The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Chiefs Go Down, the AFC Hierarchy, and Rookie QB Future Rankings. Plus, Two-Loss SEC Teams Vs. Indiana With Todd McShay.

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Russillo starts the show by recapping Sunday’s NFL action (0:40) before revealing his college football top 12 and his updated thoughts on expansion (17:38). Then, he’s joined by Todd McShay to discuss the best teams in the AFC, the outlook of the rookie QBs, and how the playoff committee should view the teams with a weak strength of schedule (25:12). Finally, Kyle and Ceruti join to share their thoughts on Paul-Tyson and Life Advice (72:38). How do I approach the cute neighbor who just moved in? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's episode, we are getting into week 11 of the NFL, my favorite week of the season, I think so far an awesome battle in Buffalo, what it means for the Bills to take out the homes and hand them their first loss. Also, why does Pittsburgh keep figuring out a way to take care of Lamar? Got that one wrong. We'll do some of that stuff with McShay as well. My college football top 12 buckle up.

And we've got life advice and a breakdown of the Mike Tyson, Jake Paul stuff before life advice. Enjoy. Miller Lite, the light beer brewed for people who love the taste of beer and the perfect pairing for your game time. When Miller Lite set out to brew a light beer, they had to choose great taste or 90 calories per can. They chose both because they knew the best part of beer is the beer. Your game time tastes like Miller time. Learn more at MillerLite.ca. Must be legal drinking age.

Okay, a great week 11. That was awesome action all the way through headline games, big time quarterbacks all the way through last night's game with Cincinnati and Los Angeles. But let's start in Buffalo. Best win on the slate, easily the Bills giving Kansas City their first loss. It's kind of easy to forget. I'm sure chiefs and Bills fans haven't forgotten, but just a nice reminder that Buffalo actually gets Kansas city in the regular season. They beat him at KC 23, 22, um, a 38 20 winning Kansas city in 21, but that's four straight wins, but it just gets overshadowed by all the

losses in the playoffs, 20, 21, and then last year in 23. So fourth and two at the KC 26, Bills are up 23, 21, and that's kind of the game. You have to go for it. I remember Chip Kelly coming to us, I think in one of those like conference car washes where I remember when the SEC sent up all their coaches and the other conference commissioners, I think called the ESPN and was like, why are you guys doing this? I was like, well, it was the SEC's idea. Do you guys want to come?

And they're like, yeah, I guess so. And then all the coaches are miserable. They had a fly to ESPN in the middle of the summer. Anyway, Chip Kelly, I don't even know if it was that interview, but it was early on when he got things rolling at Oregon and they were more aggressive on fourth down. They certainly weren't the first team to do it. And we asked Chip about it and he had said, and he's explained it other times too, where basically throughout his coaching, when the other team would line up to go for it in the fourth down,

they would be bumped out. So then the byproduct of that is, well, if we're disappointed when they're going for it, why are we not going for it all the time? So now everybody goes for it. And I'm sure the numbers would say fourth and two at the 26, go for it. Just take control of the football game. And Alan ends up running it in for the touchdown. I'm not as fourth down, obsessed, crazy, aggressive,

maybe as everybody else is now. But in this case against my homes, you have to do a lesser quarterback, somebody average or below average. I think going up 26, 21 and having to make them drive the entire length of the field for a game winning touchdown is something I would want my defense to be able to stop against a quarterback that I just don't have that much respect for.

Clearly my homes is different category. So fourth and two lined up like the way they did it. They actually moved Alan out a little. So it gave you perhaps some kind of past look and let him get into space and then he just runs the thing in game winning touchdown. So let's look at a couple of different things here with Mahomes. By the way, Buffalo doing this without Keon Coleman and Dalton Canade and a tackle making his first career star.

Mahomes now his third game under 200 yards this season. He gave you nothing on the ground, which is usually part of the Kansas city frustration where you think you're containing Mahomes containing the past game, which just continues to not really look the way we would expect it to look, but last year is like the ultimate lesson and never doubting these guys. Um, but the leg part of it from a homes, not a factor yesterday. He only had two games under 200 total passing yards all of last season, zero and 22, and it's been a month with Kansas city where you have the Denver game, where

they probably should have lost overtime against Tampa, who's, you know, a good team, you're going to have to fight with them, but Tampa was down a ton of guys. And that game ends up going to overtime when they give up the late touchdown to Baker, which was an incredible drive for them. Um, granted the Raiders game was a one score game, but they were up 27 13. So it's a month with Kansas city where you're like, okay, there's still the one seed, but I don't know if this So it's a month with Kansas city where you're like, okay, there's still the one seed, but I don't know if this means we have to reset the rest of who we think

is the best in the AFC. I mean, I'm probably picked the chiefs again, if they're playing the bills in the playoffs, because it's just the Mahomes factor all of this. But when you factor in what we also saw with Baltimore Pittsburgh yesterday, it, it may be as this stretch here post week 11, where, I mean, I don't even, I don't even believe it as I'm saying it. Should we all be more open-minded about the paths, the possibilities in the AOC? All right.

So there was also a theme of like, if not today, when approach to some of the outcomes of this, certainly with Seattle and San Francisco that we'll get to Chicago, never being able to be green Bay lining up for the field goal, having it blocked. But, you know, if Lamar's not going to get Pittsburgh yesterday, then when's he got to get him? On Friday, I brought up his record, which I'm sure a lot of you know, one and three, now one and four all time against Pittsburgh. And when you think of how long he's been in the league, we went through it with Schiel on Friday. He's had injuries where he's missed games against the Steelers.

He had a COVID test where he missed a game against Pittsburgh. There was also rest at the end of seasons for that last week, divisional game where Baltimore didn't want to play him. So there's just not as many results there. So going into this and look, I was wrong. I figured, Hey, they'll get them this time. If it's Russell Wilson against Lamar Jackson, I'm just never going to pick Russell Wilson.

And then, and then it happens. Lamar finished 16 to 13. At one point he was 10 to 27. He had only three rushes for 21 yards. There was a 15 yarder in there until he put together some numbers for that last touchdown that they desperately needed. Yes, there were a couple of drops. The Zay Flowers drop was huge at one point, but I don't think Lamar was necessarily

bad, even though you look at the box score and think, well, this is not what you expect from what is now to this point been kind of the undisputed MVP for 24. I thought it was a lot of coverage stuff from Pittsburgh. Um, whenever I look at quarterbacks struggling, you know, part of it can just be pressure and feeling like he has no time. I don't think that was the case. Uh, Pittsburgh wasn't going to blitz a lot, but you don't want to blitz against Lamar. It's a big time contained thing where you don't want to get so upfield with your

pressure where now he's just dicing you on all the lanes and the line of scrimmage. It's those moments where you can see the quarterback is in between decisions. And that to me is coverage scheme. And maybe there is something to this with Pittsburgh, just understanding and being able to go over against Lamar in a way that other teams aren't as familiar. It's a bit of like the unbalanced schedule in baseball where a really good pitcher is just not going to be as effective against the team he's going up four or five times. So in this case, Lamar would kind of roll out and then he would look and you would

see that he'd want to pull the trigger, but he knew it wasn't really a great throw. And I think that's really where the credit belongs in this game because it wasn't Pittsburgh's offense at all. You can also say Baltimore had other reasons to give this one away. They fumbled the opening drive, a 28 yard field goal drive there for Pittsburgh.

Tucker misses two more field goals from 57, or excuse me, from 47 and 50. He's now 16 to 22 on the season. This is a guy who's 90% for his career. He's like in the seventies, low seventies, I think this season. Um, he was one in five on field goals, 50 yards or more last season. So this is a continuation of some concerns with Tucker where now it's just. I mean, Ravens fans know this, you'd be watching these games. You just feel entirely different about a dude who was just automatic.

The other thing too is he's only 34. I know he's been around forever, but you're thinking like, is he just done at 34? I also saw something else this morning that said all of his misses, but they had said five of his misses, not the six that they're all left. And this is something I've never even heard of because I'm not your kicker guy, but when you're left as a right footed kicker, that that can mean you're just overcompensating. Here's not a strong, and then you end up pulling this stuff.

I don't know. Anyway, the point is, is that when you look at the numbers here for Baltimore, the kicking thing is an issue all season. The penalties are a huge issue all season. 12 more yesterday. They lead the league in penalties per game at 8.4, and they're still last in the NFL in passing yards allowed. Now, I was the guy yelling saying, don't fall for that.

I actually thought the secondary was pretty good yesterday, but the quarterback, the opposing quarterback resume was a big reason why that number has been so bad. But if you go back the last month, yeah, the burrow game was in there where he puts up a ton of numbers against them. But they've also faced Jamis, Bo Nix and Russell Wilson. And they've had some injuries, but welcome to the NFL. But that number is still really alarming. So that's three things there that they need to be figuring out here as they try to ramp up and escape the AFC. But this Pittsburgh result resets a bunch of different things.

Rosa Wilson, we can play the, hey, they won, so he's good deal here, but it was the six field goals by Boswell. And something that I think prevents me from putting Pittsburgh in the conversation. Like I feel whatever the fake tier stuff we all come up with is, whatever tier Pittsburgh was in before this game, I have to bump them up to another one, but I don't really know what that means other than I'm just taking it more seriously because of how great this defense is. But there's definitely some stuff with Wilson. If he's going to hold onto the ball long, it's usually going to be a problem.

The interception in the red zone was inexcusable. He can't throw that ball. I know there's an argument to me that a huge tight end in Washington is supposed to make a play on it. I don't know. When you look at the ball 22 on that throw, like he's throwing a popup, hoping that the rebounders boxing out to be able to catch it. That's just too much risk for what was waiting for him with three points on the board and Wilson is now seven to 24, 29% in the red zone.

So because of the quarterback depth in the AFC, which is just absurd, I guess I wasn't taking Pittsburgh serious enough. I guess I take them more serious today, but it's just tough to stack Wilson up with those other guys if he's facing them in the playoffs. But as I doubt Pittsburgh for whatever reason, I still believe in San Francisco, which after yesterday's result makes me think I should stop. Pittsburgh's a three seed. San Francisco is that dangerous ten seed that everybody's always talking about, but I figured they'd get in because of the division. But if you look at it today, the Niners are now in last place in the NFC West

with a one in three division record. Arizona's only played two division games. I don't know if that's good or bad. It's a good division. There's no doormats. The Rams find a way to stay competitive. And finally Seattle gets this win against the Niners, something they have not done in a while. This is the Niners third loss to a division team leading in the last two minutes of a game.

It's the first time that's happened in the NFL since 2001. They've now allowed, I believe 36 points, because I think the staff came up at 29 before Seattle scored the game winner. They've given up 36 points in the last two minutes of games this season. It was the second worst and then I think it was the worst, but then Cincinnati, what happened to them is that we'll get to here in a second. So I think that's the second worst number in the NFL. That's so many points in the last two minutes with a team that has this kind of defensive personnel.

So you can blame the defense for these late collapses. It's also partially on the offense because they get the first down on the penalty when they're up 17-13, then they go, well, it's not technically three and out, but you get the point. They don't get a first down on the next three plays, so they punt.

