Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 19 - A Brotherly Shove into the Playoffs

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TSH Ep. 19 - A Brotherly Shove into the Playoffs · The Skol Hop

• 0:29
  All right. Hey, Vikings fans, welcome into
• 0:31
  another episode of the Skull Hop.
• 0:33
  I'm Evan. I'm Austin.
• 0:34
  Where's a couple of dudes from Iowa?
• 0:36
  We like drinking beer, talking about the Vikings.
• 0:38
  Yes, we do school. We'll talk about the beer in a
• 0:41
  minute, but first. Yeah, we are sponsored.
• 0:45
  So thank you to Big Top Ventures for sponsoring us today.
• 0:49
  This episode is brought to you by Big Top Ventures.
• 0:53
  If you're considering taking an all inclusive trip to either
• 0:55
  Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our friends at
• 0:58
  big.bigtopventuresyoucandothatbyemailingbigtopventuresllc@gmail.com. Again, that's
• 1:05
  bigtopventuresllc@gmail.com. They can get you the lowest rate
• 1:11
  possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the
• 1:14
  region. Big Top Ventures Step right up
• 1:17
  to your next Big adventure. So thanks, Big Top Ventures.
• 1:21
  Yeah, thanks, we got the hat down here.
• 1:23
  And yeah, it's been fun to feature a friend of ours, a
• 1:29
  friend of the show. Yeah, they've been really good
• 1:30
  to us. They're sponsoring, they gave us
• 1:32
  a gift, which where we are working on finding the perfect
• 1:37
  spot and a way to present that awesome Dante Culpepper signed
• 1:40
  Jersey. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:42
  They've been really good to us. Yeah.
• 1:44
  Well, we gotta talk about the beer that we're drinking today.
• 1:47
  We have the Peace Tree Brewing Company, Red Rambler Red Ale.
• 1:54
  Wow, this was something that I picked out and if you know me,
• 1:58
  you know that I like anything in the red amber Oktoberfest family
• 2:04
  and that's very obvious by the color of this beer.
• 2:07
  It's definitely a red beer, but I got to looking through our
• 2:12
  list of beers that we featured on the show and we only feature
• 2:15
  Iowa beers on the show and I noticed that we hadn't featured
• 2:21
  A Peacetree beer yet. So this is our first Peacetree
• 2:25
  and I gotta say, so far it's pretty good.
• 2:27
  Yeah, I'm liking it a lot. And well, I don't really hate
• 2:31
  any beer unless it's like a spicy beer or something like
• 2:35
  that, which is weird 'cause I like spicy food.
• 2:38
  But anyways, I don't really hate any beer, but I don't normally
• 2:41
  just go for the ambers. I'm usually more of an IPA guy,
• 2:46
  but I mean, this is doing it. I think it's the time of year
• 2:49
  for me. I've I've said it before, if it
• 2:51
  were like July 4th, I don't know how much I'd love diving into
• 2:55
  this one. But yeah, this is hitting the
• 2:57
  spot for me right now. Definitely like and it it just
• 3:00
  looks good in the football mug too.
• 3:02
  It looks like a That's true. It looks like a football.
• 3:04
  It's it's got that color to it. I don't know that's good.
• 3:08
  So thanks Peachtree. Yeah.
• 3:09
  Thank you, EV for Skull. Skull.
• 3:12
  It's a good one. Well, another tough week to talk
• 3:19
  about the Vikings. Yeah, not a lot of, I mean the I
• 3:22
  I shouldn't say not a lot of. There were some good things that
• 3:26
  happened. The final result was not good.
• 3:29
  No, I mean, anytime you lose, it's not good.
• 3:31
  And we could even go back to the Raiders game.
• 3:34
  Yeah, they won, but it still wasn't good.
• 3:36
  The best thing that came out of that game, other than the win,
• 3:39
  at least in my personal opinion, is that they finally made the
• 3:43
  switch at quarterback, which that that's been a controversial
• 3:48
  topic this week after the Bengals game, too.
• 3:51
  I've seen maybe they're just a loud minority on Vikings
• 3:56
  Twitter, but a lot of people have been saying it didn't work.
• 3:59
  Get Nick Mullins out of there. And it's been obnoxious,
• 4:03
  actually. How many people have said that?
• 4:05
  Frustrating. See.
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  Like OK, he threw 2 interceptions.
• 4:10
  The first one was just like a gunslinger interception.
• 4:14
  He tried to ball it out in the end zone and the defender made a
• 4:17
  great play. The second one, the defender
• 4:19
  still made a great play, but that one was just a boneheaded
• 4:23
  dumb. He was being sacked and he
• 4:25
  didn't want to get sacked. So he tossed it right at the
• 4:28
  last second and it didn't hit the ground.
• 4:31
  The defender, the defensive tackle intercepted it, which,
• 4:35
  good for that defensive tackle heads up play he he made a great
• 4:38
  play as a defender. But my goodness, Nick Mullins
• 4:41
  made an idiotic play right there.
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  However, I'm still, I'm still a Mullins fan.
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  He was a step above anything we had seen since Kirk Cousins and
• 4:54
  I know how exciting and electric those Josh Dobbs four quarters
• 4:58
  between two games were. Those were just like F It plays
• 5:02
  where Dobbs was running for his life and he got, he got some
• 5:05
  luck and looked good but. And he wasn't.
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  I don't think Dobbs was playing scared at that point.
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  He was. He was unhinged.
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  He was just playing off the cuff.
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  Like, I'm in a new city with a new job and I have a lot to
• 5:19
  prove. And I don't know the playbook at
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  all. I literally just learned the
• 5:24
  center's name yesterday and I touched his butt for the first
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  time. And you know, like, so yeah, I
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  think once Dobbs got into the system a little bit it, it just
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  was clear that it wasn't a good fit.
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  I don't think I'll ever forget. This is something that will
• 5:41
  always stick in my mind as a Vikings fan.
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  When I think back on the Dobbs era is when last week we were
• 5:48
  talking to Dustin Baker and he made the point and it was kind
• 5:52
  of comical, but it was absolutely true, he said.
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  I don't think I have ever seen a quarterback get worse after
• 6:00
  getting more time in the playbook.
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  Now I'm sure you could go back and be like, well, this guy, he
• 6:05
  played on a team for five years and he ultimately got worse.
• 6:07
  I mean, that could be injury or poor blocking or whatever.
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  But like Dobbs, he got worse. It was like he said, like I I
• 6:15
  think you were kind of alluding to it.
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  He was getting scared almost. And like I think you mentioned
• 6:20
  last week, the week before, there was an early hit on him in
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  the Broncos game. And it's like the first drive of
• 6:26
  the game. Yeah, and it kind of like maybe
• 6:29
  that was the final nail in the coffin of being his downfall.
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  I I can't think of that hit. But I you.
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  I think you got a point there, Dobbs was not it.
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  I think Mullins is it. And I'm I don't think they move
• 6:44
  on to Hall until the season is 100%.
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  No chance at the playoffs. Mullins at least gives you that
• 6:50
  chance. Agreed.
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  Well, and if we just look at Mullins stat line and we compare
• 6:55
  it to Jake Browning who is another backup, former Viking,
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  Former Viking and we could talk about how he made a statement
• 7:06
  directed at the Vikings organization, we'll get to that.
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  Never effing cut me. Yeah, right.
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  Anyways, I think, and I told you this kind of in our immediate
• 7:17
  reactions to the Bengals game, I said I think Mullins marginally
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  played better than Jake Browning did, and and I think the stat
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  line proves that he was 26 of 33303 yards, 9.2 average, 2
• 7:36
  touchdowns. He did have those two picks.
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  He got sacked three times for 22 yards and he had a 99.9 rating.
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  Yeah. I mean, outside of those
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  bonehead picks, which you can't take away, those happened, we
• 7:49
  can't take them away. But even with those, he still
• 7:53
  put the team in a position to win and had the defense not
• 7:57
  melted midway through the third quarter all the way through the
• 8:00
  end of the game. I I mean, you're talking about a
• 8:04
  Vikings win right now, but again, like you can't take the
• 8:07
  interceptions away, you can't take the defensive meltdown away
• 8:10
  either. Although who was it?
• 8:12
  Was it T Higgins that made that insane?
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  Like it's like reaching over the pylon, which what a heads up
• 8:19
  play. And it was totally, 100% true.
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  And there was no like, oh he stepped out or I don't.
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  The refs made no That was a true blue.
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  Awesome heads up play by him and I think it was a Caleb Evans.
• 8:34
  Honestly, he couldn't have done much better on that play.
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  I I don't know. He was right on him.
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  His coverage was great. Yeah, Higgins, is that who it
• 8:42
  was. Yeah, it was T Higgins.
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  He he made the, he made the catch.
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  But like he also gets he's really good too.
