Rex Ryan says the Texans’ defense can carry them to the SUPER BOWL! 👀 | NFL Countdown

Rex Ryan says the Texans’ defense can carry them to the SUPER BOWL! 👀 | NFL Countdown

Let’s go to the huge game tonight. Texans Chiefs at Arrowhead could be the end of a dynasty. It’ll have enormous impact on the AFC playoff race one way or the other. Texans have won four straight. They’ll be up to 78% to make the playoffs with a win down to 37% with a loss. Chiefs probably need to win out. They have a 56% chance to win uh to get in if they win today, down to 12% with a loss. And both teams talked this week about a huge game at Arrowhead. The season is over for the Houston Texans. No rivalry, no hard feelings. We lost a football game season. Outstanding. He’s going to mess your intensity. I think that’s that’s the biggest thing. Starts up front and you got an active front. Darnold in trouble and Will Anderson has him down. Houston scores. Patrick is still Patrick. He’s called him Houdini. I’ve been a fan of, you know, Pat for a long time. He’s a heck of a player. Not many guys can do it how Patrick does it. That’s why he’s a special player. They fake it to him and Mahomes keeps it and goes in. Great fake by Momes. Astonishing to me just how many people are picking against Kansas City tonight in a game they desperately need. If you’re just joining us, Rex is with us today from Baltimore where they’re uh celebrating the 25th reunion of the Super Bowl team from 2000. But Alex, I mean, you know that Chief’s team as well as anybody. I look to you and I ask, as you look at this matchup, which side do you favor? I mean, to me, everything’s pointing towards the Texans. The Texans are the better football team. They should win this game. I mean, the Chiefs have three backup offensive linemen playing. I couldn’t think of a worse team to play with two backup tackles than the Texans, right? Will Anderson Jr. and Denil Hunter, they are game wreckers. And listen, we every time we’ve seen the Chiefs struggle, it’s when they can’t protect Patrick, right? And like this just smells like that’s going to happen again. This Texans front is dominant and against going against backups at I don’t care that it’s at Arrowhead. I think they can take over this game. I think this game is going to be a defensive battle on both sides of the ball. Rex, let me get you into the conversation because you used the word last night the Alamo. I mean, this really feels like it for Patrick Mahomes. It really does, Greeny. And when you look at it, it’s like hard to envision Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid not being in the playoffs, but that’s where we’re at. And and look, he’s got such a heart. I mean, a heart of a champion without question about it. He’s going to this game won’t be easy, but this is absolutely absurd. Three backup linemen in there against, by the way, the best defense in the National Football League. This might be the best defense we’ve seen in the NFL in years. I don’t know if if fans know that. this team right here. And when you look at total yards, all right, this team’s barely given up what, 260 yards a game, if that. All right, you got to go way back to 2009 to find out a team that gave up less yards. And why is that important? Because that is a defensive stat. It’s not a team stat. Sometimes points is a team stat. All right, points allowed. This is a strictly a defensive stat. And last last time these two teams met, all right, in the playoffs, a Kansas City victory, they had a whopping what? 214 total yards. So make no mistake about it. This is going to be an absolute I mean, Patrick Mahomes, if he does it, he’s doing it by himself because he’s going to have no protection. This team refuses to run the football. And and Houston, to me, I’m taking Houston in this one. If they can do anything offensively, they’re gonna win this game. Yeah. And then I hear you, Rex, but I’m telling you, no one at this table and even yourself would be surprised if Kansas City won this game. And it’s because of who it’s I don’t know. For me, it’s because I see who Houston is. I mean, CJ Strad, has he really said done anything that have had impactful victories that I remember? I mean, he had a great rookie season. He struggled the last two average football. Yes, the defense is great, but this team is up and down. It’s inconsistent. You’re going to play the world champions in their house. Okay, it’s all set up for you. The table is set for you to tell the league, “This is my time.” It was the Colts to they they Colts and and Texans last week. All right, Texans came through with that. Is anyone from the AFC South going to step up and say, “It’s our turn now. This is the chance for the Texans to do it. I want to see it.” I I mean, listen, this is the game that I want to see. This one and also the other AFC South game between the Colts and the Jaguars because I don’t know who it’s going to be. I mean, they win games, but they they ever win big games. Well, for me, even though the Chiefs are only six and six, I mean, this is about the biggest game for me the Texans can have at this point. Let’s see, when Rex was talking about the last meeting, you know, in that divisional round, how many total yards the Chiefs had? What’ you say? 214. Well, Travy had half of that 214. And I I see something similar like that today happening. You talking about all these injuries in the front line, Patrick Mahomes holding on on to that ball. I think lane discipline uh of how they uh rush the pass to rush off uh rush after Patrick Mahome will definitely be on display today. But I think this is the Tra Kelsey game being able to get the ball out quick in the short spaces, be able to get those five yards, those seven to eight yard uh routes and get this man the ball. I don’t think this is a game that you want Patrick Mahome, Alex, to be sitting back there patting the ball and waiting on guys uh to get open. And the reason why you got a guy like Derek Stingley back there that can definitely take a player out of the game what he’s been doing all