NBC analyst Harrison says key Texans players didn’t hustle against Miami
It’s not often you hear this particular phrase used in conjunction with sports, but NBC Sports analyst Rodney Harrison said he “had the displeasure” of watching the Texans-Dolphins game on tape this week.
What Harrison saw, he said, “is a team that is completely discouraged. And I think you look at (coach) Bill O’Brien, and I think he kinda started this stuff from the summertime, naming a starter and switching back and forth.”
Harrison said he’s been on really good teams and a couple of really bad ones, and nothing is more discouraging than uncertainty at quarterback. But, being a former defensive back, what really stood out to him in the Texans’ loss to Miami was Houston’s defensive collapse.
“You saw some of their key players not even hustling,” Harrison said. “One guy in particular who I love, Brian Cushing, I saw him loaf on a couple of plays. And it was surprising to me that a guy who has a reputation of work ethic and things like that to loaf on a couple of plays like that.
“Vince Wilfork, love him to death, but he’s not the same player. He absolutely has no impact. Jadeveon Clowney looks like he’s hurt. J.J. Watt hasn’t been a factor. This team isn’t very good, and no matter what kind of scheme you put out there, if you have guys who don’t want to tackle, missing tackles in the open field, guys who have completely checked out, I don’t know what you can do.”
Harrison added, “You can cut Ryan Mallett, and he probably deserves that, but there probably are some other guys who deserve to be on the same train as Ryan.”
Cris Collinsworth, whose famous sense of outrage on pretty much any topic is, he admits, declining with age, wasn’t quite so harsh on the Mallett front — “Haven’t we all come close to missing an airplane at one time or another when you’re 24 or 25 years old and you want to make that last run at McDonald’s and whatever the case may be,” he said — but he said Mallett operates at his own risk if he gets a reputation for pouting.
“You can handle bad eggs at a lot of different positions, but if your quarterback is, he’d better be one of the greatest players in the world or you don’t want that guy leading your team,” Collinsworth said.
Harrison said a contact in New England told him that Mallett “walked around in a sense like he was God’s gift to the earth and he had it all figured out.” Under any circumstances, he said, “If you’re a quarterback, there is no excuse to you being late to the facility, missing a plane. You should be one of the first guys at the facility, point blank.”
Howe recovering
Art Howe, the former Astros man- ager and player who works as an analyst for Root Sports Southwest, is in the midst of a painful, lengthy but, thus far, productive recovery from a nasty spill several weeks ago that resulted in six broken ribs and some associated pulmonary issues.
Howe said he was in Pittsburgh to visit relatives and attend his 50-year high school reunion when he fell while carrying bags down a flight of stairs. He spent eight days in a hospital in Pittsburgh and, when he returned to Houston by van, having been forbidden to fly, he spent five more days in a Houston hospital.
Howe is undergoing physical therapy and remains on medication to deal with the injuries and the side effects of his fall, but he’s doing well and offers thanks to those who have offered best wishes for a full recovery.
Sager back at work
is orangeCraig Sager’s— not Texas orange or new favorite color Tennessee orange but what he calls “leukemia orange,” the color chosen to symbolize the struggles of those dealing with leukemia and other related maladies.
The veteran Turner Sports announcer, who has spent much of the year undergoing treatment at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for acute myeloid leukemia, made his return to the court Tuesday night for the Pelicans-Warriors game in Oakland, wearing a mostly orange ensemble – including a crystal-studded tie – from his friends at A. Taghi in the Galleria
area.
He will return to Houston next month for more treatment, but now his focus is on the new NBA season and his sideline reporting duties, interviewing coaches and taking good-natured abuse from, among others, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a frequent correspondent when Sager was in Houston for treatment.
When Popovich heard that Sager was planning to be back at work this week, the announcer said, “He called me and said, ‘Does this mean that this pity party is over and I can go back to coming after you (during interviews)?”
That’s fine with Sager, who is looking forward to once again having a full head of hair and of regaining at least some of the 25 pounds he dropped during treatment.
College football ratings
Here are local college football Nielsen ratings from last weekend in Houston. Ratings are not available for all networks, including the SEC Network, Longhorn Network and CBS College Sports, and for ESPN3.com games. Each point represents 23,373 TV households in Houston.
Texas A&M-Mississippi, ESPN, 6.1; Tennessee-Alabama, Ch. 11, 6.1; Texas Tech-Oklahoma, Ch. 13, 3.8; Iowa State-Baylor, ESPN, 2.3; Kansas State-Texas, FS1, 2.2; Houston-UCF, ESP News, 1.9; Ohio State-Rutgers, Ch. 13, 1.9; Clemson-Miami, Ch. 13, 1.5; Utah-USC, Ch. 26, 1.5; Western Kentucky-LSU, ESPNU, 1.2.
Also, Penn State-Maryland, ESPN, 1.2; California-UCLA, ESPN, 1.0; Memphis-Tulsa, ESPN, 0.9; Florida State-Georgia Tech, ESPN2, 0.7; Temple-East Carolina, ESPN2, 0.4; Kansas-Oklahoma State, 0.5; Northwestern-Nebraska, ESPN2, 0.5; Wyoming-Boise State, ESPN2, 0.5; Army-Rice, FSWW, 0.3; Duke-Virginia Tech, ESPNU, 0.2.
Also, Washington-Stanford, ESPN2, 0.2; Southern-Texas Southern, Root SW, 0.1; North Carolina State-Wake Forest, Ch. 57, 0.1; Georgia State-Appalachian State, ESPNU, 0.1; Pittsburgh-Syracuse, ESPNU, 0.1; Utah State-San Diego State, ESPN2, 0.1; North Dakota-Montana State, Root SW, 0.1.
Four DVRs, no waiting
Despite the success of the Rangers and Astros this season, Texas was relatively cool to Game 1 of the Mets-Royals World Series. The game averaged 10.5 in the 56 major markets but rated just 8.3 in Austin, 8.1 in Dallas-Fort Worth, 6.7 in San Antonio and 5.6 in Houston, which tied with Jacksonville for 54th among the 56 major markets, leading only Knoxville and Cleveland. … Spero Dedes and Solomon Wilcots have the Titans at Texans game on Sunday for CBS. Remarkably, the Texans are 17-15 in games with Wilcots in the booth, but that includes last Sunday’s pratfall against the Dolphins. … Former Comcast SportsNet Houston anchor and reporter Leila Rahimi has signed on with CSN Chicago. Rahimi most recently worked for CSN Philadelphia and also for MLB Network’s Strike Zone Channel. … KILT (610 AM) talk show host and reporter Alex Del Barrio has signed on as a host and ring announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment’s NXT brand in Orlando, Fla. … Dick Vermeil is the next subject on NFL Network’s “A Football Life” at 8 p.m. Friday.