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  I don't think that Caleb Evans could have done much more than
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  he did on that play outside of just doing better I I guess.
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  But yeah, how do you defend that?
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  Like you, you just can't. And that's probably more on
• 9:00
  Browning being able to elude everything and throw the ball.
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  I saw a clip somewhere of JJ going up to T Higgins after the
• 9:08
  game and just being like, man, that was something, right?
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  Like and just like acknowledging like that was.
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  That was an amazing play. And like that's that says
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  something when one of the best acknowledges someone else who
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  does something really, really well.
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  So. And it's not like T Higgins is
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  some no name guy that just came out of nowhere and made one
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  great play. He's really good.
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  He's just also not Jamar Chase. I mean any anybody on the same
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  team with Jamar Chase, Unless your name is Kirk Kirk, unless
• 9:40
  your name is Justin Jefferson, you're gonna be less of a
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  receiver than Jamar Chase. But seriously though, we'll
• 9:47
  we'll complain till the cows come home, but I don't think we
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  can refute anything. The Bengals, they won that game.
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  They earned that win. There was not much controversy.
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  It was just the Vikings were not the better team and they melted
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  down and on the defensive side a little bit.
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  And Nick Mullins had a couple of bonehead interceptions.
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  And there were some poor coaching decisions.
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  Yeah. Oh my.
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  Has been another narrative that's kind of run through at
• 10:16
  least this season for Kevin O'Connell.
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  I don't remember really talking about this last season at all,
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  but. I mean, last season it was just
• 10:23
  the the one score games and the heart attack games, right?
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  They just, the ball bounced for the Vikings more often than not.
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  But yeah, this year it's really highlighted how Koc he's not a
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  good player of the game of football as far as a coach goes.
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  Well, and there was that infamous scene in overtime.
• 10:48
  Brian Flores The The second time Kevin O'connell's trying to call
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  this tush push play and Flores is in his ear.
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  Like, dude, take the time out, take the time out.
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  And I heard some people throughout the week that were
• 11:01
  trying to claim like the time out would have just been nice to
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  give the refs a chance to spot the ball.
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  I think the time out would have been good for Kevin O'Connell to
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  just take a step back and go, Is this really what I want to do?
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  And it seemed like he made a very knee jerk reaction.
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  They tried the tush push on 3rd down.
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  It didn't work. They were gonna do it again.
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  And I don't know what Brian Flores is thinking.
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  Obviously he has had coaching experience, but from my
• 11:31
  perspective, I think it would have just been better to like
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  just press pause for a moment and get your thoughts together
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  and is this the best play call that I can call to put my team
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  in a position to win the game? I have a backup quarterback.
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  I have a backup running back. My offensive line is depleted,
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  like and I'm going to throw the smallest guy on the team behind
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  the quarterback, who I'm not a big guy, and I weigh more than
• 12:00
  Brandon Powell. You're going to put him behind
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  the quarterback to try and push him towards the first down.
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  It just it didn't make sense and I think that time out could have
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  benefited Kevin O'Connell in many ways.
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  Absolutely. There was a Amy Agar on TikTok
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  and Twitter and or really everywhere else she does her
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  like. Weekly recap?
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  Yeah, weekly NFL. Meetings.
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  Well, her. She usually does a joke for
• 12:24
  every team, even if it's a one liner.
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  And her one liner for the Vikings was something to the
• 12:29
  tune of You guys really ran the tush push twice in a row and you
• 12:33
  got the elf on the shelf out there to push the quarterback.
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  And that's true. Like, yes, you are not a big
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  guy. You are you way more than him.
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  And especially when this team has CJ Hamm.
• 12:50
  This team has TJ Hawkinson. This team has a really good
• 12:55
  offense and Ty Chandler, who put out the best rushing performance
• 13:00
  the Vikings have seen this year. And they needed, what, 6 inches?
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  Well, and and we watched, I think it was the first or second
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  quarter they'd they'd run a successful tush push, they got
• 13:12
  the first down, it was great. And then the opportunity came up
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  again on 3rd in inches or whatever it was and they faked
• 13:21
  it and they dumped a little pass to the right out to Tai Chandler
• 13:25
  and he gets like 6 or 7 yards when they needed six inches.
• 13:29
  And it's like, yes, that was awesome because it looked like
• 13:33
  they were just gonna keep trying to do the Jalen Hurts
• 13:36
  Philadelphia Tush push kind of thing.
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  And they faked everybody out. I mean, they faked me out and
• 13:45
  here we go getting 6 yards when we needed six inches and like,
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  OK and that I think in that overtime situation, you just run
• 13:53
  at the play before try to fake it again.
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  I don't know. And Ty Chandler had been running
• 13:58
  well the whole game. I I don't know.
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  I feel like at this point, unless you are the Eagles who
• 14:04
  have figured it out, if you try the tush push that's getting
• 14:08
  cute. And anytime, whether you and me,
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  whether we've been sitting right next to each other watching a
• 14:14
  game or texting each other or on live, you know, talking to each
• 14:17
  other. Anytime the Vikings have tried
• 14:19
  to quote UN quote, get cute this year one it more more than often
• 14:25
  doesn't work And we always one of us texts the other one and
• 14:28
  says oh there they are again, getting cute.
• 14:30
  They're not good enough to try to get cute, so don't get cute.
• 14:34
  You have a good offense. Use it.
• 14:36
  Like yeah, I know you need 6 inches, but that doesn't mean
• 14:39
  the field is only 6 inches. Sure, maybe you don't throw a
• 14:42
  Hail Mary attempt on 1/4 and six inches, but maybe just like run
• 14:49
  a play that you know is good for a couple of yards.
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  Like, I don't. I don't know.
• 14:54
  And I think KOC did say they did that specific tush push, at
• 14:58
  least the first time they were in the formation.
• 15:01
  They were to try to keep the Bengals from being in their,
• 15:04
  like, goal line formation. So they spread everybody out a
• 15:07
  little bit and then they put Powell in motion to try to catch
• 15:11
  them off guard. But my goodness, you try it once
• 15:13
  and it doesn't work. You don't.
• 15:15
  You don't try it again the second the next play.
• 15:19
  What's the definition of insanity like?
• 15:21
  That's really frustrating. A quick little side note that I
• 15:27
  would like to add with this whole tush push conversation.
• 15:31
  There were some videos that came out 'cause Jason Kelsey was
• 15:35
  caught with a false start penalty moving the ball forward.
• 15:40
  I don't know if you saw that. I I didn't know that it was
• 15:43
  because he moved the ball forward, but I knew he got
• 15:45
  caught doing something. So he got flagged for a false
• 15:48
  start and everybody's just kind of like what, what, how, how
• 15:53
  does the center get flagged for? And when they went back and
• 15:57
  replayed, you can see Jason Kelsey put his hand on the ball
• 16:01
  and then kind of lurch it forward a couple.
• 16:03
  Of he's adjusting himself a little bit, but really.
• 16:06
  But really, himself? A couple inches?
• 16:08
  So it makes you wonder if you know the Eagles success at the
• 16:11
  tush push play has largely been a result of Jason Kelsey.
• 16:18
  I don't know if I'd go as far to say cheating?
• 16:21
  Sure, but you know, bending the rules of the game in the favour
• 16:25
  of the Eagles 'cause they have been by far, in a way, the most
• 16:28
  successful team to pull off that play.
• 16:31
  They've done it countless times and it's worked pretty much
• 16:34
  every time for them. So.
• 16:35
  And I know you're not saying that they're cheating and oh,
• 16:38
  this is controversy, but it it does make me want to kind of pay
• 16:43
  more attention in any football game to the center as he walks
• 16:47
  up to the ball, just to see, is it something every center does
• 16:50
  as he gets down? Does he kind of adjust himself a
• 16:52
  little bit or is that just a that one play Jason Kelsey kind
• 16:59
  of went a little rogue. I my gut tells me it's probably
• 17:02
  just something out of habit to some extent.
• 17:05
  Most centers do a little bit, but there could be something
• 17:07
  there it. Seems like though, in that
• 17:09
  Philadelphia game that the refs were watching for it because
• 17:14
  they'd been alerted to it previously.
• 17:16
  At least that's what the commentary had kind of made us
• 17:20
  as the general viewing public believe.
• 17:24
  And I mean, they saw something and when you go back and watch
• 17:29
  that specific play towards the end of that game, you can see it
• 17:33
  and it's kind of clear as day. Like, yeah, he does try to
• 17:36
  advance the ball before the play starts and that shouldn't be
• 17:41
  allowed like that. There should be a rule that says
• 17:44
  this is where the ball is placed.
• 17:46
  And I think this opens up a whole other conversation about
• 17:50
  the NFL in this day and age and the technology involved in like,
• 17:55
  let's just put chips and footballs, and I think there
• 17:59
  already are some chips. And to some extent, they do,
• 18:02
  yeah. But like let's like let's figure
• 18:05
  out this like ball in position on the field, ball in space type
• 18:11
  of thing. And and let's just, like, get a
• 18:15
  little more scientific with that and make it a little less
• 18:20
  subject to human error and cheating.
