CJ & Pitre RETURN: Can They Help the Texans in a MUST-WIN vs Indy? Stroud Only Needs to Be Good?!

CJ & Pitre RETURN: Can They Help the Texans in a MUST-WIN vs Indy? Stroud Only Needs to Be Good?!

CJ and Petri are back. How do both players swing a critical must-win game versus Indie? You are Locked on Texans, your daily podcast on the Houston Texans, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Battle red nation from ace town to your town. Today’s episode and every episode of the locked on Texans podcast is for Texan fans all around. I’m your Texas credential media member and football analyst John Hickman. Got a lot to dive into today on this Saturday edition. Wanted to give you guys some time off on Friday to enjoy family. So with the holiday season, Thanksgiving, let’s have a little Thanksgiving talk. The Houston Texans could possibly win their fourth game in a row. And if so, they’re pushing for the playoffs. So, what do we have to be thankful for this year? Can the Texans defense repeat? What I’m talking about is last time we saw Houston play football, they had one of those historic type of games, eight sacks, all type of pressures, a couple of interceptions, and limited Josh Allen to zero touchdowns. So, can they repeat the that type of performance against the Indianapolis Coast? But opening up today’s episode, just looking at the return of the quarterback, I tried to do the Mac, but the back. So, return of the quarterback diving into CJ Stra return to back and what does that mean for Houston. Thank you guys for making the lockdown Texans a part of your everyday listen and for being a part of the Locked on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the apps. CJ Stra spoke on uh Friday. Thought he had some good things to say. One of my colleagues, one of my favorite colleagues, Miss Kim, asked CJ Str about what he learned from watching from the sidelines from the past few weeks. And he also hinted on just what he needs to do to, you know, help this team get over the hump. Yeah. just see how great our defense is, you know, and if we can just, you know, find a way to score in the red zone and, you know, find points, I think, you know, we can go as far as we want cuz, you know, we have a really, really strong, talented defense. And it was really good to see and for me, you know, to see from a bird’s eye. Um, and that’s been the case, you know, but it’s it’s a little different when you just get to sit there and watch and be like, dang, other quarterbacks got to go through this. Like, I got to, you know, when I get back, I got to make sure I make plays and put these guys in position to win and, you know, reward them for stops and then turnovers, you know. So, um, I think that’s huge. Our special teams, you know, playing well and then, you know, offensively, you know, I thought we did really solid, but I I think we can take another step as well. How will you be able to get back out there on on Sunday? Yeah, I think just, you know, uh, doing the little things right, um, take care of the football, getting out my hand, going through my progressions, my reads, being clean in the communication in the huddle. Um, and you know, just trusting myself, trusting my instincts, being confident, and, you know, just, you know, um, trusting my god-given talent and, you know, go from there. So, um, I thought, you know, I was playing decent, you know, coming out, you know, out of that Seattle game. I thought I played, you know, a good game against San Fran. And then the Broncos, I thought I had a good first quarter, but, you know, sucks that that happened. But, um, I think, you know, I’ll be able to, you know, kind of catch my mojo back. But, you don’t know when. Hopefully, it’s the first play of the game, but whatever it is, I’m going to just keep fighting and try to find my rhythm. Absolutely love CJ there just mentioning really what was you know his take away from the sidelines getting somewhat of a bird’s eye view but also picking up where he left off and I’m glad he highlighted hey before all of this concussion uh mess popped off. I gave you guys a 300 plus total yard game against San Fran. I gave you guys a very good couple of drives before the injury and again we all saw that drive. It felt like that CJ Style really built off that San Fran game and found a way to get back to quote unquote himself. Now, I love his perspective on what he has to do, right? And when I look at going up against Indie and what they present defensively, number one uh for CJ’s trial, he doesn’t need to be extraordinary. I don’t think so. I think that again, you know, he highlighted the defense and how they’ve been playing. And I also think he’s seen Houston win three games without him because of that defense. Now, obviously from a quarterback perspective, you know, he wants to be out there and I’m sure he saw things from a film standpoint of watching live, some of the throws that maybe were missed and some of the things that he’s seen from his other receivers like a Jaden Higgins who continues to grow, Christian Kirk getting back and D continuing to build off of what