← The Ryen Russillo Show
The Ryen Russillo Show
The Caleb Game, the Eagles’ Hurts Problem, and More Round 1 Reaction w/ Nate Tice and Willie Colon
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Hey barstool listeners. You can find every episode of the Ryan Roso show on Apple podcast, Spotify or YouTube Prime. Members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. The Ryan Rosillo show is presented by DraftKings. And welcome to our Netflix audience watching for the first time today. And thanks Netflix on this new partnership. We're going to talk a ton of football today. I'm going to go through all all the games this weekend rather quickly, but a little bit more time on Caleb Williams legacy game. The first chapter, second chapter perhaps, of his book Incredible, Incredible Comeback by Chicago and the decisions by the packers down the stretch. We have Nate Tyson from Yahoo. Talk a little bit more about that. Also, the Hertz Conundrum in Philadelphia. Is there a Rams weakness? We've got some Steelers, Houston stuff on the line with Willie Colon. And also, would you hire John Harbaugh? That and life advice Every week in the NBA, stars rise, legends are made and one player rules them all. DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, is bringing back King of the Court. And now it's every Tuesday of the season. Here's how it works. DraftKings is putting up $1 million in bonus bets each week. Opt in, apply your token and place a $5 pregame bet on the NBA star you think will dominate each Tuesday. And if your pick finishes the night leading the league in points, rebounds and assist their crown King of the court and you win your share of $1 million in bonus bets. And this season, there's a new way to track the action. The King of the Court leaderboard inside the app before tip off, see the top 10 stars in PRA. While games are live, watch your pick climb the ranks and when it's over, find out exactly where your star stacked up. And if you've been crowned a winner, download the DraftKings sportsbook app. Use the Code Ryan. That's Code Ryan to win a share of 1 million doll bonus bets. If your player is King of the court in partnership with DraftKings, the Crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York, call 877-8-HOPENY.
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Restrictions apply terms@sportsbook.draftkings.com promos Five things before we get to the interviews on today's episode. We were spoiled as NFL fans this weekend. An incredible run of games. Granted we had a dud last night in Foxborough with the Pats taking out the Chargers, but everything else, there's all sorts of storylines. So I want to get to each of this stuff, you know, rather quickly. But I'm going to spend a good chunk of the time here in Chicago with their comeback win against the Packers. So going into this game, you know, I was going back and looking at the overtime loss for the Packers. You're like, they got in the red zone five times and had zero touchdowns in that first game and it still took all time stuff from Caleb to come back in that one. There was a recipe at least with the defensive line issues. Injury wise Wyatt and Parsons both out with Green Bay, we were like, can the Bears just stick to the run enough here and then eat off turnovers the way they have with what I think is an average defense? Is that their recipe to be pull this thing off? And at 213 I'm like, well that's not going to happen, right? Packers moving the ball at will. Three touchdowns, first three possessions. Caleb had a couple picks in this one. They were fourth down interceptions. So you know those are less damning especially when one actually gained you yardage and field of position, you know, field position on the last or the first interception and then the other 1 4th and 6 where he has to actually just get rid of the football. So those aren't as egregious as other interceptions but defensively Chicago just looks like a mess. And that Jordan love and when, when it's high end Jordan Love, man, it's so impressive. There are throws that he's making. You're like, oh this is, this is why we like that guy. So all these things are playing out. Green Bay lines up for a field goal at the end of the first half where they actually make it. But it's a late enough timeout that he's able to get the kick off. It goes through. He misses the real kick like all right, you know, maybe, but there just wasn't really much other than the idea of Caleb Williams and then Caleb Williams happened and we're going to get to this fourth quarter because it's just absurd what this guy did. If I Give you my full Caleb Williams timeline. If you've been here before, I know you've already heard it, but I think it's fair to. To update the whole thing. I loved him. Before the draft, you know, there was a lot of push for Jaden Daniels. I think you were starting to hear some murmurs. We had Brer on recently. We were talking about, you know, Bo Nix being the sixth quarterback out of this class, and Sean Payton in that group had him number two behind Jaden Daniels, which means they had Caleb third. I just felt like he did the hard things really well already, and it was just a matter of him getting to be more consistent with the easy things. Last year's a complete disaster. I know. Personality wise, nobody seemed to like the guy. Then there's the Sando deal this past summer where I was like, hey, was it a couple people that were negative about Caleb? And he was like, no, it was like 15. Then there's a yahoo piece of like, everybody's kill him. This year was promising. Even if I started to think as I watched him, I'm like, God, he still misses something, throws. He just shouldn't miss. But I still felt really good about, like, Ben Johnson, year two. And I don't know, you know, again, we don't even know what the end of this season is going to be. But the whole reason any of us that loved Caleb or defended him or freaked out about him is that fourth quarter. I mean, think about these completions that he had in the fourth quarter. 22 yards, 21 yards, 17 yards, 27 yards, 22 yards, 23, 25. He had 167 yards passing in the fourth quarter when they needed every single one of these things. The throw to Rome, when he sprints left and it's this throw where he's just. He rolls out left, but he's like sprinting left and then gets his body back and throws it right. The fourth and eighth throw to Rome, you know, and what's crazy about this play is that thank God they got flagged before that snap. That was right over Caleb's head because that was going deep and that was going to be fourth down. And that may have well been the game and they'd be eliminated. Maybe all these conversations are a little bit different, but when you see the end zone, look, they get backed up. It's fourth and eight. When you see that end zone replay of that throw to Rome on 4th and 8, it's insane. And then he's got the Loveland throw, then the DJ Moore touchdown where he's just complete control because he knows, he's like, I'm setting you up. I'm going to pump you with this throw. And like it, it was, it was all within. It just showed a guy that was completely in control. It was like basketball stuff, man, in that fourth quarter. So before he goes up, because Green Bay had another possession, there's the Green Bay possession where they're up 27, 24. It's 412 left. Chicago has all three timeouts. And this is where Matt LaFleur in this packers team is getting destroyed all weekend. So the first play, first down, is a wide receiver screen out to the right, minimal gain. Second and eight, they snap it at one second. They're running clock. Ben Johnson doesn't want to use timeouts, yet he hits Dobbs on a one on one shot down the right sideline. That's beautiful. Like it's, it's like perfectly thrown. Dobbs is going to go up and reach for it. Unfortunately, Dobbs goes out of bounds. So now it's first down. You got to run Jacobs, you got to run clock. Problem is he stuffed. Chicago starts to use one of those timeouts, which they would have probably used. Dobbs stayed inbounds prior to that second and 10. They hit golden for 11 yards, except they run the route out of bounds. So you're at the 21 yard line in Chicago. You're moving the football. These are two great throws. You're attacking six there for Chicago on defense, but there's 3:11 left. First down, Jacob stuff. All right, Chicago uses their first time out at 307. Here's where you could start to go, hey, guys, maybe throw something that's going to be caught in front of you and you're going to have to force them to keep using all their timeouts or you're going to run some kind of clock here. Because they would have called the next time out, but they go with a Musgrave one on one shot against a linebacker into the end zone. Now, none of us would have been criticizing it at all had it work because it's just not the way that works. But I think when you look at like the design, you guys know you're up, right? That's incomplete. So you go from Jacob stuff, tight timeout, tight end, Musgrave, incompletion to third. It's like third and 10 like that and no time is coming off the clock. So they get to the line with 10 seconds left in the play. Clock. LaFleur doesn't like it. The clock isn't running. So clearly they're fine calling the timeout. And then after that timeout, they break the huddle at 19 seconds left in the play clock. And then Love tries to change something at the line of scrimmage at just under 10 seconds. So you're coming out of a timeout right into a delay again. So I understand like wanting to change that. And you know, this is a culmination of a lot of lafleur decisions, you know, late, where, you know, sometimes I wonder if it's a bit like baseball managers, where if you just watch it enough, you're going to see some of the same mistakes being made that are perceived mistakes. But like, who is that on? Is that on Love? Is he changing the protection? Because I don't think it was an audible because nobody was moving on the outside. But he has to know at that moment, like you have 19 seconds from breaking the huddle to lining up, the clock has stopped. That's plenty of time to get the playoff. And you can't change your protection that late if that's in fact what Love was doing. So they get a delay a game out of a timeout and now it's third and 15 and you're going. They haven't run much time. Sure, they've moved the ball down the field, but you know, field goal isn't really even going to save you in this spot. So they take another end zone shot on third and 15. It's incomplete. And they're lining up to kick a 44 yard field goal with 256 left. They ran off 100. Excuse me, not 100. Well, yeah, almost. They, they ran off one minute and 16 seconds during that entire time. So they missed the field goal. Chicago takes over with 251 and one timeout left. The two minute warning and Caleb Williams ball game. AJ Brown is reading a book on the sideline. Still cool. Look, Monday's not the day to talk about the Eagles moving on from A.J. brown. He got into Nick Sirianni. Afterwards, Sirianna said, hey, we have a relationship. It's incredible, all these different emotions. I did wonder though, does the sideline get to get mad at AJ Brown when he drops a huge third and five? Probably not. Probably wouldn't like that. I'm so tired of the A.J. brown story. I'm tired of everybody pretending it's not that big of a deal. I'm tired of like being a national guy that gets told that he's being the mean guy out of the whole thing. When you've got to update this story, like, every single week. But as much as I understand his frustration, playing with hurts, which was a new epiphany this season, where I went, hey, he's just kind of average. And that's what it looked like again yesterday. The second half. These second halfs for them offensively are just a disaster. At least they got Saquon going here a little bit. But you know, Hertz, with a Super bowl win in his back pocket and a second appearance. Whenever I've watched the Eagles this year on offense, and I know it sounds crazy after that, I just go, imagine if they had somebody who was better than him, how good this.
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How.
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How good this team would be and how great this roster would be. And I know it doesn't make any sense, but, like, I would equate it to a baseball team. If you had a baseball team that somehow won a World Series without really good starting pitching, which is actually, like, somewhat possible now in this newer version of baseball and how teams use their staffs. But say you did it right. Say you're like, man, our starters all year long, we're having to just, you know, duct tape this whole thing together. But we've got a sick bullpen, good lineup, and all these different things. Things worked out in the playoffs, World Series champs. This is awesome. Hey, next year, do you want to get some pitchers? No, I don't want to do that. Of course you would. You'd be like, hey, you know, it'd be awesome. Next year, even though we just won, let's have better pitchers. And that's what I feel like with Hertz. I don't know if anything would ever happen. You know, I'm kind of not taking anyone's side in this AJ Brown, Jalen hurts thing. I guess after the. The result that we had this weekend, and I was looking up Hertz stuff, Regular season, playoffs rating, 94, 93. Same completion percentage, 64, 66%. It actually goes up. Interception percentage, 2% in the regular season, 1% in the playoffs. Sack percentage, it's just at 7%. It's the same number. Yards per attempts, basically just right around 7. The numbers don't even tell you anything that's all that different because he's had some awesome playoff games. And it's really hard to do this with somebody who just won a Super Bowl a year ago. But I'm asking you, anyone that's either fair about this, neutral, whatever, when you watch them on offense this year, did you go, yeah, yeah. This is awesome. This should. Let's do this for another five years. Congrats to the Niners, 74 missed games because of injury, third most in the NFL. Kittle goes down with the Achilles. Hendricks is out there playing tight end. I'm like, then when they draft this guy be like oh 1998. So incredible win on the road for a game where I didn't think Purdy even looked all that crisp. The Rams, this is the all time. Is this really going to happen with the NFL? I couldn't believe they were down in the this game. But Stafford, who started nine of nine hits his hand has a 3 for 18 stretch in this game, which is just absurd for him, lights up in the fourth quarter. I don't know what happened with the finger but it came back, he said after the game. It wasn't great. The one number though that I was looking at throughout this because I picked the Rams to win the super bowl against the Texans, they were 3 of 13 on third downs. They were 17th on third down conversions in the NFL they ranked 17th. Now maybe that's made up for it with 24th down conversions which are fourth most in the NFL. But that's always my big thing, like how's this quarterback doing? Red zone touchdown percentage and third down conversion rate. And my Rams, which, you know, I've never really ever said that before but at least for the 25, 26 playoff bracket, my Rams, this is a statistical problem. And then again I look at last year when they almost took out Philly at Philly last year in the playoffs they were 24th in the league. So this is two years in a row this team's just not great at converting third downs yet. I think most of us would all gladly take that offense. Jacksonville sucks. I know. Josh Allen Round one the reason why I didn't pick you to win the afc, even though I felt like becoming a believer a little bit. Trevor Lawrence Turnaround the last five plus weeks. Liam Cohen this whole thing, the defense that we think is nasty and at least in this matchup you're like look, if maybe they run at this Bill's defense, that's probably one of the worst run defenses, especially when you're talking about allowing big plays like 15 yards or more. I think they were worse in the NFL. It's super disappointing and I do think they maybe were a little lean. I don't know, let's say pass heavy but first 30 plays, looking at it, 17 passes, 13 runs and the runs were working. Trevor, the first pick was bad. Two picks for him. You know, it's not like, hey, the whole thing. You know what I would do here. It's a bit like if Caleb Williams had been eliminated in that game with the Bears because everybody else would be eliminated with him. I'd say, hey, this is a year in the right direction. Can't wait for next season. If the Bears had lost. It's exactly how I feel, and it's still how I'm going to feel. Right. As the totality of this Caleb story is told, I think you get to feel the same way about Jacksonville column. Liam Cohen completely turned this thing around. Trevor showed. You know, I don't know if the page has now been turned in year five, and I know last year last. This last game feels a bit like a dud, but you went up against Josh Allen and he put the cape on his back one more time for the Bill's first road win as a franchise since 1992. There is something maybe on the AFC south here, though, because I was looking at it comparing to the AL Central, you're like, hey, this. This division's going to be in the playoffs. They get. They have to be, right? Those are the rules. They got two teams in, but the last time this division was in the AFC Conference Championship game was Tennessee in 2019. Jacksonville beat the Chargers three years ago. Tennessee's last win in the playoffs was 2019. They were the 1 seed in 21, but lost the Colts last win, 2018. And you know, Houston's got a couple in the last couple of years, beat the Browns, beat the Chargers. And to close it all out, I still like Justin Herbert. Thanks for asking. Very excited to talk to our guest after a playoff weekend. It's Nate tice from Yahoo. Football 301 is his podcast, and we've actually never spent any time before, so thanks for doing this, man. Good to see you.
