NFL Week 7 - A visit from Bucs HC Bruce Arians that defies all odds

talk NFL week seven. We're gonna clean up week six because there was a lot to clean up in week six. We're gonna talk week seven, and we got a special guest, my man Bruce arians stick around for that. That's a great interview. That's the question. That's the question where we'll get to that a little bit later on. So let's talk. Let's clean up week six and let's go. Look, everybody was talking about Monday Night, right, Lions Packers, Primetime, Monday Night,

a lot to to kind of break down. But we we've kind of been we've been consistent with these tweets, the social media, you know, presence. Typically it's it's been Thursday night tweets. But let's go with a little Monday night tweets. What do you got first? Travels? Yea, Clay Matthews. He uh, he said. The storyline for the twenty nineteen season continues to be the ref's inability to make the

accurate and correct calls weekend and week out. Al Riveron continues to blindly side with the refs, with his refs and the current status quo, something must change, zero accountability, and then he throws in a hashtag that I'm not sure what this is hashtag through the Wired. Yeah, I don't know what that I mean. I remember, I remember the Shaka Kan song through the Fire, but I don't remember what through the Wire is? Am I showing my wyoming all. We're gonna have to We'll look that up.

But okay, so not not good for Clay. In terms of his his interaction with the league was fined you can't criticize the officiating publicly, criticized the officiat. You can do it all you want privately, but not publicly, and he was fine to twelve thousand, five hundred dollars. Lions head coach Matt Patricia was a little a little more diplomatic what did What did coach Patricia say after the game. He went with a little coach speak and this is what he has to do. He said, we didn't do

enough to win. The plays that mattered aren't the ones everyone is talking about. I'm not asking anyone to help us win the game. It's not the refs, it's us, you know. And that's I mean, I think that's that's kind of the right response. Look, we get it, it's it's it was a tough game. There was some controversial calls. They all went field, felt like they all went against the Lions, and Lions lose a one point game, so obviously everybody wants to talk about the officiator. Let's just

quitly breakdown. Look, there were two illegal hands to the face calls in that game, both on Trey Flowers, both on third downs that extended drives. And uh, he was you know, he was going up against David bo tr I think I think one of the things with the rule and people think, okay, illegal hands to the face, it's it's kind of a misnomal because it doesn't have to be to the face. Do we have that do we have that sound bite? Joe? Did we take it

out you know, you gotta let me know these things. Fine, I thought we had the Eddie Murphy in the face and perfect would have been a perfect time for it. But obviously audio guy dropped, dropped the ball down. Have the rights. I don't need Eddie Murphy calls. Okay, okay, So so there you go, so trouble it up there.

You gonna do it twice. But so the bottom line is, it's it's head neck area, and it's it's it's contact that is either prolonged to the head neck area or contact that is forcible that uh to the head neck area. And and so neck is part of it. And the contact it was right, it was near the collar. The head goes back. It happens at full speed. The official has to make a split second decision. And I can understand why it was called in real time. But obviously

these are these are big calls. They're automatic first downs, and they extended the drive. So so you have those those calls. You had a hit on on Geronimo Allison. That was actually you know, it was a scary situation, Tracy Walker. There's helmet to helmet contact. I get it. I understand why on the field the call is made.

You have helmet helmet contact the clearly forcible Tracy Walker when you watch the replay though, he's making a play on the ball, and and you know, we would always we would always look at it as if the defender has the same right to the football as the receiver, and and if he's making a play on the ball, a legitimate tempting to make a play on the ball,

then then that contact would be considered incidental. So so I don't feel like that was a foul, but I understand why it was called in real time because that happens so quickly. And in all of this we get the benefit of slow motion replay and multiple angles. The official has to make the call in real time, split second from their perspective, and then we get to we get to analyze it with with more resources. And then you know, we talk about mechanics a little bit, and

you said, you you mentioned perspective. Can we talk about like what guy is supposed to be watching which thing? I know people asked about that on Twitter and on on social media. Well, yeah, you look at so every you talk about past play mechanics and and every eligible receiver has an official that is responsible at least initially

for that receiver. So so at the snap you have a you have an initial key and so and based on the formation and typically so you have a deep a d wing official that's an official that is that is on the sideline that is about twenty yards downfield. It's either the field judge or the side judge. They they will have the widest receiver in the formation on their side of the field. That's how that's where they start. But obviously, you know, receivers don't necessarily run routes right

up the field. There's crossing routes, there's different things. So sometimes there can be a switch. You know, there could be a switch the back judges in the middle of the field. The batch the back judge many times has the tight end and so there could be a crossing route where they have to switch. And so there's a lot of times where the the officials will go to a zone concept. So it's man zone ball. That's what

they teach the officials. So you start with your man, then you go to a zone and then when the ball is in the air, you should go to where the ball is going. So every official is going towards the ball. If not every official, but every official, the downfield officials, especially to that side of the field. If we're talking about if it's if it's on the one side of the field, you're gonna go to the football. So you should have multiple sets of eyes on that play.

