The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 797 - Monday Night Football Recap, Aaron Rodgers Tuesday Season 3 Week 11, In The Trenches With AQ Shipley & Everything DB With Darius Butler LIVE From The ThunderDome, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: November 22, 2022

On today's show, Pat, Darius Butler, AQ Shipley, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about coaching in the NFL and how former coaches who get hired start at the bottom of the totem pole and what it will take for that to change, plus they recap last night's Monday Night Football game from Mexico that saw the 49ers DOMINATE the Cardinals, why the 9ers are so scary when they're firing on all cylinders, and who the team to beat in the NFC is as of right now. Joining the progrum like he does every week is the back-to-back and 4x MVP, Super Bowl Champion/MVP, Quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers, to chat about this Sunday's game against the Eagles, his love for the run game, if he's thought about life after football, how his thumb is, where he's at with the WR room, and much more (1:43:39-2:23:30). Later, doing both of their segments on a short week is AQ Shipley highlighting the best offensive line play of the week as we go In The Trenches (1:26:35-1:43:37), and Darius Butler highlighting the best and worst defensive back plays of the week in Everything DB (2:23:32-2:46:31). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. We appreciate the hell out of all you. See you tomorrow, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people. It is Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022, and this dumbass sports show starts right now. Just wrapped up its week 11 of the NFL season in which they took a trip to El Estadio Azteca in Mexico, where the San Francisco 49ers ran the Arizona Cardinals out of the fucking gym. Now, I officially picked the Cardinals plus like nine and a half or something like that going into the game because I thought there was a chance with Colt McCoy's leadership in a way that team had been playing with him in the lineup as opposed to everybody else in the lineup with how it looked in hard knocks behind the scenes. They might be able to keep it close. i also acknowledge a couple different times there's a chance san francisco 49ers are going to run them off the fucking field guess what they did it was an unbelievable performance

from top to bottom for the niners last night their special teams was absolutely dominant mitch wischnowski was pinning them deep robbie gold's banging balls again he missed an extra point that missed the kicking net last week i thought thought Robbie Gold was maybe dead. He's not. He's all the way back 18 years into this thing. Mitch Wischnowski and the boys handled business when it came to the field position game. On the defense side of the ball, I don't know how you block them or stop them. I honestly have no idea how you do as such. They are so fast. They fly around on the offense side of the ball. Since adding Christian McCaffrey, and now obviously Christian's able to do everything. We've seen him throw a touchdown. We've seen him catch a touchdown.

His bread and butter is running the fucking rock. But their schemes and schematics, not only with Juice being a fullback, the way they have their offensive line moving, Trent Williams is out in space blowing up Buda Baker. That's every single week with Shanahan's big brain. Let alone Debo got in the end zone where he looked faster than everybody. Ayuk got in the end zone with a sick route that made a DB look bad. Not always great.

That's going to happen. When you're living in the paint, you're going to get dunked on every once in a while. Then George Kittle has two touchdowns last night in Mexico City. You completely forget that he is a guy when it comes to receiving as opposed to just blocking this San Francisco 49ers team. Okay? Showed last night that they might be the team oh yeah of the nfc with the christian mcafree trade the record before bc before christian right and then after christian

are vastly different three and three scoring 20 points a game with 30 340 yards per game and third down percentage of 41 bc post christian m Christian McCaffrey, 3-1, 28.5, 396, 55% in all things. And that's via Field Yates. We appreciate that stat, Field. They're a team that's going to go on a win. Jimmy G is going to be a free agent. What the hell are they going to do with Trey Lance? That is a conversation that is obviously going to heat up

as this Niners team continues to go. But they've just absolutely swattered the NFC West in the last four games. Shanahan seems to be content and comfortable. and Dr. York got a game ball from Mexico last night. Excited for the Niners, thankful for them. Can't wait to hear all the boys' thoughts. The Talks at the Tables here at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt. Ty, Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, haven't played since Thursday. Probably not going to do a lot of talking about the Titans because that

game's behind us. Sunday night football against the Eagles. How do we feel about how this conversation is going to go with Aaron today? I don't know, to be honest. Yeah, it was obviously a very demoralizing defeat on Thursday night, but that's in the past now. He's had a couple days to kind of relax and get back to it. Now they're saying that he's had a broken thumb since the Giants game in London,

so that's kind of interesting. Who knows? Not dead yet, you know, not dead yet. Mathematically. Yeah, mathematically. But, oh boy, I'd be lying if I said I was confident going into this Eagles game on Sunday night. These primetime games where we're facing these Titans of the league right now, it just doesn't make you feel good.

Titans are the last one, actually. So the Titans of the league was good usage of the word Titan, talking about the size of teams and importance of teams, and also playing the Titans, losing to them on Thursday. Excited to hear where Aaron's at. The broken thumb makes sense because it has been a topic of conversation, whether he has it taped up or he doesn't have it taped up. Remember, he fell that one time and it hurt. It was like, well, that didn't make sense.

It's just a fall would have hurt it. A hairline, some sort of something in there would make sense. It may be why he was starting to ball a little woobly on Thursday night. Maybe that's why he was a little bit inaccurate, which has never happened with Aaron Rodgers, because his grip might be a little bit different because he's got a fucking broken bone in there. How come we hadn't heard about this, though?

Have they been hiding that from everybody, or they didn't know, do you think? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he's obviously not the guy, because we've asked him about it several times, and he kind of just said, like, yeah, you know, it hurts, but it's not going to be an issue. But that would make sense. I mean, typically with Rodgers, as it gets colder he gets better but if you have a broken thumb and it starts getting colder like that that is going to make a big

fucking difference so we'll see he's obviously not going to make any excuses about it but yeah that would i mean like we're watching a guy who doesn't look like the guy we've seen in years past throwing the football missing wide open guys like that never happens so you know obviously i think it is affecting him a little bit. Look for him to maybe get gloved up like he's Kenny Pickett, who is quarterback of the team that is traveling to Indianapolis for Monday Night Football next week. One half of the hammer.

Don! Cowboys tone. Diggs is here. You're fantastic. Debut of a new studio yesterday. Yeah. Way to go, Tony. Way to go, Tony.

Hammer down was great. Can't wait for you guys to make that your own. Diggs was laying bricks in there. He was. Goddamn right. For weeks to make that studio what it is and we appreciate the audio wasn't perfect off the jump but we kind of knew that was going to happen a little ptsd of this studio by the way as you're going off yesterday i mean it it wouldn't it wouldn't be us if we the first live show wasn't

some stuff like that and we got it all fixed after it should be great going forward the coin head obviously yeah it did in a landslide it just. It was a walk of the century. I do wonder with how good this coin is, if this coin is the same coin that did the Jets schedule. And if you guys need to maybe corral your coin in a little bit better, because this thing's out there willy-nilly making everybody better. What does your show have anymore? It's not. It's not. The coin

that picked the Jets schedule is an actual real physical coin. We don't know that. We've never seen it. Never seen it flipped. It's a legit coin. Could be Fugues. Could just be some jabroni writing it down on a piece of paper. Okay, so it feels like there's a little bit of a little bit of

content against this other Jets coin because of the notoriety it's getting. We'd like to let everybody know the honorable coin has made a lot of money for a lot of people. Especially last night. And it's not a real coin. It's an app. It's an app. It's an app of a coin. Which is good. I didn't expect to see the Italian camp in such disarray this morning. Yeah, they were a little talking

over each other, but I think it's because they were so pissed off about people potentially talking about their coin. Doing side jobs for the Jets. Tony hates on the coin. He shits on it every chance he gets. Yeah, but he stands up and yells whenever it comes. Everybody understands the honorable coin. I came sprinting yesterday with some CBD. Had to spark that up, and obviously the coin did its thing.

First day in the studio, I thought the show was fantastic. Speaking of first day in studio, this is the first time we've had two of our incredible segments in one day because Thanksgiving's on Thursday, then Big Sale Friday is happening again. We're off on Thursday, Friday, we're off. So, you know, had changed some schedules around, and we're fantastically gifted to have one man join us every single Tuesday, and that is a man who really breaks down the run game, doesn't he?

An offensive line player. Oh, yeah. Unbelievable. He's a Super Bowl champion. He is here live and in person. Ladies and gentlemen, A.Q. Shipley. Yeah! So the Bob would exchange as well, show with Drew Stanton.

How are you feeling, bud? I feel great. What a game last night, huh? It is. For you, I think you enjoyed it. I feel like a genius because I've been saying all along san francisco 49ers of the team there's a team this is very tv of you to say what you just said right there they're the team i would like to ask you and we'll dive into some more niners talk here in like literally a second but how have you

enjoyed your first year doing content here during the season you know you were coaching last year he was at the bottom he was coffee, fucking drawing up cards. How many years did you play football? 12 years. 12 years in the NFL. Won a Super Bowl. Been on so many different teams. Considered like a coach on the field because he's the center of the way he thought. You want to go into coaching? Sweet.

We'd welcome you here. Fucking go shine my shoes. Go sleep in a couch. Go draw play cards. Go drink coffee. I have a family and I've made a lot of money actually. Don't care. Here's $25,000.

You're lucky to do it. Which is, you know, we all thought it was very admirable. Oh, yeah. Very admirable. Admirable of you to say. Me and AJ actually fucking mocked you openly when you decided to go do it because how terrible it was. I mocked myself. Yeah.

You knew you probably weren't going to be able to do it for the entire season starting early, but you committed to a job, got a lot of friends over there, you did your thing. Jeff Saturday becoming a head coach, did you enjoy that or hate that move as somebody that had to go from the former player into the bottom of the totem pole and then said, I ain't climbing up this thing, I don't have it in me, which we respect and appreciate because you got on TV and started doing this,

which we think you're fantastic at. But how do you feel about Jeff Saturday getting that? And do you think that opens up opportunities for other people? I hope so. I love everything about it. I love what Jeff is doing. I love the fact that he's a former center, moves into a big role, got to bypass everything else.

I think that's huge. It should happen more. We talk about this all the time. There's a lot of brains. There's a lot of really smart guys that played football a long time that don't want to do that. What you did. That don't want to do what you did.

And you had it better than most because you were friends literally with all those coaches, I think, personally, right? And under Bruce Arians, you have the best schedule probably of any coach in the league. I mean, like he's very big on getting out as soon as you can, as long as you get your work done. And that was awesome. But still saw my kids once a week, and not for me.

Well, Joe Thomas went to bat for you. We talked about Jeff Saturday, and I appreciate him. I appreciate him and you doing that. I'm just intrigued to hear every time somebody talks about it because, you know, Jeff, if he beats the Eagles there. Oh, boy. Boy, we were three plays away from beating the Eagles. We make that 50-yarder earlier in the game.

It's a whole different conversation at the end on what has to happen. I mean, that would have been a tough kick for Chase. Chase has kicked very well. But I'm just saying, you look back on that, should have beat the Eagles. I mean, that is really a thing. That conversation that we just had right there is happening today loud at a lot of these places where things aren't working out. What former player is tied to the program that has good leadership responsibilities

and then get a couple coordinators in there that can do it. But instead we lose to the Eagles. So now it's just kind of like, I hope Jeff's happy. Now you're going to lose and be miserable. Joining us today, which is, you know, normal for him to be with us every single week, but never on a Tuesday. We've been blessed earlier in the week because of the holiday. Ladies and gentlemen, host of the Everything DB right here on our show,

the Man to Man podcast, an NFL matchup on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+. Darius Baller. Yeah, D-Boy. D-Boy, how many years did you play in the NFL? Put a nine piece in. Nine. So that's 21 years plus my age is 29 years. Nearly three decades on this stage talking about the NFL.

Not bad. I feel pretty good. Unreal. Our show's pretty good with that type of stuff. Tony's D1, yours too. Yeah, you're right at it. Tony's D1, almost Ivy League. Three decades and three bad. I feel pretty good. Unreal. Our show's pretty good with that type of stuff. Tony's D1, yours too. Tony's D1, almost Ivy League. Three idiots. What did AJ get? How many did he get?

11? I want to say like 11, I think. That sounds right. But he didn't play against the Eagles, so really it was like 10 and 9 names. Have you ever heard this story? No. So whenever he was... We found this out from somebody else, and then we had to bring it to AJs attention when we were with him in person. They were playing against the Eagles when the Eagles had Vic or something,

and the defense coordinator didn't think A.J. should be on the field, so they didn't dress him. Viability and coverage. Healthy scratch because he couldn't keep up, wasn't fast enough. I was on that Philly team. A.J. ran a 4-4. A.J. ran a 4-4 at a 45-inch vertical. The coach literally looked at him, hey, white guy, don't need you.

Don't need you out here with Michael Vick. I believe the story goes that some people in his camp were telling him he needs a requested trade immediately. He never did because he's a fucking Ohio fucker or whatever. But yeah, we always talk about the one game where he didn't dress because he had like a torn pec, torn hamstring, broken

fingers, never missed a game. The only game he missed was he was a healthy scratch. It's because he wasn't athletic enough to be on the field. That's right. It is such a beautiful A.J. Hawk moment. Let's talk about this Niners team from your perspective, Darius. So whenever you look at this team, they run the ball all over the place. Trent can move.

That's a big weapon for them. Now, I know he tips plays to somebody online. He can't have that. He tips plays. But having the ability to have that type of run scheme, have the personnel to be able to do it, you add a player like Christian McCaffrey in the middle of the season, they seemingly have gone all in to win.

That's why Dr. York got a game ball. He was a cancer and a researcher before he retired. Pathologist, yeah. Pathologist, cancer and pathologist. Yeah, you get it. Researcher. That's why he's Dr. York. Has a lot of money.

Owns a team now. Are they stoppable? And are they only stoppable if Jimmy G doesn't play well? Because that seemingly is the conversation about why Jimmy G might not be the quarterback there for the future. Because he can't get it done. If he can get it done, do you believe that's the case? And if he does, what do they do with him? Because he's a free agent at the end of the season.

Darius Butler. Well, first of all, I think he can't get it done. Obviously, he's been. It's that one misthrow of Manuel Sanders. Yeah. Right? In the Super Bowl. One throw away from winning that Super Bowl.

But you mentioned, obviously, AQ getting to it more. The trenches, what they do in the trenches. That O-line is crazy, having all those weapons. But then on the other side of the ball, that defense. You know, this is the third game in a row, I believe, they pitched second-half shutouts on defense. Got a ton of home games left in the home stretch. They're tough, man.

They run the ball. Physical run game. Physical receivers on the outside. They block. They're beasts when they have the ball in their hands. Kittle, like you said, that's a guy that you forget who's arguably coming into this season was the best tight end if healthy now, obviously, is Kelsey. But it's just you got your hands full with that team on both sides of the ball, man.

What do they do if they win? What do they do if they win? What do they do if they win? That was all I was thinking about. I was on a treadmill this morning, and all I was thinking about is Jimmy G's a free agent at the end of the season. They fuck around and won a Super Bowl this year, which seems like they have the makings to do it. What do you do? Do you try to trade Trey Lance? You're not going to get three firsts.

You have to re-sign Jimmy G. What do you think you do? You got to keep him. I think you have to. Yeah, you voiced to Lombardi, like, you got to keep him. I think you have to. Yeah, you hoist to Lombardi. Like, you got to keep him. He's looking better, man. He's obviously making throws.

And what Jimmy G has always been, quick reads, quick throws, accurate with the ball, and short spaces. But what you saw last night and even some of the previous games is his second reaction plays. Like that second or maybe the 40-yard touchdown to Kittle, like him stepping up in the pocket, making that throw before the touchdown to Ayuk. You know, he went through a couple of reads, came back to Ayuk. So if he can continue doing that and just, you know, not fuck it up, honestly,

with that defense and this run game, those weapons, tough, tough team to beat. Everybody's saying he's doing nothing. Trey Lance wasn't able to do shit with his own. I mean, maybe it's because he didn't know what he was doing. But Jimmy G wins a Super Bowl with the Niners, A.Q. Shipley. They have to keep him. And then what do they do with Trey Lance, who they just traded three number ones for, basically?

What happens then in the future? That's a great question. I've been the biggest fan of Jimmy. I love what he does. He's the perfect— What's your dad text you last night? What's your dad? Did you say your dad?

Yeah, my dad texted me. He goes, what's wrong with this? Like, this guy's a good quarterback. What is wrong with this? The standard yinzer. I don't know what we're looking for. Oh, this guy does win fucking games. Oh, this this guy does win fucking game right yeah he texted me that and he's right like i've been a fan of his he manages the game well he knows that system in and out that system is quick throws so like to

expect him to be fucking throwing it down the field all the time like that's not what that system is it's run the ball manage the game play action short stuff that's what they do and he does it very very well what you do with trey lance moving forward i don't know somebody to take a chance on them though you're looking around the league and what do we have 12 13 maybe good quarterbacks so you're like are we good with him so somebody he's probably if you look at the upcoming quarterbacks in the draft oh yeah i yeah, I guess this year not that good. Yeah, and even who knows what it's going to be the following year. So this guy was a number three pick.

Haven't had a ton of reps under his belt, but somebody will take a chance on him. Drake May is coming out next year. He's unbelievable. Drake May, North Carolina. I mean, that's one. Well, then there's also that other guy. It's always high. Next year, Quinn Ewers.

Remember two years ago, we had five no-brainers. We had Mack Jones. Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson. Trevor Lewis. Zach Wilson, huh? You know what I mean? Fields.

Hey, Zach Wilson. Yuggie. Zach, they averaged. There was somebody that tweeted it, and then ESPN NFL found it. The Jets averaged 2.77 inches per play in the second half. Unbelievable. Sorry. Have to bench. Unbelievable. Sorry. Have to bench.

They fucking stink. Shout out to Chris Towers. He's in football season. Chris Towers of CBS. Thank you, Chris, for doing the math. They only were able to get two yards. So, I mean, it's probably pretty quick math to be able to do it. But 2.77 inches per play in the second half against Patriots.

Patriots have been able to do that to a lot of people. Remember, the Colts had negative two yards in the entire first quarter. In the second quarter, they didn't have much against Patriots. And that's why Jeff Saturday is currently coaching the Indianapolis Colts because Jim Mercy saw what was happening on the field with all the money he spent and said, I ain't hiring any of the motherfuckers that are on this current set. They're saying, we need somebody new. We need new ideas.

That ship has sailed is probably what Ursae actually said. Brings in Saturday, takes the wrath of it. But the Patriots have humbled a lot of people. Zach Wilson and Jets offense. Do you feel like you're disappointing your defense? No. Thanks. No.

Shut the fuck up. Is that your mom? Watch it. Basically. Zach Wilson, the way he kind of handled that, I think we all thought was very immature like you're a quarterback of an nfl team even if you don't believe it in your actual heart of hearts you should know that the proper answer there is hey look i disappointed myself i disappointed all my coaches i just like there's just a way to go about leading especially when times are very tough or you look terrible against a division opponent. It's like just classic leadership is to do, you know, on point.

It's on me. In the media, the reporter actually gave them kind of a tough question, I guess. Like, hey, do you think you disappointed the defense or whatever? And I think that's a little bit of a coming from the little jest from the reporter. But it was actually a layup for him to be like, not just the defense, because then he can cut a promo about the fans, how supportive the fans have been, the organization going all in, the ownership.

It was literally almost like a, hey, would you like to cut a promo that gets almost all heat off of you right now for at least another week? Here's a question. And he chose not to do it. And ultimately, they're probably going to end up with Flacco playing for them again 100 and who knows how joey flacco would do aq was friends with him teammates with him excited to hear his thoughts but this is what the patriots

do to people that the patriots make people go fuck we need to change everything because how bad to make them look and you guys are in the playoffs right now and you have no chance of winning the super bowl right yeah we're like like 30, maybe 28 other teams. But really we're only like eight or nine because we're going to the playoffs unlike every single team on this table or in this studio rather. Dolphins. Yeah, I got a lot of teams. Yeah, he's got 18 teams. I probably have three teams in the playoffs.

Yeah, if Bumpy was here, absolutely, then he would be in on this. And who knows with Bruce's Giants. But with Jimmy G, like talking about, you know, what AQ said with, you know, a lot of short throws and the scheme of Shanahan and like Darius said, like someone would take a chance on him. Now, if they win the Super Bowl, is Jimmy G going to take a pay cut to stay?