And then Seattle of all teams goes 80 yards on second and 13. Gino runs it for 16 and then runs it again in for the 13 yard touchdown. The Niners front was gassed. I'm not going to get into, um, like, Hey, you gotta leave in a spy on Gino. I guess because he had just done it. I'm a little surprised they weren't looking for that. And then Gino, you could see when he looked left and saw the coverage, man coverage, man coverage.

He's like, I think I got this runs it in and here we go. San Francisco granted no kiddle. I think their actual tight end was like an offensive lineman that they activated. Bosa leaves the game and it's the first win for Seattle and Gino against San Francisco, they had been owned six and then Gino had been owned five against them. Last thought when the charges were up 24 to 6 at the half last night, again, Cincinnati kept thinking like, do I need to take the Chargers more seriously? The way I'm taking the Steelers more seriously from the rest of the season on.

Um, we know that the Herbert game plan has changed with Harbaugh there. 699 attempts two years ago. That's 41 a game. He's on pace for only 471 attempts this year. So he's down almost 14 attempts per game. They're number two in turnover margin. The defense that we probably don't put in that elite class, despite the fact that they were 13 points per game allowed best in the NFL. Now it's like 14 and a half, but they couldn't move the ball in the second half, which is probably like, even though they've revamped everything they're

doing great in turnover margin, great in scoring defense, the offense is still even though they've revamped everything they're doing great in turnover margin, great in scoring defense, the offense is still a middling offense, which seems weird with Herbert and you know, I didn't know if the first round pick Johnson. The receiver from TCU was going to be a guy, but he's been better. McConkie is clearly good. Like they're figuring some of this stuff out and JK Dobbins being healthy, but But it's just such an alarming second half that all these moments where I had like, do I need to start thinking about the Chargers? Like there's a really serious team here. And then it all kind of went away as Burroughs put together a DVD's seasons worth of highlights on all the throws and all the ridiculous stuff that he's doing in the second half.

The other part, when you look at the Chargers offense, you sit there and go like, that's four spots ahead of Kansas City and yards per play. But some of the defensive numbers, and I think these are fair, like the opposing quarterbacks they've gone up against, Minshew, Bryce Young, Fields, early Bo Nix, who was great yesterday. That touchdown throw to little Jordan Humphrey was nasty They played against Spencer rattler and Jay Caner in the same game against the Saints Jamis and Will Leves So the Chargers D has played four quarterbacks that have been benched at some point this season

but last night's the best win of their season and Cincinnati is probably the best four and seven team I've ever seen Okay, let's hear from Oregon here. Let's get this stat in. Stats to impress people. Josh Allen was 0.9 yards away from the sideline on his 52 yard throw to Shakir. Since Allen came to the NFL in 2018, Allen is six for seven for 118 yards and three touchdowns on throws within a yard of the sideline.

The rest of the NFL on those throws is one of 16. That's from next gen. So get mad at them if you think there's somebody that was like a yard plus away. All right. This is supposed to mean award, but I can't, I don't know that I can really think of the perfect way to phrase it. You could also say this tweet is doing a lot of work. Um, if you had not heard Carl Weathers died this year on February 2nd men's health, their Twitter account is making sure that you know this, uh, yesterday

they tweeted out that he died again. Um, and that's the fourth time that I've seen. They've they did it when he died. Um, they did in September, they did in October and they did it again yesterday. I think they deleted it again yesterday. I know they deleted the one in September. I think the October one is still active and you could argue that they've been right every time they've tweeted it.

I guess I'm just confused why they keep doing it. Potentially if I really wanted to reach, you could say, okay, I'm going to give the Carl Weathers Men's Health Tweet Award to the Dallas Cowboys, like another segment of like, do we have to keep updating and where the Cowboys are? I don't even know if that necessarily works. I guess it would be something that we already know and we don't know why we're being updated on it. So maybe I'll save this one for later, but I mean, Jesus Christ,

men's self, get your shit together. The NBA is back in FanDuel. America's number one sports book wants you to catch all the action because right now FanDuel is giving everyone three months of NBA League Pass. All you have to do to catch every tip off and buzzer beater is place any $5 bet on the NBA. All right, a couple of things I wanna get to here.

The Rockets are 10 and four. The Rockets are your three seed in the West today. The Rockets are one of the best shows on League Pass. So if you get some League Pass, you can check out some Rockets, you can say, hey, it's a schedule stoop in the West today. The Rockets are one of the best shows on League Pass. If you get some League Pass, you can check out some Rockets. You could say, hey, it's a schedule, stupid Detroit, Washington. Have you seen how intense Detroit is lately? I bet you haven't.

Have you seen the activity of Bilal Kulabali? Probably not, but back to back against the Clippers on a Wednesday and Friday, and to tap it off, a 143 point performance at Chicago on Sunday. I love Rockets basketball. I also love that the Raptors stink. They have the worst record in the NBA. I know Scotty Barnes has been out.

I guess you're the only team that's been hurt, but it's very specific to the over under. Preview pod where Raptors media and fans who are their own element of annoying decided to say that I did not know ball and I was a casual for taking the under on the Raptors. They are two and 12 trending towards the under. So the next time you get a hunch on who is going to win

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see terms at sportsbook.fanDuel.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Okay, this is my college football top 12. And as a reminder, I'll do the bracket when the bracket actually matters, but looking ahead to what the bracket could look like, I'm not thrilled with this. My top 12 right now is a result of the adults looking at what's happening in college football and being like, let's be serious about the experiences that Power 4 programs are having.

All right. Number one, Oregon down 13-6 at Wisconsin in the third quarter after Wisconsin field goal. The rest of the Wisconsin offensive possessions punt, punt, downs, an interception by DJ Louis Angoulin to seal it. He's a stud. Fourth quarter jump around. Lanning had the Ducks jumping around, not phased, not worried about it. What does it say about the Ducks?

I don't know. I think every great team has a couple of these games every season. The fake field goal though, when you're asking your holder to break one 10 yards to the left as opposed to taking the points. Not sure how I felt about that one, but the Ducks stay undefeated and they stay at number one. Number two, Ohio State down seven,

nothing against Northwestern. They just roll. Will Howard now a 24, five split on touchdowns interceptions, completing 73% of his passes. All right, number three, Texas. The Arkansas game was a little weird. Texas was 4-15 on third down,

so after we felt great about their offense against, I think, a decent opponent in Florida, despite the record, and they put it on him. They did not do so against Arkansas, which I also think falls into the decent opponent category, despite the record. But the defense was great in this one, defensive lineman number 95, Alfred Collins for Texas, just an absolute game record. So I've got Bama number four,

and let me get through four, five, six, and then seven, and then maybe you'll understand where I'm coming from here. So after the 24-17 loss against Tennessee, they beat Missouri 34-zip, but again, that was with Mizzou's backup. And then they trounced LSU, I know, because I was there. So they've got wins against Georgia and LSU. I think that matters. I think that's more impressive than what other teams have done behind them. At number five, I have Georgia. It's not so much about the head to head because I should probably have Georgia

head of Texas, but with the extra loss, not really sure what to do here. But let's look at what we're really comparing here. And we talk about Georgia and Indiana. Georgia is eighth in the AP and the coaches poll. Georgia has played Clemson, Bama, Texas, Ole Miss, Tennessee, who they beat 31-17. Number 11, Javon Walker is my hero for Georgia. What he did on the last position against Nico. Again, it was a competitive game, Tennessee's up, but Beck finally put this last month behind

him and just had a moment in that game where it looked like he had just turned things on and started looking like a guy we're used to or we expect to see all the time. So if I look at Georgia's fifth toughest opponent, is it Clemson? Is that tougher than Indiana's toughest opponent? Who is who? Washington? Michigan? Here are the records of the opponents for the Indiana Hoosiers. Michigan five and five, Michigan state four-6, Washington 6-5, Nebraska 5-5,

Northwestern 4-6, Maryland 4-6, UCLA 4-6. Oh, I'm not done. Out of conference, Charlotte 3-7, the Western Illinois Leathernecks 3-8, Florida International 3-7. I'd argue Georgia playing Florida is tougher than anyone Indiana's played. And that might be their sixth toughest opponent. I could even get weird with Kentucky. Maybe they're the sixth toughest. Maybe the seventh toughest opponent for Georgia is tougher than anyone Indiana has faced.

If you wanna argue about Washington, I'll allow it. That's fine, you got me. You got me. So then the five toughest opponents for Georgia are tougher than anyone Indiana has faced. I don't care about the record when it's that ridiculous. I'm over all of it. I'm over the expansion completely changing what teams are doing. And I think we have to adjust for that.

And I think the committee should have to adjust for that. If you're telling me that I'm biased, I would tell you that you're right. But I'm going to be biased about a team like Texas who played in the fucking playoff last year. I'm going to be biased about a team like Georgia who's put together some incredible seasons. Now, does that seem kind of unfair? Sure. But what's your bias? I just want somebody different who hasn't played anybody. Your bias would be, hey, they're undefeated. Why are they undefeated? Have they played Clemson, Bama, Old Miss, Tennessee, Texas? Oh, they're undefeated? No, they're not.

So I'm at a point of the season where I think this is where I'm going with it. Normally the one loss to two loss, the cost of a loss thing that I've talked about for years, like it should matter. 10 and 0 versus 8 and 2. Yeah, well, if everything's expanded and everything is different, like look at the Big 12. Arizona State is 8 and 2. It is an incredible story. They're in third place. BYU loses that one to Kansas that had trap game.

I don't even know if it's trap game. Kansas has been playing better. Colorado, who I was totally wrong about because I thought it was a carryover from last season after the Nebraska loss. I'm like, they can't block, but you know what? They might have the number one pick, a quarterback Heisman trophy winner, Travis Hunter, tons of studs all over the place at wide receiver. And you know, like they still can't run the football. So I don't know that they've solved all of their offensive problems, but it doesn't look like she was going to get killed at halftime every single game anymore.

But how is this happening? Well, Arizona state hasn't played BYU. They haven going to get killed at halftime at every single game anymore. But how is this happening? Well, Arizona state hasn't played BYU. They haven't played Colorado. They can't play themselves. They haven't played Iowa state. They haven't played Baylor.

Kansas state who is in sixth place in the big 12 standings is the best team they've played inside of the conference. And you can play the same game here with Colorado. So what's happening here with expansion is we have teams even into mid-November skating through the easiest parts of their schedule. Indiana has played none of the top seven teams in the big ten. Granted again they can't play themselves. At the end of the season, and we're gonna find out against Ohio State, but when they finish with Purdue, Indiana is going to play seven of the eight worst teams

in an 18 team big 10. This is what we have now, and we have to be fair in how we adjust. There are preconceived notions about teams that are right and wrong all the time. But I will go with explainable bias than unprecedented bias every single time. Number seven, Penn State, see above.

Number eight, Notre Dame. I could put them seven, but the loss is much worse than Penn State's loss to Ohio State. But they are killing everybody. Their last competitive game was September 28th against Louisville. Number nine Ole Miss, number 10 Tennessee. Doing it. Number eight, or excuse me, number 11 Miami.

