The Ryen Russillo Podcast - What Does the Game of the Year Mean? Plus Allen, Rodgers, and Fields's Improvement With Trent Dilfer, and Life Advice.

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

Russillo shares his five most important takeaways from NFL Week 10, including the Vikings' win over the Bills in the game of the year, who between the Chargers or 49ers could go on a run, and more (1:19). Then, Ryen is joined by Trent Dilfer who discusses improvements from quarterbacks Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, and Justin Fields (16:00). Then Ryen talks about Washington’s impressive win on the road at Oregon before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (48:54). Host: Ryen Rusillo Guest: Trent Dilfer Producers: Kyle Crichton and Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The time has come to get ready for the 2022 World Cup. And what better way to prepare than by revisiting the World Cup's most amazing goals? I'm Brian Phillips. I'm making a podcast about the history of the Men's World Cup, told through the stories of 22 iconic goals. The show's called 22 Goals. It's out now on the Ringer podcast network, and we're having so much fun. We tend in the books, all timer.

What does it mean for Minnesota to go into Buffalo and get that win? We'll ask Trent Dill for that. I'll go over my five things from the week. Some college football reactions. We try to make sense of the playoff races and life advice. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here. So be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. of the playoff races and life advice. delicious crumb topping? Total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Week 10, five things all right game of the year now you know me when everybody's kind of on the same page or something i'm like wait is it really game of the year i do think minnesota buffalo is

the game of the year i mean i was trying to think like is there anything else that you i mean that bills chiefs game good exciting fun stuff boring. But still, although you could argue this was a boring first half, it just wasn't as ridiculous. This game was so ridiculous throughout. I mean, I was trying. I'm like, two of six touchdowns against Baltimore? No, that's not what this was. Because it meant so much because it's, hey, it's Minnesota with this awesome record. It's are the Bills really the Super Bowl favorites?

All the different stuff. The Josh Allen elbow injury. And then you're looking at it and you're like, all right, it's are the bills really the super bowl favorites all the different stuff the josh allen elbow injury and then you're looking at it you're like all right it's 27 10 right so let's start for when it wasn't game of the year and then work our way towards there uh because at 27 10 everything's in its right place it all makes sense you're like minnesota seven and one come on really bills are going to be seven and two They're going to be the one seed in the AFC. Then it's 27-17 because Dalvin Cook, one play, 81 yards, takes it to the house. You're like, okay, whatever.

Buffalo still in control. Fluky big play there. Great blocking on it, by the way, to the left side. It's fourth and two. Red zone. Could kick the field goal, but they want to go up 34-17, end this thing, and then you've got another Josh Allen pick in the red zone. That's three at the time of that pick, right,

because there was a fourth one later on in overtime to Patrick Peterson again. At that time, and I guess we could just add it up to total, that's four red zone picks in the last three games for Josh Allen. He had two red zone picks in his previous 67 games. So now it's 27-23. Minnesota's got the football. Right, they score at 27-23. They miss the extra point.

13 plays, 66 yards, a touchdown. Okay? So now at 27-23, you're like, wait, is this actually going to happen again? Right? This league. Bills go three and out. And for as bad as Kirk was, he was bad in this game. That second pick, that wasn't a pick.

That was a handoff to the defensive back. He worked across the progressions, came back to his left, backside, and was like, here, you have it. I mean, it's one of those picks where you're like, you actually don't see that a lot in the NFL, especially somebody like Kirk, who's been around for a while, even if you don't like him. But at this point, you're going, wait, now they're down 27-23.

Just mentioned that drive there after coming off the pick in the red zone. Sorry for making it a little confusing. It's lining up for Cousins' fifth comeback. You're like, okay. And some people can be really petty and unfair about the comeback stat for a quarterback who's like oh you're gonna be behind you you can come back you're like okay but you know what like i'd rather have five than zero all right and that's what we're looking at here with kirk um so then this drive sets up you, okay, now it really is on him. The Cook run was great.

The previous drive was great. But now it's really on you. You're down four points here at Buffalo. Sacked, incompletion sacked, fourth and 18, closing time to commercial break. The Von Miller Show. Best use of closing time during an NFL game of all time? Perhaps. You're like, okay, this isn't going to happen. And then we have one of the great catches that we've ever seen, Justin Jefferson. Okay, so fourth and 18 after being sacked twice,

he converts it to Jefferson, which doesn't make any sense because it wasn't just the one-handed catch. It wasn't that it was like this weird coverage where there was all these people around him. It's that as he went down David Tyree style, he kept the ball as he was fighting for it with the defensive back. He kept it off the ground and then just kind of ended up with it. To review, teams that were facing fourth and 18 or more in the final two minutes of regulation, trailing by four to eight points, had converted that seven of 56 times. Now, eight of 57. You want to talk about how impossible Jefferson has been?

Just put some perspective on special he was yesterday. Next gen, this is Mike Sandoz stuff here. He had the most receptions with less than 50 completion probability in a game yesterday with nine which is the most that a receiver has ever had since they started tracking this and you include tight end and catching running backs you know what i mean so anybody that ever catches passes he has the most i think the previous high was. He had nine of them yesterday. Okay? But here's what's so crazy about that drive. Right? They didn't score. So he's sacked.

They convert fourth and 18. Thielen gets the catch, plus a 15-yard penalty. Jefferson again, first and goal. Cousin trips and falls. Second down, bad throw to the back of the right end zone. Then it's a Jefferson TD. No, it isn't. It's overturned. Then on fourth and one, basically

at the fourth and goal at the one, Cook drops a pass, which would have been horrific. It wasn't the easiest catch because there was a lot going on. Offsides. Fourth and goal again. The worst QB sneak ever. Talk about skipping leg day, Kirk. Not a ton of passion on that one.

So now the game's over, but it isn't. Fumble on the first snap, the third of fourth turnovers for Buffalo. That's three turnovers from 10-27 of the fourth quarter till the end of the game in overtime. And now the Bills are your sixth seed as Minnesota wins this one in overtime because Buffalo actually did go down and kick the tying field goal overtime.

Then he throws another pick, another red zone pick to make it those four in the last three games. So a lot of stuff combined there at the end. Buffalo's a game up on New England in the AFC playoff race. Like, how did that happen? And now Minnesota is 8-1.

And I know what everybody from Minnesota, they're like, now you got to take him seriously. I don't think the better team won yesterday. I refuse to play that game. I'll even offer up this. When Josh Allen throws the first pick in the red zone and then goes and dives to make a tackle, he doesn't even hit his elbow that goes and dies to make a tackle. He doesn't

even hit his elbow that hard and he stays on the ground. So maybe he was even more hurt. He's got to stop turning it over so much. I think guys can get a little confident, a little loose, the Mahomes stuff. Although I thought a lot of Mahomes picks last year were a little bit like on other people. So there you have it. It was the game of the year year It was about as much fun as it could be As I was watching this game play out I'm like, what am I supposed to do with this result? Can I come in on Monday and go Alright, our world has been turned upside down

I'm not off the Bills I'm not on the Vikings You're going to have to deal with that Number two Could any of these teams go on a run? I was thinking about this last night watching the Chargers and Niners. I'm sitting there going, you know what's weird is I like both these teams. I like them.

Now, I said this years and years ago once. Sometimes we can confuse familiarity with depth. Do I like both teams? Because I can name a lot of their guys. No, I don't think it's just that, although I've been guilty of that in the past. Like there's a lot of dudes on both of those teams. And I started thinking, is there any,

like what's the chance of one of these teams going on a run? Let's look at man games lost because there's arguments to be made. And I think sometimes the man games lost thing can be really weird. The NBA had some numbers where it'd be like, oh, this team's lost the most people, but it was like health and safety, not injuries. And then that added up and it's like, yeah,

most of your guys aren't even good. So sometimes the man game lost thing can be misleading with San Francisco and with the Chargers. It isn't. Near the top of the list, which is actually near the bottom. I threw Tampa in there as well. Although they've had their receivers, they look better. They finally, I think everybody's kind of waiting on Tampa to right the ship a little bit

and win the division with an over 500 record. And then also wondering if the Seattle thing is going to run its course. We're actually going to get 17 games of this. Who knows? Don't know. But if you look at remaining strength to schedule, Chargers are at 20th, San Francisco's 26th, Tampa's at 30th.

