Latest / The Skol Hop / Vikes Deal McCarthy, Bummer Beer, Fuzzy Beard | TSH Ep. 157

Transcript

Vikes Deal McCarthy, Bummer Beer, Fuzzy Beard | TSH Ep. 157 · The Skol Hop

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right. Hey, Vikings fans, welcome in to another episode
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of The Skullhop. I'm Evan.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: I'm Austin.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: We're just a couple of dudes from Iowa. We like
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: drinking beer and talking about the Vikings. Yeah, we do.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: And, you know, the Vikings traded away J.J. McCarthy, and
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I may have been a little bit of a bummer
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: about it.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. The sky is certainly falling in Minnesota right now.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: What is going on?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I also had to be punished for the purple
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: punishments for predicting... the Vikings-Buccaneers game wrong in the preseason.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, how could you pick against the Vikings? They're 3-0, man!
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: And we also looked ahead to this upcoming game for
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: the Vikings and the Dolphins, which was one of our
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: locks for the preseason predictions, too.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tune in to a later part in the episode
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: where we talk about maybe kind of one-upping the original
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Purple Punishments around that bet. But anyways, we had this
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Bummer City Beer... From five cities, which actually wasn't a bummer.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It was pretty good.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Not at all.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It was delicious.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: So go ahead and grab a cold one and join
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: us for episode 157 of the Skull Hub. Skull.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Skull.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Skull.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Skull.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Skull.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Skull.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Skull.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Skull.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Skull. Skull. All right.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: We're going to get to some beer here in a minute.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: But we got to start with that jersey you're wearing.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: What about this jersey there?
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's relevant anymore.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: It's a Vikings jersey.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: You're right. I don't know who wears the number nine, though.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It's not J.J. McCarthy.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Well, no, not even currently. I think he wears number 18.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: But you're right. We made a bet. And there's not
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: really any stakes. I guess the only stakes would have
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: been you would have had to take a shot at
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Malort if JJ McCarthy had ever started a game for
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the Vikings again.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Which is still a possibility.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I guess. He could take the Fran Tarkenton route, be
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a Viking.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: A Giant, and then a Viking. You could.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: But I'm not putting money on that.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Actually, like... If he followed the same trajectory that Fran
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Tarkenton did and came back and led the Vikings to
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: some Super Bowls, I wouldn't mind that, actually.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Tarkenton's first tenure with the Vikings was a
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: little bit more successful than McCarthy's. But you're right. I've
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: had to, I think we did an episode 154, so
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: three episodes ago, we made the bet that I would
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: have to wear the McCarthy jersey until he started again
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: for the Vikings again.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: And we also agreed that if he got traded, which
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: he did, and we'll talk about that and our feelings
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and thoughts on all that. But you can take it
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: off now.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to have to. All right, fine. Wouldn't
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: it be funny if I put on a Kyler Murray
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: jersey right now?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: It could be.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: That'd be really funny.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I like your UNI sweatshirt underneath, though. Go Panthers. Oh,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: he's going to get it out. Live update, everybody. He's
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: going with the K-1 jersey. and we have now officially
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: flipped because might i remind the listener that regularly listens
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: to the skull hop all like 10 of you austin
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: was like dead set on jj mccarthy and we like
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: what are you talking about we argued about this i
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: am k1 from day one yeah let's go um no
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: i didn't I didn't really plan on putting this jersey
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: on until about three seconds before I took that jersey off.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's Kyler Murray's show now. Or Carson Wentz,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: which we can debate that a little bit too. But yeah,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Kyler Murray, here we go.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: All right. I have more bad news for you.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: What's that?
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: You've got to spin the wheel.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Dang it. Preseason, I did pick the Buccaneers to beat
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: the Vikings. I was pretty low on the Vikings early
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: in the season, which, I mean, I'm not 100% wrong about.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I am 100% wrong in a couple of the losses.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I think I did pick two losses so far. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: you're right. You were hopeful. You thought the Vikings would
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: beat the Bucs. I came around to that in our
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: last episode. I think we both predicted a victory, but
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: the Purple Punishments only cares about those preseason picks. Well,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: let's get it over with, man.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: You picked wrong. I did. You've got to spin. I'll
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: spin for you.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Here we go. Today, you will be wearing the fake beard. Oh, no.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Do we have the fake beard handy? Oh, yes.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: We have the fake beard. I love the trumpet sound
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: at the end. I will get the fake beard.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: All right. The fake beard makes it the real punishment
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: about the fake beard. I guess it's a little bit
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: of a double whammy for me. It makes my current beard. Yeah,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: I think that's it. And it makes my current beard itchy.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: It's also attached to a knitted helmet. And it makes
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: drinking beer pretty difficult. So, all right. This is the
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: second time I've had to wear this. Yeah.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: You wore it once last season, too. So, here we go. Skol, baby.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I don't know how I'm going to drink beer. Or talk.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I'm sure I can hear that I sound super muted
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: It's a little muffled, but I'll take care of that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: in post. Don't you worry about that.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Man. I feel like, did I use a silly straw
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: last time? How did I drink?
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Maybe.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: You know what? I'm just going to go.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You can all allow that. That's fine.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: It's enough that it's over my face.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I think that's what you did last time, actually. Probably.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I can definitely drink beer, and it saves the sound
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: as well. So here we go. We'll have to mention
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: a few times throughout the episode why I'm wearing this
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: ridiculous thing. But, yeah, you know, I like this thing.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: It is kind of cool. It's a novelty for sure. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: But it does look ridiculous.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks, man.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it's not super comfortable.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: It's just kind of warm and itchy. If we were outside,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: like at an outdoor football game, this might not be
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: too bad.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: In the cold.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: In the cold, yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Cold weather game, yeah. But, yeah. um serves you right
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: for picking against the vikings and also uh we're gonna
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: drink some beer here that i think is appropriately named
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: um i'll just get into this here and then we
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: can pour some up and you'll have a harder time
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: drinking it than i will it'll be all right um
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: this is from five cities it's right here in bettendorf
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: iowa uh it's called bummer city Man, why'd you choose
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: this one? And I chose this one. I told my wife, actually.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: I went into the store. I said, I'm going to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: get this beer. It's called Bummer City. And it's because
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Austin's just been a raging bummer about the Vikings. We're 3-0.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: And we got rid of this kind of conundrum of
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: a quarterback who just caused problems, really, in 10 games.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: He caused no problems.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: He caused some problems. He... He was a meme.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: He made other people cause problems.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: He was only not a meme because Caleb Williams overtook
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: that throne. Anyways, this is Bummer City out of Bettendorf, Iowa.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Five cities brewing. And the can just says, it's beer.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: Just drink it. Yep.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: I'm going to enjoy this.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: That's what we're going to do.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Have we had this on the show before?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think so.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: I know we've had it.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever had it. Oh, really? I've
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: never had this beer.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Huh.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: All right. Well.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I'm excited. It's a 4.2%.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: It's just kind of like you're straight up. I think
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: it's their Bud Light that they would serve.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: It's a good, we've had a few of those lately.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Like just, just beers, beers. I'm excited for this. Yeah.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Even if it is, you know, a jab at me
