Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Reacts - NFL Week 5 - Vikings beat the Jets 23-17!
Transcript
- 0:28Speaker 1: All right, welcome back Skullhoppers.
- 0:30Speaker 2: Kind of a nail bier there at the end, but man,
- 0:33Speaker 2: we get a chance to recap another Vikings victory.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Super excited.
- 0:39Speaker 2: They're five and zero headed into the bye week, they
- 0:41Speaker 2: get to travel back to the US, take a little
- 0:44Speaker 2: bit of a break, get people healthy, specifically Aaron Jones hopefully,
- 0:49Speaker 2: And yeah, a really really exciting start to this young
- 0:55Speaker 2: Vikings season and an early bye week, which I think
- 0:58Speaker 2: is helpful at this point. But yeah, I got a
- 1:01Speaker 2: couple questions for you regarding this Vikings Jets game over
- 1:05Speaker 2: in London.
- 1:05Speaker 3: You ready, yeah, yeah, ready, all right.
- 1:08Speaker 2: So one of the things I noticed, and my viewing
- 1:12Speaker 2: of the game was kind of like hit or missed.
- 1:15Speaker 2: Because it was eight thirty in the morning here Central time,
- 1:19Speaker 2: I was at church for a while, I had another
- 1:22Speaker 2: obligation to go to after church, and I didn't get
- 1:25Speaker 2: home until the end of the game. But it seemed
- 1:28Speaker 2: like to me at the end of the game, the
- 1:29Speaker 2: final drive, the crowd was kind of out of it.
- 1:32Speaker 2: It just seemed like everybody at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was
- 1:35Speaker 2: just kind of standing there like what's going to happen?
- 1:38Speaker 1: Whereas if it would have been.
- 1:39Speaker 2: You know, if this would have been a true home
- 1:41Speaker 2: game for the Vikings, the Jets get the ball with
- 1:43Speaker 2: what three something left on the clock, you know that
- 1:46Speaker 2: stadium would have been like the craziest it's ever been,
- 1:50Speaker 2: especially with Aaron Rodgers under center for the Jets. Do
- 1:53Speaker 2: you think that affected the game at all, the crowd
- 1:56Speaker 2: noise being an international game, I think.
- 1:59Speaker 3: It could have. I think back to the twenty twenty
- 2:01Speaker 3: year where they didn't have crowds in the stadium at all,
- 2:05Speaker 3: and I think it definitely affected it. I just think
- 2:08Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, I would say most of the people
- 2:11Speaker 3: there are probably native to London, or at least in
- 2:14Speaker 3: that area. There's probably a decent percentage of people who
- 2:18Speaker 3: traveled over there. But it couldn't have been enough to
- 2:21Speaker 3: fill the whole stadium. From what I was seeing on Twitter,
- 2:26Speaker 3: they weren't doing a really good job of explaining what
- 2:28Speaker 3: was going on through the PA system to the fans
- 2:31Speaker 3: in the stadium, so you didn't already know football, and
- 2:34Speaker 3: then you might be really confused, especially when there seemed
- 2:37Speaker 3: to be some issues with like getting the play clock
- 2:40Speaker 3: correct with the game clock and the refs had to
- 2:43Speaker 3: stop the game three or four different times, and it
- 2:46Speaker 3: was just like, what's going on? And we were watching
- 2:48Speaker 3: on TV, so like we could hear the explanation, but
- 2:51Speaker 3: if you're just in the stands, you wouldn't have any
- 2:52Speaker 3: idea what's going on. And that's even if you knew
- 2:55Speaker 3: the game of football. So yeah, it probably probably didn't
- 3:00Speaker 3: help the energy in the stadium. I did notice towards
- 3:04Speaker 3: the end when the Jets were making some crazy good plays,
- 3:07Speaker 3: the crowd did kind of come up a little bit,
- 3:09Speaker 3: but it never sounded like a loud roar. Really yeah,
- 3:14Speaker 3: I think that would have been interesting to be in
- 3:16Speaker 3: as a player if you make a good play in
- 3:18Speaker 3: that really much crowd.