Maybe another wake-up call for strength to schedule as well. The Giants have Dallas, Philly twice, and at Minnesota. That's the toughest remaining strength to schedule. The Giants' remaining opponents are playing at a 641 clip. The second toughest remaining straight to schedule, the Colts, who have Philly, at Dallas, at Minnesota. They got the Chargers. They're at the Giants.

I am rooting for Jeff Saturday because I know Jeff Saturday. I like him. I am biased. I understand it is sort of fucked up in a nontraditional way. And having said that, I thought some of the reaction to the oh i thought people didn't like jeff saturday he beats the raiders i would tell him that and be like okay cool they beat the raiders like that just means that this was this is the right call everybody should do this that seems to be a bit like there were people taking victory laps on it that were pro saturday

and i was like oh all right that seems a little quick we'll see what happens with the rest of that because I think the Giants and Colts number one number two most difficult remaining strength to schedule number three thing I'm afraid to say out loud done this a few times this season one of them turned into one of the all-time epic fuck-ups by saying two it looks like a backup after week one, and now he's statistically the best quarterback in the NFL. And he did it again. He was great yesterday against Cleveland. Great balance.

I mean, I don't think there's some ridiculous number out there. Miami actually never ended a possession like on a turnover, a punt, or downs. I don't know. You can double-check it if you want to. You'll make it through the week if that's inaccurate. But the point is that they were dominant offensively again. And I still

cannot believe the passing overall efficiency numbers, knowing that you had 100 plus attempts from Teddy Bridgewater and Skylar Thompson in this offense when Tua was gone. All right. So why do I keep doing this to myself? I don't know. Let's not make it a breakout video at this time, though. How about we do that just ahead of time? It's that moment where you're at home and you're watching and you're going, this feels stupid. And it might be wrong. And I'm saying right now it still feels wrong, but I'll make the point here quickly instead of being more vague about it. All right. I'm going to give you two stat lines for two quarterbacks. Last three weeks, this quarterback has 826 total yards, 11 touchdowns, one interception.

The other quarterback has 721 total yards, four touchdowns, two interceptions. The first quarterback with 826 total yards is 0-3 in his last three weeks. The other one is 1-2. Just three games, adding up the stats, seems totally unfair. Yep, it is. The first quarterback is Justin Fields. The second quarterback's Trevor Lawrence. When I was watching the first half of Jags Chiefs yesterday, I go,

you know, there's actually a few dudes on this Jags team. Like, they're putting together some kind of roster here that resembles talent. And we liked Trevor Lawrence the first three weeks, I think. And we started saying, hey, you can start watching this team more. This is a fun team. Maybe we have to take them seriously. And then we didn't take them seriously because they didn't deserve to be taken seriously. And then they don't really do it all that much. They're down big, the Chiefs. Granted, it's the Chiefs, whatever. And then Trevor Lawrence put

together this really nice drive where he was going to be eight and nine, but they called a touchdown back to kick the field goal, whatever. They lose the football game. Here's what I'm suggesting. I'm not telling you that Fields is better than Trevor Lawrence. I'm suggesting, as I say this out loud, and I probably regret it, the idea that you could even wonder in two years who would be better felt impossible, say around week five, week six. I don't think it's an impossible question. And that in itself is progress.

Number four, staying with quarterbacks. Quarterback replacement rankings. I'm going to start doing this now every few weeks. Look out. Carolina, number one. Houston, number two. This Davis Mills story is like, it's just funny because the expectations, it's like a movie you thought was going to suck, and you're like,

you know what, some good moments in there. I like it. That's him. He has the second lowest QBR in the NFL. Washington, number three. Here's one for you. Who's more likely between the Rams and Detroit with a high draft pick to maybe want to take on a quarterback? I shouldn't put Arizona here, but I thought that was really interesting the way some people started talking about Colt McCoy. Granted, Colt McCoy's approval rating, there's not a podcast you're going to find a higher approval rating of Colt McCoy. I once said, if Colt McCoy were a cologne, I would never buy

another scent the rest of my life. I thought that was kind of interesting talking about the vibes in general. The Detroit LA one, that's a debate. That's a C-block question right there. Okay, final one. Stats to impress people. I love looking at the red zone touchdown percentage stuff because it can tell you kind of halfway through the season, wait, is this team at way too high of a clip, right? It can solve some problems. That was a big Minnesota thing

because statistically for Minnesota, there's a lot of average baked in there. You're like, what's going on? Like, oh, some of the red zone stuff's really good. Okay, the worst third down conversion rate in the NFL right now is Carolina at 28.3%. That means they're converting 28.3% of their third downs. You know who's second worst? Denver, 28.5.

And why is this important? Because it's a race. It's a race to see who can be the worst third down conversion rate since the St. Louis Rams in 2015. So we're talking eight seasons now? Eight seasons. Since we've seen, it's one thing for Carolina to have an XFL guy out there who's really their third stringer.

It's another guy to be a $200 million investment in Russell Wilson, $200 million in non-guaranteed money. And you're looking at one of the worst conversion rates we've seen in a decade. And there's always that one early red zone game that refuses to fucking end. You know what I mean? There's been some Jags clunkers. You're like, all right, I get it. The Jags are still, I don't need to watch a third and two from their own 40 just because everything else is in commercial, right? That Denver game, that last drive took forever, and it ended in a pick. Nice win by Tennessee in that one as they have Tannehill back after the ankle injury, but it looked like he was still kind of banged up

in that one. but it looked like he was still kind of banged up in that one. Good to have Trent Dilfer back after a little hiatus based on scheduling and everything. So we've got an all-timer to talk about with Minnesota and Buffalo. I go in thinking Buffalo's a superior football team. I leave the game despite a win by Minnesota in overtime. And I think Kurt, you know, as bad as he was, deserves some credit. I think he's juicing up the risk a little bit more this year.

I think that's why Jefferson really had an all-time game. Just give me your overall thoughts from one of the best regular season games. It was. It was epic. The emotional ebb and flows of that game. I think the Vikings are a good team that's overachieving. I think that's kind of a fair way of saying it. They're a good team. I don't want to take anything away from them.

I wouldn't necessarily want to play them in the first round of the playoffs, but I don't think they have anything that makes you think they can finish the race. I agree. Cousins made some must have throws. Now, I think he has such confidence in Justin, as he should.

He's one of the best receivers we've seen in a while. But that's not necessarily sustainable. Making plays is not how you win the Super Bowl. You supplement making plays within having really sound, efficient, consistent things you can hang your hat on. The run game, getting the ball to tight end, mid-range passing game, quick game. You know, you see a lot of these teams finish the race. The Niners did it forever. The Packers did it using the Patriots, using quick game, get the ball out game, get the ball out of your hand, out of your hand, fast game.

I don't think, you know, the formula for winning the big one, isn't being okay, running the ball and throwing it up to Justin Jefferson. I know the fans love that and the fantasy dorks love that, but that's, that's not going to finish the race for you. So, um, I like them. I still love the, I still love the bills. It didn't make me love the bills any less. I think Josh is kind of in that Patrick Mahomes funk where he just tries to wear the Superman cape so often. Uh, and he can, he gets away with it. Most of the time he does jaw dropping stuff for most of the game, but then he's, he's now fallen in this try too hard mode when he doesn't have to. Uh, I think the easiest way to say it about Josh Allen is just maybe a

little more situational awareness. And I bet you that's he's watching the tape today and he's probably watching last week's tape again. He's just like, Oh man, no, I didn't play bad. I just play, made some poor decisions in some situations that if I clean up, we win both those games. So I'm not overly worried about the Bills at all. The first red zone pick, you can see that he doesn't see Peterson on the other side. He's going, hey, it's fourth down. I got to throw it into the end zone.