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Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm fired up. Great timing, too, because it's not just like a week 13 where there's two games to talk about whether all this. We actually got some stuff to actually go over. So I appreciate you having me excited to do this.
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Yeah, I think it was actually a little depressed after week 18, so I was like, should we even book anybody on a Monday? But we're ready to go after this wild card weekend. I want to ask about the Niners, and then we get to Philly. I want to. I want to start with that game. I'm with you. I would look at Shanahan's performance this year as coach of the year stuff, and when I look at that game and then Kittle going down and kind of balance it against the Chargers, where, you know, there's one way to call a game and then there's. There's like. Do you. I guess I should ask it this way. Do you think that there's always a set of plays to call to get you out of whatever your challenges are in a game? Because it felt like the Chargers never deviated and where with Shanahan and the Niners, it's like whatever is in front of us. He probably feels like there's a series of things that he can call to at least give them a chance of getting out. And of course, they leave Philly with the win.
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Yeah, every coach has kind of like their safety net place, you know, Staples, whatever you want to call it. I think what's been really cool about Shanahan ever since he's been with San Francisco really is just how he's evolved. I think McVeigh gets a lot of that pub about how he's evolved his attack. But Shanahan has two. Like, they're going to have. There's pass plays that are kind of like, no matter what the coverage is, there's going to be an answer. The quarterback just has to find it. And then there's some pass plays that are like, hey, against cover two, this is best. Might not have an answer against man. And it's cool to watch Shanahan as a game goes along. Go like, all right, zones are. Zone runs aren't working. This pass play is not working. This. All right, we had 40 plays for this game plan. We're only going to run 12 because these are the ones that are working against what Fangio is bringing to us. So I think there are those kind of floors or raising plays. I think maybe is the best way to put it.
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Or.
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Or plays to kind of gimme plays maybe is another way to put it. I think you felt that a little bit with Kittle getting hurt.
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The.
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The Quinion Mitchell's second interception. Like, that play was designed for Kittle. It was Jake Tongs was the target on it, the backup tight end who actually is fine player, but he's not George Kittle and he's running away. They're doing a whole personnel. They did like a heavy personnel play on that play. They're trying to get a matchup where it's like, okay, now we got a tight Kittle in the tight split running away from a corner. But it's not Kittle. It was Tongs. So that was kind of one of Those plays, I think that like Shanahan's like, okay, all right, let's get. Just get back to like what we're running here, like our base core plays. There's also run plays that are more safe no matter what you're getting. So, like outside zone, which is the Shanahan staple duo, is another run, which is more of a at you type of run. Those plays, no matter what the defense is giving you, is going to have an answer. We're going to have a. You can block it up no matter what the defensive front is. And I think that's what's really cool. Watching throughout that game is Shannon. The opening drive was great, but then they kind of hit a little lull sometimes. And then I think just as the game went along, the second half adjustments at the halftime are kind of overrated. It's more like in between series that happens, but you can see him kind of stripping down and finding what was working. So kind of a long winded answer to say, like, he knows how to strip down to actually what gets working, but also speaks to like how he's evolved his entire attack.
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And considering the history against Fangio, like when they throw up that graphic and he's 1 and 3 against him, he's got 10 points per game on average in those five drive, right? And this is somebody who's.
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What is it?
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Points per drive. He's number one in the NFL since he became a head coach. So we're talking like six, seven seasons. So, you know, I knew, you know, I think all of us going into it, you're like, hey, they're going to be limited. But you'd think almost in Shanahan's approach to it, it's like, all right, I already have a stack of things I know that don't work against what Fangio wants to do. So it might have been easier to sift through that if again, the playbook is going to take quite a hit once KD goes down.
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Well, that's the thing too, is that this is why I love playoff football. Especially is that usually if you're say we. It was week 13 and I'm about to coach against a. Or play a game against this defensive coordinator. Usually you look at the previous four games and that's kind of the basis of like your. Your opponent scouting and then it's all right, previous matchups against this coordinator. Okay, so we might have two from last year, maybe a playoff game, maybe a preseason game we can throw in there just for data points. But real good coaching staffs once again to playoffs. It's. You're looking at all 17 games. This is why Spags for for the Chiefs is amazing because he'll look at the entire sample size. That's why Sean McDermott's really, really good. Especially come playoff time. They look at an entire season and know your tendencies. You're going to. Everybody has tendencies and it's how you break them, how you evolve from them, how you kind of set it up to like invert the trope, I think it'll be. Or subvert the trope, I should say. And so with Shanahan, he has so many reps as a play caller that, okay, he can look back in 2012 when he was with Washington coaching against Fangio and his recall is really good, but he can look back at that film and go, oh yeah, outside zone didn't work in that game. All right, strip it out so we're not wasting plays like the NFL. You can't waste place that I would say that's the one big difference between college and the NFL. College you get a lot of plays like pretty generally in NFL it's like we only got 30 first down plays versus second down plays. We better make them work. We can't just waste a play and just kind of gauge and just kind of see what we're at. So I think that this speaks to their advantage. It's not only the full season scouting, he has previous games and iterations where he's kind of like, okay, this worked, this didn't work, this worked, this didn't work. And kind of go from there.
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What do you do with Hertz if you're Howie Roseman?
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Hey, I think you're getting try and get creative might be the nice way I put it. I think before I even answer the Hertz thing, I think Tanner McKee, the backup, has to be talked about because that's the interesting kind of conundrum with this. McKee's going to have a market because what he's shown when he has played, I know he played a couple of weeks ago and it was kind of up and down, but he has a lot of positives. A lot of positives. Coaches like pushes the ball, stands strong in the pocket, doesn't like a decent athlete, actually can throw on the move a little bit, doesn't really take sacks, smart, all that stuff. Good size. And there's so many open seats for teams with needing quarterbacks and coaches. A quarter of the league needs coaches too. And this draft class is Mendoza. And that's basically it Like Trinidad Chambliss depending on his waiver is like an interesting day two guy. But like as far as first round, like I don't consider Ty Simpson that Dante Moore is probably might sneak up, but he might go back. I know they got Rayola actually today Oregon seems like he committed, but there's still a talk that more might go back. Okay, now you look at free agency and you look at okay, you can trade for Mac Jones. Daniel Jones coming off an Achilles. So McKee becomes interesting because then after we look out Hertz plays does Howie Roseman go, okay, I can get a second round pick. I can get some. A Kevin Cobb trade, a Matt Shop kind of trade. Or do I just hold on to him, have two quarterbacks and then we do the Joker break the pool Q sticks and let him and Hertz kind of figure it out like. Because then we just kind of like use this as almost like tryout year. Which is insane to say about super bowl mvp.
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It seems insane. Like I feel guilty even doing this right now, but I, but I, I don't.
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What have you seen more of hurts in a successful Eagles passing game or a struggling frustrating AJ Brown reading books on the sideline and not talking to talk to the media like, it kind of like what one you see more and I see the struggles more than I see them. Just actually, actually looking great. Amazing.
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Yeah, it reminds me like of a, of a TV show that all of us know is terrible and it gets great ratings and you're like, hey, is that show good? And you're like, well, no, but, but. And I guess one of the things that I like I read that ev. Evil Knievel biography by Lee Montville, which is this is a really weird reference, right? And there's part of the book. It's unbelievable. The book is awesome. I recommend to anybody you can power right through it. And there's some like Knievel's like the all time just Hustler and just all of this stuff. And they get him, they get him some CBS special and it's awful. It's terrible. And then it kind of like does all right ratings wise. And then there's this piece from the book where the. The CBS I think might have been cbs. Maybe it was abc. But does the executive's quote is like looks at the rating and goes, well, you know, a tweak here, a tweak there. Maybe a little more promotion. Like, yeah, we could do this again. And everybody like collectively is going, so the hurts super bowl championship.
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I'm not comparing her.
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It feels, it just feels very nasty right now. Nate and I didn't necessarily want to do it, but no, if the evaluation of Hertz, if everyone that's arguing about this in Philadelphia on local calls right now, and if you're calling in going, hey, the guy just won a Super bowl, it's like, well, if you're letting that get in the way of everything that we just saw this past year, then that means you're probably losing the argument. You're probably doing a bad job of making your point. If you're just going to this again, this super important thing that's very hard to do and he just did it and has been in that game twice. I just don't know how anyone fair watches this offense all season long and sees these moments where it's entire halves where you're like, they just don't have anything. And look, AJ drops that ball on third and five, maybe that turns things around, but I think there's enough data points from this season where you go, you've got it like, and Howie's so aggressive.
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Yes.
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And I look at the rest of this roster and I'm like, my God, like, if I named five of these other guys that aren't even like tier one quarterbacks, like, if that guy was behind center for them, it may look like unbeatable. And that's the timeline. I think they're on with the group that they have everywhere else.
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I, I, I wholeheartedly agree. I've Eagles fans, they love being mad at everybody. Like, I love them. ECW fans, you know, they, but they, they are, they're the mutants.
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It took me a second to get the reference, so that was good.
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You know, they're bringing in weapons in the crowd and, and when I, you, I, I've never been one that's gotten high on Hertz. I, I think he has qualities. He is a good scrambler, he throws a beautiful deep ball, but he also, he doesn't do certain things that I think that you have to do to be consistently a high achieving quarterback. And I'm not even saying tier one, I'm saying tier two. So like a top. To me, that's like a top 12 guy, you know, give or take. I think there is a pretty definitive top 12 right now. We should talk about later. But with Hertz, do I really need an all time type of defense, the best defense in the league and an amazing run game just to look okay, like, why am I paying you? Like, that's, that's something too. It's Like I gave you the contract.
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All right?
- [27:35]
D
When everything is not great, when everything around you is average or maybe below average, I wouldn't say anything was poor, but like, you know, the run game dropped off big time this year, but it was still like eh, as opposed to just all world like it was last year. Well, why am I paying the quarterback? Why am I paying these receivers? They're supposed to get us out of this rut. If the defense is finding its way. This defense turned into a top five defense after their bye week. But if it's finding a way, it doesn't matter. We can give up 24, 27 because we're going to score 30 because the quarterback's going to score some points. I never feel that. It feels like everything has to be perfect. It has to come down to third downs. Fourth downs go balls, Tush pushes. There's nothing that happens in the flow of the offense with Hertz, and I think there are limitations. And everyone kind of talks about the coordinators, but coordinators kind of adapt their play calling to the quarterback. And the quarterback has a lot, especially a quarterback that's paid like this. They have a lot of input on the offense and as far as where the ball goes, what they prefer to run. And this is every quarterback. I mean, I worked with Derek Carr and he had preferences of what he wanted to run and didn't want to run. And when I watch Hertz, everyone's complaining about the coordinators. Why don't they use motion? Why aren't they doing this? It's like, because the quarterback doesn't want it, because he's going, no, I want the picture to stay the same. You're just, you're handicapping yourself. You. They're turning everything into isoballs. It's ISO ball basketball. Like you're turning everything into a Joe Johnson possession. And while you watch these other offenses, a Shanahan offense, okay, you take away a backup, something like this, it's a flow. It's, it's, it's okay, one's not open, but two is going to come open because I trust the read and the quarterback's going to whip the ball over the middle. If I'm not throwing the ball over the middle consistently, defenses can run things a certain way. If I'm only going to run certain pass plays, defenses could run a certain way. And that's what the NFL is you trump. You try to turn everything to a rock, paper, scissors battle. And with Hertz it's just like they just throw a rock over and over and over and over time, defenses just catch up and it's really hard to overcome that unless you just got dudes. And I think what. Sorry, this is kind of the last point on this. 10 of their 11 starters were playing yesterday. 49ers defense was easily bottom 10, bottom 5. I could look at every metric I look at eye test. They couldn't stop the run. Your pick, Lenore is pretty good, but you can pick on them. You're throwing through the air. Didn't feel like that. Like it did not feel like that. And so there's just. Yeah, I've always been kind of a glower on Hertz and I just kind of feel like something has to change because I've seen enough of this. This is what he is.
- [29:57]
A
Well said. All right, let's do some of the other games here. Give me. I'm a big Caleb guy. There was some throw stuff this year that was very concerning throw accuracy. You go to Pro Football Reference, you're like, how? Why? He's like bottom three. He's like ahead of Shador and J.J. mcCarthy. So it was like accuracy throws, bad throw and all that kind of stuff. But I just felt like no matter how the season ended, year two is such a step in the right direction. Like I almost was looking ahead to year three and not even thinking about them in the plays. I thought they were going to lose this game. Give me your Caleb's thing, your maybe your Caleb timeline on him and then let's talk about that last possession there. Well, I guess second to last possession, the missed field goal with Green Bay.
- [30:36]
D
Yeah, it was. I mean this whole offense I saw when Ben Johnson got hired, people were like, oh, it doesn't match with Akilah Williams does. Well. And again talking about coordinators adaptation, you know, the get into ner. Nerdiness. It's like venom symbiote. Like it matches what your play call is and what the quarterback is like. That's what it is. And so everyone's like, well, golf throws like this and this is what the Lions offense looks like. But it's like Ben Johnson I think is a good coach. One why I always thought that was because he doesn't blink. If you ever look in a press conference, he doesn't blink. And it's not that Adam Gase doesn't blink. It's like the good doesn't blink. Like Nick Saban.
- [31:13]
A
I like that because start tracking that.