he started this year off with. And so I’m sure he’s thinking, “Oh yeah, this is a throw I can make or this is something that I can do that’ll give uh offensive coordinator Nick Kayley confidence that he needs to be able to expand the playbook, right? I mean, we all saw it. It was extremely frustrating to watch in that second half, really that third quarter where it just felt like, man, what are they doing here with this offensive game plan and play caller?” And maybe they felt like, hey, with Davis and how he’s playing right now, we got the lead that we need. we trust the defense and I don’t think you can absolutely win like that against Indie, against KC and this is not something that Houston wants to make a habit of which when I look at some of the third and uh first and third quarters this year for the Houston Texans 32 points in the first quarter, 39 points in the third quarter, second quarter 84, fourth quarter 88. So, you look at a lot of these games where it feels like Houston is getting off to a slow start and then they’re having to kind of overcompensate um in the second and fourth quarter where you going to the half or going to the end of the game. So, I don’t think CJ needs to be extraordinary. I think he needs to go out there and just be good. I don’t think he needs to be great. Obviously, if he’s great, then this is a dangerous Texan team. But CJ’s good is different from a Davis Mills good. And that’s no disrespect to Davis Mills. I think we can all agree on that. When CJ is good, then the offense then the expectation is and you can have moments like you had against Baltimore. You can have moments like you had against San Francisco, which you mentioned. You can have moments where you have a fourth quarter like Houston had against Tennessee to get their first win of the season where they scored 26 unanswered points. You can have those moments and I don’t think he necessarily needs to be extraordinary for Houston to do that. If Houston is going to win this game, guys, they’re gonna have to score three touchdowns. The first to 21 points, I think wins the game, and I think when you get a CJ Stra back, is it the first play? Is it the first drive? How does Nick Kayley go about getting his quarterback comfortable and loose out there against Indie a couple of years ago, Houston gets the ball, play action, pass, 75 yard touchdown, and Nico Collins. Do they look to replicate that depending on what the matchup shows? And I think but in that first drive, I don’t necessarily think Houston needs to kind of be conservative with CJ Stout. Again, I’m not asking him to be extraordinary. Now, on the flip side, I do think that, hey, Nick Kayley needs to be much better. Again, first and third quarters, this offense has struggled to put points on the board. And honestly, they they’ve struggled to put points on the board all season, especially when they get down to the red zone, right? In the last two games, well, game and a half for CJ Stra, game and a quarter rather, I think the offense is one of seven in the red zone in terms of touchdowns. Not good. So, getting Stra back I think should allow for Nick Kayley to be better as a play caller. Obviously, with this offensive line, the Texans need the running backs to play well and be productive. The numbers show it. They run over 100 yards. They’re scoring nearly 20 to 24 points after the Buffalo Bills game and then and with CJ Stra an element of his game that is really good is selling the play action. So you get Stra back, you get a few elements back, but obviously you just get the franchise leader back at the quarterback position who I am sure is extremely happy to play some football uh for the Houston Texans. Now defensively, can they repeat? Because if they do, it’s gonna be a tough day for Jonathan Taylor and Daniel Jones and that offense. Before we talk about who’s going to have a tough day, it’s important to talk about NBA is back, man. Rockets a baller right now. They went 2 and 0 this prior week. Uh the NBA Cup has been exciting. good basketball. And there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. 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Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Welcome back, Locked On Texans listeners and viewers. I want to take time to shout out my man Coach Barnes, my man AD. Uh, huge Texan fans. AD does a great job covering the Houston Texans as well. But those two young men brothers in sports are Texas A&M Aggie fans. And they’re Aggies fans. And I just had to wear my Texas shirt for all of my YouTube watchers out there because as you know UT once again and they spoil nearly a perfect season for the agon for the for the Aggies and I don’t know if Aggie is short for agriculture or agony. Big brother does it again. But we are talking about the Houston Texans who has a very important game coming up Sunday versus the Indianapolis Colts. First time they’ll get a shot to see Indie. Um, of course they’re going to talk the the game plan defensively is containing Jonathan Taylor. When Houston took on Jacksonville a few weeks ago, sparked threeame winning