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: and we'll get into that, but here we go.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Skol. Skol. Yeah, that's good. Yeah.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Just a good light beer. Um, 4.2%. Uh, this is
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: going to be really high on the lawnmower scale. Um,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a solid, just a solid eight. Um,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: it might be higher, but like the flavor, it's just,
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: it's a beers beer. You can tell it's a good
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: quality beers beer, but you know, there's nothing, nothing crazy
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: about it. I think most people who enjoy beer are
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: not going to find anything wrong with this. Uh, I
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: would have a handful of these any day of the week.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: They're pretty good.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to pour up another one here. Yeah,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I should do that too. And then we'll get down
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: to business here. Let's talk about that J.J. McCarthy trade
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: because we'll get into our normal Roses-Thorns game ball here
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: in a little bit. But J.J. McCarthy is gone. In fact,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: we saw our first video footage and images of him
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: wearing the number 18 for the New York football Giants,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: taking snaps. There was a throw that he threw that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: looked crisp, looked intentional, looked good. And I think they
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: posted that on purpose to make Vikings fans regret the decision.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't regret anything. I think the only thing that
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the Vikings organization has to regret is the fact that
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: they paid such a high price for him to get
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: him in the first place, number 10th overall in the
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: 2024 draft. He played 10 games, 10 starts, with a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: 6-4 record, which isn't terrible at all. But there was
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: just so much frustrating stuff that happened in those 10 games.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: um and that's not to mention you know benching himself
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: on a few occasions um it's not to mention all
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the meme worthy stuff that we just referenced a few
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: minutes ago i'm i'm completely fine moving on from jj
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: mccarthy it was a little bit shocking um it was
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: just kind of like whoa, that came out of nowhere.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: But you could kind of see the writing on the wall.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Jameis Winston had two kind of subpar games for the Giants.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Jackson Dart is out for the season. So the Giants
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: were needing somebody. And I think maybe they got their answer.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And I wouldn't be surprised to see J.J. McCarthy start
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: for them this week or next week.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'd be surprised if it was this week.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: That's pretty quick. But at some point, yeah, I mean,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: If he's ready enough, and if the Giants are ready
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: for him, and if Winston isn't lighting it up, then yeah,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be shocked to see that happen. But we
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: are not the Giants hop podcast. We're the Skull Hops.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I was surprised. I was really surprised. I
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: think I told you before we started recording. I would
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: have bet hundreds of dollars that if the Vikings were
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: going to move on from J.J. McCarthy, it would have
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: been either... in a surprise move at cut down day, um,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: or at some point right before the season, if they
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: got a trade or a cut or something like that, um,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: or after the season, I figured once he was on
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: the team during the season, he was, uh, I hate this.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: You're itching your face.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I know this, uh, purple punishments, fake beard is awful. Um,
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: but I've, I've earned it. So there we go. Um,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: but yeah, I figured if the team was going to
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: move on, it would be right before or right after
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: the season. It wouldn't be during the season. I just
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: didn't think they had any real incentive to move on
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: from him. And to me, even to get a fourth
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: or fifth round pick, it's not like it helps now.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: But I've been proven wrong. I will be proven wrong
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: again on many things. And that's okay. I was kind
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: of upset. I was kind of pissed.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: You were a bummer, to borrow the phrase.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: But the more we get away from it, the more
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I realized I'm more upset like that the whole J.J.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: McCarthy thing failed. We can blame whoever we can, because
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: the truth is the blame doesn't go just on J.J.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: or just on the Vikings. It's a shared blame experience.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: And the debate will be like, maybe you'll say like, oh,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: it's 95% J.J., and I'll say, you know, JJ, he's
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: probably only 30%, whatever. We can debate about that all
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: we want. But truthfully, everybody's to blame. Obviously, it didn't
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: work out. He's a quarterback for another team now, and
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: the Vikings are in a position where now I'm interested
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: to see what happens next. Either they're going to decide
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Kyler's the guy for at least another couple of years, or...
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: carson's the guy for a year or two i hope
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: that's not the case just because i don't really believe
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: in carson much beyond you know a spot start here
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: there um or hey they're going to be drafting a
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: guy or we have we've heard very quiet whispers nothing
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: crazy but the vikings could try to target another team's
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: starter and trade for them a guy like justin herbert
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: uh i'd be extremely surprised if they went down that route,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: especially like during the season, that'd be crazy. But like
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I just said a minute ago, I've been proven wrong
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: a few times now. So it's just a fun reality
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: TV show to watch right now. And we'll, we'll see
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: what happens.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, looking at his numbers here, we're looking at
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: pro football reference. Um, there's not a lot that jumps
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: off the page in JJ McCarthy's 10 starts. Um, and they,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: what's interesting is, about pro football reference. I like this, actually.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: They extrapolated out the data to what would be a
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: 17-game average. So had he completed 17 games, this is
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: about where he would be. And we're looking at 57.6%
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: completion rate, 2,700 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 20 interceptions. Yeah,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: had he started. Again, theoretical data, not real data. Um,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: but based on where he was and what he did
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: in those 10 starts, that's about where you would expect
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: him to be unless he just all of a sudden, like,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: you know, touched the space jam ball and became like
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the next incarnation of Steve Young or something like that.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: You know, like, wouldn't that be amazing if that's how
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: it worked? Um, but I don't like more interceptions than touchdowns.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: That sucks. That sucks.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'd be crazy if the Vikings starting quarterback right
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: now had more interceptions than touchdowns. That would suck so bad.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll get into that later. But I think, too,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: something that I watched today was a video by Leighton Glodek,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: who we've had on the show before. Yeah. And he
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: made a good point basically just saying, like, you know–
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: This all kind of started a long time ago. This
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: whole conundrum that the Vikings have found themselves in with
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: their quarterback is just the product of many, many things
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that have all just kind of accumulated to this one point.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: And it all just kind of unraveled. It all fell apart.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: And now the Vikings find themselves back in that same spot.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: We've got a killer defense, which we've had before. We
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: even had several of those under Mike Zimmer. But we've
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: never had that true, consistent quarterback play. The closest we've gotten, really,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: in our lifetime as Vikings fans is Kirk Cousins. He
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: was consistent, and he was there for, what, five or
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: six years? Yeah.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Dante Culpepper was pretty consistent, too. But we were much
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: younger then.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah. But I think that's the more frustrating thing.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: It's not that J.J. McCarthy's gone. It's that the Vikings
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: just continue to find themselves in this– cycle of quarterback
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: myopia i don't know for lack of.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: A better you're the english teacher man.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Like myopia is like vision problems right like i don't
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: know you're you're the english teacher man we'll take it
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: pretty sure that's what it means i know what you're
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: saying it's been frustrating at the quarterback position for our
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: whole lives and in a similar way uh on a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: much lower stakes uh comparison It's been frustrating at the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: kicker position our whole lives outside of Ryan.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Longwell for a few years and whoever else, Gary Anderson
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: before him. But we're in a position right now where
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: we have, you could argue, the best kicker in the league.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: And there's a lot of really good kickers in the
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: league right now. It's kind of crazy. But the Vikings
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: have one of the better ones too. So it just
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: takes hitting on the right guy. And I truly believe...
