Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 12 - Hops, Heartbreak and Hope

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TSH Ep. 12 - Hops, Heartbreak and Hope · The Skol Hop

0:05
It's Minnesota first and ten from the Green Bay twenty cousin. It's gonna loop
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one right Jo with his Devin the National Football League touchdown Dan Gibbs, Minnesota
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a twenty three to three league. All right, Hey, Vikings fans,
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welcome into another episode of the School Hop. Hello Ev, I'm Austin Austin,
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and we're's a couple of dudes from Iowa. We like drinking beer and
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we like talking about the Vikings. Yeah, what are we drinking today?
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Well, first off school today, we have from Bettendorf's own adventurous brewing there
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Citra Culture, which is a double dry hopped ip A. I believe six
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and a half percenter, so it's it can hold its own and you got
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the beautiful can right there there it is. We're not drinking you out of
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the can because we started something new. We're on TikTok and we're gonna do
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a quick teaser review. I think of each beer that we have for every
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episode. That's the plan. I definitely stole that idea from probably tons of
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people who do it on TikTok, but specifically, and of course I can't
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think of his name. I think it's craft beer Pete, right, I'm
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pretty sure. Yeah, So thank you TikToker Craft Beer Pete for the idea.
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Hopefully you feel honored if you ever hear about this at all and not
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ripped off that we're stealing your idea. But yeah, check us out on
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TikTok. We're doing some reviews. Evan's really good at posting up some cool
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replays of awesome games recently, but specifically this beer. It's as it has
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been the last handful of weeks. It's a beer that hits right in my
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favorite category, that citrusy, hazy ipa. I think it looks fantastic in
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these football glasses, and it's probably my favorite beer from Adventurous Brewing. I
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get it every time I go there, So it's a good one for sure.
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And I like IPAs. I'm not opposed to them. If I'm going
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to drink an ipa, though, I wanted to have a clean finish,
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and I feel like this one does just that. Yes, it's dry,
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it's crisp, it's clean, but it's also juicy and citrusy and yeah,
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I don't know, it checks a lot of those boxes. I feel like
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it's and it's so simple that it works perfectly. Yeah, yeah, I
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don't know. I feel like I would be very sad if Adventurous ever stopped
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ruining this beer. I don't think they ever could. Please don't. Well,
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there are definitely some sad, sad things to talk about. Yeah,
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yeah, well, maybe we can talk about some happy things before we get
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to the real stuff. Well, let's talk about the fact that the Vikings
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are on a winning streak. Yeah, right now, Yeah, four and
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one in the month of Kirktober. That's right. It'll probably be the last
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month of Kirktober maybe in Viking's history. I know, you got a good
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talking point later. We're gonna save that for a little bit down the road.
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But yeah, we'll get to that. I hope it's not the last
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Kirktober we celebrate as Vikings fans. I don't think Kirk will be done for
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his career. It's just it's a weird timing with his contract and everything like
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that. It certainly is. They talk about that four and one in the
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month of October, which is awesome. We probably talked on this podcast.
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I was probably very pessimistic about how they're not going to do that. Well,
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after you go oh and three there's not much to be optimistic, No,
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not at all. I watched Quacy the GM. He had a like
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a fifteen minute press conference today today being Wednesday when we record, Yeah,
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fifteen minute press conference, answered a bunch of questions. I just I've been
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back and forth on what I think of Quazy, but every time I hear
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him talk, I like him more. I've never like wanted him gone as
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a Vikings GM, I've always kind of, yeah, been cautiously hesitant to
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see how I feel about him. I'm I'm liking him more and more.
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His press conference today, he was very, very thoughtful, even questions that
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you could tell he didn't already have like a planned answer for, he didn't
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have to sit and think forever. He gave a good, honest and genuine
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answer, and it made me feel good about the team moving forward. He
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seems very intelligent, absolutely very intelligent, and not just from a football IQ
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standpoint, but just from a businessman standpoint and also just from a like relational
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human standpoint, And I think that's one of the reasons why this organization is
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the way that it is. Only a few short years after the Rick Spielman
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Mike zimmer Era, I mean, we're not even two years away from that
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era. We still have Spielman and Zimmer's hands all over this organization, as
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you will, because they were here for so long, right, But yeah,
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it definitely to that point. For me at least, it feels very
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much like we are in a new era. Even though there's remnants of the
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previous regime. We're in a new era. And maybe you don't agree completely,
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not you Evan, but you the Vikings fan out there, Maybe you
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don't always agree completely with Quacy's decisions in what he does and might not do.