• 18:23
  Or not even cheating, but just bending the rules slightly like
• 18:27
  I think the Eagles have done and let's let's just make it a
• 18:31
  little more precise. Yeah, well, and to that point, I
• 18:34
  think the NFL does test around with stuff, 'cause I I feel like
• 18:38
  for years we were saying all the time, like complaining to the
• 18:43
  point where it's like you guys have pylons at every end zone
• 18:48
  line. Put a camera right there too,
• 18:50
  and it could have been in the last few seasons, but they
• 18:54
  definitely have cameras in those pylons now they even.
• 18:58
  With the first down. Yeah, they even, I don't know if
• 19:00
  they've always had pylons at the the line of scrimmage in the
• 19:03
  first down markers. They do now.
• 19:05
  And those pylons have cameras in them and they've they've kind of
• 19:08
  made for some really cool footage too.
• 19:11
  Oh, for sure. But I you wonder, how many games
• 19:13
  did they have 10 years ago where they kind of tested that out a
• 19:17
  little bit without making it public, without saying, hey
• 19:20
  guys, we're gonna put cameras in this pylon and not even show it
• 19:24
  on TV, just kind of see like does.
• 19:26
  Are we able to see anything? I wonder how often they try
• 19:29
  things out. Sure, there's probably some
• 19:32
  things like for player safety and stuff that they have to be,
• 19:36
  excuse me, be public about. But for all I know, they're
• 19:40
  trying out technology of chips in the shoulder pads or
• 19:43
  something or some kind of a spatial recognition thing, and
• 19:48
  they just don't tell anybody which.
• 19:51
  I mean, maybe they don't have to.
• 19:53
  So I'd be interested to know stuff like that if they've ever
• 19:55
  done that. I think we'll continue to see
• 19:57
  some advancement in the technology of the game going
• 20:01
  forward too like I don't think Pylon cams and stuff like that
• 20:06
  is the end of the line. I think we're we're really just
• 20:10
  at the tip of the iceberg for what could be in terms of
• 20:13
  technology in. Football, yeah.
• 20:15
  And I don't know about you. I'm for it.
• 20:17
  If it improves the quality of the game, do it.
• 20:21
  I mean, there are some fans that are like, no, it's just got to
• 20:25
  be the refs. And if they don't see it, it
• 20:27
  didn't happen. Like, I I don't agree with that.
• 20:30
  I mean, you don't want to take the human element out of it
• 20:33
  because I don't care how much AI or technology you have, there's
• 20:37
  always going to be something where it's like a human can see
• 20:41
  that, that's see what the right call is, slow MO, real time,
• 20:45
  whatever. Sometimes AI or technology is
• 20:48
  not going to be able to get it 100% right all the time, but I'm
• 20:51
  a fan of trying things out. Make the game better if you can.
• 20:53
  And I think there are some things you can do that just take
• 20:58
  the element of human error out of it or just make the game
• 21:01
  better. Like if we were to step away
• 21:03
  from football altogether. And you look at baseball, the
• 21:06
  introduction of the pitch clock really changed the landscape of
• 21:11
  baseball. This for the better.
• 21:12
  And yeah, I would say for the better.
• 21:14
  I I think it was a really good baseball season.
• 21:17
  I think a lot of the players were leery about it, especially
• 21:20
  pitchers and catchers, because they're the ones that have to
• 21:23
  really deal with the ramifications of being on a
• 21:28
  clock like that. But I mean, the average time of
• 21:32
  an MLB game went way down and I don't know if viewership went up
• 21:39
  yet, but I would say in the next several years we might see a
• 21:43
  trend upwards that way. I mean, I'm not a huge baseball
• 21:47
  fan right now. If I'm going to be enthralled by
• 21:49
  a baseball game, it means the Twins have somehow gotten to the
• 21:53
  playoffs and have a chance of winning.
• 21:55
  Like I'm a fair weather Twins baseball fan.
• 21:58
  That's about it. Otherwise I'll go to a game and
• 22:00
  enjoy the atmosphere, but that's that's the the cap of it.
• 22:03
  However, if I'm a six year old right now and just starting to
• 22:08
  kind of enter the idea of liking sports and a baseball game isn't
• 22:13
  five hours, it's two hours and I can kind of be intrigued by
• 22:16
  that. Maybe the six year olds now are
• 22:19
  more apt to like baseball because it's not as long and
• 22:23
  drawn out. So 20 years from now you're
• 22:25
  gonna have theoretically more people who like baseball and who
• 22:28
  are die hard baseball fans and maybe that one little tweak
• 22:32
  attributed to that could be. So yeah, I'm a fan of improving
• 22:37
  the game for the better. Well, let's come back around
• 22:41
  really quick, 'cause I found this interesting stat that Janet
• 22:46
  Eckhart had posted on Twitter. Just coming back to the
• 22:49
  quarterback conversation that we were having earlier, and I guess
• 22:54
  my knowledge of some of these stats are fairly elementary.
• 22:59
  Oh, me too. But Janet Eckhart posted this
• 23:02
  picture on Twitter and he says Vikings fans are calling for KO
• 23:08
  CS job after he uses that Shanahan witchcraft is a moment
• 23:13
  I will still laugh about in decades.
• 23:17
  And he is using that caption to refer to this picture of
• 23:25
  quarterbacks being ranked on EPA and CPOE composite, which I kind
• 23:33
  of understand EPA estimated. Points added.
• 23:37
  Right now you would have to explain it to me.
• 23:40
  I'm that's a that's a Dustin Baker type understanding of
• 23:43
  stats. I think it's estimated points
• 23:45
  added and I'm by no means a statistician, but I think it's
• 23:50
  just basically like how many points could A-Team expect to
• 23:57
  add to their total if this player is on their team or not.
• 24:01
  Yeah, and I I don't, I can't even begin to explain to you
• 24:06
  CPOE and I could have just completely destroyed EPAI don't
• 24:10
  know, not an expert not a statistician.
• 24:13
  I apologize. But what is interesting is #1 on
• 24:18
  this list is Brock Purdy. No surprise he's he's played
• 24:23
  pretty well this year #2 on this list, and this is minimum of
• 24:27
  like, I think 50 plays, 50 snaps taken at the quarterback
• 24:35
  position. Give or take one game.
• 24:37
  Yep, Nick Mullins is #2 in this EPA plus CPO CPOE composite.
• 24:45
  Jake Browning is third. Kirk Cousins is 7th.
• 24:50
  Patrick Mahomes is 9th. Jalen Hurts is 8th.
• 24:54
  And I wonder how those numbers would change if you made that
• 24:57
  minimum 300 plays. You know, I I don't know, right.
• 25:01
  It's still interesting, right? It it's.
• 25:03
  Just and and what it what I think what it does say for sure
• 25:06
  right now one conclusion that we can draw is the sample size for
• 25:10
  Mullins is very small. I mean he has 56 plays to Brock
• 25:15
  Purdy's 457. Yeah, you know to a has 524, DAC
• 25:22
  has 592. Jared Allen has 614.
• 25:25
  Jared Allen's back in the league.
• 25:27
  Not Jared Allen. Sorry, Josh Allen.
• 25:29
  My fault. I just saw Jay Allen.
• 25:32
  Sorry, I've I had. To like a Freudian slip, almost.
• 25:36
  That would be cool, though. Jared Allen playing quarterback
• 25:38
  for the Bills? I'd watch that.
• 25:40
  I mean, I'd watch it. No.
• 25:42
  No disrespect to Jared Allen. Ever.
• 25:45
  It is even in his prime. He's not a quarterback.
• 25:50
  He didn't he long snap, though he might have something in his
• 25:52
  arm. I think that's how he tried to
• 25:54
  make it in the league to begin with.
• 25:55
  Maybe I I guess I bring that up and I put I put that in our
• 25:59
  notes here just because I find it interesting that in at least
• 26:02
  some statistical world somewhere, somebody can justify
• 26:08
  Nick Mullins as the second best quarterback in the league right
• 26:12
  now. And that's gotta be worth
• 26:14
  something. Right.
• 26:15
  Sure. Yeah.
• 26:16
  I mean, I I think realistically, I I don't understand the thought
• 26:22
  that some of the Vikings fans have behind benching Nick
• 26:26
  Mullins. I think it's all based on those
• 26:28
  two interceptions. OK, three things.
• 26:30
  The two interceptions and the fact that they lost the
• 26:34
  quarterback sneak. I don't blame Nick Mullins for
• 26:38
  those two failed sneaks. Sure, maybe he could have done
• 26:42
  something different to make sure those plays happen.
• 26:45
  I think he'd like, almost fumble the second snap.