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Nolan Teasley is going to get this figured out. I think,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I think it was just one of those where after
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Nolan came in, he, he made his evaluations and at
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: some point he decided like, all right, JJ McCarthy is
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: not the quarterback of the future. Maybe training camp or
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: after the first preseason game or whenever, at some point,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: I believe Nolan Teasley decided like, yeah, this, He's not
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: our guy. And when he made that decision, he was like,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: all right, we're going to quietly shop him or at
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: least listen to offers. And as soon as we get
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: one that Teasley's comfortable with, then he'll pull the trigger
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: and move on, whether it's in training camp or week
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: two or three of the NFL season. So I think
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: we've heard we don't have sources, but we know people
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: who have sources. We've heard on what I think is
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: a good authority that that third preseason game against the Broncos,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: it was not J.J. McCarthy's final decision to not play
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: in that game. We've heard that it was the Vikings
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: that ultimately said, nope, you're not playing in this, which
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: is helping me to form this opinion that Nolan Teasley
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: made that decision and put his foot down and said,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: all right, this is what we're doing. So they held
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: him out and were probably– quietly shopping him ever since
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: at least then if not before and i've we've i
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: don't know if you've seen it but i feel like
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: we've heard and maybe even teasley said in his press
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: conference like there had been offers or conversations before this
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: um and nothing quite as good as a fifth round
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: pick quite yet um and ultimately once he got that
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: fifth round pick it's like all right comfortable with that
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: we're doing it yep and that's okay because teasley didn't
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: draft it didn't draft him He didn't hire the coach
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: that drafted him. Teasley's coming in and was probably told
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: by ownership, like, all right, our last guy, Kweisi D'Amfamensa,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: left us with a mess. So Nolan Teasley, here's this mess. Oh,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: by the way, a part of that mess is probably
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: the best defense in the NFL right now. So it's
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: not that bad. And Teasley's just, we're probably going to
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: see a few of these kinds of moves where it's like,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I don't care what the fans think. I don't care
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: what Twitter says. No, I'm not signing Dalton Reisner. You know, like,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to see a few of these
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: moves where Teasley's like, yeah, it made sense, so I
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: did it. Or it did make sense, so I didn't
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: do it. And it's just going to be cold like that.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: It kind of leads me to believe that maybe there's
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: something to, like, tanking a little bit. Not just to
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: get a draft pick, but also to. develop that draft pick.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: And I think I started talking about Leighton Glodek a
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: minute ago, and I kind of lost my train of thought.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: But that's one of the things that he mentioned in
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: his video too, is that the Vikings, when they drafted J.J. McCarthy,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: were kind of in win-now mode. And that's why they
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: brought Sam Darnold in. And then you know, they had
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: so much faith in JJ McCarthy originally that they got
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: rid of Sam Darnold and thought that JJ could be
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the guy. And then it quickly turned out that he wasn't.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: And then they found themselves back in this conundrum again.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: If you look at other organizations, if you look at
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: like the Bears, for example, they drafted Caleb Williams first overall.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: And he had a pretty miserable first two years in
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the league. And he only really started to get it
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: figured out last year he had a terrible offensive line
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: his first year i thought he was gonna die like
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: he got sacked so many times his first season.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: It helps that and this isn't just you know against
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the vikings when he was way over the top and
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: over exaggerating but like he's been doing that yeah like
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: you look at our thumbnail from one of our episodes
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: recently i'd use the picture of caleb williams like laying
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: on the bench like he just does that and it's
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: really annoying but.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: He's maybe a bad example but like even look at
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: like jackson dart He was drafted to a really bad
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Giants team. And when you're a good quarterback coming out
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: of college drafted to a bad team, you have, I think,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: an easier path to success because no one's expecting you
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to be great right away. No one's expecting you to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: turn the franchise around.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: The leash is longer, sure.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I wonder if that would have been the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Vikings scenario. And the Vikings just haven't had a miserably
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: bad season in a long time. Dustin Baker has a
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: nice little trend going on where he's like, the Vikings
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: are either meh or they're good. And meh means they're
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like basically right around 500, a game or two on
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: either side of 500. And then good means they're like, yeah,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: they're probably at least making the wild card, if not
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: going farther in the playoffs. And that was, that's the
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: reality that JJ McCarthy entered into. It was never this dire, like,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: woe is us. We need an answer. Fire everybody. Let's
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: start over. Let's start from ground zero. We've got a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: really good core. We have a good coach. We have
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: a good coaching staff. We have good players. So maybe
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: there is some merit to like, and I'm not saying
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I want the Vikings to do this ever because that
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: means that the Vikings would have to be the armpit
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of the league for a couple of seasons, and that
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: would be miserable to watch.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: We're not Lions fans. We're not used to that.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: But maybe there's some merit in order to develop that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: young quarterback into something that's a little bit more worthwhile
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: rather than thrusting the kid out there on a pretty
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: good team and saying, all right, figure it out or
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you're gone. You know? And I think that's essentially what
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: happened with JJ McCarthy, figure it out or you're gone.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: He didn't figure it out. New GM comes in with
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: no skin in the game whatsoever, kicks him to the curb.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Yep. Well, and I, I wonder, too, this probably wasn't
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: something Kevin O'Connell was pounding the table for. He probably
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: wasn't saying, let's get rid of him. I think all
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: you have to do is watch the press conferences from
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Nolan Teasley and then Kevin O'Connell from the day J.J.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: McCarthy was traded. And Teasley walked in there and answered
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: every question, but it was very much like, all right, hey,
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: here's a business meeting, guys. I'm going to answer your questions.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Whereas Kevin O'Connell, he kind of walked in there, and
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: it wasn't like tail between his legs, but you could
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: tell he was more affected by it. You know, he's, he,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: he's gonna be, he was JJ's coach for longer.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: He developed that relationship.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: And, uh, it was very much like, yeah, guys, I know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I know this, uh, situation just didn't work out. Somebody
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: point blank asked him about the quote where he said,
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: you know, organizations fail quarterbacks before quarterbacks will fail organizations.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: And he manned up to it. He was just like, yeah,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: you know, I wouldn't change anything of what I said.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately it just didn't work out. And, So I
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: think that's why I think, and this is how decisions
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: should be made for football teams, but I think the
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: GM made a decision. I don't think it was behind
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: the back of a coach. I don't think the coach
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: was vehemently against it, but I think it was solely
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: a Nolan Teasley saying, this is my roster and I'm
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: going to make this decision and coach up the roster
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: that I give you. And there's nothing wrong with that.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: That's how football teams and really most sports teams should operate.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: What's going to suck, and I don't predict this, but
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: what's going to suck is if JJ, when he does
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: play for the Giants, throws two touchdowns. You know, like,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: if he looks even halfway like, oh, that guy has
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: heard of football before, it's going to be like, dang it,
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: why couldn't you do that for us?