No. Fuck no. Especially after they were trying to run his ass out of town. So if I'm Jimmy G, I'm taking Max Deal, give it to me. Now, he might be a much nicer paisano who says, yeah, I understand what you guys had to do, what you had to do. I missed that one throw in the Super Bowl, which has led to maybe Tom Brady coming here,

maybe Aaron Rodgers coming here literally every single year. And when I'm hurt, we don't win. So whenever Jimmy G gets hurt, they don't win games. And they were pretty open about, we like Jimmy G, but he seemingly got hurt on a pretty regular occasion. We can't have him out of there. So I don't know. I don't think he'll take a team-friendly deal because of how it's all played out.

But if he does, I hope there's a full statue put up of him, of, like, the morally correct thing to do at all times, Paizano Jimmy G, who's known for going on dates with adult actresses. Like, that is, that's an incredible human that I don't think we'll ever find again. And he, but he might, but I don't think we'll ever find again. And he, but he might, but I don't think so either. So just to unite the jets and the Niners, would he go and play for Bob Sala?

And then would Shanahan say like, Hey, my scheme is still unbelievable. We still have Debo, Debo, Iuke, Christian McCaffrey, like sure.

Trey Lance has only played what a game and a half. Cause he got hurt in the second game. First game. He was in a down. You win a Superbowl, bro. I donour. Did you win a Super Bowl, bro? I don't know. You win a Super Bowl, and then you just let the quarterback walk up? Has that ever happened?

I don't know. It'd be interesting. Trent Dilfer. Maybe with the Ravens back in the early 2000s. Dilfer is so bad at football, though. Whoa! Lipscomb Academy. Let's go Mustangs.

He's friend of the program now. Massive fan of Dilfer. I really am. He's a great head coach. now. Massive fan of Dilfer. I really am. He's a great head coach. He is so bad at football. That team could have won 3-0 in that Super Bowl, if you remember. But they're unbelievable. Ray Lewis said the opposite.

We're kind of getting back to that now. The football is kind of like that nowadays. AQ, why is that? Offense is not as good anymore? What is the deal? It's a great question. I mean, I've been trying to figure that out, watching all season long. This is your first year as like a pundit too.

So I assume this has been a fascinating thing because all we ever talked about before is how good offense is. I just want to let you know, in this particular profession, as you were getting coffee and doing the cards and stuff after a 12-year career and everything like that going back to the bottom of the building pool, we're talking about this offense, this offense, this offense. Who has a defense that can go to the Super Bowl? Now it's like, yeah, that defense can go.

Who has an offense that can go? It's very different, and I don't understand it at all, I don't think. Well, that's been one of the coolest things for me this year doing this thing is being able to study all of the offenses and seeing all the different offenses. And you are seeing yards per carry at the highest clip it's ever been in NFL history. Oh, I saw that on ESPN, NFL Live or something.

But it is. It's run game is crazy. I mean, they are really hammering the run game. Is he stealing Dan's stuff? Yeah, it sounds like it. Is this who he was sub-tweeting? Oh, no. Oh, my God.

Is he coming at me? No, you need to stop stealing his shit. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Dan. DQ Shipley. But the run game is becoming more of a focal point. It's becoming more of a focal point. And I think defenses, too.

I think defenses used to blitz a lot more, and now they're staying back, playing more coverage. So it's a combination of a bunch of different things, and you're seeing less points. But it is. Every week I'm like, man, I need some more big plays. You don't see it. For TV purposes. Yeah, exactly. For TV purposes, a bad game is a great game normally for the defense in a terrible game for the offenses why do you think it is do you

think just coverage is getting better do you think matchups are getting better do you think this is a generation thing that grew up in the rpo game so maybe like the d line and linebackers are able to play it better or what do you think it is i think it's a combination thing especially the coverages you see a lot more too high coverages coverages forcing offenses to go the long, hard way as opposed to when we were playing the league. It was a lot more single-high coverages on first and second down. Now every down can be a passing down. Then as far as run game, defensively, when I'm watching the film,

the run fits, it's like are they even going over run fits anymore? The gap integrity is terrible. So I think it's a are they even going over run fits anymore like it's the gap integrity is uh is terrible so i think it's a combination what's that all about he's right no he's right you see a lot of people we always say take the easy way out right like if a guy's got the backside a gap like he has to squeeze that backside a gap and when they get that backside scoop we talk about the backside scoop center backside oh yeah hell yeah single double triple he's got to stay between them, and when that center leaves, be able to keep that and keep force and everything back. But if he takes the back door, that's where your huge holes are.

What's that one block that we really like showcasing whenever we see it? Can opener? Oh, yeah, that's all it is. Oh, can opener. Yeah, that's all it is, can opener. Somebody can slip inside and get up and get a guard and a triple teamer. Single in the middle, double in between them, and then triple is get a guard on a triple team. Yeah. Single in the middle. Double in between them.

And then triple is tackle tight end. Exactly. Man. Single is center guard. Yeah. And these are all zone combos, right? Yeah, exactly. Single is center guard.

Double is guard tackle. Bingo. Triple is tackle tight end. Bingo. Runs down to the right. They run a little triple there. Get up to the second level. Yeah.

How about that? A little can opener block. Watch golf. Watch golf. Hell yeah. Watch golf. No, no. I ain't coaching shit. Oh, see?

I would have to be head coach. If I'm doing anything. That's why I have so much respect for Jeff Saturday. If I'm going in there, got to be head coach. I'm sorry. I can't answer this guy. It's going to be tough for me to do that. Well, you sure don't want to be special teams coordinator?

Hell no. There's no way I can do it. I saw Bubba Ventron this weekend. Dog. Pittsburgh guy. It's going to be tough for me to do that. Well, you sure don't want to be special teams coordinator? Hell no. There's no way I can do it. Saw Bubba Ventron this weekend. Pittsburgh guy. Oh, yeah. I hope everybody that plays for the Colts, yeah, has seen his film. Like, I hope at some point Jeff Saturday shows his film and says, like, hey, the guy that is coaching you is a fucking dog.

Also very smart. He has a football savant type brain. I watched him make a play this weekend that was awesome that nobody would ever really talk about. It was fourth and two. Punt safe, okay? Punt safe means we're leaving our defense on the field basically. Just get a punt off.

We have no return set up. Just make sure they punt it. We're probably going to end up with a fair catch or a two-yard return. Fourth and two, nobody getting near the punter. We don't need a roughing or running into the kicker. This is basically our D lineman just staying in, no fakes, punt it and go. They take a – something happens like a false start, a five-yard penalty goes back.

Fourth and seven. Normally, coaches aren't paying attention enough or the team isn't bought in enough. Bubba Ventron goes running down the field and he goes, ah, makes a call or something. Boom, boom, boom. Sub out the punt safe team. Sub in special teams uh core unit in

there run a return kiki cutie uh cutie gets like a 15 or 20 yard return out of it out of nowhere sparks everything and it was like that strictly because bubba had everybody paying attention first of all so it's not just him paying attention everybody on the special teams had to be paying attention at that exact time and whenever he makes the call, he does it, and then they have to execute it. He's a great fucking coach. I do not have the wherewithal to focus on all that stuff. You know, oh, fuck it.

Somebody won't be paying attention. Just keep safe. That's what I would. Let's just get the ball back. But instead, he was out there. He was awesome to kind of watch, and he is... Oh, yeah. Yoked. Stacked. I mean, his fucking neck. He could go cover a kick right now. I wonder why he didn't. I wonder if it was...

Did he get too old? What was it? He played so hard. Yeah, he was... I was teammates with him in New England. He was... Put him at L5, R5, and you run down the middle of... At that point, it was probably three, four-man wedges.

He at least stacked. So he's, boom, like just, yeah, exactly. Yeah, he was the one. I got him one of the times. I remember getting him once, and I felt real good about it. He's a Pittsburgh guy. Oh, yeah. He played against him in high school.

He was Coach P's keys every week, like special team. Game record. He was going to be on there for sure. But you probably don't even remember this. We were in L.A. for the Super Bowl, and I was talking to you about potentially getting the coaching. I culture i had man i'm talking to some teams my body's like see but you will regret that a year from now i was like oh good point i had a couple conversations i said that too yeah yeah you might have been on the way to that uh the fan duel thing uh the

fan fest or whatever it was well i'm happy you't. I'm happy you chose to do this this year instead. Now, you might get into coaching. Who knows? Maybe at some point. But the way the whole – because I feel like I'm a pretty curious person, so I enjoy learning about how things work and why things work. And with special teams, I don't have to pay attention to a lot of other stuff, so I'm talking to the building, like talking to a lot of people around the building.

And whenever I talk to these coaches that are at the bottom level, like what they're doing now they're in their 20s normally though they're like early 20s or so mid-20s what they're doing it's like okay so I know I'm never doing that like it was just kind of like a thing that was made up and then you see ex-players start doing it and they're like hey this is where I got to start at it's here I'm like don't do not listen i talked you might sound fun first couple weeks i've talked to these people that have been doing this week 10 week 11 week 12 it is not fun to be doing this and your job doesn't change it is every day you're doing the same thing it's groundhog's

day it's very low level so that's probably why i said that if i if i held you back from accomplishing your dream it was a good motivational speech All right. It was a good motivational speech. I think that's why I was so excited about the Jeff Saturday hiring. It's like, here we go. We'll be able to hopefully keep the best brains in football in football as opposed to being scared away from not wanting to do actual bullshit, like actual busy work bullshit. That means nothing. And AQ, I think you had a different experience or whatever, but that's where it's at and i'm happy that that's uh hopefully getting changed a little bit hopefully

and that's why it makes so much sense you know you talk about how long you guys played like guys who are in that position who didn't play in the league like you do still have stuff to learn so like those guys understand that hey i'm 27 like i'm gonna have to do this for the next maybe 10 to 13 years before i get a coordinator job or uh you know a head coaching uh like offer or whatever the case may be but for like guys like you who you go in and you start back like you shouldn't have to just defer to the head coach because because it's like the same thing it's like if if you're butting heads and you know you know football you maybe know more than the guy who's you know above you, but you can't fucking publicly go at him or say –

Can't happen, yeah. You have to just fall in line, and that's why it makes sense that guys would be like, all right, well, fuck this. I'm not doing that. Even if I know whatever he's talking about isn't right, that's not what we need to do to win. I can't say anything. I can't do anything.

Why would I just stay and do this groundhog day after day? It's bullshit. It keeps a lot of great football minds out of the NFL, I think, personally. I think that's intentional, too, because it is a level of insecurity. And don't get me wrong. There's great coaches out there. I was about to say, I have great respect for Coach, whether you play the game or not.

If you can teach the game, if you can do all those things, that matters. And I respect the time that's put in and all that. But AQ, for example, he's 21, 22. He has another 12 years to go actual, to actually play, you know. And in Brady's words, to go, he's doing tours basically at that time. Hey, father was in the military, care of the military family. He means no disrespect. Do not attack him.

So playing over a decade in the league while these other guys are gaining experience doing those other things. So it matters. But you should come in and going into the military. If you go and just get a four-year college degree, you're going to come into the military a higher rank than somebody who just comes in out of high school. And that has nothing to do. So if you're actually playing football for a long time, you should skip the line in some terms. Not every player, though. And every player can't coach. That's honest. And there's going to be

guys that lack self-awareness who think they can coach and they're not good coach. And I think everybody's going to tell them they're not good coaches and there's going to be that type of thing. But there are guys that have played in the league who have been scared to get back in the league and stay in the league because they don't want to go through all of the bullet, because they know themselves. themselves right am i going to be able to say just bite my

tongue and say yeah that's the right way to do things when i know it's i know it's not a feasible option like guys just opt not to do it so that's why i think the saturday thing's so fucking important you've been there i guess so i guess we should defer to you here's the interesting thing too and this is the way that i've always you you know, my one year spent there, right? You leave no stone unturned, right? You go, like, if you're playing against Dennis Allen, right, in New Orleans, and that was a team that we saw twice a year. Like, we're going back and looking at film of him playing against us in Arizona

when he's coaching in Oakland with the Raiders. And it's like, hold on a sec. You don't think he's fucking changed something here in 10 years, right? First of all. Second of all. The minute this game starts, you could have prepared and practiced everything that they've ever shown on tape. There's going to be something different. After that first drive and you get smacked in the mouth

and you smack them in the mouth, then what happens? Then it becomes a game of fucking chess. Every series you have to adjust you got to look at the tablet you got to do this that and the other and so what they did the previous four weeks or what they did the previous 14 fucking years that we looked at might not even show up that day that you just spent seven fucking plays in practice working on and so the whole thing is you chase ghosts and half the time they don't show up in the game. Why do you think, do you think you'd get back into coaching if you were able to have

an actual... Boom. There's IQ fixing a problem. Grinder, doing the dirty work. 12 years, 12 years, 12 years, obviously, in the NFL, numerous different programs, organizations, ends up winning a Super Bowl, welcome to coaching, fix our fucking printer, you fat lard.

Now. We got a paper jam, colleague. Put his fucking mask on. Put his mask on, right. Come on. And by the way, like, we're not saying that we don't think AQ should have to do this. As a part of a team, he would want to do this if the printer wasn't working. But it's like the menial tasks that you are basically being laid out.

That's the fucking sheet that I ripped out. Great work. Thank you for fixing it. I'm sorry for that. But it is like your job description is like, okay, you'll fix printers. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh, oh, oh. Chase and ghost.

Chase and ghost. That was actually a play that they ran in 1964. That was Dennis Allen's play from Oakland. But it's like your job description, they're like, here's your job. You're going to be fixing printers. You're going to be getting coffee. You're going to be drawing up play cards. Special teams are going to need a look guy.

You're going to be playing nose tackle on special teams. It's like, man, I didn't play in the NFL for over a fucking decade to come here and get coffee for a guy who might be the best coach of all time. Maybe. Might be. Maybe, I don't know.

But also, I think this is good. Would you ever get back into coaching or no if you're giving an actual position i think i mean you've heard you you've had plenty of former players talk about it that have given this thing a try and talked about what is it desk guarding right like they say desk guarding chasing ghosts is a great way to also describe chasing dogs doing that stuff right you said there's you see it if we can figure out a way to be much more efficient and make this a normal hour job like this does not need to be a get in at 3 a.m and beat john gruden into the building like they used to in philadelphia and then hey he's still here at 12 15

at night oh gotta beat him i gotta stay like right like there's there there's this old adage that that's the way this needs to be done and i I don't think there is. I think you can be very efficient, get your stuff done in a normal, reasonable time, and if that were the case. What's happening right now? All these coaches that have grown up in the coaching trees are fucking swearing at their phones right now that are watching this because of what you're saying or no? Maybe.

They don't have time. They're chasing ghosts. Do they believe, though, that it has to be done this way? Is that why they continue to do it? I just think that's the only way they know. I think it's the only way they know, right? And so, like, a lot of these guys, even the young guys that have come, right? McVay was coaching, right?

Like, I think his dad was whatever. Comes from, like, the 70s and 80s trees. San Fran, yeah. San Fran, exactly, right? And Grandpa, right? And then he grew up in Gruden. Yeah, right. And so that's all they know.

And if you think about a lot of these coaches, they just keep circulating. They all just keep circulating. They all come from the same trees, which is fine. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it because there's obviously been a lot of successful people in that. But I also think there's another way. I think there's another way. Yeah, and I'm excited to see what that is.

Go ahead, Ty. Do you think that, I mean with there are a couple exceptions but do you think that's also why younger head coaches don't necessarily have a bunch of former players on their staffs because they like a guy who's just getting his first crack at being a head coach doesn't want some 13 year nfl vet right off his playing career coming i would assume aq with like zach taylor right no offense to zach taylor i'm sure he's okay. But if you have AQ, it's Zach Taylor's first year where they were not doing well. And AQ is running coffee and paper for whoever.

And AQ just sees something that is blatantly dumb happening, say it publicly. A lot of the players are going to be like, this is the guy. Yeah, this guy doesn't know what the fuck he's doing. D'Amico Ryan obviously was a good good player he's the DC but I think I mean he kind of did get fast-tracked a little bit but a lot of these younger guys I feel like you don't you don't see really any I mean with the exception of the lines you don't really see many former players on their staffs and I think it that's why is because if they start losing you don't need a guy being like why the fuck are we doing this shit how'd you get your job yeah that's why is because if they start losing, you don't need a guy being like, why the fuck are we doing this shit?

Well, how'd you get your job? Yeah. On paper, that seems like a good time. That's not possible in real life. Always a good convo whenever we can bring up Jeff Saturday and then talk about, you know, everybody that just buried it who might end up benefiting from it. So that's awesome. That's a cool thing.

Let's talk about Matt Rule. He was on Good Morning Football. It was great to see him again. He's been living his life ever since he was fired from the Carolina Panthers after week five? Week four? Zero. Three?

Four? Was it four? I think it was after week four. It might have been. Early. Fired. See you later. Steve Wilks is going to take over now, interim head coach.

They're going to get rid of Christian McCaffrey. They're going to get rid of Robbie Anderson because he's not happy with what's going on. They're still going to hang on to incredible players, though, and tell their fans that they're not tanking, although they are certainly looking at a brand-new future. Matt Rule, we have not seen or heard from him. He makes an appearance on Good Morning Football wearing a sport coat, looking incredibly professional.

And we appreciate the people at Good Morning Football for getting him on here because listening to him chat about what happened at Carolina was pretty enlightening. And I got to cover Matt Ruhle whenever he was coaching Baylor against Texas Tech in the Texas shootout, I believe. Cliff Kingsbury's last game coaching for Texas Tech before he would go on to become the Arizona Cardinals head coach. And then obviously Matt Ruhle would leave Baylor after having an incredible amount of success and go become the Carolina Panthers head coach.

So getting to chat with Matt Ruhle, his players, and then hear his story a little bit. I always thought he was a cool guy. Thought he'd work in the NFL. Started in the NFL at the Giants way back when, whenever he was running papers and everything like that. Here is why he thinks it didn't work at Carolina. Let me know what your thoughts are on him potentially being a coach at either your college or your NFL team after listening to this answer.

I think when I look back at my time in Carolina, I look back on it fondly. I'll say that first. You know, I think I'll always take away from it that no matter what level you coach, when I've coached at FCS, I've coached at Division III, I've coached at Group of Five, Power Five, and in the NFL, it always comes down to relationships.

And if I could go back, I wish I would have done a better job in year one and year two of having really strong relationships with the players. And I can blame COVID and masks and all those things. But last year, at the end of last year, I got together with Shaq Thompson. I got together with Christian McCaffrey. And you know what? I went back to just being Coach Matt, the guy that was coaching at Temple, the guy that was running around in T-shirt and shorts and having fun with it. And it didn't end the way I wanted it to, but I'm proud I never lost the locker room. I'm proud that those guys fought and stood up for me to the very end. And so I hope I get another chance to coach. I hope that I'll try to do some things better football-wise.

But at the end of the day, relationships and players knowing, man, that you'll do whatever you can for them. That's the most important thing. That's who I've always been. It was great to get back to that, just probably a little too late. Because I'm an American man making American parts for American people. Is that what you're getting out of that? Darius and AQ were having a little bit of a side conversation.

Matt Rule, Penn State man, by the way, so excited to hear how AQ can shit on one of his own like he did with Joe DiNardo. Darius, you hear that? what are your thoughts on it do you think he he said i want to blame covid where we weren't allowed to sit around each other or get to know anybody and they couldn't i couldn't even see their faces see if they're smiling or anything like that but there is something to people getting a job and thinking they got to act in a certain way i wonder if there's a little bit of that whenever he got paid 70 million dollars guaranteed to go coaching the nfl out of baylor hey first of Ruhle's living the good life right now. But, I mean, it was good.

I felt like he was kind of honest, a little self-reflection. But relationships are important. And it's hard to kind of build those relationships, too, because you know it is a cutthroat business. And you could be in the building, out of the building the next day. So that was interesting to hear that. Go ahead, AQ. Your thoughts on Matt Ruhle. What is your – he's got – what is your –

Yeah, what's going on here? I just would like everybody to know it wasn't shown on camera. As he was speaking now, AQ is very close to him. I mean, he's like a foot and a half away from the thing. He's been saying, AQ couldn't keep it together. Not right. AQ was like laughing like a little kid in a classroom that was sitting in the back of the room. Didn't think anybody could see.