I got to get it out. And it's like, oh, there's a guy. I thought Cousins' second pick was, like, one of the worst to see from an NFL starter because you just go, like, what were you looking? Like, we've talked a little bit about this in the past where I feel like these interceptions are in different categories. And there'll be a couple times where you weren't aware

of the concept that a guy might be over there and this is a tip ball or whatever. The second one. Go ahead. Go ahead. It looks like you. For a sec. Let's take it for a guy that be over there and this is a tip ball or whatever uh the second one go ahead go ahead it looks like for a sec let's take for a guy that threw 127 of them um they all have a different story and they really do like not every almost every interception has a story behind it sometimes the story is the quarterback just sucked right i have a lot of those. That's the one cousins had, but there's a lot of them are one year. I threw eight or nine and seven where they're deflected the line of scrimmage or hit my receivers hands first. That's a different story, right? Josh Allen's two are very different,

right? The fourth down when you got to throw it. I mean, you're, it there's, it's a, you're not losing anything by throwing interception. It shouldn even count the second one is trying too hard there's no reason you should be trying to throw that bender in there versus that coverage yeah what was that because i mean it seemed like maybe he thought the receiver took it too deep but then it's like look he's like that's that's a sight line defensive back in your way and you're gonna try to force it in there and i think it kind of speaks back to some of the home stuff that i even brought up in the beginning is that i wonder if alan is in this mode of like i'm fucking awesome and it's all i'm gonna get away with it all and you need your ass kicked a little bit to remind you that you still have to kind of you know you can't be that guy all the time. It doesn't always work out,

even though it felt like it was. And I'll be honest with you when my homes has gone through this, this is where I think Andy Reed's so good. I bet you, Andy Reed didn't call him in his office and chew his ass for thinking he's so awesome. He just probably called him and I said, Hey, you know, what were you thinking there? Wow. I've ever thought about that. You know, you know, I don't want you to change how you're playing, but you know, that situation, you know,

maybe rethink that. Yeah. Coach, you're probably right, man. I'm trying too hard. Yeah. I'm glad you said it.

You know, we're going to give you a chance to be you. We're going to 40 times a game. We'll let you go be you, but there's going to be like five to seven times in the game. You seem to be kind of be Trent over, be a game manager, just five to seven plays a game,

you know, in these situations. And, and now we may never lose. Oh, that sounds great coach. Yeah. That's how I'm going to start playing the game, playing the game a little bit more. I think Josh Allen needs that talk. Like don't change much, but a handful of times a game might not be a bad idea. Just kind of be boring. Like there there's something magical sometimes just being boring and letting other guys make plays. You don't have to make the play all the time. Like there's something magical sometimes just being boring and letting other guys make plays. You don't have to make the play all the time. Like the interception he threw in the Dak Prescott second interception were the exact same decisions by the quarterback. Now Dak was right. Dak expected CeeDee Lamb to cross face of a too high safety. So Dak's correct in making that throw.

CeeDee Lamb hung him out by not crossing face the rebuttal of those receiver was right by staying vertical because the coverage dictated and josh threw it as if it were a different coverage that's just a knucklehead mistake that he'll go back and be like man all i had to do is check it down or throw it away i'm the game's not on the line on that throw the drive it is but not that throw yeah that's think, a very important distinction on it too. It's where, again, to bring him up because I just never think he's wrong about anything, was Brady. Late in the game, if he threw a pick, I remember the Colts game in the playoffs. There was the other game against San Diego at the time where he got away with it because then

they fumbled the pick. I'd be like, even the Tennessee game his last game in Foxborough there like that was off the receiver's hands but you could tell that it was like yeah I'm okay with the pick here like I am okay with this and I again I know we've covered this stuff a lot but let's then stay to the Rodgers thing that's a big time comeback against the top defense And just when you're ready to kind of write them off, good balance, the rookie gets three touchdowns, but then Rodgers is losing his shit on LeFleur, which I think is part of the agreement now with Rodgers. You just realize this is going to happen a few times.

What did you make of him being upset about them not going two-minute, where LeFleur basically said, you know what, that actually was on me? You know, I'm different. I like it. I mean, I let my high school kids actually was on me yeah i'm different i like it i mean i let my high school kids push back on me sometimes if it's done with respect no not like that but football is an incredibly emotional game um and for quarterbacks there's so much asked of them they need to be able to vent every once in a while. Now, I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this, and that's fine.

I never have an issue with quarterback-play-caller conflict, even when it's done maybe in the NFL context disrespectfully. A lot's on the line. Both have a ton of pressure on them. Those things are going to happen naturally. It doesn't phase me one bit. I thought I was shocked when it was a minute 28 or a minute 19. I can't remember the exact time in the game,

but they had the opportunity to go try to win the game. And they go handoff, handoff, you know, play action play. I witness Aaron Rodgers when it's anybody, when it's Hank Brown, my high school quarterback, I'd give him a chance to go win it in that situation. So Greg Olson, I believe, has become one of the great announcers in all of TV, but I totally disagreed with him on that one,

where he says, I think this is the right decision here. I'm like, no, let your quarterback go try to win it for you. So that's my comment on what happened there. I thought the most brilliant part of that game was the Packers being willing to be stubborn with the run to kind of cast the bait out there and make the Cowboys take the bait. And this is how they took the bait. The Cowboys are at their best when they're rushing four or five and playing zone behind it, uh, like a match zone, but basically eyes on the quarterback. That's why they get so many turnovers is they create conflict on the quarterback and they have a bunch of eyeballs on the quarterback as he's rushing to make decisions. The Packers

by running the ball so much, force them into a loaded box, one high man shell or a loaded box, one high man shell becomes pick and stick in the passing game. You're basically creating isolation matchups for your best man beater receivers. lot of pure progressions. It's really, Hey, this guy's going to beat that guy. If we leverage them right and make a perfect throw and beat the guy with the perfect throw. And they suckered green sucker Dallas into that profile up to scores. And that's where I thought it was genius. Like if you're the Cowboys up to scores, you're playing zone, you're having eyes on the quarterback and you're saying, great, keep handing it off. Get four, get six, get four, get three. We'll eventually create a tackle for loss and put you in a must-pass situation or just hold you to field goals. But they kept getting closer and closer to the line of scrimmage

and playing man coverage, and that's where Watson's touchdowns came. They're just isolation matchups. Those are end-game kind of RPO play they ran that's a man beater that's getting them to over commit playing man and also forcing the run and beating them inside with a quick little look route those don't happen if those are zone profiles by the cowboys okay next game that i want to get to no it wasn't i just don't know what you're talking about. I appreciate it.

I learn from you every week, but I'm not going to pretend that it'd be like, I didn't really like how they're positioned their nickels, though, towards you're going to shade those guys out. I'm not going to do that because I don't know. Look, I just felt like Rodgers had a little juice to him yesterday and he's a hard guy to write off and I think the Detroit game was terrible but I personally like I've had kind of an issue with Rodgers the last couple years like this woe is me I have it so bad and it's like you actually don't have it that bad and you kind of get to do whatever you want and you didn't

really make a very compelling case of how how oppressed you are as an nfl quarterback um he was very unconvincing i've said this before i said it with cowherd so then when he bitches at everybody like it just i've kind of turned the page on like digging him where i used to defend him like crazy and he's unbelievable like it's not this is not he was bad against Detroit. It doesn't mean he needed to retire by week 15. So I thought it was, I thought yesterday was really impressive against the Dallas. You're down, you know, you run 17 straight points against that team. And I'm still left with, I swear to God, Dak's going to go into the Hall of Fame. The stats are going to be good.

I'll have no idea what the playoff resume will be. And I still don't know how I feel about him. Like, I was going to jump to another game. I probably have the hardest time with trying to understand like because when Dak is right it looks really good and then there's always this like wait am I overrating him because I think the physical traits and all that stuff and then it's like wait when he's behind is he as good I don't know I swear to god I've been watching this guy you know less than Cowboys fans but quite a bit because they're on all the time and I still don't really know like where I finally land on with Dak as a quarterback compared to his

contemporaries. Okay. So I'll make a 30,000 foot comment that I think rings true with all this conversation around quarterback. I think the thing we don't talk enough about, and I think it's true for every single one of them is who's calling the place. I think you, you are only as good, no matter how great you are as relationship between you and your play the place. I think you are only as good, no matter how great you are, as the relationship between you and your play caller. And I think that the Kellen Moore-Dak Prescott thing, they have not figured out who they are together. Kellen Moore figured out who he was with Cooper Rush,

and he was a really good play caller. He was big personnel. He was run, run, action, move the pocket, play the strength of the defense. They still scored points. I'm not saying you go conservative, but that's who he was. He was, um, getsy for the bears right now, who I think is one of the best play callers in football, considering what he has, right.

