I had to live.
The Sean Salisbury Show continued as we do KPRC channel too. You get all this great work at sports seven ninety dot com as well and on Twitter x at Aaron Wilson. Aaron, welcome in brother, Happy holidays. We'll get you before Christmas time. Anyway, big three game stretch after the bye. We don't want to discuss last year's by. We know what happened to them in Carolina coming out of the by a hopefully
different result. But let's start on the defensive side. How big is no pe Tree and no Alshai here, not only for the stretch, but this week against the team who's got phenomenal team speed.
It hurts and you're losing to athletic guys. There's to your better tacklers. Who the better tacklers in the NFL, especially p Tree the amount of pop he has, a really sound tackler, very talented at that. And Al Sayer is your best cover linebacker, your leader, your team captain, and not have him because of the suspensions and oh on we discussed this a little bit, right kidding. It's very, very harmful to a defense, but they do have depth.
Jimmy Ward has done a good job as a nickel Fannian for Jalens like this is a surprise Jalen as our report first the barshoot Taurus pectoral and then decided, after a lot of sex Paians to have the surgery with I'll Shire. It's a little different how they'll fill in this time because they have another option. They have Christian Harris to work in tandem with Devin White and with Henry to Tow and w Ewett, so they've got
depth at that position. It's not quite the same, but they have some linebackers that are capable, and they held it down when he was injured earlier this season, missed three games with a knee injury, So yeah, I think they can handle it. The Dolphins haven't been running the ball particularly well lately, but it's other games that might be more problematic. But this is the game, like Joel
Mixon said, we're desperate too. Dextually need this one. They could cleanse the divisions if they win and the Colts flus to the Broncos and.
Colt sluzing to the Broncos is his big time in play with the way the Broncos defense plays, all right, what is the biggest in your opinion or from you know being around them the last handful of days. What is their biggest trigger? Meaning the defense and Demiko Ryans trigger stress level from the Dolphins offense. If there's one thing they say, this can't happen, that their offense can't do this to us, or we're in trouble, what is it?
Big plays to Tyreek Hill Jaylen Waddle have to be good at not just covering them, but also tackling these guys after the catch. They're releteagerous after the catch. They're good runners. That's a great runners, especially in the chief of Hill. You look at that. That's probably the biggest issue with tow till you have to affect the Pockety does get the football very quickly and he leaves the
NFL and some police precent he's over seventy percent. So he's a three consecutive three her yard passing games and they have been a different football team since he returns, and he's galvanizer season. This is a like a playoff game for the Dolphins because if they lose, their playoff hopes are pretty much done. They have a tiny bit of hope and Texans can stamp out that hope.
Aaron Wilson get him at KPRC Channel two, on Twitter at Aaron Wilson, and also right here at Sports seven ninety dot com. Been a great insider for us for a long time. Look forward to on Friday conversations. All right, if we had to put one thing, and injuries don't count, we had to put one reason, the Texans offense, in particular the second half. But quite frankly, it just hasn't looked the same this year.
What is it? I would say the other team is at a better job of halftime adjustments. I would say that they've had flat energy in the second half. Kind of a combination of those two kind of Franklin the tie.
But but why whenever, and you make such a great point, but why how do you have flat energy when you're when you're considered a super Bowl team or a late playoff team coming into the season?
World?
Yeah, how does how do you and I understand one game or if you're playing a bunch of now, if they have flat energy during the season, how how in the world are they not going to be a flat energy with three games in ten or eleven days.
I mean, it's inexplicable. Yeah, they're a tired football team. They had a long training campus or some factors. I think they've had some injuries. Everybody has injuries. They've had a lot of no big injuries, you know, Miko Conosis, five games, stuff on BIGS tour at ACL. They've lost some personnel for long stretch of the season that they were really relying on. Why they're flat in the second half, with the exception of Jacksonville game, they were had some
life couldn't tell you. I mean, I think it's it's an intangible thing. It's really hard to put a beat on it. And I've asked a lot of questions about it. There's no real great answer about that. It's just no one can really explain it for you. But it's a feeling and it's a vibe, and it's a performance thing and we see it. It's evident and it's an Achilles hill for this team. Maybe they've righted a ship. But you know, there were problems even last week or whatever.