And there are a lot of things to look at. You know, is it a catch, was there interference? Was there a hole? You know, is there is there contact to the headneck area? And so again it happens quickly you can understand why that call was made and uh and and then again we look at it and we slow it down and we determined that he was making a play on the ball. You know. Then then you talk about obviously pass an inference and there was a no call on Marvin Jones will Redman, the defensive back

for the Packers. Look, it's pass an inference. I mean he's not playing the ball. He has his arm across the chest and before the ball gets there, and it's past inference. There's no flag on the field. And it's a coach's challenge situation where outside two minutes and Patricia doesn't throw the flag. And this is where we are today, and you're gonna hear coach arians talk about this later

in our interview. Where the coaches are are not they're gonna keep the flag in their pocket unless it is so latently obvious or it's such a critical point in the game where they just have to take a chance. They're not going to challenge the call on the field because what we've seen is that the bar is so high to overturn that call. And uh, and I think

that's where we are with past deference. Unofficially. We had I think five more reviews this week in Week seven and UH and zero reversal, So we haven't had a reversal for past interference since Week three of the regular season. Do you think this is where the league wanted it to go? So it kind of just buries the story because if you're changing them all the time, then you get into a little bit of a gray area there.

I do think that this is where there's no question, there's a directive that we're only going to overturn the the blatantly obvious calls. And I think it has changed. It's changed from what was presented in the offseason. It's changed from even the first couple of weeks of the season where we saw some calls that were overturned that weren't as obvious as as what the standard appears to be now. And uh and and look, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think if the Saints

RAMS is the standard, then that's the standard. But but you'd want that to be consistent throughout. And we've talked about this, but but I think you know what what stem from that game? Right? You have a primetime game and it felt like everybody had an opinion on officiating. And you look at Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and it was like anyone, you know, all the talking heads, everybody, everybody

became an expert on officiating. And it's broken, and it's a problem and the you know, the future of football is in jeopardy. And and look, the bottom line is that I've been around the NFL, I started in and and this is not I've been through. Even when I was out of officiating, there there were times where it felt there were these controversial calls every week and people were saying, this is the worst it's ever been. It's

the worst that's ever been. Now it's you know, I don't I don't think it's the worst it's ever been. Of course, I do feel like the scrutiny and the attention on officiating continues to increase and so and with social media and everybody has a platform, I do feel like the the attention is greater. I don't feel like it's the worst that it's ever been. I think the officials are better now. They're they're more fit, they're better trained,

they have more resources. But the game continues to get faster, we continue to throw more rules at the officials and uh and it becomes increasingly harder to officiate these games in real time. And and so, you know, I went on I went on the pregame show on Sunday on the Kickoff Show with with Tony Gonzalez and Dave Wants That and Colin Coward, and we were talking about you know what, what what is the solution? You know what? What is not necessary that it's broken? And but what

is the solution? And I look at these plays and I say, look, we can't just throw a replay at what we think of problem is. We have to get down to the root of are the officials on the field calling the game consistently? Are they making because I look at that no call on Marvin Jones and I go the the The issues shouldn't be why didn't coach Patricia challenge it? The issues should be why wasn't there

a flag on the field to begin with? Okay, we're we're the officials looking where they needed to look where they you know, are they getting the correct direction? Are they getting good communication from the league office, from the Competition committee to ensure that we're calling these games consistently? And I think that's what everyone wants. Everyone wants consistency.

I think that's where you have to get to UM when it comes to officiate and good communication across all of your seventeen crews, every official looking at the game the same way, And I think that's where you have to start. And you don't, necessarily, um, you know, just throw replay at the problem because replays limited it and you can't. You're gonna make there's a hundred and fifty five roughly a hundred and fifty five plays per game.

Per NFL game, you have seven officials when you talk about pre snap, during the play, and after the play, they're making five six, seven, seven decisions per play. If you do the math, we're talking about thousands of decisions and split seconds every game, thousands of decisions, and what do we talk about We talk about four or five, right, four or five. So they're really good at what they do.

And that's where we have to continue to focus and make sure the officials on the field have the resources that they need. The rules aren't overly complicated. We reduced the variables and and the performance on the field continues to improve. And then replaces there as a safety net. Replays not there to officiate games, it's there's a safety net. I think that's where we have to get back to. There was another thing that you and Gronk talk about

then on the kickoffs. Oh, on the kickoffs. So Gronk, Rob Gronkowski is now working with us on Fox Sports. And yeah, and so gron came in with the Super Bowl trophy. So the Patriots the dent now the one that they just won that you can't it's hard to keep track. It's like which one right, there's what six

of them? So gron came in and I just wanted to apologize to him and I in two thousand and fifteen when I was ahead of officiating Brian Dable, who was the tight ends coach for the Patriots at that time, Gronk's position coach. We used to talk almost weekly in and Brian would call me and he would talk about Gronk and offensive past inference. And here's a guy that is, for the most part, bigger and stronger than than anyone that's trying to cover he He is a big, big dude.