• 26:48
  But I don't blame him for that and that's more of a coaching
• 26:52
  decision to make the play call. I'm happy with how he played.
• 26:58
  That's the closest to Kirk Cousins we've seen since the
• 27:01
  Packer game when Kirk Cousins went down.
• 27:04
  I think people are excited because they think Jaren Hall is
• 27:08
  this next coming of Jalen Hurts or whoever, which maybe he is,
• 27:14
  but like, probably not. Like, more likely that he's not
• 27:19
  the next coming of anybody. Like, I don't, I don't know, we
• 27:23
  could literally be saying that about Dobbs.
• 27:25
  I'm sure there's plenty of Vikings fans that are saying,
• 27:27
  ah, no, Dobbs at least gives you the mobility.
• 27:30
  No, I I think you stick with Mullins, 'cause that's what the
• 27:33
  offense is tailored around. Until you get to the point that
• 27:37
  maybe, like if you lose the next two games and there's literally
• 27:40
  0% chance of making the play offs, then then maybe try some
• 27:45
  new stuff out. But I don't think you'd go to
• 27:47
  the Hall just because. Yeah, I'm with you.
• 27:50
  Especially when playoff hopes are still very much alive.
• 27:55
  You stick with Mullins. He he played well.
• 27:58
  Yep. Those interceptions really
• 28:00
  sucked. And you wish you could have
• 28:02
  those back. He wishes he could have those.
• 28:04
  Oh, I'm sure, yeah. And to some extent, losing the
• 28:09
  game wasn't his fault down the stretch anyways.
• 28:12
  I mean, you could definitely say, well, if he didn't throw
• 28:15
  those interceptions, I mean, they were both on the Bengals
• 28:19
  side of the field. The one was when they were in
• 28:21
  the the red zone, they might have both been in the red zone,
• 28:23
  I don't know. So you could argue that that
• 28:25
  those interceptions cost at least a field goal per
• 28:30
  interception, which I mean in that sense they went to
• 28:35
  overtime. They wouldn't have gotten
• 28:36
  overtime if they had six more points.
• 28:37
  But they were early enough in the game that I don't know.
• 28:41
  I'm, I'm not blaming the loss on those two interceptions.
• 28:44
  I don't think you can fully. What do you think about the
• 28:48
  defense and the meltdown in the fourth quarter?
• 28:50
  Yeah. I mean it really started in the
• 28:52
  third quarter and they they allowed three straight touchdown
• 28:57
  drives. I don't know did we talk about
• 29:01
  it on the mic, the the T Higgins touchdown, that was just, that
• 29:05
  was just Ballers balling out. I mean Caleb Evans, his
• 29:10
  positioning was great. He played it well, he didn't
• 29:14
  commit a penalty. I don't know how much better he
• 29:17
  could have done. That was just T Higgins and what
• 29:21
  Browning doing their job. And how can you, when T Higgins
• 29:27
  extends his arm out to barely get the ball over the end zone?
• 29:30
  The. The.
• 29:32
  The line that's 100% T Higgins. That's not even Browning at that
• 29:35
  point. Like kudos to Browning for
• 29:37
  making the completion and getting them to the three yard
• 29:41
  line or the 2 yard line or whatever it was.
• 29:43
  But it's all T Higgins to have the presence of mind to reach
• 29:48
  back and score that time. And that's just he gets paid,
• 29:51
  too. You hear that?
• 29:52
  Everyone hear that every once in a while, like the other team,
• 29:54
  Those guys get get paid too. They have a job too.
• 29:57
  They're gonna win sometimes. Yeah, I don't know.
• 30:01
  I think the biggest more than either of those two
• 30:04
  interceptions of Nick Mullins, the biggest deflator of the
• 30:08
  whole game was that third and 21 the Vikings let the Bengals
• 30:12
  complete. If they don't get that, it's a
• 30:15
  whole different ball game. And again, yeah, you could say
• 30:19
  if they don't pick off Nick Mullins twice, it's a whole
• 30:21
  different ball game. But that was just the defense
• 30:24
  melted down. They allowed three straight
• 30:26
  touchdown drives and then they had a really good first drive in
• 30:33
  overtime, which was completely negated by the terrible coaching
• 30:37
  decision to go for it twice on 3rd and 4th down with the same
• 30:41
  terrible push push. Brendan Powell doesn't need to
• 30:45
  be on the field for a tush push. Like, yeah, so the defense, they
• 30:50
  allowed the overtime to happen, but they played well in their
• 30:55
  first drive of the overtime and then you know, they allowed the
• 31:00
  the big play that led to a field goal for the overtime loss.
• 31:03
  But frustrating game. And if if Joe Burrow was the
• 31:10
  quarterback and the Vikings lost 27 to 24, I think it stings a
• 31:14
  little bit less. But they had their backup in
• 31:17
  there who's been playing really well.
• 31:19
  But he's still a backup. He's still not Joe Burrow.
• 31:22
  And a backup who had some spite, some vengeance towards the
• 31:29
  Vikings. Which I told you, I can see
• 31:31
  that, that vengeance. I would feel the same, the same
• 31:34
  kind of way if I had gone through something like that,
• 31:37
  'cause he, he won the number two job.
• 31:39
  This is Jake Browning. He won the number two job when
• 31:41
  he was a Viking and got cut because the guy that didn't win
• 31:46
  the number two job was drafted, and that's Kellen Monde.
• 31:50
  They they wanted to make sure Kellen Monde was on the team.
• 31:52
  So they got rid of Jake Browning.
• 31:56
  So I would be spiteful too, if you earned a job, if you were
• 32:00
  the better guy and you lose your job just because of, you know,
• 32:04
  draft status, that's that's a little that's sour taste in your
• 32:08
  mouth. Yeah, yeah.
• 32:09
  And I agree with you and I I don't fault him for feeling the
• 32:13
  way that he feels. I do think he could have maybe
• 32:17
  handled himself with a little bit more class on the sideline
• 32:22
  this last weekend. And even in his press
• 32:25
  conference, I think he could have been a little bit more
• 32:28
  like, Yep, no hard feelings. I get that the the guys that cut
• 32:33
  me aren't there anymore. It's all good.
• 32:36
  Nothing but respect for the Vikings.
• 32:37
  But I knew I had something to prove and I did that today.
• 32:40
  I mean, it could have been as simple as that.
• 32:43
  And I think Vikings fans would have a much different opinion
• 32:48
  about Jake Browning. Unfortunately, I think a lot of
• 32:50
  people out there think that he's just some, you know, selfish,
• 32:56
  arrogant jerk who beat us and now he thinks he's Patrick
• 33:02
  Mahomes. Yeah, I I do have a personal
• 33:05
  mentality about, I mean, if if you win, you get a little bit of
• 33:11
  bragging, right? It's like, and this is really
• 33:14
  this streak of his right now. It's not just against the
• 33:16
  Vikings. He had what, two other wins on
• 33:20
  top of that he's been playing? Well, he's been playing well.
• 33:23
  I mean, yeah, you kind of get a little bit of a leash to to to
• 33:28
  glow a little bit. And as Vikings fans, we have no
• 33:32
  recourse. We can't say, Oh well, no, you
• 33:35
  suck because I mean, he won. He he he and his team beat us
• 33:40
  and our team and sometimes you just gotta take your medicine a
• 33:44
  little bit like yeah, that sucks.
• 33:45
  And sure it makes him look like a you know too cool for school
• 33:49
  15 year old quarterback that just threw his first touchdown
• 33:52
  in high school. But I mean he won.
• 33:56
  He like, he can't argue too much until he if he was talking all
• 34:01
  this and then kept losing like OK dude be quiet but like.
• 34:07
  I think, I think we would have much less negative things to say
• 34:12
  about Mullins had the Vikings won.
• 34:15
  Oh, absolutely. We wouldn't even really be
• 34:17
  talking about those two, even if you would have fired those two
• 34:20
  miscue interceptions. And even if the tush push had
• 34:24
  failed and the Vikings get another opportunity and overtime
• 34:27
  to go down the field and score. Like, who cares at that point?
• 34:31
  Like, oh, Nick Mullins. Like, we finally got our guy.
• 34:34
  He threw for 300 yards and he had a decent completion
• 34:37
  percentage. He had a decent He had a 99.99
• 34:39
  rating. Like, all right, let's go.
• 34:42
  We got at least 70% of Kirk back.
• 34:45
  Let's make this playoff push, you know?
• 34:48
  So yeah, winning games definitely influences the lens
• 34:55
  through which you view these players.
• 34:57
  Oh yeah, absolutely. And it's it's influencing how
• 35:00
  even we're talking about Browning versus Mullins.
• 35:04
  Oh yeah, for sure, 100%. I just until he has Nick Mullins
• 35:10
  has a game. Let's say he goes out against
• 35:12
  the Lions and everybody else plays perfect and the defense
• 35:16
  does their job like they have shown that they can.