- 3:19Speaker 1: Fan fair.
- 3:21Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely a factor for sure. I think I think
- 3:24Speaker 2: another factor was the weather. It was an open air
- 3:26Speaker 2: stadium and it seemed like it was a lot cooler,
- 3:30Speaker 2: and there was some precipitation coming down. I don't think
- 3:32Speaker 2: it was like a downpour. It just seems kind of
- 3:34Speaker 2: like this drizzily rain. But one of the observations I
- 3:40Speaker 2: had was both quarterbacks struggled to complete passes down the
- 3:43Speaker 2: stretch there. I mean, is weather a factor too in
- 3:46Speaker 2: this game?
- 3:47Speaker 3: Oh? Yeah, you gotta think it is just because there
- 3:49Speaker 3: was one. Right, the announcers are saying like, yeah, it's
- 3:52Speaker 3: starting to get a little hazy, little rainy here, and
- 3:54Speaker 3: then like literally the next play, Aaron Rodgers threw an
- 3:57Speaker 3: incomplete pass to I think it was Garrett will And
- 4:00Speaker 3: who just slipped, and if not for slipping, he would
- 4:03Speaker 3: have gained like fifteen yards or more. So that's the
- 4:06Speaker 3: Weather's always a factor, especially when things get wet, especially
- 4:09Speaker 3: if it didn't start that way in the game. So
- 4:12Speaker 3: you got to kind of transition, maybe swap some cleat
- 4:15Speaker 3: link you know, cleats out for longer cleats or something.
- 4:19Speaker 3: I don't know for sure. I wasn't there, but you
- 4:21Speaker 3: got to imagine that that became a factor and both
- 4:24Speaker 3: quarterbacks could have could have played better, could have completed
- 4:27Speaker 3: better balls. Yeah, I just I know, even towards the
- 4:32Speaker 3: end of the game, you could see the fire behind
- 4:34Speaker 3: justin Jefferson's eyes, and there were a couple of balls
- 4:37Speaker 3: thrown his way that maybe a little behind him, maybe
- 4:39Speaker 3: a little two high too low, not perfect balls, but
- 4:42Speaker 3: also catchable things for him. They'd be highlight real catches,
- 4:46Speaker 3: but they could have been caught by him. And I
- 4:48Speaker 3: think weather it might have been a factor there too.
- 4:51Speaker 2: I think another factor on the receiving end is the
- 4:54Speaker 2: lack of a running game kind of second half of
- 4:57Speaker 2: the second quarter and then the rest of the game.
- 4:59Speaker 2: A Jones leads the game early with the hip injury,
- 5:03Speaker 2: and then yeah, just an obvious lack of connection between
- 5:09Speaker 2: quarterbacks and wide receivers definitely had a huge impact. I
- 5:12Speaker 2: didn't really see the injury that The injury kind of
- 5:15Speaker 2: seemed like it went under the radar, and then all
- 5:17Speaker 2: of a sudden, you know, the next thing you know,
- 5:19Speaker 2: he's in the tent, and then he's out of the
- 5:21Speaker 2: tent and he's trying to do some warm ups on
- 5:23Speaker 2: the sideline and then they just.
- 5:24Speaker 1: They shut him down.
- 5:27Speaker 2: I mean, how big of an impact do you think
- 5:29Speaker 2: losing your running back one play?
- 5:32Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well, I think you're right.