- [31:16]
D
The non blinkers, it's. It's either it's hot, it's like, it's like One or zero, they're going to be amazing or going to be awful. It's like one of those things. And I was like, this guy's a football junkie. If Ben Johnson took three interviews last year and he took his time to like take a job. And those three places were New England, who has Drake May, Jaguars, who has Trevor Lawrence, and Chicago, who has Caleb Williams. And I thought that was very significant because he was like, I could pick anywhere I want, I want to do that. Quarterback. And watching this offense and watching Caleb get more comfortable throwing over the middle working from under center, which he did last year. And I actually thought it was kind of an underrated aspect of this game. Watch him play the Colts as a rookie. He was under center quite a bit in that game. And I kind of was like, this could work because this guy wants to chuck the ball and he's got one of the best arms in the NFL. And Ben Johnson's all about explosives. Listen to Ben Johnson talk about the Tush push. People ask why he doesn't do it and he goes, well, those can't generate explosives. Like, why, why would I do that? And this is such a, it's so refreshing for me because it's something my football dogma believes in, is that you hunt for explosives in the NFL, which is, you know, 12 yard gain on the, on the ground, 16 or more yards through the air. Because one of those can equal two, three, five yard passes. If I just get one of three, it's like shooting threes in basketball. Like I three is greater than two, one explosive is greater than two. Successful place, you know, just being efficient. And because of that, you don't have to be perfect. You can throw 58% and complete those. Because I'm generating explosives and getting more yards per pop than a guy that might be completing 66% or 67% at 4 or 5 yards at a pop. And so I think that this matching. I thought Caleb was also a guy that I think needs to be coached hard. And I, I don't mean like you're all screaming. I just mean detail oriented. And I think he wants that. Some of these guys that are stars, like, they act like they don't, but they actually do. They do better with tough coaches that get on them. And that's exactly what Ben Johnson is. And you could see throughout the season kind of really honing in. And like even that game that wasn't exactly perfect. Caleb had the turnovers. They had the record for most explosives in a half in a playoff game. Like, you Know, like. And they had 11 in just the second half. That's absurd. They had true. Media had them at 12 for the whole game. That's the tide for the third most since 2002. And we're talking about Colts, Peyton Manning, Colts teams are tied with. They're talking about Patriots, Tom Brady teams because that's what you're hunting for. And so I look at them and I'm not worried about completion percentage because it's just, they don't do a lot of gimmes in this offense. There's not a lot of RPOs, there's not a lot of bubbles, there's not a lot of screens. It is run the ball and chuck it and I love it. It's what Sean Payton did with Breeze when he first came to the safe. And Ben Johnson has a lot of Sean Payton to him. And honestly, one of my comparisons for Caleb as a prospect was Breeze coming out Purdue because Breeze had more of an arm and was a better athlete than people remember. And so Caleb's kind of juiced up, don't get me wrong. But I just think I watch this offense. I don't worry about that because this is the intent of the offense is to chuck it down the field and get these 20, 25 yard gains. They hit a lot of doubles, a lot of triples and a lot of home runs.
- [34:25]
A
The coaching, hey, every coach sucks because he challenged this and he shouldn't have challenged this and all this stuff. Like, I, I don't really have a ton of patience for it because I, I just feel like, how come every one of these coaches seems to make some of these mistakes at some point and then you're thinking like, coaches are just in a brutal spot. You know, there was a tight end, or. Excuse me, there was a tight timeout in, in the Niners game where it looked like a brutal spot for Shanahan to have to call it. It's like, well, if, if Bourne's lined up wrong, like, who's that? Like when Jennings is screaming for him to get to the line, like, well, that's not a Shanahan problem. Yeah, right. I mean, specific to that formation, it was very clear that everybody's looking at it being like, what the hell are you doing? And the player screws it up. So I could, in this game with Green Bay, go, well, when your kicker leaves seven points on the board. But then we get to that last position and even I, who's usually a little reluctant to be like, this coach sucks. This guy, the clock management part of it. At some point we're like, hey, the Dobbs throw is amazing. He just happens to go out of bounds. All right, well, the golden route also. Nice little throw. They were working six. I think six was the defensive back that they were targeting.
- [35:42]
D
Oh, Kyle Gordon.
- [35:43]
A
Yeah.
- [35:43]
D
Oh, my God. Poor, poor guy.
- [35:45]
A
There's going to be posters of him at the Green Bay gift shop next year. But he was banged up. But then you're like, okay, so that's, that's two unfortunate things on two big positive plays. But then it's like the Musgrave end zone shot, which again, if he beats a linebacker one on one, everybody's praising Love for reading that. And they got the matchup they wanted. And it was actually an under thrown ball. And then you have the third 15 shot in the end zone too. So like collectively. And then a timeout, you know, and then getting delay and it looked like Love was trying to change the protection on the delay there. And they. I looked at it, I talked about it in the open. So the audience has already heard this. They broke the huddle in 19 seconds. That's plenty enough time to kind of diagnose and figure out what you want to do. I think the problem then becomes the collective. It's like you ran a minute 16 off, they still have a timeout. You didn't even score. He missed a kick. What do you think is fair about looking at LaFleur in that spot? And then maybe if it is like, it feels like a bigger concern.
- [36:41]
D
Yeah, I mean, there's. I think they had some stat about how many games they collapsed or blew in the second half this year. Overall, like, I'm a fan of what LaFleur does as an offense. Again, this is an offense that hunts for explosives. It's a quarterback that hunts for explosives. They can be a little kind of in their ways. I think they're, They're. You're stuck in their ways. There's sometimes like. I think they're a great example is on third and one. I think they hit Dobbs for a big play and I'm all for that.
- [37:10]
A
Cool.
- [37:10]
D
Defense is playing tight to the line. And what's haunted was to create some space in the offense. And on that play, though, like, if that goes wrong, that's really frustrating that you get to a third and one. You just waste it on a play that really is a 50, 50 ball, 40, 60, you know, something of that sort. And it can go. It can spiral in bad ways. And there's times where they have a lead and whether this is La Flor. Think of the Broncos game when they played last month and they were ready to rip their heart out. And then there's love chucking at 60 yards down the field, which again, it's hard for me to talk out both sides of my mouth because I want my quarterbacks to play that way. And it's just some. Again, something I believe in. But also there's a time and a place. You know, there's a time, there's sometimes where he's just like, hey, let's just tighten it up, tighten it up, hone it in a little bit. And I think sometimes is that they're.
- [37:55]
A
Running, can one of the routes go inside, right?
- [37:58]
D
Or one of the guys, you know, hit a check down, you know, just like a little bit of a little quick game here. And even some of their stuff with their run game. And this is. It's hard because they've had some O line injuries and move. They move their guys around a bunch and they play in a very specific way. Like their O line has wide splits and it's just. Sorry, I'm talking about. I'm talking at every angle here. It's just that a lot of times with Leflore, I think that they get so aggressive and so caught up in it that sometimes they lose the big picture of it all, that they're in that two minute drive and they're like, we gotta get to this perfect play. How many times do they burn timeouts and they end the half like in the first half with no timeouts. There's like 10 minutes ago in the second quarter.
- [38:33]
A
That happens all the time. It feels like all the time, right? Because it's the math of like. Well, it's a first half timeout. It doesn't really matter because that's what you just see. Certain coaches like, I don't care. It's first half. It doesn't matter. Timeouts, mostly guys, they don't care, right?
- [38:49]
C
They.
- [38:50]
D
They love them some, them. But it's no I. That's the thing about them. It's like they know they're good. That's what kind of is frustrating. It's like. But watching. And with some of that, I think I. I don't want to say arrogance with it all. There's confidence in what they do. They're like, no. And they run a lot of good stuff. But it's stuff that's high wire. It's betting that, yeah, but this should be a 50. 50. We get it more 70. 30. That means 30 of the time. It still can go wrong or the old line's battered and you still can get hurt. And so like when I watch that and I watch these and a half sequences or that two minute sequence that you bring up or anything like that, they're trying to get to a perfect play. They're trying to get to all this stuff and do everything like. That's exactly right. But sometimes you just gotta flow and go and let it happen. And so yeah, I think that's really what it is. I still like before, I still think they should bring them back and I think they are also. They pay their assistant coaches very cheap there in Green Bay. So I don't know where the Harbaugh talk was coming from because I was like, he ain't going there. Harbaugh's assembling like an all star staff. Like he's, they're not going to be able to pay that. So that kind of, I, I, you gotta give it one more run. I think with Leflore and this kind of regime to kind of figure out what you got.
- [39:55]
A
I also think if they ran Jacobs up the middle, they would have been punning and Chicago probably is getting a ball back with two timeouts and the two minute.
- [40:03]
D
So record breaking explosives.
- [40:06]
A
Yeah, I mean all, all time stuff. The Rams thing I had asked you this morning, like if there's anything baked into their struggles on third down. At least yesterday we have the finger situation with Stafford. But is there something more about like what you've seen and now necessarily maybe like a weakness that they have as they're going to be taking on the Bears next week?
- [40:26]
D
Yeah, offensively I still feel pretty good about them. They're missing one of their guards, which is significant, you know, as far as some of the stuff they want to do. I thought McVeigh kind of maybe spiraled a little bit where he was kind of hunting some plays in the second half. They're chucking it a little too much. I thought he could have gone to the run a little bit earlier. They struggled on third down. I think that was a little bit of a game plan thing where Evero, the defense coordinator for the Panthers did a really nice job of what they call green dogging, which is where. So if you're a man coverage, whoever's covering the back or if somebody blitzes and if the running back stays in protection, then the guy that's guarding him adds on to the blitz. So the defense is creating a plus one like they, they have, they're going to have a guy running free and so now what you're doing is you're turning everything back for the quarterback has to get rid of the ball in two and a half or three seconds. And I thought they did a great job of that. Like, they just did it over and over. And I didn't think the Rams adjusted that well, which actually kind of surprised me. I. I've been curious to watch the second half on all 22, Stafford under pressure went 2 of 9 for 30 yards. One pick, 1.4 passer rating, which you don't really need to know pass rating to know 1.4 is pretty, pretty not great. So when I watching that kind of, I, I'm not too worried about the offense. I know McVeigh, I know Stafford. I know what this offense is. This run game was literally the best run game that we've seen this millennium. It's like them and like the 2004 chiefs with priest Holmes and that offensive line, I know what they can get to. The defense has started to worry me more than anything. I thought, even though I'm not the biggest guy on Bryce Young, I did think that those receivers. Coker had a star performance. He's great. And I really like Tetra McMillan. They have so much size, and the Rams have gotten the most out of their kind of retread corners. But these corners are like small. They're 180, 185. And I thought size really gave them an issue. And in breakers stuff, working inside and you know who likes to throw in breakers and who has big receivers? The Bears, Colson Loveland, who's a moose. Roman Dunesay, who just came back. And you know, even Luther Burton's got good size. Even DJ Morris, actually pretty good size as well. And they run a ton of in Breakers. That's what Caleb has really worked on and gotten better this year. It was a bunch of outbreakers last week, but I think that if you asked me a month ago, I'd be like, oh, Rams are going to blow them out. And now I'm starting to look like, well, actually the Bears offense has some answers against this defense, which is crazy to me because I, I was riding the Rams, you know, I, I had them as a Super bowl champ. I was. I've been feeling the best about them of all teams, them and actually the Seahawks. And now I'm kind of like really looking at them and going like, wow, you're a little bit more pickable. I think the offense is still great, even if McVay has some off moments, you know, where he gets kind of ahead of himself. But I think the defense is actually a little bit more pickable, which is kind of like more of a concern to me.
- [43:07]
A
You were, I think, one of the first national voices I heard. Kind of like going, hey, you paying attention to what's happening in Jacksonville, right? I was even like, I was surprised that you liked him. Okay, My boys, Duval, man, right. I was like, is this a bit what's going on here? And then. And look, they closed strong. I think it was after the jets game, I had said like, I don't care, you know, and then, you know, you started paying attention to Trevor's numbers and you're like, man, there's a lot of personnel here on this defense that I really, really like. Like, hey, I remember that guy getting trapped. I remember like that guy. Okay. I feel a bit like, you know, as disappointing as this is, like, everything feels like it's going in the right direction. You hope. Trevor, year five had turned the whole page on this whole thing. Did you see anything in this game? I thought they were still a little pass heavy considering the Bill's profile on defense and the overall. I mean, you look at the box for the Jags, you're like, yeah, they gashed them up and you still end up losing this game. Obviously the turnover margin, Josh and a lot of stuff. Was there anything from this game in particular other than maybe just Allen putting on a show once again that you thought was frustrating for Jacksonville?
- [44:13]
D
It was more just like this is. I thought these two teams, these kinds, these guys kind of encapsulated the whole playoffs in the afc. Like good but flawed teams. Like that's how this whole playoffs are. And it's actually, that's what's making it entertaining. Watching Jaguars are way ahead of schedule where I thought, I thought the offensive line would cripple them this season. I thought that would be their big bugaboo and really didn't feel that too much. I don't think, especially in this game, like, I, I thought that was actually not a non factor.
- [44:42]
A
I.
