Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 13 - Josh. Freaking. Dobbs.
Transcript
- 0:24All right, Hey Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of the School Hot
- 0:29I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes from Iowa.
- 0:32We like drinking beer. I like talking about the Minnesota Vikings. We do.
- 0:36And it's for a lot of this season only one of those things has
- 0:41been consistently fun. But for the last month or so, both of those
- 0:45things have been consistently fun. Five in a row, five, four in
- 0:49a row, four five out of the last six. Sorry, oh that's
- 0:55that's a great place to be. Yeah, it's fun. It's really fun,
- 0:59especially when you don't don't care anymore, which we were getting close to
- 1:02apathy. Oh yeah, and now we're back, baby, Now we're gonna
- 1:06care when they lose. Oh yeah, well, we got to talk about
- 1:08what we're drinking today. We do. Would you just look at this beer?
- 1:11You could look at this beer if you follow us on TikTok, because
- 1:15we do like a pre show first taste of every beer. You can also
- 1:19look at this beer the entire episode because we posted up on YouTube. Now
- 1:23that's right, which is pretty awesome. So if that's how you like your
- 1:25podcast, we're there. But yeah, this beer is amazing, So what
- 1:30are we drinking? Maybe you should announce it today. Well, here's why
- 1:34I chose this beer. I brought the beer today, thank you. And
- 1:38I got to thinking, you know, we've had a lot of really great
- 1:41beer. This is our thirteenth episode, So this is the thirteenth different beer
- 1:47brood in Iowa because we exclusively drink Iowa brewed beer on the podcast. Yeah,
- 1:53and so I got to thinking, you know, I'd really like to
- 1:59be a little more intentional and have a little bit more of a purpose behind
- 2:05the beer that we drink. So we've had Millstream before we have we had
- 2:09their October Fest. I don't know. A handful of episodes ago really good.
- 2:14They're based out of a Mana, which is just, you know,
- 2:17one hundred miles west or so of where we're from. But I started to
- 2:23dig a little bit. I started to do some research, and I wanted
- 2:28to know the history of beer in Iowa. Ooh, okay, So I'm
- 2:32going to give you a Jordan Addison number of tries? Three tries? Did
- 2:38he wear seventeen in college? Can I have that? I don't know.
- 2:42I don't know who he were. He had seventeen you're gonna get three right
- 2:45now to guess what the interesting fact about Millstream is in terms of the history
- 2:53of Iowa beer. All right, so my first attempt, it's I'm just
- 2:57going to take the low hanging fruit. Guess were they the first brewery in
- 3:02Iowa? You're close? Oh okay, close, but not quite hmmm.
- 3:09Man, And there's some history that. I mean, we could really go
- 3:13deep if we wanted to go on a history lesson here. We don't have
- 3:15to, that's fine. Oh man. First, well, they weren't the
- 3:22first brewery. That's the only guess I have. Are they the Well,
- 3:27if they were the oldest, then they would also be the first. Well,
- 3:32I think you need a little history here to fill in the blanks.
- 3:36Before Iowa was a state, there were several breweries that opened. There was
- 3:40actually one here in the Quad city area in Davenport that was prominent de but
- 3:46had one, and Iowa City actually had quite a thriving beer industry. And
- 3:51this was all prior to Iowa's statehood. Oh okay. And then when Iowa
- 3:57became a state, prohibition took over very quickly and almost all alcohol was outlawed
- 4:04period. And then there was a huge surge of German immigrants, and so
- 4:12they started to relax on alcohol laws a little bit, mostly with wine and
- 4:16beer, but the harder stuff was kind of off limits. And then,
- 4:21of course, like nineteen nineteen, the whole country was under prohibition. There
- 4:26was no alcohol really anywhere legally. And then at some point down the road,
- 4:31Iowa put out this five percent rule that if you were going to brew
- 4:38beer in Iowa, it could not exceed five percent alcohol, and that wasn't
- 4:44lifted surprisingly until twenty ten. Wow. I know a lot of states still
- 4:47have certain percent rules on different kinds of beers. So I didn't know that
- 4:51about Iowa. Wow. So I'll just I'll spoil it for you because you
- 4:57give me the detail. You're kind of circling around it. Millstream is the
- 5:00oldest active brewery in the state of Iowa. They weren't the first, necessarily,
- 5:06but the first breweries of Iowa are long gone, and I don't know
- 5:13if somebody out there knows more of the history. We would love to know.
- 5:15I would love to Maybe Millstream knows Millstream let us know. Yeah,
- 5:18Millstream, if you got any more background on that, hook us up,
- 5:24give us some deets. But Millstream nineteen eighty five is when they were founded.
- 5:29They are the oldest active nineteen eighty five, nineteen eighty five, so
- 5:32they were brewing beer, but that it had to be under five percent until
- 5:39twenty ten. Interesting, and that's when beer makers were allowed to exceed that
- 5:43five percent mark. And that's really when you see the boom in craft breweries
- 5:48around Iowa. Yeah, sweet, I like it, and this one particularly,
- 5:54which is have we even said what we're drinking. It's the Shield Brow
- 5:57and Brow Amber yep, the Vienna Starer. It's very good. We gave
- 6:01a little bit of opinions on it in our TikTok. But you mentioned the
- 6:05five percent rule. This one is four point nine percent at least as labeled,
- 6:10so they're following the rules and I know you can get pretty accurate on
- 6:14that percentage. So good job, Millstream. This beer is delicious. I
- 6:16can't wait to sip on it the entire podcast and everyone else. If you
- 6:23are able to find this beer, you definitely should because it's really good.
- 6:26It's got the skull Hop stamp of approval stamped. Sweet. All right,
- 6:31we'll talk about a little bit more too at the end. See what we
- 6:34feel like after a couple for sure, for sure. But at the end
- 6:39of what what else do we talk about? We got to talk about this
- 6:42game? Are you sure? Do we have to? Are you sure?
- 6:45There's really only three words that you need to say about the game against the
- 6:50Falcons? And we haven't talked about this, But can I have one guess
- 6:54at this? Go ahead, Josh freaking Dobs, you are correct them.
- 7:00Those are the three words school We need to We need to scroll that.
- 7:03He does he even know what the school chant is? I don't know.
- 7:08That's a good question. I'm sure he does by now. He's gonna find
- 7:11out if he doesn't on Sunday, Oh my gosh, he probably heard it
- 7:14a little bit. And I guarantee there's something I saw Ringy Mass eighty four
- 7:16on TV? Did you I did in one of the back of one of
- 7:19the end zones. This was our first game watching together. Yeah, Season
- 7:24in your Basement. Put out a couple of tiktoks. That was fun.
- 7:27That was a lot of fun. We put down a few beers and that
- 7:30was fun too. Oh yeah, we didn't stick to the the Iowa brewed
- 7:33beer rule. But that's only on the podcast. It's only for this that's
- 7:38only for right here. We did drink the Kinship the Amber Lager, so
- 7:42that was good. It was a fun game to watch another Amber beer for
- 7:46you. Yeah, you like these Ambers. You're trying to get me to
- 7:47like them, and it's kind of working. So it's kind of my lane.
- 7:50Man, that's what I like. Well, you get to like what
- 7:55you like. I really like I p as so. I like a beer
- 7:57that tastes like beer, you know, yeah, so, and a lot
- 8:01of people want a beer that doesn't taste like beer, and I know those
- 8:03people are kind of weird. That's my wife right there. She doesn't want
- 8:07a beer that tastes like a beer. She'd rather drink water. But yeah,
- 8:13this game, this game was so much fun. Well, it started
- 8:16off really frustrating and unexpected because Jaren Hall is the starter and rookie drafted in
- 8:26the fifth round this year, sat behind Kirk Cousins has been in the quarterback
- 8:31room since April. And I think I felt confident. I know you felt
- 8:35confident. I think the coaching staff felt confident that he was the guy.
- 8:41And we went three and out in the first drive. But then that second
- 8:45drive he looked really really good. Yeah, what was his stat line.