- 5:34Speaker 3: From what coach O'Connell was saying after the game, it
- 5:36Speaker 3: sounded like it was something he's kind of been dealing
- 5:38Speaker 3: with a little bit and he was kind of pushing
- 5:40Speaker 3: through earlier in the game. So I don't know if
- 5:41Speaker 3: there was a specific hit or you know, direct injury
- 5:46Speaker 3: that made him come out of the game. I think
- 5:48Speaker 3: he was just speeling it too much. And then they
- 5:50Speaker 3: ultimately made the decision to take him out for the
- 5:53Speaker 3: rest of the game, which Kocu was saying, hopefully we
- 5:57Speaker 3: avoided something major by making that decision. It definitely, I mean,
- 6:02Speaker 3: if that wasn't the reason, then I don't know what
- 6:05Speaker 3: the reason was. The offense took a noseedive after Aaron
- 6:09Speaker 3: Jones was out. They didn't have much of a run
- 6:13Speaker 3: game to speak for, and the Jets are notoriously a
- 6:16Speaker 3: good pass defensive unit, So it's tough when you lose
- 6:21Speaker 3: a whole dimension of your offense pretty much because ty
- 6:24Speaker 3: Chandler wasn't doing much after Aaron Jones went out, and
- 6:28Speaker 3: then you go up against a nice, stout defense in
- 6:31Speaker 3: the past game, I think that would make anybody look
- 6:34Speaker 3: a little uneasier, not their greatest. Hopefully Aaron Jones is okay,
- 6:37Speaker 3: though that would not be good if he was out
- 6:40Speaker 3: for a while, but the bye week's coming at a
- 6:43Speaker 3: good time for him.
- 6:45Speaker 2: Yeah, And kind of in light of all of that,
- 6:48Speaker 2: you know, with Aaron Jones out, I felt like at
- 6:50Speaker 2: times Sam Darnold still kind of had this hero ball
- 6:54Speaker 2: mentality trying to force things to happen when it wasn't there.
- 6:58Speaker 2: One of the strongest examples of that was even before
- 7:02Speaker 2: Aaron Jones went out.
- 7:03Speaker 1: It was the sack that he took on the first
- 7:05Speaker 1: drive of the game.
- 7:06Speaker 2: It was kind of this naked bootleg out to his
- 7:08Speaker 2: right and he was expecting Aaron Jones to be open,
- 7:11Speaker 2: kind of down in the flat, and he wasn't, and
- 7:14Speaker 2: he gets chased down by a Jets defender.
- 7:16Speaker 1: I don't even know what position or who it was, but.
- 7:19Speaker 2: He could have easily just chucked it out of bounds,
- 7:22Speaker 2: saved himself, the sack, saved Will Reikerd probably fifteen yards
- 7:27Speaker 2: on the field goal attempt, and instead he forces Reikerd
- 7:30Speaker 2: into a fifty four yard attempt, which he makes.
- 7:33Speaker 1: But man, he gotta wonder at some.
- 7:36Speaker 2: Point does Sam Darnold kind of get out of this
- 7:39Speaker 2: like I gotta make things happen type of mentality. Like
- 7:45Speaker 2: we've seen him be really really good even today, we
- 7:47Speaker 2: saw him be really really good at managing the ball,
- 7:51Speaker 2: you know, even changing the.
- 7:52Speaker 1: Play at the line.
- 7:54Speaker 2: But there's this little shred of him that still it's
- 7:57Speaker 2: like he's still playing for the Jets, and he's still
- 7:59Speaker 2: playing from behind, and he's still trying to you know,
- 8:01Speaker 2: prove himself in the league.
- 8:05Speaker 1: I don't know. Do you think he fixes that?
- 8:07Speaker 2: Do you think he's able to get out from under
- 8:09Speaker 2: that as the season continues to develop.
- 8:11Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we've seen it, you know, one, two,
- 8:14Speaker 3: three times every game so far, he'll he'll do something
- 8:16Speaker 3: it's like, what are you doing? Luckily it's only one,
- 8:20Speaker 3: two or three times a game and not every single
- 8:22Speaker 3: playout there, because for the most part he still looks good.