He knows his team. Um, and I think Kellen with Dak becomes a funky thing, man. They love to go spread. They love to throw it. They love to go spread. They love to throw it. They love to be overly aggressive with Dak. And I think it's hurting Dak. I think Dak needs to be managed from the sideline like a lot of guys do. I've seen Andy Reid do with Patrick Mahomes, who's arguably the greatest right now,

that he will manage him from the sidelines and not let him get out over his skis too much. I think Josh needs a little bit of it. As we talked about, we led the show with that. These guys are only as good as the simpatico relationship they have with their play callers. But all we do is look at the final result of the quarterback, which I get. That's all the information that we have watching it. But what I'm here to tell you, living it and talking to these guys and studying these guys and just being in the belly of the beast is that you are only as good as your play caller. I think Tom and Byron are working through it right now a little bit in Tampa, even though they've been together, they're a different offense. So how do you call plays without

the inline tight end who can also get open? And it needs to be, you can't criticize one without criticizing the other. I guess that's the way to say it. Or you can't compliment one without complimenting the other. They truly are like this. The play caller and the quarterback are joined at the hip, and you will only be as successful as they are simpatico in that relationship. Yeah, because what's going on right now in Miami, they should be trying to find a way to clone McDaniels.

I heard from somebody with a team last week, and he was basically giving me shit in a funny way of being like, you're too a thing, man. Week one doesn't look that good. You say, I don't know if it's ever going to happen for him. And now statistically, he's the best passer in the nfl the stats are insane um but it was very clear that the guy was telling me he's like you're not necessarily wrong though about like what his limitations are but the fact that this is happening like that it is happening and this is the statistical profile

and this is how efficient their passing offense is compared to everybody else like that it's happening makes you think is the next owner like why everybody post McVay was trying to find the next McVay it's pretty incredible that like it's not just hey it's a top 10 offense it's wait we have to prepare for all this stuff like I don't know I it it makes you wonder how does it ever get as bad as it does, say, like in New England? Like, how does New England allow this to happen to itself from an offensive relationship standpoint, like you were just talking about?

I'll get to New England, but on your Miami, you know, any offensive architect, and this is at any level, you have a choice to make. You build your offense around what you want to be and what you know how to do, which is how most guys go, or you build it around what you have and what they can become. And those are two very different foundations you're laying. Okay. Most coaches are come from a system. They had success somewhere and they're going to run that system and force a

square peg through a round hole. Sometimes they get lucky and they have similar personnel when they move on, but that's what they know. Cause you're only going to teach what you know. And by the way, when you're interviewing, you're telling everybody the, the peg that you have,

you can definitely fit it into your square hole. Exactly. So you're totally lying to them. Oh, I love your personnel, man. I've had tons of success with free tight ends. Really? Show me where, right? Then there's guys and I'd call them, you know, whenever there's like a unique offensive mind, a pay, a Sean Payton tree, a bill Walls tree and Andy Reed tree. Uh, McVay now has a tree.

There's some others too. I'm probably leaving out. Those guys have all been trained. They've all been developed in football to look at, okay, here's what the cupboard has. I'm going to make some kick-ass stew from this cupboard. It might, I might have to learn some more stuff. I might have to go study some college people. I might have to go study some people that I haven't been around, but I'll tell you what,

I'm going to make sure that I maximize the ingredients that I have and, and build the foundation around what they do well now and what they can really do well later. Once we have more time together, That's the two-year conversation. I went back. I'm the most bullish guy on two of anybody in the country. And I admitted I was biased because my favorite player ever, Elite 11, I helped him get ready for the draft, helped him get through his rehab with his hip.

But what I learned to appreciate about Tua is what he does have, not what he doesn't have. And my comment was, and the old staff, I actually knew a lot of those guys on that old staff and talked to them about how to get the best out of Tua. And it's not about worrying about what he can't do. He does some things better than anybody else. Do those things. Anticipate.

He's more accurate and anticipates better than anybody in football. There's nobody that, and I would say the twitchiness of his eyes he gets through things with his eyes it's all together by the way that's why i loved him after alabama for those two reasons and the manipulation of the secondary all that stuff right so it's it's a it's elite it's big time elite now can receivers outrun his arm yeah they outrun they outran steve young's arm for a lot of years too and he's in the hall of fame one of the greatest ever played there's a lot of quarterbacks in the hall of fame that didn't have cannons for an arm but their coaches didn't ask him to do that either they found out what they did best what the i always say the

unique trait what's the unique trait of your quarterback do that do as much do as much stuff that emphasizes that and that's what coach mcdaniel's done he's taken his boy genius offensive run game stuff that made that really made him a name in the nfl and he's approached the same type of forward thinking into the passing game and now you're getting the best out of the quarterback, doing what he does best. And you're doing what your personnel does fast, which is put fast guys in space in one-on-one matchups to tackle.

And it's hard to do in the NFL, but it's doable. And that's what they're doing. Yeah, McDaniel, those guys deserve a ton of credit. All right, you mentioned Getze because, you know, another PA Ohio stock, good Midwestern stock. What is he, like 37? And the Bears, I mean, they're not winning any of these games,

but they're starting to put up some points. And I even said this in the open, okay? Like, this is where I get into trouble with myself at times. So I'll just hold him. Like, what if this were to happen, okay? And it was while Fields was running all over the place. And then I'm watching Trevor Lawrence. And I was like, man, does he regress from like the first month where I thought he was back? I'm not saying like in three years, you're going to want Fields more than you want Trevor Lawrence, but that it's even

like, it wouldn't be a question where in the pre-show meeting, you'd be like, what are you an idiot? Like we're not doing that. Now you could actually even present it because it feels like I don't look running for 150 yards as a quarterback in a game is not sustainable. Nobody's ever done it. It doesn't happen. Like you still need to do the other stuff well, but that this ship has turned itself around with fields is one of the most impressive parts. I think of this season, it's just that it doesn't matter from a win-loss standpoint. So I have a unique context on this one. I do a show with 670 The Score out of Chicago every Monday. It's this afternoon for me.

And I study every snap of fields in this offense, and I grade it. So I can go back to my old school grading system of double plus plus, no grade minus, double minus. It's the best way to grade quarterbacks. It's super simple. It just takes care of a lot of that gray of grading. And I go on the show for 30 minutes. We go over every snap that Justin plays in the grades. So now I've not done yesterday yet.

I don't even know what the grade would be because I mean because he has the massive pick that leads to them blowing this game. That'll be his first double minus in three weeks. A double minus is a critical error that could cost your team the game. It's called the Carson Wentz. Great. I'll start calling it the Wentz. I've been incredibly

impressed with Justin since week two. Week one was kind of a wash. The wet ball, the conditions, they didn't know who they were. He wasn't good in that game. He wasn't good in that game. But he didn't do, he also wasn't as awful as the stats showed. And that's what the grading system does for some stuff outside of his control. Week two, he was terrible.

And then ever since there, he's been really good. And I've tried to show people that it's not just what the box score says, like the decision-making how he's playing from the pocket, his escapability, his eye work, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, but as I've studied Justin, I've gotten to study Getzey. And again, you can't judge one without the other. And what you're seeing is I know what a Monday through Saturday is like in the NFL. You're seeing a very high-level process from Getze and Fields Monday through Saturday to make the changes they are making on a week-to-week basis. They are very limited up front from a pass protection standpoint. Very limited.

They're still limited in a past game outside of Mooney. Mooney's very good. Commence a really good player. Clay pulls a guy. He's a good guy, but he's not going to change the offense overnight. They have the most money to spend next year. Most cap space. They got these draft picks. I could not be more excited about Justin Fields. I actually think we'll be talking in a year, a year from right now, about Justin being one of the premier players in the NFL. Okay, so does that mean you would take him two years from now

over Trevor Lawrence? So you got to remember, you know, everybody wants to say, I'm on record saying that draft. I really like Trevor Lawrence. I don't say anything, but he's not what everybody's saying. He is. I had Justin Fields, the best quarterback in that draft.