- 8:48Do you remember in that I think he had something like seventy yards passing,
- 8:54Yeah, and I think he was like, what five of six or six
- 8:56or seven? He only missed once, if not for a little bit outside
- 9:01throw to was it TJ yeh of the first I think you're right, first
- 9:07and goal plays that they had, he kind of overthrew TJ a little bit.
- 9:11If not for that, he'd have a touch he'd had a touchdown and
- 9:15he wouldn't have gotten injured a play or two later and probably would have played
- 9:18some more. But even his first drive, the three and out drive to
- 9:22open the game, he ended that on third down rushing for around ten yards.
- 9:28He almost got the first down rushing, he looked pretty good. He
- 9:31looked mobile, and obviously in that second drive he looked really good too.
- 9:35It's a bummer that we didn't get to see that extent. Hope he's okay,
- 9:41and there will be some question marks here in the future when he's you
- 9:46know, past the concussion protocol, especially depending on how Josh freaking Dobbs the
- 9:50pastronaut, especially how he looks, because if Josh Jobbs comes out against the
- 9:56Saints and looks the same and or better, than he did against the Falcons,
- 10:01But we don't have any questions, like, you don't you don't take
- 10:05that hot hand out, you keep rolling with Josh Dobbs. However, if
- 10:11Dobbs comes out and looks shaky and not great, hopefully that's not the case,
- 10:16then we do have some questions because hopefully this concussion of Jaron Hall is
- 10:20not a huge deal. But yeah, if Jaren Hall's not concussed anymore and
- 10:26Dobbs kind of comes out and looks a little shaky, then we have a
- 10:28whole podcast, a whole week where we're kind of talking like who starts,
- 10:31what do we do? What should we do? We're not there yet.
- 10:35Well you were, I mean, before before the game had even ended in
- 10:39Atlanta, you were telling me like, well, Jaren Hall starts next week.
- 10:43He starts next week, Like he's the obvious starter. I mean,
- 10:48obviously, his injury, his concussion has dictated as it should. There got
- 10:54by healthy. He's got to be okay. Yep, And you know,
- 10:58I think it was a pretty easy decision for Kevin O'Connell. But let's say
- 11:03that next week, let's say this hypothetically speaking, Dobbs comes out and he
- 11:07doesn't play great, but he also doesn't take a safety in the end zone
- 11:13like he did on his first drive and fumble the ball in the next two
- 11:16drives. Like you know, he plays okay, but he doesn't play lights
- 11:20out. You know, who do you go with at quarterback in that kind
- 11:26of scenario. That's where I'm thankful I don't have to make that call in
- 11:30that scenario. Truthfully, me, Austin as a fan, fully trust the
- 11:33coaching staff in whatever they do. You know, just me kind of thinking
- 11:39about it and what makes sense. I thought the whole time, Jaron Hall
- 11:43made the most sense because, like I said, he was drafted in April,
- 11:46he's been with the team since then. He theoretically should know the playbook
- 11:52a little bit more, definitely knows names of guys. And that's by no
- 11:54means cutting down Josh Dobbs. I love Josh Dobbs. He was amazing,
- 12:01and if he's the if he's the better quarterback Dobbs, then absolutely you go
- 12:05with a better guy. But it just made sense to me to stick with
- 12:09Hall because it just seemed like he would be the better option. But again,
- 12:16I'm fully okay with whoever they put behind there. I'm not gonna be
- 12:18one of those guys. It's like, no, I hate Josh Dobbs because
- 12:22he's not the guy that's been here since April. If the coaches are good
- 12:26with him, then I am too, especially if it looks okay, if
- 12:30they're playing all right, I'm not gonna be the first one to say,
- 12:31oh, Dobbs through his first interception, take him out, like, come
- 12:37on, trust the coaching. Well, the good thing is both of them
- 12:41looked good. Granted, the sample size for a Hall has been pretty small.
- 12:46Very Yeah. We had you know, I don't know what two three
- 12:48drives maybe at Green Bay and then the first two drives at Atlanta, so
- 12:54you know, his sample size is small. But he's got some reps now
- 13:00in real games, not preseason. And I mean, obviously Dobbs came in
- 13:07and after he kind of brushed off those early mistakes, he was lights out.
- 13:13He was the leading rusher on the team. He threw for a touchdown.
- 13:16Yeah, he threw a two point conversion, and he just looked like
- 13:22he was in command, which is crazy to think because he had no idea
- 13:28who any of these guys were. Yeah, I mean, I feel like
- 13:31if you followed the team at all. You probably heard this at this point,
- 13:35but Dobbs and Koc were communicating the whole time, as every quarterback and
- 13:41coach do you throughout the game. But it was to the point that,
- 13:43if I'm understanding the situation, right, Koc was in the headset and in
- 13:50the huddle. He was saying, Okay, Josh, tell the huddle these
- 13:52words, tell them this play, and he just like word vomited, you
- 13:58know, exactly verbat him what he hearing. And then when they broke and
- 14:01as Dobbs was walking up to the center to be in the shotgun or whatever,
- 14:05KOs was like, all right, here's what that play means. Like,
- 14:11right, he's gonna run a hitch router. He's gonna run this route
- 14:13and there might be open because there's a single high safety or whatever. Here's
- 14:18what you might see. Here's your first read. Like that is insane to
- 14:22me. And you know, obviously we're just a couple of dudes and I
- 14:26we don't know a whole lot. So maybe that's how it goes a lot
- 14:31of times. But just the way that that story has been getting out there
- 14:35so much, it's gotta be a crazy thing. And I think even Matt
- 14:41Sanchez, Matt Sanchez, Mark Mark Sanchez, Geez, have another one,
- 14:45Austin. He even said something in the media this week that like that scenario
- 14:50kind of happened at one point too when with Sanchez with Kevin O'Connell in in
- 14:56Washington. Washington. Yeah, I saw that because they had been teammates to
- 14:58get there in New York and a kind of similar situation kind of happened KOs
- 15:05he was translating the play as he was walking up to the center. That's
- 15:11just crazy to me. And to be able to like execute one thing that's
- 15:16huge and it's only going to be helpful throughout Dobb's career is that he is
- 15:24mobile. So it's not like once a defensive lineman or linebacker got within five
- 15:28yards he was dead to rights because he could kind of move around. And
- 15:33we saw that a couple of times. I mean, he rushed for a
- 15:35touchdown that at the beginning to play, you didn't think that was going to
- 15:37happen. He kind of reminded me of like a young Russell Wilson almost.
- 15:41Yeah, like great pocket presence, can throw the ball, is smart,
- 15:48knows how to read the defense, but man if things fall apart, he
- 15:52can get out of it and he can use his athleticism and his speed and
- 15:56create plays. And he did that countless times. I think he rushed on
- 16:00third or fourth down multiple times. Yeah, and got the first on his
- 16:06feet. I wrote down his rushing and passing stats. So he Josh Dobbs
- 16:11right now is the third leading rusher on the Vikings this year, for the
- 16:17whole season. For the whole season, he's got seven carries for sixty six
- 16:21yards in a touchdown. It's wild. And he's tied for first in rushing
- 16:23touchdowns on the team, the other one being now injured reserved Cam Akers.
- 16:30And he is second on the team in passing yards, which that's not crazy
- 16:33surprising because Kirk has been the guy the Laron Hall hadn't played as much as
- 16:38he has. Yeah, at this point Hall only has or Hall doesn't even
- 16:42have as many passes as Dobbs does. Now, Dobbs was twenty for thirty
- 16:47one hundred and fifty eight yards and two touchdowns and very importantly no interceptions.
- 16:52That one weird there was that one weird one where it looked like his arm
- 16:56was coming forward but the ball got batted and it didn't even hit the ground.
- 17:00It just went right to a defensive lineman. Yeah, so I in
- 17:03my mind, I think, well, obviously it was labeled as a fumble
- 17:07because I looked up the actual stats, but immediately I knew, like once
- 17:11you saw the replay, it like got knocked out of his hand when he
- 17:15was starting to pull it back. So it was not a pass either way.
- 17:18It's turnover. And I think he had three fumbles in the game.