- 8:25Speaker 3: Today was rough, but at some point you got to
- 8:28Speaker 3: credit the Jets defense for being good, just like last
- 8:31Speaker 3: week he had to credit the Packers team for being
- 8:33Speaker 3: good in the second half. Yeah. I think that that'll
- 8:36Speaker 3: come with more coaching, more time with Koc, more comfort
- 8:41Speaker 3: in their communication and how they're running the offense. Last
- 8:46Speaker 3: year we saw it with Josh Dobbs where Koc was,
- 8:49Speaker 3: you know, translating the play into dobbs zer asking you
- 8:53Speaker 3: walking up to the center. I wonder if there was
- 8:55Speaker 3: any any semblance of that kind of an idea, like
- 8:59Speaker 3: more training wheels earlier on in the season, and maybe
- 9:03Speaker 3: they're starting to spread their wings a little bit and
- 9:06Speaker 3: you're kind of getting out of your comfort zone. I
- 9:08Speaker 3: don't know, that's a total guess by me, But I'm
- 9:11Speaker 3: confident that what we've seen from Donald is what we'll
- 9:14Speaker 3: continue to see, and we'll see less and less of
- 9:16Speaker 3: these bone headed, seeing ghost type plays because if you
- 9:21Speaker 3: notice too early in the game, Donald had a couple
- 9:25Speaker 3: of decent runs that made different differences in drives, and
- 9:28Speaker 3: then you saw that happen less and less. He would
- 9:32Speaker 3: try to force a ball down field rather than take
- 9:35Speaker 3: an easy two, three four yards in rushing and then
- 9:37Speaker 3: live to see, you know, a third down or something
- 9:39Speaker 3: like that. So I think it's just something they'll they'll
- 9:42Speaker 3: continue to grow and keep getting better. Koc and Sam
- 9:45Speaker 3: Donald together this.
- 9:46Speaker 1: Year, Yeah, for sure.
- 9:49Speaker 2: We've been trying to keep these little recap videos under
- 9:51Speaker 2: ten minutes, and we're already like thirty seconds away from that.
- 9:54Speaker 1: So I've got a like three more things that we're
- 9:56Speaker 1: gonna hit because just you know.
- 9:58Speaker 2: What the heck, why not let's go this will just
- 10:00Speaker 2: give us more to talk about on our episode that
- 10:03Speaker 2: will record episode sixty one coming out later this week.
- 10:07Speaker 1: But let's roll with a few more here.
- 10:09Speaker 2: Speaking of kickers, will record will the thrill He's perfect
- 10:14Speaker 2: on the season? Are you kind of fingers crossed hoping
- 10:17Speaker 2: that he at least misses something sooner or rather later,
- 10:21Speaker 2: so we don't have a Gary Anderson, you know, Atlanta
- 10:25Speaker 2: Falcons ninety eight NC Championship game meltdown kind of thing.
- 10:28Speaker 3: Yeah. No, I think when people say, like, Okay, they
- 10:32Speaker 3: got one loss out of the way, now now they're
- 10:35Speaker 3: not under threat of being perfect anymore. Okay, at least
- 10:38Speaker 3: he missed one, so now he doesn't have to worry
- 10:40Speaker 3: about being perfect. I think that's just something you know, people,
- 10:43Speaker 3: and we as Vikings fans, tell ourselves to make us
- 10:46Speaker 3: feel better after a loss or a miskick. Now, I
- 10:49Speaker 3: think just keep making them. I mean, I'm not concerned.
- 10:52Speaker 3: I tweeted earlier from the Schoolhop account that it seems
- 10:55Speaker 3: weird that I'm more concerned about a punt to two you
- 11:00Speaker 3: are from the Vikings than I am about a fifty
- 11:03Speaker 3: plus yard field goal attempt for the Vikings. Like he
- 11:05Speaker 3: seems to have gotten his act together as a pro.
- 11:10Speaker 3: He's still perfect all the way through unless you count
- 11:12Speaker 3: that one preseason block kick. But in the regular season
- 11:16Speaker 3: Will Rekerd is perfect. And they haven't all been twenty
- 11:20Speaker 3: seven yarders. You know, they've been long, some have been short,
- 11:24Speaker 3: but they've been a few fifty yard plus field goals,
- 11:27Speaker 3: including two today and yeah, no, keep it going, stay
- 11:31Speaker 3: perfect and don't cut your hair. Will record until March.
- 11:36Speaker 2: The Purple Persuasion Twitter account they've put out like stock
- 11:40Speaker 2: rising stock falling after every Vikings game, and they had
- 11:44Speaker 2: Will Rikerd as stock rising, and they had the punt
- 11:47Speaker 2: unit as stock falling. And I think that's a pretty
- 11:50Speaker 2: accurate assessment right now of the Vikings special teams.