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Be the most Vikings thing ever.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: But I'm also, on the other side, I'm not saying, like,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: I'm not the Vikings fan that's like, he's going to
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: crush us. We're going to meet him in the playoffs,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: and JJ McCarthy's going to knock the Vikings out this year,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: and I'm sick of it. I hope it happens. Like, no,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: that's ridiculous. I want my team to win, and the
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: quarterbacks on our roster right now are Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: and Max Brosmer. And, uh, let's hope the QB room
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: looks and definitely feels a lot better this time next
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: year than it does now. Um, but what really made
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: me come around to being like, all right, I'm over this.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: It's fine. Is that idea that we're not in next year.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: We are in now. You said it a hundred times.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Everybody said it a hundred times. The Vikings are 3-0
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: right now, and they traded their third-string quarterback. Let's enjoy
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: being 3-0. And you know what? If they lose a
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: game in the next couple, that's one game. They're starting
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: from 3-0 right now, which we don't get that every year.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: So let's enjoy it. And even if Kyler Murray looks
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: a little lost right now, good to be winning even
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: if you're looking a little bit lost. I'd rather be
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: winning while looking lost than obviously losing while looking lost.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: The outlook right now for the team is that the
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: offense feels like it sucks. I think the offensive line
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: as a unit could be playing so much better. Kyler Murray,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I'm rooting for him to look more comfortable in this
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: offense and even Kevin O'Connell to tweak the offense a
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: little bit to utilize those RPOs and make Kyler Murray
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: look good. But we're 3-0 right now.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: It's a good transition.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: We've spent the better part of 20 minutes talking about
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: JJ McCarthy. I think we can put that to bed.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Vikings beating the Buccaneers 23-16 on Sunday.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Heck yeah. You need to do one of these quick
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: so people can see that you're wearing a K-1 jersey.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Yep. This isn't a Greg Joseph jersey or a Jalen
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Naylor jersey, although a Jalen Naylor jersey with the joke
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: printed on the back of Naylor.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Never heard of it. That one?
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: I'm going to have that at some point because it's hilarious. But, yeah, no,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: this is Kyler Murray. It's a fake Chinese jersey, but
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: here we go.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It works. And you're also wearing the beard. We'll remind
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the people why.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: The purple punishments. I have to wear the beard. It is...
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: I've been wearing it, what, 20 minutes now? It's hot,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: it's itchy, it's uncomfortable, and it's covering my vision a
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: little bit. Also, there's hairs all over it. I think
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I've swallowed like three hairs so far. Oh, that's gross.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: This is a punishment for sure. But the Vikings, they
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: punished us with how they won, but they won. Let's
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: be excited.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we'll get into roses and thorns here. I
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: can start.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I just simply said the Vikings won in their 3-0.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: We've already talked about that. But I would add the
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: cherry on top for me personally, as well as for
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: all Vikings fans everywhere. I was excited to see Jordan
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Addison finally get involved. He's on my fantasy team. He
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: scored me some points, which was awesome. But man, that
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: guy's been suspiciously quiet the first couple of games. And
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: it was nice to see him get involved. Now, It
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: came at the expense of my thorn, which we'll get
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: to in a minute. I think that's going to be okay.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I don't think we're going to have to deal with
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: that issue, which we'll get to in a minute. But
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: it was good to see Jordan Addison get involved. Two
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: nice big chunk plays, one of which was a touchdown.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I was excited to see that.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. My rose, the defense. My goodness. Um, they
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: weren't perfect on every drive. There was that really long
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: touchdown pass. That was like 80 plus yards from Baker to,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: I don't even remember which receiver caught it that ultimately
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: got called back on a pretty egregious hold. Um, but
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: there's holding on every play and you never know when
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: it's going to get called, but there was that long
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: touchdown pass, which mirrored, I thought, and I'm, I'm no
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: elite scholar of the game. Um, but I thought that
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: was one play of a handful where, Josh Metellus could
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: have played a lot better. I don't think he, I
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: think he's the weak link on the field on the
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: defense right now. And maybe it's that he's the one
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: that's on camera when somebody else messes up, but he's
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: the one on camera. So I could be feeling a
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: lot better about Josh Metellus, but overall this defense, it just,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: it feels like it's suffocating the other team. I think
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Brian Flores is a madman for how often he's blitzing.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: It's crazy, but it's working so far. It feels like
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: once the defense gets warmed up and it gets to
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: a certain point in the game, that the opposing offense
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: just can't do anything. Um, you just feel like, all right,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: this is going to be a three and out. Oh.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: And the only reason it wouldn't be a three and
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: out is if there's like a ticky tacky penalty somewhere. Um, yeah, I,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: that's my Rose, uh, defense. Keep, keep going. I said
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: before this season, I think we both said it, the
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: defense is going to single-handedly win a few games. You
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: could argue we've already gotten that from them a few
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: times this season, maybe even three times. But yeah, they're
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: doing the work, they're looking good, and it doesn't look
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: like anything's going to change anytime soon.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: And you look at this list of defensive stats on
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the box score, and it's just name after name. We'll
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: get to Eric Wilson in a little bit, but holy cow.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: 10 total tackles, one and a half sacks, two TFLs,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: two quarterback hits. Josh Metellus, don't throw the baby out
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: with the bathwater too soon on him because he was
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: second on the team with nine total tackles. Yeah, because...
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: And a half a sack.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Because he's the last one and usually he's chasing the
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: guy for a while before he finally gets him down.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: But that's the role of the safety. They're the safety valve.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: They're at the end of the line and they bring
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the guy down hopefully before they hit pay dirt, you know?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: So to do... What he did, I think, is pretty admirable.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Isaiah Rogers played a pretty good game. Kind of shut
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: down a few of those receivers. Kyle Van Noy played
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: well enough to earn himself a spot on the 53-man roster,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: which we've said a few times in the last couple
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: of weeks. Dallas Turner continues to be a menace. He
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: was a little quieter in this game, but was still
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: a presence and gave... Iowa grad Tristan Wirfs, a handful
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: on that offensive line. Andrew Van Ginkle with a key
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: interception late in the game, which was awesome to see.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Ivan Pace Jr. apparently missed a bunch of practice because
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: he witnessed the birth of his first child.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: Is that what it was?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I think so.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Well, he didn't travel with the team.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: He did this on his sack, or half a sack
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: was credited to him. But he got up after that
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and cradled the baby. And I saw it on Twitter
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: later that he was paying homage to his newly born child. Well,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: that's cool. But anyways, just a lot of names going
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: down the list there that are just like, yeah. And
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't even mentioned Blake Cashman, Ty Ingram Dawkins,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: and a few others on here that played well. Another
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: interesting thing that I'd point out with the defense is
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: We didn't see Harrison Smith until later in the game.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: I think he was in on maybe one or two
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: snaps in the first half. Not many. But my theory
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: kind of proves correct that he wants to be in
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: in those like big time moments. And he where was he?