And you know what? I'm going with SMU. That was a tough win against Boston College, making a quarterback change. But Boston College, as you know, two months now, they've been in the, they don't suck category. So I have SMU and Jennings slinging it all over the place as the 12th team in my top 12. He is the host of the McShay show on Ringer and Spotify, his live college football recap show on Saturday nights.

And he joins me most Mondays at Stoddard McShay. What's up? How we doing, man? I was LSU. I never get to talk to you after that. Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, we talked about me jumping on the phone. So I don't know if that's a zinger right out of the gates.

No, it actually wasn't. I lost interest in having you when the result got out of hand in the second half. I actually, if you'd called, I just would have ignored the call. Okay, good. Now I don't feel bad because I was playing it out being like, it's going to be really hard. Win or lose. We know how Louisiana is. Uh, it was going to be really hard to find a place to just break away for like a 10 minute phone hit. Um, do you go to the summer club? two nights in a row. Yeah. A boy.

Yeah. So there was a Omi filet from Brandon Landry that he was like, you have to, he was like, you can't order anything else. I'm making you get that. And so, uh, we did a whole like 20 minutes on, on building the perfect trip to Baton Rouge. And I based like most of it off of Brandon sent me a text. It was like that long

Yeah, well, I miss I miss the foam cup days where they just let you Foam cup it wherever you went and then if you walked in they would it just I don't know different deal and obviously we're Roughen passing and Ruffino's it's not The same thing and now that Brandon has the supper club and everything, but yeah, whatever. So look, that game sucked. And we'll get to some college ball here, but I want to start with the NFL because I thought yesterday was awesome.

And, you know, Alan on the fourth and two decision makes all the sense in the world. Can't give the ball back to my homes when you're still not even up, you know, they would have only been up six. But what did you see from Buffalo? Can I go through that for a second? Yeah, no, that's where I wanna go right here, so just take it.

I was saying to myself, as I was watching the game last night, okay, it's 23-21, fourth quarter, they get the ball back, the Bills do it, 7-53. And I made a mental note to myself, okay, how do we attack this differently than in the past? And what's the mistake that everyone makes? My mindset in that moment was,

you got to assume seven for Mahomes. So really the scoreboard says 23-21. Let's take this drive and it like, there has to be a mindset, a believable mindset. It's really 28-23. We're down five. A field goal does nothing for us. It's not about chewing clock.

It's not, this drive is, we've got to drive down and win the game. And I'm not saying that I've talked to anyone in Buffalo and that was the mindset, but if you can enter that drive with that mindset, that's where you need to be mentally. And the results kind of indicated that they had that kind of mindset. I mean, that's why they dropped back to pass eight of 12 plays on that drive.

Okay. That's why the ball was in Alan's hands. 10 of 12 plays. He ran the ball twice and eight drops to pass. And they only handed the ball off, I think by my count, only two times in that drive. So this was not a drive about chewing clock. And yeah, they didn't race to the line.

They, between plays, they ate up some time. But the mindset was, if we don't score here, we're losing this game. We're down five points on this drive. And so that's why kicking a 43 yard field goal and that fourth and two, it wasn't an option because you got to score, you got to score six to win the game. If you have that mentality the whole time. So, and that's why Alan takes off and scrambled and, and, and put it in his

own hands on that fourth and two play. So I just, I thought the mindset was right. They'd been burned before in situations like this. You see team after team when you try to just, you know, run out the clock and let's get three more and force them where they have to score a touchdown to win. It doesn't work. Not in big games, not in those spots. History tells us. I just, I love the aggressive mindset. I love that the entire drive was about we're down five and, and they, that's how they attack. Yeah.

You're right on the carries. Ty Johnson had the first on that entire 12 play series, and then they went for it on the third and two and he gets stopped and then Alan runs it in for the touchdown. Is there a matchup specific thing? Now granted it's, it's worth reminding people, no Keon Coleman, no Kincaid, and you're going into that game, and this is why some of these quarterbacks

are just special. They're just better than everybody else. Like I look at Burrow last night and go, oh my gosh, that's the thing I always hit on the problem solving. Okay. Here are the problems that present themselves the first 30 minutes of football game.

Now you have to solve all of these problems and get back into the game. And that list is like maybe five or six guys to do it all the time. Alan is clearly in that group, but to have those guys out and, you know, maybe it just, and it also like on top of everything else, this was supposed to be this bill's reset year financially with some of the decisions that they made. Right. Remember?

And they miss their window. What are we doing? Yeah. I mean, you're right. Like it would have been the end of whatever this version of the window is to only be reinvented, probably two more windows because of Alan's age and his ability. Right. So it's not like this permanent closure of a window.

But maybe of this window, maybe it's going to take another year or two to get, get back to where we need to be. But yeah, if they had been nine and seven and Alan still has like a good year, but you feel like the defense is a mess. You're like, okay, well, they're just going to have another one of those years where instead I'm left with thinking about Kansas city and maybe a bit diminished Baltimore. Maybe it's just a Pittsburgh thing.

I was really starting to think like, do I need to love the Chargers more? I still love Cincinnati even though they're four and seven. Right. And then taking Pittsburgh more seriously, despite not feeling like the quarterbacks even on par with any of these teams. Like, do you, I think it'd be a lie to go definitively today. Buffalo is the best team in the AFC when we've seen the regular season not be mirrored in the playoff when these two teams

match up against each other. But there's something to be said about holding the homes down again. Um, and this, this carry over this regular season stuff with this offense where it's just like, we all feel like idiots thinking that maybe this doesn't happen for the cheese because there's just a lot of regular season offensive stuff that makes you wonder when they go into some of these other quarterback matchups. Uh, I'm not there yet, but this is just a tremendous win for a Sunday where it's like, Hey, this is going to be tough

on Alan. And he, he had an answer. Yeah. Without those two guys too, without your security blanket at tight end, without your young receiver who you kind of, you come to expect that he's going to make a few big plays and, and, and certainly someone you have to account for defensively. Yeah, right. And it's not like, it's not like Keon is like Nico Hollins out here, but it's no, but he's somebody else that you have to, that you have to account for.

Kansas city is, it's the hardest seat. Cause I looked at Kansas city and it's like, they could have lost three other games, you know? And, and, but we've seen like even last year, I remember talking all last year, like, I don't, I don't think this is the team. I don't think, you know, man, they're struggling. And you look at DeAndre Hopkins, is that, you know,

will that continue to improve? And will he continue to, you know, provide more for them offensively? Xavier worthy was a big factor yesterday. Like they clearly are trying to get in more involved and provide some more explosiveness in the offense, but they're not there yet. And so like, if you're a pessimist and you're saying this, you know, they're not going to three Pete, you have plenty of're saying that, you know, they're not going to three-peat, you have plenty of evidence for that, right? But if you're a realist and you're saying, all right, this is a chief's team that in

the last couple of years has not played their best ball sometimes in the middle of the year or early in the year. They get better down the stretch. They always play their best ball in the playoffs and find ways to win. And, and if, you know, if my homes is out there, how do you bet against them? And I still, I see areas where they can improve offensive. I really do. And so you, you kind of have to trust that they're going to with that play caller, with that signal caller.

Like you have to trust that they're going to. Um, but it's easy to look at that game yesterday and be like Buffalo without two significant pieces on offense is the better football team. And I think Hopkins is, it's already been really good for them. I, you know, I know they had super uncharacteristic, you know, competitive, like every time Hopkins like it's a 50 50 ball, I just assume he's going to win. He loses one of those where he actually thought he'd maybe had had it, but the replay clearly showed it was incomplete, but he had two, he was great against Tampa. He had the huge play on the third down, uh, on the field goal drive to go up on Denver.

So to me, even a diminished Hopkins considering just how they've tried to figure this receiver position out. And now the injuries that they've had on top of everything else with Rice going down, um, to me, they, he's already paid some dividends here, but they're 19th in yards per play, as I say, in the open for the Chiefs. And yet it's their first loss. So what are we really talking about? But it's been a lingering month of kind of like, man, are they, I mean, it comes back to the home thing, but like, all right, let me do it this way. I don't even know if you're going to, if you say Buffalo is the best team in the AFC,

I can't say you're wrong, they just won the head to head. But it's like, sometimes that question's just stupid, right? Because it's like, well, who cares? Oh, okay, fine, Buffalo is the best. Then what? Like, what's the gap? I would wonder like, who's third for you now? Is it still Baltimore, even though they lose yesterday?

So I actually, I'm glad you asked this. I went through and it's not normally at this point, and obviously things can change, but what are we, it's not normally at this point, and obviously things can change, but what are we, is this week 11, I think in the NFL? It's still week 11. And so, but 11 weeks in, I think it's really clear cut who the six are. You know, and so it's Kansas city or Buffalo at one, but that takes up your one and two spot after that.

Pittsburgh, Baltimore, you got to go Pittsburgh three over Baltimore after, after watching that, that win. But you know, I get there three and four. And then to me it's the Chargers and Houston are five and six. Now Denver's the best four and seven team in the history of the NFL. You mean, you mean Cincinnati? No Cincinnati. Sorry. I had Cincinnati and Denver is the next tier.

I was just looking down to make. I had Cincinnati and Denver is the next tier. I was just looking down to make sure I had every team covered. Cincinnati is the best four and seven team in the history of the NFL. Yeah, I can't believe we're making the same joke because I said the same thing. Oh, you didn't? Yeah, because I mean, I'm kind of kidding around, but when I look at Phillies winning against... I mean, I'm kind of not. And if I was Houston, the Chargers, like I wouldn't want to see Cincinnati in the playoff, but, but, but the six right now seems very clear cut.

And because Cincinnati is four and seven, it's, I mean, they're going to have to go on an epic run to get into this thing and get ahead of one of those top, one of those bottom teams like the Chargers or Houston, I just don't, I don't see it happening. And Denver looks really good right now, but I don't have a lot, I don't have faith that Denver's going to continue. You know, they're just, they've been inconsistent. So yeah, that's where I stand. The six teams are very clear. Buffalo, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chargers, Houston in my mind. Would you pick Pittsburgh against Baltimore in a rematch in the playoffs?

No. I can't get there either. I don't even know if I'd pick Buffalo in a rematch against Kansas. I mean, you think about how close that game was at 12 penalties, three turnovers, and they still had a chance to tie it on one play at the, at the very end of the game, but I am, I'm worried about two things with Baltimore. Okay. I'm worried about this Lamar stuff. Let's do it in a game against that level of defense is the precision as a passer there.

Will it ever be there? Okay. Okay. And then number two, and this is a wild one and I don't know how to evaluate it. I think it's more mental than it is physical a lot of times. But what is going on with Justin Tucker, man? I don't know if he's done. I mean, he had a bad year a few years ago, then came back and had like a career year. I mean, he was literally the Raven's second best asset a couple of years ago and for several years. It was Lamar and then Justin Tucker in terms of assets. And now he's a flat out liability. I mean, we just have to call it what it is. years, it was Lamar and then Justin Tucker in terms of assets. And now he's, he's a flat out liability.