And so here's a guy that's bigger and stronger, and he's getting held, he's getting he's getting contacted downfield, and he was getting called for past interference. So I was walking Brian through, Okay, here's what he has to do, here's what he has to avoid. Um, thinking I'm doing a good job. And then I went back and looked at the stats and he actually had six offensive past inference calls in two thousand fifteen, which was more than twenty four entire teams that year. So I had to

apologize to Gronk for not he said he was. Gronk was great, he was cool. He's like, hey, bro, it's fine. You know, I just had guys car you know, I was carrying guys downfield and uh, you know, trying to get him off me. So was it a bit of a shock thing with him too? Like he had the hack is it's good and they were you know who was really good. You know, they played Denver a couple of times during that during that period, in the playoffs and during the regular season, and typically you had you

had defensive backs that were covering him. Linebackers couldn't stay with him, and you had defensive back safeties that were covering him and uh, and what they would do is Gronk would Gronk would come down and uh and try to establish position and the defensive back, you know, it was almost as if like kind of like a flop where where there'd be a con tacked, the defensive back would fall backward and the official would see it, see that contact and and throw the flag on Gronk. So

smart play, smart play by the defender. But I think it's something you know that that that shock. Shaquille O'Neil was right, so much bigger and stronger that that the forcible contact, the foul just didn't look as bad on him as it would say a six point guards. So definitely something to do with, you know, the size and uh, you know, of the athletes, he's a big dude. So let's uh, let's shift gears and let's talk about a crazy ending to a game on Sunday, it was. It

was the Chargers Titans game, and this was bananas. I mean, it was unbelievable. So so the Charges were down by three, and so you have an end of game sequence that included Rivers complete a pass to Austin Ekeler and it's ruled a touchdown. Right, we come back, replay comes back and put some down on short of the goal line, and uh, and he was short of the goal line.

And now we're we're inside. We were inside of a minute, right, But the rule would apply inside two minutes, where anytime the ruling on the field is reversed inside of two minutes to a running clock, it carries a ten second runoff, right, So you have that play ten second runoff and either team can take a time out to avoid the runoff. So Tennessee Chargers are gonna have the ball first and goal at the one. So Tennessee is anticipating, Hey, if

they score, we're gonna need time on the clock. So Tennessee takes the time out to save the runoff, which they can do. Next play is a false start on the Chargers. Next play is past inference defensive past inference in the end zone on Malcolm Butler. Okay, so now we got another first goal at the one. Next plays, Melvin Gordon up the middle, ruled a touchdown. Did he lose the ball before the knee was down? Was the ball short? Goes to review, reverse to down short of

the goal line. Another ten second runoff. This time Tennessee says, heck with this, we're gonna play defense. We're gonna we're not running. We're not gonna, you know, save the ten seconds. Charges are out of time out. So we reset the clock to where it was when Gordon was down. We run ten from that point, and we're gonna wind it on the ready. They wind the clock on the ready. They run it again up the middle, Melvin Gordon, ball comes loose, Titans have the ball, The official comes in,

rules them down. The clock stops with seven seconds. It's nayhem. Nobody knows what's going on. There's never an announcement to what the ruling on the field is. CBS assumes that the official ruled down by contact, which I think he did because he came in with his hand up short of the goal line, so so you would think he ruled down by contact, the clock stopped. Clock really shouldn't stop.

And I think I think we got very lucky. The league got very lucky that the replay showed that Gordon actually fumbled the ball and it was clearly recovered in the end zone, and so the ball went over to Tennessee because if they had let that call stand off down by contact, the clock stopped with seven seconds and and now, well, no, the Charges are gonna get another play because the call wasn't overturned. And uh, and there's no runoff if the call isn't overturned, So that would

have been insane. That would have been crazy. And look, I get it. The defense has the ball, they come out of the pile, the officials killed the clock, but there was never really an announcement as to what the ruling on the field was. And I think everybody got really lucky with what happened. Well not the Chargers, but this entire seen seconds on the game clock. It took like fifteen minutes of real insane. But if it does get overturned, let's just say it gets overturned, then ten

seconds were off from the game's over. Well, it depends on what the what the overturn and that instant. Since they ruled down, the only way they could overturn it was what they did, which was a fumble recovered by the defense, or they make it a touchdown, then it's a point touchdown. You're gonna reset the clock anyway. So in that situation, that was never going to be a runoff. But that was the problem with the clock stopping with seven seconds when by rule it really shouldn't have. But

I was noticing that. Look, I was watching my Twitter feed during this, and it's funny when you have a game that is not a primetime game or not a national game or whatever. Twitter was crickets, Like I got one question, one question. If that was Sunday Night Cowboys Eagles, the world might have ended. Yeah, it would have been ugly.