- [44:43]
D
So I think as a franchise, they're, you know, playing with House's money a little bit and honestly getting rid of that. They traded the first round pick for Travis Hunter. This draft class might not have been the worst thing, you know, to be punting on a 20 pick in the 20s and they got a few picks on day two. But really it's more like I, I looked at that like when I, I didn't have like a big, big picture takeaway. I really even like on talking about the show Last night I was like, both these teams finished with 20 first downs each. Jags had a higher success rate, more explosives. They ran for the ball well. They did well on third down. Just can't have turnovers in the playoffs against a fricking monster at quarterback on the other team. Like, that's just. It sounds simplistic, but that's what it comes down to. It's almost like the Jags did well, but you can't have turnovers and you're playing against Josh Allen. And honestly, McDermott did a great job. Like, they. They're opportunistic. He always finds a way to get these guys to make turnovers. Trophy is making huge plays. Should have. His white looked like he couldn't play football like, a year ago. And now, yeah, huge plays in the playoffs. But that speaks to McDermott. And they. Those picks came on throws over the middle, which has been the change of the Jaguars offense is once they added Jacoby Myers, Trevor is just like, yeah, let's go high lows. Let's rip this thing over the middle. And the Bills went, okay, we'll just put bodies over the middle and take advantage of it. And they did. And. And it just kind of speaks more to McDermott. But I. I don't know. I came away. Other than those turnovers. They ran the ball well. The Jags did the. You mentioned it. I actually thought they even scored on those drives. I wasn't. I thought they could. Could have kept running the ball. But also when I looked at the results of those drives, it wasn't the worst thing. Like, they kept scoring. So it was kind of like. It's kind of hard to, like, go like, oh, they should have done this the entire time. And so I. I mean, Trevor finished with a 58 success rate and success rate. I don't know how much you use it, but it's like half the yards on first and second down, all the yards on third and fourth down, more or less. And so 58% is absurd. Anything over 50% is great. And the run game was ripping off explosives. They had a great game plan in the run game, so it's one of these things. They just lost the game to a dude at quarterback and a good game plan from maybe. Or opportunistic game plan, I should say, from McDermott. I wish I had a bigger takeaway than that, but I think the Jags fans should be. And franchise should be pretty happy about where they're at. They kind of have some good problems. They have stuff to address in the trenches. But like, man, there's kind of proof of concept of what they did this year.
- [46:59]
A
Yeah, sometimes you just have a results. Like there weren't any secrets. Like, this was all pretty straightforward right in front of you. And you're like, Trevor, who'd been so clean, you're like, okay, you know, and then it turns into this, like, oh, is he just going to fall apart here in this game? I thought they should have run the football a little bit more. I also think in like a world where the fourth down stuff is out of control at times because I just don't know that we're looking enough at like, how you feel about your team, how you feel about the matchup, and you're sitting there and like that graphic. I despise that graphic. Coming up, it's like, well, are my tackles out? Like, just. Yeah, you know, like, what are we blocking Chris Jones?
- [47:34]
D
Like, are we like. Yeah, like stuff like that, right?
- [47:36]
A
Do I have a rookie on blitz pickup? Well, yeah, maybe. And So I thought McDermott kind of like zagged against a lot of the stuff in this fourth down decisions because there was like an emotional one there where it was like 75% of the league's going for it right here in the spot. But like, hey, we want to keep our guy on the field. We want to make sure we win with the ball. And they're like, you know what, let's, let's actually back that. Let's just back up Jacksonville here a little bit. Even with a defense that I don't know that anybody was, was really excited about going into this field.
- [48:05]
D
No, I, I think you could still run on them. That's the thing is like, I still, I still feel good about the Bear, the Bills, because of Josh Allen. And I know McDermott's good, but it's like, you're not always going to get that game script where you can run the ball and make them run, you know, and stop the like and the other team can run the ball, especially as the playoffs go along. So, like, they could win it all or they could lose and flame out next week. And that's really how the whole AFC is. How about the line judge in this game, by the way, the refs, the.
- [48:29]
A
They.
- [48:30]
D
I've never seen more issues spotting the football than I ever seen in this football game than this Bills Jags game. I've so the line judge and the field judge judges at the last. Oh, my God, like they spotted the ball incorrectly like five times and where they had to do like, like the line judge was Shitting himself. Anytime it was like a third and one, he's like, no, get the first down. And because it was the Trevor one was tough though.
- [48:52]
A
Once the shin is involved, it was. It's a little.
- [48:54]
D
Oh, yeah, no, that one. That one's fine. There's some other ones they had. Even the. Josh Allen had the like 10 yard tush push into the end zone. He's tackled well before. And the refs just like got caught up in the moment. He was like, yeah, yeah, touchdown. Like, he kind of like flowed with the thing. I don't know. It was. I've never. Line judge. Had a wrong rough day in that. In that game. That was like one of my. One of my final notes I had about that game was about the line judge and the down judge.
- [49:19]
A
Hey, let's do this again, man. I really appreciate it. This is a lot of fun.
- [49:22]
D
Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for letting me ramble a little bit.
- [49:25]
A
No, it was awesome. Good visit. Thanks to Nate Tice, Yahoo sports and football 301. Willie Colon played a couple positions on the offensive line, but he is everywhere. You'll see him in New York and Sny and obviously with Fox and NFL Network. Good morning football. And first things first with the crew as well. It's good to see you, man. You look. You look intense. I'm just going to say I'm going to start with this and then we'll go backwards. I'm going to be shocked if your Steelers beat Houston tonight.
- [49:56]
C
Why would you start off like that?
- [49:58]
A
I'm just trying to get the best out of you.
- [50:00]
C
Are you not seeing the vibes? Where are we at right now? Are you not paying attention to where I'm at right now? This is game day. I got my kids going to school with that goddamn Steeler beanies and I got my wife wearing black and gold today. I mean, we're all. We're committed. Like, I just don't know what else you need from the Steelers. Yeah, I get it. A lot of people feel like we shouldn't be here, but we here, right? So, like, deal with it. Monday night, here we are.
- [50:23]
A
Well, how does it happen then? Give me, give me the. I know, I know. Your heart bleeds and it's like, normally I'd give a grown man shit for having two teams to cheer for, but you played for both, so I think you get that advantage. And the other one's the Jets. So, you know, hey, look, if they're good at some point, then you throw some green hoodies on, no problem.
- [50:40]
C
I own it.
- [50:42]
A
I see doubt in your face, though. I like your outfit. I see doubt, though.
- [50:47]
C
No, I don't have doubt, because I think. I really don't, because I look at this Steelers team and I look at what Aaron Rodgers has or haven't been able to do. We're flawed. We're a flawed team that's been riding on the wings of destiny. And I feel like you go back to that Ravens game, and I'm looking at that last quarter, you talking about two. Two bad. You know, two bad positions or not bad positions of defense. But, you know, Zay Flowers, the likely catch, the miss, field goal, Aaron Rodgers, three timeouts, he drains them, and Luke misses the kick. And I'm saying, all right, that's God. It only could be God, right? Like, we're playing at this point, it's all about fate and faith. And so that's all I have. I feel like we're riding fate and we're just going to have faith going into this game. Um, and if you're the Steelers defense, man, you have to feel. You have to feel some type of way. There's been so much talk about Hunter and Will Anderson, this badass defense. Like, you have to feel somewhat pissed off that they've talked about their production. Invalid. The Steelers defense hasn't lived up to the standard, but nevertheless, man, they've been scrappy and they've been picking it up as of late. So I'm. I'm. I'm just happy to be here, Ryan. That's. That's all I'm saying. We're just happy to be here. Hopefully we get it done.
- [52:05]
A
Do you remember a time where. Because you're sitting there and you say, hey, if you're on the Steelers defense, all you're hearing about is Houston's 11 guys. And I think Houston deserves it because of how dominant they've been and just how many guys that personnel. And they don't. They don't really change much up, too. Like, they. They kind of are who they are.
- [52:23]
C
Yeah.
- [52:24]
A
Throughout the entire season. So I don't know that there's going to. A ton of. Be a ton of surprises. Be a ton of surprises for Rogers. But when you feel like I am a Steeler and all these things and they're talking up this other team the entire time, you know, we always reference it, bulletin board material and all that kind of stuff. Like, does it really work? Does it really. Are there times where the coaching staff comes down? It's just a message. Seven, six days in a row, whatever and you just. You actually talk yourself into this thing that helps you win a game.
- [52:55]
C
Yeah, I mean, when I was. When I was at the Steelers, man, especially as an offensive line. You know, I've talked about this before, I think, on here, you know, my super bowl year, we gave up 49 sacks on the season, right? 49 sacks. That's a lot of sacks. And I remember going into the playoffs and we had a first round by. And the next, you know, our division game was against the Chargers. And it was so much talk about how the Chargers were fast and they're.
- [53:18]
A
Furious, and they, they, you know, they.
- [53:19]
C
Were scrappy and they had this team and they was coming into Pittsburgh and they were coming to kick our ass. And how does all. You know, the one sore spot for the Steelers was the offensive line and how that this Chargers defense was going to get after us. And I remember the whole week leading up to that game, I just got tired of hearing it, you know, like something just. Somebody just keep poking a bear, like, you know what it is. You know, what the other team's resume looks like. You know, what they're capable of, because you're watching film, you're watching all the nuances and how they're be able to be effective against you. And I just got tired. And I remember as an offensive lineman, we were just agitated. That's like very like kind of like that cashmere sweater that you just can't take off at Christmas that your mom puts on. You just at some point, you just like, man, you just want to rip it off. And that's how I felt. I just. I just felt agitated that nobody gave us a shot. Nobody felt like we had a chance.
- [54:06]
A
To do what we needed to do.
- [54:08]
C
And so much of that going into that game was because they had a big nose tap. I don't know if you remember Jamal Williams. Yeah, he's a hog. He was kind of like the West Coast. Casey Hampton.
- [54:18]
A
Yeah, but he was, like, quick at that size.
- [54:20]
C
He was quick. He was nasty. And, you know, they had Louis Castillo, they had Stephen Cooper, they had all these guys. And we just kept hearing it and hearing it and hearing. And I remember going, waking up and going to bed, and I felt like. I kept. I woke up. I woke up hearing about the Chargers. I went to bed talking about the Chargers. So game day, I was just like. I was just like that caged dog that, you know, you just kept poking and poking until you let out the cage. You just ready to bite. That's how we felt as a line and That's. And I hope this defense in this offensive line for the Steelers feel like that. I hope they come into this game agitated. Not, yeah, you want to win, you want to play. But there's a different level of intensity you have to match. Right. Because the Texans feel like. I think the pressure is on the Texans, to be honest. I think they feel like they can't lose this. They're the better team. They may have the younger quarterback. They have more answers against our defense. But sometimes agitation just leaves you to say, you know, what it is, what it is. We just got to go out here and fight and scrap and dig and claw, and if we do what we're supposed to do, we're going to come out on the other side of this thing the way we want to. And that's how I felt. That's how I feel now. I've always been about the Texan. Texas, Texas. I'm just like, damn, the Texans. Let's just fight already.
- [55:26]
A
Well said. I'm motivated. I'm motivated. Yeah. Do you like the idea that a quarterback sack is a quarterback stat, not an offensive line stat? Did you ever tell Ben that?
- [55:39]
C
Not that he would listen. He wouldn't give a damn.
- [55:43]
A
Maybe we wouldn't give up so many.
- [55:46]
C
If thrown out of bounds, wasn't around there, but he wouldn't give a shit. He'd, like, deal with a block longer. Don't play with a clock in your head. That's what he would say.
- [55:58]
E
Yeah.
- [55:59]
A
I mean, it's not. It's tough to criticize any of it because let's just say collectively, whatever it was, it. It worked. But, yeah, there's certain. Look, there's certain offensive lines that you'll look at and be like, I can't believe they gave up this many sacks. That was like the Russell Wilson argument, like, during a couple of Seattle years. And look, he had a cook in there for a while, but then these. These, like, hey, well, you know, the offensive line, and we gave him some more sacks, like, dude, have you watched, like, what film are you watching?
- [56:24]
C
And, you know, we were told in the office line room, because guys would make remarks like, man, you know, you should throw away the ball. We should do this. Or we and everybody be like, he's Big Ben Roethlisberger. Keep blocking his shit up. And, like, you know, I mean, that. That's just. It was what it was. That was his playstyle. You know, he was a playmaker. He was gonna hold on to the ball. He's going to dip. He was going to Dive. He's going to chuck. He was going to duck. He was going to do him. So either you were going to, you know, do your best and hopefully, you know, you come out where, you know, on the better side of it, or you just, you know, just weren't playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was what is very black and white. You just had to do your job.
- [56:59]
A
So you, you didn't feel like you were a bad offensive line because I.
- [57:03]
B
I would have to go back.
- [57:04]
A
I could pull everything up here.
- [57:05]
C
But no, that year was different. We had, you know, we had lost our left tackle, we had lost our left tackle, we had lost our right guard. And Kendall Simmons and Allen Fanica had left the year before. So we were kind of a password group. We just got Justin Hartwig, who we acquired from the Carolina Panthers. And so it was me, Darnell Stapleton, who was a rookie free agent starting at that point. Then you had Justin Hartwig, then you had Chris Kimwalto, then you had Max Starts filling in for Marvel Smith. So we were a group that just had to learn to work together. We weren't. We didn't have the chemistry necessary to get through that season or be as polished as we wanted to. Our defense was historic, so we kind of rode their coattails. But going into the playoffs, man, we had to find ourselves as a group. We really had to figure ourselves out. And that's why I do have a somewhat admiration and appreciate appreciation for this Steelers offensive line. Because I think if you were to, you know, lay out the Steelers roster and point out, you know, a sore spot on, on his team, it probably would have been the offensive line. Um, but I thought they've played better, they've been gritty, they've been able to figure it out. I think the run games could be better. Um, but they've been able to find a way, so. And that's all you can ask for.
- [58:17]
A
Let's talk about A.J. brown. Um, this is not new and I don't know all of it of, like, what's going into the situation for Sirianna to come running down after him. And look, if you're a, if you're a player and you're good, you're probably not going to love that, even if there's history. So I wasn't shocked to see AJ Brown go back at him. Let me just ask you first, just straightforward, like, what do you think about where this relationship is right now?
- [58:43]
C
I think it's done. Feels done. Feels like it needs to be done. I think I'm tired of watching it or hearing about it. And we keep in a buck. Are we being honest with each other? You have four drops in the game. You don't have the, you don't have the cojones to stand in front of the media and say your piece or say anything about the game. But when you want the ball, you got everything to say, right? When you turn on tape, there's justified tape to say, listen, he's not wrong. There are certain spots where Jalen's just not getting him the ball. He's open, he's dominant, one on one, get AJ the ball. And then you have moments like last night where we need you to make a play. Not all the balls are perfect, but we need you to make a play. We're going to. You make the play. And you know, he, it just, he just didn't come through with, come through with those catches. And you know, I think, I think somebody on the cast said, well, he's only had one catch in the first half. And then they went to him again in the second half and was on that big third down, he dropped. And I'm just like, okay, catch the damn ball. Like it doesn't matter when you're called upon, you gotta deliver. And when you're that noisy as a receiver and you've caused that much conflict in your offensive unit, when it's time for the answer, we need you to answer. And so the whole spat on the sideline with him and Ceriani, whatever, you know, I mean, that doesn't mean that the ball players are always going to be feisty and competitive. I don't mind AJ Brown being a competitive alpha number one receiver. I have a problem with AJ not delivering. When a team is simply looking for an answer against a duck tape. 49er team, defense, rep. Well, team as well. Cause they had some injuries in the offense office side too.