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But especially watching that press conference, which is on par with every other
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time he speaks, you can tell he's he's not just going by the seat
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of his pants here. He's very thoughtful and very analytic, which is kind
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of a hot word when you talk about Quaycy. But he puts a lot
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of thought and effort into every step he takes this organization. And I appreciate
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that. And i'd say, if you're a casual just like Twitter person,
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you know, like I would consider myself to be somewhat of an observer on
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Twitter and not so much a participant. You scroll all the Vikings Twitter and
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there are just dozens and dozens of people ripping Quacy apart, especially in the
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wake of what happened this last week. And you know, drafting Jaren Hall
6:35
in the first place got a lot of criticism, and then bringing Josh Dobbs
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in on this trade that happened just a few days ago, like that's I
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don't know's there's a lot of criticism flying around, and I just kept thinking
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to myself as an observer, like, we don't know what's gonna happen,
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Like, who knows, Jaren Hall could end up being the Tom Brady that
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comes in in really leaf of Drew Bledzoe. Who knows, You never know?
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And Josh Dobbs could be the trade that means the world to the Vikings
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and pushes us into the playoffs after going on three. Yeah, I mean,
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you never know. I think about it. I mean I think about
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it this way. In twenty seventeen, I think it was case keenum he
7:21
was a late offseason signing, barely made the news. You know, he
7:26
was probably going to be competing, I believe, competing with Taylor Heineke for
7:33
the third quarterback spot. You know, when he came in, Heineke a
7:38
name to remember for this upcoming week against the Falcons. But you know,
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we had our QB one in Sam Bradford, who was coming off a good
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year with the Vikings. I think at the time he set the record for
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completion percentage as a quarterback, and I think that record has since been broken.
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No, I think he's still holds me. I thought it he broke
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three record and then Breeze broke it again. Sorry, I thought I thought
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you were talking franchise record. I still think he holds the franchise record,
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yeah, for completion percentage. But again, on that point, we didn't
8:13
even remember, might not have even heard that case Keenum was signed. And
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then you know, Bradford went down and yeah, tear everything down. You
8:22
know, the season's over. And then especially that first start of case Keenum.
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I think it was against the Steelers. Vikings lost pretty bad and you
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know, this team's gonna win like two more games the rest of the season,
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and what happened, I mean, miracle baby, A miraculous season capped
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off by a miraculous play and one that we as Vikings fans, will never
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forget. Now. Unfortunately, there are still some Vikings fans that are clamoring
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for the Vikings to do everything they can to get Case Keenum again. It
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was a fun, awesome season. I just I don't think Keenum was ever
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that guy. He gave us a lot of great memories and there was there
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was quite the laundry list of quarterbacks that were recommended to the Vikings everywhere Twitter,
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wherever else you interact, yep, social media wise, but Twitter was
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probably our primary absolute source of that banter. But man, I heard everything
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from Case Keenum, Tom Brady, you know, let's call him and just
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make sure it's a no. Who knows, Maybe they did, We'll never
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know. Yeah. Well, and Kevin O'Connell was quoted saying at some point
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like you should have seen the messages that I had on my phone that you
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wouldn't believe that would be fun to see, It would be. And to
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that point, I think Quacy in his press conference today, somebody asked him
9:48
a question along this line these lines, and he said something to the tune
9:52
of when you have a quarterback injury, suddenly your phone is like the most
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popular phone in the Twin Cities. And he said, you know, between
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players that are interested in coming to the Vikings and their agents and teams that
10:07
are gauging interest. Either way, I believe it, and it probably there's
10:13
probably a lot of phone calls about like, hey, now that you don't
10:16
have a quarterback anymore, what about some of your other players? What would
10:18
you what would you need to get Danielle Hunter off your team? Or what
10:22
would you need to get away Alex Madison or somebody probably got bold and said
10:26
something about JJ. But you know, I don't know. I I would
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love to see just a few screenshots of some of the messages the coaches and
10:37
the GM got over this. I'm sure it'd be mind blowing. It'd be
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funny, amazing, and I mean even on Twitter, seeing all of the
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options that were thrown out there. I think some of them were joking,
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but like even down to like, hey, we have a quarterback on the
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team already that knows the system and he's only a few years older than Kirk,
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and they're talking about our coach who is long past his playing days.
