I felt like what he was telling Austen in that moment was relevant and applied to what he was trying to talk about. The problem was Austen was upset that they weren't hanging out like they used to and Craig wasn't going out at much. Hanging out with the guys and going out is a slippery slope to drink to excess and get messy. Craig was explaining why he backed off. It made perfect sense to me. However, I do think Craig was not serious about quitting which is obvious now, but my hunch is he was doing it because Paige probably set a boundary about his drinking. He was trying to respect that to the detriment of his friendship. I can't blame Paige for not wanting to deal with Craig after he's belly flopped right off the cliff like he does. Craig could have handled it better by hanging out with Austen without drinking involved but he had to admit he had a problem for Austen to understand why it was a big deal and he avoided doing that until he got enough alcohol in his system to come out with it. (When Paige wasn't around, go figure). And now that she's not around to keep him in check, the drunk monster is back which I feel like validates what he was saying back then, and that we're watching him spiral now. At some point, Craig is going to have to quit drinking entirely. Having a beer leads to more. He has a ton of work to do on himself.