• 35:20
  And then Nick Mullins throws 2 bonehead interceptions.
• 35:25
  Then that's a little annoying. But yeah, that hasn't happened
• 35:29
  yet. And the defense was doing their
• 35:32
  job against the Bengals until, what, midway through the third
• 35:35
  quarter? It just, yeah, it just kind of
• 35:37
  seemed like everything they had done to that point just kind of
• 35:41
  unravelled. One big thing that is going to
• 35:44
  help out the defense. I've got the injury report here
• 35:48
  and today's Wednesday and it's the first day of the week that
• 35:51
  the teams have to release an injury report.
• 35:54
  The Vikings had a handful of did not participates, which we'll
• 35:57
  talk in a little bit. But I think the highlight for me
• 36:00
  of the injury report is Jordan Hicks, middle linebacker.
• 36:04
  He had that what compartment compartmental whatever
• 36:08
  department syndrome. Yeah, that which apparently is
• 36:10
  really scary. And had they not had, you know
• 36:14
  the fast acting personnel they did, he could have gone as
• 36:17
  extreme as losing his leg like that could have been nuts.
• 36:21
  But he had surgery, he's been on injured reserve for a little
• 36:24
  while and they just opened up his 21 day window.
• 36:29
  Today was his first practice, which I think it was a
• 36:32
  walkthrough. I think today wasn't a full
• 36:34
  padded practice, but he was a full participant.
• 36:38
  He was the only one on the injury report that is listed as
• 36:42
  a full participant, which I think that's huge, super
• 36:45
  encouraging to me. That's saying he's good to go.
• 36:48
  Like, yeah, I I guess I don't know what they said in the press
• 36:51
  conferences. I didn't watch any of that
• 36:53
  today. But to me, having that full next
• 36:56
  to your name on the injury report, you're good.
• 36:58
  You're you're quote UN quote probable to play the game.
• 37:03
  And I watched. I watched his locker room
• 37:05
  interview. I think it was yesterday, so it
• 37:06
  would have been Tuesday. And he was just very optimistic
• 37:10
  with reporters. He wasn't quick to say, yeah,
• 37:14
  I'm going to be out there, but. He was a pro, so he's going to
• 37:17
  give me the answer like, Oh yeah, it's up to the coaches.
• 37:20
  But he was also, he was also just optimistic.
• 37:23
  Like, yeah, I'm feeling good, I don't feel bad.
• 37:27
  And the hope is that I'm able to play and you know, we're going
• 37:31
  to try it out tomorrow and Thursday and see what happens
• 37:35
  and we'll go. From there, and even even if
• 37:38
  he's not a hundred 100%, if if he suits up and he plays you
• 37:43
  know, 50% of the snaps and the snaps that he would have, I mean
• 37:50
  that's OK because right now you got Ivan Pace who is playing
• 37:53
  really well and I mean he can kind of fill in the gaps.
• 37:57
  If Jordan Hicks needs some gaps filled, you know, if he if he
• 38:02
  needs to take more plays off than normal.
• 38:04
  And that's only going to give Pace more experience and more
• 38:08
  more reps with the green dot on his helmet, which is only going
• 38:11
  to be good for future Viking years too.
• 38:13
  So yeah, ultimately, even with that defensive meltdown, I'm
• 38:19
  not, I'm not worried about the defense quite yet.
• 38:23
  The Bengals just had the number. They just, they made the the
• 38:26
  plays when it didn't look like they were going to the third and
• 38:31
  20 ones. And the fluke interceptions, not
• 38:35
  fluke. They were, I mean, bona fide
• 38:38
  interceptions, but yeah. The one the one to the defensive
• 38:44
  lineman. Yeah, that was just a dumb play.
• 38:47
  That was a bad play. I mean, and we've talked about
• 38:50
  this, I don't necessarily mean to rehash this, but like I think
• 38:53
  one of those interceptions was definitely justified.
• 38:56
  Like, yeah, it was an ill advised throw down field and
• 39:03
  hopefully Mullins can learn from that.
• 39:06
  But hopefully Mullins can learn from you're literally like
• 39:11
  nearly on the ground. And yeah, in a guy's.
• 39:15
  Lab, just take the sack. Yeah, at that point.
• 39:18
  Just unless you have a clear shot to throw it out of bounds.
• 39:23
  And I don't even remember that play very well.
• 39:25
  If that was like a third down or if they were on the verge of
• 39:29
  being knocked out of field goal range, I'm not sure.
• 39:31
  I don't remember. But sometimes, I mean it's
• 39:34
  always better to take the sack than to give the ball away.
• 39:38
  Right. I don't.
• 39:39
  I can't think of any other time when it's better to just hand
• 39:42
  the ball away than to take the sack, but.
• 39:46
  I think, I think we should talk about what happens from here,
• 39:53
  and we've got a little screenshot here on our notes
• 39:57
  from a friend of the show, Dustin Baker.
• 39:59
  Yeah, we can. We can exploit that a little bit
• 40:02
  and milk that relationship for all it's worth, I guess a little
• 40:05
  bit. Yeah, well, I mean, we were
• 40:08
  following him on Twitter and referencing his tweets before.
• 40:12
  Oh yeah, yeah. I'm not saying we're we're in
• 40:14
  the wrong for for saying friend of the show.
• 40:17
  But anyways, Dustin had tweeted earlier today, I believe playoff
• 40:24
  probability for the Vikings the rest of the way, and he's broken
• 40:27
  it down game by game. So the Vikings went out.
• 40:33
  They beat Detroit, beat Green Bay, beat Detroit 100%.
• 40:37
  We're in the playoffs. In the playoffs.
• 40:38
  And we are NFC North champions. Because maybe, I guess we do
• 40:43
  need help from the Cowboys. The Cowboys will have to beat
• 40:46
  Detroit on that in between week Week 17 for that to officially
• 40:53
  be bona fide and happen for sure.
• 40:59
  So but regardless, if the Vikings went out, they are 100%
• 41:03
  in the playoffs even if they lose this week and then beat
• 41:06
  Green Bay and Detroit the following two weeks 99%.
• 41:10
  Chance Beat Detroit twice, but lose to Green Bay in the middle,
• 41:16
  98%. Win the next two, but lose the
• 41:22
  final game of the season at Detroit, Also 98%.
• 41:26
  So like any combination of winning twice, losing once, 98%
• 41:32
  or better. Which makes you feel good to
• 41:35
  think that you could lose. And it's not the end of the
• 41:39
  world yet, right? It just makes it a lot more
• 41:41
  difficult. But yeah, it's not a The
• 41:44
  playoffs haven't started right now.
• 41:47
  But then you get into the two loss category and that's where
• 41:51
  things get more complicated. The best case scenario is you
• 41:55
  lose to Detroit twice, but you beat Green Bay.
• 41:58
  That still gives you a 42% chance if you beat Detroit the
• 42:06
  first time and then lose the final 228%.
• 42:12
  If you lose the next two games but then beat Detroit in the
• 42:16
  final game, 26% If you lose all three, there's still a .5%
• 42:23
  chance that the Vikings make the playoffs.
• 42:26
  But if you lose all three, you're sitting at 7:00 and
• 42:28
  10:00, right? And.
• 42:31
  And. And in that scenario, you're
• 42:32
  doing what you did on our YouTube video not too long ago
• 42:36
  and you're basically clicking lose on every other NFC team's
• 42:41
  record. Yeah, that I that mean.
• 42:46
  He said it as much with saying .5% chance.
• 42:49
  If they lose all three, you're not going to the playoffs like
• 42:52
  it would be the craziest thing. And then if that .5% chance
• 42:56
  happens, you lose all three and you do make it to the playoffs,
• 43:00
  you're not beating anybody in the playoffs, you're you're
• 43:03
  you're probably not beating really anybody in the playoffs.
• 43:05
  If you win the next three like it's, it's gonna be tough.
• 43:08
  Although I said months ago, if they, if they fight, scratch and
• 43:13
  claw their way into the playoffs, even right now.
• 43:16
  You said it. Last week, tough.
• 43:17
  Team, you said it last week, you said you you said it early this
• 43:21
  season and then you also said it again last week.
• 43:23
  Yeah, if if they make it to the play offs, it'd be a tough team.
• 43:27
  They may not win, but they'll be a tough team and I I agree with
• 43:31
  that. I I think this team has proven
• 43:34
  itself to be tough, to battle adversity and to to win tough
• 43:40
  games, even when situations are. Difficult, Yeah.
• 43:45
  And they host the Lions this week.
• 43:47
  I think currently the Lion puts the Vikings at home underdogs,
• 43:53
  and the Lions just won, what was it, 42 to 17 last week like,
• 43:58
  they're they're not the Lions of old.