- 17:22He recovered one of them. He recovered one of them. But what do
- 17:26you expect for a guy that, I mean, like I think I saw
- 17:30today his car finally made it to Minneapolis today on Wednesday. Well, think
- 17:36about this, can you imagine not? I mean, he didn't even take
- 17:40any practice reps throughout the week. So walking up under center and touching Garrett
- 17:48Bradbury's butt for the first time, like, hey man, nice to meet
- 17:51you. Let me just put my hand right here. Well, and he
- 17:55put out his own TikTok, which I don't know if he does his own
- 17:57or if he's got a guy or whatever, but it was in that TikTok
- 18:03was a clip of the Pat McAfee show, and they're talking like, yeah,
- 18:07like fifteen seconds before he goes out there, he's got the whole offensive
- 18:11line around, lineman around him, listening to what his cadence sounds like,
- 18:17Like it's just crazy and hopefully it wasn't just like an adrenaline filled lights out
- 18:23pass out game, you know, and it's not why can't I think of
- 18:29words? It's not they can't do it again, But you gotta think it's
- 18:33only gonna be better, Like he's only gonna be more comfortable and probably doesn't
- 18:40need one hundred percent of the plays like translated to him as he's walking up
- 18:45to the center. Maybe that's still probably gonna be something they utilize a lot,
- 18:48Oh yeah, for sure. Which if it works, do it even
- 18:51if I mean, if you're Kirk and you've been here forever and that's the
- 18:55best way to do it, do it. Like, if it works,
- 18:57who cares what the what the thought process is outside of the building, Just
- 19:03go for it. We should at some point, maybe not on this episode,
- 19:07but talk about college football utilizing similar radio devices in their helmets because the
- 19:12whole Michigan scandal right now, oh yeah, is kind of blowing up.
- 19:17And that's that's been something I've heard countless times on all of the news outlets.
- 19:22It's just like, well, if college football would just utilize the radios
- 19:26and the helmets like the NFL does, then we wouldn't be talking about this.
- 19:29That's a good talker. Maybe we could if we have Forest on again,
- 19:33which I think, I mean, you know, on show production meeting
- 19:37here, I would like to have Forest on again. We got another Bears
- 19:41episode coming up, so you just have them on every time the Bears play.
- 19:45I'm okay with that. Forest. You're listening. You always are.
- 19:49We love you. You're gonna be on for the next Bears episode and maybe
- 19:52the bye week and definitely in the off season for draft talk and stuff.
- 19:56But anyways, yeah, I think that you're probably like the if everybody has
- 20:03the helmet radio capability, everybody should be using it. Like as long as
- 20:07it's not you know, a competitive advantage or disadvantage to either team, Like,
- 20:14if everybody's using it, everybody should, right. But anyways, Yeah,
- 20:18I'm still amazed at what happened on Sunday. I've watched I haven't watched
- 20:26the whole game like you have, but I've watched all of the stuff that
- 20:29the Vikings have put out on YouTube and Twitter and stuff like that, and
- 20:33just every time I'm just like, man, how did that even happen?
- 20:38Like what I mean, at one point, we're sitting on your couch thinking
- 20:44like, well, it's a good season. I mean, you could probably
- 20:48attest to this. When Jared Hall went down, I was pretty quiet for
- 20:52yeah, yeah, Like I was pretty negative. And I even just thought
- 20:57about this yesterday when I was watching the game back when John new Smith had
- 21:03that crazy screen touchdown that he ran like the whole length of the field and
- 21:08scored a touchdown and then he he hit the tunnel and he just slipped down
- 21:12and he looked like he was okay, but he was still funny to watch.
- 21:15You were like, oh, he slipped down hot, like any normal
- 21:18person would laugh at a funny physical thing like that. And I was just
- 21:22sitting there like whatever, they just scored a touchdown. The baking's gonna lose.
- 21:26This whole thing is stupid. I miss Kirk, I miss Jared Hall.
- 21:29I was just so negative about it, and you're laughing in a funny
- 21:33thing, and you did laugh eventually, it took you a minute or two.
- 21:36In the moment, I was like, I'm being a jerk. I
- 21:37need to Okay, when you watch the replay, then you're like, all
- 21:42right, that was kind of funny. It was funny, and it's it's
- 21:45funny because he's okay, But like, did you see on that play John
- 21:48new Smith? I think for the whole week in the NFL he was the
- 21:52fastest clocked player in the NFL twenty one point something miles an hour, like
- 21:57last week. No, he ran faster than he did on that play.
- 22:02He's a tight end. Like, good for him. Yeah, No,
- 22:04Scott's fast, easy, he has Johnny Smith. Let's get off on a
- 22:08tangent. He's been an underrated dude his entire career. I've had him on
- 22:14fantasy teams. I don't know anything about him personality wise, but like football
- 22:18wise, when he gets opportunities, he balls out like he's great, and
- 22:23especially on a team with Kyle Pitts, who has been kind of the opposite,
- 22:27like he's been overhyped and underperforming his whole career. It's funny you say
- 22:32that because I teach high school and there are a bunch of high school boys
- 22:36in my class today talking about their fantasy rosters, and one kid was like,
- 22:41yeah, I had Kyle Pitts on my team and I just looked at
- 22:44him and I'm like, dude, Kyle Pitts played terrible this last week.
- 22:48He's like, yeah, I know. I think I'm gonna drop him from
- 22:49my team, Like that would be a wise decision. He just Kyle Pitts
- 22:53in college was legit, like just the size and speed and production. He's
- 22:59amazing. He just hasn't turned it on in his NFL career. And at
- 23:03one point, I think he caught the ball for a good catch, and
- 23:07I think I turned to you, like, oh, this is the game
- 23:08that he turns out to be this Hall of Fame tight end, because of
- 23:11course it is against the Vikings. I don't he didn't do much other than
- 23:15that, but I think I saw something. Either Paul Charchion tweeted it or
- 23:19he retweeted it. It was this long tweet about like the Vikings aren't great
- 23:26against tight ends, and he's actually gonna be playing with Heineke, who's a
- 23:30quarterback he utilizes tight ends, and everything set up for Kyle Pitts to have
- 23:36a great game, so of course Johnny Smith is going to have a great
- 23:38game. And it was this whole like, yeah, Kyle Pits can't do
- 23:42anything, so Johnny Smith is gonna do what the tight ends should do.
- 23:48I dropped my paper. Sorry, you can get it all right. I'll
- 23:51ask you a question while you're getting that. Okay, So speaking of kind
- 23:56of like, will Kyle Pitts turn out to be great or not? Josh
- 24:00Dobbs, what do you think? I mean, is he gonna come out
- 24:03and play like he did against Atlanta or is it gonna be kind of a
- 24:08different story? What are what are your predictions for this next week? I
- 24:14want to start off my answer by saying, I hope he's really good,
- 24:19and if he continues to be good, I'm not gonna crap on him just
- 24:25for the sake of crapping on him, because I hate the quote unquote fans
- 24:27of a team that always finds something wrong with what they perceive to be a
- 24:33bad aspect of the team. If Josh Doabbs keeps balling out, I'm super
- 24:38excited, even to the point that look at what Gino Smith. He kind
- 24:44of resurrected his career a year or two ago with with the Seahawks. Yeah,
- 24:48he got a late you know, journeyman payday and he's doing okay.
- 24:52I mean, he's not MVP but he's doing okay. So I hope Josh
- 24:56Dabbs is the answer, and I hope he keeps bowing out. I don't
- 25:03predict that to happen. Just look at his whole career. He's either been
- 25:10a backup or a spot starter, and he's never been you know, like
- 25:15he was this week the NFC Offensive Player of the week, Like this week
- 25:18was awesome and a lot of fun. And I want to keep it rolling.
- 25:22And if he keeps playing great, let's go. I just if I
- 25:26had, if I was a you know, betting on the outcome of the
- 25:30next few years of his career, I wouldn't put a lot of money on
- 25:34the idea of him being a pro Bowl level quarterback for the Vikings and making
- 25:44it so the Vikings don't draft a guy this April. Again. I want
- 25:48that to happen. I want him to be good. I want I want
- 25:51him to be the savior and lead us to the Super Bowl. I just
- 25:53I don't think it'll happen. I think he is I don't even know.
