C.J. Stroud is playing like he TRUSTS the O-Line! – Andrew Hawkins on Texans vs. Chiefs | NFL Live

C.J. Stroud is playing like he TRUSTS the O-Line! – Andrew Hawkins on Texans vs. Chiefs | NFL Live

Hey, the Chiefs face the Texans on Sunday. Kansas City coming off that Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys now getting ready for a Houston team that’s don’t look now. They’re on a four-game win streak. Here’s Patrick Mahomes and Demo Ryan today. You’re going to have to utilize them. Utilize everything, not just my legs. I mean, you got to utilize everything you have um to go out there and win. I mean, this is a a really good football team that’s playing really good football right now and has a really good defense. And so, um we’re we’re going to have to throw it all out there and try to find a way to win. And um this will be a big game for us to to showcase who we are and who we think we can be moving on um the rest of the season. Yeah, Patrick is still Patrick. He’s call him Houdini. He finds a way to make plays all over the field. That’s why this team has always been a threat. That’s why their their games are always close because of Patrick and his capabilities of extending plays and not just to run run plays, not to run the football, but the way he extends plays, the way he finds his guys down the field. Uh it’s it’s unique, right? There’s not many guys in the league that can do it how Patrick does it. That’s why he’s a special player. Yeah. Both the Chiefs and Texans on the outside of the AFC playoff picture entering their Sunday night meeting. Well, look at this. Okay. Good game, huh? According to ESPN analytics, Kansas City can see its chances to make the playoffs jump from 41% to 56% with a win, but they dropped to 12% with a loss. It is must win, right? Including the playoffs. Mahomes 5- one in his career against Houston. Beat them twice last season. Dan, I mean, Phil just said it. This is must win for the Chiefs at this point. But let’s zero in a little bit on the Texans because they are on this four-game win streak. What what’s changed for their offense specifically? Uh, it’s the most improved offensive line in football and it’s the most improved offensive coordinator in football. Shout out to Nick Kayley, his growth this season. We’ve talked for years, about two years, about how bad this offensive line has been in Houston and the impact on the quarterback. It looked like 2023 CJ Strad. The firmness in the middle of the pocket allows for what I would say one of his strengths is is that react and reset, react and reset, react and reset. All over the middle field. Shotgun once again goes to the bottom. Wants to throw the out route. Not there. How firm is the pocket for him? Firm enough where he can hang. Hang now climb on a huge third down. Nobody near him. Dump the ball off for a conversion. This was my favorite play. My favorite play of the game. This is vintage CJ Strad. Ball fake. I want to throw the in route right now at the bottom of the screen. It’s not there. Middle linebacker is there. Reset to the top, but I got to have the pocket to do it and then throw the ball to the out route right on the sideline. Beautiful. That is 2023. This offensive line was terrible last year. Look at the number difference. Okay, at this point last year 104 pressures and 20 164 pressures, 25 sacks. Right now 106 pressures. So a little bit more than 50 less, 14 sacks. That’s 11 less. That is huge by that center guard. That guard center guard trio totally has changed. It’s the most improved offensive line in football and it’s the most improved and developed offensive coordinator in the game right now. Wow. I agree. They started this season 0 and3 and there was so many questions about Nick Haley, CJ Strad, how they kind of started slow and over that course. I mean, even if you watch this game, yeah, they got to clean up some of the execution stuff at times. There’s procedural things they can continue to get better at. Pre- snap penalties. I’m like, it’s bad. It’s bad. But CJ Stra coming back, it’s like he did some things well. He made good decisions like for the most part, the pick we can talk about, but he made great decisions. And to your point, this offensive line, like CJ Strad is playing like he’s trusting that protection that you’re talking about and we’re seeing the CJ Strad of old. So, shout out to their offense. Let me ask you a quick question. Jaden Higgins, what the the the rookie receiver, what have you seen? He’s come on like he’s become a very valuable number two. The biggest thing when I’m watching them, especially now versus the beginning of the season, you’re seeing the play calling, decision-m, you’re seeing the detail. You’re seeing the detail in the routes. player when you watch his game, you can see the maturation even throughout the position like that. Let’s talk Chiefs Chief’s defense for a minute here. I think we all probably agree there’s not a glaring hole on this defense. A lot of good personnel, guys who have played in high leverage moments in the past. They’ve won Super Bowls. The Chiefs defense though this year is just missing the element of gametering plays. You got to have negative plays in the NFL to have success defensively. The Chiefs, as you see there, 27th in terms of total sacks, just 10 turnovers