streak. That was the game plan against Jacksonville, right? Um control, contain uh Travis CTN and make the quarterback beat them. There hasn’t been many quarterbacks that has beat Houston this year. I mean, even when you look at I’ll say Baker Mayfield beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat beat Houston. Even when I look at the LA Rams game, a lot of that was Houston beating themselves. A lot of that the first time against Jacksonville was Houston beating themselves. The first three weeks of the season, a lot of that was Houston beating themselves. But I’ll give the card to Baker Mayfield and say he beat Houston 14-10 convert. Um, missed tackle by Henry T. Again, a Houston beating themselves moment, but that’s that’s what you pay your quarterbacks, especially like Baker to do. So, if you contain Jonathan Taylor, what does that look like for Houston? You create and capitalize on turnovers, which if Daniel Jones, who we’ve seen, the clock is strike 12. We’re at midnight. We’re we’re at 12:05 now with Daniel Jones, so it’s getting real ugly. He needs to be in the house. He is battling an injury right now. So, uh he will play, I think it’s a fibula injury. He will play against Houston Sunday. Um, and and if we see Anthony Richardson because he can’t continue to play, then that’s great for Houston. But to create and capitalize on turnovers means, okay, Houston will be playing with some damn good field position. I think that’s extremely important considering that the offensive struggles and the defense knows this. This isn’t a shot to the offense from the defensive side of the ball. I’m not I’m not I’m not a spokesperson for anybody, but we understand that the Houston Texans offense has issues. We also understand that they have issues getting into the red zone, right? And I think from 25 to 25, the offense has gotten a lot better this year. Once they get to 20, it’s problems. So, for the defense, how can we make our offensive job easier? Create those turnovers and capitalize on those turnovers. I’m not saying Houston needs to score a defensive touchdown. That would be great. Houston almost had one last week against Buffalo. We know that a couple of weeks ago. Shel the rankings ran one in to stamp the game. But they need to be able to make J Daniel Jones job hard. And I’m talking about from a coverage standpoint. I trust the guys up front. I think the guys up front, Rankings, Settle, um Tommy T, the Dtackles are going to have their hands full. they are going to need to play amazing football. Obviously, when I look at can the Texas defense repeat that conversation is started with the likes of Will Anderson and Denil Hunter, two top five sack getters in the league currently, right? Obviously, but in terms of coverage, what needs to be talked about a little bit more is who does Houston consider to put on here? What’s the matchup in this game? Personally, I think if you want to go stride for stride with what the Indianapolis Colts have done well this year, then you will put, and I’m just a podcaster, right, to a certain extent. But I’m looking at the matchup at quarterback receiver. Will you put will the Houston Texans, excuse me, put Derek Stingley on Alec Pierce and trust Kamari Lacader to take on the assignment of Michael Pitman? Michael Pitman is no joke, by the way, guys. Uh Michael Pitman is a very good receiver for Indie. Pitman does a good job on first and second downs. Um he has over 10 yards per carry on those downs. Six TDs combined at 28 first downs on first and second down. So you look at a lot of the things that Pitman does well is early in the drives, uh early in the downs are the drives for the Indianapolis Colts. And while I like the matchup with Kamari over Pitman, third down those numbers drops significantly for him and he runs a lot of hits routes and a lot of inb breaker routes. And also when I look at the combination of the matchup, right, Kamari and and Pitman who can win that one-on-one where you love Kamari is 10 and under. Obviously, Kamari can make plays um when the ball can get in the air a little bit over his head, but when you really see the best version of Kamari is when he has the ball in front of him and he’s able to come up and make a tackle. And only 6% of the time will we see have we seen this year based on the numbers, Michael Pitman uh go on a uh run a go route on third down. So, I think that matchup, especially when you look at the converting downs, I think that matchup is a little bit better for Kamari compared to a an Alec Pierce where his most ran route on the season is a go route, especially on second and third downs where that percentage has jumped up to 26 and 21 a.5%. And then you look at Alec Pierce’s ability to be very impactful on first down, 22.2 2 yards per catch on first down plus 15 first downs. I mean, I think that’s the matchup for Houston this game. I think when we look at the splits between the matchups throughout the entire game, I wouldn’t be shocked if we saw more of Derek Stingley Jr. who was he’s been balling lately, right? He’s been back to where it feels like, you know, earlier