- [60:23]
A
Yeah. Look, agree with everything you said. I didn't expect that we would be on different pages there. I wonder though, as an, as an old line guy, like when you see the receiver having his moment on the sideline.
- [60:34]
C
Yeah.
- [60:34]
A
Like if you feel like because he's on your side of the ball, you have to have his back. Or if you're like, ah, here we go again with the receivers.
- [60:41]
C
I mean, I was around. I mean we had guys would have blow ups on the sideline. You just kind of let them handle that. You know, you don't go over and be like, calm down. I mean, unless people start throwing blows, that's when you got to get in There. But, you know, receivers are going to be noisy. You know, so are DBs. I mean, just. It comes with the position. I don't. I'm never. I don't meet too many quiet receivers or receivers feel like they're being ignored. You know, I mean, like, they. They want the ball. They want to be in a position to make plays, and. And I'm fine with that. My thing is, you know, if you're A.J. brown, there's, you know, there's a way of. I think timing is everything. Here's your offense trying to figure it out. You. You, obviously you're not playing your. Your best brand of ball, and you're not playing the best game yourself, so why be the distraction in the moment? Doesn't. It doesn't matter what Sirianni said to you. Just take your ass to the sideline. He was clearly trying to get you off the field, and you were just kind of in your feelings for whatever reason.
- [61:31]
A
So was the result from the weekend, you know, on. On, like the winning side of it, though, where you went, hey, I know they won, but, you know, is there a team?
- [61:43]
C
Probably Buffalo.
- [61:45]
A
Okay, go ahead.
- [61:46]
C
I thought James, you know, listen, I knew the Jags had the number one rush defense in the league, but I watched enough of the Buffalo Bills, man. I thought James Cook was going to be a lot more impactful, and I thought that Jags D is good. Can't take nothing away from him. I get that. I thought they kind of played with a tight butthole during that last drive when Allen just turned it, put on the cape and was like, man, I'm just a better quarterback.
- [62:09]
A
And he delivered.
- [62:10]
C
But I thought. I thought the Bills were gonna have a better day running the ball against the Jags. I just. I don't know why the stats say I shouldn't have believed that, but I thought James Cook, when he's efficient and they able to attack the edges and they get those Titans coming downhill and winning on the edge, I thought James Cook was going to find a way. I think they held him to 3.3 yards of pop or something like that. So, yeah, I just thought the Bills was going to be better. And then Josh Allen took some hits, man. You know, I thought he took the, you know, the early fumble and he took that hit on the side on the. Doing it for the score where, you know, he got his knee twisted up.
- [62:42]
A
That first hit, by the way, he got mangled when his helmet came off. And it was. There was a late reaction on the broadcast because it was like, I'M watching him going like, he. He didn't look like he had a good time with that one, but go ahead.
- [62:55]
C
And I don't. Yeah, he takes some hits. I'm just like, man, he's tough and I respect. I think he's a student mvp, obviously, all that good stuff, but he took some hits. I'm like, man, they're trying to win.
- [63:05]
A
A Super bowl here, right?
- [63:06]
C
That's the goal, right? I don't know. If he keeps taking the hits he takes, I don't think they're going to get there because it feels like the injuries are starting to come fewer and quicker throughout the game. And I'm like, man, they gotta. They gotta figure out how to keep him upright and playing a lot more cleaner, burning the ball, and they don't. I just don't know what they have. Receiver wise, right. Khalil Shakur is obviously a dog. He showed up for him, but outside of that, nobody pops off the tape. I mean, Brandon Cooks had that one big catch, but I don't know, it feels like Josh Allen, James Cook and whatever tight ends hot that day. That's how the Bills win.
- [63:37]
A
Yeah, I like Kincaid more than Knox a little bit, but when they get cooking, you know, they can be tough matchups. But when Keon Coleman made that big catch down the right sideline, it was more surprising that I was like, oh, yeah, Keon Coleman. Like, I know he's on the team.
- [63:52]
C
I didn't even know he was suited up until you caught that ball. I was like, oh, shit, he's out there. The kid's out of detention. Right?
- [63:59]
A
I. I had the exact same reaction. I mean, look, he was a baller at Florida State, and so you're a little surprised as, like, can I ask you a question?
- [64:07]
C
And I hate to cut you off. Do you think. Do you think the Bills right now look at Keenan. Keenan Coleman and feel like he's a miss.
- [64:16]
A
Yeah.
- [64:18]
C
Like, but like, this early.
- [64:21]
A
Well, I don't know that they're necessarily gonna, like, give up on him. I'm. I can't believe it's not at least like, hey, we know on like, third and short, like third and seven contested catches, like, he, He's a guy. I'm telling you, he was a freak. I know when he was in college, and to have him be like, was he not dressed maybe a couple times at the end of the year?
- [64:42]
C
Yeah, it was. There was one time he got. He got in trouble. They told him, throw on the grace and he was like, dancing on the sideline. He was, like, dug in. And I'm just like, what the.
- [64:52]
A
Well, at least he was still engaged.
- [64:54]
C
But it was this wild. Listen, most guys that get in trouble from the head guy or the organization, you kind of just chill out, bro.
- [65:01]
D
Right?
- [65:01]
C
You pop a couple sunflower seeds, you have a Gatorade, you put the big jacket on, you disappear until it's time for you to get back out there and straighten up. This kid was. He was just, like, listening to music. I'm just like, did anybody tell him he's in trouble? Like, I don't think he knows he's in trouble here. Like, he's been acting up. There's something going on with.
- [65:21]
A
I can't believe that, like, even the worst version of him as an NFL receiver is like, hey, this guy's probably still going to play, like, 10 years, but he's not the number one that you were hoping that he would be and everything. And, you know, look, Shakira's. Shakira's kind of like everything for them right now. Again with those two tight ends. If you're. Your son said, I want a Caleb Williams poster in my bedroom, how would you. How would you handle that? It's tough before.
- [65:48]
C
What do you mean? I like Caleb Williams. I do. I don't have anything against the kid. I just think right now, year two, I'm just. And it's. Maybe it's dumb for me to say out loud, but I'm just going to say it. I'm just ready for him to play four quarters of football, and I don't know if that's the offense. I don't know if that's. Whatever. I'm just waiting for the. When the first quarter starts, I see Caleb Williams, and when the second quarter rolls out there, there goes Caleb Williams again. Not to the third quarter. You know, in the fourth quarter, I'm like, oh. Oh. Like, I'm just kind of thrown back. Like, oh, man, this kid is. Kid's amazing. I just want to see him through all four quarters. For me to feel like, man, and listen, I. I definitely think he's a franchise quarterback. I think. I definitely think he's the future of the Chicago Bears.
- [66:29]
E
He.
- [66:30]
C
He's. He was obviously drafted to bring belief and hope into a franchise that definitely needed well done. I think at this point, you know, I just want to see him play. Put, Put. Put together a full tape. That's it. Just be more consistent. Start the game fast. That's all my.
- [66:47]
A
All right.
- [66:47]
C
But I'm just.
- [66:48]
A
I'm taking note of Something here.
- [66:50]
C
As far as the poster, I, I, I would, I would pause on the poster.
- [66:55]
B
I'm like eh.
- [66:57]
A
Yeah right. But I'm just noticing loop misses field goal. Act of God, Caleb Williams. Need four full quarters range.
- [67:08]
C
Huh.
- [67:10]
A
Just, just trying to balance those things out. I have not spent nearly enough time on the Patriots game. Really kind of a dominant one sided game even with their mistakes. Yeah, well, the, the other games were so incredible. But I, I just to get the full scope of everything here. I just want to make sure that we touch on it. You just said you don have anything on this.
- [67:28]
C
So I have, I just, it was so bad, you know, it was tough. The office align coach of the Chargers is Mike Devlin who is my office the line coach with the New York Jets. I think Mike Devlin is a damn good office line coach. But the Chargers offensive line has played so bad and I get it. No Slater, no Joe, Al, Mar, Hampton out. I get all that. But there were some fundamental basic things as an office alignment you have to be able to do just to play at this level. And they were bad at all of it. And I just didn't know. I like I, I'm gonna be, I'm, I'm a dead ass when I say this. I thought they should have pulled Justin Herbert during that game. Like the two minutes I know it was, it was still close, relatively close game. But he was getting, he was getting hit so hard they were peeling his back off the turf. And I'm like this game's lost. Preserve him from next season because he was getting slammed like the one, the last hit where he like looks like a, like a puppet, his arms fly up. I thought he was sleep, Ryan. I thought he was sleep. I yelled my wife. I said baby sleep. Like I didn't believe I was like at that point I would have as if I'm Jim Hallbaugh. I'm saying to myself, we, let's wave the white flag. Obviously they got us. We can't do anything. You got us Pat. See you next season. He was getting killed. And so I felt bad for Herbert. It was a dominant performance with his six sacks, 15, 15 pressures, 11 hits. I mean that's nuts man. That's nuts. And listen, the Patriots don't have a lot of superstar power, but as a unit, I felt last night they arrived, they dominated that game. And I felt they. It should have been, it should have been a call from the big man upstairs, Charters owner to be like hey man, get, get, get my prize horse off the field. He's not gonna make it. But he was getting tattooed. I thought it was, thought it was rough on.
- [69:18]
A
I love Collinsworth too. Pointing out late when, when they were. They basically stopped the game. They allowed substitution and then it just, it just flipped, you know, because the Pats really, when I was watching at least the pressure stuff that I was looking at both sides, like May, they're rushing four and figuring drop eight and it kept them in the game. I don't think the New England Patriots are blitzing a ton. But then as soon as they got some fresh bodies in there after that moment and then it was just, you know, let the dogs out. Not, not the song, which I know you still love, but only have birthday parties. What is, was there anything going on, you think, defensively with what the Chargers did with May to, you know, limit a guy here that we're used. I mean, he was what, 6 of 15 at the half? He had the big run. They didn't need a ton from him. And I'm not even necessarily trying to be critical. I'm just curious if you felt like there was anything there that you saw to slow him down a little bit from the Chargers.
- [70:15]
C
No, listen, I know Collinsworth talked about the left side of the office line for the pass was a little shaky, especially Will Campbell and that other left guard. His name escapes me. I didn't see. I just, I thought Ramon Day Seabins really kind of was the stabilizer for that offense. I think that was the, he was the balance and I think that kept. They were able to win on early downs. I thought the kid would just make plays. I thought he made plays. And their offensive line played a lot better than the Chargers offensive line. And I think, you know, when you talk about what the Pats do well right now as a whole, you know, they don't mind the dink and dunks. They can win that way. And they, they, they like to control the clock. They like to pound the rock. And Drake May just plays mistake free football. He doesn't get himself in trouble. He doesn't get the office in trouble. And when you have the defense perform the way they performed last night especially, he's going to have, he's going to have more chops at the apple and so more opportunities to go get it. And he, and he was able to do so. And, and I, I think the Pats don't scare me. But you can see why they are where they are right now. Just disciplined, clean, hard nosed, scrappy. Very much like who Mike Grable was as a player. Like, I, I Played against Rabel as a player. He was, he was tough, man. He was tough. He's scrappy. He didn't. He told you how he felt. He talked a lot of shit, but he was going to give you, he was going to bang it out with you. And when you watch this past team, they're very much like that. They're just going. They're going to bang it out. They going this scrappy. They're disciplined and tough.
- [71:36]
A
They do.
- [71:36]
C
They get, you know, they, they represent. They have all the buzzwords you can say about a clean outfit. They just get it done.
- [71:43]
A
Would you. If you were. I'll see. I think it, this answer is different for different teams, though. Would you want to hire John Harbaugh?
- [71:54]
D
Oh, that's a good question.
- [71:56]
C
I don't know. Cause I feel like the more he. Now that he's removed from the Baltimore Ravens, you hear Monken come out and talk about, like, he could have been better for Lamar Jackson. And there was some discourse there. And I'm like, there was so. There was so much talking about John Halbaugh kind of being, you know, he's, he's fallen on deaf ears or he, you know, he doesn't have that, that spark he once had and that the team's kind of gone awry and the, like, he lost the locker room. I don't know. I think if you're the Falcons, you take him right away. Um, if you're, I think if you're.
- [72:29]
A
A team that's the Giants, not with Jackson.
- [72:35]
C
No. But you want him. Do you think he's. I just don't think he can survive in this market from a really.
- [72:43]
A
I don't know. I mean, I would take this Meteor.
- [72:45]
C
Market is absolutely brutal. And for a coach with a young Jackson dart, like, I don't know, like, I, I, I don't know. I struggle with that.
- [72:59]
A
I don't think it's the home run answer that I thought it was maybe when it first happened. Right. And maybe reading some of the stuff, but then, like, taking a step back and thinking about it, you're like, okay, well, he's not a coordinator. Right. Which is kind of the funny thing. Yeah, he was a special teams coach. But it was funny because when they had the early success, it was like, you know, owners around the league are talking about, like, special teams. They have to organize people so they're better at these authoritative positions. You're just playing.
- [73:23]
C
So the issue with that was he got the gripe very much like Mike Tomlin gripe, like, kind of what people say about Mike Tomlin got the job, like, where you didn't have to do much. He just had to step into the Porsche and not crash it. People felt the same thing about John Harbaugh. Like, listen, you got this historic defense led by Ray Lewis, got this young quarterback with Joe Flacco. You have all these weapons and pieces, like, just don't crash it. It's going to run itself. But eventually you got to work. And I thought. I thought he did. I thought a lot of things did. Well, I didn't like the fact that, you know, I thought that piece that came out wasn't from Mike Presti. The, you know, the big piece that came out of the Baltimore paper about Lamar Jackson sleeping in meetings and all this other stuff that came from somewhere.