This is accurate. Not to, not to say that you come on here and lie. I just would. I just know that you were always telling us to fucking calm down a little bit about Trevor Lawrence. Yep. I had, I had the calm down on Trevor Lawrence. He's got some growing to do

and I thought Justin Fields had the highest ceiling of any of any of them in that class okay let's talk a little college ball um I'm greatly appreciative every year when you invite me out to the lead 11 it is a crash course in some of the smartest college football predictions like the number of times somebody will pull me aside all of your staff like i'll watch for this or this it's unbelievable the hit rate like i've never been around a group of guys and i'm not just you know i'm not saying this because you're my buddy but every time i leave that event i'm like oh i wonder if that'll be true or there's a good little nugget and so i'm watching ewers throw the ball two years ago

texas is quarterback at that time i think he's still committed to ohio state yep um or there's a good little nugget. And so I'm watching Ewers throw the ball two years ago. Texas's quarterback. At that time, I think he's still committed to Ohio State. Yep. And watching him in drills, I was like, oh my God. I was like, who's this guy? And I think what was happening, again, my non-playing the position observation skills, not quite the same as the guys that have done it for a living,

but I liked how bad his base was and how good his arm was. Like it was impressive. It was like fun. I was, you know, it's like Steph Curry, not giving a shit warmups and yet it still goes in all the time. And then I pull one of the guys aside and I'm like, man, who's he? And he's like, ah, his footwork's a fucking mess let's get to figure this out and I was like really and yet at times at Texas you you feel like okay this is the guy and then I thought Klatt had a really good tweet because again it backed up that I'd what I'd heard and Klatt's like until he gets his feet right he's gonna keep missing on these he's high on all these different throws and then you tweeted about it too so like it all feels like the people that knew what they were talking about are all kind of in the same space

that it can be fixed but his arm talent is such that it's like he hasn't really cared and he better start caring here soon so i don't know how fair that assessment was whatever you want to do with it do we talk much about golf on the show dang it it. Okay. I mean, I did golf regularly for a while, so I think this is a really good analogy here. And I hope enough people are golf fans. You have to play it, but you're a golf fan. The driving range is the biggest liar in great golfers. Okay. So you can walk down a rain, go to whisper rock in Arizona has the most pros best place

in the world. Shout out to my whisper rock buddies, and you can line up 95 guys across the range. And it's a ball striking clinic. It is there. You'll find amateurs, mid-am semi-pro guys, mini chore guys, 52 year old farts that shoot 68 on a Tuesday. And it's just a ball striking clinic. I mean, center of the face, high draw, low cut, whatever you want. Call your shot.

These guys just can stripe it. And then you go tee it up and play a hundred dollar one downs. And you'll find that a lot of the guys that can stripe it can't get it in the hole. Because they're so concerned with hitting the ball great. They become ball striking junkies. They forget that the goal of the game is to get it in the hole as fast as possible. Quinn Ures is that. He's been that since high school.

He is still that he is a generational thrower, Jeff George type thrower, but the boring things like chipping and putting and 75 yard wedge play those carryovers to football, which are footwork, I work timing, timing eye manipulation pocket movements the boring things that actually make you great he's never taken the time to fall in love with now will he i think sarks a really good coach i think he will so i'm not indicting i'm not indicting him in his future i'm just saying that that is exactly who he is he's the guy on the range you think is a plus seven. And then you get them on the fourth hole and you're like, man, I'm a strip this guy, you know? And, and I, I did this for a long time.

I was the plus two that would go strip these dudes that out, out ball struck me through the whole day, but I got in the ball, the whole faster than them. He needs to fall in love with the boring monotonous stuff that comes with quarterbacking that will make him great. Because when I say generational thrower, there have been a handful of people on the planet earth that God has touched with the ability to throw a football like him, but it's not going to make them a winner.

It's all the other stuff that will make him a winner. I have nothing to add to that. Okay, last thing before we say goodbye. I don't want to jinx it. 11-0. Oh, us? You guys are rolling right now. I say this about the bigs.

When you practice at an elite standard, when you have elite buy-in like our players do, we can talk about winning. We're not bashful about what we think. We scored 70 in the first half of our quarterfinal game. We're playing at a really high level. More importantly, our kids are practicing at an elite level. They'll come here today for their lift and their walkthrough with their hair on their arms standing up. And these are high school kids are going through a lot of stuff besides just playing football. They somehow find a way to come in here every single day and give everything they

have in their preparation. They've just bought into it. They bought into it. If we practice great, there's nobody that can play with us. And my guess is in about three hours, I'm going to see that same team show up, and they're going to be ready to roll, and we're going to play well this week if we practice well this week. Right, so that's the semifinal. Semifinals, we've got to go to Knoxville. It's a weird little scheduling glitch

where even though we're the one seed in the state, we've got to travel for the semis. But this team has been great. ASAP's our motto, any squad, any place. They're fired up. It's going to be 20 degrees in Knoxville against a team that hasn't lost a game with a coach that's retiring at the end of the year. He's a legend, and I expect us to go there and play our best ball.

Will this lead to a Jeff Saturday type hire for you? Everybody's asked me that. You know, I've had lots of opportunities. I don't, I don't see myself going anywhere unless it was a really unique situation. Um, I'm in a unique situation, Brian, as you know, I don't need to do it from an ambitious standpoint. Um, I'd be lying to say if I'm not intrigued by doing the same thing with a different group of people with a bigger mountain to climb. Um, but I, I totally see myself being here. Did you like that Saturday hiring? I did for, you know, again, I don't know if it's long-term. Um, I liked, and I think he said

everything. Those of us that know him, I was very bold in saying what he said in his press conference that I appreciated because basically all he said was all the things that those around him for years know about him. Uh, he's an incredible leader. He knows a ton of football. Uh, he knows how to get, I always say, I said, the ultimate sign of a coach is getting the most from the least and the best from the best. It's very hard to do. It's hard to get the, the best out of your high ceiling players and the most out of your Johnnies, right? That's a hard thing to do. Well, he was a Johnny that made eight Pro Bowls, right?

So he knows what the grinder life is like. He also played with one of the greatest, his best friends, one of the greatest that's ever lived at Peyton and Marvin Harrison, Edwin James, and these elite Hall of Fame players. He saw what made them great. So I think if you're a GM, if you're a president and owner, if you're a AD, you have to be looking for a coach

that gets both of those things. If you're just a guy that can recruit great and get the most out of his best players, that's good, but it's not best. You also have to be able to find your preferred walk-on that you develop over three years and turn into an all American in the NFL. You got to get your undrafted free agent that becomes a, you know,

eight year starter for you and goes to three pro bowls. That's a hard combination to find as a coach. I think you'll have an, if they keep him, he'll be able to put a really good staff together. That's another underrated thing about the head coach. In fact, I say this, the head coach, the most overrated person in college and pro football, unless it's who we can hire. Cause really the magic of head coaching is who you hire need to hire people that are better than you, that challenge you, that make your organization better than just one figurehead. And Jeff would be able to hire an incredible staff

because there's a ton of really talented people out there that would love to coach for him. That's why Sean Payton will be the most desirable because everybody wants to coach for him. But you're going to see what happens with Jeff is you're going to see a lot of people saying, oh, I'd coach for that. Or I'd be that coordinator.

Or I'd love to leave the special teams job I have now and go coach for him. Now he's going to have this really big portfolio of talented coaches that he could hire. Awesome as always, Trent. We'll talk to you again. Thanks, brother. See ya. I'm not sure we're going to do the college football rankings this week because we're doing the live show tomorrow night, but we'll figure it out. All right.

I mean, obviously I'm going to do them at some point, but I, my plan was to kind of react to how the committee had done them. So I'm not doing two things, the rankings every single week, but there were just games I had to talk about here. Props to TCU.

First and foremost, you know, whenever I end up, you know, doing these this week, which will probably just be Wednesday. I'll just throw them in there. No, Ohio state gets to go like two months before they play in a game that any of us really care about.

So them getting the benefit of the doubt is kind of warranted. But I'll admit, if you come back at me saying, well, what have they done? When's the last time you as a non-Ohio State fan have locked in on an Ohio State game? Probably been a while, right? And so when I look at TCU and I go Michigan, I like man there's so many things I like about Michigan because get on the schedule stuff again TCU is more battle tested now the defensive numbers you're going to lose the argument and I know Ohio State's missing a couple guys but I'm just I guess I don't have as much sympathy for Ohio State missing a couple skill guys considering how much better their skill guys are than the rest of the conference other than Michigan sometimes. So I'll probably still go

Georgia one, Ohio State two, Michigan three, but it's kind of a good exercise and it's also a pointless one when you're like, well, wait, why wouldn't I maybe just put TCU two? Like what's the argument against it? Some of it's a little eye test. Some of it is why I don't get super mad at some benefit of the doubt stuff. Cause I just think we're all guilty of it. We're all guilty of it with whoever the brand names are, not just from one geographic area. So TCU beating Texas this weekend, that wasn't a 1710 game. You know, if you didn't catch it and you run through things, you're like, ah, whatever, you know, Texas is kind of up and down all the time. That second half against Oklahoma State after it looked

like they were rolling, yours was bad in this game. And here's the thing with Texas. They are actually loaded with offensive talent. They are. I'm not telling you like they've got the number one receiver that's going to be a first-rounder and stuff, but that tight end is nasty. They have maybe the best running back in the country.