It would have been really it would have been crazy, Like we get the metrics of stuff in and I don't say this is this in the exact number, but I think there was like two percent of the country watching that game. And and like one tweet, one question, if that would have been Cowboys, you would have had a thousand tweets within within And so just to talk about that rule, that ten second runoff rule, when did that come into play, so that that rule was implemented

for the two thousand ten season. The reason that rule is in places because there was a play it was it was actually a Saint scheme and it was a play at the end of the half where the ruling on the field was a touchdown. Replay game back and looked at it and saw that the runner was short, and I think there was maybe eight seconds on the clock at the end of the play, so they saw that the runner was short, so they put the runner

down and the offense was out of time outs. So if the call on the field was correct, the clock would have continued to run and the offense probably would not have gotten lined up legally and and had another snap. So what this rule does is when you reverse to a running clock, especially from a stop clock ruling on the field was a touchdown, the clock stops ruling on the field should have been down in the field of play,

clocks should have continued to run. You're gonna run ten seconds because that's gonna prevent a team from getting a snap when they were not entitled to. And why ten seconds, because many many many years ago, when they put the ten second runoff rule in the Rules Committee, the Competition Committee decided that the minimum amount of time that it would take a team in general to get lined up legally would be ten seconds. Now, we know sometimes they

could do it in less Sometimes they can wait. If you have like a seventy yard sometimes it could take longer. So so where do you draw the line. You know, on a seventy yard pass, it's it's gonna take longer than ten seconds. On a five yard pass, it could be shorter. You have to have one single point, and ten seconds has been the point of demarcation. That's why

that rule is in place. Joe doesn't like the rule. Joe, I'm gonna take you off your word count and you can you can speak a little bit, but hurry up because we gotta go to I just think that it feels like, because the refs missed this call, I'm now losing ten seconds, especially if I'm at the goal line, where I know I can get get everyone lined up in three or four seconds. Now I'm losing ten seconds because they didn't get it right in the first place.

At the goal line. I feel you there at the goal line, it seems like you can definitely get lined up. Quicker than that. Well, well, there there's no question. There's no question. But the thing is, again, think about if the ruling on the field was correct initially, what would the clock have continued to do. It would have continued seconds, but it might be twelve, it might be eight. So again, you were not entitled to a snap at the point where the clock stopped. So you have to draw the line. Okay,

so let's go to break. We come back, We're gonna talk onside kicks. We're gonna talk my favorite super Bowl moment, and we got Bruce Arians coming up later on. Alright, we're back on good calls. Travis is not planned dancing, but he's dancing. He apparently Travis did win a dance contest in fourth grade correct fifth grade? Fifth grade dance last week. Yeah, we did bring it up in last week. Alright. I just I always want people to remember that you

you have a little rhythm. One thing we should let A few times people have asked if Travis is in Wyoming from Wyoming, but he's not in Wyoming. He's he's definitely, but Wyoming you could take you can take the boy out of Wyoming, but you can never take the Wyoming out of the boy. Okay, so let's go. Let's go Chicago, New Orleans. And we saw something that we haven't seen

this year yet. And we talked about this. We talked about it last week and we talked about look on side kick, right, we talked about, look, this, this is

a this could be a problem for the NFL. And uh and going into week seven, we were over seventeen so seventeen expected on sidekicks zero successful, um, Chicago completed one, Chicago almost got two, Chicago got one successful and uh and so there were seven total in weeks seven so far, not including Monday night and uh and so that's twenty four for the season with one successful recovery, which let me do some quick math in my hand. I was

told there'd be no math. A little over four percent, so we're we're doing a little bit better last year eight percent. Again, something to watch for. But then on side kick recovery, they actually got a second one. They ruled it on the field initially that Chicago legally recovered it was went to replay and they overturned it because the Chicago player, the kicking team player, was out of bounds, didn't re establish himself back in bounds before he touched

the loose ball. And just quickly on that rule, any out of bounds player is out of bounds. If you touch the white you're out of bounds. You're out of bounds until you re established back inbounds with both feet or another body part other than a hand or a foot, so it could be a knee, could be an elbow. And so if you step out, you've got to re establish in bounds before you touch the loose ball. So if you don't re establish and you touch that loose ball, that loose ball is out of bounds. We had a

similar play in the Ravens. Yeah, ruled metcalf, you know, passed two two DK metcalf, he fumbled it and uh, and the Ravens defender was out of bounds initially got both feet down inbounds, so he re established and then he recovered the loose ball. So so that made it. That made it legal the Ravens. Yeah, the Ravens look good. Ravens look good. Um. So yeah, so let's kind of let's shift gears a little bit and uh, and let's go to before before we actually get to the brain

of Blandino. Um, let's talk about you know we were talking about in this studio on Sunday, Fox is doing. What are they doing, Travis, Well, we have the super Bowl this year. We Fox has the super Bowl this year. And there was also the the hundred year um the anniversary of the NFL hundred years. So so they were asking everyone their favorite super Bowl moment. So I know you wanted to share yours. So let's hear all about it, my friend. So, yeah, so they brought up the hundred

year anniversary. We want to get all of our all of our talent to tell their their favorite super Bowl memory. So I'll share with you my favorite super Bowl memory. Super Bowl forty two. This is Giants Patriots. Okay, this is the This is the undefeated Patriots team against the underdog underdog Giants and uh and in Arizona. And I'm working for the NFL and I'm the I'm in charge of instant replay, so I'm in the replay booth with the replay official. And you might remember this play from

that game. It might, you know, it's a it's a little play. Maybe the David Tyree Cat Pats fans we should have given him. Sorry, I don't want to bring this up a source subject. But Eli's under pressure, He's almost sacked. He breaks free, he heaves it up in the air. Tyree goes up. Rodney Harrison goes up with him, pins the ball against his helmet. The ball touches the ground. He goes to the ground. It's insane. We're in the replay booth trying to confirm the ruling on the field.