- 26:00I think he is like the the backup savior to come in and kind of
- 26:06give you a little bit of mobility and give you a little bit of excitement
- 26:11when you need it. But I don't know if he can sustain it.
- 26:14This is just a thought that popped into my mind while you were saying that.
- 26:18I wonder if, because we're gonna play the Saints this week down the
- 26:22road, like next season, Kirk comes back, we get him back on
- 26:26a you know, one year, two year extension whatever. He's healthy,
- 26:30he's playing like he was before he went down a couple of weeks ago in
- 26:34Green Bay. What would happen if Josh Dobbs kind of plays that Taysom Hill
- 26:40role. Yeah, I see that. I mean, I know what you're
- 26:44getting at, because he's got the mobility and he's a little bit more sarted
- 26:49to do though maybe, but like I don't it's not a knock on Taysom
- 26:53Hill. Yeah, sure, breaking news. Evan thinks Taysom Hill is done.
- 27:00Just kidding. I don't know. I kind of roll my eyes at
- 27:03that kind of a role on a team, like because I don't think Taysom
- 27:11Hill has equated into wins, like having that gadget guy that comes in.
- 27:17I think it only adds like like an annoying thing in your playbook or on
- 27:22your team that you feel like you have to utilize and maybe you know,
- 27:26I want to force that utilization. Plus, I don't think I don't I
- 27:30don't know what kind of hands Josh Dobbs has as a receiver. He's taller,
- 27:34but I don't think he's much of a like blocker. I think he's
- 27:38definitely a quarterback. He's in the position that best suits him. But I
- 27:44don't know. You never know. If if Koc, who I trust in,
- 27:48if he finds that role to be intriguing and something that could equate to
- 27:52wins, then let's see it, Like you can always give it a shot.
- 27:56At the very least, crazy, he has something to play with when
- 28:03it comes to the off season and free agency and all that. Right,
- 28:07Like, I've seen a few tweets now that have said, like, yeah,
- 28:11like he plays well the rest of this year, Kirk comes back and
- 28:15it's time for the Vikings to move on from Josh Dobbs could be some really
- 28:22good trade bait or you know depending. I mean, I don't know what
- 28:26his contract looks like. I'm assuming it's a one year deal. It's gone
- 28:32to I dropped the darn paper again. But yeah, I mean they could
- 28:37they could try to do something plus I mean, if he keeps playing well,
- 28:42he could play himself into another contract, whether it's a starter contract or
- 28:48we still want you on the team, especially just because we have so many
- 28:51unknowns with Kirk. I'm a big Kirk guy, and if he's healthy,
- 28:55then run it back. But there's a lot of unknowns with Kirk too,
- 29:00Like he's getting older. That's a that's not a laughable injury, like coming
- 29:03off of really serious injury. Yeah, But also I don't think it's and
- 29:07I'm kind of talking out of my butt right now, I don't think it's
- 29:11on like his planting foot. And Kirk's not known to be super mobile anyways,
- 29:15So you're not talking about like Michael Vick losing his running ability. You
- 29:19know, you're talking about Kirk, who he's more of a pocket guy anyways.
- 29:23He's been mobile at or he has shown that kind of ability. Sometimes
- 29:29he's hesitant to be, but he can be. But he's not somebody that
- 29:32you draft in fantasy because, oh, if you can't pass it, he's
- 29:36able to throw it. Josh Doabbs definitely seems to have been able to showcase
- 29:40that ability more sixty six yards on the run and it's not like they I
- 29:45don't think they designed any quarterback runs against the Falcons, but it could be
- 29:51interesting. How could they design any quarterback runs they didn't know that he was
- 29:53going to be playing. The whole design went out the window when Jaren Hall
- 29:57got that uh got that concussion, which again I hope he's okay. I
- 30:03hope we're talking about well, actually I hope not. Never mind if because
- 30:06if we're talking about, like we WI should we put your and all again,
- 30:08that means Josh Doabbs hasn't played well, which I hope he plays well.
- 30:14I want I want stability. I don't want to have to go through
- 30:15a couple of losses to find out you should have been starting a different guy.
- 30:22I don't know. He's definitely an option you would think come off season
- 30:27signing another contract time. Dobbs would be open to signing with the Vikings again
- 30:32unless some other team is like, oh, we need him. We're gonna
- 30:34throw like what the Broncos did with Case Keenan, We're gonna throw twenty million
- 30:38a year at him, which at that point, like you gotta do what
- 30:42you gotta do. You gotta make up your money. So I don't know,
- 30:45it's it's kind of exciting to have this like unknown about that position for
- 30:52the Vikings. That's scary, but it's exciting because the last five years we've
- 30:59known, or however many four or five or six years, was his sixth
- 31:03season with the Vikings, Kirk's our guy, Which that's that's a blessing to
- 31:07know, like, all right, curse our guy. He's not gonna get
- 31:11injured, you know, like we people have had problems with his contract,
- 31:15but whatever, it's not their money. But this is kind of fun to
- 31:21think about. What could happen? Do you draft a guy? Does Dobs
- 31:23kind of play well enough to make you reconsider drafting a guy? I don't
- 31:27know? And I think the great part about all of it is the culture
- 31:34that Kevin O'Connell has created in the locker room. And it's not just him,
- 31:41it's all the other guys that are buying into the culture that he's wanting
- 31:45to establish. I think. I think on any other team, you know,
- 31:52if if your MVP caliber quarterback goes down like Kirk did, and you
- 32:00trade for a guy minutes before the trade deadline, bring him in. Your
- 32:05other backup goes down, you bring in the other guy, it probably doesn't
- 32:10end like it did for the Vikings, and I think a lot of that
- 32:14has to do with the culture. I mean, you watched. I watched,
- 32:17and I think you watched too, all of the like kind of like
- 32:22sideline video from the weekend from Sunday and you just see the brotherhood and not
- 32:30just talking about Josh Dobbs, but like all across the board, like dudes
- 32:35are making plays on the field and everybody regardless of position, is high fiving,
- 32:39celebrating, and I don't know what it's like in those tough moments,
- 32:45like when Josh Dobbs took the safety on his literally like third play as a
- 32:51Viking or whatever. It was like. I'm sure there were some frustrations,
- 32:55but I don't think it was like Kirk and Zimmer getting into a shoving match
- 33:01type. I want to know what that was all about. I think about
- 33:05that often. I do too. Sorry not to cut you off, but
- 33:08no, But but I guess that's the point I'm trying to make, right,
- 33:13Like the culture in the Zimmer days is drastically different now under Kevin O'Connell,
- 33:19and I think that's what makes this team so special. It's why we
- 33:22went thirteen and four last season. It's why we've won four straight, five
- 33:28out of the last six, and beat a perennial Super Bowl contender in the
- 33:34forty nine Ers beat the sixth best defense in the Atlanta Falcons on the road
- 33:38at their place as underdogs, as a guy who didn't even yeah, I
- 33:43know the guy's playing next to Yeah. He's literally like, Okay, you're
- 33:49Garrett and you're Brian, and you're okay, all right. I saw a
- 33:53video he was on. I think he's been on a few podcasts since the
- 33:57game, but he's Somebody asked him like, did you really not know anybody's
- 34:00name? He's like, I knew a few first names, I knew a
- 34:04couple of nicknames, but I think I still doesn't know everybody. I think
- 34:08I saw something from practice today that he was making it his goal to learn
- 34:15all of the guys on the fifty three man roster before the game on Sunday,
- 34:20which that's honorable, but like, dude, I'm more concerned about the
- 34:22playbook. I teach high school, and I've got seventy five students and I'm
- 34:28it's November. I've had these kids since August, and I'm still struggling with
- 34:31some of their names, So if he can do that before Sunday, that
- 34:37whole thing kind of reminded me. In college, I had a job where
- 34:38I worked at the athletic facilities doing like a little bit of security and like
- 34:44facility maintenance and stuff like that. And there's probably I don't know, ten
- 34:49to fifteen of us that were on the team that did that. We worked
- 34:52the athletic events and stuff, and there were some times that we did like
- 34:59we removed the baske bucourt and the football turf, and you know, long
- 35:01hours of like being right next to each other and joking around and working hard.