I mean, we just have to call it what it is. He's an NFL kicker who's missing. It seems like every week there's a miss two, two misses in this game in a two point game. You're right. There's, I don't have anything else to add to that. I wish I could evaluate like his, you know, was plant foot or I can like the swing of his hip. Like I just, that's not who I am. And so what I do, there's 22 other positions I'm a lot better at evaluating.

How much tape do you watch on kickers before the draft? None. And I tried to for like the first seven years of my career and I made a firm decision. I planted my flag. Like I got too many other positions to worry about. I'll, I'll call Joe Tess. I'll call Mike black.

I'll talk to some people in the league. Like that. I just, I, my energy is not going to be put on kickers and punters. It's just not, um, loop from Arizona. A lot of leg. There's, there's me helping you out this year. That position.

Uh, the Tucker, you worry about Lamar. Lot of leg there's there's me helping you out this year that position The tuck you were Lamar like it feels like this is Yesterday felt like the playoff game that we're used to seeing Where the Ravens are the best team in the league? Are they the best team in the league? is this the year and and Lamar's MVP and then and then yesterday happens or am I just Here's here's what I because I I think all of it's fair. Right. Um, I think Lamar has been good enough now that a regular season game like this.

Some of these guys, we just constantly update their fucking legacy every single week. And I like, I'm talking about this year in a bubble looking towards the playoffs. We're now in the second half of the season. It's concerned if, if there's any concern with this team, it's okay. We got to play a damn good chiefs defense. We got to play a damn good Pittsburgh. Like what you're going to run into one, if not two of these

types of teams in the playoffs. And are you, I'm just saying like, if there's concern, that's the concern, right? Yeah. Because he's a bit like the hardened and bead of the NFL where he puts up these absurd regular seasons and coming off the playoff loss last year and the MVP momentum, you were like, sometimes you wonder like a voters or hold him to a higher standard. And yet it felt like it was pretty unanimous, unanimous for him throughout

the entire season. You know, it doesn't mean that the MVP race ends after the 10 weeks or starts up here again after week 11, but on the playoff thing versus regular season, you're right. I mean, QB rating isn't exactly the greatest stat ever, but he's a hundred in the regular season. He's in the seven low seventies in the playoffs and we've already been through all this stuff before and it's all going to be brought back up again.

I thought the coverage had more to do with yesterday's results in limiting him and just an awesome game plan. So I didn't feel like he just had this awful game at quarterback. I'm not putting it all on Lamar. I'm just saying this offense with Lamar is so dangerous. It's so explosive. They like they've been dominant. The vast majority of outings.

But it seems like every once in a while they run into this. And in Mahomes, like Mahomes runs into this almost every week, it feels like with that Kansas city offense. But there's, and again, he's, he orchestrated what could have been a game tying drive at the end, you know, and, and that is what Mahomes has been doing for a lot, for two seasons now with the defense carrying them kind of not, not great on offense, grinding through finding ways to win at the end. And had they gotten, excuse me, they gotten the two point conversion and

gotten into overtime in one week. Yeah, we probably wouldn't be talking about this, but the, the warning signs are still there a little bit. I don't know. All right. There's so there's two, I have like a final thought on it, but let me just ask you this, because this is the part of Lamar regular season stuff

where I go, okay, he had a bad week. Like he's been good enough that I don't think we need to keep doing this this many years into his career. And there's a list of quarterbacks where I just, I think Burrow has a bad game every now and then, the TV guys would just be like, you know, I thought Joe Burrow was really good. And you're just like, yeah, cause he's fucking awesome. Like just enough.

Herbert was a big guy on social media where it just felt like he was always really high in the rankings and you would have the bad game. And then it was like, Oh, everybody's an idiot that likes Justin Herbert. Um, and I think maybe we're through that a little bit too. And we have been with Lamar for awhile, but on the playoff part of it, and I, you just hear like, okay, if you're prepping for him, like with the precision of a playoff prep week, you know, you can talk about

how much you game plan and all the things you want to do during the regular season, but clearly you crank it up another level and you have all this tape and you go into that playoff matchup. Is there something about the preparation for him in a playoff game that's led to these sub-Lamar numbers that Pittsburgh is doing in the regular season? I don't know if that's something that you can see

or football people that you talk to share, and that Pittsburgh's essentially throwing him the playoff defense that he struggled with. Yeah, I mean, it was a, but that's who Pittsburgh is almost every week. I mean, if you watch them, right? I mean, that's, they're physical, they're disciplined that's who Pittsburgh is almost every week. I mean, if you watch them, right? I mean, that's their physical, their discipline. It's probably the better way to say it then.

Yeah. I mean, that's just so that, so I work like, yeah, maybe could Pittsburgh dial it up a little bit more in terms of the preparation for a playoff game, I guess I could Baltimore dial up what they're trying to do offensively and get more creative and have a more of a playoff. Yeah, I guess this is a huge game and I, both teams come in paired and you know, and I, and I watched a little TV this morning, like everyone, Derek Henry should have been more involved in and he'd fumbled and I guess, but like,

at the end of the day, this thing's going to go as far as Lamar takes them. And, and this may, maybe there's some, maybe it's good to have this game and build off of the, go back and study this and build up. Okay. What can we do? This is more recent. What can we do that would be different next time around against not just Pittsburgh, but a defensive this hour, you know, it's funny because on the game plan part of it, I felt like Pittsburgh was throwing the football too much in this game and it's just some of this stuff now that we've seen in

this league where I thought that was the perfect example of a game. It's like, I know everybody just dropped backs and throws it the entire time, but why can't Najee Harris get more carries? I think when I wrote it down, he'd had only nine. And then the way the game played out at the end, they got him the ball a little bit more. Clearly he's splitting up some of the carries to get two thirds of them. Jalen Warren looks pretty good. But I just thought like, oh, I'm going to go with this. And then the way the game played out at the end, they got him the ball a little bit more clearly splitting up some of the carries to get two thirds of them. Jalen Warren looks pretty good.

Yeah, he does. But I just thought like, Najee, two weeks ago is doing enough where you look at some of these games and how they're playing out. And I'm like, what? Like, why would you not? Why would you take the, like, take the ball out of Russell Wilson's hands here a little bit? But maybe they just don't like the matchup, they don't like the numbers. And they also look at this Raven secondary

that's gotten lit up by a bunch of really good quarterbacks this season too, saying like, we actually don't, like game plan wise, we think their weakness is in the back end. Although I thought the Raven secondary played one of the best games of the season yesterday. So let me, let me ask you this, because you brought up Denver's defense,

you brought up O'Nicks as we kind of sift through the A of C a little bit here. This is just an exercise, right? I thought Caleb was much better yesterday. I didn't like that he was run heavy in the first half. Cause I feel like even though it's working, the rest of it has to come through. I thought he made some really like some of his best throws of the season. Um, we all know that Jane Dan Daniels probably dealing with his rib injury, which has diminished some of the output per play,

some of the numbers you wanna look at here. Drake May, I thought looked really good yesterday. Yeah, he keeps progressing, man. I'm a Patriots fan, I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing with Drake May. Like this is the per, no pressure on him, getting a little bit better every week, get him ready for year two.

There are a lot of encouraging sides. Trey Lockerbie Dynamic between what he is capable of and what Mac Jones was doing, even though it was like statistically a nice first season or whatever, I completely agree. You know, I kind of gave you shit when you said you went to the game and he'd only dropped back like for seven attempts before he had to leave the game. I think you were at the Jets game. Right? Mike Weiss Yeah. And I told you, there was something about the way he was playing and the energy of that offense. I was encouraged.

And then Berset comes in. It's like, eh, well, I gave you a hard time just because I felt like there couldn't have been enough play. Now I understand what you were saying. All right. So I apologize to you, my friend of two decades, because seeing him, even in a loss against the Rams, there's just, it feels like you're going to be able to do more with him.

So this is all a good thing because when you look at six quarterbacks going in the top 12 picks in the 24 drive class, and I'm doing the drive stuff with you, I can't help but look at the history of going, well, the funny thing is in three or four years, like three of these guys are going to be terrible. What I would suggest to you is that we still have Caleb. Yeah. Jaden. Yeah. Okay. Drake may. Yep. We've got Nick's now JJ and panic seven play JJ sir.

Panics just not playing because of Atlanta. I thought that Denver win yesterday was maybe the best win as far as your nomination. I think Nick's, you know, they were winning games or winning game of the defense. He's probably my least favorite of the guys that have played. Okay.

But here's what I would ask. Hey man. He looked, he looked good yesterday, man. He looked really good. Good. Are all four alive for like in three years, this guy will be the best of all of the quarterbacks from this class?

So it's really kind of like a Bo Nix question or maybe a Drake May question. Are you open? Do you understand what I'm saying here? Are you open to the idea? I actually do. 11 weeks in that it's still all four of those guys that are playing are in play to be the answer to that question three years from now. I think if you're being fair and you take a step back, I think the answer is yes. And I would not like no one would have gotten and it sounds like you're crazy. Like Jaden Daniels, his ribs are injured when you saw what he did in the first.

Yeah, he's awesome, man. He's awesome. And, and, and if I, if like, if we're taking odds right now, for calling fan duel, like who's going to be the best quarterback in three years, he's the heavy favorite, but he's also like, the system didn't change from college to the NFL, right? Um, he played 56 games or whatever it was, and Bo Nicks had more game experience. But like, so he was set up for early success, exceeded expectations.

No rookie quarterback should have the successes he should have. But like, I'm not closing the book on Caleb by any stretch. If Thomas Brown can come in after one week, I don't know if it's Thomas Brown or the 30 minute powwow with Tom Brady pregame that sparked a totally new, you know, like a fresh look on Caleb Williams. And I say that tongue in cheek, obviously. Yeah, but I don't, do you think Brady was just loving on him the way a national broadcast just loves on the stars? I have no idea what that conversation was, but it wouldn't shock me if it came

out that Brady's got a thing, I mean, we all have our certain thing. Brady's got a thing with like not playing rookie quarterback and is passionate about it and, and like believes in developing rookie quarterbacks. And I think he, I think he takes it almost personally. What happened to Caleb this year with, with a system that wasn't getting the most out of him was not putting him in a position to succeed and build his confidence as a rookie. And I'm not saying a true serum. I'm not saying anything like it didn't change their game plan after six days getting ready

for this game. But I do think that Tom will be, kind of took a little bit of a mentor role in terms of like, hey, we need to focus on this mentally. This is who you are. But I don't think it hurt. I think in his and Tom's mind, I wanna go talk to Caleb and some of the staff about like what I'm seeing,

what could be different and all of that. But give all the credit to Thomas Brown for, for recognizing like you finally got to see, there's a great stat on Sunday countdown. I think Rex Ryan actually did it. Maybe there's something else. I'm not sure of, of Caleb is like fourth or fifth in the NFL when he gets the ball out under three seconds and was dead last in the NFL after three seconds. And so you saw in that game, I'm not saying that they worked off of that conclusion, but they're seeing the same thing and watching the same tape. Let's get, let's make the

read quick. Let's get the ball out. If it's not there, stop drifting. It, this ain't USC stop drifting and floating and hoping you can make that, you know, highlight real throw. It's not happening at this level. And maybe rarely we'll learn down the road, like when to take those chances and do those things. But now it's climb and take off. You're a good runner. You're a good athlete.

