Holiday Special: Worst Family Conversation Starters, Sport Pet Peeves, and Bad Driving

In this holiday special we enjoy the season by looking back at some of the dumbest sports decisions of the year, discussing how everyone has that one family member who can't resist the political talk at the dinner table, and pondering deeply why driving is so difficult for some people.

Transcript

Chris 0:11

All right, guys, welcome to this special episode, holiday episode of the backseat driver podcast. I am so pumped for this, this, if you've listened to some of our previous episodes, this will be nothing like them. Uh, but if you want to have a little bit of fun and mess around and have some conversations about things that I don't know, uh, drive you crazy specific to us, and maybe you guys can relate to some of them. This is the place for you. If you're looking for great information in science, uh, back decision making, this is not the episode. So just shut it off now, but if you want to have some fun, stick around, hang out with us. This is going to be all about our pet peeves and what drives us crazy. We've been wanting to do this episode for a while Bringing my co host

Matt 1:00

Matthew here. We've we've been storing up topic after topic week after week in anticipation of this episode So we are very excited. This will give you plenty of dynamite to drop at the Christmas Christmas table This week to hopefully start plenty of conversations that will lead to vehement disagreement And, uh, plenty of fireworks at the houses with your family. So we're excited to give you that ammunition. So let's,

Chris 1:27

let's jump right into it. So it is been football season, uh, kind of gearing toward the end of football season now, but it's huge fans of the sport. And we, we watch a lot of it. Um, and I know some of our fan base here watches as well. There are some things about watching this football that just drive us nuts. Why don't you start with one of yours?

Matt 1:49

Okay. So, so my first topic is, uh, getting it to the fourth quarter, that quote or statement that coaches often say when they're an underdog and they get to halftime or they're interviewing the coach, you know, they to do that stupid one question interview, which right

Chris 2:04

before the fourth,

Matt 2:05

and they ask the most. Just for her question anyway, so, you know, they usually do in the interview with the underdog coach if it's close going into the fourth quarter They've managed and yep This is all we want to do is get to the fourth quarter and I just always think to myself That is the dumbest approach to a game. I have ever heard in my life It's like our goal is to keep it close going to the fourth quarter So all my decisions are trying to keep the score respectable until the fourth quarter. It's like that That is the least aggressive, least like playing to win mindset that could possibly prepare my team to have going into a big game. God

Chris 2:39

forbid we blow them out. I mean, like, what, what does that even

Matt 2:43

mean? It's like, it, it basically to me sounds like we don't want to get blown out. We want to keep the game respectable. So we're going to make the most cautious, most, uh, risk averse decisions possible to make sure this scoreline looks good on the ESPN bottom line. No matter how,

Chris 3:02

because, because losing 20 to 17 looks better

Matt 3:07

than, I don't know. And taking a couple of risks in the first half and losing

Chris 3:11

by three touchdowns. So that kind of filters in, uh, to one of mine and I think this is both of ours. So I'm not going to take full credit for it, which is the fourth down decisions. Um, watching people

Matt 3:27

punt. I, I have to hold on, I have to interrupt you. You, you have actually been ahead of this for years. I'm there like when we were kids before there was advanced analytics, we were the advanced analytics for going forward, which

Chris 3:38

is why it drives me crazy. Because this is something, you know, when you like step into a situation, you're like, why is it done this way? And it just doesn't make sense. This is what punting on fourth in one from the 40 yard line was for me. Like you said, literally as soon, as long as I can remember. It's like, what are we doing? And now we have the data to actually back up of how dumb of a decision that is. And if you want to know, and you want to sound smart at the Christmas dinner table, follow Ben Baldwin because he literally just tweets out all of the fourth down decisions in the NFL that are horrendous and how much win probability teams are dropping. By making that decision and some of them are like three and four percent win probability dropped by Literally the one decision on that play to punt instead of not go forward or kick a field goal instead of not go for it and so finally and finally finally some coaches are Recognizing this they're going for it Is the right thing to do But man, there are still some that are just head scratchers

Matt 4:46

This this part lays perfectly in the one that you just reminded me of which is the commentator then piggybacking off the decision to pun and being like man, that was such a good decision or you got a pun in here if They go. Yeah, if they go forward on fourth and one just being like that's This is a huge risk and you look at the you look at the analytics and it clearly says to go forward in this situation Or it clearly says that's the the smart thing to do And they're like this is just you know This is just too risky of a decision to go for on fourth and three inches From the 40 yard line on my opponent's side of the field man we need to punt it and then they punt into the end zone they get net like Yeah, those are, those are my favorite and you're like, Oh, luckily, luckily