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: He wasn't lined up where Josh Metellus is as a
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: safety like he typically is. He's the safety blitzer coming
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: off the line. And there were a few plays that
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: he did that, one of which I know he dropped
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: back and then went into coverage. But there were other
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: times where I think he did make a play on
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the ball behind the line of scrimmage. So, yeah, I'm
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: with you. The defense was awesome, and they were fun
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to watch.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Harrison Smith played 31 of the 69 snaps. So he
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: ended up playing.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: About half the game, but that's more than he played
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: last week.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I think so. So, cause I think we got him
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: on like what a third of the snaps, something like that. Yeah.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: In the, the bears game. So, and that's a different
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: game too.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: The bears game was such a totally different beast with
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: the rain and all that. It was kind of a
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: defensive grind. Um, and that's where you're going to let
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: those other guys, I think, come in here. You're, grinding
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: through this right now this.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Fake beard is the worst i'd rather have eaten something spicy.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Um all right thorns thorns go for it what's your
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: thorn justin jefferson went out early um that was not
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: fun to watch and it was kind of a mystery
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: for a while it's like why did he go out
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: you were texting me why did he go out what's
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the status we were both checking twitter for like refreshing
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the page every 30 seconds trying to figure it out
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and I think what was interesting is he stood on
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the sideline hoping that he could just go back in.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: And then somebody must have said, no, you got to
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: go get checked out. And they put him under the
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: blue tent and then he came back out and he
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: stood there on the sideline and he was doing a
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: bunch of stuff. He was like jumping up and down
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: and sprinting. He got his ankles taped, but he was
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: trying to get back in the game and then they
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: didn't put him back in the game. And so then
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: he walked back to the locker room and that's when
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: everybody was like, no, he's not coming back probably. But
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: that sucks, you know? And I think, That's why Jordan
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Addison got the attention that he got in the third
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: quarter was because Justin Jefferson didn't come back. I think
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the silver lining with him is it looks like he's okay.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I don't think he was a full participant in practice today.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: We're recording on Wednesday.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: I think he was a did not participate.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Was he a DNP? Yeah, I think so. I thought
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: maybe I saw he was a limited participant. But either way,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: he wasn't a full participant in practice, which isn't like
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the greatest news ever. But I think there's some optimism there.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Was he DNP?
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, DNP. He and Charles Demings and punter Brett Thorson
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: were all... did not participate.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting about Thorson, though, is they bumped Johnny Hecker
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: back down to the practice squad.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Which indicates that Thorson will be healthy enough to punt on.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Or they've got... they still have three elevations they can
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: use for Hecker.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: Because he played... on a full, he was on the
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: full 53 man roster against the Buccaneers.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: That's true. I forgot about that part. That's a weird
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: little wrinkle in how they do rosters. Anyways. Um, I'm
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: hopeful that Justin Jefferson can come back soon. Cause I
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: think this offense needs a spark. Um, and he's the
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: one that's going to provide that spark. Yeah.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Well, uh, that kind of leads into my thorn is
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: just the offense. Um, I, I think Kyler Murray looked
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: a little lost, a little out of place. The run
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: game was not working at all. Yeah, I know they
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: got ultimately 78 yards rushing, but Aaron Jones got 58
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: of that, and every time he gained any yard, it
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: felt like, man, that was tough sledding. Obviously, Justin Jefferson
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: went out. Sounds like, you know, initially we were hearing like, oh,
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: if it's like a high ankle sprain, that's like a
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: handful of weeks, like three, four, five, however many weeks.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: But apparently that Jefferson is just like a tweak and
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: he shouldn't be out super long. I'm not overly upset
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: if he misses the game against the Dolphins. Like, it's
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: the Dolphins. Like, even if the Vikings were to lose one,
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: you know, it's one. They've won three so far. So, like,
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: if it means he's going to be good for the
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: rest of the year, have him sit out against the Dolphins. But, yeah,
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: other than that, like, the offense just looked off. it
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: looked like they couldn't, they couldn't do anything. There was
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: no room, no time, um, no concentration, no confidence. It
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: just looked like this offense just awful, which they are
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: right now. Um, I think if Kyler Murray is going
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: to end up being good, it'll take a few things.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: It'll take him one. There's no way he's fully comfortable
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: in the offense yet. Um, and you could say like, Oh,
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: maybe you should have played more of the preseason. Um,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: Maybe he shouldn't have been splitting reps with a guy
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: who's not even on the team anymore in camp for
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: a little while. Maybe he's just not that good anymore.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: You could say anything. Or you could say, hey, maybe
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: this offense. I saw a tweet today, something like he's
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: been under center for about half the plays so far
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: that he's played in this year, whereas usually in his
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: career he's under center for 15% of the plays this
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: that he plays in. He's short. He's my height, which
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: is apparently short for an NFL quarterback. And he's just
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: not a pocket passer. And usually that's a shotgun or
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: a pistol kind of a quarterback. And he's been under
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: center a lot. And I don't know about you, I
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: haven't seen a lot of quick slants I've been seeing
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of sit in the pocket, make your reads. Oh,
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: there's something downfield. I'm going to take the bomb to
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Addison or sit in the pocket, make your reads. Nothing, nothing,
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: nothing sack. Like he's not that quarterback. We need the slants.
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: We need the RPOs. We need the bootlegs, and I
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: don't think we're seeing any of that.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: And I don't think he's well-versed enough in this offense
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: to really successfully manage those RPOs. Like I don't know
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: that he can– look out, read the defense, and make
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: a pre-snap determination, I'm keeping the ball or I'm handing
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: it off.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the RPOs just aren't in Kevin O'Connell's offense.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: We don't see them. True. We don't see the delayed
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: handoffs or the reads like that. That's not a pre-snap read.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's like, okay, that guy's there, so if he moves,
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take it. And it might even be
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: like a post-snap read, but it's like I've got the
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: ball and I'm looking and, okay, I'm going to keep it. Nope,
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I'm handing it off kind of thing. But I think–
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I think they're there in his offense. We haven't seen
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: them a ton because we haven't had a running quarterback.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: And I think the more time we give Kevin O'Connell
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: and Kyler Murray to work together, I think we'll see
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: some more of that. Well, I think what will be
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: frustrating is if we're sitting here week 10 or 11
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: and still saying, man, Kyler's not a pocket passer. Why
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: do they keep forcing him to be a pocket passer?