What are you laughing about? Thank you. I'll say this, and this is props to you first right like props of the fact that you never have changed really who you are whenever okay this thing has grown appreciate i don't understand why people think they need to right like okay okay so it took them two years three two and a half years to figure out like oh i just need to go back to being coach matt from temple matt sounds like coach matt from temple coach matt got you to coach matt at baylor and make a shit ton of money and may have a lot of success which got you to 70 million dollars with coach rule now you become

exactly coach rule now we gotta we gotta change everything we did i don't understand that i don't either i don't get it like why does it happen you think it's a priority complex you think that's what it is you think they lack of confidence you think they feel like they have to portray an image because it's kind of what's happening with russell wilson right now right like russell wilson's acting like a movie character what an nfl quarterback's supposed to be and it's kind of getting pointed out now oh this guy's for gays this guy's fraudulent it's almost like people do that when they get a role they like feel like they have to act how they're supposed to act in that position but you would hope that somebody would be mentally tough enough not to give in especially if they're going to be an nfl head coach but it happens all the fucking

time all the time and i i've played for coaches that have done that have completely switched completely it's like oh well that guy you're gonna love that guy well then i get in the room with that guy and it's almost like that guy sat in the back of the room for four years as a coordinator and assistant or whatever it is right and it's it's like, I don't like that. We're not doing that when I'm head coach. We're not doing it. And so when you lose 45-7 and you get up there and you're like, we lost that game because you didn't wear closed-toed shoes.

That's the reason, right? And so, you know what I mean? And so there's all these things that happen, I think. You sit in the back of the room and you're like, oh, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to allow that. It's getting too loose in here. I've got to rein it back in. And then you do that and you lose the group.

When you get in that locker room, it's more important that you are yourself, that you're authentic. When you're coming into a bunch of pros, you're dealing with a bunch of grown-ass men, so for you to have that respect week in and week out, shit's gonna go bad shit's gonna go good it's hard as fuck to win on any level but especially in the NFL so being yourself being your authentic self because you can't go you can't start one way and things are going well you turn into a different coach or things are getting bad and now you turn into a hard ass like it doesn't work like that you lose respect uh immediately so I don't know why people do it you got to stay true to yourself as much as you can covet probably didn't help

right i mean cover probably didn't help and he's a college guy so who knows what people are going to think going in there but they always say like uh the locker you heard like rex ryan anybody that's been around the nfl is saying locker room will know if you're being real or not i honestly believe that the locker room might be that the NFL locker room might be the most difficult crowd in the history of crowds. And the head coach has to speak to said crowd every single day and get everybody to buy in. You're talking about people from every walk of life, every single background, all having their own stubbornness because that's probably what made them in there. And you got to get them all to buy into one message.

That's why during hard knocks with the Lions, that comedian one in there, as he was walking in, I got uncomfortable. I'm like, oh, no. I've seen this before. This is going to go bad. Him crushing on there, I was like, all right, that dude's good. That dude is very good. It's a tough room.

And I honestly believe that an NFL locker room has the guys and the leaders in there that can point out a fugaz. And if other people can't point out a fugaz, somebody's going to say, isn't it interesting that ma-ma-ma and then ba-ba-ba. And then, oh, yeah. And then that starts, like, rolling into the whole thing. You just got to be your true self, I think, since day one. Or if you're going to be a fugaz, you have to be the fugaz at all times. It's hard to do. You're going to get caught. At some moment, you're going to get caught. You're going to be a fouguese, you have to be the fouguese at all times. It's hard to do. You're going to get caught. At some moment, you're going to get caught.

You're going to be tired. You're going to be angry. You're going to have something go on. And you're going to be caught not being the person that you've been trying to portray forever. So if you're always yourself, it's a lot easier. I appreciate the compliment. And people ask me why. I don't think I'm smart enough to. I don't think I'm smart enough to change. And also, if you change, at some point I'm going to resort back to this, and everybody's going to be like, what is that? You're almost setting yourself up for future failure when you're not your authentic self. But for some reason, when people get put in positions of power,

they feel like they've got to change. It happens in all walks of life. Not every coach is like this. It sounds like we're burying all coaches. No, you do have to change to some extent. I agree. Evolve. Yeah, exactly. Evolve. That's the the better but you're still authentically yourself so you go from being

you know a rookie to a fort now you become a captain of the team there are things that you have to do differently but still you know be yourself like that shouldn't be that hard to do and then i hate when you hear coach oh i just had to yeah i had to i went connected with christian mccaffrey and shack time like a It's a star of your team. Yeah. It took three years. That's interesting, man. It honestly is. And it must have been the Bryce tag on his head that made him think and act a different way.

Might have think he had to be something different, but it certainly did not work out. Well, didn't you say from the get-go, too, that you hope he was going to have success and you saw a path where he definitely could, but he's a hard ass. He's kind of just all about ball exactly and like when you get into the nfl i mean obviously it wasn't to the magnitude where it's like saban where he still he was acting when he got to the dolphins he was acting like everyone was 18 and he had his you know thumb down on everyone like so it wasn't

really like that but like you can't do that when you get into the nfl and i mean granted he's making a shitload of money, but you just, guys are adults. They're just not going to put up with that bullshit. They don't care how much success you had at Baylor or wherever. You got guys coming out of Bama. Where's your coach? Baylor.

All right. Yeah. We were one by 60. Yeah, right. I think. But another fascinating case study of college coaches in the NFL that never gets brought up, Petrino was the coach of the Falcons. There was almost an actual, from what I've been told,

I'm not going to say any names that told me, there was almost a of Petrino by somebody that nobody would expect on the Atlanta Falcons team because somebody had to answer a phone call from their wife on a bus or something like that. And Petrino was like, nobody can talk. Nobody's allowed to speak on the bus rides. Nobody was allowed to speak at dinner. Like, it was like a full college thing.

Night before a meal, nobody's allowed to speak at these things. Somebody had to answer a call from their wife and, like, all hell broke loose. And he almost got his ass beat, from what I've been told. He almost got his ass beat. And then I think he left in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night or something like that. Yeah. So I heard. Saban fucking left us left in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night or something like that.

Saban fucking left us too. Yeah, that's right. It was also a similar situation per sources as well. But with Matt Rule, with Matt Rule, just looking at his whole career in the Panthers, he had Teddy Bridgewater during COVID, then he had Sam Darnold, and then he had

Baker Mayfield. It's not as if and Joe Brady left halfway through the guy he hired to be his OC. Yeah, got fired. Got fired, excuse me. Yeah, got fired. But it just seemed like he didn't really have a chance from the beginning, and not to mention when he took the Panthers head coaching job, Tom Brady wasn't playing for the Buccaneers.

So it was kind of a situation where he got absolutely fucked from the get-go. I think he's going to go back to college. He's going to go to a big college program. Go back to Coach Mack. Everybody's thinking he's going to Nebraska. I think that makes a lot of sense. It does. West Virginia makes a lot of sense, too.

Give me Dion at West Virginia. Please. Yesterday, he gave a speech to his team about going home for Thanksgiving. He posted it. It was like, there's like a 2022 great, like that's a guy who cares about his team. Like as I was watching the video, there's a guy that cares about his team,

relates to his team. Also, a little bit of fucking like hard nose. Like, hey, we're not fucking around. Like I think a lot of people think that Prime is not somebody that holds his team accountable. But I think any content that you see come out of from that place, and now most of it's coming from Prime and everything like that, I think he is somebody that feels comfortable enough and feels an obligation to hold people accountable almost. This is something that I feel obligated to do. I can do because of what my resume says.

Prime is good everywhere. In any neighborhood in the world, Prime can walk into. I'm not just talking about Hood. I'm talking about like he can walk into a billionaire fucking. Prime's good everywhere. If you get him a part of your program, I think you try your best, especially after what I saw at Jackson State. Take him to West Virginia, Mount Balma.

First undefeated season, 11-0. Yeah, exactly. Jackson State. Not just recruiting. Yeah. And relationship, that's a part of it, too. It's not being like, okay, I'm going to connect. We're going to be the same. But being able to let the players know you care about them.

And then when you're giving them, like he gives them like real game. Like when things are going on, hey, don't do this think see the big picture and being I was around prime mile coming out of college and um I thought kind of the same thing you know just because you saw primetime that was all you saw but yeah but then actually see it down and knowing you know how disciplined how regimented he was how serious he took preparation and football and then having that I'm sure all these a bunch of these coaches are doing this on the college level but coaches like high school collegiate pro like they are very very important you know to have around young men so i like dion a lot somebody's gonna hire him oh yeah somebody some big school is gonna hire him and i think a lot of people are gonna say

oh he sold out or whatever he's like no no i think he opened up more avenues more doors for people to go to the swag and then get a big job. So it becomes another thing. Not that it's not a big deal to begin with, but I think what he has done, and if he goes somewhere else, it's good overall as opposed to the people just want to look at it negatively. But everybody's saying rules go to Nebraska, though.

It seems like it's a story tradition. They can pay him a lot of money, and he'll be able to do whatever the fuck he wants basically in a conference that's only growing and getting bigger with the you know usc and ucla potentially coming into the fold i mean it is it's almost set up perfectly for him out there in nebraska and when nebraska was like really kicking ass in like the mid 90s you know late 90s like they you know the black shirts like their defense was unbelievable and it hasn't been that in a long time and like that i mean that's his you know bread and butter like toughness and all that kind it just makes a lot of sense and after the fiasco with scott frost like they just

need a hard reset with a guy who has proven that he can do it it just i don't know and and like you've mentioned with the boosters like nebraska for you know whatever anyone wants to say about them like they fucking love football there and care about it more than just about anything and they have stunk a long time long time shout out to the boy by the way will compton signed with the atlanta falcons good luck out there will we'll get him hey go cover a kick will let's go they need your leadership down there yeah and maybe nebraska will you know hire them on saturday after they get embarrassed on fr. We'll see. I don't know.

Who do they got on Friday? Well, they got the Heroes game with Iowa. Iowa's going to end up in the Big Ten championship game. Oh, my God. Awesome. What a time to be alive. What a great country we live in. Patrick is going to go 8 of 19.

They're going to score six points. 72 yards, probably two picks. Defensively, probably four or five turnovers. Torrey Taylor will have six, seven punts inside the ten. of 19 they're gonna score 72 yards probably two picks defense will probably force you know four or five turnovers tory taylor will have six seven punts inside the 10 hell yeah he didn't make the ray guy no he didn't really but he has openly said that he doesn't give a shit about uh like awards and good ray guy specifically so there was no way that makes me like him even more by the way no rest in peace to ray guy obviously thank you for what you did for the punting position. But the way awards are chosen and that thing, just as somebody that has been forced to rent a suit

and get my parents out of work to go down to Orlando to go to the ESPN Awards show. Where we met. In which AQ and I did meet. We tore it down there first. Oh, what a night. The last people into the hotel. They had somebody waiting for us to check us off to make sure we were safe.

We're the last people back into the hotel, me and AQ. First night we meet each other face-to-face. I'd heard of them. I went to Remington. Nice. Best center in the country. It wasn't on the show. They won it the night before the show, so you just had to sit through the whole fucking show.

Oh, God. It was a good time down there. They announced it. They're like, and also. And also. Oh, word of order. We had a blast down there, though. Yeah, we did.

Ran into a guy that I work with now, too, out and about at one particular place. Yeah, we saw him. Old Herbie. I met Herbstreit. That was like the coolest thing. Oh, no way. Yeah, AQ knew him because Herbie had called Penn State games before. At that stage, Herbie wasn't calling Thursday night football at that point for our team,

so I hadn't met Herbie yet. It was probably early in the night or whatever. We went to a little bar in the back of Orlando and he was sitting in the corner and I go, holy shit, Herb Street. I said, holy shit, Herb Street's here. He goes, I know him. Let's go say hi. I don't know if you knew him or not at that time. You sold that you did. Great conversation.

He was a fucking great guy. Great dude. Had a drink together. Walked out of there. Went to another spot. Then another spot. Then another spot. Then another spot. We had spot. Then another spot. We had a good time. It was literally magic since day one. OJQ and I.

Went to an after hours bar, I believe. This is an award show. The ESPN award show. We go back in there. What time do you think Tebow checked in that night? Yeah, Tebow had a whole team. You remember his whole team he had with him? Yeah, he did.

There was a couple people that had teams there. Tebow was a big fucking deal. He was a big deal. He introduced himself to all of us, though. There was a couple people that had teams there. T-Bow was a big deal. He introduced himself to all of us, though. He was very nice to all of us, but he had his whole team. They were sitting at another section while all of us were there. Colt McCoy was a dude. Colt was just cool as fuck, just walking around.

Who was running back out of Georgia? No Sean. No Sean. No Sean Marina. So cool. We saw No Sean. Yeah, we saw him out no, Sean, no, Sean Marina. So cool. I ain't no, Sean. We saw no, Sean. Yeah, we saw him out. No, Sean was awesome. He was incredible. You remember how good he was at fucking Georgia? He had so much wiggle. That was a good time. But anyways, we weren't the right three people to be down there for that award.

There was certainly three other partners that were better. And I think the Augusta something committee were the ones that picked the finals. And then Ray picked the winner out of the finalists. Out of the three finalists, I was clearly, like, everything was – I had more punts longer than 50 yards than the other guy had who was just – had punts in general. Yeah. So, I mean, it wasn't even one of those things.

Ray picked the other guy to win, and it was at that moment I was like, yeah, this is why I fucking hate awards forever. High school, I'm the only kid basically out of my high school that's gotten offers in, like, three sports in the history of the place. Finalist of male athlete of the year for my own high school at Plum High School. Okay? No, it's like these awards I have lost on a regular basis, which has made me hate them all.

The Ray guy one where I had to sit through the fucking ESPN award. Hour and a half afterwards in a fucking clown suit. Sitting there. Bowden gave a full speech. Remember that?, sitting there. Bowden gave a full speech. Remember that? Oh, yeah. Tebow gave a full speech. Yeah, a lot of speech.

A lot of speech. We were sitting there, fucking Tim McAfee, Sally McAfee, we were like, give us the fuck up. We were one of the first ones. So I like that Tori Taylor has that mindset. And Tori needs to know, like, in the history of the red guy, and I haven't looked into it as much because I didn't care about the award either after I left.

I don't think any of the winners have gone on to have good professional careers. I might be wrong. I haven't looked into it enough, but I know from my class, the class before, the class before, the class before, the class before, the class before, the class before, it doesn't mean translate to anything. So I like that he has that feeling, but I think it's kind of bullshit he wasn't a finalist. The guy fucking won games for the team.

Is that not an important punter? Is that not an award-winning punter? you tell me what else we're judging for yeah and it just emphasizes what you've said like the award doesn't mean shit it's not real like he has like 10 punts inside the six this year i don't know how many inside the 20 like he has single this is the worst offense in the history of college football still one game and they're about to go to the fucking big 10 championship why because their special teams and their defense is fucking unbelievable. It's travesty. It's a joke. But yeah, I mean, he doesn't care

and he said it. Alright, Torrey, we might create an award. You know, an award here. Here we go. We might create a punting award. Yeah, there's really, I mean, there's only like a couple that are good that have won the Ray guy. Yeah, legit. Like in Wyschnaski. Mitch won? That's good. I'm fucking happy to hear Mitch won one.

Who won it last year? It was a dog. Nobody won it last year. That's what I thought. Nobody? Tough go for the Ray Guy award, I'd say. Rest in peace to Ray, not his. We're talking about the award.

Award, that's what I said. The guy who got drafted to the Bills. And the guy that won the year before. Some mark. Presley. I don't know Presley. Why the year before. Some mark. Presley. I didn't know Presley won. I'm happy for him. They're saying the kid from Michigan State is going to win it this year.

I haven't seen it. That's something I should put more time into is like college football kicking and punting. I should do that at the end of the year. You should, yeah. I should rank my top five kickers and punters from around the country. And I'm not going to have them be top five. I'm just going to say I'm not going to have them in order because situations are situational.

Like some punters aren't going to be able to have as big of an average because the way their team operates, they're only kicking with a short field. Some teams aren't going to be able to have as big of an average because their offense stinks, so they're kicking with a full – like there's just – there's so many different things. I'll do like my top five guys that I think are guys. Like a tier. That'll be a guys. Yeah. Yeah. my top five guys that I think are guys. Like a tier. That'll be a guys.

Yeah. Yeah. These are my people that I think are guys. Yeah, and you got to leave the Michigan State guy out of it because he didn't break up that fight between him and the Michigan player. Good point. That was said to me by somebody when that fight was talking about, and I disagreed internally,

but did not feel as if the fight needed to take place about the position of the other Michigan State players during that Michigan State-Michigan fight in the tunnel. I would like to be on record as stating that any of those other Michigan State players, you would have to be a fifth-year, sixth-year senior captain. Anybody else on that team caught on film, not help. I think it's a bad look if you are saying hey boys boys boys this guy that's gonna be a tough unless you're a sixth year or seventh year now which you can be i think with the covid year senior i don't think anybody else was could have been in the position to

potentially do that but nonetheless cooler heads need to prevail at all times amen hey q you guys got in a fight in that tunnel didn't you penn state we never did but no no penn state did penn state did ohio state did first and penn state and then the michigan state guys got in a fight in that tunnel, didn't you, Penn State? We never did. No, no, Penn State did. Penn State did? Ohio State did first, then Penn State, and then the Michigan State won three in a row. I could see how it could happen. I've been in that tunnel. What? Hundreds of years.

How the hell could that happen? It never happened? Never happened before. It's almost like that scene out of Rudy where the two teams are just like, hold them back and staring. Were you the first person in the locker room after games? No, I was usually the last. So you potentially were in the middle of a –

because from what I've heard with that tunnel, and me and Darius didn't play there because we played in the fucking Big East. Damn right. God damn right. Rest in peace, Big East. That conference is gone, right? Basketball, they still got a thing, I think. Yeah, they still play basketball.

Good basketball. Not the same. Not the same, no, yeah. So here's the tunnel, right? Basketball, they still got a thing, I think. Yeah, they still play basketball. It's not the same. So here's the tunnel, right? The tunnel's like this. And then this is the tunnel. I don't know if you want to zoom in on that thing. Oh, so it looks like a regular tunnel. Yeah, boom. That's a tunnel. But I think they're coming in

from here, right? And then this is the Michigan locker room. And then this is the away team's locker room, right? And then sometimes, we're adding here, you know, sometimes there's – those are humans trying to get in a locker room because it's kind of like it gets bottlenecked up there because it's a wide tunnel and then it goes down to one door. A lot of players. And every once in a while after a game, the team is trying to get into said tunnel, right?

And then after there's been a certain amount of time, now here comes Michigan up, right? And they're going into here. But every once in a while, there's a chance that there are still some people right here. So these people that are maybe leading after the game, after maybe a win, are going in here. How is that not always a fight? How is there not always something that is said there? The amount of respect I have for the history of Michigan football for not getting into a fight every single home game.

I think it does need to be. Way to go. Hey, good restraint. Way to go, boy. Good discipline there. That seems like a setup for a fight every football game. Definitely. It's a few tunnels like that in the NFL.

Buffalo? Bills. I think it's one more. Which there has been fights. Remember Fournette? I think Fournette, he was with Jacksonville, got into a fight. And everybody thought it was that big of a deal. Jair Alexander

coming out with Stephon Diggs a couple weeks ago. Pre-game, right? Yeah. Before Sunday Night Football. Pros have, I think, a little cooler mindset, potentially, so not as many fights because you're growing older. Making money. But like 18 to 23.

Especially if you just got your ass beat. Yeah. Biggest game of the year. Maybe failed the test the day before. I don't know. Did you guys ever win in Michigan? No. No.

Beat them at home. Lost there. Oh! Let's go. Good win, though. Big win. 45-14 as a senior. Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!!! a song! a song! a zombie nation is a zombie nation. a zombie nation. a zombie nation. a team of the team of the team of the team of the team of the team of the team of Were we doing that whole thing?

Who's the quarterback? Is that the techno song? It's Zombie Nation. It's Zombie Nation. Oh, yeah. We all know what he sings for. Is that happening on that game? Yeah, it was.

Whiteout up there? Whiteout. As many fireworks as they do now, has the Whiteout always been the way it is? No, no, no. It's a whole production now. It is awesome. Have you seen this shit, Darius, what they do up there? Ohout. As many fireworks as they do now? Has the Whiteout always been the way it is? No, no, it's a whole production now. It is awesome. Have you seen this shit, Darius, what they do up there? Oh, it is. It's a production.