Chris 5:33

we punted for those 20 yards that they got in two plays. Um, so that, that's a good one. Uh, last football one, at least for me, since we're, since we're on the football time, I'm

Matt 5:47

just getting started. I have like five more

Chris 5:49

is, and this is another thing I've been on for years. is punt returns. I'll throw kick returns in there a little bit, but specifically punt returns. My theory on punt returning, after watching so many muffed punts, because we put some guy back there who, like, always has the mindset of making the big play, which is great for certain situations, not for a punt return. Because it's one of the riskiest plays that you go through. And so the, instead of just calling a fair catch in that and getting your team, the ball, no, we have to make this one, we have to make this play. And then we don't keep

Matt 6:29

our eye on the, there's always a block in the back, even if you do something good,

Chris 6:32

exactly. Even if you return it, there's always a penalty. So I'm like, so then you go farther backward than if you would have just caught a fair catch in the first place. So I'm like, if I was a football coach. I would call fair catch before the play.

Matt 6:44

You just tell the, the ref.

Chris 6:49

I would tell

Matt 6:50

everyone there. I am calling everyone on the field. The whole team just waits for a fair catch. That's what I would do. Well, you know, that, that segues into, uh, obviously like Clemson, Carolina in 2022. Carolina literally won the game because of punt and kick and then punting kickoff fumbles basically if they would have just fared caught it on those They would have won and and then the best part is you know When I was in school there the same thing how I think they muffed like three punts it's So it's so, though, I would love to see the probability of the number of times you get a big enough play to actually improve your win probability with a punt return versus the number of times it decreases your win probability because of something stupid.

Chris 7:34

I would love to see that. And I would bet so much that you lose when probability, I'm not trying to return upon a bunch of the time I kick returns because how often they ever get to the 25. I know they

Matt 7:46

give you the 25 now. And these guys are. Still trying to take it out and, uh, yeah. And then anyway, so that's a good one. All right. So you, you do have another football one though, because I want you to talk about the Heisman trophy with a little segue of, we, uh, had recently seen a commercial about Bo Nix and his Heisman trophy campaign.

Chris 8:06

So he's probably going to win the Heisman. I don't, we're recording this a little bit before the holidays. So we'll see what happens, but, um, Oh my gosh, what, what are we doing? The goal is to pick the best player. All we're doing is just picking the person with the best stats, which you have, you've looked into it a little bit of like Bonix, for example, like how often does he actually throw the ball more than like three yards down the field? Probably it's, it's such a low percentage and we're going to give this guy the Heisman because he has a good team. And also, by the way, at this point, haven't beaten a top 25 team. Is that true? Yeah, they have not. Wow, I didn't realize that. And so, he's literally throwing check down routes and just having his receivers run for a bunch of yards, getting a bunch of touchdowns because of it, and has a great defense. And we're like, oh, but his stats are good, so we're gonna give him the Heisman. Like, okay.

Matt 9:03

But they beat Utah. I mean, Utah was top 25. Are we saying current top 25? Current top 25. I'll give you that. Um. Yeah, just for context, we're recording this before the S like the championship weekend and the Heisman and stuff. So if we will see how How good we are? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. This is perfect. We will be absolutely roasting us for this episode in a few weeks Let's see. Oh another one Hunting is an underdog. This goes back to my underdog thing, but we were watching Charleston Southern verse Clemson earlier this year And charleston southern had gone out to like a 14 zero lead or something or 14 7 And they get to the 50 yard line or 45 On clemson side of the field and it's fourth and two or three And they punted the ball and the commentator's like yep. You got to punt it here. It's early in the game and My thought is what in the what are you talking about? This is you're a 40 point underdog You should not I think I said something like you shouldn't even bring the punter on the team bus to the field Bye

Chris 10:06

That was my favorite comment. You're like, the kicker shouldn't even be here.

Matt 10:11

I just, my, and then the best part, Clemson score, they punt it, they, I do the thing where they get like five yards because it goes into the end zone and Clemson scores in three plays or something and the game's tied and it's just, it's, it's mind numbing. Honestly, I can't, I can't deal with the underdog punt in a plus territory anymore. I just have to turn it off.