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: passer at that point that's a kevin o'connell failure you
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: gotta you have to you know morph your game your
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: your game plan to use the strengths of your players
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: you can't just be like well i know a team
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: is good when they have a pocket passer And, yeah,
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: we've got a mobile quarterback, but we're going to make
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: him a pocket passer. And you can't just say, oh,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: I know a team is good when they run a
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: lot and they're good at the run. But we're not
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: good at the run, but we're still going to run
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: a lot. Like, you can't just say that. You have
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: to actually use the tools you have. I think a
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: big problem right now is this offensive line is just
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: not looking good. People like to dog on Will Fries
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: a lot. I don't get that. I think he actually
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: is playing pretty well. They just hate how much money
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: he's making and the fact that if he ever– misses
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: one block then apparently he's the worst guy in the
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: world get over it listeners um but i think overall
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: the offensive line they're they're learning a new scheme and
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: they're just like kyler murray they're learning a new system
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: and it's we're seeing the growing pains right now um
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: there was one play pretty early on in the game
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: um i retweeted uh yannick eckhart who sent out a
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: gif of this play and the ball was snapped, and
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: there was a defensive tackle, interior defensive tackle. The play
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: was for the offense to run it up the middle
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: between Donovan Jackson, the left guard, and Blake Brandel, the center,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: and Jackson went to his left, Brandel went to his right,
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: and none of them touched the defensive tackle that was
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: right in front of Donovan Jackson, who just, once the
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: ball was snapped, the defensive tackle looked up, and immediately
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: tackled Aaron Jones. That's just a poor play where the
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: defender was never even touched. So this offensive line, once
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: they get it figured out, you're going to notice a difference.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: We're going to have a game where it's like, oh, wow,
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: why is the offense looking so good? And then you'll
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: watch it back and be like, oh, it's because the
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: offensive line figured it out. I believe that'll happen, and
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: that'll fix so many problems.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: One other thing that I think could be an honorable
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: mention in the Thorns category was the penalties. Nine penalties
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: for 95 yards on the Vikings. It was just a
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: miserable day for penalties. And it's surprising that they won
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the game with that many penalties. And with that little
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: offensive production, you know, like. Um, yeah, it's just astounding. But,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and I think, I don't remember how many of those
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: were offensive line penalties, but I'm sure a few of
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: them were. And that just furthers your point that yes,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: this offensive line has some work to do. Um, but
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of potential there. And I
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: think the fact that the Vikings are three and O
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: is good momentum. Oh yeah. And that's something that I
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: use as a coach all the time with my kids. Like,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: all right, let's keep stacking these things and your confidence
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: builds and you want to go out and perform better
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: when you've, uh, had previous success to build on. So the,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: the great news for the Vikings is they're not, Oh,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and three, they're not trying to build from this deficit
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: of like, Oh crap, the ceiling is falling in on us. Um,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: what are we going to do? How are we going
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: to recover? You know, we're not going to just, you know,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: fall over and fire everybody and, you know, start over
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: next year. Like, no, there's, we got three, you know, start,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: we got a solid foundation to build on. Let's go.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: And I think KOC said that in his postgame, uh,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: locker room speech, like, let's just keep stacking wins. Let's
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: see what we can do. Let's put more success on
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: top of the success we've already had. Has it been pretty? No.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Has it been perfect? No. Are people saying we're not
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl contenders? Yes, they have. There was one video
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: I saw today that some guy, some talking head, was
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: determining quick knee-jerk reaction. Are these undefeated teams Super Bowl
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: worthy or not? And he was very quick to say
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: the Vikings and the Raiders are not. And the 49ers, Chiefs,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: and I forget the other one, the Bills, are um
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: and i was like all right let's let's remember that
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: later on like.
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: Those guys they are on tv and they have to
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: talk for a living otherwise what else would they do
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: you can't you can't predict anything right now we're three
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: weeks in there's teams that are one and two that'll
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: end up making the playoffs there's teams that are three
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: and oh that'll end up missing the playoffs there's you
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: just you can't predict anything at all and to try
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: to predict end of season awards or anything right now
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: is just wasting air and time.
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: And it's fun.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: We're going to do it too. But like, it, it
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean anything. If some dude on ESPN says, Oh,
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: the Vikings are the worst and they really should be. Oh,
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: and three, like, good job. They're three and oh, who cares?
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: Collect your paycheck and go home. Like it, it doesn't
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: really matter. I looked up the Seahawks after three weeks
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: last year, they were two and one. Um, and had
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: played a couple of good games, but their one loss,
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: they lost 13-17 in Week 1. Did you think after
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: Week 1, people were saying, ah, Seahawks are done. Sky's falling.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I bet a lot of people were. It's Week 1.
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: It's one game.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: It's three games. No matter what, we just still got
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: to play the games and see how it'll work out.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: There's a real chance. I mean, the Dolphins could surprise
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: the Vikings this week. Do I think it'll happen? No,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: but that's why they actually still go and play the games.
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to see where we're sitting here 10
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: weeks from now, 15 weeks from now.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Well, I had the game ball in my hand, and
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: then I dropped it, and it's behind you. You don't
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: have to pick it up unless you want to. I do.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: But we should get two game balls. I can start
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: since you're graciously picking up the thing that I dropped.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: It's just a prop. It has a Viking logo on it.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: If you're just listening.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: I would rather have that taped to my hand right
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: now than have this stupid fake beard that's really hot
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: and itchy.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Having the football taped to your hand is a punishment.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: It is a thing. Anyways, we'll get into game balls here.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: I have two, but I think I'm just going to
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: stick with one. I already talked about Jordan Addison quite
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a bit. He, I think, is an honorable mention for
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: a game ball. But it's not like he went out
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: and just totally... won the game for the Vikings.
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, you could argue he did, but I'm not
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: going to, that touchdown was pretty amazing.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: He had a great touchdown. Um, Eric Wilson, I think
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: deserves this game ball more than anybody. Um, I heard the,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: not Jonathan Vilma, the other guy, the guy that actually
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: like sounds halfway decent on the broadcast say like that
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: guy's making a little bit of a revival in his career. Absolutely.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: And to lead the team in tackles, um, and just
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: be the presence that he was on defense, that's where
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: my game ball's got to go.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's well-deserved, and I would agree. But I'm going
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: to give my game ball to the guy who I
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: think scored the most points. I think I gave my
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: game ball last week to Will Reichard. Doing it again
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: this week. He literally is changing the game for the Vikings.
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: I mentioned it earlier. We've gone most of our Vikings fanhood,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: but moaning the kicker position. saying, oh man, I mean,
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: he could make this, but he's probably going to miss.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: And lots of times in big game situations where he
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: needed a kick to win, felt like most of the
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: time the Vikings throughout our fanhood were missing that kick.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Or the other team's kicker suddenly became the best Hall
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: of Fame kicker in the world. But no, the last
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: few years, Will Reichardt, since the beginning of last season,
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: I think has missed two kicks. Maybe three if you
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: count extra. No, I think he's missed two kicks since
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: the beginning of the 2025 season. And I think he's
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: only missed, like, what, six kicks in his entire career,
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: field goal kicks. And he's still perfect on extra points.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: He's great. I hope the Vikings pay him all the dollars.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: I hope they give him a lifetime contract. Will Reichard,
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: not only overall is a game ball earner every game,
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: but especially against the Buccaneers, he gets my game ball.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Skull. Skull. All right.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: Can I?
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: I hate this.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: This punishment is bad.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Is there, like, some ASMR for people out there that are, like,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: itching the beard?
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: We just lost two of our three listeners. But, yeah,
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: this really, make no question about it. This is a punishment.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: I'm glad that it's off the board. This has got
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: to be one of the worst punishments we've got on
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: the board.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks for taking it off for us. Yeah, no problem.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it. All right, let's get into week four here.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: The Vikings will play the Dolphins at home, which is nice.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I feel like the last time the Vikings played the
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: Dolphins in Miami, it was super hot. And they were, like,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: everybody was focused in on how, like, it was 110
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: degrees on the Vikings' sidelines.
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we talked about that not too long ago.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: So I'm grateful that the Bucs game wasn't that bad,
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: like another Florida game. wasn't terrible. I think it was warm,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: but I don't think it was like ungodly hot.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: Well, did you notice the Buccaneers chose to wear their
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: white jerseys?
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: White jerseys, yeah.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: And I think that played a little bit. There was
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: some gamesmanship to that, to making the Vikings wear their
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: purple jerseys when it was warmer. But yeah, I don't
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: think it was anywhere near what that famous Vikings-Dolphins game
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: was years ago.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: I'm just glad that the Vikings get to play indoors.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: They get to play in Minnesota where it's always temperature controlled.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Should be good. The Vikings are 3-0. The Dolphins are, what, 0-3?