- [74:03]
A
Right.
- [74:04]
C
You know what I mean? That didn't just come from nowhere. And I don't know why that seemed to come out then. I mean, I kind of get why, but it just felt like there was somebody in house or somebody close to that situation that said, man, I got to get this out now. And where there's smoke, it's fire. So I don't know. I'm still. I'm still on the fence about the whole John Hallbaugh experience and how he's been able, you know, how he's pretty much gotten ax. I wouldn't have let him go, though, because I believe in stability. And I believe anytime you got a coach, a coach who can build a coach or you have stability like you go into this season. The Baltimore Ravens was considered a Super bowl contender.
- [74:40]
A
It.
- [74:40]
C
Right. Good roster. Yeah, they're one of the favorites, you know, obviously MVP caliber, caliber. They didn't take into account that Derrick Henry was going to have ball control issues. They didn't take into, excuse me.
- [74:53]
A
Into.
- [74:54]
C
Into account that Matt Bequay was going to get hurt the way he got hurt and out for the season. They didn't take into account that Lamar Jackson, you know, was going to go through the injuries and pretty much play like a shell of himself. Those things they didn't count for. So I. I just. I just feel like they had a bad season. I don't think it was time for. For them to blow it up or get rid of John Halbaugh. I think they could have easily ran it back with him, just upgraded, you know, the wide receiver room, did better on defense, got some more pieces, figure out the office line, get some stability there, and they would have. They would have been right back where they needed to be. I didn't think they Were like, I don't think they were that far off.
- [75:29]
A
They would have been fine probably either way. So I. Because they've been so patient, so patient since they made the decision, I was like, okay, that's fine. But if they had brought him back, I wouldn't be like, hey, you need to fire that guy. But I think if you're another team and you're going, okay, we have a young quarterback, say you're the Giants, right? Like, well, there's nothing about his resume over 18 years that tells you there's any kind of offensive like performance here that's like, hey, I want to sign up for any of that stuff. I mean, even the year when Flacco turned into somebody else for four playoff games, that was an average Baltimore offense, right? If you look at it from where it was around the league. And then he turned into Joe Montana. So, you know, part of me is like, if I were a disaster of an organization and I just needed the rudder, right? Like, he comes in instant credibility. There's probably a top down thing of like, this guy knows what he's doing and we're a mess, right? So, like, if the jets were maybe a couple years into this kind of bad performance, like Aaron Glenn after one year, like, I'm totally fine with it, you know, like, it was ugly. But I really don't like bringing in a coach and firing a guy after one year. Unless you're telling me every single day in the building is a complete mess. And that's what you hear about maybe some of these other ones of guys. So they want to bring him back, fine. If it had been this Aaron Glenn's second year and the jets say, hey, we just want to go in a different direction. We're not thinking for the next great offensive mind. We're thinking for somebody who just brings in credibility and fixes a lot of our stuff and it's been really good somewhere. I think the New York part of it, you know, that's really up to you, like, how much you want to let. It is a mess up there, though. I'm like, I know you're in it and you're in it every single day. And it's almost like there's this prideful thing of like, we wear these coaches out and then it's like, all right, well, that's cool. That seems, that seems super productive.
- [77:05]
C
I mean, I've seen it with Aaron Glenn. I mean, Aaron Glenn started off not trying to be a distraction, being consistent with his message, talking about the product. Is he going to Be a product the jets fans are going to be proud of. And how they. We should all rally around the fact that they're putting it together. And it was a dumpster fire after dumpster fire after dumpster fire till he started putting his dukes up against the media. And then he became a distraction because he started to get unhinged because of everything that he had told or damn near promised. Nothing was coming into fruition. And part of it, because he sold the jets fans that Justin Fields was going to be the difference. And that was an absolutely horrible decision. With all that said, you know, now, you know, the last three games of the season for the jets, the team.
- [77:52]
A
Pretty much said bye.
- [77:54]
C
You know, they weren't playing up to par. They pretty much laid down against the Pat Strick, May had five touchdowns. And there's not one person on that defense that wanted to be on that field that day. And so that's all a reflection of Aaron Glenn. And I'm looking at John Hallbaugh, like, listen, man, you just left an opportunity. You just left an outfit where they, you know, some people felt like the locker room left you, you know, land somewhere where it's a lot stronger locker room. You have a quarterback that's proven, and you have a situation in a culture where you necessarily don't have to rebuild. You just have to steady the ship. That's how I would think about it. That's how I would approach my next opportunity. The Giants go, that's a project that's going to need some time, and they're.
- [78:36]
A
Probably not going to do it with a quarterback. Like, again, all the things you would love about Harbaugh, you're not picking from the McVeigh tree, going develop the future of our franchise. Now, you could say Harbaugh comes in with the right assistant. It doesn't really matter. He's not calling plays anyway. He's not a quarterback coach. He's not designing any of this stuff. It just doesn't seem to necessarily be the trend. But, like, maybe you look at a place like Green Bay, by the time this comes out, maybe there'll be new news on the floor. But I think he's a really good fit in some places. It doesn't make sense anywhere else. So I think that's what your answer is, and I agree with you. I think you got me there. Yep.
- [79:08]
C
I'm glad we can agree.
- [79:11]
A
Go Steelers for life.
- [79:14]
C
What? I just don't know why you're against us. You believe in the black.
- [79:19]
A
I don't think you're that Good.
- [79:21]
C
All right.
- [79:22]
A
I think Houston's really good.
- [79:24]
C
Wasn't that good. But end of the day, we had a hell of a night. That's what I'm planning on. You know what I mean? That's what I'm planning on. Just make it. Just gotta make it good for one night, baby. I know what I signed up for. Let's make it out for one night.
- [79:38]
A
If there's one guy I know, if I need a night, I'm like, hey, we need it to be. Tonight's the night. Tonight is newer night, bro. Willie Colon's that guy. You can see him everywhere, all over Fox, NFL Network and sny. Enjoy the game tonight.
- [79:53]
C
Where are you watching it? That's what I want to know. Where are you watching it?
- [79:56]
A
I'm gonna set up. I'm gonna set up a twitch. You see if you can subscribe to that.
- [80:02]
C
I don't give. I'll do it. I'm down.
- [80:04]
A
Dinner. Dinner on tonight's game. Done.
- [80:08]
C
Book it. Sign me up. Sign me up, Jack.
- [80:13]
A
All right, Dinner next time. Next time I'm in the city. Done. Dinner.
- [80:16]
C
Easy money. Let's get it.
- [80:18]
A
All right, you're my man. Talk to you soon.
- [80:20]
C
All right, brother.
- [80:24]
D
You want details?
- [80:25]
C
Bye.
- [80:26]
D
I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.
- [80:29]
C
What's up?
- [80:31]
D
I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.
- [80:33]
C
I have every toy you can possibly.
- [80:35]
D
Imagine, and best of all, kids, I am liquid.
- [80:40]
C
So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.
- [80:43]
A
Life advice. Email address, lifeadvicerrmail.com we have a couple updates. It looks like siree's working some sort of quilted Patagonia snap. But that's not the quarter snap.
- [80:54]
E
Oh, dude, L.L. bean.
- [80:55]
A
Oh, it is.
- [80:56]
E
Make fun of me, I guess, but yes.
- [80:57]
A
No, dude, I'm not making fun of you.
- [80:59]
B
I still went to my house.
- [81:00]
E
I do got this as a gift. But yeah, it's. That's, you know, listen, it's nice, it's comfortable.
- [81:03]
A
I like it. I think it looks good. And I wanted to acknowledge it.
- [81:07]
E
What else needs to be acknowledged is first day on Netflix and we're all wearing black. This is like a thing that we. We did honestly didn't plan this.
- [81:15]
B
I'm glad I look better than I feel.
- [81:17]
A
I'll tell you, Drake, man, I ate night last night. I got a text last night from Kyle. Was like, are we good yet? Something like that about the bats. I was like, oh, okay.
- [81:29]
B
Nobody answered me until we won. So I guess that was probably.
- [81:31]
E
I don't want to jinx it. I don't want to say anything. I don't know.
- [81:33]
B
I fired off a call to Steve. I was like, don't call Ryan.
- [81:35]
A
Don't do that. Anyway, I was making some calls yesterday. Yeah, Kyle. Kyle sent me a gift pack. Yeah, I did. Which was glad it made it the upset of the year. I wasn't expecting gifts from Kyle because, like, real maturities when you get to a point as a man. This is only. I can only speak to men here. When you're at a stage where you feel good about packaging up some stuff at the post office and sending it off to another dude, you're USPS. I imagine your 401k is in a great spot because it's.
- [82:10]
B
Oh yeah, I'm proud of. I'm proud of where we're going with that 401k.
- [82:13]
A
So.
- [82:14]
B
Yeah, you nailed me. That's right.
- [82:16]
C
Yeah.
- [82:16]
A
Because I think for years the idea was would be there. I'd go, oh, this is. This is something. You know what I should really do? Yeah, theoretically, like send my friend a shirt. Yeah, he'd like this shirt or whatever. And then, then I got so good at it. I had some guys ask if anything was wrong. Like, what's going on with you slowly giving your stuff away? Yeah, yeah.
- [82:36]
E
It's like my 85 year old grandma. Every time you go see her, it's like, oh man, I'm collecting another thing. What's going on here?
- [82:42]
A
Dude, 85, I think. What do you get any nice serving bowls?
- [82:47]
E
Yeah, literally, I got like a gravy thing.
- [82:50]
A
Gravy boat thing.
- [82:51]
E
It was like every new thing would be something that. And then they're just all around the house. Don't really use them, but you know, the relics of the past now.
- [82:56]
B
Grandmas love doing that shit. They do love that shit.
- [82:59]
A
I gotta be honest with you. Like, if your family comes from gravy boat money, are you worried?
- [83:06]
E
Well, at the end I don't know that there was much left, so I.
- [83:10]
A
Just don't see them anymore.
- [83:11]
C
Anymore. Yeah, you're right.
- [83:14]
A
When I see a gravy boat, it's almost like, oh my God, you know.
- [83:17]
E
These people are classy as hell.
- [83:19]
B
I guess I do come from gravy boat money. What am I even worried about? Why am I even doing this?
- [83:24]
A
Anyway, thanks for the shirts. He sent me a bunch of shirts from some bars in Poughkeepsie, including the derby, where the back of it, it says talk derby to me. So.
- [83:34]
B
Yeah, the Mahoney shirt is the one I'M hoping you'll pop on one day. The rest of those. I just wanted to like throw a little package together.
- [83:39]
A
But yeah, throw that.
- [83:41]
E
Wait, so is this the spot now? This is the new spot we have like an official. I mean, I don't want to call it the Frolic Room, but no, I.
- [83:47]
B
Mean it's probably Shotzis for football and then there's. There's other. There's other things with. For different vibes, but that's kind of been my football watching place.
- [83:53]
A
So I say live show. Live show and Poughkeepsie.
- [83:58]
B
Dude.
- [84:00]
E
Don'T play with nodding.
- [84:02]
A
Yeah, don't play with me. Okay, one follow up here, which I cannot believe he wanted to talk about outsider Mike, who? We told you one of our former co workers at ESPN was allergic to water.
- [84:19]
E
I was thinking about that more. I think the term that he said is that his body rejected water. Now that I think isn't that. I was thinking about it over the weekend and he was. And he said that because he's like, every time I drink it, I have to pee. And I'm like, again, that's kind of the. That's.
- [84:35]
A
Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I love that you said you thought about it more. I haven't stopped thinking about it for four days. So we may have to just throw them on an episode at some point. Okay. So someone emailed in. 18 years old, 5' 11, 160 basketball comp. Aaron Kraft. Aaron Kraft is a sneaky go to for a lot of people and I don't. I loved watching Aaron Craft play. So no impressive gym stats yet. See? Love that attitude. Right? Been listening to life advice for a few years now. I've never felt more seen than in the recent pod when hating water was discussed. I think water is disgusting. Totally tastes like shit. Obviously I've tried it numerous times and would choke. Oh, dude. Would choke it down. When I played sports throughout my life, I cannot imagine ever recreationally drinking water. I would 1000% stop a waiter waitress at a restaurant from pouring water into my glass because there's zero chance that it's passing my lips when I can order literally anything else. Never have I met heard of someone like me. So I felt it was necessary to chime in. Whoever that guy was, we may need to meet up and bond over some non water drinks. Maybe a crisp coke or something. Thanks for the pods and congrats on the Netflix move. Which thank you for Cerruti for acknowledging that. So our guy hates water too. The only reason, one of the reasons I'M not as into time travel as I thought I was. Is that if you go anywhere pre ice, I might be out.
- [86:16]
E
Well, everybody back then was drinking ale anyway. Anyway, right?
- [86:21]
A
Yeah.
- [86:22]
E
Because it was sterile. Right. That you could trust beer more than.
- [86:26]
A
You could trust water.
- [86:28]
E
There you go.
- [86:28]
B
Dude. There's sometimes when water is the only thing that can fix me. And then if you can get it, especially at the preferred temperature. That's what bliss is, dude. When he really preferred temperature. Well, sometimes you do need some ice cold. And sometimes, you know, there. I think there's, there's way less times when you'd want some room temperature water. But sometimes that, that'll do the trick. But honestly, sometimes you wait like waking up and maybe, maybe you, you know, put some mileage on your body yesterday and you can actually get that water.
- [87:00]
A
When you need it.
- [87:00]
B
It's like the best thing in the world. There's nothing better.