It is awesome. It's unbelievable. How many in your stadium? I think it says 106, but they get like 109, 110 on the day of the morning moment. It's second to Ann Arbor, right? So you know, yeah, the big house. We did this list. Yeah, we looked at it.

I forget who it was. Auburn, I think, is up there. LSU is up there as well. Isn't Coliseum up there? Coliseum might have 90-some or 100-some. Rose Bowl. I think the Rose Bowl's up there. The seats are still there.

They're not talking about humans. They're just talking about the seats being there. I've heard, and I don't know if you've calculated this or not, I don't think I've ever been in front of 100-some thousand. I don't think. WrestleMania? No,'t think. WrestleMania? No, how much was WrestleMania? WrestleMania.

Where was that? Dallas. I don't remember how many was there. But I've heard like over, what, like 80,000? You can't tell the difference, or is that a lot, you think? A lot. I mean, when we would play at Ohio State, and I think they're saying they're 105, 106 or something.

I mean, it was loud. Different. But the thing that's funny is Michigan, it all depends. Like, think about Seattle. Exactly, right? Seattle Stadium goes, like, straight up. So all the sound comes right down on top of you. Michigan Stadium goes out.

I never thought it was that loud. But Ohio State is loud. Well, and Michigan fans. A lot of people would say they're not as rowdy as Ohio State. This will make Ty happy. One of the loudest games I ever played in was at Iowa. Iowa is loud. Well, and Michigan fans. A lot of people would say they're not as rowdy as Ohio State. This will make Ty happy. One of the loudest games I ever played in was at Iowa. Iowa gets loud. Did you wave to the kids?

That was before that happened. You probably wouldn't have anyways. Yeah, if we had to guess. Jesus. Hey, Joe DiNardo, hey, kids. Unbelievable. You mean cuss. What did you say?

You mean cuss? I just have a daycare at my house. All right, right now, currently? Currently. In a sweet jungle gym. And live from Manatic in Ohio. In Columbus, Ohio. The home of the scene that will be happening on Saturday in which there is a college football playoff berth on the line.

The game. The big game. Michigan traveling to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. The man that's joining us now is not only synonymous with the Ohio State Buckeyes, not only is he synonymous with college football as a whole because he's a college football national champion, he's a Super Bowl champion, a Green Bay Packers all-time leading tackler, and a man who beat COVID not once.

What? Not twice. What? Three times he beat COVID. maybe more, ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hall. What's up, dude? What's up?

I don't know if they're actually competing for us. It's not a guaranteed spot in the playoffs if they win. Come on. What if you lose the Big Ten? What if you lose? Well, listen, if you lose the Big Ten, then you don't deserve to be in the fucking college football playoff, and also, you don't deserve to win the game this weekend. If Michigan or Ohio State were to get a win this weekend and then lose to Iowa in the Big Ten championship game, you're right.

Both teams fucking get out of there. Put four SEC teams in there if that's what you're going to have to do with how Iowa has played. But nonetheless, massive, massive game this weekend in Ohio, AJ. You starting to get nervous? You starting to get the jitters? That team up north, Ish again, traveling to town, maybe to steal all the joy and the hopes and the dreams of all the kids around Columbus and all the Ohio State faithful?

How are you feeling about the game just about four days in advance of it? I feel pretty good. I take my daughter to school in the mornings and I see the signs leading up to school have red X's over the M. You know it's Michigan week here. It's great. What do you feel about the team, though? Honestly, I saw C.J. Stroud was leading the band the other day.

He had his own – He's going to win the Heisman, right? Is he going to win the Heisman? So it's him, Caleb Williams, and Blake Corum's up there as well. I think he has the third best odds, but Blake Corum got his knee banged up last week. How much will he be playing going forward? Hopefully a lot because he's an absolute stud. Obviously, Ohio State fans aren't hoping that.

Max Duggan was plus 6,000 yesterday when the Heisman. TCU remains undefeated, and they get in the college football playoff. He's going to get a lot of conversation, depending upon what the outcome is of this particular weekend's game, because Caleb Williams with USC, they can make it in college football playoffs as well, which was a pick I gave out on college game day. If they lose to Notre Dame, they're not. And Caleb's probably not winning the Heisman if he's not being represented.

So, I mean, it's wide open right now. CJ's certainly on pace to win it. And I think a loss keeps him still in it because Ohio State still might get in to college football play if they're to lose because of how you know the team has been and everything like that but he can win it he could definitely win he should win it and I think he has to win this weekend and do so yeah if he wins and plays well I would imagine he has a good chance to win the Heisman this week right if he looks good against Michigan the biggest game of the weekend yeah he should be okay yeah not just the biggest game of the weekend this is the the, you know, I mean, Georgia-Tennessee was huge. That was one versus one in the college football playoff in the AP.

Tennessee would go on to lose a game. So that game not as big as it maybe was built at the beginning because what happened since then. This is like, hey, birth in the playoff. Yeah. Like that is a big deal. Have to win another game. I guess that's just assumed.

Sorry. No, hey, listen, it's not going to be easy. They know it. What was Ohio State? What was Ohio State? Iowa? Well, if you remember correctly, Iowa got up to a 10-0 lead, and then Ohio State scored about 56 on the other side.

But that was C.J. Stroud's worst game this year. It was. And they won 56-10. So there is, you know, a lot of conversation. What did you score last year? It's a trap game, man. That's a Big Ten championship trap game. You is, you know, a lot of conversation. What was the score last year? It's a trap game, man. That's a Big Ten championship trap game. You don't want to be a part of that.

No, and Ryan Day and Harbaugh and whoever has their team in there will be giving a motivational speech about how although this game will be relatively easy to the game that we just played and the games that are ahead for us need to handle business early here

or when everything that we ever wanted is not going to be available for us the college football landscape though is bananas are you going to the game yes i will be there okay sweet am i gonna see you i don't know do you what do you do during the game don't you leave i normally leave i think i want to watch like the kickoff of it though because it's right afterwards right are we going in together you want to go do you walk in there uh i'd love i believe me i set it up months ago i got uh pre-game field passes for me and all my kids who've never taken everybody there okay six so i think we're going i think ah i'm like i'm just there for pre-game i'm not there i can't stay down there for the game i'm just down there for pre-game how many do you have you have your whole family with you

yeah yes i don't know if I'm able to get 14 in there. I'm so wheeze. Six total. Yeah, six. Procreate in every month and a half. I mean, jeez. If you get a nest, they can nestle in there. Yeah, I guess.

All right, so we're going to see it at noon. Yeah, it's always there. Can't wait. Normally. Hey, it's a big fucking game. It's a big game and a big 10. Now, obviously, Penn State hasn't been in one of these in a long time, and maybe they will at some point.

No offense to Penn State. Yeah, no. But why – do you hold the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry in big regard because you come from a Big Ten score, or do you try to diminish it as much as possible? No, no. I think it's arguably between that one and what, Duke-North Carolina, probably the two biggest rivalries in basketball.

Probably the two biggest rivalries in college sports. I mean, it's awesome. I look forward to that game every year. Penn State-Ohio State rivalry or no? Used to be because Big 33 happened, right? Yeah, it is. It is, but it's not to the extent of that game. I mean, that game's special.

AJ. What? What's the score of that game? You guys winning this game or what? Oh, yeah. I plan on winning that. Yeah. Why not? A thousand percent. What's the final score, though? You think it this game or what? Oh, yeah. I plan on winning that. Yeah. Why not?

A thousand percent. What's the final score, though? You think it's close? You think it's going to be close? Is this game normally close? You know more than me about this type of thing. Is this game normally because of the atmosphere, the hype built around it, the amount of – Hey, I think game day is going to do an incredible piece about the history of this rivalry.

Let's go. Because I don't want to act like I'm a stooge, but I am a stooge. And I was like, I understand that Ohioio state michigan's a big fucking deal and it's like you know there's a lot on the line but when did this whole thing kind of long time ago yeah they'll do a great job and you shouldn't know like i don't understand or claim to know much about other rivalries that are going on like in the south and different things i know the rivalry games but i don't know any like details of why's a rivalry, what makes it that. But yeah, when you get into the history of the Ohio State-Michigan game, there's a ton of stuff that has happened over the years.

Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, they made it a giant thing and everyone just ran with it. Well, I think they should. And then 2006 obviously had Game of the Century, a three-point game that was a big-time deal. Were you playing in that game? No, that was my rookie year. But my freshman year, yeah, we won at home against Michigan,

like 14-9 to go to the national championship, and that was crazy. Like everyone stormed the field, all of that. Always last game of the year? Yeah, last game at noon usually, but I think they did it later a few times. Or they wanted to do it later. I feel like it was always on ABC at noon. Not this year, obviously. That's wild to me.

It's almost like the schedules are set up too. Oh, yeah. That's going to change when USC and UCLA come to town. When Matt Rule goes to Nebraska. And when Penn State hires A.Q. Shipley to be the recruiting coordinator. That's going to all change. The future of the Big Ten is going to look very different. Isn't it, AQ? Especially with James Franklin

and the boys in Happy Valley. This game isn't always going to be for the college football playoff. No, because Penn State's going to be in that conversation real soon, right? Tell them. Ten and two, man. Ten and two every year. Oh, come on. That's great. That's a lot of wins. Ten wins?

It's not Ohio State and Michigan. But the two losses are Ohio State and Michigan every year. You might as well just chalk it up. Why does that happen? You guys just quit and roll over? Fuck, you want to do it for the rivalry game, for the good of television, for the last week of the season? They've just been the better teams.

I mean, they haven't been able to compete with them. All right, let's move back to the NFL. Can't wait for this weekend. Can't wait to see Ohio State show up this weekend in Columbus. What's the weather? It's going to be miserable, I assume? No, I think it's going to be like the highest 50. It might rain a little bit possibly, but it's not going to be freezing.

I know that. That is great news, especially coming out of Montana. Yeah. Coldest show in history. I would like to know any other show that just does three hours straight, basically in single digits, wind chill negative, sitting there just the entire time. No heaters. Limited heaters.

I would like to hear about that. You know, because the fans, they're obviously all much, much tougher than us. But being able to stand, I think, is better in the cold because you can move a little bit. Hammered. I almost wish we all just stood behind the desk. Yeah, and a bit intoxicated. And I appreciate the Montanans.

They were awesome out there. But just there you know my toes the worst my toes if it's hot or cold if it is blazing hot or cold it sucks just sitting there in bleachers or sitting there on a desk shout out to everybody that got through that over there shout out to the montanamals that made it a great atmosphere shout out to everybody on that stage that made the possible feasible. And everybody that battled through that. Desmond Howard led that thing off with, I live in Miami. So this is cold, cold. And it was like watching Des take his fingers out of the gloves, you know, into the fist.

Like that's classic cold as shit. When you are close to being done with being cold, you go into the fist, into glove. I'm going to make this glove a mitten real quick to see if this helps because the glove itself isn't working at all. It was quite a scene. Excited to get to Ohio State. Zito just told me on a doppler, DiNardo would have said, there is a chance of rain showers, I guess, in the middle of the show.

That'll be fantastic. Can't wait to get out there and battle the elements. It should be a blast. Speaking of battling the elements with rain, last night in Mexico, the San Francisco 49ers, the team that you picked, minus 9.5 last night to continue your incredible weekend of picking games, 9-4-1 this week.

Week 11, A.J. Hawk. Can't wait to see the boost that you put together for next Sunday. We appreciate you doing that for all of us. Make sure it's a fucking winner, pal. Okay, we need one. For the good of the team, we need one. I like big odds, though. I like big odds. It's got to be worth something. Okay, sweet. Yeah, do that. Let's get a win.

Let's get a win. Whatever you want to do, just get a win. Last night, what did you see from that Niners team, and what did you see from that Cardinals team that tells you how the rest of their seasons are going to go, A.J. Hawk? Well, it looks like they're going different directions at the moment. I don't know what the future is with Kyler Murray. Is he supposed to be back next week?

I don't know. I don't know. We didn't know he was going to miss this game. Remember? We just found out yesterday he was going to miss this game leading into it. But, yeah, it does feel as if the Cardinals are a little bit broken. Or are they broken because they're playing the fucking Niners? That's a question that we should ask because the Niners looked unbelievable, AJ.

They did. The Niners looked like we expect the Niners to look. The way they looked last night, everyone can envision them making a run, I feel like. Jimmy G is super efficient. I like his quick release, man. I know people try to knock Jimmy for whatever. I have no idea why, but four touchdowns gets the ball to Christian McCaffrey

a good amount of times. I like this team. I like their defense. D'Amico Ryan's as D coordinator is awesome as well. This is what the Niners do, though. Don't they kind of round into form usually late in the year when trying to make a run? That's what the great teams do, and it seems like the Niners have been that.

That's why the trade of all the first-round picks for Trey Lansky, rid of Jimmy G, was such a big thing. Then the disaster of not being able to trade him with his shoulder surgery, him practicing not with the team but away from the team. And I think my next question is going to lead to whenever we see plays like this. Deebo, they were able to get the ball to so many other weapons last night. Ayuk had a touchdown. Deebo had a touchdown.

Kittle had a couple of touchdowns. Elijah was getting the rock. Christian McCaffrey was getting the ball to so many other weapons last night. Ayuk had a touchdown. Debo had a touchdown. Kittle had a couple of touchdowns. Elijah was getting the rock. Christian McCaffrey was getting the ball. It's like they have a plethora of weapons. And somehow Shanahan's going to have to keep them all happy with the ball. I don't know how you do that. George Kittle getting back into the action on the offense side of the ball, catching the ball is huge for them to go to A.J.'s point about rounding out

and becoming the best team they could possibly be at this time. Kidd also had two of the best spikes, not only of the season, but maybe in football. His first spike last night hit so flat. And if you ever watch somebody who's trying to spike a ball, you're trying to hit that thing flat off the ground, so then it shoots all the way up in the sky. In that thin altitude, or in that high altitude with that thin air,

he hit that thing as square as you could possibly hit it appears if it weren't as high the fucking upright there need to talk a little bit more about the spike in the celebration out of kiddo i thought it was fantastic yeah this is the first one boom oh i love them all still going yeah yeah that ball is still going and obviously he had the uh p Meda Zero, I think. Luchador, he's an AEW, I believe. Luchador gave him a mask before the game. And obviously, he's beloved down there.

And I think he loves it down there. Two touchdowns in Mexico is huge for him. But how does Shanahan continue to feed the weapons? And if he doesn't, do you think that'll be drama down the road with having too many options on the offensive side of the ball and only one football debugger? No, usually it is. But that was something you heard a lot coming out of locker rooms and in the media.

Like these guys, they just want to win. They don't care who gets the stats, who's getting the ball. They just want to win. And the thing about it, they're all talented, but you don't know where Christian McCraffie is going to line up. You don't know where Debo is going to line up. Juice, one of the most athletic fullbacks in the league. These guys can move all around. They do so much misdirection pre- and post-snap.

It's tough to defend this team. Is this the team that in the past couple years have just devastated Packers fans because they just beat the shit out of them? Is this the year that the Niners finally go in the NFC, Ty, you think, or what? I said yesterday that I thought that when the Cowboys play their perfect game, they might be the best team in the NFC. Is this the year that the Niners finally go in the NFC, Ty, you think, or what? Yeah, I mean, I said yesterday that I thought that, you know, like when the Cowboys play their

perfect game, like they might be the best team in the NFC. It's the Niners. It's the Niners. Who is in the NFC right now? Best odds. I assume the Niners are up there. The Cowboys are up there. The Eagles are up there. Did the Vikings just fall completely out of it because the egg that was laid against the Dallas Cowboys? Here's odds of winning the Super Bowl. Bills are plus 400. Now, what does that elbow look like for Josh Allen going forward? They play against the Browns in Detroit. They win. He has great throws.

Browns look good. There are still odds on favorite. Kansas City Chiefs, plus 470. I know plus 470 isn't that great odds for a futures bet like Super Bowl, but if you watch them play and see what Patrick and Travis Kelsey are doing, plus 470, not bad odds to look at that Kansas City Chiefs team right now. Eagles at plus 5. I agree.

I think we're close to that. I think we'll see what happens with the Bills this weekend. I mean, see what Josh Allen looks like this weekend. I think all eyes are on whether or not how Josh is going to play going forward. Tough matchup. Eagles at plus 550. Niners at plus 700. They're right next to each other.

Then the Cowboys at plus 1,000. So, Eagles, Niners, Cowboys on the NFC side have the top three odds to win the Super Bowl. AJ, what are your thoughts on that? You think that's right? Yeah, I mean, I guess right now, but would you put the Dolphins at the same as the Vikings if you're thinking of who has a chance to win the Super Bowl? I guess just because the Dolphins have a tougher road to get there. Which one would you put above?

Yeah, because I think Connor. I think better team. I like the Dolphins team, but a tougher road to get there, I guess. Yeah, I think Connor immediately would have assumed that the Dolphins would be above the Vikings, not only because of what they showed against the Dallas Cowboys, but because the Dolphins have a lot of weapons, which we're going to start looking at the top of these charts. It seems like weapons is a good thing to have in the NFL, especially this year,

and the Dolphins have a shit ton of them. I like that Niners team, though. Yeah. And there might be recency bias, and I Dolphins have a shit ton of them. I like that Niners team, though. Yeah. Especially after that. And it might be recency bias, and I guess we could say that about the Cowboys as well if we really wanted to go off recency bias for what they did to the Vikings. That Niners team just seems like they have the shit to them, too. And I like that feel that they have.

Yeah, the Niners and the Cowboys kind of are so similar because their defenses are so good. Like, they both get four-man pressure. They both have a stud on the D-line with Parsons and then with Bosa and Sam Fran. The crazy thing, really, is that McCaffrey has only played a few games. Like, they finally used him last night where he wasn't – Elijah's like, what the fuck? Yeah, and he's awesome too.

But then they lined McCaffrey up in the slot, and then they got Debo, Ayuk, and Kittle, and then they have Elijah Mitchell in the backfield. It's like they could legitimately have five different people score two-plus touchdowns every single game. It's insane. I think they also just travel. Like we saw it last year.

I mean, yeah, they're in California. It did not fucking matter at all that they were going to play Green Bay. Like their defense is so good. They can just pound the ball down your throat, and then if they're only throwing 10 passes or 12 passes, like there's a chance that Jimmy G is going to throw fucking four touchdowns in those 12 passes with how explosive they are. AQ, anything to add to the Niners' tug sesh that we're running right now?

Come on, you know. You want me to chime in on this? Yeah, do you want to chime in on it? Let me chime in on the tug sesh that has happened for the Niners, but it's real. Yeah, it's so good. And they're going all in, which all in which i like dr york aj i don't know if you saw that dr york uh he got the game ball from shanahan and then you heard you start thinking yes smart by shanahan very smart he just got above 500 i guess as a total because the years that jimmy g was hurt they lost a lot of games and we don't talk about it that's something nobody talks about

and we shouldn't because whenever they have their team together, they're very good. Whenever Jimmy G's not in, they were very bad. That's why they drafted Trey Lance, but now Jimmy G's seemingly back and healthy. They are dominant again. His record as a head coach is over.500 for the first time in his career, actually. Wow. So that is something that we never really recognize or understand. McDaniel leaves.

We thought maybe Shanahan was dead because the big brain, the big Yale brain goes down Miami and he's able to do what he's able to do Shanahan has it figured out they had to trade for Christian McCaffrey they had to pay a bunch of people I like what this Niners team has done both off the field and on the field would you like to do you have a any solid takes about why the Niners will go or why they won't you think no I love it and there was one particular formation that they did last night where I was like, oh, okay, I see where this is going, right? So they had McCaffrey lined up in the backfield. They motioned Debo into the backfield. And then from there, they get set.

Then they motioned McCaffrey into the slot, and they hit him with like a little angle route. But the possibilities are completely endless with that amount of weapons. It doesn't matter who it is. They're all interchangeable. They can all play multiple positions slot. And so the thing that I talk about over and over again is with their formations being able to all look the same

and never know what the fuck is coming out of it. Oh, TCU. That, exactly. Texas TCU. That is what you're getting from this team. AQ gave me that. I asked him, I'm like, hey, we're going to cover these Texas and TCU pretty heavily. Can you give a little look-see of what you think these teams look good at?