And obviously, we just talked with Trent about yours and some of the issues with the foot stuff that even Klatt pointed out on Saturday night there. So here you are, TCU, that was 64th, 62nd in opponents yards per play allowed. They jumped up to 40 after this game. Defense gave up three points against what I think is a talented Texas offense that can get kind of weird. And that was an awful experience for them.

They were allowing 30 points per game to big 12 offenses. Again, gave up three. So really impressed with TCU. They got five wins against ranked teams. I don't know what that final resume is going to be like. And granted, you know, look, it's ranked at the time, which is not as important as ranked at the end of the season. But they're going to play Kansas State here in a rematch that was a 38-28 win at TCU.

But Adrian Martinez only played the first series quarterback for Kansas State. So playoff-wise, worth paying attention to. TCU is a very clear path. I wouldn't say it's an easy one because Kansas State's not an easy out. And with Martinez, we'll see what happens in the rematch. Looking at the rest of it, is the Pac-12 out? Well, they're not out-out. We can get real quick and real dismissive,

and I'm going to remind us of that at the end of this here. USC is the last chance. It's one thing for Washington to go up to Oregon, but for Arizona to go into the Rose Bowl and beat UCLA, UCLA gets off to a bad start. And then actually Arizona responds late too, which makes it even more impressive. So that's a tough one, right?

That's a tough loss. I don't think losing to Washington at home is tough at all. Now, we all were kind of on Washington, and then we were off them. Maybe not locally, I would say nationally. They beat Michigan State. We thought Michigan State was going to be good. They were ranked 11th at the time.

Then we realized Michigan State wasn't that good. Then they lose at UCLA. No beat Michigan State. We thought Michigan State was going to be good. They were ranked 11th at the time. Then we realized Michigan State wasn't that good. Then they lose at UCLA. No shame in that. But then they lose to Arizona State. Then you're like, okay, we're done here. Andre Ware on one of the broadcasts said he had Penix, the quarterback for Washington, who was incredible against Oregon. We're going to get to that. He said he's his Heisman. I don't know if it was the Michigan State game or if it was when he was losing to UCLA, but as soon as he said, hey, he's my Heisman, then it was like, nah, that doesn't make a ton of sense. So I don't know that that's going to happen.

But to go into Oregon and win, and I think that's Pennix Jr.'s best game. Granted, against Arizona, he put up a ton of points or a ton of yards at home. But to go into Oregon and battle it out, I thought that was really impressive. And maybe there's a little bit of the purple uniform thing, or maybe it's Oregon.

I'm going to suggest this as an aside. Whenever I watch Oregon games, I feel like everybody is wide open, running around. Part of that could be Oregon's defense hasn't been great this year. Part of it could be over the years, going back to Chip and Helfrich and on that guys were just open all the time. How many times have you seen that seam route just bust open?

And you're like, what the hell are you guys doing? So partly it's their offense. It also was the wide splits. The routes are starting almost out of bounds. That's how far or how close to the boundaries the receivers are and some of these stack formations that they would do on both sides. So you'd see it. And part of it could be the camera angle too, where you're seeing the guy take the snap. You can't see any of the receivers or defensive backs that are lined up if they're pressing. And then all of a sudden, everybody just opened all the time. I actually

think it has to do with Penix Jr. and his hose and that Bo Nix had been better until recently, but he was banged up in this one. So I just, I can't tell you for a Washington team that I was probably a little off on after the Arizona state thing going, I don't know about this. And I'd watched Pennix junior a decent amount, Indiana. There were some great moments. There was some real, not so great moments. So, you know, again, when the Heisman stuff happened beginning of the year, I was like, come on, man, really? Uh, he was incredible. He was incredible in that Oregon game. So props to him. So we got Big 12 certainty, uncertainty, depending on what happens with Kansas State. Pac-12, USC. Nice to see them bounce back against an inferior opponent after

screwing around with Cal. Although I did see the Colorado training staff at my Equinox day of the game. Impressive group. We'll leave it at that. Not afraid to compliment people. And then we've got the ACC part of this of what if UNC beats Clemson? I know there's some concern that I haven't talked about UNC as much. We all realize that May's incredible quarterback. They haven't beaten anybody that's ranked.

And I mean, if you really want to dig into it with Carolina, like it's just not a super impressive resume. And when you get into shootouts with Wake, Virginia by three, Duke by three, Miami by three. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that I'm going to have you 12 in there, but you might play Clemson. You play them at the end. You could be playing them twice here. So there's a chance for two big wins there.

But if you beat Clemson twice, I'm just saying like, okay, we don't know what's going to happen with the Big 12. We don't know what's going to happen with the Pac-12. It doesn't feel great. Clemson, the ACC lock, I don't think is necessarily that. And it serves a purpose to remind us of the lesson that we learned this year finally, is that the lack of parity started driving people crazy. And then at the beginning of the year, you see Georgia destroy destroy Oregon Clemson looks like they're gonna be good Ohio State beats Notre Dame you've got Alabama going to Texas which again that was

the second week it felt a little like wait what the hell's going on with Bama and again they've had so many of these close games that I understand why people are off them a little bit not just the eight and two record but the point is this this was a year where people were getting so mad about the lack of parity that we assumed it was never going to change. It's just not the case. It went longer than I thought it would, but the lesson here is that it finally cycled out a little bit. Clemson's, they might be in the playoff, but they feel done,

at least this version this year. I don't mean done as a dynasty in a major program, because you're going to be bad for like two years for me to be ready to say that the same way people are saying that shit about Bama now. And even the SEC, what happens if LSU beats Georgia? I would say that would feel impossible. But now LSU has the best player in college football on the team.

That's a big deal. And he's a freshman. This is 40. Harold Perkins Jr., dominant. If you like defensive players that change everything and you didn't watch the Arkansas game, find it on the replay on SEC Network and watch it. What Perkins does, what number 40 does in these games as a freshman defensively is Lawrence Taylor type shit. We'll do the rankings this week. 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 could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Hey, Life Advice with Kyle on Monday. We banked this one on Friday because he was really excited to get to Denver. So excited. Who knows what I'm up to by now? By this moment, you guys are listening. Who knows what I'm up to? Don't even have soundcheck till tomorrow.

God, what did I do? Well, life advice, the email for submissions, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. 6'2", 185, can bench 225 for six reps. Not irrelevant to the story, but also not super relevant either. No. Are you interested now?

We'll be the judge of that, pal.'m i'm asking the question okay so the other day i was at the hardware store picking up some screws to pin back some flashings all right i don't think you have to pluralize flashing what is that sure um you know how like when you see a chimney you see some some root for it yeah and there's this stuff where the shingles meet the chimney and they they put up flashing to prevent water damage okay around it great explanation yeah that's one version of it there's there's a couple other ones all right got it and much and much like you're standing in the aisle save me or flashing emails we don't we don't need them we're not reading them all standing sitting aisle playing all those emails are banned it's over it's over never received as many emails on anything bigger than the wine mystery wish i could have stopped you yep i couldn't i couldn't

stop myself kyle it's my fault i didn't ask for it but i did yeah a little bit yeah but i did ask for it okay so back so flashing all right i quickly went to the toilet first oh at the hardware store then to the aisle with the screws to find that they didn't have the ones i needed so i proceeded to leave the staff member noticed that i used the bathroom without buying anything and followed me to my car to confront me about it i explained what happened and he made me show him that they didn't have what i needed so i did holy shit this email is amazing kyle great pick he then said i needed to buy something anyway so i did oh oh my god well this had to be like a mom and pop hardware store right this isn't like a nobody in a lowe's

apron it's going to be chasing you down asking about your bathroom thing you can't find anybody at the big stores anyway to help you yeah forget forget get somebody actually coming to find you in the parking lot all right i'm not sure i need any advice but more of a ruling was i in the wrong no i if i'm led to believe the the facts of this email are in fact true i'm totally on your side kyle real quick yeah no this is and you know what no there's nothing wrong here and when you when it's real bad i mean i don't know which kind of bathroom you wrong here. And when it's real bad, I mean, I don't know which kind of bathroom you had to go to. When it's real bad, you can't focus.