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: They are, yes, 0-3. So, playing yet another winless team
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: for the second week in a row, which is kind
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: of interesting. At some point, people are going to start saying,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: trap game. Vikings are going to lose because they're going
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: to have to lose at some point. I don't think
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the Vikings lose this game, though. Right now, we're looking
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: at DraftKings stuff. predictions for the game. The Vikings are 10.5
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: point favorites.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let me see it. That was from.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: This is on ESPN.com.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Which is like a little DraftKings blurb on their website. Okay.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: And the over-under is set at 38.5. Yeah, okay. I
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: would venture to guess the Vikings are going to score
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: like 30 of those points. Or at least that's what
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Vegas is thinking with the current betting lines. So, The
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Vikings are heavy favorites, and it's a home game. They're 3-0.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I think even with the offensive woes, Vegas knows that
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: this should be pretty good. I will say I watched
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: a little bit of the Dolphins game. I don't even
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: remember who they played last week.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: The Chiefs, I believe.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: Was it the Chiefs?
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: I thought so.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. You're right. I saw just a little
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: snippet of it. I didn't watch much of it, but
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Malik Willis wasn't looking terrible. He looked okay. Um, at
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: least in the part that I saw, he had 210 yards.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: He did throw a pick. Um, but maybe like I
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: watched the best part of the game for him. Um,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: he didn't have a touchdown. He also led the team
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: in rushing, uh, with 56 yards. Um, anyways, all that
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: to say, I think the Vikings defense will make his
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: life miserable. Like they have all the other quarterbacks that
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: they've faced so far this season. I think that's just
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: their calling card. I think Brian Flores is not going
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: to back down on this blitz rate anytime soon. I
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: know he's come down a little bit from the 80%
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was against the Packers in week one,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: but I think he's just putting everybody in the league
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: on notice. We've got some dogs on defense, and we're
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: coming after you. We're not going to stop. It's just
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: going to be this consistent pressure all the time. And
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: then I think he's going to pull out his ace
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: in the hole harrison smith in the second half like
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: he's done the last couple of games and make it
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: even worse because now all of a sudden your opposing
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: quarterback has like oh wait that guy's out here now
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: too and he's coming at me and he's screaming off
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: the line because he's still fasted 38 years older however
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: he is um so i like the vikings as 10
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: and a half point favorites um i like them to
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: score some stuff i think this is a good figure
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: it out game for the vikings offense i think the
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: offensive line figures it out i think we get the
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: run game going a little bit i think that complements
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the passing game for kyler murray i think it's a
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: great opportunity for the vikings to go out and build
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: that confidence that we just talked about a little bit.
• 52:38
  Speaker 2: Ago yeah yeah i agree um i i uh my
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: thorn for the buccaneers game was the vikings offense and
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: everything i said the o-line and um Kyler Murray's confidence,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: those are fixable. Like those are things that with enough
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: time and practice, um, they, they can get right. And
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: you're talking about the guys on the O-line, you know,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: Christian Derrissaw, Donovan Jackson, Blake Brandel, Will Fries, and Brian O'Neill.
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: Those are all guys who have had success. Brandel is
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: probably the least, um, experienced guy at his position, but
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: you're talking at least a couple of pro bowl level
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: players in that group. And first round pick and, you know, some,
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: some high earners, there's, there's some talent there. So there's
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: every reason to believe that offensive line can figure this out.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: You know, they're in a new scheme and this will
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: be the fourth game that they're, they're running the scheme
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: plus training camp and everything. So they're going to get
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: it figured out at some point and what better time
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: to figure it out than at home against a team
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: who is terrible. Let's, I mean, I know I just said,
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: it's three weeks in and you can't really predict anything,
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: but the Dolphins right now are terrible. And the Dolphins
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: are getting to the point where it's like, man, who
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: are we? What are we doing? Are we tanking yet?
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: Like their season already a month in is feeling like
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: it's being lost, which is all the more reason that
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: we should be excited that the Vikings are 3-0 because
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: we very easily could be like that. But yeah, and
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: same way with Kyler Murray. He can figure this out.
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: He's been a good quarterback in this league um this
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: is only his fourth game in this scheme um but
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: he has the the benefit of having the experience that
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: he does in the league uh he's it's not like
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: he's never seen a defense before it's not like he's
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: never thrown touchdown passes before like this guy is capable
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: of figuring this out and i mean maybe i'm overstating
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: this but you just had maybe one of his biggest
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: distractions kyler murray get traded away This is truly the
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: Vikings saying, all right, Kyler, as of right now, you're
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: our QB1. You're the guy at the start. So if
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: you want to keep being our QB1, figure.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: It out now. The way that came out of your
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: mouth was a little confusing because you said they just
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: traded away his Kyler Murray, biggest distraction.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: And I think, yeah. When I first heard that, I'm like,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: they didn't trade Kyler Murray away.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: No.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: I think you meant they traded away. J.J. McCarthy, who
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: was Kyler Murray's biggest competitor distraction. I don't think he's
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: super worried about Carson Wentz.
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so the only reason Kyler Murray should
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: be worried about Carson Wentz is more so if Kyler's
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: not playing well, then it's like, all right, I could
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: lose my job to anybody. But now, I mean, J.J. McCarthy,
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: he was the first round pick. He was the guy
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: that at least the decision makers with the team at
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: one point thought could be the franchise quarterback. Maybe this
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: lengthens Kyler Murray's leash a little bit more. And when
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: you got a little bit more room to move, you
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: can breathe a little bit more. Um, if Carson Wentz
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: takes over for Kyler Murray, it's probably because of injury
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: or because Kyler absolutely just tanks. And like I've said
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: a few times now, Kyler Murray has proven to be
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: a good quarterback in this league. I'd be surprised if
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: he absolutely just tanks, uh, Um, so this is really
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: the Vikings giving Kyler a vote of confidence. Like, Hey,
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: we need a quarterback, the future. You're a first shot
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: right now. This is it. Here's the reins, take them.
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: And at some point Kyler's either going to take them
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: or he's gonna be like, all right, I'll take the
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: job and then fail. You know, like we'll see where
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: we're sitting at the end of the season. But I
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: think all that to say offensive line is going to
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: improve Kyler Murray. What better time to improve than against
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: a really bad team in the dolphins right now. I
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: think this is a game that's going to make me
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: and a lot of Vikings fans who are kind of
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: iffy on the team feel so much better. I think
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: the Vikings win. I'll even give a score prediction. Are
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: we there yet, do you think? Sure, let's do it.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: I think the Vikings offense scores some points. I think
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: it's going to be 31-17 for the Vikings. And the
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: only reason I think the Dolphins score as many as
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: 17 is because they're going to be in an air-it-out situation.