in the year he had the oblique injury. Some things were kind of throwing him off, but now feels like he’s back to that truly elite status, which I don’t think he necessarily stepped away from. It’s just, you know, now I think he’s a little bit more healthy. And then I look at the first down for the Indianapolis Colts. Plays with 10 or more yards, 79. Plays of 20 or more yards, 26. plays with 50 or more yards, two rushes of 10 or more yards, 20 rushes of uh sorry, rushes of 10 or more yards, 20 rushes of 20 or more yards, seven times uh rushes of 50 or more yards, twice, completions of 20 or more yards, 19 uh receptions of of course uh 20 or more yards, that’s 19 as well. Like they get real busy on first down. A lot of that has to do with how impactful and effective Jonathan Taylor has been. So the coach can operate that play action offense. And so the the the matchups for Houston, they need to be smart. They have to be strategic in going about it. Sure, we’ll see some things mixed up to get Jaylen Petri back. So you look at the Indianapolis coach and the match up between Petri and Josh Towns and the things in the tight end unit, the things that they like to do underneath with those crossing routes. De Mo Ryan’s called it eye candy. Houston has to absolutely be disciplined going up against this Indianapolis team. And I think if they do those things and they score three times with CJ Straw back running things at quarterback and they stay disciplined and they limit Jonathan Taylor, obviously it’s hard to contain a running back like that. But if you can limit him between 80 to 95 yards and make Daniel Jones beat you, then this would be a game where we can comfortably say the Houston Texans, let me not say comfortably because ain’t nothing been comfortable for Houston this year. Well, they’ll be able to come away with the dub, extend their winning streak, extend their chances of making the playoffs, which the city of Houston will rejoice. It’s holiday season. What are we thankful for regarding the Houston Texans? Stick around to close out today’s show. Welcome back, Texan fans. Saturday edition of the Locked on Texan podcast. Super excited to talk football with y’all, man. We got a very important game tomorrow. Houston taking on Indie in Indianapolis. Um, people joke and call it the house trial built, which is funny. He’s only been in the league three years. Um, and that’s what they used to call NRG whenever Ty came to town. So, it’s good for Houston to have that type of get back, right? But Thanksgiving talk, what are we thankful for? Um, in terms of this Houston Texas team, I personally want to just say I think we should all be thankful for your head coach, Deco Ryan’s against Jacksonville. We all saw how that game kicked off, right? We all saw Houston struggles, special teams, but more so their offensive struggles. We saw it. We watched it live. Uh, I just so happened to be blessed to be at the game and I had questions ready to ask Demo Ryan’s at the end of the third quarter about essentially the future of first year inexperienced play caller Nick Kaye. And my questions were centered around what’s Houston’s next option here? Do they look to maybe have a more in inclusive approach with, you know, calling plays? What what what can Houston do here to kind of salvage the season? But Houston goes on and they win that game. And the talk of that game was absolutely the three touchdowns by Houston. 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. [Music] And then we get to Tennessee. Another game where it felt like you did all that last week just to lose to Tennessee, but they get it done late. And then we get to Buffalo. And Buffalo happens to be the game during that stretch of games. five sacks and one interception from Trevor Lawrence. Then we get to the Tennessee game. Well, they took on I think a rookie in in in uh and Cam Ward who I thought he did some some decent things. Um five three sacks, one fumble. Okay, then we get the Buffalo. Eight sacks, two interceptions, zero touchdowns from the quarterback. In a three-w weekek span, the Houston Texans, Now, I know it ain’t Miles Gar because he doing a lot of these numbers by himself, right? But in the three week span, the Houston Texans 16 sacks, four turnovers, a defensive touchdown, almost had another one that was called back because of blocking in the back, and it kicked off against Jacksonville where they didn’t allow anything in the fourth quarter. And I’m talking about anything, guys. I’m I’m We get to the fourth quarter. Three plays, three and out. Three plays, three and out. Three plays, three and out. Nothing was allowed in that fourth quarter. I don’t think there’s another coach in the league. Considering the circumstances, considering what they have to work with, and considering the obstacles that again, Houston put some of these obstacles in front of themselves. I don’t know if there’s a current coach when I look at the landscape of the current NFL that could have gotten the best out of everybody and made this work to go 3 and 0. I’m not sure. I mean, I had questions ready to ask Ryan