Chris 10:32

Uh, do you have any more football

Matt 10:33

ones, or? No, I just, I just have to comment on this. This is not a pet peeve, more than it's just... It gave me eye cancer watching it. That's our phrase for horrendous offense, which I'm not sure is politically correct, but... That's like kind of our phrase when you have to watch like big 10 offenses, specifically Penn State's offense against real teams

Chris 10:54

or like Iowa's over under is like 20 and a half this week or

Matt 10:57

something. Yeah, yeah. The Iowa, that was Iowa. Iowa State, right? Yeah. They, I think they're over. Our friend had sent us the over under for that game, and I think it was 20 points

Chris 11:06

for total, for the whole game between

Matt 11:08

both teams. What is that? Oh man, that's, that's good stuff. But anyway, those are, yeah, I just. Their offensive coordinator got fired after that. I think whatever the Ohio State or I think Michigan game but man, I watched that Ohio State and Michigan game where they were Penn State played both of them and that was One of the worst offensive displays and I've watched South Carolina. So I mean I've seen bad off I saw Marcus Satterfield for two or three years. Like I you don't know that is there's a reason for I've seen really bad offense And I just could not figure out if it was just that the quarterback does not know how to throw or if they were that conservative and that, that just goes back to another pet peeve of like the conservative play calling when you have a good defense, what, like, what is, I like to

Chris 11:55

call it prevent offense,

Matt 11:57

explain your prevent offense

Chris 11:59

theory, prevent offense is when we're two, two situations, one we're scared to do anything we're, so we really don't want to like turn it over. Yeah. So we'd rather, you know, in football punt or in, in basketball is a lot of times where you see prevent offense when a team gets a lead and they'll just like, they'll just walk the ball up the court, wait the entire time for the shot clock to run down and then jack up some horrible shot. But we, Oh, we wasted 30 seconds. So great. But then the other team just grabs a rebound, goes down and scores in five seconds. And it's like, like, Oh, what a comeback. It's like, okay, well, you're literally not even trying to score. Um, So that, that's kind of the concept of prevent offense or the second one is when you have a big lead and this is kind of, this is kind of where we see it a little bit, okay, we're up 21 points in a football game and you just start, you just stop trying to score points like, okay, we're, we're just going to start wasting time and it's like the second quarter or the third quarter and it's like, um, what is the goal of each drive? Isn't it to score points? Yeah. I mean, we need to remind. Yeah. Some coaching staffs that, Hey, the goal of the drive is to score points. They just, they literally just changed their whole philosophy and we'll call the worst plays and then just happily punt the ball back to the other team and make it a game again.

Matt 13:19

Yeah. They just, the approach completely changes for some, for some reason, the thing that got psychology behind this, by the

Chris 13:25

way, that I can get into one day. Not during this

Matt 13:29

too, too serious, too serious, but yeah, it's like your whole approach that got you to that place. And you're like, okay, we're going to actually do the complete opposite of the approach that just got us where we, where we want it to be. So yeah, the 2015 Panthers were famous for that. We get up by 40 points and go into the prevent shell for three quarters. Why would

Chris 13:46

we, why would we do that thing that scored us so many points in the first half and the second half, that would be stupid.

Matt 13:53

Um, so this has nothing to do with, with anything, but. Apparently, Chris really hates bad driving. I don't know exactly what part of bad driving he

Chris 14:03

hates. So, since we're talking about pet peeves, I am really not, I have a long fuse with pretty much everything in life. But man, one thing that gets me is like when you're on a one lane road, and you get behind a car that is going like 10 miles below the speed limit, there's nothing that you can do. And I live on a one lane road, and so this happens to me all the time, and it is just, it's so infuriating to, to have, like, the helpless feeling, because obviously if it happens on a highway or something, you just pass them, it's not that big of a deal, but then, but also like the amount of times, and maybe I have a confirmation bias on this, where I just notice it, you know, like when stuff happens, but like, I'm trying to back my car, I'm in a parking lot and then there's just like a truck behind me parked and I like can't get out. I'm like, Hey, can I, can I get out? Or I'm trying to get out of, you know, my apartment or a road and there's just like cars sitting in front of me. People are just completely unaware of what is going on. And there's like backed up traffic from this like one person who can't. Is unaware of the situation or

Matt 15:18

just mom, is that you just, that you mom So anyway, just bad driving and then you drive by in general, like, and you realize it's your mom. Yeah.

Chris 15:26

No, seriously Um,

Matt 15:30

just kidding. Mom, we love you. There's Yeah. Merry Christmas. That's

Chris 15:33

so that, that's, that's one of 'em.