• 44:00
  Regardless of what happens in the next three weeks, the Lions
• 44:03
  are a good team. And we've both been saying the
• 44:06
  Lions are the team to be in the NFC North.
• 44:10
  We've been saying that for the past year probably.
• 44:12
  I'd say that since the season started.
• 44:14
  Yeah, definitely since the season started.
• 44:16
  But probably even, like at this time last year, like the Lions
• 44:18
  were their second-half of the 22.
• 44:21
  Seasons strong last year, too. They beat the Vikings in the
• 44:23
  second-half of the 22 season. So I mean there, there are no
• 44:27
  chumps. It's not just a cakewalk.
• 44:29
  They're not the Lions of old the Packers have.
• 44:34
  I think they lost last week, but they've figured something out
• 44:38
  which is really annoying. Their defense is still bad.
• 44:42
  They want Joe Barry gone. Yeah, yesterday.
• 44:46
  Which I mean, as far as I'm concerned, they can keep him
• 44:49
  forever. But yeah, they host the Lions at
• 44:54
  home with theoretically A healthier JJ, which I think I
• 44:59
  get the sense JJ was fully good to go last week.
• 45:01
  He was 100 percent, 100% healthy even in the Raiders game taking
• 45:05
  him to the hospital. I get the sense that that was a
• 45:08
  heavy precaution like it. It's not like he was complaining
• 45:12
  about his lungs or anything. He was saying he was yelling and
• 45:15
  watching the game on his phone. Yeah.
• 45:18
  So I really, truly think he's as close to 100% as you can be in a
• 45:22
  week, what 1716 of the NFL season And who knows, maybe
• 45:28
  those those weeks off nursing that injury kind of recharge
• 45:33
  some batteries for him a little bit that could prove to be
• 45:37
  better. I I don't know.
• 45:38
  That's just me guessing here. I'm hopeful.
• 45:42
  I'm encouraged by Jordan Addison's resurgence, albeit
• 45:47
  with a much better quarterback than we've had starting at
• 45:50
  quarterback for a while and I don't think that's a
• 45:52
  coincidence. I think the defense is only
• 45:57
  going to get better with Jordan Hicks, although the injury
• 46:00
  report does list Daniel Hunter as a did not participant today
• 46:04
  with an illness, so hopefully that's something he was just not
• 46:09
  feeling great today. He got a veteran day, little
• 46:12
  illness day. Hopefully he's OK.
• 46:15
  Under the weather, hopefully. Yeah, the rushing game.
• 46:18
  I mean, it's one game, so it could not turn into anything.
• 46:21
  But Ty Chandler, We've been we were calling for Ty Chandler,
• 46:26
  and then they traded for Cam Akers.
• 46:29
  And then we were calling for Cam Akers.
• 46:31
  And now he's he's out for maybe the rest of his career.
• 46:34
  And now we're calling for Ty Chandler again.
• 46:35
  And after weeks and weeks and weeks, we finally get Ty
• 46:38
  Chandler, if only because of an injury to Alex Madison.
• 46:42
  And what does Ty Chandler do? He freaking balls out.
• 46:45
  Had the best rushing game of any Viking all season long, yeah.
• 46:49
  So that's encouraging and that's with an offensive line who is
• 46:55
  still not, not 100%. Brian O'Neill, again, he's he's
• 47:00
  still down with an ankle injury. He didn't practice today and who
• 47:04
  knows, maybe that's a season ender.
• 47:06
  Hopefully not. But I mean, yeah, the injury
• 47:12
  report is not it's not empty, but it could be way worse.
• 47:18
  Harrison Phillips. Was he out against the Bengals?
• 47:22
  I'm just noticing that I. Don't think he came out against
• 47:25
  the Bengals. Not that I saw.
• 47:27
  I could have missed that. But it says he was out of
• 47:29
  practice today for a back injury.
• 47:32
  That sucks. Yeah, that's well, we were
• 47:37
  talking, I think before we started rolling about some other
• 47:42
  players that have been kind of Mia for the Vikings.
• 47:46
  You had some Intel on Marcus Davenport.
• 47:49
  And yeah. You talk about the Vikings
• 47:51
  defensive line and missing a guy like Harrison Phillips.
• 47:55
  What's happened to Marcus Davenport?
• 47:58
  I mean really, if you think about it, and I might be proven
• 48:01
  wrong, but I think he's only made an impact on this defense
• 48:05
  during, I think it was the Panthers game way back in what,
• 48:08
  week three-week four? And outside of that game he has
• 48:13
  not been. He's either not been on the
• 48:16
  field or he's not done anything and he's been on injured reserve
• 48:20
  for a while. And Darren Wolfson on Twitter or
• 48:24
  maybe it was the radio. I saw it on Twitter.
• 48:27
  Darren Wolfson was saying that Marcus Davenport, who was on
• 48:31
  injured reserve for, I believe, an ankle injury or something in
• 48:36
  his leg. I think it was his ankle.
• 48:38
  He's been out of a walking boot for 10 to 14 days at this point.
• 48:43
  And the sense that Darren Wolfson's getting is that, I
• 48:47
  mean, Marcus Davenport is probably not going to play at
• 48:50
  all the rest of the season and he's on a one year deal and he's
• 48:53
  not going to be a Viking after this year.
• 48:55
  They're not even going to try to sign him, which I think he had
• 48:59
  like a $13 million deal this year.
• 49:01
  That's a lot of money for a guy who really made an impact on one
• 49:05
  game. And Wilson also kind of alluded
• 49:09
  to the idea of sometimes a player has to want to get
• 49:15
  healthy and want to put in the work to get on the field and get
• 49:19
  in the game regardless of injury status.
• 49:22
  And he kind of made it sound like that that want isn't there
• 49:26
  for this player particularly. Which if if he doesn't have the
• 49:32
  work ethic or have the desire, then he doesn't get to be an NFL
• 49:36
  player, at least not on the Vikings.
• 49:37
  Like he's he's been a guy that's been he's never lived lived up
• 49:42
  to his expectations and in his NFL career and maybe there's
• 49:45
  something to it. I don't know.
• 49:47
  I don't know the guy I'd I'd I'd feel bad talking negatively
• 49:51
  about a guy who won. We'll never hear this.
• 49:52
  But also I don't know him like. Yeah, but what about like Lewis
• 49:57
  seen too, like he's he's been another mystery player who and
• 50:02
  like we another player we talked about before we started
• 50:05
  recording, but like he's been in street clothes for the last, I
• 50:09
  don't know, 10 games. And I think he's technically
• 50:13
  healthy too. Yeah.
• 50:14
  So I don't know if it's he isn't learning the defense well enough
• 50:19
  or and like I said I I don't know if the mics were on we were
• 50:23
  talking about this a little bit ago or either.
• 50:25
  But at this point if you're going to put Lewis scene on the
• 50:28
  field at safety, who are you going to take off the field at
• 50:32
  safety? He's not coming on the field in
• 50:35
  in when you're taking off Harrison Smith.
• 50:38
  I mean, a healthy Harrison Smith is on the field.
• 50:40
  He's a Hall of Famer. He's.
• 50:42
  He's on the. Every play?
• 50:43
  Yeah, period. Mattelis is the Swiss army
• 50:45
  knife. He's gonna be on the field.
• 50:47
  Almost. Bynum Smith.
• 50:49
  Bynum has played great. And yeah, usually there's only
• 50:53
  two safeties on the field. Mattelis might be a linebacker,
• 50:56
  defensive tackle, hybrid, whatever.
• 50:58
  He's playing that play, but usually you're seeing 2
• 51:02
  safeties. I I think we just named three
• 51:06
  names that you're not gonna put seen on the field ahead of
• 51:09
  either of those three names. And then it seems like, what's
• 51:12
  his name? Theo Jackson.
• 51:14
  Seems like he's higher on the depth chart too, 'cause he at
• 51:16
  least gets in on special teams on the occasional defensive
• 51:19
  snap. I just think, I mean, again, a
• 51:23
  guy I don't know and I'll never meet and he'll never hear my
• 51:26
  words, but I don't think it's he's, it's there for him,
• 51:30
  whether he shattered his ankle or not last year.
• 51:33
  Like he's just not good and he's not better than the guys ahead
• 51:38
  of him. He's just not getting the
• 51:40
  opportunity and that's OK. I mean, I'm not complaining
• 51:43
  about the play of Mattelis. If he's playing well, he's got
• 51:47
  to be on the field. Harrison Smith you can't take
• 51:49
  off the field. Yeah, and you can't.
• 51:51
  I mean, other than some of these late game collapses like we
• 51:55
  experienced with the Bengals, you can't really, like, you
• 51:58
  can't really fault our defense. You can't fault the players and
• 52:01
  you can't fault the coaching. They've done everything.
• 52:05
  And in fact like 2 weeks ago, they're the reason we won that
• 52:08
  game against. Oh, absolutely, The Raiders.