And you saw that the most rushing yards he had in his career so far And so I don't care about the rushing though I I think it's always just a little frosting on the cake thing with any of these car backs the fact that he was Decisive minds. Yes, it spoke to his mindset the one throw yesterday where Brady was like, okay this throw here And it felt like and again the broadcast is always gonna be favorable to the characters that are on the screen. They're not gonna shit on these guys. It's just not going to happen.

So you can't ever expect him. Yeah, but it felt Brady pulling for him, knowing what- Yes. Didn't you? That's the point. I totally agree. After watching that powwow for a half hour, however long it was, and then truly listening

to the broadcast, it felt like Tom was like, there it is. That's what we talked about. That's what, or that's, you know, Tom was like that. There it is. That's what we talked about. That's what, or that's, you know, that this is what he needs to be doing based off my film study, based off of what we've seen, based off knowing who he is. You could, you could feel it through the screen that he was like identifying the things that he knew coming into the game that had to change and then when it happened, he would like there, there was more energy in Brady's voice throughout that game by the way is Brady getting better yeah absolutely Brady's been really good pretty good now yeah so I

was the first for everybody's such a first impression guy and size third impressions okay I got you brother but anyway to answer your question I think it's a I love I mean this is what I do for a living. The fact that we're 11 weeks in and the answer is yes to your question, like could three years down the road, are these four first round quarterbacks that were thrown in the fire?

Is there a chance that any one of them could be the best when it's all said and done? Like, I love that. And the league should love that. We've got, we've got my homes. We've got Josh Allen, we've got Lamar, we've got borough. We've, we've got this tier and none of them are old, but they're kind of reaching that whatever phase that that second phase of their career, you know, they're

in that second phase and so to know that there's a group underneath that's that has a chance to be successful and could be four more guys. And we'll see what with JJ, we'll see with Penex. Um, that's exciting. Right. Yeah, this is a positive. This is great. It'd be great if the league went six for six on these first rounders here, because

I know how much you like JJ as we went through last season and you kept, I was like, man, Tommy, get done with some of those episodes of like, you really, after doing the tape on him, like him way more than maybe is presented. Like you're finding the things that are really special about him that are maybe harder to see because there's just not that much opportunity because of what kind of offense Harbaugh was going to run and Michigan just didn't need him to do the things that some of these other quarterbacks were asked to do. And look, I'll tell you, like, I still think Pennex

threw the best ball out of all these guys. Yeah, I agree. But there's certainly issues too with moving him around and everything, but maybe him sitting around. So I think the thing is that it's a huge positive that we're even here, that it doesn't feel like there's a disaster of the four.

And can we just talk about how special of an afternoon if you're just an NFL fan and you're not necessarily rooting for one team. To go from four o'clock, 425, kick whatever, Buffalo and Kansas City, I think 425, and to watch those two quarterbacks battle again, that's become one of the great rivalries in terms of quarterback versus quarterback in the NFL. And, and then like, all right, you take a quick break. I grabbed some quick dinner, come back football America's go. And now we're on to Sunday night football and to watch the laser

show that was the nightcap. Like, dude, like Herbert was phenomenal. Burrow had all the answers. Burrow turned things around. That game was over. To see him in the second half, like you talked about, like a problem solver, and to do what he does at the elite level

in the second half of that game, special. Herbert, though, like, listen, I've always loved Herbert, physical tools. I, I was worried about Herbert that we would be here in year, what five, whatever we are. And that these would be the results. Cause I, where was the winning? Can he care? Herbert has taken his game to another level.

And the reason I say that he's always had the arm, he's always had the mobility. He's always had the physical tools. I see a guy now with the, like the mental confidence and the trust in what he's doing and the belief there. I mean, he was awesome in the first half. Like you were looking at him, like, how was there, how are there three, four other quarterbacks in the league that are better than this guy, right? Then he goes, what is it?

He was like, Oh, for seven for a stretch, I think in the game, like, and they couldn't move the wall in the second half. It's not a great offense. I, you know, they're using them less than everything, but I understand kind of what you're building towards here. Like, but what didn't happen in the past was, was the bouncing back and you know what I mean? Like, and the bounce back from that and to answer his own, you know, solve his own problems

and to finish the game where they, I don't know, I just, I thought it was a, another stepping point for him in his development and his progress. That's I don't want to make too big of a deal, but the biggest point is honestly for what? Seven, eight hours to watch those four quarterbacks play at that level and to do some of the things that they do. Like even the homes, man. Like, and, and I was, was it Romo on that brought? I think it was Romo.

He, he made the point as I was watching it, I thought the same thing and he said it and I don't like to admit, you know, whenever, but like there was a throw in that game, um, I think I even wrote it down. Yeah, six minutes remaining, third quarter, just a swing pass, nothing to it, right? But to watch the little detail in his game go back and that it was six minutes left in the third quarter, and to watch his eyes down the field,

negotiating the safeties, looking to see what was there, but not to come off of it like this, like over 1,001, throw it. The quickness, the snap decision and the snap throw, then to come to know where your outlet is, I think it was a running back down the right rail, probably a five, seven yard pass, nothing to it, but to do it that quickly and to have those safeties,

to have kept those safeties back, like that was, those are the little things he does at the highest, highest level that you just, when you study this enough, you just appreciate those things. Cause not a lot of guys do that, have the trust in the receiver, know where the outlet is and don't even have to really look and can snap that ball off and create five, six, seven more yards at the end of the play. When for a lot of quarterbacks, it would have been a thousand one throw, pick up the five yards, maybe one after the catch. To watch that for eight hours yesterday, it felt, it was just awesome.

It was awesome to watch. I loved it. It's probably my favorite Sunday so far. Because I'll do it with the 12 hours on Saturday, I'll admit there's some of those Sunday matchups where I just, the fumes are kind of like kicking up and, you know, but the funny thing is even with that score and I started prepping up some of the college football stuff, I was like, you know, this is going to be one of those NFL games. You're like, okay, how do we have a game here? How do we have a game again? Because you just felt like with Burrow and the

weapons and how about them on the fourth downs, like T Higgins like fourth and two, I know they missed on it against Baltimore, but they were like, whatever, we're just going right back to it, single coverage with him because Chase is double team magnet. The AFC is loaded. The AFC is loaded. We didn't even mention Stroud and they're all young and it's like, there are going to be teams that are fan bases. And it's not like this is new because it can happen without this, but there

are fan bases right now in the AFC is like when you don't have one of these guys, you are not going to win a play are fan bases. It's not like this is new because it can happen without this, but there are fan bases right now in the AOC. It's like when you don't have one of these guys, you are not going to win a playoff game for like 15 years. Yeah, period. You're just not, you're not going to get through this group. And you may think that sounds ridiculous. Like go through footballreference.com and look at teams encyclopedia page and go year by year

and see how crazy and how often you'll see a franchise with a decade long gap in between playoff wins. It's, it's way more, um, prominent than you would think. And when I think about a have not right now in this conference, you're screwed. All right. I want to talk, um, a little college ball here as we finish. Okay.

All right. So we don't need to get to a ton of stuff, but I had a moment on Saturday after the Georgia win, started looking at the resume, started looking at the rankings. I do my rankings before I look at the AP, but I knew that I would be different. AP made me sick. Okay.

Go ahead. Sorry. Well, the audience has already heard this, so I'm just presenting the theory to you. So I don't want to repeat necessarily everything. So they hear the same segment, the same podcast, but I have Georgia ranked ahead of Indiana. Yeah, I got no problem with it.

I sent a text to our team yesterday. How in the hell, like in what world is Penn State and Indiana better than Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee. I just don't see it. They're just not. I get it, like you have resumes and records and all that stuff, but they're just not. They're not.

South Carolina, I asked FanDuel the other day, South Carolina. You're loving FanDuel today. All right, partner. Yeah, I mean, mean I also I mean, let's just be honest. I absolutely buried. I don't know if like they're going to

be able to pay the bills this month for sponsorship on our show. It's just buried them for the same game. Yeah, I've been doing pretty good too. Yeah, Georgia, Georgia in the under buried him. My nine star play of the week. Now I mean it's not my thing necessarily, but but I'm hot right now. I married him. My nine star play of the week.

Now, I mean, it's not my thing necessarily, but I'm hot right now. I won the pool last two weeks. So, but anyway, my point was I asked Van Duel about it. South Carolina is what, six or seven in the SEC? As far as what are we talking about? Standings, whatever you want. Like teams that have a chance to get in,

six or seven, whatever it is. My point was South Carolina is not one of those top four teams and Indiana was favored by three and a half on a neutral site. Yeah, they're seventh. They're 19th of the seventh SEC team ranked. Right. And that's the seventh.

I love South Carolina. South Carolina is one of my favorite teams to watch on Saturdays. I agree. The Nam. The game was incredible. I don't even have it in the open because I know ultimately nobody's really going to care, but I, every time South Carolina is on, I make sure I like, don't just treat them like an afterthought because I love watching that team play football. Same here. Same here.

So I just don't see it with Indiana and I don't see it with, with Penn State. I don't. My problem is that with the expansion that I think people need to be a little braver in the committee room about this and be realistic about who teams are playing. We used to care about out of conference. The in conference imbalance

is so stupid right now that you're going to have Indian. And actually like when I watch them, I don't go, God, they stink. And they're just getting, no, they're great. They couldn't play better ball with what they have. Right. This is not about watching them this season, because when you do watch them, they are impressive. The problem is, is that I think Washington's the toughest team that

they'll have played will find out against Ohio State. But what I'm saying is if they lose to Ohio State, they better not get in over some of these two lost SEC teams. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot, there's actually not a lot of ball left in terms of like significant, there's Texas, Texas A&M and the SEC.

Other than a massive upset, there's not a lot of like resume left to be filled out in the SEC. Okay. Well, the Texas and Texas A&M game is still significant because then it leads to like what would happen if Texas were to lose that one, you know, No, it's significant. I said outside of that game. That game is hugely significant. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm hugely significant. Um, to me, so here, here's the problem. You got big 12 is going to get in there champion. You got the ACC is going to get in the champion. Currently it's a, you know, the, the conference champion of the non power for

the highest rank, which would be Boise state. Right. So those three are in Boise states better than Tulane. I haven't studied a ton of Tulane tape this year. They're kicking everyone's ass now. Yeah, I see. I mean, I see that, but I'm not here for a Tulane Boise State conversation right now. You know what?

I can come back to you. That's unfair. I can come back to you. No, but you know what you did is you answered the question the way you should answer is that if you haven't done it, that I don't want to hear the answer. Yeah. So there you go. All right. But what I have done and what I feel strongly about is, so those three are in,

you know, for certain two are in from the, from the big 10, right? And probably three. Having a fourth in from the big 10 limits. Now you're, you can only have four in from the sec, right? Well, it wicks. So let's do the math quick. Cause I did it with booger and it's funny when you start adding them all up, like the spots start going away. So you've got four from the sec, four from the big 10.