- 35:06And I did that for what all four years. I even in the
- 35:13moment, couldn't have told you many of their names, and to the point
- 35:17that, like I remember one time we were out somewhere and I saw one
- 35:21of them and I talked to him for like an hour and we were chatting
- 35:24and hanging out, and you know when we went our separate ways. My
- 35:29wife my wife now who was my fiance at the time, maybe my wife
- 35:32then, I don't know either way, She's like, oh, who is
- 35:36that? And I was like, it's some guy I work with. Oh
- 35:37it's his name. I have no idea. But I knew that dude,
- 35:43I know him now, but nope, didn't didn't know his name. So
- 35:45like, names are hard, So Josh, we got you, like the
- 35:51team's got you. Names are good to know. But playbook, let's worry
- 35:55about the playbook and playbook get some chemistry with I'd rather you know like how
- 36:02I'd rather you know how JJ wants the ball throne to him than know his
- 36:07name, if that makes sense. Which you're gonna know JJ's name. And
- 36:12that's an important update. We don't get JJ back this week. He won't
- 36:15be probably not. It hasn't been official. Well, it's it's kind of
- 36:21unofficially. I think the writing on the wall. I think the coach today
- 36:24did kind of say like it would be a little aggressive. I forget the
- 36:29terms. He used a little aggressive to say that he'd be back this week.
- 36:34So I don't expect him back this week. Yeah, I would say
- 36:37earliest next week on the road at Denver. Yeah maybe, And I agree,
- 36:43but we'll say today this afternoon on Wednesday, they did designate him to
- 36:49return to practice, so I, if I understand it correctly, they have
- 36:53twenty one days from today to decide if they're going to actually activate him to
- 36:59the act roster, take him off IR or if he's going to be shut
- 37:02down. I think for the rest of the year, he'd almost have to
- 37:06be. And I don't know what the timing had to be for them to
- 37:12designate him to return, like if they had to do it today or if
- 37:15they had some time to do that, But if they did have time to
- 37:19do that, then doing it today seems like a good sign. Like again,
- 37:24probably not this week against the Saints, but if it's next week against
- 37:29the Broncos, like that's that's pretty exciting. Like yeah, and I saw
- 37:34another tweet. Sometime we should be better about liking these tweets and remembering them.
- 37:39But somebody said, like, yeah, isn't it kind of crazy that
- 37:43at this moment, maybe it was Dustin Baker at this moment, getting the
- 37:46idea of getting JJ back kind of seems like like a little cherry on top
- 37:52of everything, Like this whole the last six games have been pretty fun.
- 37:58You know, we've only lost one of them, and after everything's been going
- 38:02on, you know, you have two achilles tears, you have a concussed
- 38:07third string quarterback, your initial backup was already on IR when your MVP like
- 38:14quarterback went down. The running game still hasn't figured it all out. The
- 38:19defense has been figuring it out. But after all that, like you're five
- 38:23and one in your last six games, right, yeah? Is all right?
- 38:25Yep? And you might get JJ back. And that's kind of like
- 38:30a footnote of what you're talking about, Like, that's awesome to think about
- 38:35one of the best players in the league coming back. As a footnote,
- 38:38let's go that that kind of seems very Vikings, like, oh yeah,
- 38:44well, and it'll be fascinating to see what unfolds with effectively two wide receiver
- 38:51ones. I mean, oh my gosh, Jordan Addison has been playing out
- 38:53of his mind and he's a huge reason why you haven't really felt the loss
- 38:59of j I mean, you couldn't expect him to be. What other rookie
- 39:07wide receiver can you name that's better than him right now, or at least
- 39:12playing better than him right now? I don't think any of them. I
- 39:14think he's he's definitely the best rookie wide receiver. He's one of the better
- 39:17wide receivers in the league right now, at the pace he's been the last
- 39:22month or so. If you make that the whole season. He's definitely his
- 39:27numbers are up there with Tyreek Hill and stuff. He leads the team in
- 39:30touchdown receptions with seven right now. I was looking at stats a little bit
- 39:36earlier. The Vikings right now have three players with over five hundred receiving yards
- 39:42JJ, Jordan Addison and TJ. And again, that's another thing we can
- 39:46say that's been awesome. As TJ. He had some dropping issues, but
- 39:52that hasn't been a huge problem the last handful of weeks. I mentioned the
- 39:57defense a little bit earlier. That was kind of a concern they couldn't stop
- 40:00the run, but they've kind of turned it around enough that, like now
- 40:06it seems like definitely Brian Flores is getting a head coaching job, but I
- 40:09wish like he wouldn't and he would stay for there's no salary cap on coaching
- 40:15positions, so Wilf's if you're listening, you probably aren't, but no,
- 40:21they'll never hear us. Well if they are, you know, let's let's
- 40:23make that happen because it'd be great to have a defensive mind like that around
- 40:29for a few years. Yeah, let's make is making Kaos's job that much
- 40:34easier when you when you have to worry about a quarterback that's been with you
- 40:38for four days, you don't also want to have to worry about how Daniel
- 40:43Hunters playing, which that guy is a freaking monster. At least my number
- 40:47one on re sign leads the league in sacks right now with ten? Is
- 40:51he still the leader after I think I think there's like three tied at nine
- 40:55and a half, but he's the sole leader with ten. Nice? How
- 41:00about he didn't get any sacks last week, but he still he broke the
- 41:06game mid second quarter when it was after that weird like interception that was actually
- 41:13a fumble the falcon stand to the goal line. He was solely responsible for
- 41:20at least two of those plays not getting into the end zone. Yeah,
- 41:24we watched those together. He was insane. He was just shutting like he
- 41:29was a wall. Yeah. Somebody pointed it out today. I will Raggetts
- 41:35if that's how you say his name on Twitter. I think it was him
- 41:37that tweeted out it was one of the all twenty two clips video clips,
- 41:43and one of those two insane plays at the goal line, Danil Hunter literally
- 41:47like picked up John new Smith and threw him into b John Robinson. So
- 41:53Hunter didn't get the tackle on that play. I think that's the one if
- 41:55you're looking back, the one where Danil's helm it actually came off. Oh
- 42:01yeah, I'm been rolling around right before his helmet got popped off. He
- 42:06like threw I'm pretty sure it was Johnny Smith into the running back and which
- 42:10bounced him back, and then you know, other vikings were able to get
- 42:14into him. Like it's like he was possessed for a couple of plays and
- 42:20was not going to let the Falcons score a touchdown and it was awesome.
- 42:24Well, there was another one where he wasn't directly involved in the tackle,
- 42:30but Tyler Algier was the ball carrier and he kind of like got up to
- 42:35I don't know the three or the two, and Danil was there, disrupted
- 42:39the play and then like five or six other vikings just pushed him back and
- 42:44he ended up getting tackled for a loss back at the like five or the
- 42:46six or something like that. So yeah, the defense played great all game.
- 42:52Byron Murphy had that interception, Oh yeah, and how many almost near
- 42:55intersect There was like three near interceptions and they got their hands on the ball
- 43:01quite a bit. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Paul Allen said in the
- 43:05like play of the bier Murphy interception, He's like, yes, bier Murphy
- 43:08gets the interception. You knew Taylor Heineke was gonna give us one, Like
- 43:13yeah, and that's just kind of the gunslinger mentality Taylor Heineke has. But
- 43:19yeah, you knew, you knew they were going to get a turnover,
- 43:22and it just it was so it was so awesome to see. That was
- 43:24a We've had some fun games to watch lately, even with the devastating Kirk
- 43:31injury. And well, how about before we talk about Cam Aker's injury.
- 43:37Have I know you've seen the play, the one blocked for Josh Dobbs.