And I get this note from him on Friday as I'm studying. He's like, fucking three-scroller. And I'm like, I can't read that. I can't read that. So I call him, and he starts breaking it down. He's like, look at that. They look the exact same. They're doing something different.

Very, you can even say this, very Shanahan-like. You can even say this on the show. I didn't get to say it, but it was like just kind of part of my study part of the whole conversation because everybody's going to have a take on that table, and we don't know what everybody else is saying. So I'm just trying to, like, get as much information as possible. Why does everybody do that? Why is that not just, like, common?

It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of work. All that pre-snap shifts, motions, everything. Haven't you heard Aaron talk about it before on the show? He tells LaFleur, hey, can we have one or two plays without any pre-snap motion? It takes a lot, man. You've got to practice that over and over and over again. That takes away from other stuff.

I guess everybody's got to be on the same page at all times. That's why we were so impressed with Seattle Seahawks' operation because they got a lot of motion, and Geno is somehow like he would have this much room in between two motions and he's getting through there without tripping anybody up because if you trip somebody up that could be a disaster and nobody thinks about that that's a little tiny thing that's like if you see somebody trip over something that's like oh what an amateur move it's like how does that not happen more often I'm wondering with two people sprinting behind

somebody at exact speed and you're trying to get an exact timing, I don't know, you're saying that takes work. Like, all that is muscle memory and reps and everything, and you only have a certain amount of plays in a day? Yeah, and some coaches and some schemes don't really rely heavily on that. Some people have, it's all like, hey, what are your

beliefs? What's like your foundational tools of your playbook? Well, and if those plays don't work, right? Like, you can practice a play a bunch, but then if it goes for, you know, a two-yard or a one-yard gain, you can't come out in the same formation and expect them to react really hard to that play and then, you know, dump it behind them. What does Vrabel do? Vrabel says, is this what we're doing?

Fucking stop it or not. Does that happen? Or do a lot of teams do? How many teams are doing like actual disguising on the offensive side, do you think? How many teams can you not predict what play is coming from a high IQ defensive player like you are? Is there a lot of teams you can predict, or is most of it just kind of wittily done?

I mean, you can predict a lot of it, but a lot of the teams are running the same plays, but you're just window dressing it pre-snap differently. So that's all they're doing, shifting. And when they do those shifts in motion, that's fucking up the defense side of the ball. Because remember, we were talking about a couple weeks ago with the post-huddle communication, the down right, down left. So if I'm a down safety and they're doing this, it happened last night a couple times, actually. And we got to rotate back and they go back like that formation shift that AQ was talking about. Like that's tough as hell on the defense side of the ball.

So I can't tell you a number of the teams that are shifting the motion a bunch but the teams that do it well and you got out of players too like miami they have the players sam friend they have the play you can shift the motion all you want if you don't have dogs back there to do it doesn't matter let's go in the trenches real quick because we're talking about window dressing and i think this is a perfect one aq and i i don't think you need to uh i think this is a perfect way to do it in the trenches, by the way, if you're just going to sit here. Let's fucking, you have your stick. Look, this play, he showed it to me earlier

and I don't think I saw it live during the game. How the hell, if you're a defense, are you supposed to stop this? And AJ, chime in whenever you can. This is what's going to happen. There's going to be somebody that comes in this way, this guy's going to go this way, and then this guy's going to pull this way, and then the ball's going to happen there's going to be somebody that comes in this way this guy's going to go this way and then this guy's going to pull this way and then the ball is going to go this way

okay and this fucking guy and uh uh uh aq tell me if i'm wrong this guy is going to get he's going to come in there and the guy's going to pull is just going to block him naturally he's going to do his own thing exactly right this is the window dressing why doesn't everybody do this type of shit is it hard to get this done it's hard and just to piggyback off what they were saying it kind of takes a ton of reps. But if you're on the road, it takes even more because now you have no communication. You can't hear shit.

But yeah, you saw the jet motion. You get Gabe Davis going back against the grain with a tackle pulling after the ball is snapped. That's the craziest shit. You get crisscrossed. Basically, where the ball is snapped, you get a crisscross between the tackle and a receiver going back. What the fuck?

Linebackers have to be in a blender here. AJ, what do you do here, pal? I mean, look at 44 right here. He has the tackle coming directly at him. He's most likely to have to get outside that gap, and 28 is supposed to take that B gap right here, and he's supposed to jump outside this lineman and also head and hands at the same time like yeah you're you're screwed man it sucks

they create chaos like pre-snap and then these defenses to where you got to play kind of like indecisive and you're not sure where to fit you're talking about this guy yeah that got not the 38 so when that fly motion comes if you're a flat defender defender, you're also typically the edge on a run defense. So once he flashes, like, that's going to widen me. Like, I got to go with him. So regardless of where 44 goes, 28 is going to have somewhere to make this play. I'll also – Josh Allen can pull this too with the athletic quarterback.

Like, it's just tough, man. Oh, yeah, because he can either pull it and go that way or fucking if he wants to. I mean, how are you supposed to stop this? And look at this. This with the receiver going back. So if you go back a little bit here, the center has to get skinny and get play side. Play side's over here on 28. If you don't get that back to hold him back to this gap.

He's doing a D-line. He's going to go there and he can't get this block. He probably makes the play with all of them. Center's doing a D-line. Swim around to go there, and he can't get this block. He probably makes the play with all of them. Center's doing a D-line. Swim around to get skinny. Boom. And now he gets leverage. And so because that worked now off of this,

Josh Allen can pull it and just throw it to that guy in the flat. He can, yeah. No, because center's downfield, right? If it's quick, he gets right there. If the ball got rid of it, he'd be fine. They won't call it. They won't call it. But they might call it the tackle.

Why doesn't everybody do it? Hey, Jeff. Jeff. Jeff Saturday. Somebody text Jeff Saturday. Let's do this one. Is this the type of play, though? It's unbelievable.

That more people will do in the copycat league? This is so much eye candy. You don't see this much. I've seen San Fran do it a couple times where they crisscross post-snap. Typically, you get this pre-snap and then someone going back. But then when you have the tackle going back across the green of the guy going back to the side of where the jet motion's going, it just puts your eyes in a blender, in an absolute blender. Jesus Christ.

Your gaps change. With pullers and that jet motion behind the center, your rules get all messed up because a lot of times you have to fall back a gap if you have a puller or you have someone behind the center that's like a jet motion. So, yeah, like we said, we're trying to figure it out right here. These guys are in real time trying to figure out how to stop it. With 15

seconds in between each play, you're probably dinged up and you're tired, too. This is why I wouldn't be a former player that'd be a good head coach because I would see that and then I'd say we're doing that. That's what they do. It's a copycat league. That's what teams do. That'll show up by somebody else this week. You watch.

At a beautiful place known as In the Trenches with AQ Shipley. What about you AQ? Where are we going? Let's go. We are going to Mexico City. Estadio Azteca. Yep, we're going to start there. You alright? Yeah, I'm

all good now. Hey, check it out. We got a gadget. Creative gadget. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. So, we saw this earlier in the year. We saw the New York Jets. We saw Dwayne Brown. Well, guess what? We're going to replace him this week with the best of all time, Trent Williams.

Best left tackle of all time? He's got to be in the conversation. Is he tipping here? Is he tipping? Yeah, that's a great point. 4-4 tipping. That's a pass stance, I think. Really?

I think it's a pass. Nope. Don't know. Don't fucking care. I think. Really? I think it's a pass. Nope. Don't know. Don't fucking care. This guy is going to get out in space along with Jake Brendel.

I think we saw this. He gets downfield. We're going to fake the counter. We're going to pull the guard. We're going to get these guys down blocking. He's going to do the little whirly bird. But the play that sets this up, this is usually run out of a bunch. He's going to get a little wider than a bunch. And wait until you see the patience because he he knows he has to block Isaiah Simmons going

back across his face. But the key to this, I showed D-Butt this earlier, is the effort on Simmons. He is what makes this thing go. Trent Williams out in space, and Jake Brendel gets a monster block on Buda Baker down in space. Check the whirlybird by the tight end. Fake it. Fuck it.

Let's go. Here we go. There's the whirlybird. Trent Williams out in space. Let the whirlybird by the tight end. Fake it. Fuck it. Let's go. Boom. Here we go. There's the whirlybird. Trent Williams out in space. Let's kick him out. Check the effort by Ayuk. This is a linebacker. A 245-pound linebacker. Stick and stay. Stick and stay.

Boom. Get him past. Check out Brendel. Boom. Down the field. That's tough sledding right there. Wow. How good is that? Cardinals did attempt to tackle on this play, kind of. Yeah, it looks like they attempted on this play, not later against Kittle.

That was 35 yards down the field. Unbelievable. Where the center was tackling or blocking Budabega. 35 yards, big dude. Three what? 3-0-5. Freak. 35 yards down the field. key is and this is blocked

to perfection because he's got the flat kick out he's got the alley and just run the alley look anything inside out and then you get debo out in space which yeah go from the top pat look at this look at this back on the right i think he's back on the right side 51 watch him take off he has to feel that tyler croft that tight end run though to Worleyburg, but he didn't see him come back. See ya. You don't have to block guys like that when that happens. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Now, if he did read it,

64, probably, Jake Brendel would have picked him up, and then Buda has a chance to make this play downfield. So he ends up gaining. So if he goes down and then comes back, O'Cuzzy probably takes him, and then Buda's free.Cuzzy probably takes him and then boot is free. So because of that, now you gain an extra hat frontside. This is how you get the big explosives.

That's so hard. That's so hard to stop, man. I mean, McGlinchey's also. I mean, look at McGlinchey. Yeah, McGlinchey's the right tackle. Look at him getting all the way back across the field and getting a – even if it's just a piece like that, it helps down the field on the extra.

Jeez Louise. Dogs. Hey, Debo hitting that. That energizes the whole team, though. Yeah, big time. That gets the whole team absolutely juiced, especially when you have guys downfield blocking guys to the ground at the five-yard line.

Like, that whole team loves this. AQ, I don't want to say that an offensive lineman wouldn't give max effort all the time because an offensive lineman will always have to give a max effort or they'll get embarrassed i do believe though that whenever you're a team that says hey we're gonna run the ball you get max effort from all these fucking guys almost extra effort right yes it almost becomes extra effort the way that these guys embrace it they want to run the ball they know that if it goes they're going to continue to run the ball so hey how we continue to run the bone we got to keep getting plus. They know that if it goes, they're going to continue to run the ball. So, hey, how we continue to run the ball, we got to keep getting plus fives,

and that's what they get. What were you going to say, Darius? No, I was just – if you run it back a little bit, it was like four Cardinals in the same gap. But this is tough. Yeah, because they're thinking this is counter all the way. As soon as that guard pulls, as soon as he starts, it's counter. I mean –

This team runs counter. 51 jumps in there, too. Oh, boy. Yikes. That's tough. That's tough. That's tough. But Simmons, the only chance they got on this play is Simmons just whooping

Iuke's ass in space, either trying to throw him into that play. But this is, I mean. That's a brilliant play design there, right? That's the type of thing that, just like the Billis play we saw before the break, that's going to be tough to stop. Yeah, tough to stop. That's a tough play to stop, right, AJ? Yeah, before you, like, you're probably,

they're probably 15 yards down the field before some guys know where the ball is. Like, there's so much action going on back there. This is Philadelphia Eagles. Fucking blue. This is unbelievable. Yep. All right, so perfect. It's a guy that ate Fox.

There's a couple things that I think made this play. So this is the game winner, right? This is the game winner, Jalen Hurts, up the middle that you could have driven a Mack truck through, right? A big gaping hole. There it is. So check it out. Here's the first key. First key, we detach the tight end. We widen him. This tight end aligns here. He's a little tighter. He's probably somewhere

in the box here. Now with him detached and him running a route, he has to split the difference, widen out, and when he runs the route, he has to work that way. That's the first key. The other key, most people run this. They would call this a draw scoop. Again, we talk about scoop in the run game. Same thing, center and guard would be working to him. You always want to point the linebacker opposite of the tight end because the tight end has him.

That's his responsibility. Other side, the offensive line would work to him. That's the point. But most people, when they do it, they would work a draw scoop's the point but most people when they do it they would work a draw scoop and it shows run immediately the thing that i love about what they do they get kelsey back off the ball so it shows pass right now by him setting back let's also not forget this is third and goal from the eight they need a touchdown to win gotta have so they're playing they think this is past right right? They set him back.

It shows pass by seeing the center go there, and then they're going to loop him around to him. It's unbelievable. 35 to running back. Scott ends up just being the clean up guy up the middle, but by Kelsey setting back there. Now, mind you, also, we get the jump set

here. As soon as he comes down to the jump set 2-I, what's he going to do? He's going to work back across his face, which widens the hole again. Look at that thing. Hash to hash. Big. Gave. Hole.

I mean, can you get any bigger? That might be the biggest one we've seen all year, right? Yeah. It's a real shame it's against the Colts, man. We're all in. Goddamn. That's a bummer. I mean, that is.

Is that the. That has to be the. Of all time. Is that the biggest hole ever? The biggest hole of all time. Is that? I mean, you tell me, dude. That might be the biggest hole I've ever seen.

So what is it? It's 53 and a third wide, the field. So it's 26. Six five. 26 point. So it's 26. 6.5? 26. 1.5? How wide are the hashes? I don't know.

That's a good question. That's a great question. Hash to hash. I mean, that's got to be at least 10 yards. I mean, 15? Yeah. I mean, that is a huge. I mean, that is.

Huge. That's the biggest hole of all time. That's game winner. Game winner. Game on the line. Pass works are 18 and a half feet apart. 18 and a half feet, so that's six. Six yards and change.

That's from there to there. Then you've got to add. Why don't they ever do it in feet? Who cares about the feet? Well, who knows? Why is it 53 and a third? Well, it's 53 and a third, which would be an extra foot. Yards, though.

That's yards. Why are we doing it in feet ever? We probably say it's 53 and a third? Well, it's 53 and a third, which would be an extra foot. Yards, though. That's yards. Why are we doing it in feet ever? We probably say it's 53 and a third. I would assume they originally measured it in feet, though, because why would they have it be 53 yards and one foot? It's probably a certain amount of, what is that, 159? 160 feet. So it's 160 feet across.

That's probably how they did it if we had a guess. We're not happy about it, though. No, I'm not. We're not at all. 53 and a third. Why do we got to adjust? We fucking play the game. What are we doing? 30 feet? Is that what it originally was or was it fucking 10 yards from a first down? What's the deal?

Well, I was just going... Anyways, that's a big fucking hole. Is this the Colts defense just reading their keys and the Eagles basically playing off like, hey, they're going to go where we tell them to and then it'll just be wide open in the middle? What are these guys doing too? Pass set, right? What were you saying, D-Buck?

If you watch 4-4, like, as soon as he sees that, and once again, what's his third and goal? Yeah. He's got to be inside 89. So as soon as he sees that O-line pass set, he's looking at his pass responsibility. I mean, but you've got to, I mean, it's Jalen Hurts, too. Yeah, look at how big that fucking – Yeah. I mean, is that a sell or is that just a standard?

Yeah, what a guy. Yeah, it's a good point. Is that like a – definitely. And I'm pretty sure they do have a pass out of this. I guarantee it. Yeah, there's a pass because if he goes there – Orlovsky said, yeah, Orlovsky's to this play were that it's a throw right, throw left, and then it was a PRO, remember, pass-run option.

Oh. Which every play with a mobile quarterback potentially is. But. Surprise, the line's not cutting. AQ stealing from Orlovsky? Oh, man. AQ. People are saying.

No. Surprise, the line just doesn't cut here. AQ Orlovsky. A saying. No. I'm surprised the line just doesn't cut here. AQ Orlovsky. AQ. Yeah. AQ, a question for you as a coach. If they, for some reason, lined up their backers in like a double-A mug pressure that a lot of people don't like to face, what do you think they'd check out of it?

Obviously, probably stick it up a throw right away. If I'm coaching that, exactly. I'm the quarterback. They line up double-A. So he would be here, backer there, backer there. Okay, easy, easy. Come in. Bring the tight end in.

Put the tight end then on him. Down, down, down, down, down. And you still can get the playoff. I think draw is still a phenomenal play versus the double A gap blitz. Yeah. I mean, geez. Geez Louise. What is that?

They had him. They got him. I mean, there's nobody. They had him. They had him. They got him. I mean, there's nobody there that you would think maybe could hopefully time it up and get there on time. There's nobody. Awesome. Even on the pass, you've got to have rush lane integrity on the quarterback. That's good scheme, though, we're saying, right?

Awesome. Good play. Awesome. Here's another one. Hey, this one, again, nothing really fancy to this. This is the duo play, right? So, basically, we're saying right awesome awesome yeah here's another one hey this one again nothing really fancy to this this is the duo play right so basically we're two for two here it's a gap play we're two for two here to 54 what do we call that tackle and guard that's a deuce what do we call here we got a scoop to jordan hicks on the backside left tackle block man but check it out this is

what i love about this this is what makes this play go it's real easy to block everything on paper right when nobody's moving hey it's real easy but when you get him slanting and then working behind him working here jordan hicks working out here how are these three guys going to pass this off and still get the big game a hole off the backside which i love the backside a cut in this duo play doesn't get talked about nearly enough but look at that pass off. They all switched responsibilities on the run. And then Pollard hits this thing 100 miles an hour. You've got to love the juice he brings every week, right?

Yeah. He's downhill and hits it. Because pre-snap, one, right? Yep. Two. Yep. Three. Yep.

So then it runs. He becomes. He goes there. The guard picks him up. He'll go around to the center. Tackle ends up picking the linebacker. They all exchange responsibilities. Every single one of them end up on different people than who they were

supposed to pre-snap. How big will it be to get Tyron Smith back for the MLS tackle? It doesn't seem like it's. I mean, yeah, this guy's playing at a high level. This is the type of shit that they would be missing out on right with that type of veteran because the ability to pass off and have the confidence they're able to do it again that goes down to coaching that goes down to getting the looks in practice all week hey how are we going to handle it again we know how it's supposed to block when everybody's standing still what are we going to do whenever they run a twist and

scrape the wheel back over the top they said that yeah i think it was jerry jones mentioned like oh he should be fine just sliding down to left guard. Do you think it will be like that? Could. I mean, that's obviously much easier said than done. But is there any thought that maybe they're just going to leave him out there? No, because Tyron Smith said it. Yeah, I think now you just know you have a quality backup swing.

I mean, and this is a guy that can win you games when you put him in as a starter. Hey, that's good football right there. Good sound football, passing things off, making things happen. Let's go to put him in as a starter. Hey, that's good football right there. Good sound football. Passing things off, making things happen. Let's go to the next one. Love this also. He brings a lot of juice.

Pacheco's been doing a great job. This is a team that, mind you, a couple weeks ago, three runs maybe in the game, they had fucking like 11 yards rushing. So when they need to run it, they proved they can win it. First thing to notice, we're going to get the deuce block. This deuce block between Brown and Thune. Unbelievable. We get the back block.

We're not even going to block him because you also still have a little bit of a threat of Mahomes running it. Not as much, but he has to respect it. Over here, this is what's awesome. They're going to run this play. We call it tag. We call it counter-trick. Whatever you want to call it where the guard and the tackle pull strong. But you typically don't run it to a tight end and a wing.

Why is that? Because you really run out of people. But what they do, which is awesome, Kelsey arcs. He ends up taking the last guy. He's going to arc to this guy. We're going to leave him and him, Khalil Mack, in here for the pullers, and we get the tight end down through to 49. Let's watch this thing.

This thing is awesome. Really good scheme. Boom. There's the kick out. See you later. Get enough on Cleo Mack. Get the second puller. Look at that. You get a big hole. Good player. That's a good player. But this is what's awesome. You end up handling that support who would normally be the corner. He'd be left free. He'd be the free guy. But you end up handling him with the arc release with Kelsey.

Does a good job just getting on. Kelsey can't block, they say, right? Does a great job. Oh, I thought. That is interesting. That is a conversation right now about Kelsey not being able to block as good as Gronk. So although Kelsey will catch Gronk and pass Gronk in all the stats, and he'll go down as statistically the greatest of all time statistically,

you're saying he's not scared to put his body in the way as well. No, and you can always scheme things, right? You got him on a corner. Who cares? That's a great block. Keeps him wide, and then you get Pacheco up the middle. This is awesome. Brown.