You've got ACC big 12. You're a 10. Notre Dame is 11. Notre Dame. Yes. Notre Dame. Right. So Notre Dame gets overlooked in all of this stuff.

So, so here's my question. It boils down to this. Should a fourth big 10 team be in over the fifth SEC team? Now if A&M gets beat handily by Texas, then maybe it's an easier discussion. Yeah, but your four SEC would be Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, and. Bama, Ole Miss, or Bama, Ole Miss or Tennessee.

Yeah, that's five right there. That's five. If Indiana's 11 and one. That's my point, how do you leave one of those teams out? Who are you leaving out? Tennessee where any of you was on and hung tough with Georgia the other night. Tennessee beat Alabama.

We're on the same side. I just don't know because like you're applying previous, like when I would think of the four teams and I would think of, you know, that second loss is really a deal breaker, but the schedules were far more balanced. They look at the big 12, look at how Arizona state and Colorado and BYU, you know, it's a different scenario after they lose to Kansas, Colorado. I've already done my, you know, confession on it. You know, I thought they were going to stink

again after the Nebraska game. We've covered it. But, but the end of the season is you're looking at those standings and you maybe aren't locked into the big 12 and you're going, how does Arizona state control their own destiny? We'll look at who they've played and who they haven't. And the fact that the big 12 team, the winner of that conference

can get one of the four seeds. I don't like this is my point. I don't like this. I like things where people get left out. All right. I'm going to tell you a story. Maybe it's a little mature. Maybe people aren't going to like it. Fresh on the campus of Vermont figuring you're

not good enough to play a sport. You want to make fun of me for joining a fraternity. I totally get it. All right. I have no connection. I don't respond to the emails asking me to donate, but I kind of knew where I wanted to be and where

I didn't want to be. And you start asking around to donate. But I kind of knew where I wanted to be and where I didn't want to be. And he started asking around and I only picked one and I was like, if they don't pick me, then I don't want anything to do with any of this anyway. And, um, they were like, well, there's this other place where you only get haze for like a weekend. Pledging is like you show up to a barbecue on

Friday and they do like a hike on Saturday. Of course they hike at Vermont. Yep. Yeah. Right. And then on Sunday, you just, you just sort of in, I was like, so just anybody's in and you only get haze for like three days. Cause some guys were like, dude, this hazing thing might suck. I was like, yeah, it might, but, and then I was like, well, what's, what's the place, the place that I want to join, what's their deal? They're like, it sucks, but you're gonna get hazed and you're gonna go home for Christmas and you're gonna get hazed again when you come back.

And then once you're actually like a brother, but you're a freshman, it's basically you just hazed again, you're not really fully accepted until maybe halfway through your sophomore year. And then if we regret even inviting you in, then we're going to make it even worse that we made a mistake by giving you a bid and it's just going to be really mean for the entire four years. And I was like, well, I want to do that one. Cause that one sounds like it's tougher.

Yeah, you earned it. I want to, I want to get, I don't want to meet guys on Friday and call them brothers Sunday night. Anybody can do that. I want the tougher one. I apply the same thought process to the college football playoff. There shouldn't be this like, nah, that's cool. And I, I, I thought you were going to disagree with me a little bit more here,

but maybe it's because I think we watch, we do a pretty good job of watching all of these teams from all over the country. And that's another thing too, is like, what's the point of watching for three plus months, if you can only go, well, that team has less losses. all of these teams from all over the country. And that's another thing too, is like, what's the point of watching for three plus months if you can only go, well, that team has less losses. I'm okay now that you're, now that we got the fraternity story out. Yeah, sure.

And you've proven your toughness yet again. Might've been better in a monologue. Did you get into that fraternity? I did. And we got so long because we got in trouble. And then it went on. And you guys still brothers today? I'm probably closer with a bunch of the guys that quit.

But yeah. I'm okay with the Boise State getting in or Tulane if after studying the tape this week and we talk about it on Monday, you know, but I'm okay with, we should represent the non-powerful. I'm okay with that. You know, we should represent the non-powerful. I'm okay. Okay. I'm okay with that. You know what?

Now that you talk about it, why should an ACC champion get one of the top four seats? Why should, why should a big 12 champion get one of the top four seats? Top four teams in the country should get the top four seats. Period. Yeah, it's not going to happen. Cause I mean, look, the last time they did this. When the conference commissioners and all the school presidents and the ADs were like, why did we set a system up, which guaranteed to jam up one conference when we had the good old power

five, right? Why did we sign off on something where it was we all look at each other in the room? They're guaranteed to get into the, into the, no, I'm talking about, I'm talking about the 14 version that we had, right? Like the expansion of the 14, the first thing was why would you, and my thought was cool, I want someone left out. I would rather leave someone out. Yeah. Then invite more people in that don't deserve it.

And 11 and one Indiana will not deserve it over one of these two losses. You see teams considering the opponents. What if it's over time? I don't care. Okay. You played one team out of 12. You lost and you're going to, you're going to match that up with what Tennessee's had to go through.

What George has had to go through. I totally agree. I totally agree. It's a completely different this year. I'm not saying every this year based off of what I'm seeing and the fact that Ole Miss beat Georgia, Ole Miss lost games they should win with Kentucky and LSU, right? Hey, who are we talking about? Ole Miss. I'm just kind of going through like Tennessee beat Alabama.

Yeah, the Kentucky loss was really bad. Alabama beat Georgia. Georgia beat Texas. They should have won the LSU game but whatever. Yeah, but my point in all of this is, if one of them doesn't get in, you argue, yeah, but they beat that team, you know what I mean? So like with all of them. What you're saying, what you'd be doing is you'd be going, if you get lucky in your inner conference draw,

play no one out of conference, then you can have a really nice record with never beating anybody and you will be rewarded for that. So again, these arguments that I've had in the past, because the big 10 schedule has played out this way. So like help a Penn state, right? Or it's like, okay, you're going to lose the Michigan and Ohio state. You're going to smoke everybody else.

The other division stinks. You're not going to play anybody out of conference. Awesome. I guess you're good. Now this makes it even worse because of expansion because it completely different schedules within the same conference and so you'll be setting a precedent and again it depends on what the rest of the field is so it doesn't mean hey in 24 this happens so in 27 this has to happen

here as we know as things play out you're like okay this is actually an option but when I look at the ACC big 12 part, and I'm not saying I'm on like South Carolina in the fucking playoff, I just think the Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee. And when I see the AP rankings, I go, you guys need to do a better job. You need to be honest about what's happened this season and not just focus on the record. It's a big, uh, it's a, and I said this on Saturday night in our post game show. And our live reaction show.

While it's only, this is the third week of the rankings reveal, right? On Tuesday night. But this one's critical because it's going, you can't rank all these SECs. First of all, where do you rank them? I saw on the AP, Ole Miss is ranked ahead of Georgia. But my point is, how they're slotted in the SEC is one thing that now that you go on and Georgia's playing somebody inconsequential and then Georgia Tech,

there's nothing that's going to significantly alter a lot of these teams in terms of what happens down the stretch. So where they rank them here outside of A&M in Texas, where they rank them here is probably kind of the grouping, if you will, of all these SEC teams. So that's the first part. The second part is Indiana is different, but with Penn State, like, you got to set up, you got to set a precedent here, I think. Make Indiana go beat Ohio State to get ahead of these SEC teams.

Make them do that. And does a one-loss Penn State team with the schedule that they've played deserve to be ahead of these five or four other SEC teams that are Texas? No. So to me, this is a very important ranking reveal, if you will, because the committee has to kind of show its cards early here. I don't know why it would change all that much unless they have this moment that I had on Saturday night and Sunday night where I was going through it being like, this is just this imbalance schedule thing has changed

what the experience can be for some of these teams and it's going to keep happening because these leagues are so big. All right. You can check out Todd on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturday night, college football recap. So yeah, man, this has been awesome. The shows on Saturday are great. So make sure you subscribe to those and we'll talk to you again soon. Thanks Todd.

All right, brother. Talk to you again soon. Thanks, Todd. All right, brother, talk to you. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Let's get to the emails. But first, did you guys watch Tyson? Yeah, I did. That's Kyle content right there. That's like that center of the- Yeah, I'm a huge guy. Yeah. What do you mean?

I'm just kidding. Just the the buffering. My was that bad. Really? Yeah. You know, I have been having internet issues here and I saw everybody complaining about it. It was like definitely not awesome, but I was able to at least kind of like see. I didn't know if I was like way behind everybody else. I kind of tried to stay on Twitter, although it didn't really matter in the end. But yeah, it turned out it didn't. Yeah, I just had to keep like

backing out and going back in because it's you know, it's like, oh, he's got him in the corner. And then it's, you know, I don't know if you guys watch Silicon Valley, but it was very much like that. When they launched the nucleus thing, if you didn't see it, then nevermind. It was a lot like when they launched nucleus Kyle. Great, great call back there. Thanks. That was a good episode. I didn't have that much of a problem either.

I just saw everybody losing their minds on Twitter and I thought, oh, I guess maybe in LA we're in a hot zone or. Yeah, we're getting throttled. I don't know. Yeah, maybe it was just lucked out a little bit. Uh, I would say a few things here before we get to live advice. I was rooting for Tyson. Yep.

I do wonder like who around my age would be rooting for Jake Paul. I just can't. I have to be rooting for Jake Paul. Um, if you're younger rooting for Jake Paul, I'm rooting for Jake Paul. I just can't. I have you think I would be rooting for Jake Paul? Um, if you're younger rooting for Jake Paul, I understand. If you're my age rooting for Jake Paul, it's like, is kid rock your favorite rapper too, like I don't, I don't like, do you really love the end of Hoosiers? So I just would wonder what. So I thought Jake Paul was going to win.

Um, because I think it's really hard to fight when you're 58. I would also say that everybody that I know that thinks that Tyson just took the check and didn't care and didn't want to fight because his workout videos were so much better than the actual fight are the same people that believe like literally everything. I think one of the biggest problems I had with Bitcoin was that once I'd read about it and understood it, and I was like, okay, that makes a lot of sense, but the people that I knew that were the most passionate

about it were people I wouldn't let like fold a shirt. You know, it was just, it was some of the worst people that I've known that I'm like, I wouldn't trust this guy in anything, even though I understand the Bitcoin part of it, but if this guy's so into it. And then of course it's that, Oh, Tyson through the fight. And I'm like, well, why, why do you think he threw the fight? And then it keeps getting back. Like people are posting his workout videos. And this isn't like I'm fucking Chuck Norris over here, but I'm just telling you like throwing combinations in 10, 15 second videos is a lot different

than actually getting in the ring and then having to worry about getting hit. And you could even see what Tyson, like he would have moments where he would kind of forget that he could use his footwork and then he would like do something and then it's like, man, this is exhausting. So I was, I was just rooting for Mike to not get knocked out. I'm thrilled that he got paid. Um, but I don't know if I'm going to do for some reason, we got an ass shot.