season. So, like I said, those lines backers, those safeties, they’re going to have a tough matchup tra uh covering tra. The one thing that stood out to me this week is how much this game has meant to the Houston Texans since the Chiefs ended their year last year. It has stayed with them all season long. This has been a game that the Texans have been looking forward to, have had circle on the calendar. Now, look, to me, it’s about as tough as assignment as there can be going into Arrowhead in the cold on a Sunday night with the Chiefs fighting to keep their season alive. But I’m just telling you, Houston’s been waiting and it was it was about the refs after that game about the sort of Chiefs mystique getting all the getting all the calls, roughing the passer. You got to you got to push through that mystique and just win a football game here because you’re right. You’re right. They’ve got the better team going on the field today. All right. But let’s see if they play better today. That’s the whole thing. The Chiefs can have greatness at any moment, I believe. And it can be today. And I can see Patrick saying, “I don’t need tackles. I got this. I’m going to get rid of this and I’ll avoid these rushers.” This is going to be fascinating to watch. I’m really interested to see the game plan for the Kansas City Chiefs on offense. Right. We heard Andy Reid talking about ticking tickling tonsils or whatever he said earlier this week. And R, you said it, this is not a team you want to drop back 40 times against, right? But is it in their nature to commit to the run game, to play a different style of football, maybe a little uglier style of football? My final thought is this. If the Houston Texans win this game, do not be surprised if this team doesn’t represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. That’s how dominant the this defense is. I’m telling you right now, get over the hurdle. All right, you can you can you saw what they did to you saw what they did against Josh Allen in the Bills. You think they’re afraid of them? They had eight sacks in that game. I’m telling you, defense could carry it. Carry it. I’m sitting right here living proof on this field wearing this Super Bowl ring. That shows you that when you play that kind of defense, dominant defense, you can do it. Houston’s got to win this one. This is the last hurdle they got to get over. And then watch out. I’m telling you, watch out. That’s how good this defense is. That’s a man right there, ladies and gentlemen, that loves defense. And this is a player that loves defense, too. But they got a long way still. They got a long way. Still with direct difference in perception. Those two teams played that playoff game 11 months ago. The Chiefs were a 10-point favorite. Today, they are a three and a half point favorite amidst all of the snow in Orchard Park. Let’s dive into the game. Allen’s Bills are 8-4 after a win over the Steelers. They entered today in the last wild card spot in the AFC. We estimate them to have a 90% chance to make the playoffs. They play Burrow’s Bengals today. He was back on Thanksgiving in an upset win at 4 and8. Cincinnati needs to keep winning and they need plenty of help if they’re going to have a chance to make it the division seems like the best route. Dan Graciano is there in Buffalo. He stopped with Zack Taylor a little bit earlier and Dan, I see the snow out there with you right now. What is it looking like? What is the expectation for the weather? Well, Greenie, because I’m in Orchard Park, New York, the weather could change twice before the end of this sentence. So, I’m not going to give you anything definitive. It is snowing. It has been snowing all morning. About five minutes ago, it was the wind was blowing pretty hard. Now, it’s kind of not. So, at game time, I think you’re going to see some snow falling. You might see wind be a factor, but it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anything that’s going to like impact the game in terms of how it is played. So, that’s a good thing. It’ll look pretty on TV, but it might not affect the outcome. Little bit of news for the Buffalo Bills. Tight end Dalton Concincaid who missed the last three games with a hamstring injury. He is going to be active for this game, making his return from that injury today against the Bengals. So that’s a boost for the Bills offense. And when you talk about the Bills offense last week against the Steelers, they ran the ball 51 times for 249 yards. I talked to Conor McGovern, one of their offensive linemen. He said after that mini buy that off the Thursday night game against Houston, they really kind of got together and talked about the run game and how they had kind of been getting out of it. They hadn’t been sticking with it when it started to not work well early in games. And that they came away with the take of, you know, these two yards uh gains are fine. Uh as long as we stick with the run game, eventually the explosives will happen. They played last week without their two starting offensive tackles. Deion Dawkins and Spencer Brown. Sounds like Spencer Brown will not be active today. Deion Dawkins back. So, a little bit of a boost there on the offensive line for Buffalo as well. Graziano, outstanding. We’ll get those activives in and activives from Shifty all across the league in just a moment. But he was talking about that running game and Teddy, you were so hot on that conversation last night about how good that Bill’s running game looked last week. And it’s easy to say that, you know, okay, well, what does the game warrant in terms of should we run it? Should we throw it? Should we let Josh put on the cape and be who he is? Okay, the opponents are playing now. Okay, I understand why you ran it last week. Maybe some injury concerns and everything like that to help Josh Allen, but now, okay, you’re playing the Bengals. They’re 31st versus the run. You should run it there. The weather, the weather is bad there. Okay. All right. There’s so many things. And over and over, they ran a play that’s so difficult