So we're working through all of the angles. We see it. He's got control of the ball, doesn't come loose. It's a catch. This is the potential game winning drive. Okay, I'm in the replay booth. My phone rings. Okay, now I've got it on vibrate because I'm under fifty at the time. I'm still under fifty and and and so I've got it on vibrate, and I'm like, okay, I just look. Maybe it's something work related, maybe somebody in the stadium. I looking at my mom, and so I know, look,

my mom knows I'm at the Super Bowl. My mom knows I'm working. So now I start to freak out a little bit. Is it's an emergency, something happened. So I'm like, oh, okay, So I answer it, and I'm like, Mom, what's going on? And she goes, did you see that catch? And I'm like quickly like I gotta go, Mom, I

gotta go, I'm working. Hang up the phone. We finished the game, the Giants go on to win the game, and I did call my mom later on, but that that is definitely my favorite and most interesting super Bowl moment. And uh and uh, you know it's a mom thing. Your your mama Giants fan. They they my mom is. She doesn't know what she is, but but yeah, they grew up in you know there. I grew up in New York, so they were all New York fans, Giants Jets. So she and she likes you know, she likes Drew Brees.

She she's flavored flavor of the month, so um. But she was just a big fan of the big fan of the cash. So that was my my favor for Super Bowl moment. It's good, that's good. It's We had a lot of visitors in the Cube this week, so we started thinking about like maybe a new segment that

we could come up with. It. Well, I do like the fact that, look, we all if your first time listeners, we all worked together and we spend a lot of a lot of time together Fox Sports were in what we call the Rules Cube and it's it's a studio and we watch all the games and then you know, I can go on the air and talk about things. Mike Prayer can go on the air when he's there. It was it was nicknamed by Mike Prayer because it's freezing cold in there, so we all wear coats. It's

the ice Cube was where that came that cold. But by the way, Travis did get all Fox jackets this week. We thank you very much, thank you Fox for hooking us up with those jackets. So so, anyway, so we had a ton of visitors this week, which we normally don't have a bunch. We have stray Hand who comes in every week and great. He gives us cookies every week, which is great. But we had another visitor in Brady Quinn came in and we asked him a hot topic

that we've been going over there. So Brady, Brady is on on our you know are big kickoff show and and with Urban Meyer and Matt Leiner and Reggie Bush and and and and the group. And Brady likes to come in and hang out with us and us. Yeah, and he likes to come in and talk to us and and talk about stuff. And so Joe, Joe, you know, recently got a Tesla and he hasn't shut up about

the Tesla and how great it is. He's one of those guys that that it's not cool until he has it, and now that he has it, it's the coolest thing ever. And he won't stop talking about it. So we asked Brady, Hey, Brady, what do you think of Tesla's And Joe's ears perked up because he was waiting for like, oh, it's the greatest thing ever. And and Brady, you know, and I'm gonna I'm gonna paraphrase a little bit. Brady basically said, I have a Tesla and I blankety blank hate it. Okay,

I'm gonna go ahead. And so basically the car that Joe has been talking about and hyped up, Brady just shot down in in a three second sound bite, and Joe, how did you did you? Are you low on charge? Are you law on charge this week? Or what? What's going on? No? I'm doing just great. You have any problems charging? A little bit of a problem down down in the Fox lots, Okay, it happens something did happen?

Why don't you tell him? Because I'm pretty sure. But like most parking garages, not just in l A but pretty much. I mean, I don't know how many in Wyoming, but um, you know, they're charging. They're charging stations. And so our fox lot has has charging stations. And Joe likes to, oh, I getting the spot and charge my car and it has an update and and I'm cool and it's read and and so Joe comes in on Saturday. Right, Joe came in on Saturday and he was like kind

of like just forlorn. He was like he just down, like depressed. He couldn't charge his car because it wouldn't let him, like he was banned. What did it say from charge you're blocked from this arging station. So I would I would look into that. I'm calling customer service. I'm emailing HR. I'm pretty sure Dean put the hex on me. He comes in thinking that we did it, and which is hilarious. Would do it? It worked last week? Yeah, Well I've been using Foxes electricity for a week alright,

So they're getting a lot of free pub here to Tesla. So, Dean, are there any products that you wouldn't indorse. You know, that's funny because they asked that, you know, with the podcast and my Heart, they'll ask you what you know, is there anything that you wouldn't endorse? And and I actually I did see an advertisement for a a product that I freaks me out, and I don't know, if they paid enough, maybe I would endorse it, but it

freaks me out. And it's called the Mirror. Have you seen this where you basically you work out in front of it and people show up in the mirror? Yeah, we saw. We saw the commercial for it when we were in the studio on Saturday, and I hadn't seen it and I don't look it's it's around Halloween time. I don't know if if maybe we haven't talked about this, but I don't like spooky stuff. I don't like ghosts stuff you want someone hopping a power of normal. Yeah,

So I don't like that thing. I just worry, like if I have that thing in my house and you do a workout and in the middle of the night, I go to get a drink and it's like there's like someone there and and that like just freaks me out. So the mirror and I don't understand. Why not just get you know, watch a video on YouTube and work out why do I need somebody in the mirror. Joe had a great line about it when he saw and he said, maybe it's just the whole black mirror show

that he kind of puts that scary. I don't know. I just don't like the I'm with you, and don't bring a clown anywhere near my house at night. I made my daughter get rid of a clown doll. I just they freaked me out, and the clowns will freaked me out since Boulder guys the original one that that kid like the clown like, who has that freaky clown? I don't know. Let's move on. We're going off on a tangent. Let's uh, let's go inside the brand of Blandino.