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: where they're down by a lot, and they're losing track
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: of the game, and they're going to have to throw
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: some balls, and eventually you're going to catch a touchdown
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: or two doing that. So I think by the time
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: the Vikings score 31, it will be all but over.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: And I think it's going to be a 4-0 team,
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: at least as of this time next week.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: They put up 10 points against the Chiefs, and I
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: think we could all argue that the Vikings have a
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: better defense than the Chiefs. So I'm going to go
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: with seven points for the Dolphins. Only seven. They're going
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: to get lucky at least once. It's going to be
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: a Metellus blown coverage or something like that. But the
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Vikings are going to put up 28. 28-7, I think,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: like you just said. Kyler Murray, this is a great
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: prove-it game for him. The offensive line, great prove-it game
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: for them. The running game, I think the running game
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: can really get going if the offensive line steps up
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: and does their job and they don't have those glaring
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: gaps where they just let somebody come through. They'll figure
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: it out, and I'm confident in that. Again, I think
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: this is a confidence booster. Something else I'll point out,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: we both picked this as a win. in our purple
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: punishment picks not only did we pick it as a
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: win but we picked it as our lock both of
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: us this is the lock to win for the vikings
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: so correct me if i'm wrong but i'm pretty sure
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: we said double it well i thought if we.
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: Were wrong on a lock okay yeah we did but
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: i thought wasn't there something about a malort shot as
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: well okay i don't remember if you remember at all
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: you you know more than.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: We could go back to the archives and we could
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: figure that out but I'm saying right now, we both
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: said it's a lock to win. If for some reason
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: the Vikings lose this game, I say we double it
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: and take a shot at the award.
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: All right. We'll have to.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: Because that's an embarrassing loss.
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: I'll shake on that.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Yep. All right.
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: We'll have to figure it out depending on what the
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: punishment is. There's a lot of things we could double. Yeah,
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: we'll figure it out. We'll cross that bridge if we
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: get there. But I don't think we're going to have
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: to be too concerned about that. I truly believe, and
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: I know you've got to play the games, but I
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: truly believe of any games, this is one, and maybe
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: we're nailing ourselves in the coffin right now, This is
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: the one that the Vikings are absolutely going to win,
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: and it's going to be a fun one.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: You know what I would also double?
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: These beers?
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: These beers. Because I think you could easily double it
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and not really feel a whole lot.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: At 4.2%, it's a pretty easy drinker. I'm not feeling
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: like I'm going to stumble out of here in a
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: little bit. Yeah. And it's just good beer. Yeah. It's straightforward,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: and that's what I like about it. It just doesn't
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: mess around.
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Anything Five Cities puts out, for the most part,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: I've enjoyed. I don't know. I don't love the Bikini Bottom,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: and I know that's a little.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: It's not my favorite either. Oh, really?
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: I thought I was one of the only people in
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: the world that didn't like their pineapple beer. But yeah,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: this one's fantastic. It's funny that you think I've been
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: a bummer, because I was a bummer there on Monday
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 2: for a little while. At one point... You were like, hey, actually,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: this fifth-round pick's not a bad return, and you sent
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: me a list of other quarterbacks that have been traded.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: And I immediately was like, yeah, whatever. The only value
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: is the cap savings. A fifth-round pick. Can't wait for
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: them to draft another Esezi, Otemwo, or whatever I said.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to go screenshot that now, and we'll
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: just include that so people can see how much of
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: a raging bummer you were.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Read off the names that I said.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: So I sent you this pick. Of this picture. And
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: it's like, okay, J.J. McCarthy drafted 10th in 2024, traded
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: for a 27th fifth rounder. And then it goes down
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: the list. Zach Wilson, second in 2021, a 2024 sixth rounder.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Justin Fields, 11th in 2021, 24 sixth rounder, and so on.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: Just down the list. And the graphic really does make
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: the J.J. McCarthy trade look okay. It doesn't make it
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: look glamorous. It's not like the Vikings just like stole...
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: everything from the giants um i was just i was
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: looking for some optimism and you responded with would have
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: been better to have a franchise quarterback and i said
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: i don't disagree i'm just glad that we didn't get
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: entirely ripped off there's some consolation and you said yeah
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: i'm really excited for the vikings to draft another jaqueline
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: roy asezi otemwu Harrison Hand, Danny Isadora, or Michael Pruitt.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Unless they use that pick in a trade on someone else,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: they're basically getting a practice squad member or a special
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: teamer at best.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: And then you just rolled your eyes at me.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: I sent the rolling eyes emoji and stopped responding.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I was a big old bummer there for
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: a little bit. But while I still, I'll stand by
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: what I said there. It's not that drastic. It's just football.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: This is a child's game. And this is not a
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: child's beer. It's a really good beer. It's also not
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: a bummer. Maybe it's bummer city because I'm sure there's
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: a reason. There's probably like a backstory of what bummer
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: city actually is. But maybe when you're having a bummer day,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: you just need a bummer city to not be a bummer.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It wasn't a bummer. this episode wasn't a bummer.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: I had fun. And I was actually hoping that you'd
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: be a little bit more down in the dumps like
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: you were a couple days ago.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: If we had recorded on our old normal recording day,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: we probably would have had to take like a week
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: or two off. You'd have been like, I can't do
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: this with Austin anymore.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: I don't want to talk to you anymore.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: We need to take a break.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: But you had a few days to come down from
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: your bad thoughts.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: I just hope the Vikings get Joe Burrow or Justin
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: Herbert and everything's going to be good.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: How's the face feeling?
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: This punishment is awful. I'm sweating. My neck is sweating.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: I forgot that the fake beard comes with the head.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: This is bad. I wish it were... This would be
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: awesome to wear this head and the fake beard. It'd
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: be awesome to wear... If you were at.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: A soldier field or Lambeau field when it's like zero
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: in December cold.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: Like that would be great. Cause then you, you know,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: you got, you cover up the full face and you're warm. Now,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: of course you'd start breathing on it and it would
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: freeze over with the condensation from your breath. But in
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: your basement, which is nice temperature down here, you keep
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: a comfortable home. Um, not with a beanie and a
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: beard covering your, your real beard. Uh, this is awful.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: And I'm glad that I don't have to do this
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: at least for another, uh, Year. Because we'll do the
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: purple punishments next year. It's a good punishment.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: It is funny that you've landed on it twice.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: Twice. This just means that you will solely land on
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: the eat something spicy.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: Those gummy bears look super spicy.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Boy, do we have some spicy stuff sitting over there
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: just looking at me like, oh, we're coming for you.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: You know what? Those, uh, those bean boozled beans, some
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: of them are pretty awful too. Maybe that would, that
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: will physically make you a little bit sick too. So
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: maybe this isn't the worst one.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Can't wait.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: But I'm really excited to take this off.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Swallow them like a pill and not chew them.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: Just let your stomach experience all that. You're going to
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: burp once and it's going to be like skunk and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: we will have to do the whole like technical difficulties
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: and Take a break for a minute while you appeal
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: with that.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: Just in case. All right. Well, I liked this beer
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: a lot. I thought it was good. I'll probably get
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: it again. We had a much better conversation than I
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: was anticipating. I thought you were going to be a
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: little more negative, but you've come around.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: Come around. J.J. McCarthy is another quarterback on another team.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: Like I said before we started recording, it would be
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: as if I'm complaining that the Vikings don't have Trevor Lawrence,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: you know, just, I'm not saying JJ McCarthy is Trevor Lawrence,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: but like just another quarterback on a different team. Like
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: being mad about that is the same as being mad
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: about any other quarterback that isn't on the Viking. So
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: we are, we are where we are.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And, uh, yeah, we're three and oh man. Yes.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: That feels great. Um, I don't know. You, you could
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: probably argue that we had some great conversation, great.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: Beer, possibly the best episode yet. Maybe. It's cool.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: It's cool.