- 11:54Speaker 1: I think Will Rekerd is playing really really well.
- 11:56Speaker 2: I think Quasia Dopa Mensa is looking really good for
- 11:59Speaker 2: making that selection.
- 12:00Speaker 1: In the draft what he did.
- 12:03Speaker 2: It's not that the punt unit has been bad, and
- 12:05Speaker 2: it's not really that Ryan Wright has been particularly bad,
- 12:09Speaker 2: but it's been this it's the coverage game. I don't
- 12:12Speaker 2: know if you saw it, but on one of the
- 12:15Speaker 2: Jets punt returns, whoever was returning the punt for the Jets,
- 12:19Speaker 2: he stuck his leg out and tripped up I don't
- 12:22Speaker 2: even know who it was, tripped up a Viking to
- 12:24Speaker 2: make it look like the Viking ran into him and
- 12:27Speaker 2: he got running into the running into the returner penalty
- 12:31Speaker 2: fifteen yards. So there definitely has to be a little
- 12:34Speaker 2: bit more awareness of that punt unit. They've got to
- 12:39Speaker 2: clean some things up. And they've had some faux pause
- 12:41Speaker 2: on the return end of the game too punting. So yeah,
- 12:44Speaker 2: I definitely agree with that purple persuasion assessment that the
- 12:49Speaker 2: punt unit as a whole, both punting and punt returning,
- 12:52Speaker 2: needs some improvement, all right.
- 12:54Speaker 3: And the last bonehead play by Ivan Pace to run
- 12:58Speaker 3: into the kicker, rough the kicker on the punt that
- 13:02Speaker 3: which led the door to ultimately the Jets kicking a
- 13:04Speaker 3: field goal and getting to within a touchdown. That you
- 13:07Speaker 3: can't have that. And if you notice after that, the
- 13:09Speaker 3: Vikings didn't rush the punter near as much as they
- 13:13Speaker 3: had been before. They were just content to block and
- 13:15Speaker 3: get the punt return.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, for sure, good point, good point.
- 13:19Speaker 2: All right, last little bit here, and I'm gonna bundle
- 13:22Speaker 2: these things together just to kind of keep things short.
- 13:26Speaker 2: In the first quarter this season, the Vikings have outscored
- 13:29Speaker 2: their opponents forty eight to three.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Yeah, that's impressive.
- 13:33Speaker 2: And then in all five of their games, the Vikings
- 13:37Speaker 2: have held an average of a twenty one point lead
- 13:40Speaker 2: at some point in all five games. Does that bode
- 13:44Speaker 2: well for this team moving forward, both in all aspects
- 13:48Speaker 2: of the game, offense, defense, special teams. What do you
- 13:51Speaker 2: make of those stats?
- 13:53Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it just start hot, because we've seen
- 13:55Speaker 3: the last two games they started hot and it really
- 13:58Speaker 3: saved their butt by the end of the game. So
- 14:01Speaker 3: I mean, just just put your foot on that gas pedal,
- 14:04Speaker 3: drive as fast as possible and don't let up. I
- 14:07Speaker 3: think the issue is they've been letting up or trying
- 14:10Speaker 3: to get in their own heads and you know, how
- 14:12Speaker 3: to play with the lead and how to play the game.
- 14:15Speaker 3: Now they've proven of themselves they're not good enough to
- 14:17Speaker 3: finesse things and get cute and try to bleed as
- 14:21Speaker 3: much clock as possible and still, you know, run with
- 14:24Speaker 3: more of a lead. They just got to keep going
- 14:26Speaker 3: and never stop and don't let the other team breathe. So, yes,
- 14:31Speaker 3: start hot, stay hot, and it will if the Vikings
- 14:34Speaker 3: lose a game this season, which they will, they're not
- 14:37Speaker 3: going to go undefeated. But if they do, it'll be
- 14:39Speaker 3: something like, oh crap, they got down to a quick
- 14:42Speaker 3: ten nothing or fourteen nothing loss or deficit and they
- 14:46Speaker 3: just couldn't crawl their way back.