Awesome stuff. Back down. Jeez. How about that deuce, huh? Yeah. Unbelievable deuce. deuce him and tunley i mean they take them and just bury look at this thing who's that deuce is the guard and tackle right yep guard tackle they handle this dude and then normally go up or this yeah so check out. Because of this extra tight end front side, we can put the tight end there. They deuce forever. Really, if you're really playing the way this is supposed to be done,

their deuce is technically supposed to go all the way to him. So they can stay on this fucking deuce block forever. Forever. Goddamn. You're picking up the backside safety. Yeah, and that's literally what their O-line coach is saying. Hey, fuck him. Don't even worry about that.

Just take him for a ride. Check will make him miss anyway. Hey, that was that high step I'm talking about. He's so explosive. He's going through tackles high stepping, and then on the other side, they were able to put the foot back in the ground. He's a guy.

All right, here we go. Back to this Chiefs game. There's one big bump this week. This might be the biggest one all year. All year! And I've been saying that every week because we've been seeing some good ones recently, right? We saw Cleveland from the Vikings a couple weeks ago.

Check out Trey Smith. This guy went in the sixth round because he had some medical history coming out of college, out of Tennessee. He was the best guard I thought in the draft. Guy plays like a dog. Check it out. Just wait. Now he's putting medical history in other people's hands. That's what he's doing, isn't he?

That's right. So, boom. Oh, we're going to check this first. We're going to check this. Okay, cool. Here we go. Big bump check. Big bump check.

Big bump. Big bump. Here we go. Okay, we're going to work inside. Let's be a good guard. Let's help my center for a second. Now, let's get our eyes back outside. Boom! Holy shit, AJ. Did you see this, AJ? Let's be a good guard. Let's help my center for a second. Now, let's get our eyes back outside.

Holy shit, AJ. Did you see this, AJ? First class ticket to Big Bump City. Is that illegal? That's 100% legal. Nah, it seems illegal. What do they say in basketball? They tell the point guards not to come in the paint. Isn't that what they tell the point guards?

Don't come in the paint? Hey, corners. Sorry, D-Bot. Hey, corners. Stay out of the trenches. Stay out of the trenches. Boom. Oh.

There's big bodies in there. There's people with bad intentions in there. Oh. And that's right where Mahomes stepped up. I think that's also lost in this conversation. That guy played another time. That's right where my home stepped up i think that's also lost in this conversation that guy played right where he stepped up he cleans it up and boom we're able to thank you sorry about a pal who just got body that's gonna happen in football and joining us now live from the great state of Wisconsin. Man who's the reigning, defending, undisputed MVP of the NFL.

Going back to back in the last two years. Owner and founder of the Aaron Rodgers Book Club, which has made the world much smarter and a better place. Aaron Rodgers. What's up, man? How you doing, pal? We got the whole crew's in there, huh? We got Darius is in there. It's packed house, man. It is.

It's packed out because, you know, we got a shorter week this week because Thanksgiving's on the horizon. And, you know, when you're playing in the league, you don't get to enjoy Thanksgiving as much as everybody else. Now that I'm retired and all the boys are retired, we're going to enjoy the hell out of this week. What do you got this week? What do you got cooking? Are we just all ball till Sunday? Is that all we're doing? Are we thinking about Thanksgiving at all, Aaron Rodgers? We love Thanksgiving. Definitely one of my favorite celebrated holidays. So yeah, I mean,

I'm not sure what the schedule is finalized, but you know, the NFL very rarely get holidays off. So I'm guessing we're probably working maybe a little earlier a day. And I'm not hosting this year, so I got a lot of freedom, man. That's great. Good for you. I hope you enjoy the hell out of your holiday. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, why aren't you hosting this year?

You didn't want to? What happened? What happened? We're after COVID and everything. Now is the year. COVID. COVID, yeah. Are you just looking out? Are you just looking out for everybody? Everybody's axed if they Now is the year. COVID. COVID. Are you just looking out?

Are you just looking out for everybody? Everybody's axed if they come to the house? Yeah, I got steamrolled, I think. There's never really been too many competing parties. Oh, no. But this year, the Crosbys, you know, those kickers, they rose up and said, not this year. This year is ours.

They rose up and said, not this year. This year is ours. And so I was assuming, you know, the Bakhtiars and the Cobbs, we'd kind of triple host this thing at my house, you know, gladly, like I've done in the past. But the Crosbys kind of jumped in there, bogarted all of our guest lists. Oh, no. So it's at the Crosby this year. All right. Well, i'm sure you're excited by me that's great that means i can uh french or irish exit depending on what

you uh what you prefer whenever i want well i am a rather irish person and i wouldn't mind just leaving without saying goodbye to people so i think it's a compliment uh for both parties there i think you're going to enjoy it more when you don't have to host you don't have to worry about any of the bullshit i'm excited to see what the crosby's put together they're going to be it's going to be a good gathering right i assume this is going to be a solid thanksgiving gathering for the green bay packers good spread we're expecting a good spread from the crosby's it better be because i'm gonna be in there judging the hell out of all of it. The decorations, the food presentation, the food options, the dessert options. I'm going to try really hard to get into my ayahuasca mindset

and not judge every little thing, but how can you not? I mean, the first and most important thing and most fun thing to judge is the turkey, right? Oh, yeah. Because it's literally, as anybody knows who's cooking turkey, it is the most nerve-wracking thing of all time to get that thing right because in general how many people actually go to thanksgiving to eat the turkey not many i would say most time it's the sides right it's some sort of i love the turkey i'm gonna eat the bread i'm gonna eat the drumstick okay because i'm a male and uh i worked hard for this turkey you eat the turkey dry do you put some gravy on it?

Never. I'm a dark meat guy on turkey for sure. The people that eat the dry meat, whatever that is, I guess the white meat. You put the gravy on there though. No. Come on, cuz. I don't need to play those games. Gravy is for the mashed potatoes because mashed potatoes have terrible taste

and they need a good flavor. So you put gravy on mashed potatoes. Personally, that's what I do. And give me the juicy meat as opposed to the ah-ah-ah meat. I don't know what the deal is. I don't know how anybody does it. But you're right. Cooking it is a lot of pressure because you've got what I just said happening.

You've got literally what I just said happening. You cooked the turkey in the past? And how long do you think the Crosbys have been banking on hosting it and you just keep doing it every year? And they're like, this motherfucker. We're going to gonna get this at some point we would like to do this has this been something brewing for a while you think it might have been yeah i mean they were they were sometimes uh attendees always invited always invited and you know they weren't 100 percent uh rsvpers you know so maybe that was part of it.

Maybe I should do the same to them. Say, yeah, I'm coming. I texted Mason earlier. I'm coming, and then maybe no show. Packers don't need that right now. Need to have a good Thanksgiving. Let's talk about that, though. Big game, Sunday night football, Philadelphia Eagles. Everything's still in front of you.

Mathematically, can still control your destiny. What do you think you take away from last Thursday? Maybe some time away from the facility, a second kind of mini bye week is what people call Thursday night football. What is your mindset and what did you learn this past weekend while watching the other games if you did as such? I didn't watch anything this weekend. Sweet.

So I can't tell you about that. I mean, I looked at the scores, but I didn't watch any of the games. I was following what Philly was doing in Indy. Indy gave them a good run at them, down 10 in the fourth quarter. So, I mean, the last couple games, obviously they won the first eight and looked real dominant, and then Washington put up a good fight to give them their first loss, and then obviously Indy gave them a good fight as well. So, you know, it's the NFL.

Anybody can beat anybody any week, and there's always upsets that the experts are picking other teams and end up not winning. So, you know, I don't think we go in thinking we've got no chance. I think we go in with the confidence and the urgency necessary for a team that's in our position that knows we've got to string some wins together back in this thing um you know it's prime time tonight football we've always uh put some pretty good performances uh forward on those and uh we're gonna be expecting the same when we go to philly hell yeah what do you think of darius slay out there at corner the

guy is playing at a very high level i'm sure you've seen him he played against him obviously many times what does he do you think that kind of separates him? He seems to be very, very smart and read route combinations. He seems to see what's coming. Well, there's never been a drop off with him. We've played him a number of times over the years. There's never been any year you feel great about, I'm going to go after 23. That just doesn't happen. He's one of the elite corners in the league. When you're playing defense that has good pass rush and you're going to have vision to the football the entire time, you're going to necessarily, more times than not,

you're going to have opportunities in football. And then when you combine that with excellent ball skills that Darius has, you're going to, you know, probably fall into some picks. And then, you know, when you have the ability to read routes like he does and get in and out of his break, you know, you're going to be obviously around the football a lot more. So I think in Detroit for a long time, without maybe the consistency over the years of that pass rush, and also playing in Detroit where they didn't win a lot of games,

he might not have got the recognition that he deserved. I mean, I think people that know football always considered him an elite corner, but now being on a really good football team, obviously what goes with that is the recognition that's often due for some of these guys who have been elite players for a long time but maybe not gotten the attention that they probably deserve. Let's stay on that defensive side of the ball. Signings of last week, Linval Joseph and Indomitian Sue,

both made an impact against the Indianapolis Colts. Joseph is one of the biggest fucking humans I've ever seen in my life. Whenever he lined up in a Jersey 74, I'm like, who is that? What, what, what is that? Who is that? And then, then Sue came in later. They signed on Thursday, playing on Sunday, not just playing, by the way, we're talking about really doing it.

We know you have a solid history is how we'll call it within dominican sioux how much have you looked into their defense how much have you looked into the preparation of sunday does that start on like friday or are you going about a normal week here how much do you know about the d and what are your thoughts on it other than just slay who is an incredible playmaker i learned plenty about the d and obviously watched the film they didn't just sign those two guys. They went out and got Robert Quinn before the deadline as well. Oh, yeah, yeah.

From Chicago. And then, you know, Fletch has been there forever and still is a great defender off the edge. But adding, you know, some size in the middle like that, definitely not going to hurt. Played against Lindvill a number of times over the years when he was in Minnesota. He's a space eater, man.

He just swallows up double teams and probably a linebacker's best friend, you know, when you've got a guy that wide who can also move. I mean, he has the agility that reminds me of Pat Williams back in the day, for guys that know who that is. You know, just such a huge body who could also, you know, very difficult to cut off when he's backside shade and just such a, you know, mountain of a man. He's just going to demand, you know, if you run at him,

you've got to double team him, and then he can swallow up those blocks a lot of times. So solid player. Obviously, Sue has been a great player for a long time in the league, and him and I have our own stuff, and I think a lot of that's water on the bridge. Of course. It goes to show with when

you bring in veteran players who are pros pros they're gonna be ready to play so you sign a guy on thursday play him on sunday that seems like such an amazing deal not really if you're a pros pro and and if those guys have been you know hoping to get signed throughout the season obviously they're working out obviously they're ready to go, you know, I think in a system like that, there's probably some plug and play that can happen. You know, it's the line. There's obviously techniques and different pressures and things that you want to bring.

But probably for veteran guys like that, stepping in was not that big of a deal. Yeah, it appeared everything you're saying is right. They looked very comfortable very quickly in that particular game against a good offensive line in the Indianapolis Colts. Allegedly, they look dominant. I can't wait to see you try to play against that defense because obviously the way you play football is fantastic. Is your thumb a problem? Is this a problem? Listen, hey, Aaron, hey, hey, you hear me? Aaron, you hear me? Yeah.

Okay, I've watched you play football a long time, dude. All right? The thing that I absolutely love about it is you have this natural ability, it seems like, to put a football wherever the fuck you want it. Like literally, I could put this football wherever I want this ball to go. It is why people have talked about you being the greatest football talent in the history of football because of the way you throw a football. Then after the game, I hear you say for the first time ever, threw a couple wobblers, threw a couple misses.

That ain't – I assume since the day you were born. I saw you throw a Bud Light 70 yards to a guy on a fucking jet ski. Boom, pinpoint accuracy. The wobblers and maybe throwing off a little bit, was it a mental thing? Is your thumb really messed up and is it just a night that you've never had before so maybe i'm overreacting and how do you think you bounce back after that whole thing well there was some wind as well i mean i wasn't talking necessarily about the throws i mean you know if you don't throw a perfect spiral

in the green bay wind you know there's going to be a couple wobblers. So, you know, the expectation of a perfect spiral is kind of what I've been known for and what I expect. And if there's anything less than that, then, you know, obviously there was something that they contributed to that. You know, my thumb is what it is, you know, it's been an issue since the Giants, but not an issue that I'm going to rely on for an excuse or need. I mean, after the Cowboys game, I put basically every ball exactly where I wanted to, and there wasn't any questions about how my thumb was. I missed, you know, missed two throws. I probably hit, you know, 99 out of 100, and people are wondering what's going on. Nothing's changed week to week. It wasn't like it got better one week and then got worse the other week. You know, it goes through things each week. It gets

hit various plays, and I mean, even the Dallas game, when I fumbled, I hit right on the thumb, got worse the other week. It goes through things each week. It gets hit. Various plays. Even the Dallas game, when I fumbled, I hit right on the thumb. That bothered me, but still was able to make some throws. I got hit a few times in the game. It just depends on a lot of other factors. It's not an excuse. I'm not going to use it as an excuse. It is what it is. I suit up

every week and expect to play well. They're saying it was broken or something like that. Are you going to end up using a glove? Will you ever end up having to go to a glove or is that something you would never ever do? No, I'm not a glove guy. Well, are you a broken thumb quarterback guy too? Have you ever had to do this before? Has this been something you've ever had to do before? I mean, I've broken other fingers in the past. I played a season of stretch in college with my index finger on my throwing hand broken. I broke my pinky on both hands at various times. Cracked a wrist non-throwing, which makes certain things painful, getting snaps or whatever.

But if I still feel I can go out there and throw it the way I want to throw it, then obviously I'm going to keep playing. Okay. All right, so I overreacted. That's good news. That's great to hear. That's great to know. Ty, your question for Aaron Rodgers.

Aaron, Pat mentioned how you guys still have everything in front of you, and I think a lot of us thought after the Cowboys win that was kind of the galvanizing thing that was going to push everyone forward. And then Tennessee, it is what it is. We have obviously another good opportunity with how good the Eagles are on Sunday. And I know it's a different team and different situation and everything but do you see any similarities with this team to the 2010 team where you guys won the super bowl and you kind of you know you had to win in week 17 to to get into the playoffs or do you not think of

things in that way i mean i wouldn't say the 2010 team that team. That's got such a special place in my heart, and that kind of always stays kind of in its own lane. The way that the team came together that year, it was just something that we, you know, in 18 years, you have maybe two or three times. And that was a really, really special group of guys and added some veterans at various points, like Howard Green and Matt Wilhelm that, you know, played some big roles for us.

Matt on teams and Howard, you know, had one of the biggest plays in the Super Bowl, hitting Ben's arm on a pick six and Nick Collins. But more than that, they were glue guys, you know, guys that came in and kept everything together and brought guys together in a special way. And that's why we were able to make that run. This team reminds me more of the, if you're going to make comparisons, it's more of the 16 team that was, you know, inconsistent the first 10 weeks, played a lot of up and down football.

And then things kind of came together in Philly on a Monday night. And we started a run and won, you know, eight in a row and got to the NFC Championship. And people remember that. They don't remember kind of the struggles that we had, getting blown out by Tennessee that year, losing, you know, at 4-5. We played in the Sunday night game against Washington and got, you know, got the offense rolling,

but we got beat by a couple scores. And then came back in Philly and kind of put it all together for a night, and then that kind of set us on our way. Then we had a snow game at home and beat Houston, and then we had a game against our rivals, the Seahawks, and got out to a fast lead and blew them out, and then we had three

division games to finish the season, and obviously ran the table there, so that would be more, I think, of the comparison at this point. Have you thought at all about what life looks like without football? Is that something that creeps in whenever you're not having as much success as maybe you've had in the past? Because the conversation on the Internet about you is,

how long is he going to keep playing for? Is he going to stop? Is he going to remain invested? Because, to be honest, we haven't had this type of struggle out of you or teams that you're on for some time so I think it's a valid question is that something you even let creep into your mind or is that that can't happen in the middle of the season for you well look I mean I'm a human of course you think about life after football and it's not you know it's not a like uh you turn it on at some points and turn it off I mean I think you always um know, when you have interests outside of the game,

there's always things that come up that you spend time doing, you know, in some of your free time that you're going to do more when you're done playing. So, of course, there's that thought. But when you're in it and you're creatures of habit, obviously the focus is on the season. The focus is on the preparation. And that doesn't change, but it doesn't also change that you can't have interest outside of the game that you take your mind to from time to time and I look forward to those things but those those are not the front of my mind those are those are near the back but

but to sit here and say oh no it's all ball all the time and blah blah blah bullshit like I mean I don't know that's not the way I am like like. There's life after football, and there's life outside of football, even during the season, that I think it's important to keep that balance. Yeah, you're gung-ho. You're all in. You're all about finding ways to tweak little things to improve and to be more efficient. But you're also a person.

You have a life. Yeah, it's been an awesome run. I mean, I'm really proud of what I've accomplished. I don't, you know, I'm not, like, looking forward to the end. And, you know, life after football is going to be a tough transition. That's for every player that finishes up. And I don't know when that's going to be. You know, I don't know if it's going to be after the season

or after three more seasons or whatnot. But there will be decisions that we'll have later down the road. Right now it's about this week, about this show, and about Sunday Night Football. And Crosby family Thanksgiving. That was a great answer, and I appreciate you giving it to us. Go ahead, AJ. Would you say after football, would you be more likely to become an NFL coach or work in the media, say like sign a 10-year, $500 million deal with a network like Tom Brady?

To call games, yeah. Is there another option? Politics. Yeah, politics. You'd be great at that. Hippie. Just be a hippie down there. GM.

Shaman. There it is. That's where it is. For a shaman. Yeah, maybe a Sherpa uh that's the no they're like a sherpa like you uh help uh you're like the guides for uh for mountain climbers they do all the work they do all the work for the mountain climbers all the work well they set it up you still gotta climb i mean i've heard i've heard terrible stories now the sherpas are

dogs they're doing a lot of different work, but I believe the climbers are as well. I don't know if that's something for me. Do you see in the future you staying in the football world or venturing out? Definitely not coaching, I can tell you that. I mean, I have no interest in being at the facility all day and guarding my desk. We had a full convo about this, about the Jeff Saturday hiring. Literally start to show.

45 minutes we did because AQ, he wasn't coached for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a year or whatever. After 12 years in the NFL, setting his family up, having a family in his mid-30s, he goes back to coaching. And it was just, hey, need you to drop cards. Go ahead and grab this coffee. Need you to fix the fucking printer need you to do all this he's an adult who has a very successful NFL career under his belt he's doing all that and it's like nobody wants to get into coaching because of it so the Jeff Saturday hiring could I think change the way that whole goes for former players if some former players

want to get back into it but nonetheless that's how all of us feel I think Aaron all of us fucking can't do that. No way. Yeah, and kudos to AQ because it sounds like he went in and did what most coaches do and started at the bottom, doing the tough work. The baby AQ. The baby AQ. He paid nothing for it too. Yeah, baby AQ.

I don't know that this is the future standard, having somebody who's kind of out of football, even as a consultant, step in and be a head coach. I'm not sure if there's going to be more and more people in that role, but that has zero interest for me. I mean, management side would be the only thing that would slightly pique an interest, but it's a very tiny, tiny interest. Darius, your question for Aaron Rodgers.

Hey, man, a young kid, Christian Watson. Obviously, he's turned it up these last couple weeks. You got Randall Cobb back out there, you know, some silver lining from last week. Where are you at with the receiver room going forward? Well, I love having Randall back. Obviously, he changes what we can do. And, you know, it's unfortunate we had to put him on IR.

But he stepped right in and allowed us some receiving. I'm not surprised. There might be some people that are surprised, but I see how hard he works. And he just has an innate feel for the game, being able to understand when to get open, what the timing is. And he makes plays every time he's out there. mean it just there's a precision with everything that he does and you just you can't put a value on that you know like a specific dollar value or leadership value or just that innate football IQ and then the

precision and the basis of the foundation of precision is details and that's what we've been lacking at times never with 18 and it just never been an issue for him he just everything is is planned and then he leaves room for reactions and catches the ball well with his hands obviously and he always finds a way to get open on time so love having him back with christian you know it's been been really fun um and it is craze in this business and you know db you played a long time and i'm sure you can relate to this sometimes and maybe for yourself too it just takes one play and one play just changes your whole mindset and direction of your career could be young career could be older career could be in young career. It could be an older career.