to defend. zone weak over and over last week. So, this is the play that do they do they do they major in this again? I think they should because here’s your weak side to the left, strong side with the formation, everyone to the right. That’s why it’s strong because you have all those players zone. It’s when the offensive lineman block whichever defender is in their zone and now the running back can be interpretive. All right, he can look for the hole. There is no direct hole. It’s easy to cut back. It’s easy to keep playside. Here you cut it back. There’s the hole. The running back has it. Here we go again. Same formation set the other way to the strong side. Now watch how it starts to the weak. All right. The offensive lineman. This is one of the best O lines in the game, fellas. You see how they put a hat on a hat. They body them up and just let the defenders go where they want. Take them that way. Cook is such a great job. There’s a receiver getting a block down the field and then you’re out the gate. This is exactly what they should do with all that snow. You you heard about Graiano talking about this is the game where you should continue it. And by the way, on the other side, let’s keep Joe Burrow off the field. All right. By running it because he doesn’t care if it’s snowing. He’s going to one Moss. You know, rightfully so, Drew. But the question I I got for you, you talk about the running game, the Buffalo Bills. Will they be able to put some points up? Because the Cincinnati Bengals with Joe Burrow coming back, you know, the way he’s slinging the ball to everybody other than Jamar Chase, that’s what’s looking scary. And I said earlier, Zack Taylor was excited about getting a guy like T. Higgins back. You’re talking about your opening kick. You had Jamar Chase catching passes in the snow from their last meeting. So, one thing about this duo, this combination with Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase, I can honestly say they do not care what the conditions are, where the game is played. They’ll catch it there. There you go. So, last week he threw Jamar 14 targets. He caught half of them and that’s his first game back. So, I’m very excited about having a guy like T. Higgins back. I told you, Alex, with a guy like T. Higgins back, it’ll be it’ be a must to be able to get T started first because Jamar is already jailing right now. So, it’ll be be what I want to really see is how Zack Ta Taylor will call the first 15 scripted. Can he get T Higgins involved? Rex is in Baltimore again. He’s with us throughout the show this morning. What are you expecting in this one with the Bengals and Bills and all that snow in Orchard Park? Rex, man, I I Greeny, I’m thinking that Buffalo sticks with the the run game. Last week it was so good against Pittsburgh, 51 rush attempts, but they’re going to do that. Why? Cincinnati’s horrendous at stopping the run. So, it sets up well for Buffalo. And I’m going to tell you who the benefactor is. When Buffalo can run the football the way they did last week, Josh becomes the quarterback we all know he is. Incredible. He’s way better when they can run the football and they’re not just one-dimensional drop back and throwing it all the time. So, Buffalo becomes extremely dangerous. They become the team that we we thought going into the season had a chance to win a Super Bowl when they can run the football. Everything’s better. Their defense actually plays better. All right. But on the other side, they’re playing against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. And I think the message that Joe Burrow sent to his football team when everybody was counting them out, he’s like, “Hey, we got nothing to play for. What the hell are you doing?” Three weeks ahead of schedule, he goes back out there and plays his tail off. That motivated his entire football team. We all saw it. And I’m just telling you right here, this game is going to be an awesome game. We think of lowscoring games in bad weather. I don’t think so. I think this one is going to be a pinball type game. I think highscoring in that game in Buffalo regardless of the conditions. He’s been playing better as of the last few weeks. And there’s no way they haven’t turned on this film and seen weak zone run 20 times and also duo run 20 times and then they’re not going to be ready for it. You are going to see a loaded box up front. The Bengals are not scared of anybody on the outside for the Bills. Who is it? Gabe Davis. And they brought Brandon Cooks back right off the street. Like they are going to line up and play man and they’re going to dare you to beat them throwing the football on the outside because they think they have better matchups there. And if you’re the Bengals defense, I agree with Rex. You only got to make a couple stops. I think this has a chance to be a high-scoring game. I think this Bengals offense is rolling. And listen, if you’re the Bengals defense and you’re playing like that, hey, let’s let’s let’s get stout for a couple series. We make a couple defensive players get motivated when you see a quarterback that knows what he’s doing what he’s doing. Hey, real quick, let me say this about the Buffalo Bills defense by having T Te T. Higgins and Jamar Chase back. This defensive secondary has not given up 100 yards receiving in two months. So, I’m interested to see how this wide receiver core for the Bengals affair. The snow spectacular. And by the way, um you also have James Cook 58 yards behind Jonathan Taylor to lead the league in rushing this season. We’ll see if he survives maybe by the end of today in this game. Maybe

Sal Paolantonio, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan, Tedy Bruschi and Alex Smith join Mike Greenberg on NFL Countdown to preview the Kansas City Chiefs’ matchup against the Houston Texans. Then, they discuss the Cincinnati Bengals matchup against the Buffalo Bills.

0:00 Chiefs vs. Texans
5:23 Travis Kelce’s game
8:03 Playoff picture
9:30 Bills’ offense
12:00 Bengals’ offense

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