- 14:48Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it'll be a taste of their own
- 14:50Speaker 2: medicine at that point, because that's what they've done to
- 14:52Speaker 2: opponents in these first five games. So it's crazy to
- 14:56Speaker 2: think that we're sitting here five and zero five weeks
- 14:59Speaker 2: in the Vikings still haven't trailed a game.
- 15:02Speaker 1: It's either been tied or the Vikings have.
- 15:04Speaker 2: Won since like early in the first quarter of the
- 15:08Speaker 2: first game against the Giants. Giants, so a heck of
- 15:13Speaker 2: a start for this Vikings team. It's been very unexpected,
- 15:17Speaker 2: very exciting to watch today's game. It felt like the
- 15:21Speaker 2: most like nail bider this could. Like I was telling
- 15:26Speaker 2: myself when I got home and was finally able to
- 15:29Speaker 2: tune into the live game, I was telling myself and
- 15:33Speaker 2: telling the TV, telling Kevin O'Connell through the TV, won't
- 15:38Speaker 2: give Aaron Rodgers the ball at the end of the game.
- 15:41Speaker 1: We can't trust him.
- 15:43Speaker 2: And sure enough they did, and fortunately for the Vikings,
- 15:46Speaker 2: Stefan Gilmour was there to basket that final interception with
- 15:51Speaker 2: forty something seconds left on the clock and the Vikings
- 15:54Speaker 2: were able to get their offense back on the field
- 15:56Speaker 2: in victory formation and take the London But yeah, this
- 16:01Speaker 2: was maybe the most nerve racking win the Vikings have
- 16:05Speaker 2: netted so far. But other than the Lions on the schedule,
- 16:09Speaker 2: I mean, is there really another team out there that
- 16:12Speaker 2: you're concerned about injuries?
- 16:15Speaker 3: I mean, I'm more concerned about internally what happens with
- 16:18Speaker 3: the Vikings than any opponent they're going to face, because
- 16:21Speaker 3: they've proven even on days like last weekend today where
- 16:24Speaker 3: we're like, I don't know, like they're still they're still winning,
- 16:28Speaker 3: you know, they're still making good plays. I think it's
- 16:31Speaker 3: good to see that fire in justin Jefferson's eyes and
- 16:34Speaker 3: his postgame interview, he you know, was a little passive, aggressive,
- 16:39Speaker 3: maybe just frustrated with himself, like, hey, credit to the
- 16:41Speaker 3: defense for winning us this game. Like that's that's good
- 16:44Speaker 3: to see the best player in the NFL be pissed
- 16:47Speaker 3: off and ready to play. I don't think he's mad
- 16:49Speaker 3: at anybody. I think he's just mad at how close
- 16:52Speaker 3: they've been getting. So he's motivated, and I'm here for it.
- 16:54Speaker 3: I'm glad to see it.
- 16:56Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
- 16:57Speaker 2: Well, it'll be good for this team to have a
- 16:59Speaker 2: week off, especially after traveling internationally, get home, get reacclimated,
- 17:05Speaker 2: get readjusted, and kind of some of these things that
- 17:08Speaker 2: have been going wrong really since the end of the
- 17:10Speaker 2: second quarter at green Bay and the Lions in a
- 17:16Speaker 2: couple of weeks.
- 17:17Speaker 3: So hey, also, no purple punishments on episode sixty one.
- 17:21Speaker 3: We both correctly predicted a Vikings win, so maybe we
- 17:25Speaker 3: should maybe we should do something where we get something nice.
- 17:27Speaker 3: I don't know, my kids get ice cream after a
- 17:29Speaker 3: Vikings win.
- 17:30Speaker 1: Maybe.
- 17:31Speaker 3: I guess we do treat ourselves to beer every episode,
- 17:33Speaker 3: so I don't know, how about some beer.
- 17:35Speaker 1: We'll treat ourselves to some good beer.
- 17:38Speaker 2: There we go record this week's episode tomorrow Night, coming
- 17:41Speaker 2: out later this.
- 17:41Speaker 1: Week at a tap at