It could be in the middle. But for him, I feel like the over-the-shoulder touchdown catch that he had just took this huge anxiety monkey gorilla off of his back. And after that happened and in the back flip, he's been a different player. He really is. And it's not just in the games where you've seen, obviously, you know, he had two touchdowns and, and again, you know, making big plays for us, but in practice, I mean, I feel like there's been tweaks, tiny tweaks in the, in the practice habits. I would venture to say, honestly, I think a lot of it's subconscious. I don't think,

you know, even that it's all like a conscious thing where he's like, okay, now I made a play. Now I'm going to practice a little bit different. Now I'm going to do this a little bit different. I just think it's literally this anxiety gorilla that was on his back got taken off, and now he's just able to kind of take a deep breath and be a lot freer. Now there's still things that he's going to learn, releases and route running stuff that he'll continue

to get better at. But the confidence piece in catching the ball, that's been really, really fun. What did you say about him? You said, I haven't seen a lot of guys that look like him run around the field for Green Bay or something like that. At the beginning of the season, when I asked you about him or we asked you about him, you're like, you don't see a lot of humans like him around there. What do you think his, you know, his ceiling is? You think he can go on to be, especially now with this reborn, uh, swagger

and confidence that he's found, do you think? Well, you know, I don't really want to get into that. I feel like that's, that's been some of the anxiety that led to some of the struggles is, you know, we wanted to, um, anoint, you know, both him and Romeo who struggles is, you know, we wanted to, um, anoint, you know, both him and Romeo who had nice, you know, training camps and preseasons, especially Rome's cause Christian was hurt for a lot of it. We wanted to kind of anoint them already. These like rookies who are going to be, you know,

whatever the prognostication was. I don't want to do that to him. You know, I really don't. I think the anxiety he's dealt with already is a lot for any player and the fact that he's gotten in there silas and had two nice games and five touchdowns in two weeks you know i just want to let him be be a young kid i want to let him enjoy uh this you know kind of entry into uh feeling the the stardom that goes along with playing well and not start to say, oh, you know, this is his ceiling now, you know, now, because then we, oh, then we got to expect him to be what, you know,

we got to expect him to be Julio Jones now as a young player, expect him to be Calvin Johnson. No, let's just let him be him and, and let him enjoy this this run that he's, he's put together the last two weeks and, and let him come along at whatever pace is right for his story. Okay, sweet. He could be great, though.

We're saying, yeah, the guy could be fucking great, though. I like that. I like to hear that. That sounds like that's the case. AQ, your question for Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, Aaron, I always study the hell out of the run game, and I have most of the time over your career, and I always thought you guys were one of the better sub run game if not best sub run game teams in the league over

your time I saw a sequence at the beginning of the third quarter you had both backs in the backfield and you kind of had like a whole little sequence of package plays where you faked one ran the toss out of it another one you hand it off another one you run the play action I feel like that's a big key to moving forward having both those backs on the field is that something you have a big uh hand in or is that you know coach coach lafleur well stenevich actually the the uh offense coordinator for us uh who is line coach uh for a few years before getting elevated does allow the run game i believe um and i love the little intricacies that we've we've kind of put into it i thought last week we had a couple really cool things you know we've been doing so much motion out of that the back one of the backs to the two receiver side and then running in inside

or outside zone with some sort of run you knowO. And then this last week we started off and ran Dylan behind and then flipped it same side to Jones, which I thought was a really nice adjustment for us. And we also ran a little pseudo option, even though they didn't really give me the green light to, you know, kind of pull that and get down the field before a pitch. But I thought that was a good wrinkle as well. But I like the wrinkles we've done in our 21 personnel

with both those backs in the field. And, you know, we've got to get our best guys in the field, and they consistently show up as being playmakers for us. 33 obviously is a crazy difference maker who can take it to the house every run. And 28 has been very consistent for us as well. So, you know, we're going to always have wrinkles like that. I'm not sure how much this week, but there's always stuff in the plan.

Whether or not we get to it is another story. If you were able to get to an offensive coordinator position in which you didn't have to guard your desk and you could just show up on Sunday, how much of the run game would you have involved in your game plan? Well, I know the run game inside and out. I mean, that's how I was trained, was front first. Yeah, don't you read the D-line first, right? You read the D-line first.

That's your first read, right? Yeah, front first. When we were at our best in the run game, Mike simplified it, and we went to a lot of Alex Van Pelt, old Buffalo Bills K-gun offense stuff where it was strictly based on technique. So we had certain runs to a six technique, certain runs to a nine technique, strong side, certain runs to a shade or a three technique and specific runs for jam fronts.

And it was all predicated, all the adjustments on that front, which was great for me because that's how West Coast quarterbacks were trained is front back. You know, the front tells you the possibilities of the pressures and the possibilities of the coverages. And so, you know, I know the run game, and I know all the calls of the run, so I can help out if they need me to make an adjustment like that. This hasn't kind of been the way in this offense.

This offense is very kind of turn-your-brain-off quarterback and just like kind of kunu teaching surfing lessons, like do less sometimes. But for me, I just can't play that way. So I've always wanted to know, like give me all the calls. What's the single call, the double call, the triple call, the backside, you know, doubles, the backside, B blocks, all those different things. I want to know all the calls so I can, in a jam, get those guys, making sure they're going to the right guy and do some of the cheater steps in the system.

So run game for me has always been, I really enjoy it because it's about angles and I was pretty good in geometry. Oh, yeah. It sounds like you're pretty good at the football as well, the way you broke that down. And I saw AQ over there going six to midnight listening to you describe the K gun back there

in Buffalo or whatever. It's a fascinating thing because this year in the NFL, the run game is actually up across the board as opposed to the past game. Even the rules are changing for the past game to be better. It seems like the teams that run the ball the best right now are the teams that are going to end up making it with the way the offense is going in 2022. It's been sophisticated. I mean, look, I did kind of say that though, right?

Because this game goes in circles right and the defense the defense will uh will definitely lead in in the direction that offenses will react right so when the defense goes to more quarter quarter half coverage shell coverages to shell you got to run the football so i'm not surprised at all and and that's the way the league has gone as the the Rams obviously had a bunch of success running those defenses that are predicated on umbrella on the back end and stopping the run and getting to the quarterback with four up front and not bringing a lot of pressure makes teams have to run the football.

Then you're also seeing some dynamic offenses, obviously, with quarterback runs like the team we're playing this week get involved in obviously what Chicago's doing down there with Fields. And, you know, no brainer with Lamar in Baltimore for so long. That's, you know, going to be the next jump for the offense. And the defense will have to adjust. And you'll probably see more one-high coverages, you know, in the next, you know, three, four, five years. Wait until you see Jason Kelsey and Jalen Hurts do the sneak. I got to watch it live a lot this week against the Colts

because we're on the field down there. Jason Kelsey looks like he's hovering above the ground somehow, and it's never a doubt. Like, and Jalen, obviously, he squats like 600 and whatever. It is – they could do that I think every single play and it was unbelievable watching it against us it was like holy hell how do they go about doing that Jalen is awesome I'm excited for the game to continue to evolve and grow the cyclical nature of everything it appears is going to catch up to

football soon with the offense side of the ball Connor has the last question for you then we're going to go to the book club can't wait to see what you're going to tell us to read this week. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Aaron, on Watson's first touchdown, you kind of caught Tennessee trying to get guys off the field, and it was a 12-man on the field penalty when you threw the touchdown. Then later on in the game, you know, one of the guys on the defense might have faked an injury and Vrabel came out and you guys had a little interaction. What was that about?

Did you guys get to, like to smoke a cigarette after the game together and kind of let bygones be bygones? I didn't get a chance to have any darts with him after the game. But he came out very concerned for his player. And I just kind of wanted to hear what the conversation was over there i had a couple a couple comments for for mike uh he didn't really say anything back um but uh hold on now hold on now hold on hey hey aaron aaron they're showing two close-up photos here on the back and we have to hear what was said vrabel obviously go to the other one please

vrabel obviously walking out of there you just asked him a question he said something to you then a zoom in on your face after the answer he gives you you did not believe the answer yeah you did not believe whatever Vrabel said there if we're just going off of body language and photos there was it a sentence back and forth was there any real convo on the field or is that just that he blew you off that's why you gave him the look that he gave you he kind of blew me off wow whoa i'm saying i wouldn't have done the same thing based on what i said to him whoa oh i was trying to i was trying to go to him to give me a reaction which he you know he stayed above it but uh well yeah i you know said some about him uh personally and he didn't want to respond could you imagine vrabel thursday night football fucking taking a

right hand and punching you right in the face just in the ohio the ohio-ness of him couldn't take over you question probably his manhood if i had to guess here with the way you're kind of laying out this whole situation. He walks by. What? We got a bowling ball. Four to five here. Okay, we got the hat up there. You guys are favored by whatever. He's just Ohio. Fuck, walk about. You say something and he actually just turns and punches

you right in the face. That would be the greatest moment in the history of sports. Oh, man. You and Frank's good friends, right? I agree. I happen to agree. Yeah, I like Mike a lot.

We talk a good amount during the season. I mean, not really about football at all. Just about often how silly this business is and some of the just things that get attention. But I like Mike a lot. I've known him for years. Age has been there with some of the conversations at the Derby over the years he's a really funny guy and uh i just like his personality and the way he is and obviously he's a great coach he's just uh he always has his guys ready to play they fly around on defense and kind of take on his personality i think yeah he's

incredible coach we're putting him up in that level of um when we talk about games we're trying to make picks we're like uh belichick're trying to make picks, we're like, Belichick's going to do something, though. We just assume that Belichick, no matter what the game is set up, Belichick's going to have it figured out. We talk about it with Andy Reid a little bit because of the years and years and years of success that he's had. Now, it's starting to get to the point where it's like,

Vrabel has one of those things. He's awesome to watch. Former player, kicking ass in the coaching ring. Let's continue to do that. Let's continue to do that let's continue now ladies and gentlemen it is time for the most anticipated moment of the week for all the literacy advocates out there because it is something that this show should never be a part of making the world smarter and brighter more horizons broadened this show has been part of a ride that this man started

that we are lucky to be a part of I now own so many books when maybe in the past I owned zero ladies and gentlemen it is time for the latest installment of the Aaron Rodgers Book Club 2.0 this season was fantastic it started with the mastery of love say hey listen

why don't you guys go master love a little bit get a doctrine in love and maybe love yourself a little bit then obviously George Orwell's 1984 that caused quite a topic of conversation for the time in which it was put out there the art of contemplation why don't we contemplate some stuff in an artful fashion

and then how to change your mind which is a documentary on Netflix then followed by healing and then the Boy and the Mushroom. Yep, and the Cross. And the Cross, yeah. The Boy and the Sacred Mushroom and the Cross by Don M. Allegro. And then 7A was Love Wins by Rob Bell. 7B was the beautiful coloring book of Keanu Reeves in which I colored in every belt that he was wearing black

because we know Keanu Reeves only wears black colored in every belt that he was wearing black because we know Keanu Reeves only wears black belts in every martial art. Hell yeah. The eighth book of the Aaron Rodgers Book Club 2.0 will be An Oldie But A Goodie, Into The Wild by John Cracker. Hell yeah!

Hell yeah! Hell yeah! I just came from the brawl of the wild, bro. What? No, we're going of the wild, bro. Why? No, we're going into the wild. Pat, you can watch the movie on this one. Okay. Yeah, you can watch the movie.

The book is, I mean, I used to hate when people would say, oh, the book's way better, way better. Me too. Shut up. But in this case, as good as the movie is, and it's really good, I mean, John is, you know, arguably my favorite favorite author i've talked about his book about pat tillman where men win glory back in season one of the book club probably my all-time favorite book into the wild um is a fantastic book about a young kid who goes off into the alaskan wilderness and and kind of a hippie and uhs up having a rough ending.

He's dead. Dude! What did I read the book for? It was like 20 years ago, guys. Let me take a look. Oh, enough time for a book, dude? That needs to be a 30 to 40 year type situation for spoilers. Okay, 40 to 50. Thank you for that.

I can't wait to dive in. The book is better than a movie, dude. The movie's pretty good, though. Who's in a movie? The movie's pretty good. Emile Hirsch. Who? Emile Hirsch.

He's great. So good. Yeah, Eddie Vedder does the soundtrack. So good. Emile Hirsch from Girl Next Door fame. Hell yeah. Oh! I know who that is.

Vince Vaughn's in it a little bit, too. Yeah. Vinny? Vinny? Is this after Rudy? Is this near Rudy, Vince Vaughn, or Friday Night Disco Nights? Yeah. What?

It's around the late Disco Nights. What? When is... More like Breakup, Vince Vaughn. When was the... Oh, Into the Wilds recent? Yeah, I think this came out in 2006, 2007. Yeah.

Really? Yeah. How about it? All right. I can't wait to watch. Read. Because the book's better. I'm going to read the hell out of this one. Aaron, can't wait to watch.

You can read the book, Pat. It's only a quick one. Too many. Yeah, it's quick. It's only like 200 pages. So the movie has to be better then. If the movie's an hour and a half. It's an hour and a half.

It's an hour and a half. And the book's only 200 pages. How much more detail could the book go? I understand he's a great author. I understand. I'm going to read this one, though. This one I'm going to read. Hell yeah. Get the spark notes. Get Connor to give you the spark notes.

It'll be good. Hey, read the book, though. No one wants the movie. Don't be fucking cheating the book club, pal. Never. No, it's an unbelievable book. Avatar got a book? Avatar's coming out. It should be. Are we excited? Are we excited about Avatar coming out?

The answer is yes. The answer is yes, Aaron. Did you see the trailer last night? Obviously not. You didn't watch the game. It was a halftime Monday Night Football.

They threw to it. And Jacob Soley and the tribe are going underwater. And they got to learn how to fly new birds. Boom. And then inevitably

it appears, and I won't be the bearer new new birds okay and then inevitably it's it appears and i won't be the bearer of bad news and i don't think we would do this in real life although probably seems like some asshole americans come back probably and then the underwater uh avatars and the bird avatars gonna have to come together fight against the dumb whites that have come in there and i can't wait for it i cannot wait for what james cameron put together you pumped for it as well i am i'm very pumped for it i can't believe we've had to wait 15 years for it but i'm excited movie's gonna be only four hours long james cameron say you don't like it tough it's the fucking story okay watch it in eight different half hour docuseries is that what you need to do i guess it's a a long one. It's going to be deep detail.

It's underwater, and I can't wait to see what Sully does with the team. Me too. I can't wait to see what Sully... It's been so many years. They probably have a kid to Avatar now. He's a teenager. Oh, yeah. Oh, thank you. I've seen you in the water. You're a big water guy. You're a big water guy. I was

confused when I saw you in Tahoe. I hadn't seen this in a while, but you go into the water with your shirt on. Yeah, that doesn't happen. There's no reason to do that right now. There's no reason to do that. I appreciate you. I froze my dick off, okay, in that lake. We all saw it.

Then I go into that hot tub. We all saw it. Interesting way to wake up. Ryan Hawk, host of the Learning from the Leadership podcast, who has 500 episodes smacking the shit out of Tahoe. That's the audio that wakes me up. Then there's conversation happening at the hot tub. Can't get in the hot tub, though, if you don't get into Lake Tahoe.

Got to go to Lake Tahoe. So cold. So cold. So cold. And it was beautiful out there. Fantastic morning. And don't put that on me. Okay?

Don't put that on me. I've experienced cold just like everybody else. My nips are out just. Fantastic morning. And don't put that on me. Okay? Don't put that on me. I experienced a cold just like everybody else. My nips were out just like everybody else. Aaron. That's debatable. But we'll let you have your moment. I thought it was a good time, dude. What a fucking weekend that was.

That was unbelievable. That was a good time. It was wild. Maybe we'll run it back. Let's see. Maybe. I think I'll be in Hungary getting tattoos or something. All right.

I'll talk to you later. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers. Yeah! Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for another episode of Everything DB. Let's get to it, man. Let's get to it. Let's fly through it, too. So right here, we've been talking about this a lot this season.

Number one, number two, count from the outside in. Now, what's going to happen here is it's going to be a pre-snap motion. It's going to be a play at your pass. Something that Tennessee did a great job of. Ryan Tannehill did a great job throwing the ball on Thursday night. Had the one pick from Douglas, I believe. It was just a great play on his behalf. But Tannehill, outside of that throw, had a great night throwing the ball.

But this is something pre-snap that you see a lot. Robert Woods is going to motion down to create this stack. And like I said, we count from the outside in one and two. But once we get this stack, and this looks like cover three, so he's the seam flat player, so he's responsible to cover the number two receiver down the field. But once Robert Woods motions down to this stack, it gets a little gray. It gets a little hairy on who is the number two receiver down the field but once Robert Woods motioned down to this stat it gets a little gray it gets a little hairy on who is the number two receiver so run right back real quick you'll see the signal to um the outside corner this is basically we

used to call this guy we literally had the same signal when he comes down hey sky sky typically when you come down that means I'm going to have this off the ball receiver or whoever becomes number two but the way Robert Woods especially runs this route he's going to have this off the ball receiver or whoever becomes number two. But the way Robert Woods especially runs this route, he's going to stay in almost like a choo-choo train. Pause. So now number two is never you never know who number two is. He never declares himself until he gets into this route. So now both of these guys are looking at the same guy. And I think, you know, in hindsight, they did the right thing. They take the biggest threat, the deepest guy, right? And they let it run.

Boom. So once Paul, so now once he breaks out, you got two guys on this guy, nobody on Robert Woods. The play action obviously sucks 51 up a little bit, so he's not getting any depth in that flat. So then Robert Woods is going to be wide open. Now, obviously, this starts with the play action game to Derrick Henry in the backfield.

But what they did pre-snap threw off that whole coverage now it should have been easy to down safety I believe we used to have a rule where hey if they don't declare one and two I'll just take the off the ball guy and make him number two but this is what happens here running back again so but what he should do what should happen here is once Robert Wood becomes this off-the-ball stack guy, that becomes your guy. In the corner, you're deeper. You take the guy that's on the ball, and then we got clean matches here. But that doesn't happen, and that's how you get this wide-open receiver. But this is savvy route running, too, because he knows these coverage rules as well.

So great job here by Tennessee and Ryan Tannehill. Obviously, this is an easy throw here. He made some throws and some tighter windows in this game. This is a big play. You got to make it tighter. This happened about 15 times during the game, D-Butt. But do these guys fucking practice during the week? Do they watch film?

Like, this shit happens every single fucking week. Why? Ty, that's the thing. We keep talking about communication. Like, they don't ever communicate. Guys, they're free runners. Guys running wide open. Seriously, Tannehillill this happened i'm

not we saw him communicate here ty we saw him give him the sky well what are they talking about the wrong shit then this happened like 15 to 20 times i will put it on this guy that was the position that i was in a lot been uh a slot corner and he's locked in on 16 all at once isn't he and he shouldn't be what what and gave the signal. So it is confusing. I understand Ty's frustration. And probably the same frustration that the DB coaches have because he obviously saw Robert Woods motioning down. And if you look at these guys, who's the bigger,

if you just saw this stat before the ball was ever snapped, who would you expect to run the lower route, the more shallow route out of these two receivers? It'll be Robert Woods. You know, you got Traylon Burks, the speedy rookie receiver. He's on the point. You expect that guy to be the deeper route runner. You expect him to be the lower guy. So this is

a big, we would call this an M.E. basically on a 2-6. A lot of those things here. So I've communicated, but you got to execute it. Is there any thinking like when they are stacked like that and you are, like, is there, like, to disrupt them because they are so close to each other? Somebody get up on their hands. I mean, the only, so if he just ran this route, that same route from out here, then maybe it'll be easier for them to know, okay, I got this guy, I got this guy.

okay, I got this guy, I got this guy. But since he runs this route in like what we used to call the 2-2 train, that makes it – it doesn't make it tougher, but once again, just treat this guy like number two. What about a jam? You could, but no, I mean, there's no real reason to at this point. Even though those are like the only two routes in the entire field there you know is there any point to maybe just drop off or do something different it's it literally running back it's as simple as

him coming back coming down identifying to like hey i got and he gave the signal he did everything pre-snap if they never snapped his ball i said okay this is how they're going to match this route so i don't know why outside of that choo-choo release but once again just treat this off guy this is the same as if if we did if they were in man coverage and they did like an in and out like a combo coverage all right you take the inside guy i take the outside guy once they become vertical no one declares inside or outside as the inside defender we're taught to take the inside guy and treat it like a or the off the ball guy and treat it like an off-the-ball guy and treat that like the inside breaker.