• 52:10
  Yeah, because the offense wasn't gonna do anything.
• 52:14
  And it seemed to wake something up in the Raiders 'cause they
• 52:17
  came out and scored what? What did they score?
• 52:19
  Was it 60 something? 63 I think.
• 52:21
  Jeez, I think they definitely broke a record of like the
• 52:25
  biggest point differential between 1 from 1 week to another
• 52:28
  for any given team ever. Well, and they got Staley and
• 52:32
  the GM fired. Yeah, they also, I think I saw
• 52:35
  too the Raiders, They're the 1st or they they broke their team
• 52:42
  record for points scored in a game and the week before they
• 52:46
  literally got the fewest points you can get in a game, which is
• 52:48
  0. So they went from the least you
• 52:51
  can get to the most they've ever gotten in less than a week
• 52:55
  because that was a Thursday night game.
• 52:56
  Yeah, they played a Thursday night game.
• 52:58
  It's impressive. Yeah, definitely impressive for
• 53:01
  sure. Well, looking ahead to the
• 53:04
  Detroit game. Yeah, we've kind of touched on
• 53:07
  it a little bit. But yeah, what are your what are
• 53:10
  your initial thoughts on that game?
• 53:12
  Well, I've already heard that Mullins is probably going to
• 53:17
  start again, and that seems logical to me.
• 53:20
  I don't think you take that away from him.
• 53:23
  Despite a loss and despite the unfortunate turnovers, I think
• 53:28
  he still played well enough and I I still hold to the fact that
• 53:31
  I think he played just marginally better than Jake
• 53:35
  Browning, quarterback versus quarterback on Saturday.
• 53:39
  So I I think, I think you give him another opportunity and you
• 53:45
  know at this point for Mullins, Mullins, I think this is a whole
• 53:52
  new thing like divisional game, playoffs are kind of on the
• 53:58
  line. It will be his first, I think
• 54:02
  his first time ever playing in a regular season game at U.S. bank
• 54:08
  Stadium. I don't know that he's ever
• 54:11
  played like even come in for a play.
• 54:12
  I I might be wrong on that. He's definitely never started at
• 54:16
  U.S. bank Stadium, so it'll be a nice little.
• 54:20
  They don't have to travel. That's I I wonder how much
• 54:24
  traveling actually is a hindrance on a team.
• 54:27
  It doesn't seem like the home team wins every single time.
• 54:31
  I mean, the away team wins feels like just as often.
• 54:35
  But it is nice to think they will be at home.
• 54:37
  It's one less thing they have to worry about Mullins.
• 54:41
  It's, I mean it's his job. He can feel good about how he
• 54:44
  played. Outside of those, if you want to
• 54:47
  throw in the the two failed tush push plays, outside of four
• 54:52
  plays, Mullins played really well enough to win the game.
• 54:57
  He did have a few of those, like questionable, like the one I
• 55:02
  think it ended up being a touchdown to Jordan Addison
• 55:05
  where he's like getting sacked and he just throws it last
• 55:08
  second and Addison scoops it up off the ground before it touches
• 55:12
  the ground. I mean, there were a few
• 55:15
  questionable things like that too, where it's like and I think
• 55:18
  even Dustin Baker did something. Bring that up.
• 55:21
  Like this play went from like. Yeah, It was like, no, no, no,
• 55:28
  don't don't throw it. Oh, he's gonna take the sack.
• 55:30
  Dang it. No.
• 55:30
  Oh, oh, Dang it. He threw it.
• 55:32
  Oh, he he caught it. Yes, Touchdown.
• 55:34
  Like you did a way better. Job of I just added words to it.
• 55:40
  But but yeah, I mean, this is gonna sound crazy.
• 55:45
  And I promise you, I don't mean it the way that it's gonna
• 55:49
  sound. Mullins has some Brett Favre in
• 55:52
  him. Mullins is not a Hall of Fame
• 55:55
  quarterback. He is not Brett Favre.
• 55:58
  But he's got that gunslinger mentality.
• 56:01
  And I'm pretty sure when Brett Favre retired, he had he was #1
• 56:06
  in both touchdown passes in NFL history as well as
• 56:11
  interceptions. So that you're gonna get some of
• 56:15
  that. And I'm pretty sure Mullins was
• 56:17
  two and two as far as touchdown passes and interceptions against
• 56:20
  the Bengals. So I think that regardless how
• 56:24
  of how good or bad you are, the gunslinger mentality that
• 56:28
  Mullins shares with Brett Favre is gonna come with some ups and
• 56:32
  downs. I even tweeted it.
• 56:35
  Like I said, we're milking this whole friendship with Dustin
• 56:38
  Baker for all we can. But I tweeted at Dustin Baker
• 56:41
  saying this whole Mullins thing is going to end with an I'll
• 56:44
  timed across the body interception in the NFC
• 56:49
  Championship Game. Isn't it referring to 2009?
• 56:54
  At this point, I'd be OK with that.
• 56:56
  No, I don't think I have another heartbreaking loss like that in
• 57:01
  me that might. I might have to take a year off
• 57:04
  from the skull hop if we lose like that again.
• 57:08
  But considering all that's happened this season, one and
• 57:11
  true one and four start. Losing JJ for a chunk in the
• 57:16
  season. Losing Kirk Cousins playing at
• 57:18
  his best for the rest of the season.
• 57:20
  Losing countless other players to injury at either, you know,
• 57:25
  different points throughout the season or for the rest of the
• 57:28
  season. It it's been a tough go for the
• 57:30
  Vikings from an injury standpoint and to be to be 7 and
• 57:35
  seven and to still have a shot at the playoffs at this point
• 57:39
  you got 3 divisional games left. I mean, man, to to make it to
• 57:45
  the NFC Championship. Game that would be crazy, that
• 57:48
  would be. And if you remember all the way
• 57:51
  back, I think it was episode three of the Skull Hop.
• 57:54
  The Coin predicted an NFC Championship Game appearance for
• 57:59
  the Vikings. It sure did A loss, yeah.
• 58:03
  Yeah, it predicted a loss, but the coin predicted that the
• 58:07
  Vikings would make it all the way to that phase.
• 58:10
  Of the playoffs, and to toot my own horn a little bit too.
• 58:13
  On that same episode we made our individual picks, or we at least
• 58:17
  announced our individual picks. And I've predicted A10 and seven
• 58:23
  season for the Vikings. And so far I've only gotten 1
• 58:28
  prediction. One game wrong.
• 58:30
  Between my prediction and what's actually happened.
• 58:32
  And that was week one against the Bucks.
• 58:34
  I said they would win. Outside of that, my personal and
• 58:38
  you know, it's all luck. I'm not the world's smartest
• 58:40
  person by any means, but outside of that one game, I'm completely
• 58:44
  correct, at least in the win, loss.
• 58:47
  And let's hope that I'm incorrect again because I think
• 58:52
  I predicted these final three games to be win, win, loss.
• 58:57
  So let's hope I'm wrong about two games this season and we go
• 59:01
  win, win, win. Well, even with a win, win,
• 59:04
  loss, I mean, we're still looking at what we're looking
• 59:08
  at. It'd be 9:00 and 8:00. 98%
• 59:12
  chance of making the. Play offs, which would be huge,
• 59:15
  when at this moment it's what, 50 ish?
• 59:18
  It's essentially a coin flip as things sit right now on
• 59:22
  Wednesday. Yeah, well, the, the, the, the,
• 59:27
  the reason it's so up in the air right now is the Vikings still
• 59:30
  have 3 divisional games to go, and two of those divisional
• 59:34
  games are against the current division leader.
• 59:37
  So there there's a lot of NFC North football to be played and
• 59:44
  it's it's gonna come down to Week 16 and Week 18.
• 59:48
  And we've been saying this all along, but the Lions can't be
• 59:53
  feeling secure right now. They can't be feeling like we've
• 59:57
  got this in the bag. I mean, they're coming off a
• 1:00:00
  game where they scored 42 points.
• 1:00:02
  If the Vikings had just scored 42 points, we would be talking
• 1:00:05
  about oh, it's a it's a cakewalk from here.
• 1:00:09
  The Lions might be feeling pretty good right now.
• 1:00:11
  They have to go up against Brian Flores and that defense, though.
• 1:00:16
  I don't know yet. And the Cowboys who looked
• 1:00:18
  vulnerable last week. But yeah, I mean, realistically,
• 1:00:24
  the Vikings have an uphill battle.
• 1:00:26
  Realistically, the Lions, it's not a cakewalk, but they
• 1:00:29
  probably have a a better chance, you know, objectively than the
• 1:00:34
  Vikings do. At this point.
• 1:00:36
  I don't know. It's it will be a very
• 1:00:38
  entertaining hopefully happy for Vikings fans 3 weeks.