Yeah, we did the Mike Tyson ass chaps, the crying Jordan guy tried to like, and I was like, dude, I think this is over. Are you going to tune in for Jake Paul versus Jimmy Carter next year? What do you think? Nice. Even did you run that down? Hell in a cell. I was gonna say, I don't wanna do this to you, Kyle,

but that is straight out of the Brian Curtis overuse Twitter joke of the night. Exactly, that's where I got it from. Perfect. Wait, Kyle, were you rooting for Jake Paul? No, no. I was rooting for this not to happen, actually. But yeah. It was sad.

I was sad. I fell in love watching it. It was sad. I hated it. Yeah, I watched it was sad I was sad it was I felt it was sad watching it I hated it yeah I watched it though I was kind of excited though and then as it's happening I'm like ah man this is this is you know just to just to back up though the Tyson hitting you know just hitting some guys hands and hitting in a gym is that what's what's more believable that or a Ben Simmons summer workout video first thing that jumped into my brain. So did you see the Ben Simmons video, him missing every single shot and pregame warmup? I did, no for eight, right?

Yep, not great. He was making them difficult on himself. I would say like he wasn't just- Step backs, yeah. Yeah, he was trying to do some high level stuff. If you wanna maybe save Ben Simmons a little, but I think we all like people, like even if we don't like fighting, we like to watch fighting.

Like if a fight happens, you're going to want to watch it. If a fight video pops up on my feed, I'm probably going to watch it. I don't like watching the ones at school and I don't like watching like people jump a dude, you know, where it's guys completely out. But like a barbecue gets a little out of hand. You're like, well, where's this going? Oh, Max Kellerman said it and I reminded him of it and he forgot that he'd even said it.

I thought it was one of the most astute things I've ever heard is that we're all fans of fights. We're all fight fans, whether you think you are or you aren't because if a fight happens, you're gonna not watch it. So this was certainly the curiosity thing, but I, we'll see. I mean, I can say I'm done. I certainly wouldn't have paid for it.

And since you're like most people already had Netflix and it's like, all right, whatever, I'll throw this on. It was like perfect timing. Cause the NBA games are finishing up even though thank God I got to watch Jaren Fox go for 60 and Anthony Edwards just closed that absurd overtime game out. So I would have been pissed if I missed that or I would have just gone back and watched it, but I didn't, I didn't like any of it, even though I'm not mad that it happened.

How about that? Did you see the women's fight though? That fight was that was cool. Sick. That fight was great fight. Yeah. Her eye was just hanging out down, man. She got hosed on that.

I thought, I thought it, she got, I mean, I was reading some people don't think so and they would have the scoring closer, But I don't know those headbutts. I'm not a boxing expert, so you can tell me I'm an idiot, but like Taylor kept getting her head up into her and I'm like, this seems illegal. This seems illegal. You couldn't be able to do this because clearly like her cup wasn't from a punch. Was that guy her dad at the end? Uh, or just, just a trainer, but he was very like dad-like and he's like, now mind

you go, but he came with facts and he was like, look at all of our fights. He's got a history of a, I was like, wow, that was, you know, whether or not that's admissible in court, it definitely got to people thinking, I think, so. Yeah, that went on forever, but I think Netflix was pumped because they were just like, we're gonna. Let this guy cook, yeah. Yeah, get an hour.

Some people were wondering if Sid should be entertaining. How many more Rosie Perez can we get? What was Rosie Perez do? What was going on then? I don't know. I love when Roy was like, I don't think he has it anymore. We're like, no shit. I don't like the likes. Or when Roy and the play-by-play guy are arguing about whether or not Tyson's biting his gloves or he's got like a mouthpiece issue and the guy's like,

Roy, I don't want to be disrespectful, but I've done a ton of research. Tyson does this. And they're just having an argument on the broadcast. I didn't know it was Rosie Perez for like an hour. I was like, it can't be. That's just going to be me thinking. I know everything. It was like, this isn't fucking Rosie Perez.

There she is. My God. Yeah. Then they had a Cedric the entertainer at the desk and people were accusing him of doing a LeBron Godfather Recap or they're like how many Tyson fights have you been to and he was like, oh they're like which one he was like I a lot of them. There's so many. Yeah, which one should I choose? and then he said other one where he bit the guy's ear and

The one everyone knows He maybe he was just tired. I don't know. I don't, I don't know what happened, but look, all I can tell you is that Saturday was much more enjoyable. John Jones, Stipe, although I think Stipe retired in the first round after about 10 of those elbows and then he lasted long enough and then it just, I don't know. I felt, I put it this way.

I felt sad for Tyson in a different way and sadder for Steve Bay in a more respectful way. How about that? I just, I just love seeing all of the, because all over my Instagram and Twitter of like the Jake Paul, you know, Disney video stuff, what he looks like now and the transformation it's nuts, man. It's because I don't, I'm a little too old. I don't really, I didn't see them on Disney Channel. I watched Disney Channel growing up obviously as most other

people did but so they're not really in my world but so I didn't realize that he was like, I didn't realize what he looked like originally. I had no idea. It'd be like Jared McCain becoming Lee Haney. So, all right. Tough reference there. Some of you guys, some of the older guys got that one. I got half of that one. Yeah. Body builder. Okay. Nice work. Nice work. So really. Okay. A couple emails. Let's go. Cute neighbor. 25, six foot, 165. What's that? So that's exciting. Isn't it?

New neighbor moves in. It's like, wow. I love a cute neighbor. Been down that road. You ever date anybody in your building? Cerruti is too rural. I've never been in a building before. When did you live in a department? West Hartford. Yeah. What are you talking about? You don't know me bro. West Hartford, it was in several. Yeah, what are you talking about? In your last- Yeah, but those, West Hartford,

like how many units are we talking? I don't know, probably north of 20, I don't know. 20 units? Yeah, South Main Street, dude, come on. You know the deal. Walking distance to the center was a good time. It was the most financially stable I've ever felt in my life. I know.

It's funny when you can have moments of being younger, but like I remember I wasn't raking it in during the end of my run in Vermont, but I wasn't worried. Like I knew I could pay for whatever needed to be paid for. I think my rent was 300 bucks and you know, it was food expenses and whatever. It wasn't exactly hammering any, uh, any funds, right? But I just knew, and I knew where the money was coming from and then to be broke after was really tough.

So it sounds like, did you go through a phase where you were actually more broke, but in theory, more successful? No, I mean, it just, maybe I'm talking about myself here. I would just say you, you have less things to worry about financially. You know, like my, I had a $600 rent and I went out three, four days a week in the center and I was breaking even. And I was feeling great about myself. Like now it's like, Hey, what am I putting in retirement? Like, you know, we got kids daycare.

Like we're doing all right, but it's just like, there's more to worry about. Yeah, right. No ETFs back then. All right. Um, by the way, I just remembered in college, it was a secret though. And so she would wake me up at like five in the morning. I'm like a neighbor by the way, I just remembered in college. It was a secret though, and so she would wake me up at like 5 in the morning on like a Sunday like you gotta go. And I was like, all right, this is getting a little old. So I think I don't think I would be the one who stopped it. I don't remember how it stopped.

But I just remember like a few Saturdays and Sunday mornings. It's like five. She's like, you got to get out of here. Like walk across the shared driveway. They didn't want people in commune to know that you guys were I don't know she didn't like our friend groups were like, I don't know like pair I mean they intersected but like, you know, there were a group of girls We were a group of dudes, but like we were we shared like the same big driveway It's like, you know the weird college town layouts. I just remember I

Got tired of waking up at like five in the morning and you know, it's cold and pot-stam So that's an early wake and pot stamp. So, that's an early wake up call. Yeah. Not good. She said you ran a daycare, but I started thinking they were her kids. They're all the time. What is this? 24 hour? All right. Let's just get to this email because we spent so much time on this other stuff. Um, pickup comp, Gigi Dottome, a mid tier shooter with extremely high IQ, excels in team-oriented play. Maybe not good enough for the highest level, but

can contribute, but providing great overall vibes while coaching the JV basketball team last year. I crossed a 16-year-old up during practice and he had to sit out three games because of a sprained ankle. Badass, I know. All right. Well, this guy really gave us some backstory. My dilemma starts with this guy really gave us some backstory. My dilemma starts with this, and also the most obscure basketball competent history of this exercise. Don't try to outdo it

because it's probably gonna be less fun. My dilemma starts with this. I recently moved to a large Midwest city in the heart of downtown. I've loved living here despite the lackluster attempts of finding a reliable friend group who I can just chill with on any given night. I am a runner.

Shout out to my 357.09 marathon time last month. I've attempted to find cute single girls at run clubs like every other single 25 year old do this summer. I'm a solid rural eight out of 10 in a city six and a half. I know my constraints, skinny, partially lazy eye, big nose, but I also know my strengths, caring, compassionate, and can seem interested in any conversation by asking high quality follow up questions. This guy's fucking intense self-scouter.

Can you be a rural eight with a lazy eye? Rural eight? Well, you just called me a rural, so. I think so. What else is it like? What is like cool scar maybe that could, that could boost you a little bit strong. Okay. I don't know. I don't know the answer.

If you're like kind of skinny and tall runner rip to like some girls, like girls like that would be cool. Okay. Um, moving on, I quickly discovered that when moving into my apartment in August, I have a really cute neighbor. Let's call her Maria. I struck up a 32nd conversation with her a couple of months back and found out she recently moved here and is in med school. I saw one of her, I saw her one other time in the elevator and she was on the phone. So obviously I didn't say anything. Maria isn't just another cute neighbor.

She's somehow effortless, effortlessly charming. And as a med school vibe that screams future sugar mama, which as a teacher, I needed my life. Good for you. Yeah. I mean, he's, this guy's just ripping through the honest. You've got a five year plan. Yeah.

The next 30 years. All right. Um, in mind, I planned exactly how I was going to retrieve her number for months, ask her how she liked the city, how med school is going and casually asked to get coffee and then get the digits that took months to plan that. Yesterday I went for, I saw her in the hallway, asked her how she liked the city and how school's going, just like I planned.

She was genuinely interested in asking me a few questions too. I ended the nerve wracking conversation with quote, if you ever want to grab a coffee, let me know. She smiled, chuckled parentheses. I swear she's into me and said quote, sure. I'll knock on your door while pretending to not solid interaction, right?

Wrong. I forgot to ask her for a number. I would say everything up to that was all pretty good. I mean, unless she's just, if she was an actress, I'd be like, you're in trouble. She just played out a scenario where she's giving us off. No, but yeah, that seems kind of good. It's specific, right? Sure.

I'll knock on your door, pretend to knock. Now I'm stuck in this bizarre, uh, limbo. I promise that when I say this, if we go in a day, I will fall in love or maybe I already have what's the play here, guys. Do I play the long game and wait for her to knock? Go full rom com slash hallmark Christmas movie and ask for sugar. Ask for sugar for the cookies I am baking.

Do I leave a note on her door that doesn't scream serial killer? Every move feels critical but I also know the risk because she's not into it. It's eight months of hallway awkwardness. Still it's worth it. In short, do I risk it or wait it out and hope for a door knocking Christmas miracle?