But, I mean, it's not complex, especially going into Week 12. Like you said, this is something. This is day one type stuff. You see great tackling after he caught it as well. Bad tackling. The positive, though, is that if he threw it to Traylon Burks, I mean, they got three guys on him. There was five guys, actually.

They did. They did her on the side of taking a deeper receiver. This is a game-winner right here. Overtime, Devontae Adams. Now, you'll see the route. The route is beautiful, but I think the play design is great as well because right now, good pause right here, he's running this under route right here. What happens a lot, this route concept is what's the drive route.

He goes under under and nine times out of ten this top receiver will run a dig route right behind him he's away so this is uh go back a little bit this is the coverage is uh this is a fire zone so you got five guys one two three four five and it'll be three under three deep right one two three underneath one two three deep you you're gonna he's gonna be on uh davante adams obviously because he's gonna become the number one receiver once 10 dives under so let it run a little bit so now 10 dives over now he becomes the top receiver right so now he should be outside leverage on davante and even if he runs that crossing route you got this overhang player

this is the seam fat seam flat player up here he's playing everything top down right so if he comes up i'll just come up and tackle that if davante runs this crosser i'll be here to have it now you got to keep this outside leverage he thinking his mind i know this route concept i know where he's going davante straightens him up and it's absolutely no you'll see it from the back copy i mean oh great route anybody can make this throw Devontae you know you heard him after the game hey he's young he's not ready yet blah blah blah Patrick Sertain felt like he saw something once again drive route you've seen he's been seeing this route since college great route design great time to have this in your back pocket we saw that hole that you had earlier with uh against you know Eagles I don't know if you've seen a receiver more wide open than this

wow all season especially to being davante adams so like great route i mean that lets you know that he was going to a spot he's like hey i'm outside leverage but i'm going to jump this route in overtime make a game saving game winning interception so great play design but i mean that is yeah so this is supposed to be all this is supposed to be, all this is supposed to be, boom, bang, right behind it, and then that guy's clear out basically, right? Yep, yep. And that's just how most offenses are? Like most offenses normally have one half of the field kind of cut off,

especially if the quarterback's rolling? Well, a lot of offense, a lot of pass concepts, they'll have, we used to call it like window wipers, windshield wipers as offense. So you'll have like a bunch of your routes will be flowing the same either that way or this way so if you got outbreakers here you got to take off you got a flat and then you got a dig coming to the back side because you don't want you know I'm looking at the out here and then I go back this side and I'm throwing it out there you know it's just that's tough on the quarterback so they'll either start their reads from here and go there or they'll

start front side and then once everything covered that backside receiver will be coming into that window on his own but as a defender we always talk about aj always talks about a leverage you got to keep that outside leverage because any any help that you may possibly have is out is over here and i think he does a good job playing this from top down because if davante does run over there he's in great position. So his eyes right here, if you see it from the back copy, his eyes aren't even on Devontae. So that becomes man-to-man coverage once he gets vertical, but that's tough right there.

Oh, that one's back to the wrong one. Is it on here? Yeah, it should be. But also now, though, if they get in the same look and you're playing them in the future like now davante if he does run it like they know like you you thought like certain thought he was gonna run he keeps going over like now you're if you're a corner out there aren't you a little bit in between now like okay i saw this i remember the game winner i don't get caught here yep you just gotta that's god damn that's that's that's tough you gotta have good eyes you gotta

obviously see and anticipate things. That's the only way you really make plays as a corner is anticipating and jumping things. But at the same time, you've got to have good eye discipline here. And this is a concept that they probably ran earlier in this game. They for sure ran it earlier in the season. But, hey, he's dropping his nuts at this point and saying, I'm going to make a play. And right here he knows I've got it right where I want it. Oh, Devontae's so happy right there.

Oh, yeah, he knows right now. I bet Derek missed him here. Oh, no. He would have been crying. Yeah. But Devontae goes. Good throw. Good throw, good catch.

Great play design. Hey, the important thing, too, D-Butt, too, is, like, no matter what position on the field, is always know where your help is, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like O thing too, D-Butt, no matter what position on the field, always know where your help is, right? Oh yeah, absolutely. O-line, same thing. If I got guard help,

I know I can under-settle it or whatever it is. Same shit here. Obviously a great young player, so he's thinking I want to go make a play.

I want to go make a play on Devontae Adams. This is a scar that's going to carry him. This is a scar. You learn from this. But right now, I guarantee you

his eyes are back here and not on this because if he's here he'll be at a pivot and maybe he still creates some separation but he'll have some type of um chance to catch him in the air make a play even grab him maybe hold him but with his eyes being back here that like man that's tough and that's for the gusto this is a walk-off game winner in overtime so this is one of those times as an offensive coordinator he probably had this play in his back pocket and saved it for the perfect time. He's so nice to everybody.

All right, everybody. All right, let's play right here. This is third and 14. This is a defense that plays a lot of split coverage. So right here, you see Harrison Smith and Pat Peet talking right now. This is half coverage up here a lot of split coverage. So right here you see Harrison Smith and Pat P talking right now. This is half coverage up here. So cover two up here and down here is quarters. But if you look at the matchups across the board, you're going to say, all right, I'm good with Pat P just locking him backside on this tight end. And since I have C.D. Lamb potentially lined up on my Mike linebacker who in quarters he if he goes vertical he's

responsible he's got to run all the way down the field with cd lamb right so harrison smith is like i'm going to help my safety out pat p you're good backside but the other matchup backside is tony pollard on this linebacker so dac sees what's going dac right now he sees the communication he's in his you know his pre-snap cadence he sees what's going on and he knows what this is a this is a common adjustment with speed at three and split safety coverage because everyone knows we talk about all the time one two three that might that linebacker is going to be matched up relating to three a lot of times so Dak you'll see the adjustment he made and it looks like he I don't even know if this was alert it looks like he changes the complete play with the amount of communication he has here.

So he sees what's going on. All right, boom. You just let it run. It's going to be a lot of. Yeah, hold on. Is he thinking here? Hold on. Let me, what is this?

This may all I remember when this happened. Oh, yeah, we got a fucking wheel. Yeah, he knows that. Boom. He's alerting that. But that's probably a lot of bullshit up top. And he's telling them, hey, clear out. And I want to get this ISO on Tony Pollard.

Now, Tony Pollard played a lot of receiver in college. And he is a weapon. We saw him on in the trenches running. But this is him. This is third and 14, too. So, once again, Pat Pease locked up here. You got cover two up here. He's gone.

See you. Boom. What a ball. Out of there. 68-yard tug. See you. Boom. What a ball. Out of there. 68-yard tug. Good protection. So he knows that the will is matched up on the running back in this particular coverage. And Tony Pollard is explosive very fast.

Absolutely. So he tells old Cousy down here, who's this wide receiver down here? Do we know? Is that Schultz? This is Donald Schultz, right? This is the tight end. And that's why, you know, Harrison Smith was like, hey, we're going to lock you backside. I'm going to help my linebacker up here.

And C.D. Lamb ends up running like an out and up, and he goes and hauls ass to help his linebacker. But, I mean, it's no good. You honestly believe that he's telling Dalton here, hey, just clear out. Need you to just clear out. Is that the type of check that they could potentially go to? If Dak has that type of control, we think, that's awesome if that's the case. I mean, I don't think so.

I mean, the only thing, because if I feel like this play was called in the huddle, it would just be alert, alert, and AQ could probably talk to this more. But they have two plays called in the huddle. He'll just come up and say, hey, alert, alert, let's get to our second play. Maybe they have a single high concept and a split safety concept, and he'd get to the split safety concept. But since there was so much communication, and to be able to do this too, you've got to get out of the huddle and get set if you get out of the huddle with you know 12 seconds

left on the play clock you can't do this so it got out got set and then Dak had time to get into this perfect play call so he gets Patrick Peterson out of there boom you run your route you're breaking inside and now we know you are on an island and that's not where you want to be perfect ball obviously explosive player but that's good pre-snap. That's good quarterback play right there. Hey, that's great quarterback play there, huh, AQ? That's awesome. Yeah, that's good stuff.

And just like DB said, I mean, you do. You have one high, two high checks. You have two high, one high checks. I mean, depending on whether you want to go run to pass, pass to run, you have man beaters versus zone beaters. So, like, there's a million different things that they give the quarterbacks freedom to do. That's a lot of talking.

Yeah. Keep running that. Let me see Pollard's alignment from what he initially had. He can keep running that. He got wider here outside the tackle. A little bit wider. He knows. I mean, Hicks probably knows there's a good chance of it.

But third and 14, you can say, oh, Hicks, why didn't he back up and play the sticks? Well, if you look from the wide view, when Pollard squares him up, there's nobody anywhere around. So if he turns around and catches a little out, you've got to make an open field tackle on Pollard. And you've got to hold – you know, you can't let him get five more yards. Good luck.

This is big brain football for him. If you run it back to the wide, like everyone on the field right now knows what this matchup is. Everyone on the field right now knows what this matchup is. Everyone on the field right now, offensively, defensively knows, okay, this has got to be the matchup. Because now Harrison Smith does do a lot of disguising, so potentially it could be a half down here. But I think they got a pretty good beat on it.

They run a lot of split coverage. Sometimes it's quarters up there and it's half here. But they're going up here. And we know this is the bad matchup, right? This is the worst matchup. Kendricks on CeeDee Lamb. That would be the worst matchup, especially on third and 14. If he runs that right here, middle of the field, you'd be like,

why the hell do you have a linebacker on CeeDee Lamb? So I would much rather take my chances on a Will linebacker on Tony Pollard. But, I mean, hey. Kendricks did a hell of a job on CeeDee. Kendricks locked in. Perfect ball. Yeah, Kendricks, you know, smart player. He Kendrick's a smart player he knows it's 3rd and 14 so I'm not going to bite on a 7 yard out route

I'll play it high he was in great shape he could have hit Noah Brown coming up after that pivot route they're all going out this way too everything's going out that way he goes out and up he goes out and back in but Dak knows where he's going out this way, too. I mean, everything's going out that way. He's going that way. He goes out and up. He goes out and back in.

But Dak knows where he's going with this ball. He uses his eyes a little bit to just make sure Harrison Smith respects him. So, like I said, great, great. This is great quarterback play from pre-snap to post-snap. And there's literally nothing that fucking guy down there can do. He was in, I mean, I guess the best position he could be in. That's a great ball, and that's an explosive wide receiver. Say that, Odell, man.

That and Cowboys offense. They're going to, right? That's what they're saying. That's what it feels like. That will be a scary addition. This is a great play out of the post from Jordan Poirier. He got back out there. You know when Poirier plays, the Bills win.

But play action. So right now, we're going to be in cover three. So we know in cover three, somebody's got to be responsible for number two, carrying him. We're going to get a hard play action fake. If this or this guy's responsible for carrying him, both of them bite up on a run fake. This backside corner. They get sucked up.

They get sucked up on a run fake. They're getting sucked up. This backside corner. Not on the field. Oh, man. He's getting sucked up. The backside corner. Not on the field. Oh, we get it, AJ. Mickey Mantle. Real funny. Hell, yeah.

Mickey Mantle. Oh, man. You see the eyes back here because these are his receiving threat, right? And that interception that happened in Green Bay's game, this is the play that he made. He made the play. He had to run fake, and then Douglas got back and basically picked that right off but it came from the other side of the field but here everything is perfect

it it worked out exactly how the Browns dialed it up pause run it back real quick because I want to show you where Poirier comes from to make this play like look at this I don't know if you have the yard thing but we can see that this is at least 15 yards, and he's running away as well. So he's going to come from here and make this play on David Njoku, which is, I mean. Yeah, we saw this live. This is an incredible play out of the post. Great play design by the Browns, but just watch this. This is why he's one of the, boom, separated from the ball, clean hit, shoulders, no head, all that bullshit. Great play.

Obviously, you know, bad eyes from that front side, third defender. But great play from the post. It's like 30 yards. It's what you call getting off that hash. And then you separate him for the ball. No, thank you. Great play by Jordan. Did you hear him say that?

Sideline juiced up. Watch it from the middle. Poirier's a guy, huh? He's a dog. His contract's up. He's a free agent after this year? Yeah. He's not a pro bowler, though.

All pro, right? All pro, no pro bowler? Yeah. How many picks this year? Four or five? Four or five. Close to have 12. Doesn't have 12.

Shit. Nope. No. That's an unbelievable play, though. That's a bell. That's what you do. Alien grown out of his elbow, too. What's that? Bionic arm. You seen his an unbelievable play, though. That's a bell. That's what you do. Alien grown out of his elbow, too. What's that?

Bionic arm. Have you seen his elbow? Oh, yeah. It's all fucked up. What is it? What is it? I don't know. I don't know.

It looks like his bone is just sticking out the backside of his bicep. So what do you have? He had a lung, right? Did he have something with his lung? With the broken ribs or something? Yeah. Because he had to drive. Now he's got what?

Sounds like... Looks like he's throwing another elbow on top of his elbow. So is that a bruise or is that an infection? No clue. It's like that. It almost looks like a sack of fluid, like a bursitis sack or something. Need to get that drained like a semi-pro. Derek Carr was crying about it the other day, man.

A lot of shit. A lot of shit. What is he putting his gas going through? Just a practice. They won the next week. A lot of shit. A lot of shit. These guys go through just a practice. They need to play. They won the next week. Yeah, they did. They did. They won the next week.

They did. As Robert Matheson said. AQ, your thoughts on Derek Carr? Ain't no pity party. As a quarterback? Well, as press coach. Post game last week. He was dying and doing that whole thing?

Yeah. It was awesome, right? Doing that whole thing. What? What's your problem? Song and dance was awesome, right? Doing that whole thing. What? Hey, what's your problem? Song and dance? It's not a gimmick, bro. Gambling-wise, we've got to take note, too.

Cry games are a thing. The next one. If your starting quarterback is crying on the phone. After a cry, you win the next one. Well, the Broncos would have just scored, you know, 17 points. We've got any more sample size? Yeah, Terrell Owens, my quarterback. Did they win that?

Did they win that? Sure. Stat that. Stat that. You're right, though. If the Broncos quarterback. Did they win it? Sure. Stat that. Stat that. You're right, though. If the Broncos score 18. Yeah. 9-1.

9-1. Shit. A lot of money on the offensive side. Nathaniel Hackett hands the offense off to somebody else. They stink at it. Hands off the game situational awareness level. They stink at that. What does he do?

Just like stand in there with his hands in his pockets the whole game? Is that all he does? Nathaniel Hackett goes from being beloved by everybody in Green Bay to this dipshit? This guy's a fucking moron. He did not look like he was having a good time on Sunday. There's no way, Dave. We're talking common denominator with all those guys calling plays. There's only one.

It's the guy throwing the ball. Who? Russ Wilson. Oh, jeez. Just saying. He had his best game of the year. That's right. And they scored 16 points. Well, he had a red zone fumble, too, by

Melvin. He's gone. He got fired. Mutually. Ball is a program. Midsad got a shout-out on the block kick. He did. I saw that. I saw that live. I saw him talking to McDaniels. I saw him chatting over there.

The Montana legend, Tom McMahon. What a stud that guy is. Shout out, Mitch. Shout out, Tom. Can you say big time? Oh! Yeah, yeah, for sure. Just a great cover two rep second and long.

He's a middle gentleman, obviously. Right. Trevon Diggs. Right back from the top. It's just a cover two rep. Obviously, we've seen a bunch of cover two. You know, we're speed. But hey,in jefferson he's gonna run a seven we got a flat run in front of him usually i always say play it top down play it top down play it top down as you should but she's trevon diggs he actually plays the low one comes back i don't know if he's trying

to bait kirk cousins into this one but he comes back and almost makes the nastiest pick of the season but uh we talked about trevon diggs ball skills always trying to play the ball and it was into this one, but he comes back and almost makes the nastiest pick of the season. But we talked about Trevon Diggs, ball skills, always trying to play the ball. And it was a lot of – I watched this all 22. Justin Jefferson, he created a lot of space this game. He was open, but they could not block him up up front at all. But just a great job by him in coverage. What'd you say?

If the Vikings were able to block it up, there was a lot of yards out there to be had. 11 sacks or something like that. What was the number? 80. It was bad. The left side of the line was gone the whole second half. That's already a new left tackle right there, and 72 got hurt later. So they're dead?

Is that what we're talking about? Judon going to have a field day on Thanksgiving evening? Yeah, Patriots are second in sacks in the NFL, just something. Their offense line sucks. Can they fix that in four days? No, they don't suck. I mean, they just...

They suck. They gave up eight sets. They lost half their line. They lost both tackles, right? Yeah, Derrissaw is out for sure. Derrissaw's out with a concussion. He's out. Cleveland is probably doubtful, I'd imagine. Ezra Cleveland. He doesn't want to see Barmore. We heard two weeks ago Von Miller

talking about how good these tackles were. So you lose those guys. Look at his tackle. He's straddling his tackle right now trying to make his throw. But that's a great rep from Trevon. Yeah, Belichick's going to have something cooked up for Kirk Cousins. Oh, I just wish he would have caught that. But it's the last one, baby.

Hey, we appreciate you, Derrius. I feel like I'm getting smarter. AJ, I honestly feel like I'm getting smarter with all this shit. I think we all are. What do you mean? Oh, yeah. Darius, we appreciate you, man. Thank you, D-Bud.

Good job. That was great work. Five for five on the putts now. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? We got options, okay? Because it's a holiday week, so we'll give you literally all the options, but we don't just hand things out.

You got to earn it. Don't putt. Two shots. Two out of five putts. Two shots, five putts. Okay, so two football throws. Football? And basketball.

Two basketball throws. Oh, shit. Five putts. There we go. Come on, D-Boy. We're giving away something. If it gets to the putts, you've got to go two or five. I'm not saying it's going to because you're going to make a football toss.

Ten people are going to win $500 when this football goes through that hoop right over there. Or basketball. Thank you. Can I get a snap? Or two putts on the clock. Oh, look at that. I got to take advantage of that. Oh!

Saved it. Everything trenches. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Did you hear a snap? Can we hold on a second? Solid count. I'm going to get under center, AQ. What's going on?

Oh! This is unbelievable. What are we doing? Get under center. I don't know. Get under center. Get under center. Blue 18! Get under center. Get under center.

Double A, double A gap. On two, on two. This guy doesn't want to be a part of it. On two, on two. Come on, AQ. On two. Blue 18, Blue 18. Head up!

Oh, shit! Oh, no! Oh, got him. Oh! I think the hunt, hunt. Yeah, that was two. This is a lot. This environment is getting a lot of people.

Oh, shit! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh Oh no! Oh got him. Oh! I think the hot, hot. Yeah that was too. This is a lot. This environment is getting too much. Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Glass. Oh! We tried. We tried. Woo!

We tried. That can't be crazy. Oh! Oh! Take it, people. Well, they win $500 because Darius Butler, with his first basketball shot, goes liquid Drano from the stage on this holiday week. All you have to do is retweet this video, and in a reply or a quote tweet,

say something nice to somebody and put your cash tag in there. It is a beautiful day to have a beautiful day. Thanksgiving is just two days away, and because of Darius Butler's impeccable basketball form in shot. Ten people win $500 going into holiday season. We can't thank you enough, DB, for everything, DB. Thank you, AQ Shipley, for in the trenches.

Thank you, Aaron Rodgers for Aaron Rodgers Tuesday. Thank you, AJ, for the time, talks, the table, incredible work today. Hammer is in at youtube.com forward slash hammer down everybody in the back great work

remember we're off Thursday Friday so tomorrow is the last show of the week we'll make all our picks we'll probably do a massive giveaway and we can't thank you

enough for joining us see you tomorrow goodbye