- [87:04]
E
See, I'm a, I'm a chilled, not iced water. I don't like ice in my water. Yeah, I, I like it a little bit cold, but not iced cheese. And I also go through like big phases with water. Like, sometimes I'm really into it and it's like, hey, this is the only thing that's going to quench my thirst. Other times, like, I'm not like quite at the outside of Mike level where it's disgusting, but I'm just like, I don't really want to drink water. I've tried like those things, you know, like the, the hydration packets and they all taste like salt. So it's like none of them are actually any good. Maybe if you have a recommendation, there's.
- [87:33]
A
A few that are good. I would argue against that. I've gone through the hydration phase, but I, I gotta, I gotta start my day just downing it. So I'll tell you, there's some trainers, they're like, oh, you're pulling some muscles, you're doing this or whatever. Like, are you drinking enough water? Comes up all the time. It's like, well, no, I'm just putting my body to the. Through the limits just of whatever could be possible. You know, pole vault lessons start next week. But I'm, I'm telling you, like, if trainers are going. Because I remember Cowherd once, my good friend Colin Cowherd, he just decided he was like anti water and he did a whole segment have like, you know how you're supposed to have like eight glasses of water became a thing. He's like, I always thought that was ridiculous.
- [88:16]
B
That is ridiculous.
- [88:17]
A
By the way.
- [88:17]
B
Yeah.
- [88:19]
A
So I'm like, man, I think arguing that you should be drinking less water is a mistake. So I just can't. I can't believe. I can't believe that people can't be refreshed by ice cold, cold water. It's crazy.
- [88:33]
B
We did. We did swing a little too far in one direction, right? Wasn't it, like, everyone was really happy that, like, their pee had no color? Because that's how everyone's like, oh, you have to drink eight, nine glasses of water. And then didn't they come out and say, maybe that's too much? Right?
- [88:46]
A
Did they? I don't know. I didn't.
- [88:48]
B
I thought they did. I thought they were like, if you got no color in your urine, that's actually not the best is what I heard.
- [88:53]
A
But I don't know. Well, we're gonna get.
- [88:54]
E
Remember who was the football coach? Was it Sark? Is it Sark that had the P chart where it's, like, on the. In the urinal, like. And he would be like, if you're not in this range, like, you're not. You're not. You're not bought in enough to the team, basically.
- [89:06]
B
I did hear about it.
- [89:07]
A
Was it that. Because I remember the P chart, but I don't remember, like, going, I'm gonna be in the portal, man. I'm like, like, yellow.
- [89:14]
E
My scholarship is in jeopardy.
- [89:18]
B
Don't flush it.
- [89:19]
E
Yeah, I. I. Do you know anybody that. I mean, do you. Do you drink eight classes of water a day, Ryan? I don't think I know anyone that actually. Okay, so then I guess I do know somebody.
- [89:27]
B
You don't hear him clanging around that fucking water bottle. Every time I do podcast and I gotta mark it down and try to.
- [89:32]
E
Edit it out, Tom says, oh, is.
- [89:33]
A
That really an issue? I didn't know that. Well, I didn't know.
- [89:36]
C
We were editing.
- [89:36]
B
I forget a lot.
- [89:37]
A
But sometimes.
- [89:38]
B
Sometimes we'll just be like, a guest will be talking. I just hear, like, bang.
- [89:41]
C
And it's this.
- [89:41]
B
It's ice hitting your metal jug.
- [89:44]
A
Like, God damn. All right, there it is. There it is. Huge metal jug. Okay. All right, let's stay with the fitness. Hey, guys. Six four, 200 pounds, 31 years old, but feel old. No gym stats, but have my AA rating with the California Beach Volleyball Association. Ryan is the Manhattan beach guy. Should know what that means. I'm pretty good for reference. AAA is the highest level. I think that's great, man. But I've run into enough you volleyball guys where I've Heard you say you're sort of pro or not pro. That I don't need. I don't really know how to keep track of who's pro and who isn't. And I know the crabs are nasty and I. I like those dudes what run into a few times. Tyler Crab and his brother.
- [90:27]
B
Oh.
- [90:27]
C
Oh.
- [90:27]
A
I thought you said it was a.
- [90:29]
B
Volleyball gang or something.
- [90:30]
E
Yeah, I don't know.
- [90:33]
A
If they had gangs, I would have.
- [90:34]
C
Joined one of the crabs.
- [90:39]
A
That's pretty good. The Spikers. It wasn't as good of a name they would sound. I would feel like if you were like, I don't want to be in the setters. No, I know everybody have a Ryan encounter at the top. Golf, you can redact that. I know in short course when I lived in Manhattan beach, but now I live in Orange County. Oh yeah. No, I play the par three every now and then. We talked about that when the kid kept hitting over me on a Friday night. Might have had a few trulies, I don't know. I've always admired your attitude. You're always improving no matter what. You don't have to just decide you're old now. Yep, that's true. One of the. One of the tenants. How do you cope with when you start to feel the athleticism slipping and the injuries start to pour in? For context, beach volleyball and getting the AAA rating is a major goal of mine. I've gotten close a few times, play five, six days a week to reach said goal. However, two months ago, 31 lower back spasms for the first time mid game, I hit the sand and writhed on the ground in agony. For 15 minutes I couldn't move. I forfeited the match and hobbled to my car. I had to lean over, shuffle Forward like my 90 year old grandfather walked later in his life. A couple older guys chuckled and said welcome to the club before peppering me with their stretch routines, aching back, shoulder stories, general tips of my new life with a bad back. It seemed like they secretly enjoyed that I was one of them now. Yes. Look, I don't know how I can tell you this. There are going to be a lot of people and a lot of them are going to be older than you and they're going to root against you. So just get rid of it.
- [92:14]
E
It's a rite of passage, brother.
- [92:16]
A
Yeah, no one's actually on your side. Chapter three.
- [92:20]
E
Sounds like you need water.
- [92:22]
A
Hey, this perfect segue here. I've been in denial since that day. Just telling myself this aching back thing is Temporary. And this new shoulder pain is an anomaly. But two months have gone by and the pain and stiffness is still there. Even after physical therapy this week, I was doing my cat and camel back stretch. I can see your charts that you sent us. We appreciate that. Before playing and a younger guy asked how my Pilates routine was going and if I was practicing twerking. Yeah, that cat cow thing. I. Your boy is down bad. My questions are, did you have a day when it all fell apart? Weight lifting or playing hoops and back? Shoulder went wrong and never recovered. Did it come back at all, at once, or slowly over time? Is this my new life now? How do you stay positive when your body doesn't work? I don't know that I'm Mr. Positive over here, so I might hold. I might not. Answer question three. The injury has made me contemplate my own mortality. Seriously, for the first time, I don't like it. 4. Am I stuck doing these dumb stretches the rest of my life now before working out? Will it even make that big of a difference? Congrats on your success. Thanks. Sorry for the long email a lot here, man. Yeah, I mean, this is kind of the way it works. Like, if you're just going to start getting hurt more. And it's great when you're younger, you get hurt, there's some sort of arm pain or you do something bad in the gym. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. Like, you guys in your 20s that don't do anything physical, you have no idea how good you have it. That's why it's like, yeah, get in the gym and get hurt and then recover faster. What's wrong with you? You. But anyone that's ever been through this deal, there's nothing better. Like the superpower. You're like Wolverine. Just walking around like, oh, that kills in two days. It's gone. For no reason other than you're just young. It's the best. I had a thing with my arm. I did some curl thing, and I was like, ah, that stings. And it was like somebody stuck a needle into the top of my forearm right, like, right here, the top. I was like, God, that hurts. And I was like, whatever, it'll go away. It was two years. Tennis elbow. I couldn't grab, like, this water jug to grab it. Like, the top is a crane. Searing, searing pain. Then I finally was like, what is this? And they're like, oh, that's tennis elbow. Like, makes sense. Pretty active guy. It's just going to happen, happen. And I'm like, so when does it go away? You know, I have that planner stuff in my feet. I've had it for years. Yeah. Like, if I play basketball the first. At the end of the first game, my feet feel like they're put in two casino type vices. Just cranking them. The amount of pressure. And the thing is, they just say it and you keep doing it or you stop and that's what you have to sign up for. I would stretch like crazy. I stretch more now than I ever did before. It's definitely helped with certain things. I think there's this.
- [95:18]
E
Didn't you rip your calf doing. You ripped your calf, right?
- [95:21]
C
Or something?
- [95:22]
A
Yeah, Muay Thai, but that was bad.
- [95:24]
E
So, you know.
- [95:25]
A
Yeah, I played five on five for the first time in a while since the rip calf. Didn't feel great. Didn't feel very smooth. Wasn't seeing the court the same way. I'm just telling you, like, yeah, the stretch thing is real. The stretch thing is real. I should do more yoga and all that kind of stuff. But I. I'd probably rather not because I don't want to not work. But I'm just telling you, like, you have it. We're all at a crossroads. And I've just told myself, like, I don't care how much more hurt I get doing anything. I'm not going to. I don't want to sit around and not do anything. That would be far more depressing than being hurt. So it's up to you, man. 31. You're kind of fine, though. I think you're fine.
- [96:03]
E
31'S a bit early. I told you guys I played in that pickup league and I'm 37 now, and that was a humbling experience. Mostly because it's honestly mostly the cardio. Like, I just, I used to be.
- [96:15]
A
Able to go, go, go, go.
- [96:16]
E
And I was never a stretcher. Still don't really stretch a ton. And I, My, my. I don't know, I didn't feel tight after the games. It was just like, I used to be more energetic. I used to have more stamina, and that used to be a big part of my game. And like, not having that, it's. It is demoralizing. Like, it makes you, like, really have to, like, want to go back and play again because you're like, man, do I suck now? And like, is this fun anymore? Like, you really just kind of like think about what you want to do in the future of athletics and you kind of just have to. I will say, the more I played, the Better my. Obviously, like, the better my cardio got. I probably should start, like, doing some more walking and running. Just like, non playing, right? Just to like, be a regular, like, guy who does that every day. And then it'll probably improve the basketball thing. But it's like a real, like, humbling thing when you're like, oh, man. Like, I can't just run up and down a court for two hours and, like, not feel like my lungs are going to explode.
- [97:04]
A
I just got sad for you.
- [97:06]
C
Sorry, man.
- [97:06]
E
Yeah, I didn't mean to bump everybody out, but.
- [97:08]
A
Kyle, how old are you?
- [97:10]
B
32.
- [97:12]
A
Do you think there's a chapter coming with that big old frame of yours where you go, okay, you know what? It's time.
- [97:20]
B
I do.
- [97:20]
A
I actually do. I think it's right around the corner. I actually do. Honestly.
- [97:24]
B
I drove past the gym the other day. I was like, should I sign up? I was like, it's still January. Those guys are probably all going to hate me.
- [97:29]
A
I was like, maybe I'll do it.
- [97:30]
B
You know, Maybe it'll collide with the.
- [97:32]
C
No.
- [97:33]
B
No booze for that part of the month of February.
- [97:35]
C
Creeping.
- [97:35]
A
This pats run was not. We needed the patsy lottery. Yeah.
- [97:39]
C
I mean, I could see.
- [97:41]
B
I could see the end of the tunnel.
- [97:42]
A
So that's.
- [97:42]
B
Yeah, I agree.
- [97:44]
A
Yeah. Well, Kyle was it still Manuary.
- [97:49]
E
Always. Kyle always asked me. Because we are playing. I don't know if you. I don't know if you know this, but we are playing. Kyle and I are playing in the barstool flag football thing.
- [97:56]
A
I heard about this.
- [97:57]
E
At least allegedly. Our name is on a list called.
- [98:00]
B
Me last parentheses, Rosillo. It says next.
- [98:02]
E
Correct.
- [98:03]
A
Yeah.
- [98:03]
E
Just in case anybody didn't know who we were, which is fair. I'd be like, who are these guys? Like, what's going on?
- [98:09]
A
Wait, what is it?
- [98:10]
C
Flag.
- [98:11]
A
Is it on turf? Is it on sand? What are we talking about?
- [98:13]
E
I don't actually.
- [98:13]
B
A lot of questions.
- [98:14]
A
Yeah, Yeah.
- [98:14]
E
I asked Kyle last night, like, do I have to bring cleats? Like, is this an indoor thing? I thought, is it going to be on sand? If that's the case, like, look out for your Achilles. But I don't think it's on sand. I think it's like some indoor center. But Kyle's question was. Kyle was concerned about, like, what's going on with the offensive line? Like, who is O line?
- [98:30]
B
D line. Yeah. Like, you would think there'd be probably three, Right. Who plays flag football? Just like seven on seven. That's it.
- [98:37]
E
That's what I thought it was going to be. I didn't think there was going to be any lines, but maybe I'm wrong.
- [98:40]
A
I don't know. I think usually you need to. A couple guys out there, you know, maybe a tight end.
- [98:45]
B
I look, there's a couple of big dudes. I don't know what we're supposed to do if it's not that. I guess we'll figure it out. There's a couple how's. Big names on the list.
- [98:55]
A
And he's still young enough that you haven't, you know, the training, the cardio thing sans a great neutralizer, though, you know, that'll. That'll take it out. Hopefully. It's not sand. Robert Edwards.
- [99:03]
E
I don't think it is. I don't think it is. Yeah, that would be a bummer.
- [99:06]
B
I think I'm out if there's sand.
- [99:09]
E
But that could be a real humbling experience again, like just people on camera looking and be like, wow, Serdi really is sneaky.
- [99:13]
A
Slow. Maybe he.
- [99:14]
E
He's not. He's not even sneaky anymore. He's just flat out.
- [99:17]
B
What would you try to play if they were like, all right, everyone sign up. What you think you're. What would you put? Would you put receiver at this point or.
- [99:23]
E
I always like playing safety, but if I, If I had to pick.
- [99:27]
B
Well, you probably have to go both ways.
- [99:28]
A
So.
- [99:29]
B
Yeah, I don't think we're.
- [99:31]
A
What do you want to play quarters? Look out. You beat over the top.
- [99:34]
E
Yeah, Listen, I'm not going to be that guy. So, like, hey, I need the ball. I'm playing quarterback. I could play quarterback, but I'm not going to.