Matt 15:36

All right, so with the driving thing, there's two things that come to mind. So one is in Utah, when we lived in Utah. The left hand turn signal, you know, when it turns green and you have the right of way Everyone would sit there for like 10 seconds. So we called it the Utah like left turn thing They would just sit there when the green arrow turned like they were waiting for something or waiting for some I don't

Chris 15:58

get it That's that's one of that's part of what I'm talking about is the amount of times people It's like their turn to go and I'm waiting for them to go and they just sit there and they're like, oh, come on. I'm like, no, yeah, that's your, you are going to get me in a wreck because you're trying to be like too nice or I don't know. That's

Matt 16:16

such, that's such a Southern thing. I, in Utah, no one did that. And since I moved back to the South, everyone does that. And it's in the worst. It's like, it's, it's, it's the thing too, where it's always the same, where if they just kept going. You would easily be able to pull out behind them Yes, but then they decide they want to be nice when they're the only car they stop And because it's not the normal like the thing you're supposed to do You're not because so much driving is anticipating So you're not anticipating it, then they stop. It makes that you're confused and they're not very clear about it. Then that you pull out in front of it and then you almost both get hit because there's a car coming the other way that you didn't see it's, it's so dangerous. That's, that's one of them. I have to give a public service announcement cause this actually happened to me when I was in med school. So, you know, the yellow signs on the road that like tell you the roads can be swervy and a little bit, or, um, you know, there's just a bunch of stuff on this yellow signs. And then right below that, there's sometimes a speed of like, Oh, you should, you know, realize you should, you should drive a little slower on that part. Apparently the, the speed limit on the yellow sign is enforceable. At least that's what the police officer told me when he gave me a ticket for driving above the yellow spot sign speed, but below the actual speed limit. I was like, then why do you have a speed limit sign 20 feet in front of the yellow sign? That makes literally no sense. And the yellow speed

Chris 17:39

limit is always so. It's

Matt 17:41

like 15 miles an hour. You can't even drive your car. That's it. It like neutrals forward that fast. It's insane. So public service announcement. If you ever see those yellow signs with speeds, apparently those are enforceable. Not that anyone in their right mind would ever enforce that. But apparently, uh, if the quotas aren't met, they are enforceable. So be careful as you drive or drive to your family's house. This holiday season is not, he's not salty at all about it. I finally got the points off my record.

Chris 18:11

Uh, so here's one for me. So sticking in this, going back to the sports realm, but not football. So. In basketball, this is the thing that when I see it, it just makes my blood boil. When a player gets, especially in college basketball, when a player gets two fouls, say five minutes into the game and the coach pulls them out of the game for the rest of the half is insanity to me. So especially when it's like one of your best players. So they're like, and that's kind of. Let's just think of the math on this. This is so obvious to me, but apparently no one else, it is. So if I get two fouls in the first five minutes of the game, and I don't play, my coach sits me out the rest of the first half. My maximum amount of minutes played is 25, right? No matter what. But if there's no guarantee, I get three more fouls in the game. So I could theoretically play all 40 minutes and not foul out. So my max amount of minutes played is, is 40. But now I've, you've prevented me from even having a chance. So, also, okay, let's say you don't take me out the rest of the game. I play the two fouls, I pick up a third foul in the first half, but I keep playing. And then I play and I keep, I just, coach doesn't take me out. And then I pick up my fifth foul with 10 minutes left in the second half. Okay, people be like the coach is an idiot. Why did he take them out? It would be this. It would be insanity in today's world in college basketball. But what? How many minutes did I play 30? I played five more minutes than I would have played if you sat me out the whole first half. Why is that? Difficult for people.

Matt 20:01

Well, I mean people the argument of course would be that the the higher leverage situations are towards the end of the game But you're not in the higher leverage situation

Chris 20:09

because you're not in that you're losing the game because you're best players, right? No,

Matt 20:13

I I understand I'm saying that's what they would say But yes most of the time one of two things happens either you never get to that situation because you start getting blown out your doors blown off because you lose all momentum or The other thing is they come back in after sitting out two hours of real time. They're terrible. Yeah, exactly. They're terrible. So no rhythm. Yeah. It's hard to keep a rhythm when you sat out two hours.

Chris 20:33

So if I ever coached basketball, I will, and I have, I will never pull a player out

Matt 20:38

for foul trouble. Yeah. You're just playing until you get five.

