Twenty-five hours. That's what John Harris and I were staring down on Wednesday night, and I'll admit it — I've been so buried in stations and network and TV and radio all day that it took me a second to land on the best part of it. Our flagship. Thursday is the huge day. The hugest of days.
Two names I'm still training my brain on, by the way. Reliant Stadium. And 95.7 The Fan. Johnny caught me pausing before I said the stadium out loud, and he's right, I do pause. I'll have them both by kickoff. I promise.
I caught up with DeMeco Ryans for a game preview, and he framed this thing exactly the way you'd hope after two weeks of banging on each other in camp.
"Camp has been great, Marc. We've been battling it out. Offense, defense, been going at it. Now it's that time of camp that where guys are actually tired of going against each other. So now on Thursday, going against the Chargers, it comes at the perfect time in camp for us."
The last practice was built like a game on purpose. "It really helps us for all of our guys to actually get in the stadium to get a flow of pregame," he said. "The kicking game going, offense, defense, guys going in and out, substitutions. We just wanted to go through one time before the guys actually did it in the game, so everybody can be comfortable come game day. Everybody knows where they need to be and what to do. I thought our guys handled it really well."
So what does winning look like Thursday if it isn't only the scoreboard? I asked him.
"What's important to me is no pre-snap penalties. Making sure we're clean on the sideline, making sure — just from an operational standpoint — we have clean substitutions, things that we can truly control. And then, of course, when the guys are playing, I want to see the guys play fast and play hard."
That's the whole thing right there. Operation first, health above even that, everything else after.
There are going to be young men in that stadium Thursday playing in their first NFL game of any kind, and I loved what he said to them.
"Relax and cut it loose. It's still football. The game hasn't changed from when you were a young kid playing Pop Warner football. You play it because you like to go out and play football, because it was a fun game to play. So never lose sight of that. Any level you play, even here at the NFL, it's still a fun game to play. So here in your first preseason game, we want you to go out, cut it loose and have some fun."
And if you want to know where roster spots actually get decided, he told you.
"Special teams is the most important part of preseason, right? That's where young guys truly make a name for themselves. Can they take all these techniques that we've been coaching up with our special teams coaches all weekend? Can they go apply them versus a different opponent? Can they be trustworthy when they step out on the field? Guys you can count on to communicate the right way, to be in the right spot and to go and make plays. So special teams is key. That's where the bottom of the roster truly shapes itself out."
As for the guys in the other uniform, he wasn't spending much time there. "This game is all about the Texans. We're not looking much at the Chargers and what they do. We just want to see our guys go out and apply all the rules that we've taught them over the past two weeks of training camp. There's no game planning going on. We'll get to that when the season comes on, but we want to see how guys just go out and operate with what they've already learned."
Davis Mills, who will likely take that first snap, said much the same thing to ABC13's Greg Bailey. "I think the importance is coming out and playing a clean game," Mills said. "We put a lot of work in throughout the spring and throughout training camp this far, and now just go out there and let guys compete." Entering year six, he isn't tired of preseason reps at all: "Any live reps I can get, I'm chomping at the bit."
He also had a lot to say about the offensive line, which is the group I keep coming back to. "It's already a close-knit group," Mills said. "Some of the guys haven't been together up until this year, but they're already meshing really well and communicating at a high level. A lot of physicality. That's what they really pride themselves on, being a downhill running game football team, and then mixing it up and being able to pass protect with the best of them."
Johnny and I went deep, deep, deep on the names to know Thursday, and I'll give you the short list: Keylan Rutledge at center, Kayden McDonald stuffing the run, Lewis Bond making a play somewhere, Aiden Fisher getting everybody lined up at Mike, Noah Whittington with a real opportunity in the backfield, Kamari Ramsey — who I think is one of the more underrated players on this roster — Marlin Klein after a camp full of touchdowns, and Collin Wright, the rookie corner out of Stanford by way of Manvel, Texas, who has been brilliant. A PBU or an interception nearly every single day. He's number 37. Watch him.
Our Mattress Firm Sleeper of the Game presented by Mattress Firm — I took Johnny's Ivy Leaguer, Joshua Pitsenberger, who scored the go-ahead touchdown in Yale's FCS playoff win over Youngstown State and has looked terrific in camp. Johnny went with Wade Woodaz, who has done a little bit of everything at Clemson and has done a little bit of everything here too. And keep an ear on the punting operation with Kai Kroeger and Austin Brinkman. Clean snaps, clean holds. Operation first, remember?
One more thing, because it's a good one. John sat down with David Fletcher, General Manager of Lone Star Sports & Entertainment and Executive Director of the Kinder's Texas Bowl, and circle Saturday, Oct. 24. Texas Southern hosts Southern for Homecoming, right here at Reliant Stadium, 2 p.m.
"These HBCU classics are some of the most entertaining events period, bar none," Fletcher said. "The pageantry, the bands, just the spirit of rivalry. And then you got the football too. And what a football game it'll be — two NFL greats on the sidelines." That's Cris Dishman in his third year at Texas Southern and Marshall Faulk in his first at Southern. Add the Ocean of Soul and the Human Jukebox and you have a day.
"What an exciting opportunity for our community to bring this rivalry to Reliant Stadium," Fletcher said. And he's right about the weekend it lands in: "We're going to be coming back from London, the dub against the Jags. Hop into this one and then get ready for Texans-Giants. I don't know if you're a football fan, if you can ask for much more than three exciting games in a seven-day period."
Tickets are on sale now at LSSE.net or through Ticketmaster.
But first — Thursday. Chargers. Reliant Stadium. Seven o'clock. Preseason football is back and I can't wait.