- 43:42Yeah, Dobbs decided to run it around and Cam was like, oh,
- 43:45we're doing this. He is a huge block on a dude, a defensive
- 43:49lineman. He just cleats him, like decletes him. It's oh, my
- 43:55goodness, that was such a great play. It was awesome and that I've
- 44:01been a Cam Akers fan this year. When I was looking at stats earlier,
- 44:06I was kind of surprised to see that Akers only has like one hundred
- 44:07and seventy something Viking rushing yards this year and obviously he tore his achilles.
- 44:15His season is over. I mean, maybe his Vikings career, maybe his
- 44:20whole career is over. I can't imagine going through two different achilles tears.
- 44:25But if he can come back, I want him back. I want him
- 44:29as a Viking just because of that play. And he had a great game
- 44:32too, he was a great assisting player, and yeah he didn't have a
- 44:37ton of rushing yards against the Falcons. But when you think about where a
- 44:40lot of those tailbacks line up in kind of this modern NFL where it's not
- 44:46the quarterback under center all the time, but the quarterbacks back in the shotgun
- 44:51quite a bit, and those tailbacks are shoulder to shoulder, You've got to
- 44:54imagine cam Akers and Alex Madison are analyzing the d fence like a quarterback in
- 45:00some of those moments, and then maybe not in the moment, but on
- 45:05the sideline telling Josh Dobbs like, this is what I saw, this is
- 45:09what they're giving us, this is what we typically do in those situations.
- 45:14May they may have stepped in and helped out, Yeah, but we didn't
- 45:17even realize that play that cam Akers was a block. Well no, well,
- 45:22the block. Sure, but like when I because I think I went
- 45:25to the bathroom or something, I came back to you and I was like,
- 45:29oh, they're tweeting. Cam Akers probably got another it was crazy late
- 45:36in the third quarter. I think that's a rough play. He's been playing
- 45:38really good. I want him back as a Viking. Yeah, if he
- 45:43can, if he can work his way back, because that's not a small
- 45:45injury and he should know. I mentioned a week or two ago on the
- 45:50podcast, like Kirk has a guy that can talk him through his injury on
- 45:53his team, because cam Akers came back and now they're going to be rehabbing
- 45:58together. Yep, yep. I did read something somewhere that you read all
- 46:07of these predictions of like hot takes that people have. One of the hot
- 46:12takes was Alexander Madison will be one of the worst performing rushers in Viking's history
- 46:21over the course of a season. And I don't know that I like that
- 46:25hot take necessarily, and I like to think maybe a little more holistically because
- 46:31he's been pretty effective and the tandem cam Akers and Alexander Madison together have been
- 46:38effective and obviously we have some other backs. Ty Chandler could get thrown into
- 46:44the mix. Kenna noongu is now back from ir Yeah, I think I
- 46:50think it was Wes Phillips offensive coordinators said the other day one of the coaches
- 46:55said, like, you're gonna see a lot more ty Chandler. Somebody asked
- 47:00them about, like, what do you do at the run game now that
- 47:02King Akers is out? And the response was, you'll see a lot more
- 47:05ty Chandler, which he's got some size and speed. And I mean,
- 47:10obviously it wasn't clicking fully early in the season, but maybe losing your job
- 47:16to a guy that gets traded to your team kind of wakes you up a
- 47:20little bit. Maybe the pressure gets taken off so you figure some stuff out
- 47:23in a less pressure situation. I don't know if he turns out to be
- 47:29a really good RB one B, you know, because I don't think I've
- 47:34said it before. Alex Madison, I don't think he's a true number one
- 47:37back, and he's proving that so far. I think he's really good as
- 47:43the like thunder to someone else's lightning. M H and I don't think there's
- 47:47anything wrong with that. If you think of Ladadian, Tomlinson and Michael Turner
- 47:52from back in the day, like those guys made each other better, Like
- 47:58you gotta have that chaine of pace, you know, running back duo.
- 48:02It definitely in this NFL and on this past first team. And I guess
- 48:08the reason I brought that up isn't because I don't necessarily agree with that.
- 48:14But even if Alexander Madison ends the season with historically low numbers for a starter,
- 48:22for a starting RB one, I still think he's contributed a lot more
- 48:28than his running stats will show. He has a receiving touchdown or two at
- 48:32least a couple well, and even that huge, that big like seventy yard
- 48:37or sixty yard play that Jaren Hall through to him. Yeah, I think
- 48:38it was like forty but still like it was. It kind of opened the
- 48:43big chunk play. And so I think those are things that don't show up
- 48:47on a rushing stat line, that don't really communicate how impactful he's been to
- 48:53this team. So I don't know. I don't know that I agree with
- 48:58a hot take like that. Yeah, I don't either. The Vikings.
- 49:00The Vikings have proved this season that they are a pass first team and the
- 49:05passing game sets up the running game. Ideally, it's the other way around,
- 49:09Like that's traditionally how offenses work. The rushing game sets up the pass
- 49:16game. I think the NFL is changing, though, it's definitely more of
- 49:20a passing league. So yes, I think in like the days of Adrian
- 49:24Peterson, not like this most recent era of football. Yes, you ran
- 49:31on first down to maybe hopefully pass on second down and to make the play
- 49:37action true, you know, hold the defense true on a play action play.
- 49:42I think it's changing up a little bit, not to the point that
- 49:45you ever get rid of the run game, like that's just crazy. But
- 49:51yeah, I agree with you. I don't think Alex has been the worst
- 49:54starting running back in Vikings history, especially when you add in his ability to
- 50:01pick up past blocks and actually catch the ball when he needs to. He's
- 50:07been okay, it's just the whole run game has been frustrating. Do you
- 50:12think they consider anything crazy like signing a free agent like Adrian Peterson. I
- 50:16think, and I'm pretty sure it was Wes Phillips who gave that ty Chandler
- 50:22answer. I think that comment saying you'll see a lot more ty Chandler kind
- 50:29of answers that question you just asked. They've got enough bodies in the running
- 50:35back room. Like you said, Kene Wong wus he's coming back. Has
- 50:38he been activated? We should know that. I don't think he was active
- 50:40this week, this last week against Atlanta, but he might be, and
- 50:45I would maybe expect him to be. You have the injury, Yeah he's
- 50:49not. I don't believe he's on the range. I think he's on it
- 50:51now. So I think we might see him like returning punts or kicks maybe
- 50:54at the very least well. And it seems like, I mean, they're
- 50:58pretty good with ty Chandler being the main kick returner. He had that one
- 51:04big one that was called back in the Packer game. But I don't know.