And I know for a fact when you're deciding between similar things in a hardware store, you kind of need all your brain power. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. There's a lot of things that are like just a quarter inch difference, a couple centimeters off. You really got to pay attention.

And it's hard to pay attention when you have to go to the bathroom honestly you get you're getting better and better every fucking week you are unbelievable oh shucks because you're right one verse two matters for a bunch of different reasons it matters based on your urgency as the customer it matters because of what you just said it's gonna get in your head a little bit. But it also matters from the store side. So like this guy just fucking ruined one of our bathrooms and then left. And it's not the first time it's happened to him, right? People do that too with those big box stores.

They're like, oh, dude, I just, you know, I don't want to, I'll just say someone close to me in my elder circle. I won't say who it is. We were going somewhere. He just stopped and they were like, I've just say someone close to me in my elder circle. I won't say who it is. We were going somewhere. He just stopped and they were like, I've got to take a shit right now. It just was like pulled in. It's like, Oh, there's a home Depot. He just parked, went in, came out.

And it was like a whole, we were just in the parking lot for 10 minutes. And it's just a thing that I think people, I think it's probably a bit of an epidemic where, you know, stores are, they're just so big, you can get lost in there. Um, you know, so I so i think um i think it probably happens a lot probably grocery stores too but um i think people just like you know it's hard to keep eyes on me the whole time i'll just run and go to the bathroom um so i i didn't think there would be a policing of it but i think i do think it happens a lot right but if this is a small play this is leon's you know screws and tackle yeah i wish i knew what they're doing sandworms

out the back yeah they're they've had this happen they've had enough of it and you were just the next guy all right let's keep uh keep reading here so was i in the wrong no we're totally on your side both of us question was he right and following me to my car should i stop first next time and then take the items to the bathroom with me? Shop, identify where everything is that I need, use the bathroom, then go back and grab the items to pay for them. For more context, oh my God, I am a plumber for a real estate and owner corporations. I was in uniform and we have an account at the hardware store, so I technically wasn't out of pocket because I just chucked a different packet of screws on the account. The hardware store is also a small mom-and-pop type store. Sorry.

Sorry we got ahead of ourselves. But by the way, customers are allowed to use the bathroom, right? Correct. Customers are allowed to use the bathroom. Correct. Customers are allowed to use the bathroom. So small mom and pop type store, inner city, maybe like three aisles in a separate paint section.

That's pretty small. So the guy was maybe 5'8", mid to late 40s with no obvious signs that he was in shape. I'm late 20s with above stats, 6'2", 185. Again, can bench 225, six reps. He said not relevant to the story but not super irrelevant i mixed that up it's still the same uh there was never a chance of it escalating to a physical altercation and we're in australia oh my god damn it lead with that next time jesus christ yeah lead with philly i don't know what or any of these places now i have no idea what to say. Okay. You're in Australia. There are no guns.

He adds. So I would go back. I would go back and motherfuck this guy. You're a plumber. You're in uniform. You have an account. You're going to be there another time. Clearly, I think we know that this was not a number one situation.

I one time went after a guy for not tipping me on New Year's Eve when he ran up a massive tab. And I went out in the street and followed him with his six buddies. How'd that go? I got my tip. Oh, you did? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah.

Usually when guys are embarrassed, they get into fuck you mode. And it's like they stop making sense. They're not even making sense anymore, they're just they're anti you now captain badass over here i realized i just made myself try to sound really cool as i told this story uh i knew one of the guys so that was okay beat up yeah i wasn't gonna get beat up sorry to russ and his friends 22 years ago i think um because i probably could have handled a little bit better those guys are just super banged up. They made a mistake. But the owner saw the tab, and we were taking care of them.

And then he saw the zero tip, and he was like pissed at me. Go get those guys. He's like, you took care of these guys all fucking night because there's this relationship here or whatever. He goes, and they fucking stiff us on New Year's Eve. And I was like, like all right you're right and i went out there and honestly thinking back on it they were just starting to hand me money because they were like oh we fucked up or whatever and then one of the guys yelled at me i

think the guy i knew was like no we tip we tip i'm like yeah but if you left it on the bar like i have to show something for this or whatever i think it was the last time i ever talked to that guy not a core guy not a core guy but i you know maybe 20 something years later apologize maybe you should apologize to me i don't fucking know anyway uh australia yeah that's not our expertise here man but i would i would lean towards maybe you don't have to go back we just think you're right i just think he's right and i think there's a lot of things here where this guy could have taken but it sounds like a lot of guys shit it's this guy's hardware store he fucking had enough in the outback small inner city you have an account there you have an account there like i i can understand his frustration

we're gonna get some small business owners to start chiming in here and like we get it it sucks it's plumbing costs yeah okay yeah right i i get all of that but if this guy has an account and he's in uniform and let's also remind like this dude who was at the hardware store thought he was calling out the plumber the whole time. And he's like, hey, you can't do that, right? He's following him out. He's like, well, you didn't have what I had. And the guy's like, oh, show me. Then he shows him.

So now this guy's 0 for 2 on the confrontation. He thinks this is just some dickhead in a uniform using his bathroom with no intention of buying anything. That was not the case. He then is like, okay, then show me the thing that we're out of because he thinks he's lying again again that doesn't work and now he's anti this guy yeah right and now he's like okay well because i'm so mad about all the other stuff really all we are is a collection of reactions to whatever pent-up shit we have going on already right like how we'll react has a lot of times like the thing

that happens in front of you it's all the things that have happened behind you and that's what's going on with this guy and then he's oh for two on these then he makes you buy something you still do that so maybe you don't have to go back in there and confront him you said you're a little bit bigger than him it's not that big of a deal but if it's bothering you that long and you know you're going to be going back there at some point maybe when you do go back be like hey just so you know like i was being straight with you i came in i get that you have to deal with this all the time so that's why you handled the way you handled it but i wasn't wrong that day and i think you can just assault people in australia right and if he pushes back it's on is that true i don't know i gotta read up on that i don't know maybe we

think of new zealand i'm not sure but um uh dude dude not the same don't mix that up not the same not the same um so yeah i think i think i wouldn't go back and motherfuck him and the story is like the story is kind of convoluted enough i don't know if that's the word and also would kind of sound like it's coming from your side where if you did like end up talking to the owner, like, Hey, I don't, I have an account here. I don't want any problems here. He would be like, yeah, it sounds like you're telling me your side of the story. So it wouldn't even be worth trying to explain to someone else. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't motherfuck him. I wouldn't try to explain, bring anyone else involved and try to explain him that everything's know what happened i would just i i think what

i would probably do is if i have to be there and i'm sure there's probably not too if there's three aisles in this whole fucking store i doubt they have more than like three employees you know you'll probably see this guy again so yeah i'd probably just i'd probably be like hey listen i was maybe you know maybe what you could do is you'd be like hey listen i'm looking for these screws i'm gonna go to the bathroom can you find these? And if not get me something pretty close and I'll buy those two. Like I would just make it a little uncomfortable and sort of funny, like have a little bit of fun with the guy because you know, I don't think you have to explain yourself. Although if you wanted to go that route, it wouldn't be as childish as what

I'm suggesting. But if you definitely wanted to make the other guy feel uncomfortable, you know, you're going to be there. So you could just sort of, you could just sort of have a little fun with it. Just ask for like, you know, permission to go to the bathroom every single time you're in there. Even if you don't have to go, I think that'd be kind of funny.

Just stand there and wash your hands for two minutes and then come out. So you want petty revenge, not, not helpful revenge, not revenge that leads to some sort of conclusion. Just. And then, yeah.