Let's pick a random thomb brain. All right, here we go, let's work it outright. Guitar lessons. Great song if you were with friends and want to jam on the beach. I'll never be that guy. Oh okay, so I I I took guitar lessons when I was living in New York. I took guitar lessons for about two years. Learned a couple of songs and my guitar teacher this this guy kiss k. He was great, he was awesome and uh

and we learned a lot. I learned a lot from you teach me about, you know, just like the the structure of music and and how it all ties together and and everything. But he, you know, we were we were playing one one night during a lesson and he said, oh, you know what I'm gonna teach you this song. This is this is a great song that if you're ever like you know, you're at the beach with your friends and you just want to like, you know, jam out

and play. And I just said to him, I said, listen, es, Okay, I'm never gonna be the guy that brings the guitar to the beach with the now just sit there on the beach. But hey, guys, I just just brought my guitar and I'm gonna play. You know, hey, let's play a little pearl jamp. You know, I'm never gonna be that guy, So don't even never bring that up again. I want to learn from myself. I'll probably play by myself in my room. What was the song? Um? What

was the song? See, I'm quite I've got five songs and you're the guy. See I don't know if you remember this song in the movie Animal House, but if you're you're that guy, I'm gonna beat John Belushi. I'm gonna come up, grab the guitar, smash it, say sorry, but but no that that I don't want to ever want to be that guy, that guy that has the guitar.

Like you see him like riding his bike with his guitar around his his you know, and he stopped like what I wait at Whole Foods Like you know, I wouldn't. I wouldn't write a bike. I'd put it in my test lift. If you want to hear, if you want to hear every roads, you know, let you could charge the guitar, but I can't plug it into the car. And you know what, we gotta let's move on. You know we want to do is I want to I want to start a little thing where kind of make

a prediction for for next week's games. And and so I was thinking about this, and I think we're gonna get a past infurance reversal next week. I think we're gonna get one. Okay, so market down, market down, and we'll revisit it next week. But I think we're gonna get one. I think I think from now, so this will include the Monday night game. I think from now until we record next I think we're gonna get an overturning past affirence. I think about that, and it's like,

we talked to Bruce Arians this week. He was successful earlier. Maybe I'll get another. Maybe he'll get another. Maybe that's some inside information, ladies and gentlemen. Nice segue. We're gonna take a break when we come back. We're gonna talk to the head coach to the Tampa Bay Bucks. Bruce Arians next, good calls, alright, really excited for our guest this week. This guy has won two Super Bowls as an assistant coach. He was also the AP head Coach

of the Year twice in the NFL. Bruce Arians, Bruce, how's it going going great? You know how you doing? But I'm good. I'm good. So what the first question? What I want to know is how does a guy who, as a senior at Virginia Tech completed your passes and through only three touchdowns become such a pass happy, go big type coach. That's what I want. Okay, action passes,

there you go, there, you go. So but you know, one thing I do want to talk talk about is, you know, you're you over the years, you've given a lot of minority coaches an opportunity. And this goes back and I didn't realize. I mean, I know you were you were roommates with James Barber at Virginia Tech, and that's obviously Rhondda Antique, Tiki's dad, But I didn't realize that that was the first time at Virginia Tech that that a a white player and a black player had

had room together. And and and so what we'll talk about that experience and then just what has been your approach in terms of with coaches and minority coaches. You you have two female coaches on the staff. Talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I think color is one of those things that you know, as as an athlete, you you lose sight of because it's all about team and when you're in that locker room, it's just about your teammates and your brothers and your sister is trying

to win, uh whatever whatever sports you're in. You know, when it came to coaching, it's probably for me um not having had a chance to be a head coach. So I was sixty and Chuck mccono had to get sick and for for that to even happen. I like to see people get an opportunity who are qualified and uh so I really don't care. Uh. You know, the guys that I hired on my staff, all three coordinators and assistant coach, are minorities, but they're the best people.