- 51:10I I feel there's got to be something with wan Wu. Like he's
- 51:16he's had the chances, you know, to be able to get into the
- 51:22lineup as a running back. He just never never been in there. So
- 51:25I don't know what the hold up is for him. And maybe now with
- 51:30Cam Akers out indefinitely, you know, maybe maybe that's his opportunity to step
- 51:36in and shine. Maybe, I mean that seems to be what the coaches
- 51:39are willing to do right now. You never know, I mean Adrian Peterson
- 51:46is out there, he's a free agent. I would be shocked and appalled
- 51:52if if they signed him to come back. That would be a that would
- 51:55be a blockbuster free agent signing. Talk about a footnote on this season alone,
- 52:00Like, yeah, that'd be crazy. But no, no, I'm
- 52:06not saying that's gonna happen. I think Josh Stabs is gonna run for two
- 52:08thousand yards before Adrian Peterson gets signed to any team again, let alone the
- 52:14Bikings. Yeah that's that's yeah, But yeah, I think at the moment,
- 52:20they're they're content with the guys they have. We haven't heard any buzz
- 52:23about them working out any running backs. Obviously, they can't trade for any
- 52:29at this moment because we're past the trade deadline. I don't know if they
- 52:32would have to begin with. Like even so, let's just say the trade
- 52:37deadlines a week from now, and you know cam Akers is out, Like,
- 52:42who would you trade the house for Derrick Henry? Like they didn't They
- 52:46already didn't trade for him, so like right, and I don't even know,
- 52:52there's no big name out there on the free agent market, even if
- 52:57a guy like Josh Elliott is that Yeah, the that's that is his name,
- 53:04Josh, I should know this. He's he was a pro bowler,
- 53:07what the Cowboys. He's a Patriot now. Ezekiel Elliot. Ezekiel is such
- 53:15a close name to Josh. That's how I can get on that. Even
- 53:17if he had still been a maybe year. I don't know. These uh,
- 53:22these millstream beers are too good, even if like Ezekiel Elliott was still
- 53:28a free agent, like, I don't think he's I don't feel like the
- 53:30Vikings would go out of their way to sign a name like that. Obviously,
- 53:36he's a Patriot now, so he's not even out there. But I
- 53:38think they're good with who they have now. If you go another couple of
- 53:42weeks and you see in game and in practice how the team looks without that
- 53:47one B and Cam Akers, maybe they rethink it then, but I think
- 53:52right now they're good well. And maybe these more mobile quarterbacks Josh Dobbs and
- 53:57Jaron Hall, maybe they're enough to satisfy what we need to do in the
- 54:02running game to supplement what those true running backs are doing. And they can
- 54:07kind of carry the the other parts of the rushing game on their own,
- 54:15and yea be productive. Who knows what what do you think? Should we
- 54:19move on to the Saints game? Officially? Yeah? Yeah, I think
- 54:23the Saints game is really interesting. I think the Saints are not as good
- 54:29of a team as their record indicates. I did a little math today.
- 54:37The Saints haven't really beaten anybody of note. All of their wins are against
- 54:44losing teams or teams with sub five hundred records. I think, did I
- 54:50write it down there? I wrote it down, So yeah, you put
- 54:52it down. Remind me you said their wins come against teams with a combined
- 54:57record of twelve and thirty one. This yeas Yeah, and the Vikings.
- 55:02I'll admit I looked at the Vikings as well. We're not as impressive.
- 55:07We're not much more impressive. The Vikings are not much more impressive than the
- 55:12Saints in that category. But I would say the win against the forty nine
- 55:16ers was a very signature win, a statement win, and the Saints just
- 55:22don't have one of those. Granted, that win was with Kirk Cousin.
- 55:27Yeah, Cousins, who balled out on Monday night, who played a great
- 55:30game. I mean when we talked about this in that episode, that was
- 55:34the most complete game in all phases that the Vikings have played all season long.
- 55:39I'd say still to this date, I agree the Packer game was pretty
- 55:44good. Packer game was pretty good too, But I agree with you and
- 55:46still think the forty nine Ers game was better. That's still against Kirk Cousins.
- 55:52Breaking news does not play defense, and the forty nine Ers in that
- 55:55game had albeit injured. They had Christian McCaffrey who played every snap on offense,
- 56:01and the Vikings I think McCaffrey had two touchdowns, but outside of that,
- 56:09like he didn't, you know, break any NFL record for touchdowns.
- 56:15Defense played well in that game. I would argue too. Yes, they
- 56:17were losses, but the Vikings held their own against both the Eagles and the
- 56:22Chiefs. Again with the same caveat you gave, that's with Kirk Cousins,
- 56:30but in both of those games, that is pre Brian Flores figuring it out
- 56:34with the defense. So yeah, I agree with you. I think the
- 56:38Vikings on paper should be better. Another stat he wrote down apparently Vegas doesn't
- 56:45agree two and a half point underdogs at home. Yeah, kind of surprising,
- 56:50which means I think they say like in a neutral site. I think
- 56:53they say like the home team gets three points, so theoretically, in a
- 56:58neutral site, Vegas would see the Vikings as what five and a half point
- 57:05underdogs. So I don't know, Vegas seems to be weirdly accurate a lot
- 57:13of times, but it just we're super biased. It just feels like the
- 57:17Vikings are better than the Saints, even with I mean maybe especially off the
- 57:22high of the Josh Dabs performance, but even without Kirk Like, it just
- 57:28feels like the Vikings are the better team. Because I don't know, that's
- 57:32the way I feel, But I don't know. Maybe we're just blinded by
- 57:36our own bias. We absolutely are totally biased, Like there's no question about
- 57:40it. We are beard up Vikings fans, So of course we're gonna think
- 57:46the Vikings are way better than they are, but we're also gonna think they're
- 57:51way worse than they are. Sometimes you probably heard it listeners in my voice
- 57:54at least the first four weeks of the season, how bad I think I
- 57:59thought the Vikings were. But I would I would say, I mean,
- 58:01we're maybe a little more in tune with what's happening than your casual fan.
- 58:07I mean, we follow the team and we're on Twitter daily and we're keeping
- 58:15track of the ins and outs, and you know, so, I don't
- 58:20know. I think we have a little bit of a leg to stand on
- 58:22when we say the Vikings will they'll hold their own. Yeah, I'm not
- 58:28going into it like I did, because when we were going into the forty
- 58:31nine Ers game, I didn't. I mean I would have put the mortgage
- 58:37on the forty nine Ers in that game. I didn't bet on that game,
- 58:39but I probably would have. I'm surprised I didn't put one hundred bucks
- 58:44on the Niners because I would have won like one hundred and five dollars because
- 58:46they were that that heavily favored. I'm not feeling that this week. I
- 58:51feel like the Vikings. I'm not saying they're going to dominate and win by
- 58:55forty points, but I just feel like they feel like a destiny right now,
- 59:00especially after that Falcons game with Josh Dabbs, Like, I just feel
- 59:05like they can beat the Saints. Here's here's a little bit of a hot
- 59:07take. And there might not be a ton of weight behind this. I
- 59:12don't know, but I do think with Josh Dobbs as the starter, at
- 59:16least for the time being, who knows what happens with Jaron Hall moving forward,
- 59:22but let's say he's the starter for at least the next few games before
- 59:27the bye. I think at some point we'll see a slight regression with Josh
- 59:34Dobbs. The dust will settle, sure, yeah, And I mean it
- 59:37was not just like lights out from the beginning. I mean, he took
- 59:42a safety and then fumbled on his first three possessions as a Viking. I
- 59:47mean, it was ugly, but then once he got the the bad stuff
- 59:52out, it was pretty much all good from there. I mean, there
- 59:58was really not anything bad. There was that one other fumble, and I
- 1:00:01think it was just maybe miscommunication from Garrett Bradbury, just that lack of chemistry
- 1:00:07center and he fell on it and recovered it himself, which was fine.
- 1:00:13But I mean, other than those four plays, Josh Dobbs had a magical
- 1:00:19day in Atlanta. I don't think we see that again. I think I
- 1:00:24think the pastronaut comes down to earth a little bit not I mean, I'm
- 1:00:30not saying that he's gonna, you know, have a terrible game or anything
- 1:00:34like that, but I think he's he's going to have a little bit more
- 1:00:39of a realistic game and a little less of this Cinderella type magical game that
- 1:00:46he had in Atlanta. I disagree a little bit. I think now that
- 1:00:52they've figured out the way that they should operate, they're gonna fine tune that
- 1:00:59whole translate the play from the huddle after the break, here's what you're doing,
- 1:01:06Josh. I think that gives Koc a little more presence on the field
- 1:01:13because Koc, He's not to say he hasn't been, but he's gonna be
- 1:01:16even more in tune to what the defense is doing. He's gonna be reading
- 1:01:20the field like a quarterback, and he's gonna be in the mind like Madden
- 1:01:25of Josh Dabbs. And I think the defense they've got it figured out.
- 1:01:30They do. I think we see more than one turnover from the defense,
- 1:01:34maybe even a touchdown scored from the defense this week. And I think the
- 1:01:40passion not He's gonna plant his flag right on the fifty yard line of US
- 1:01:46Bank Stadium. I'm I'm predicting it right now. It's not gonna be a
- 1:01:51blowout, but it is going to be a comfortable win. It's gonna be
- 1:01:54the second win of more than one score for the Vikings this year. Look
- 1:02:00at it to be like thirty four to fourteen. Wow, you heard it
- 1:02:06here first. That's what I'm saying. There you go, schull. I
- 1:02:12don't know that I'm gonna go that far. I do think the Vikings win.
