Monk and Stottlemeyer's male bonding experience over the Condors game grinds to a crawl when Monk finds something suspicious in the explosion of a barbecue grill in the parking lot. While Stottlemeyer tries to enjoy the game, Monk makes his own play to find the dark secrets behind the pyrotechnic prank, a missing player, and the unusually effective playing from the Condors' opponents.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Shawn Metzger's murder of Davy Gitelson was a heat of the moment panic from Davy rightly confronting him for stealing his playbook.
- As Himself: Bob Costas.
- Alliterative Name: The Condor's defensive coach, Brian Binsack.
- Artistic License – Religion: In trying to get Monk to relax and get them to their seats, Stottlemeyer claims "even God took a day off. And what day did He take off? It was Sunday. Why did He take off Sunday? I'll tell ya why Sunday; so He could watch football!". Aside from the obvious of football not being a thing at the time, the Bible states that God rested on Saturday, not Sunday. Stottlemeyer is mixing up the week of creation with the obligation for Christians to meet on the first day of the week.
- Bludgeoned to Death: David Gitelson is killed by being struck on his head with a tire iron.
- Busman's Holiday: Monk and Stottlemeyer go to a playoff game with tickets for the press box with Bob Costas As Himself, but Monk discovers an attempted murder involving a rigged grill and murdered quarterback David Gitelson being Hidden in Plain Sight by being dressed as a passed-out fan.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Once Monk proves Binsack has been cheating, the coach is led away in handcuffs and the Condors manage to turn things around, winning the game.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Bob Costas gives Monk all-access passes, which Stottlemeyer comments in awe would even allow him in the locker room. Monk doesn't think he'll use that feature, but it later comes in handy to retrieve the playbook from the Wildcats' coach before he can destroy it.
- Brian Binsack's constant flipping to seemingly random pages of his playbook.
- Grilling Pyrotechnics: The murderer rigs Chet's charcoal grill to explode by adding in gasoline that he siphoned out of his own car to silence this particular fan (Long story short, the murderer was afraid that the fan in question had either witnessed his murder of the backup star quarterback or was privy to the out-of-order playbook because he was in close proximity to the quarterback shortly before he was bludgeoned and killed.) Although he certainly succeeded in having the grill ignite, actually having the fan killed by the explosion wasn't nearly as successful, as the only real damage he did to the fan was burn his right hand, and the fan just reacted by putting a rubber foam glove over it). Also, unlike most cases, it wasn't Played for Laughs.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: After killing David Gitelson, the driver hastily hides the body in plain sight, disguised as a passed-out fan. Monk was only able to ID him because he was wearing a championship ring.
- Inciting Incident: Shawn dropped Gitelson's playbook papers while photocopying them and put them back out of order. Without that, Gitelson wouldn't have suspected anything and the Wildcats would have gotten away with cheating with nobody the wiser.
- Keep Away: Stottlemeyer and Monk throw the playbook back and forth to keep it away from the Wildcats coach and some guards after Monk grabs it from their locker room.
- Noodle Incident: Monk only got the tickets because he helped Bob Costas with a case involving a demented cat salesman (to clarify, the cats are psychotic, not the salesman himself). Monk admits in the end, he made that up so he could leave Bob's house.
- Offscreen Karma: Stottlemeyer reveals that after he and Monk got the stolen playbook to Disher, Brian Binsack was arrested for possession of stolen property, while Shawn Metzger was arrested in Marin County for stealing the playbook and murdering Gitelson.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Correctly interpreting Gitelson's last words is crucial to the plot. Chet tells Monk that he heard Gitelson yelling "out of order" that morning as he stormed out looking for someone. Monk initially thinks that Gitelson's words referred to some kind of machine. He was actually talking about the pages in the playbook and he suspected (correctly) that this meant his driver had stolen and copied it.
- Self-Deprecation: Bob Costas plays a Cloud Cuckoo Lander version of himself. It turns out the favor Monk did to earn his tickets was apparently saving his life from an insane kitten which was planning to kill him with a squeaky toy. He signs out of the game still insisting on live TV that the cat really was trying to kill him.
- Smarter Than You Look: Throughout his scenes, Chet looks like just some typical drunken football fan. As he and Monk are investigating what was "out of order", he gets a call from a co-worker and drops several financial terms. When Monk asks who Chet is, Chet explains he is a hedge fund manager.
- Suspect Is Hatless: When Monk confronts the killer about trying to eliminate potential witness Chet Walsh, he describes Chet as a drunk, yelling Condors fan dressed in a football jersey. The killer points out that such people are a dime a dozen at tailgate parties.