Chris 20:42

I mean, sure. I might give you a break for like a breather or something, but what is anyway, someone, if that math is wrong and someone wants to dispute it, like go for it. But. I feel like that's pretty

Matt 20:54

clear. Yeah, that's, that's uh, a good one. Um, Let me look in my list. I don't think I have any more on my list. Did I say any other ones when we were preparing?

Chris 21:05

Uh, not that I recall. I have one. Alright,

Matt 21:08

so let's uh, let's go one

Chris 21:10

more. This is a life one. The word like.

Matt 21:14

Gosh, I don't even know where this is about to go guys. I don't, I

Chris 21:19

don't either. This is not. It's just in general, sometimes you, you guys have all probably heard this, you're in a conversation with someone and they say, like every other word and I, I use the word, like there is a time and place for it and it kind of is good for analogies. It kind of softens situations. Similar stories

Matt 21:42

is a simile like, or as is that right? Like your ass. Okay. Yeah, that's

Chris 21:45

nice. Well done. Shout out fourth grade English teacher. But man, there are, it is, it, when, and you know, it's kind of one of those things like once it's your pet peeve and you know it's your pet peeve, you can't not pay attention to it. It's an epidemic. So, anytime someone starts talking to me that does that, I can't focus on what they're saying. And it's, cause it's so distracting to me. And so, that, that's one of the, the ones that jumps out to me now. Especially with kids, obviously kids do it a lot. And that's like, I can understand that, but when adults do it,

Matt 22:25

do you think, do you think everyone's going to go back and listen to our episodes now and hopefully they'll get, yeah, they'll get our listens up at least. So we'll, we'll take the trade off, but they're going to go back and listen and I say totally critique you. I

Chris 22:36

am telling you that I say the word like there in, it's fine to use it. Sometimes it's when people use it, every other word.

Matt 22:48

I know what you're talking about. I think that's, I think

Chris 22:49

everyone here knows what I'm talking about.

Matt 22:51

Yeah, I think so too. Um, one other one I had written down was, you know, when, when someone just has to drop the political, like bombshell and at the family meal, everything's going well, you have that, that one uncle or grandparent that just has to slide in the, this like backhanded political comment, and then it takes things completely off the rails. That's we definitely have that in our family Yesterday great my grandfather just just walking off just drops a completely deep cut political references. He's walking down the stairs to go home. Just kind of drops the bomb and walks away

Chris 23:37

It got so It's gotten, it was at one point, this is years ago now, so contentious with some of our family that we had to ban political, uh, commentary. Yeah, it was wild. Which is, has been a good thing. Um, but there's always that one person that can't quite control themselves in any situation. Uh, not just politics, but, but other situations when you're like, you know, and there's like the elephant in the room. Uh, whatever it is, and there's always that one guy who just feels a need to poke the bear a little bit, um, which sometimes can be funny and sometimes can be, uh, catastrophic.

Matt 24:16

Well, I think, I think we made a pretty good time on our, our list here. Less than 30 minutes. So, do you have any, any more that I forgot? I think I've, I've exhausted my pet peeves.

Chris 24:26

I would love to hear some of y'alls, if they're, can relate to ours. Um. Like ones that you're like, yes, I, I relate that. Or you're like, no, you're crazy, Chris or Matthew for saying that. That's really dumb. I would love to hear that feedback. Also, any ones that we, that you guys have, we probably also share that just didn't think of at the time. Um, yeah, I, I love hearing about these types

Matt 24:51

of things. Yeah. Well, uh, after we post this episode, we'll, we'll post a little, uh, Feedback thing on our Instagram story. So for the next time we do it, people can give us some of theirs so we can talk about them as well. Um, always good conversation starter. Yeah. So, so my finishing, my finishing thought for this episode is on Thanksgiving night, we were watching one of the football games and they showed people's favorite sides. And one of the guys favorite sides was Was venison and then another person's favorite side was a dessert. And I just, you know, that was, it wasn't necessarily a pet peeve, but I just was kind of questioning. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. When you, when you have a main course like venison as your side dish, that gets a little confusing. And then some of them are like great grandma's sweet. No, it was great.

Chris 25:44

Grandma's green bean casserole. And I was just imagining how good that would

Matt 25:48

probably, that was, that was a good one too. So anyway, that's nothing to do with this episode, but I just had to bring it up because I thought it was hilarious. All right. Well,

Chris 25:57

happy holidays to everyone. Uh, hopefully, like you said, this is kind of a fun spinoff episode for us. If you enjoy it, let us know and we'll do more stuff like it. But, uh, other than that, yeah. Yep.

Matt 26:10

See you guys soon. Okay.