this season forced. Three teams have fewer than Kansas City in the entire league this season. You can play really good defense for 85 90% of the snaps in the NFL. If you don’t have that handful of plays, which puts the offense behind the sticks or gives the football back to your offense, it’s going to be hard to win in the NFL. Reminder, the Chiefs have been in first place for like 10 straight years. You play a first place schedule, their schedule every year is going to be difficult. when you don’t have these almost like easy button defensive plays where you hand the football back to Patrick or next thing you know it’s second and 19 as opposed to second and four just hard for this defense to have the same level of impact as their personnel suggest it would have and you know we’re giving credit to these Texans and their offense but their defense is maybe what top two in the entire league I mean two maybe one like I mean they’re so good so again that’s what that’s what Patrick Mahome homes and this offense is going to be up against, what can they try to do to make something happen in this game? Okay, so when I watch Houston’s defense, the one of the things that stands out is how fast they fill in the run game. Everybody’s like downhill. Okay, so my initial inclination is always go, well, let me kill you and gut you in the play action pass. And then you watch them defend the play action pass and you’re like, how can you be so aggressive to the run yet I can’t take advantage of in the play action? You know, they’re so well coached and so smart. So, I think one thing that has to be a big deal is they have to be willing to get the defense to run sideline to sideline, their 4×1 stuff, kick the ball out to the perimeter, hopefully make some tackles. The ch make some missed tackles. The challenge is Houston tackles so well. All of Leo I I wish I had an easy answer for you. I think that there’s like Patrick’s going to have to make three or four remarkable plus plays where he goes above the X’s and O’s. By the way, Chief starting left tackle Josh Simmons on injured reserve now. Starting right tackle Jawan Taylor out of practice today. Trey Smith, their best offensive lineman, still out of practice today. So So it’s not a hold the ball game. So the ball is like this. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the defense is going to have to hang on. A reminder what we told you to start this segment. If the Chiefs lose this game, their chances to make the playoffs jump or drop to 12%. So astounding. It’s really It’s a must win. I mean, let’s let’s be honest. They have to win out to get in. And they feel that way, too. What did uh Andy say yesterday? Tickle the tonsils. Pickle the tons. Some incredible catches this weekend, but just one element alone does not land you in the museum. That is wide out Wednesday. You know the routine. Three plays, one player, one to improve, one to remove and get out of your game, and one to lose. A play that is so great, such a work of art that we hang it in the museum. We start with Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver, my man Jamar Chase. We’re going to go with our improve it first. You’re going to have a 3x one quick out, which is a 5 yard out from the number three position. Now, the thing that he has to improve here, it’s a great route, but he has to identify man versus zone. He runs out of this when the expectation from Burrow is that he’s going to curl up in that zone and he’s going to dot him with the throw. That’s something we can get better at. Next, it’s going to be remove. I’m going to remove this every time because it’s what we call a loaf. Whenever you go get your grade after the game, you’re going to put all these plays up and you’re going to see he’s not running hard off the ball. And not only that, because it’s press coverage and he has an out route, he doesn’t come out of the break with the enough intensity to understand that the ball is coming and that results in an incomplete. Last but not least, the work of art that is the move. It is a go ball from Joe Burrow to Jamar Chase. So many elements here. You’re going to see why Jamar Chase is one of, if not the best receiver in the NFL. So, first, it’s not just a straight line. You’re going to see him seam release because it’s going to hold that DB closer to the inside of the field, creating a bigger window for that quarterback to hit. Next, you’re going to see him maintain his line and stack, which is hard to do in the NFL. Again, another reason to drop that bucket in there. And then lastly, he’s going to late hand, which ensures that the DB cannot make a play on it. Jamar Chase, it cannot be a wide receiver museum if we don’t have you in it, brother. So, join me over here in the Lou as we put you up next to my man Teteroa McMillan. Here we go. It’s beautiful every time. Every time. It’s great. What a moment for T McMillan right next to our desama. You made it. And don’t forget Haka Lisa down there on the lefth hand side. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On NFL Live, Andrew Hawkins, Dan Orlovsky and Field Yates preview the Houston Texans’ Week 14 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs. Then, Hawk conducts his “Wide Out Wednesday” segment.

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