about essentially what’s what this can’t continue. And for a lot of y’all still don’t think it continue. If Houston makes the playoff is I’d be hardressed if you know believe that they would move on from Nick Kayley all things considered. But the the trust that the players have in in De Mo and De Mo constantly doing a good job whether he’s talking about it in the press conferences or where or whether it’s the videos after the game. The outside noise doesn’t matter. Only thing that matters is what we have here. And Demo being that type of coach. Two players, both EJ Speed and Jake Andrews, they both said similar things. Essentially, we are not in November yet. So, I want to just do a little Thanksgiving talk for De Mo Ryan. This could have very well been a disastrous season. question and question marks are still there and they are valid. This could have been something that would have made fans and national media look at Houston funny in the light and yet still they’ve been so good defensively, so phenomenal defensively the last three weeks. They’ve anchored their teams to three and 0 with just an amazing fourth quarter by Davis Mills, a good second quarter against Buffalo, and a good drive against Tennessee. Not great quarterback play. They’ve been able to get it done. And I think De Mo Ryan is is is why those players fight for Demo. Those players believe in Demo. those players. And it ain’t just the defense. It’s just that the offense don’t got what the defense has. Uh the offense ain’t got a Will, Denil, Stingley, Kamari, Aziz, uh Tommy Toi, Caleb Bulock. They don’t got all of that. They got guys at a rookie here, rookie there, a rookie over there, rookie over there, aged quote unquote wash receiver over here in the slot, uh, a tight end that’s battling through a lot of injuries, and Nico Collins essentially for large part doing things from their receiver room perspective, solo, a first time head play caller. And you got CJ Straw having to work through all of this. And yet still they’re in the playoff hunt because of the things that they’ve been able to do defensively. Kevin Stfansky won coach of the year of Demo Ryan in 2023. And I think when I look at the landscape of the league right now, Mike Vrabel will probably win that award. But if Houston makes the playoffs after that start and also consider Matthew Stafford likely MVP of the season right now. I think that’s fair. Matthew Stafford has played phenomenal football this year against Houston. He looked a little in and that offense they looked a little bit normal. only 14 points. Baker Mayfield started off hot cooled off as of late dealing with injuries and also you know everything that’s going on in Tampa weren’t necessarily great by his own accord. Some things that the Houston Texans did and did not do. Seattle got to Seattle four turnovers. Buffalo no TD. Like these things are amazing. And if Houston by by some Texans in the outfield moment make the playoffs. If not only make the playoffs if they win the the division and it starts on Sunday of course because they got to beat Indie. Then when you look at pure coaching maybe they need to do a tie. I don’t know if they’ve done a tie before or when the last time they did it if so. with Demo Ryan’s given all of all of his issues and what’s come about. Yeah, he should be in that conversation. Thank you for watching today’s episode of the Locked on Texting Podcast. Please be sure to subscribe, like, and comment on YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcast, and follow me on Twitter at john_hickman2. Until next time, ladies and gents. We got a very important game. Let’s watch it together on social media. Let me know if you’re going to be outside watching it, wherever may pull up on you. Peace.

CJ Stroud is back. Jalen Pitre is back. And suddenly… this Texans vs. Colts matchup just got spicy. This is a game Houston has to win — and these two returning stars could swing everything.

Here’s the truth:

Stroud doesn’t need to be extraordinary.

Stroud doesn’t need to be great.

Stroud just needs to be GOOD.
With CJ back under center and Pitre returning to stabilize the defense, Houston finally gets its balance again. But is it enough to take down an Indy team fighting for the same playoff real estate?

We break down:
🔥 Why CJ Stroud’s “good” is plenty good enough
🔥 How Pitre changes the entire flow of the defense
🔥 Whether the Texans can repeat their masterclass performance and make life miserable for Daniel Jones
🔥 KEY MATCHUPS:

Derek Stingley Jr. vs Alec Pierce

Kamari Lassiter vs Michael Pittman Jr.
These battles could decide the game before halftime.

And in the spirit of the season, we’re answering the question every Texans fan should think about:
What should Texans fans be thankful for this year?
Our pick? DeMeco Ryans — the heartbeat of Houston’s future.

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CJ & Pitre RETURN: Can They Help the Texans in a MUST-WIN vs Indy? Stroud Only Needs to Be Good?!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFQGjNHUQPVrg-aQL5FtgA

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