• 1:00:43
  And I think at this point, correct me if I'm wrong, but
• 1:00:47
  there's really only two scenarios.
• 1:00:49
  The Vikings are a six seed playing at Detroit in the wild
• 1:00:55
  card round or the Vikings are a three seed hosting Detroit.
• 1:01:01
  Who becomes the sixth seed? I don't know that there's
• 1:01:03
  another scenario other than that.
• 1:01:05
  Yeah, I feel like the highest they could be would be the three
• 1:01:07
  seed, right 'cause who are Haven't there already been the
• 1:01:11
  Niners diners in the division? The Niners have already clinched
• 1:01:14
  their Division, I think and. Did they or did they just clinch
• 1:01:19
  a playoffs? They're in the playoffs.
• 1:01:20
  I don't know if they clinch it. 'Cause, I mean, that's, you
• 1:01:23
  know, Cowboys, Eagles like that, they're all no, the Niners are
• 1:01:27
  not in. Niners or the.
• 1:01:28
  West, Yeah, OK. They may have already clinched.
• 1:01:31
  I know they clinched the playoff spot, but I know the Cowboys
• 1:01:34
  have clinched as well. The Eagles have clinched as
• 1:01:36
  well. Yeah, but like the Cowboys, so
• 1:01:39
  you're talking Niners, Cowboys, Eagles, They can't be 123 seeds
• 1:01:44
  because the Cowboys and the Eagles are in the same division,
• 1:01:47
  so. I think the.
• 1:01:48
  Cowboys or Eagles are either gonna be the two or the five
• 1:01:54
  seeds, Yeah. So yeah, I think you're probably
• 1:01:56
  right. The Vikings could be as good as
• 1:01:58
  the three seed or as bad as the six.
• 1:02:02
  Well, really, the seventh seed, Six or seven.
• 1:02:05
  But yeah, it's probably more likely if they make the
• 1:02:07
  playoffs, they'll either be the three or.
• 1:02:08
  The six, I think with the conference record they'll win
• 1:02:13
  any tiebreaker and. For the most part.
• 1:02:15
  Take that six seed. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, you're
• 1:02:19
  either hosting a game against the Eagles or the Cowboys.
• 1:02:24
  Whoever loses their division maybe, 'cause if you're the
• 1:02:32
  three seed, you're probably playing the sixth seed, the
• 1:02:35
  sixth seed. And that wouldn't be the Eagles
• 1:02:38
  or the Cowboys. That would be one of the other.
• 1:02:41
  I think that's what I'm. Saying teams I.
• 1:02:42
  I think it's it's Vikings. Lions no matter what.
• 1:02:47
  If the Vikings make the playoffs, it's Vikings.
• 1:02:49
  Lions No matter what. It's just a matter of who's the
• 1:02:51
  three and who's the six and who hosts.
• 1:02:53
  Unless they luck into it and get the seven seed by losing a few
• 1:02:59
  more games than they should and then getting help by getting in
• 1:03:02
  the playoffs. And if they're the seventh seed,
• 1:03:03
  they're going to San Francisco and hopefully Cinderella ING
• 1:03:11
  against the the 49ers. So there's a few options.
• 1:03:15
  We could be talking about draft status right now.
• 1:03:18
  We could be talking about, oh, the Vikings have anywhere
• 1:03:21
  between the 5th and the 12th pick in the the draft.
• 1:03:25
  And I don't want to talk. About no.
• 1:03:26
  But like I'm saying, like we that could be a reality.
• 1:03:29
  And when the Vikings were one and four, that's where we were
• 1:03:31
  headed for sure. And to be a week less than a
• 1:03:34
  week away from Christmas and talking about who they might
• 1:03:38
  play in the play offs, that's a win.
• 1:03:40
  That that's a huge win. Yep.
• 1:03:41
  And we're going to ride that train until it till it ends.
• 1:03:45
  And we've said it before. I know I've said it.
• 1:03:47
  I'm a fan of the team. I'm never going to root for
• 1:03:50
  losses just for playoff or for draft stock.
• 1:03:53
  Because if there's a guy they want, they're going to do
• 1:03:57
  everything they can to trade around and pay whatever they
• 1:03:59
  have to pay to get that guy. Whether they have the first pick
• 1:04:03
  or the 32nd, the draft will figure itself out.
• 1:04:07
  That's a whole nother animal. That's other podcast episodes
• 1:04:10
  right now. You're in the season, and until
• 1:04:13
  the Super Bowl is out of reach, it's in reach.
• 1:04:17
  I mean, you're still within playoff talking, so you're still
• 1:04:21
  in the dance. That's the optimism that I like
• 1:04:23
  to hear out of you. Yeah, but it's hard when, when
• 1:04:29
  you see Kirk Cousins go down, let's start looking at
• 1:04:32
  quarterbacks in the draft. Like, that's my initial gut
• 1:04:35
  check first thought, but I want my team to win, darn it.
• 1:04:39
  I want to see a freaking. I'm literally wearing a shirt
• 1:04:41
  right now, but says just one before I die.
• 1:04:46
  That would be nice, yeah. I think it's possible.
• 1:04:49
  You know Dustin Baker, for the 12th time, we're mentioning his
• 1:04:53
  name when we talked to him last week and I asked him about if he
• 1:04:57
  feels bad for bringing his kids into this fandom, he said.
• 1:05:00
  Like, yeah, my son's probably got another 7580 years left in
• 1:05:05
  him. The Vikings are gonna win a
• 1:05:06
  Super Bowl in that time. And I kind of got scared.
• 1:05:09
  Like I don't have 75 years left in me like I might have, like, I
• 1:05:14
  don't know, 50 are are the Viking.
• 1:05:17
  They've already been a team for 60 years.
• 1:05:19
  They've never won it. What if they don't win in the
• 1:05:22
  next 50 years? EV Like, what are we gonna do?
• 1:05:25
  We'll be fans no matter what. We'll be old Man on the skull
• 1:05:29
  hop. Welcome to the skull hop.
• 1:05:33
  We can't drink beer anymore, 'cause we're so old.
• 1:05:39
  But we'll be here and we'll be talking about hopefully multiple
• 1:05:42
  Viking Super Bowls by then we'll.
• 1:05:44
  Have to We'll have to pause the podcast a few times to go take
• 1:05:47
  our meds. Now we'll just have the IV drips
• 1:05:50
  right here and the catheters. We won't even have to get up for
• 1:05:52
  anything. We'll do it from the hospital
• 1:05:54
  room. That would be ideal.
• 1:05:56
  We should probably wrap this up because I don't have a catheter
• 1:06:00
  going to need to, you know, take care of that pretty soon.
• 1:06:03
  But good beer. I do like this beer.
• 1:06:05
  What is it? The Peachtree or Peacetree?
• 1:06:08
  Peacetree. Sorry, Red Ramblers.
• 1:06:10
  Iowa. Yep.
• 1:06:11
  The Red Rambler, What was it 4.8%?
• 1:06:15
  A little more than that five point. 80 Nice, yeah.
• 1:06:17
  But yeah. It's a good beer.
• 1:06:19
  Good beer definitely would have it again.
• 1:06:22
  And we haven't had a Peacetree, yeah, on the show yet so.
• 1:06:26
  I don't know if I've. I'm sure I have, but I can't
• 1:06:28
  think of a time I've had Peacetree.
• 1:06:30
  I definitely will know because this beer is really good.
• 1:06:33
  It's good stuff. Well, good chat, good beer and
• 1:06:37
  some optimism moving forward for the Vikings.
• 1:06:40
  Hopefully we can get into the playoffs and hopefully we have
• 1:06:43
  some more Vikings football to talk about.
• 1:06:45
  Yeah, beyond these next three weeks.
• 1:06:47
  Yeah, and we're gonna the school half will be here weekly through
• 1:06:50
  the playoffs, or at least through right before the Super
• 1:06:53
  Bowl. Yep, maybe longer.
• 1:06:55
  We haven't really talked about it, but we'll be here, so you
• 1:06:57
  can join us here. Until next time, let's go.
• 1:07:18
  Hey Vikings fans, Evan here from the School Hop and we just
• 1:07:20
  wanted to say thank you again so much for listening to the School
• 1:07:24
  Hop. And we also wanted to take one
• 1:07:25
  more opportunity to let you know that this episode of The School
• 1:07:29
  Hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures.
• 1:07:32
  If you're considering taking an all inclusive trip to either
• 1:07:34
  Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our friends at Big Top Ventures
• 1:07:38
  at bigtopventuresllc@gmail.com. Once again that's
• 1:07:43
  bigtopventuresllc@gmail.com. You can get the lowest rate
• 1:07:48
  possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the
• 1:07:50
  region. Big Top Ventures step right up
• 1:07:53
  to your next Big adventure. And thanks again for listening
• 1:07:56
  to the School Hop School.