In the win over Jacksonville the week before they allowed mac doones after Trevor Lawrence gets knocked out by as Zash Sire. They have problems stopping him. They have problems with Brian Thomas Jr. They're allowing a lot of explosive plays. They's too good a defense, the too talented and the secondary and then the rush to have that happened.
Do you believe, Aaron, this is a disciplined football team.
They've become better disciplined than where they were. They had a penalty bug that was as bad as anybody or in the NFL. They did eventually that problem. Remember that was like all we could talk about in September. It got better, they did. You know, it took a lot of coaching. I think that's discipline. You know, if you have a problem and you work on it, you get better. I said, it's disciplined. They're not out of control. I
don't know if I can say they're undisciplined. I think they listened to Nika Ryans and the coaching they gave and they tried to execute it. Are they perfect? No, I mean, like every football team makes mistakes. They're no difference. But they have made improvements past protection. It was a crisis, right you know, three four games ago, and then it solidified. It did finally stabilize the last couple of weeks. So I call that coaching. I call that discipline.
Is this a playoff offensive line?
Well not really, I mean it's uh, it's very retentible. He certainly is. He's ready for that.
Post snap, right.
Yeah. Other guys haven't always played to that level. You know, there's been ups and downs and then they're shuffling again this week because you Scruggs is out two three weeks. He's got a foot injury. Paint a plan tar uh kind of collapse on him in there. He doesn't need surgery. It's supposed to heal and he can be back this season. For this week, they've split snaps with Kenyan Green, who obviously is a store point. You know, he's a first
out draft pick to have some struggles. He has worked very hard to get in better shape, had his moments as a run blocker, probably their best run blocking guard that they've got, uh pass protection, you know, stats are what they are, they're very good. But he in the mix to get his job back. Him or Zach Thomas. They have split the reps this week. Exactly a former Patriots player and he's a converted tackle to the I
think twenty one guard snaps. Ever, so he's a very inexperienced guard, but he's a fundamentally sound, you know, smart player and stays in front of you. Not that much different from Lady Jared Patterson's style kind of on you. Maybe not physically dominant, but he's he's definitely i'd say, moved his feet well and you know that technique. But yeah, that's their options and if I make a decision on that today on what they're doing at left guard.
Aaron Wilson for a couple more minutes here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Aaron is the CJ. Stroud stuff. You know, I in the off season when people would ask me, I'm sure you got asked a million times two about are we worried about a sophomore slump? I don't look that. Some guys, you know, defenses get better, you go through and there's there's people go through slumps. People go through game slumps, season slumps, maybe don't play
as well. And I don't know if I'd put it that way, because we know the guy can still play, but he hasn't played as well, so how much of them? And because he set the expectation so high he's a second year player, we still take that in consideration even though he spoiled us, how much of the offensive woes Let's put him in slowk in the same categories and say we're in it, and how much of the offensive woes are on him and them?
Well, highly culpable, you know, Bobby, it's his playbook. I think they needed to simplifie it, and they have lately. In terms of CJ. He wasn't a comfortable quarterback. He wasn't from the first time. He's facing signific in adversity and pass protection is shoe where he's not in the clean pocket, so it affected him. He was throwing off his back foot. He wasn't fundamentally the same quarterback. He didn't make a lot of nice things happen if you
consider how many sacks a could have been. I thought he ran out of a lot of trouble and still tried to make some plays. But the league, they watch you, they get a little of a book on you. They get, you know, comfortable with what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses? And I don't think he has anything glaring. It's just when he saw some flashes of this last week when the pocket was clean, and he you know, has regained some time in chemistry with Nico Collins. It
looked a little bit like last year in moments. It's just about sustaining that. I think that he's not someone that's proment interceptions, that he generally makes good decisions. But everybody's thinking about pressure, and definitely he's affected by it. And he's not impervious to anything, but all quarterbacks are. If you hit Tom Brady enough, it does affect his game. And I've seen it. I've covered a lot of games.