I know. They're best people I trust. Um As far as getting women as time for women to being in coaching in the NFL, uh, they're great teachers. And if you're qualified, and both both of the female assistance that I have are highly are probably overqualified. And I'm really glad we have a great, great staff. Yeah, and you know, and I was. I brought in Sarah Thomas into the NFL as the first female official, and I felt the

same way. You know, you're talking about somebody that is that was overqualified, that had had paid her dues, and they're always you know, do you experience because I know I experienced that with some of our male officials and saying, oh, she's only in the league because she's a woman in the league. Is it's a pr thing? Have you experienced that, and what do you what do you say to somebody that kind of even insinuates that you don't know what

you're talking about. I mean, people are qualified. I mean Laurie Locus is coach Gosh for twenty some years. Uh. She just happens to be one of those Temple students that was when I was the head coach at Temple. Uh. And you know, married one of my former players. But just watch her put the time and to work in and she need an opportunity. And Joe Pendry, who I respect probably as much as anybody's ever coached in this game, gave her a glowing recommendation. So you know, just hey,

it's time to go. And uh maral Java Uh, I cannot say her last night, that's all right, that's all right. M J M. Day is the best uh at what she does as a body mechanic express us. So I mean I probably and be coaching. She wasn't working on my back every day, no, I mean. And it's like I said, it's time and we're seeing it now within the coaches and officials, and it's time that people realize and and hopefully one day, you know, is that it's not a. It's not a story, right, it's just it's

just normal. I'll be a happy one. It's not news anymore exactly, you know, when it's just it's just qualified people doing their jobs. So switching gears a little bit. I mean, you've coached some some great quarterbacks over the years, and Peyton Manning, Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer, Andrew Luck. I mean the list goes on. Where Where is Jamis Winston right now? You know in your system? What in terms of the development that you've seen. How do you feel right now

where he is? I feel good. I mean it's a growing process. I mean he had a rough outing in London, but it wasn't really all his fault. Again, you know, the two games that people want to criticize him, or San Francisco and Carolina, it's loving guys out there, you know, it's protection, it's Rotten's route, running to proper spacing and and doing your job. So I think he's growing. He's done a heck of a job and no one works any harder. I think his teammates respect the heck out

of that. And uh, you know, I'm really anxious to see and bounce back this week Okay, now, now let's talk about let's talk about officiating. And you you're a guy, and I was amazed at how much you knew about officiating and how much you knew about these officials and how much time you put into it. And and this this season, you know, you hired a former official to help you UM at practice and help you with replay. How's that going? And how important is that aspect in

what you do? Oh? It's huge. I mean we probably have as big as scouting report on who's going to call our game each week as we do as a team we're playing. You know, we hired Larry Rose. He's been they've been awesome, you know, with the rules and the interpretation is changing all the time. To have a specialist, a guy that knows the rule book inside now in your ear during the games that we can win this one or I'm ready, I'm throwing it like you're not

gonna win all right, I'll hold it, I won't throw it. Um. You know, it's just to me. It's a great advantage. UM. And he's done a heck of a job. And it's like when you meet with the officials before the game, you know, and say, look, when I challenge something, I'm going to have the right reason why and what words to tell you and uh, and Larry's Larry's in my ear, say it this way. And and we've been pretty successful

in our challenges, you have been this year. And I think that's such an important part because there's right, there's coaches speak, and then there's officials speak, and and and that language, that communication is so important. So to have somebody that is used to you know how the officials speaking, what what is the exact terminology I have to use, you know, whether it's a fumble and a clear recovery, those types of things. Forward progress is not reviewable. I

think that's I think that's so important. Um. You know I used to you know, I was so impressed with and you you know, your your bedside manner wasn't always great, but but you knew you knew so much about the officials. But I always I always laughed. You know, I'd be in the command center and and it'd be a primetime game and you know, the Cardinals wouldn't be playing, but

it would be you know, division game. Maybe it was the Seahawks and the Rams or somebody in the division, and you would start texting me about calls, and I said, I said, you know, I'm used to getting a call from the coach that's involved in the game. Now you're not even involved in the game. And I knew, and I knew that you had you know, I knew if you were drinking or not, because you're spelling would get

progressively worse in the text. But but like I said, you you know, you know these guys in and out what you know, not giving away any trade secrets, But what are you what are you communicating to the players about the crew coming in, Like what kind of information are you sharing with them? Two things going in that meeting. We go through all the fouls that we had the previous week, why that we're called, um, what we could

do better coaching wise in those situations. And then you know, we look at the crew, the crew that what are they calling? Are they are they calling O P? I? Are they calling DP? Is this a crew that all the holding penalties are the interior or they're all in the tackles? And and we show clips of the calls they make so our guys know, hey, if you put your hand on their shoulder, the cat's gonna call it. Now if it's in aside, it's not gonna call anything.

And uh, you know, it's it's hard. It's hard for the players to play the game right now because the interpretations of the rules are changing weekly and uh, what was holding in week one isn't holding anymore. So we have to stay as coaches, we have to stay up on that. So, yeah, let's talk about that, because obviously holding was something you know going into the season that

that was going to be a point of emphasis. And the way the way I I had kind of had had heard was that the coaches wanted to clean up holding and this you know outside the frame and some of the backside stuff. You know, were you involved in those discussions going into the season, what what were some of those discussions And then obviously we saw it just

a drastic increase early on and that has now dropped significantly. Yeah, I think you know, I was not on the I used to be on the Competitian committee and would be in those meetings, and uh, I try to stay as you know, when I got back into coach, and that was one thing I wanted to get involved in right away, as how we're going to call this game again? What changes are we making, And it was very interested in how we're gonna handle this backside stuff that did not