- [99:43]
B
Just know that I could do that.
- [99:44]
E
I want you to be that limited running. I'd probably be all right.
- [99:49]
A
What if you just said, hey, we're one of the Netflix 3. Where's the ball? Okay.
- [100:00]
B
Hey, can I ask you guys a question before we. I don't know when we're running out.
- [100:03]
A
Of time, but we had a lot of time today. If people haven't caught on to the light life advice, like, we're taking a little bit longer to do the whole thing because we're just catching up and we. The way the taping has worked out, this is how we're doing it. So. So.
- [100:15]
B
Yes.
- [100:15]
A
Anyway. Yeah, yeah.
- [100:16]
B
And get this thing off.
- [100:17]
C
Take the space.
- [100:18]
E
Yeah.
- [100:18]
B
I just want to tell you, I just not sure how I feel about everything. So my brother graduated from Florida State last, last summer, and he's been like, you know, taking a little bit of Time off. The parents are like, hey, so what's gonna. What's. What's going on? He's like, I know, I know. I gotta do it.
- [100:32]
A
I gotta.
- [100:32]
B
Gotta start getting and stuff. You know, he's moving and he hasn't. Like, really. He's been growing his hair out for a long time. And he was like, one of the things I'm going to do, I'm going to cut my hair and, you know, start looking for jobs, you know, new me, whatever. Like, we're hitting the pavement here. And he's just been saying that since the end of the summer and since I moved. And so I was like, I'm going to get one of my. I'm going to pay my buddies to sneak up on you and cut your hair. And he was just like, yeah, do it, because I don't think I'll do it otherwise. And he said that in front of my buddies that we were hanging out with yesterday. And my friend cut his hair. He got a little drunk and he fell asleep, and my friend cut his hair. And I just didn't know what I should. Jim Cunningham was with me, kind of mortified, and I was like, well, hold on. There's context. As I'm explaining the context of the situation, my buddy is cutting my brother's hair while he's passed out on the couch. I'm just wondering. The dude in me is like, you can't talk shit like that and say, fine, you're gonna have to catch me while I'm not looking if you're gonna cut my hair. You can't say that and then not expect it to happen. My brother took it okay this morning, but last night I was like, am I getting too old to allow this shit to happen? But so, like, the adult in me was like, this seems actually like you're cutting a guy's hair while he's unconscious and we're in our 30s. But the dude in me was like.
- [101:50]
A
You know, you said.
- [101:52]
E
You did say, I kind of think it's fair game.
- [101:56]
B
Yeah, I mean, I'd feel better about myself if you all said that. But I was just. This morning, I was just like, what the hell happened yesterday?
- [102:02]
E
It sounds like there's a little kick in the butt. And, you know, the hair thing is step one. And yeah, like, eventually he's probably gonna have to cut it. He said he wanted to cut it. How mad could you possibly be? I'd be a little mad, I think, but I don't think it's like one of those things that's gonna be like that.
- [102:14]
B
I felt like I betrayed him, but he was like, kind of in our friend group now, you know, now that he's older and stuff. And you can't say stuff like that and expect to be immune. So if you think I'm good. It was really not a flattering cut that he did. He's gonna have to get that fixed.
- [102:27]
E
Well, that's what I was gonna say. Like, it's probably. Was it just like a hey, bzzz, bz, bzzz, bz. And it's now. He now looks like Lord Farquaat? Or is it like a.
- [102:35]
B
It's actually, it was just like a kind of a. You know, he, like, grabbed it and used scissors. And I could see he was charging a. He went into the bathroom downstairs and he was charging a clipper, but luckily.
- [102:47]
A
The clippers were dead.
- [102:47]
B
So it only got as far as a couple of snares with the.
- [102:50]
E
The wall trimmer that hasn't been used since like 2006 gets broken out. Yeah. Yeah.
- [102:54]
B
So, yeah, he was. He was charging that up, but I was like, you know what? I think we've had enough. I think we did it like you did a couple big chops, but all right. I'm glad I'm not too old for this shit because it was starting to feel that way this morning.
- [103:05]
A
This is a big win, man. Big win. Nobody expected this. 14 wins the regular season. The PAT certainly had something to do with it. They did. Okay, here's one coworker that has a boyfriend. Hey, guys. Please use the name name Ryan for me for privacy.
- [103:21]
B
It's a little confusing.
- [103:22]
A
Yeah. Okay. I work in the transportation department of a warehouse and had to collaborate with an employee from the safety department on task. Let's call her Alex. Working together, talking to each other was fun, and she was very nice. Next day, I'm buying a cookie in the break room. Alex is also buying a cookie. We talked briefly about how we like cookies with our coffee. Pretty normal. Fast forward the next week. I'm working in the transportation office and Alex walks in. I expect her to want to follow up on last week's task. I was wrong. She walked in with two cookies and gave me one. I then asked if she wanted coffee from the Keurig, right? Is that how you pronounce that? Yeah. In the office, we ate the cookies, drank coffee together, we talked joke, got to know each other. It's been a few weeks, and she's come to the office every day that we work together to hang out and talk. Sometimes she brings cookies. Sometimes I bring cookies.
- [104:15]
B
Real Jim and Pam situation you got here.
- [104:16]
A
I know. Feel like, is this one fake? And the cookies mean something else? We always drink coffee together. She's very nice to me and is my type. We have a lot in common. Sometimes talk for hours. You both love transportation and cookies. Apparently. This train.
- [104:36]
C
Guy.
- [104:37]
A
Love that guy. I know. He's got a girlfriend now. Totally. I wonder if she's using them for the. Just the impressions, but I don't know. That guy fucking loves trains. He does, dude.
- [104:47]
B
It's all over his face.
- [104:48]
A
You could tell? Yeah. If you have a passion and a GoPro, who knows? Who knows? You could be Mallorca Vandal with your new train girlfriend. I didn't see a ton of trains when I was there, though. All right, One problem. She has a boyfriend. They live together. I've been playing it slow. No shit. Did the boyfriend, Elizabeth, tip you off to maybe not ask her out? I haven't asked her for a number of social media accounts. I haven't asked her to hang out outside of work. She lives in a town close to mine and will ask about things to do in my town and restaurants in my town. I don't know if she wants me to ask her to go together. She seems to mostly be by herself during the weekends. Long story short, I like her a lot. If she was single, I would have already shot my shot. I've had plenty of girlfriends before, but I'm honestly not really used to attention from a woman and I feel confused. Plenty of girlfriends before, but I'm not really used to attention from women and feel confused. I don't know if. Plural.
- [105:49]
B
What?
- [105:50]
A
Am I handling this correctly? Am I going too slow and missing my chance? Am I overthinking it? Should I just accept the friend zone? I have thick skin. Feel free to give me the hard truth if that's what the truth is. Love the show. What do you got?
- [106:06]
B
Well, he hasn't made any wrong moves, right? Because the, you know.
- [106:11]
C
Yeah.
- [106:11]
B
The perfect thing to do is nothing if you're, you know, a big conscious guy or if you're like, I don't care. If you're thinking like, I like this girl, and I really don't care about what's going on outside of.
- [106:22]
A
In her life.
- [106:23]
B
If I'm just. If you're just creeping towards a goal and you don't really care what's going on, then you know, that's a road you can take, too. But you haven't done that. You haven't taken a step in either direction. So the nice thing is if you think this is a stable place to work and you guys both are going to be here for a little while and, you know, you're not talking about how you're trying to move on to the next thing or. Or whatever, then, yeah, just keep. Keep going slow and inch closer, and we'll see. We'll see what happens. Does she ever talk about this guy?
- [106:48]
C
I don't know. Well, that's.
- [106:49]
E
That wasn't my question.
- [106:50]
C
Does.
- [106:51]
E
Does she know that, you know, she's dating someone or is living with someone, or did you do that through, like, Internet sleuthing? Because you can just kind of play it dumb if you don't. You feel like, oh, I didn't know. But if she's talked about it, then all right, clearly, you know, she knows that you're stepping over a line, but she's also a willing participant in that as well. I'm kind of usually in the, like, don't be the home wrecker kind of guy.
- [107:15]
A
That's a good default setting.
- [107:17]
E
Yeah, don't be like, I don't know, man. Like, sometimes, like, maybe you. Maybe you guys are. Are made for each other.
- [107:23]
B
I.
- [107:23]
E
So it's like, it's obviously a case by case basis, but I would say, like, 90 of examples. I'd be like, don't be the home wrecker. Like, or at least, like, make her really pursue you before you make a decision on this. It seems like you have time just.
- [107:33]
B
Say cool over the next two years.
- [107:35]
A
You know what I mean?
- [107:35]
E
Just like, yeah, boyfriend sucks, though, you know? Yeah.
- [107:39]
B
I don't just have an 80% from 3 rating because you're not shooting a lot. Just be like, the coolest guy you can for a couple minutes every. Every week, and then, you know, extrapolate that.
- [107:50]
A
I don't know, anybody can keep that up, man. Just always say the right thing for that long, even though you're deep down, like, you have.
- [108:00]
B
Well, we're talking break room passings. That's why I said we're not. We're not like, having lunch together or anything. I'm just talking, like, you know, save the coffee.
- [108:07]
A
Cookies. They're bringing in cookies for each other. For each other.
- [108:10]
B
Yeah.
- [108:10]
A
A couple things jump out. Why did you ask us to change your name when it was completely irrelevant? Is that an indicator of anything about this guy's personality? What do you mean? Like, he's not. Like, he gave us a name he wanted to be referred to, yet it had nothing to do with the story. The entire Time. I don't know.
- [108:29]
B
Oh, yeah. You never said his name once.
- [108:31]
A
Yeah, that's kind of why I'm like, yeah. All right. Number two, you said you had girlfriends before. This is where I ask anyone, whoever is in this situation beyond, do women seek you out historically? If they do, then maybe you're the man. Right. Do a little something. Maybe your pheromones are just raging between the vanilla extract and caramel chocolate and then just a healthy, natural musk. The cookies, you in a room, they can't help themselves. That's a lot of words right there, man. Sure was. I wasn't sure where I was going with it. So, you know, if. If historically, this doesn't happen a lot, you could be reading it wrong. I mean, this is the part for just people in general, probably more so women have to deal with this. It's just like the second you're nice to a guy, you know, people are lonely. We're getting lonelier and lonelier. You know, look at some of the charts. Look at the data. Right. It's rough out there, especially for Epidemic. Yeah. So, you know, any sort of window that's cracked open here, there's just a lot of dudes being like, oh, my God. Now our guy says a lot of women have dated him. He's had a lot of girlfriends in the past. So if. If we were to defer to you and that this is like a real read. And, like, I'm just getting. Just getting, like, real attention here in the whole thing. Like, what do you.
- [110:00]
D
You.
- [110:00]
A
She's your type, the whole thing, but, like, the living with the boyfriend thing, you've got to probably let her. Unless it just becomes this outrageous tension, right. Where you're just like, we have to know. We have to know we're meant for each other. I think you just need to follow her lead throughout all of this. And if that's friend zoning cookie guy who talks about whether or not there's a. A better way to get from this train station to the next one, I don't know what kind of transportation I got to get off the trains. I think you have to hope that she indicates it to you and move forward with zero expectations. And by the way, if you're moving forward with zero expectations, you're probably more likely to deliver on the cool rating in those moments. Right?
- [110:53]
B
Exactly. That was exactly my point. By the way. Just checking Slack. Tom, our guy said that Chip Kelly was a huge P color guy in case we were wondering if it was.
- [111:01]
A
Sark or someone else should have known.
- [111:03]
B
That huge P. Keller guy. Thanks, Tom.
- [111:05]
E
Don't they ask him?
- [111:06]
A
Yeah, thank you, Tom.
- [111:09]
E
It is funny though, thinking about this guy just like how he's describing it, like, hey, she's my type. Is that just because, like, she's super out of your league? Like, hey, this is really hot chick at work that I kind of get along with. Like, should I pursue it? It's like, yeah, if you are also in that league. Yeah, maybe. But if she's just super hot and she's just kind of giving you attention and you're not usually getting that kind of attention, that's probably a tell.
- [111:36]
A
Yeah, that's all we ask of anybody. When this happens, you have to be like, yeah, this is kind of what happens. Then if you're like, this never ever happens to me. What's happened?
- [111:48]
B
Be a good self scouter. Be honest.
- [111:49]
A
Somebody's been nice, shared some cookies with you, so good luck, man. But yeah, you probably. I think the guy living with her is an indicator that you might just need to lay out.
- [112:06]
B
Dude, there's a company party every year.
- [112:07]
E
Some guys. I was going to say some. Some guys would say, just because there's a goal, it doesn't mean you can't score.
- [112:12]
A
But those guys would be dicks.
- [112:15]
E
Correct.
- [112:16]
B
Okay, but.
- [112:17]
E
Okay, I would agree.
- [112:18]
B
Not like sporting goods store.
- [112:21]
E
I still want to post that meme.
- [112:22]
B
Don't post it.
- [112:24]
A
Don't we get a hard. Don't post it.
- [112:26]
B
Well, now you know what? Enough time had passed where I'm just.
- [112:28]
C
Like, why would we.
- [112:30]
B
Why would we throw me out of the buff?
- [112:31]
E
I showed it to my audience. The audience has no idea what we're even talking about right now. I guess technically they do, but we.
- [112:35]
B
Did get a tweet, but it was.
- [112:37]
A
Just about someone who listened.
- [112:39]
E
I showed my wife that last night because it was in my camera roll and she thought it was pretty funny.
- [112:42]
A
Yeah, I too sent it to a few people.
- [112:46]
B
All right, well, then I guess it's around.
- [112:48]
A
No, but it's not. It's not like you know that. Anyway, I think that's a good place to end. Thanks to Kyle, thanks to Shirty Tom and Kevin as well, and thanks to our new partner, Netflix. I hope you enjoyed listening to the pod and those of you that watch on Netflix. Thanks for checking us out. The Ryan Rossillo Show Barstool Sports.