People think Brady's perfect. No, he certainly wasn't covered a bunch of games in Baltimore and Terrell Suggs, those guys are all over him, and he was rendered ordinary. A one can be affected if you're hit enough.
And you know what Aaron about that too, is I think the thing that sticks out for me, and I'm gonna get your score prediction real quick, but the thing that sticks out for me is he's missed some simple throws. And maybe that's a that's the collateral damage of the earlier pressures. Throws that he'd normally make, like a deep over where the guy's open. He's missed the ordinary throw at least that he's made look ordinary as a rookie.
This stuff that he normally makes, he's missed some of those, which isn't normally, which hasn't been his mo since he's been.
In the league, right, And he did lose a I think they just weren't able to really replace Stefan Diggs and shows the value of Giggs. Diggs was a big part of this football team. He was a team captain and he was having a hunderd catch season in one thousand yards. He's gonna pick for all those things, and I believe he would have gotten those things, just like you know, Nico Collins doesn't miss five games, yep, and he's gonna have like fifteen sixteen hundred yards and probably
about one hundred catches too, they were gonna have. He gen't really underscore enough how significant injuries to those two players affected everything.
A full season of those two, Yeah, a full season those two may give you one of the best one to two punches in the league.
And we're not and we'rever a different conversation up strap. We're talking about possibly hey Pro Bowl, you know not alternate Pro Bowl? Is he need go to it in? Maybe? Yeah, those things will have happened they have to get him more helpful wide receiver. In the offseason, they gotta have offensive lines. Some tough, tough conversations about the line. But meanwhile they're in the season and you gotta salvage that. You gotta adapt, you gotta figure out a way. They
have an opportunity here to still do some things. Once till parcels and once you're in the tournament, anything can happen. They have a good chance to be a playoff team and have a season that you know could be like last years is they're see if they could take another step. I don't know. Nobody really thinks like they're gonna make a loud noise in the playoffs. I'm sure that would be a rallying car for them, just like as the
Vasha there's still said about that. There's a lot of there's in that locker room that have a problem with what happened, the djunication of that. Maybe this rallies then, maybe that's the emotion lift they need because they're upset about it. But I know Joe Mixon certainly is. And I'm gonna say this, by the way, Joe has been a real breath of pressure. Great to talk to him, one of the best interviews in that locker room every week.
Brings it, and just a very insightful guy and also having an outstanding season.
I mean he's offensive MVP. He's the offensive MVP, and I don't think ye all right, whole heart of it, yep, no doubt about it. And one of the best five off season pickups in the entire league.
All right, with that, make concern a good job of that.
There is no doubt about it. Huge pickup, all right, give me a score. Who wins.
Texans thirty Dolphins twenty four? Wow?
And a better chance of going one and two or two in one the next three games?
One two, I'm not that glass half four. I think that the Chiefs and the Ravens are a problem there you go.
And Miami if there are ye, And if Miami's playing in space and getting the ball out on time with to his accuracy, that could be a problem as well. It's gonna be a great game to watch. Can't wait to see it take the over in the game, that's for sure. Hey, great stuff, Aaron. We'll talk to you next week. Always appreciate you and your great insight brother. Thanks Thanks Sean.
Great week.
YouTube brother, thank you. We'll come back and discuss likes, the likes the Texans in this game and according to his score, that's the over. I think we're all there, so let's go. Me and Brian Olim will be back. He's whacked out. We're gonna get him some psychological help and that's okay. We'll do it right here on Sports Talk seven ninety