13If you can just go out and just physically beat people.
10:16And I, that's what I'm torn with right now on this offense is it's so hard to talk about
10:22one position group and why it's not working out without also like either making excuses
10:28for them or an explanation that involves another position group playing poorly it's across
10:33the board to the point where it just, it feels like you're, you've, you've built this offense
10:38on a foundation of sand and it's just really hard to lean into anything too hard because
10:43you can't get the proper execution over the, across all 11 guys.
10:47I will go back and say that there's some things on the offensive line that I do think they've
10:52improved over the course of the season.
10:53A lot of the really egregious communication errors and everything like that, that, that
10:57got cleaned up midway through the season, kind of coincided with Patterson playing center.
11:02And, and then I think with Titus at guard, they've got enough of a sample size now that
11:08they can start to feel like, okay, you know what, Laramie and Titus work well together
11:12in this regard.
11:13Maybe we can run some, some more power and inside zone concepts than we could before.
11:19So there's something there.
11:21It's just like, it's, it's all that stuff that it's like when you show up for a test
11:24and you're like, I really wish I'd studied for this finals now.
11:29Yeah.
11:30We're finals now.
11:31Yeah.
11:32That's the thing is like, if we, if you and I were having this conversation, we had just
11:34talked to Nick yesterday and it was week three, then I'd be like, well, you're just saying
11:38now about, well, you know, maybe we've got something here with Titus playing left guard
11:41or whatever, but like, yeah.
11:42Okay.
11:43And they got 14 weeks to fix the chargers in two days and it's winter go home.
11:48Yeah.
11:49And that's, that'll be where it gets interesting to me.
11:50Cause I I'm, I am firmly somebody that's like this offense is what it is right now.
11:55I don't think a switch is getting flipped.
11:57Yeah.
11:58I don't think they're catching a hot streak here offensively.
11:59I just, we're hoping that Deontay Johnson shows up as the best version of himself.
12:05It's hero ball.
12:06Right?
12:07That's like, it's more realistic to hope for hero ball.
12:09And then it is that, Oh, like all of a sudden they're going to go out there and look like
12:12a finely tuned machine.
12:14Totally.
12:15Totally.
12:16I think what Nick said is really interesting because the off season is when we're going
12:21to get the answers as to what it was the most, what it was the most like where he started
12:26in going, Hey man, sometimes they, they have a call.
12:28That's the perfect call for you.
12:29Well, that sure does happen a lot against the Texans.
12:31You know, like there is a reason why certain guys win at poker every year and certain guys
12:35lose at poker every year in the world series of poker, Bobby Sloak is not a very good poker
12:39player right now.
12:40And so, so is it Bobby slow?
12:42Is it that the Emmys, the mental errors is what Emmy stands for.
12:46You know, like we'll find out who the guys are that had been making more of those than
12:49anybody else possibly in the off season.
12:51If they move on from certain, you know, I'll go back to various times with the Texans,
12:55two different coaches, Kubiak or O'Brien or anybody else.
12:57There's times where you can just tell, all right, the offensive line, they're, they're
13:02not dumb guys, but for some reason they're not, they're not comfortable and confident
13:07in what they're supposed to be doing on the play.
13:09And that's gotten better.
13:11Like we talked about earlier with Laramie and Titus, but it's just, it's not at the
13:16level where you want it to be.
13:17But that does go back to, all right, what is it?
13:19Are these guys just not good?
13:21Or is the message not clear and they don't care about which specific play is being called
13:27when guys look like they don't know who they're supposed to block.
13:30That's a problem when it happens, when it, when it happens frequently, the, as far as
13:34Bobby Sloak in Jonathan and Alexander's mailbag yesterday, somebody had asked him about Bobby
13:39Sloak.
13:40And I think, I think Jonathan was probably correct when he said that he doesn't think
13:44that the Texans like have made a decision on that or, and I would agree with that, which
13:50could mean that they are definitely going to consider making a change.
13:53But they're like, I think both D'Amico and Nick are very much like true to their word.
14:01I think when like they want to focus on what's in front of them and then they'll figure that
14:04stuff out after the season, they'll kind of sit down in a room for two days and figure
14:08all these issues out.
14:09Totally agree.
14:10Totally agree.