Well written email. You're on your back foot here, right? You left it up to her. And that's like, everything else is basically a double text at this point, unless like a lot of time passes. Yeah, double text Kyle. You know, you're like, you let me know, which you know, if you want to seal that deal, that's really not like, you know,

it's really not the move. So I don't think you can leave a note. I think if like, way more time has to pass before you go knocking like, I locked myself out or I, you know, do you have sugar? I mean, don't do that one. But like, does anyone does anyone have sugar anymore yeah mine's like a big like hard rock of stuff I think I need a new sugar when I eventually need sugar but I think yeah I don't I don't know you might just have to catch her out it can't be something where you're going to her door can't be that you might have to like catch her as she's leaving and you're running or I don't know. But yeah, any of this clever shit

she's gonna see right through and be like, oh fuck, he's weird. I thought we were okay. You don't know if she was into her. And she sounds like she's super nice. And if you just left it open as like, whenever you're ready to go have coffee with me, let me know.

And she's like, great, never gonna be ready. So I don't know, I think you may, I think you just on your back foot here and you just gotta hope for the best or wait for long enough and then you can maybe ask her. But you don't want her to think she's got a problem on her hands if this happened like three weeks ago

and she hasn't knocked on your door yet and you're like, you think you're all out of time. You're waiting. Yeah. You're like, whoa, whoa, boy. Yeah, I agree. I would not do anything that is forward whatsoever because it, it just, it just going to get even just as our safety safe. Yeah.

You can't do that. I think this is kind of creepy, but it's, your intentions are good, but can you just kind of like be around and just try to catch her like hang around the elevator, you know, like your warm-ups right outside the building Yeah, you know I do it maybe maybe like Do you you say you like running just run around the building a bunch of times and hopefully you catch her one of the Loops or something. I don't know like I Just make it seem kind of accidental and like oh hey like you know, cuz again like the door thing

You shouldn't approach her door ever. I've got a super thick door. I don't know if you've knocked or not. I can't really hear much of it. I was curious the hardware you have here on your eye socket thing. Where'd you pick that up? What's the zoom on that? Oh, that was stock. I'll have a talk to the super.

Well, look, there's a fine line between creepy and the beginning of a wedding toast. Well, look, there's a fine line between creepy and the beginning of a wedding toast. So, you know, it's like the classic, oh, we just, the girls just wanted to go out tonight. You know, it's like, well, who approached you? It was annoying. And then it's like, well, the right guy approaches you like, oh my God, this is awesome. So, you know, people have to talk to each other at some point or none of us would be here. So I'm all for kind of Cerruti's theory. Just be around, get the reps, get those reps in, check your mail seven fucking times a day. All right.

I don't know what the front of your building's like. This might be a little too aggressive, but since she's in med school and maybe has a deep seated desire to take care of others, you could clean up a little bit. I mean, you're going to have to put in the time. You're going to have to be like the night's watch and just be in areas constantly hoping to run into her again. All right. And you don't want to say, Hey,

how about that coffee right away? Right? You'll know, you'll know on the second interaction if there's sincere interest. And I hope that there is, because I really thought that email was well written, even if I don't, but that's just what's going to have to, I remember, here's a lesson that my father taught me long, long time ago.

My father started out as a humble bricklayer and then promoted to decks, pressure treated. And, um, he got an addition one day and that was huge, really big, big deal for our family. And I don't know, I was working for him as I did all those summers and we were sitting in the truck, probably eating meatball subs. And I was like, dude, can we, can we get out of here? You know, we're just parked.

We're just parked in my dad's red, cherry red F-150 in this parking lot of this place. And I'm just like, can we go? And he goes, and he had signs, right? He had his builder signs, his magnets that he put on the doors of the truck. And he was like, I got the addition, the biggest job I've ever gotten because I just was sitting in my truck waiting. And somebody walked up and was like, Hey, are you local? And he was like, yep.

Started bullshitting, went over, did the estimate. The addition was huge. It was a big, big deal for our family. My father got an addition and it was just being present. It was being in the eyeline and you have to do it. Like if you really, I mean, granted, it sounds like you already want to marry this chick. Um, you're going to have to invent ways to be in

the common areas. And if you're in a colder Midwest city, time is running out. I can you're in a cold or Midwest city, time is running out. I could see him in January. Like, Hey, do you think like your water pressure changed in the last couple of weeks? I don't know. I feel like something's off. Cause I was saying like you could clean up like out front if there was more, but then it's like, she might be like, Oh, this guy's like total hippie. And I don't, I don't want to do this, but if it's Chicago,

you know, you have like a couple of weeks. You need it. You took you a month to develop your first plan. You need a plan like for when, when you do inevitably see her, like, and you kind of try to slow play it, play it cool. Don't be like, Hey, what about that coffee? Like have something to say, have something to like suggest to her. That's not too forward. That isn't the same coffee thing over and over again.

Like have a plan again is that you don't want to just like, be like, okay, I hear she is, what do I do now? Oh no. Like rehearse. I think he'll have a plan, but you're right. I mean, rehearse that. Yeah. Yeah.

That's yeah. Well, you don't want to end up on your back foot again, because, you know, you could have gotten the answer to this that day, maybe it was like, Oh, give me, give me your number and I'll, you know, we'll figure this out maybe. I mean, by the way, the building thing, especially in like a major city, you're just going to have to get over it. There's maybe ones that go south. And yes, if you were to date and then break up, it's way worse.

But if you just, she doesn't have interest in you and then you're worried about that awkwardness, honestly, at least this seed has been planted. We don't know if it will grow or not, but you know, looking back at early days of your boy, sometimes the best stuff that I could do would have it go horribly wrong in the beginning, but I had something unique to build off of. There was a unique experience that then could be laughed about. And then all of the awkward, like, I don't really know this person. Um, I don't know. I don't really want to tell the story.

It's kind of embarrassing. Sometimes it's good to trust your instincts. I was pretty young. I mean, I was really young. Hmm. Maybe the next contract. Um, it's not that, it's not, it's not that bad. It's just sort of embarrassing. Maybe the next contract. It's not that, no, it's not, it's not that bad. It's just sort of embarrassing.

But I do think like, oh no, you know, I asked her for coffee and actually the second time through it didn't go that well and whatever she didn't really like me. So now I'm gonna see her recycling every now and then and it's gonna be awkward. Who gives a shit? Like you'll get over that stuff.

All right, we got another one here that we gotta do quicker. Quicker, caught in between two words like Lamar, I drop back. Girlfriend's brother is being an asshole. 5'11", 145, don't max often, but bench about 135, squat 250, maybe more. I would say definitely more at some point.

Can't think of a basketball comp, but it's probably some Eastern European guy who can throw dimes and runs the fast break so aggressively it annoys the other team in pickup. Here's the situation. In my mid-twenties, in about a million person Midwest city, my girlfriend and I have been dating for two years. I love hanging out with her family and her two siblings, including her 15-year-old brother who's a freshman in high school. Like most 15-year-olds who play football at a smallish high school in the middle of the country, him and his freshman football buddies can be little assholes. The younger brother has a girlfriend that everyone hates. My girlfriend's mom hates the younger brother's girlfriend and has caused issues.

She really sucks. It was banned from coming over for a while after yelling at his girlfriend's mom or my girlfriend's mom, I guess. Yeah, that would make sense. My girlfriend's mom. Who the fuck yells at somebody else's parents at 15? White kids. I'm kidding. Yeah. Yeah. It's only white kids. That's crazy. I cannot fathom being 15 and yelling at like-

Someone else's mom. Yeah, somebody else's dad or mom. The younger brother has a girlfriend that everyone hates. My girlfriend's mom, or we already read that line, Ryan, the brother needs to break up with her, but he won't. It doesn't even seem like he likes her. On top of that, he's been texting other girls in his social circle. He was texting one girl for a while and almost broke up with his girlfriend,

but then decided to just ghost the other girl. He was texting out of the blue after leading her on. He's still with the awful girlfriend. My question is, do I try and talk to my girlfriend's brother and explain that he's being a little asshole and needs to treat the girls better and not lead them on and probably needs to break up with his girlfriend or just let him learn on his own?

I am worried about him becoming a bad person and treating women terribly, but he's probably just a 15-year-old and a shit. Thanks. PS, more baseball content. The streets love the fantasy baseball draft episodes. Well, obviously 23 took it out of me because I didn't even get it. I planned on doing one in 24, but I was still tired from the 23 one.

I would put this one firmly in the bucket of who fucking cares. Why is this your fight? This guy, like, I mean, he might wake up at 19 or 20, you know what I mean? But like that's, that's when you have to like start holding people accountable as long as there's no like violent crime involved. It's like, you weren't even like, you're, I'm not even talking to that guy anymore. Like just the difference between 15 and like done with high school and maybe a year or two, a college under your belt, just, you just become nicer to everyone in your family,

usually your friends, stuff like that. So yeah, this, you're right. So yeah, that's, you're right. Who the fuck cares? Like you're talking to a wall. It is what it like, you know, dude's priority. Who did you listen to? Right. Like who did you listen to when you were 15 that wasn't a parent?

And some of you didn't listen to your parents either. Maybe it was an older brother. Maybe it was Craig who stayed back and used to bring in car magazines to lunch saying, I'm going to get this Jetta when I get my license. You're like, Craig can do anything. So I just don't know that there's many people, especially like if he's a little bit more on the alpha side of 15, you said he plays football.

He's got all of his buddies. Chicks are certainly in him. This kid is feeling himself in a way that he's never really felt himself before. So even though you get along with him and maybe he looks up to you a little bit, I'm just telling you, this is likely a massive waste of your time. And I think your heart's in the right place

and that'd be cool and maybe pull, you can try it once. You can try it once and he's, you wanna talk low retention levels? This is like reading a book in a foreign language. Like it's just not. Right. I'm trying to think who was I like tuned into, like outside of like, oh, this guy's an adult,

I should listen to. It was probably like my buddy's older brother who was like fresh out. He's like that guy knows what the fuck he's talking about. Yeah, right. That guy, I listened to that guy, but like, you know, maybe I mean, counselor of my buddy's older brother, who's just like, you know, you would listen to a guidance counselor.

I'm trying to think as a pile, as opposed to those guys, actually with my guidance counselor called my parents and I was hanging out with bottom of the barrel dudes. Got a big troll. That means he had high hopes for you though. That's actually a compliment. I know, but we had beef the whole rest of high school. Cause I was like, man, you really jam me up here.

They're asking where I am. Come on. He's trying to give you some guidance. Yeah. Oh, well, you know, as I say it though, I mean, to your point, Kyle, we're probably, I think men or boys in this case, boys, I mean, to your point, Kyle, we're probably, I think men, or boys in this case, boys, two men, maybe you're super impressionable by that older guy, you know, that isn't a family member

and you might want to, but I think when it comes to this, like if girls are hitting this dude up left and right, and they're gonna break up, so that's the other part of like, who cares? Good luck. All right. That'll do it for the show. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Kyle.

Thanks to Saruti. Check out our YouTube page and subscribe to the Ryan Russo podcast on Ringer Spot. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.