- 1:02:16I think it comes with some struggle, but I don't know. Maybe
- 1:02:21you're onto something. Maybe maybe Kevin O'Connell told Josh, like, man,
- 1:02:27that worked really well. Yeah, don't worry about like the playbook. We
- 1:02:30got this. We'll figure this out later, or they study together and maybe
- 1:02:34they'll come up with their own like, hey, this play says this.
- 1:02:37So like when I tell you deep ball, just effing throw it. Just
- 1:02:44go and trust me that I know what the play should be. You'll figure
- 1:02:47it out in a few weeks. But just trust me, Like, just
- 1:02:52here's your read. Don't even go to the second read. Just here's your
- 1:02:54read. If that's not their run it well, and he's he's he's the
- 1:02:58guy that I think you can trust in that situation. Kevin O'Connell is proving
- 1:03:02And I've seen some things from maybe some minds a little smarter than ours that
- 1:03:07have said like he's really coming into his own as a play caller, Yeah,
- 1:03:10and establishing himself as one of the more elite offensive minds in the league.
- 1:03:15Right now, they say, what invention comes out of necessity? This
- 1:03:22could be the start of like a whole new way of communicating and a whole
- 1:03:27new way of a coach playing the game. I feel like with Kirk,
- 1:03:32you could just give him one, two, or three options and be like,
- 1:03:37Kirk, you got this, Here you go, here's my call.
- 1:03:39What I'm seeing the ball is yours. And this might sound like I'm diminishing
- 1:03:46Josh Dabbs a little bit. I don't intend to do that, but this
- 1:03:50could be like Koc playing the game doing what I do when I play Madden,
- 1:03:54seeing the field, being like, dude, just trust me. What
- 1:04:00did I say last week about Jaron Hall? All he has to do is
- 1:04:03trust his abilities and trust his coach and his headset. That's actually kind of
- 1:04:08interesting because I did say, like, just just listen to your coach,
- 1:04:12and we had no idea what would happen. Yeah. Yeah, So I
- 1:04:16think if Dobbs or really any able bodied quarterback could embrace this idea of like,
- 1:04:24my coach has got me, he's been here. Yeah, Koc wasn't
- 1:04:27a Pro Bowl quarterback. But you don't get to the NFL and be bad.
- 1:04:31Like sure, you're playing on a team with Tom Brady, you're not
- 1:04:34gonna start. But like Koc can see the field. I think maybe in
- 1:04:42some ways this could unlock a whole new fun aspect of coaching and play calling.
- 1:04:45Like you said, for Choc, just trust me, Josh, I
- 1:04:49got this. Listen to what I say, do what I say. If
- 1:04:54you can't do what I say, freaking round the ball, boom, I'm
- 1:04:59excited. I'm about to run through a brick wall off a hypothetical thought process
- 1:05:02of the coach right now. Maybe you're onto something. Maybe you're onto something.
- 1:05:06Time will tell, right and I don't know. Maybe that's what worked
- 1:05:11against the Falcons. I mean, and the Falcons were not a bad defense
- 1:05:15coming into the game ranked sixth overall in the league, Like that's nothing to
- 1:05:20shy away from. And to throw this random dude that you picked up right
- 1:05:27before the trade deadline, who knows nobody, who knows none of the plays
- 1:05:32to come out with a win, and to come out with a win that
- 1:05:35looked pretty darn good. It was a lot of fun. So hopefully the
- 1:05:41Vikings can keep a rolling this week against the Saints, And I mean it
- 1:05:45would help too if the run game had a little bit of life. Yeah,
- 1:05:49you get some fire under your butt after losing your one bee and block
- 1:05:56a little bit differently, a little bit better. Not at the expense of
- 1:05:59the pass game, though, do what works, win the game. Get
- 1:06:03home, Let JJ come to a team that has is you know, six
- 1:06:09and four? Right? Like? Open it up after that, because after
- 1:06:13even right now, the schedule is pretty favorable. Yeah, go to go
- 1:06:18to Denver and then you've got the Bears at home before the bye. Yeah,
- 1:06:23and then I think, what do you have Raiders Bengals after the buye
- 1:06:27or something like that. Yeah, I'm not sure I should do. You
- 1:06:30have it right in front of me. Yeah, Raiders at Raiders and at
- 1:06:33Bengals after the bye, and then it's Lions Packers Lions, isn't it?
- 1:06:39Jeez? Close it out? Yeah, well, and get to the playoffs.
- 1:06:45It will be really interesting to get to that first Lions game. Is
- 1:06:49that Christmas Eve? Is that the first Lions game at home against the Lions.
- 1:06:55I don't have the dates here, No, it might be maybe.
- 1:07:00Anyways, it'll be really interesting to play the Lions for the first time,
- 1:07:03because even that first game against the Lions could have a lot of divisional implications,
- 1:07:11and obviously that second game, I think, with the way things have
- 1:07:14been trending, that that second game, the last game of the season,
- 1:07:17could decide the division. Yeah, I mean, well that first game,
- 1:07:20we'll be doing the math. Well no, hey, if we win this,
- 1:07:24yeah, well, and the Vikings could have stormed all the way back,
- 1:07:28and by week eighteen, I'd say, continue to storm. They've stormed.
- 1:07:32Yeah, oh yeah, five and one in the last six they've stormed.
- 1:07:35They're they're back. It's a good place to be. It's an exciting
- 1:07:41place to be and gosh, hopefully we have more exciting things to talk about.
- 1:07:47Yeah, next week, I agree. So, uh, what do
- 1:07:53you think should we start closing this out? Yeah? Well, I mean
- 1:07:56we're what'd you think what? We're both done? This beer was good.
- 1:08:00This is a really good beer. This I will get this again. Oh
- 1:08:03I've had it before, I think I can't remember exactly, but it was
- 1:08:09a good one. Yeah, Millstream, you have sold me. This is
- 1:08:11my second favorite beer we've had on the podcast, just because we have the
- 1:08:15pseudo su that one time that's that's just gotta be my favorite. That's your
- 1:08:18top. But Millstream, darn it, this Amber this what's the official name
- 1:08:24again? Shilled brow shiled brow Amber a Vienna style lagger. Millstream, thank
- 1:08:30you. This has been a treat. I appreciate it. Put out more
- 1:08:33great beers like this, and I'm sure you already have, so I'm gonna
- 1:08:36keep looking up your beers. Yeah, good stuff. Yeah, all right,
- 1:08:41man, Where can people reach out to us? Pretty much anywhere?
- 1:08:44I mean, just look for the skull Hop you'll find us. I feel
- 1:08:47like at this point, if you google the skull Hop sko L, you're
- 1:08:51gonna find us. Or on Twitter or x TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
- 1:08:57YouTube, everywhere you can get podcasts now because you made sure of that.
- 1:09:01Yep, we're working on a website. We are we yes, we own
- 1:09:06the domain. Now we can steal that from us under construction. I did,
- 1:09:12Yeah, I did give out the first sticker. I think I guess
- 1:09:15the first sticker was probably the forest on the podcast. Yeah, he but
- 1:09:19I gave out I hand delivered to Matt for emailing us. So if you
- 1:09:25don't email us, we'll still give you a sticker. Yeah, give us
- 1:09:27a shout out anywhere on any platform, social media, email, whatever.
- 1:09:33We've still got stickers to hand out. Yeah, and uh yeah, we've
- 1:09:36got some other ideas, you know, maybe involving something like this. Yeah,
- 1:09:42at least football or football steins. These aren't steins. We'll just call
- 1:09:46him beer glass beer glasses. Yeah, well, you never know, we've
- 1:09:50got some ideas. You send us an email. Maybe you'll be the first
- 1:09:54one to find out. We'll keep that under wraps until until you reach out
- 1:10:00to us and you'll find out for sure. But yeah, we're gonna wrap
- 1:10:05this thing up now, all right, man, until next time, school
- 1:10:10school at a