And then just buy like a pack of mints at the thing be like yeah customer thanks okay uh here's one that says revenge on my ex-girlfriend uh-oh 19 years old uh-oh this yeah this isn't gonna be good yeah 19 year old revenge is rarely rarely ever thought out you rarely ever get away with either when it's 19, you're hoping. 510, 145. Skinny, but I'm a runner. Okay, yeah, no. You're banging out those 10Ks.

Tons of stickers. Congrats to Cerruti on the kit. My now ex-girlfriend dumped me for what is now the third time over the course of a year and a half. So we're averaging a dump every six months here. Been there. now the third time over the course of a year and a half so we're averaging a dump every six months here been there i'm gonna leave that one alone the last couple days you've given us so much i'll circle back in another time i was the one who always tried to bring us back together after breakups yeah that's the dumping part we were able to piece that together um and she put me through a ton of shit after the second time she broke up with me. I'm talking about dragging it along

and holding me over a wire for over a month. I'm more worried about you now, dude. All right, do I realize that this relationship was an awful idea? Yes. She honestly was the Kyrie of girlfriends. Hmm. For the first part of the trilogy,

much like Kyrie in Cleveland, she was pretty tolerable. Didn't seem too bad until she abruptly ended it. Could she not win without you and you're the only reason she got a sneaker deal? Then came the second try at a relationship, our Boston Celtics phase, which originally seemed pretty good. Did she lie to you in front of 17,000 people? She seemed as though she was going to resign. Then eventually she started essentially pulling off a six for 21 stat lines in elimination type game. So once again, she decided to leave. The third round was awful, much like Kyrie in

Brooklyn. Absolute shit show. She's always seemed to find things wrong and say the wrong things. She was never necessarily as bad as kairi okay good good clearance there once again i was very very stupid now at this point i feel as though a little bit of revenge might be sort of warranted she still needs to give me back my hoodie after that though i'm cutting all ties i'm curious about what you guys have as ideas for revenge that are sort of passive aggressive the only idea i came up with is that I'm bringing my friend who she was always jealous of and did not want me to, she did not like with me to pick up the hoodie. My friend agreed. I even debated asking her if she'd pretend to be my girlfriend for just that meeting, just to rub

it in. If you have any ideas, please feel free to jump in. All right right all of this is a waste of time man i get it you know look i i was older than 19 and thought about like what can i do you know what i did i got successful all right use this to fuel your other things right right? Every tech dork always starts with getting dumped. A lot of cult leaders too, but we're going to stay away from that part of it. You're too young to realize it. Like, that's just a stupid idea, okay? Not saying I wouldn't do it at 19,

but it's a really dumb idea to have a fake pretend girlfriend to go pick up a fucking hoodie that you're going to lose in a year anyway. When you're in this age, you lose your clothing to girls. You just do, There's still some Mizzou girl that has a lax shirt of mine that I'm like, again, lax poser, but it was an awesome shirt, man. So I would say that that all of your ideas are bad. The revenge is you being

happy and finding somebody that isn't going to dump you three times in a year and a half. Trust me. I'm not being your dad. I'm not being your older brother. Listen to me. I am right about this. You're wrong. Whatever small win you have at her being pissed,

I would even, you know, pass on the hoodie, but you could just hit her up and be like, hey, can I grab that fucking hoodie? And if she gives you grief about that, you might have to let that one go. Like I said, just, what do we say, Kyle? Chalk it up to the game. Put it on the games tab.

Charge it to the game. That's what I say. Yeah, right. That's it. Charge it to the game. Better way to say tab charge to the game that's what i say yeah right that's it charge of the game better way to set better set cows on fire leave the hoodie why don't you go a little deeper on this one well it's just it's lee i mean revenge that's like that's not even revenge dude that's like you're actually kind of looking like a fool if you like bring somebody with you to like i don't know i feel like just to jump in sorry sorry to interrupt but like think about when it becomes discovered that this isn't your real girlfriend and it was like a make-believe girlfriend and then she's going to talk about in the circle groups like he brought a pretend girlfriend to pick up the fucking hoodie

that he's not even dating to like whatever like people are going to think you're a loser so yeah go ahead it's weird it's definitely if you've got your own mode of transportation i wouldn't bring anybody with you it'd be like yeah me and my friend are hanging out but we make this stop first like it's just just it's all dumb so like if you could if you could get the hoodie great i bought her a yard bag we're going to pick it up i wouldn't i wouldn't block her on things like i wouldn't do that i would just just cruise you know maybe she's got a friend that that you like i wouldn't say go after her, but I wouldn't say you have to steer clear. I'm just saying I wouldn't do anything direct. I

wouldn't try to rub anything in her face, but it's just be you, man. I mean, there's only so much time you have, and I wouldn't waste any on this because you're going to feel dumb about it. You're probably going to look dumb about it without realizing it. You won't even realize how you look for a while if you try to do any of this stuff. So, um, I would just, I would just,

you know, you're a skinny guy. You're, I don't know if you said he's handsome or not, but, uh, just get out there, man.

What this is, this is dumb. And just start hanging out with your friends. If you guys broke up three times over the last little bit, I bet your friends probably wish they could hang out with you a little bit more and under different circumstances too. I think you've got other stuff to to maybe patch up before you worry about this so uh okay um where would the skinny guy thing come in that you you sold that as a real positive there at the end i was just he's not out of shape right because the other

guy was skinny fat you know that that involves that comes into something somehow it's like well there's going to be guys that cross the path that aren't so you got that to worry about so i just mean like uh you know that's at least good like you're you're you're 19 and you're skinny so i think that's that's your you're like two out of four things that girls want anyway so that's awesome this app this business model for fitness must already have been developed at some point, but selling skinny fat guy on, hey, do you just want to pick one? Right. And then the next 12 weeks, we will get you to skinny or fat, but you're not going to be skinny fat anymore.

Because a lot of it's going to be based on height. Yeah. Skinny fat fats just way worse than skinny and i think fat i had a weird little skinny fat phase and i don't know what the fuck i was thinking you know i thought it was just cool to weigh more and then you're like you don't exercise and you eat like shit and you know thank god regiment dude yeah right i like worked out more in high school which i got no results from and you know i didn't eat as bad because there was no you know martha's vineyard in the winter

or even year-round like you know everything there's just no processed food there's just well i shouldn't say no process obviously the grocery store there's there's a limitation on on what kind of place like there's no fast food nothing was allowed anything like that um and then once i started learning about wings and then you're drinking natural light like it's fucking water and you're relatively yeah you're relatively in shape i used to run and then next thing you know you get your shirt off at a fucking party your junior year and you're like wait somebody smacks your belly you're relatively in shape i used to run and then next thing you know you get your shirt off at a fucking party your junior year and you're like wait somebody smacks your belly you're like oh whoa yeah like what the fuck is going on here and then like all these these dudes especially us is

like new england you know whether you're a prep school guy or thought you did because you had the the rowing shirt and like all these guys had these little mid paunches with no arm definition nobody's doing legs i was a fucking joke yeah i don't even like thinking about it i turned my ankle senior year and like beginning and uh i was on the crutches and it just didn't didn't get better but i still would go out because i felt like i had to so there was like and it was like a bad it was a bad one so it's like there's no exercise and it's just you know downing beers and whatever and then like towards the end of our uh senior year one of my buddies we're all like you know there's like eight of us that are close and we're all sitting

around and they were like dude you know you're our fat friend now and i was like wait what it was like yeah and we didn't discuss this but holy shit look at you and so uh dudes fucking dudes being dudes but letting dudes have it yeah for the dudes but um yeah that was that was like a wake-up call too that might be a business thing we'd be like stop looking at these shredded celebrities and men's health you know stop but it's probably like nobody's ever sold average as an improvement. I wonder if there's a marketing lane. There's actually a great advertising. I'm sure somebody's probably already done it, but there would be something great about the campaign being built around getting to average. Getting to average. Stop thinking that the BCAAs after six weeks and some regiment, you're going to look like this fucking guy because it's not happening.

All right. All right. Yeah, I'm going to workshop this. I'm going to think about it. Thank you, Kyle, as always. And to Brian Waters on the front end of this podcast. Next time you hear us, we'll be live in Denver. And I think we'll be able to do that pod in a way that it's still going to work as an episode. I know the live episodes aren't always

perfect, but we're not doing four episodes next week. So there's breaking news. There you go. All right. Talk to you Wednesday. Ryan Rusillo Podcast, right here on Spotify. Thank you.