necessarily affect a play. You know, in the past, if it didn't affect a play, Warner Guy or whatever, but it didn't have any bearing on the play. The flag wasn't thrown in September. They were thrown and they were throwing a bunches and I think public opinion and everybody was like, and I think until Tom Brady tweeted, I'm not watching the game anymore. All of a sudden, now it's stopped. So now we have to recoach again. You

know what, how can we coach? For me, it's all about coaching my players h within the framework of the rules. And then that's important. You know what is the standard. You know what's going to be called, and that's that communication is d p I. Uh it has changed again. Um from the beginning of the year of a sudden, It's like, wow, the same thing that was o p I dp I as described early in the videos is now different. So you have to stay in tune to the videos that you get each tweak and how it's

gonna get called, and it does. It feels that way, it feels like the plays that they were showing in the off season and even some of the plays that were reversed early on and you had, you know, you had to challenges that you want on on on p I feels like that's not no longer the case that the bars is higher now is the league? Is the league? Do they put out tapes? Do they do? They do they share that information with the clubs to say, okay,

this is this is where we are right now. Each week, you know, we get one or two videos from the office and uh describing all the different interpretations UM, blind side blocks, O p I D p I UM and why they were called, why they weren't called. So you're you're just trying to keep a category, a collection of these plays in your head. We're on tape to show your players. Now, where where are you on? You know, even going into this season, were you in favor of

past inference review? And then what do you think the future replay looks like? I know we talked about and I know the coaches talked about kind of like a a sky judge concept that could fix any mistake. Where where do you? Where are you do you land on that? Where do you think replay needs to go? I was.

I was in total favor as a thirty I'm never seeing thirty two and oh right, never anything right, and you know, everything was okay, let's get that one play fixed that happened in the championship game last year with the Saints and the and the Rams, and let the instant replay official fix that and put the flag on the field. Um, I was all for that. Then it

became coaches challenges. Well, yeah, I'm I'm gonna I want to try to fix bad plays, and especially one is as big as O P I D P I and uh so, yeah, I was all for it, and I thought I thought it was really working well, and there seems to be a little bit now higher standard are

are different a way of doing it. Well, there's no question it feels like the it was more of a reofficiating the play, especially when the call was When the call was made on the field, I think we all agree it has to be pretty obvious that that it wasn't a foul to pick it up. But I think we saw some plays early on where there was contact it happened before the ball got there, and they were

putting the flag down and replay. Now we're seeing plays with contact, some that just it looked flat out, looks like p I and and they're not they're not calling it. And it was interesting. I was watching, you know, I was doing your game in London. I thought there was a player early on that Carolina had the ball. I thought the receiver pushed off, clearly pushed off, ended up getting a big game. And I was surprised. I wasn't surprised that because where we are today that you didn't

challenge it. But it was one of those plays where I think early on you probably would have challenged and they probably would have made it a foul, no doubt. He did a good job because he didn't extend his arm. He extended his elbow and and I knew we would not win that challenge this week now in September, Yeah,

I probably would have thrown the play. And is that your mindset going forward where it's going to have to be either a situation where I have no choice, this is the game, I got a challenge, or it's going to be just a complete no brainer. Yeah, I think right now it's got to that, you know, it has to be a total hand extended pushing uh um. But when you see a guy gets you know, in our New Orleans game, I thought was clear and obvious. So

I learned my lesson what is clear and obvious anymore? Yeah, So I want to I want you to share a story. This was. It's one of my favorite stories. And this was I don't know if you You probably remember, but I might need to jog your memory a little bit. It was. It was a Thursday night game. You guys were playing the Rams and I was I wasn't the head of officiating, and it was a You end up winning the game, but you didn't like We had a we had a replay review and we reversed it and

it went against you guys. And you called me from the bus after the game. Do you remember that phone call? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, And you used a lot of colorful language and and and so I always like to share that story because what I when I tell that story, and I always say, like, b A is a guy that he will he will m f you to death and he'll let you know how he feels. But at the end of the conversation

it's all good. I'll talk to you tomorrow. And that's how And you went from you went from a hundred and twenty to zero when I said, all right, you know what, We're gonna look at it tomorrow. Call me tomrow you all right, all right, talk to you later. And I always always appreciated that, and and and the other thing is I want to know where my picture is. You promised me a picture of you given me the finger. You sent it to Jay Glazer. Okay, he has it,

I'll get it from him. But I also want to I want to congratulate you because this is the first phone call, the first conversation we've had where you didn't drop one F bomb and I my grandkids are right here. Oh see, there you go. Now, Now, the real reason the grandkids are there, It wasn't just you and I are on better terms. It's it's the grandkids. Count on that. Okay, alright, Well, when the grandkids are gone, call me back drop it

because I'm missing it right now. But hey, I appreciate you taking the time, Bruce, and best of luck the rest of the season. All right, take care. This has been good calls with Dean Blandino. Please follow me on Twitter at Dean Blandino, Instagram at Dean dot Blandino. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter, at Rules Podcasts and on YouTube Good Calls pod, and be sure to Radar podcast on the I heart Radio app and on Apple Podcasts. Good Calls with Dean Blandino is a production of I

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