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But I don't know, I took that as a joke. But there there's
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probably somebody out there. Let us know if you are one of those that
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seriously thought Kevin O'Connell should have been a player, coach that would have been
11:16
interesting. I don't even know. I would almost guarantee the rules would disqualify
11:20
that from happening in today's modern NFL. But talk about a storyline that would
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have been crazy. Yeah, seriously, that would have been crazy. And
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Tom Brady, even if no option is ever zero percent, you know,
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I'm sure someone in that organization, even if it was a joke and to
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Quasi said something about Brady's name, it could have been as much as like,
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who knows, maybe somebody called Brady's agent. We'll never know, but
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you gotta you gotta at least see right like, and I don't know where
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his contract, where he stands contractually, if he did, the Buccaneers still
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hold his rights, they might. I have no either way, it doesn't
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I think we all just breathed a sigh of relief when he retired. And
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finally, although it would have been in a very this podcast would have been
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very different if we're talking about a Tom Brady signing. Again, I never
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believed that that was a true option, But you never know. What would
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we have talked about immediately following the wake of the Brett Farr signing. I
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mean, what would that conversation have been like between us because we were in
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college at the point at that point. Yeah, I remember, because if
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you go back to that Brett Favre signing in two thousand and nine, there's
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a lot of fan fare or absolutely, but there was also the previous offseason
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when he eventually was traded to the Jets. There was a lot of media
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coverage and rumors flying around that and apparently it was real that he was interested
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the year before two thousand and eight coming too the Vikings because he had retired
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at the end of the what seven season and then at some point decided he
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wanted to come back. The Packers were like, eh, no, like
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we got we got Aaron. Rodgers were ready to move on. I think
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they offered him a spot in like the front office and eventually traded in the
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Jets. But at that time, I think when he realized that he wasn't
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going back to the Packers, he had his sight set on the Vikings.
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So there was already a little bit of buzz that season. Then he went
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to the Jets and then you know, retired again. But then I don't
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think he was under contract, so it was just like, hey, I
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do want to play in Vikings you do want me? And it turned into
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another magical season that also ended a loss in the NFC Championship game. We
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don't have to talk about that, but yeah, we would have had episodes
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on this podcast talk about after that Week three Niners game of the nine season
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when youreg farv to Greg Lewis and oh my heavens, Allen, and we
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wouldn't have talked about anything other than that play. Just like this episode,
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we might not talk a whole lot about the Packer game other than you know,
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Kirky Kirk and his achilles. Should we talk about it though, just
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a little bit. Absolutely, it was a pretty good game. Oh yeah,
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our favorite team went to Lambeau and won, and won by two full
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touchdowns. We were up twenty four to three at one point. Yeah,
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And I mean Kirk threw for like two hundred and seventy four yards two seventy
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five something like that, two touchdowns and they were driving. I mean,
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he could have ended with three hundred and three touchdowns if not for that freak
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injury. But Jordan Addison looked great and actually are you might be surprised to
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hear I was looking at the stats earlier. Addison was a third on the
14:54
team in reception yards. Yeah, because kJ had ninety nine. Yeah,
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yeah, he would have got to one hundred and two if not. And
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then did TJ have like eighty something? Yeah, TJ had eighty eight,
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I believe, so TJ had eighty eight and a touchdown. kJ had ninety
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nine and some clutch catches. One big catch in the second half, I
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think on the first drive of the second half to get things moving again.
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And then Jordan Addison he's proving that this team can roll. When you lose
15:22
the best wide receiver in the game of football, you're still not out of
15:26
luck completely. I'm not saying Jordan Addison is JJ, like that would be
15:31
absurd, but when you have that confidence, he quickly silenced JR. Alexander
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too. There have been times in that matchup between JJ and Alexander where Alexander's
15:45
had the better game. Yeah yeah, And I think some of that was
15:48
a product of like some double teams and things like that that the Packers threw
15:52
at him to try and disrupt JJ. But Addison had his number yeah on
15:58
Sunday, absolutely, And I think after the game it got chippy in the
16:03
fourth quarter, like Alexander was like grabbing him and trying to throw some haymakers.
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The refs got there and broke it up. Yep. And after the
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game, I think Alexander I'm not gonna be able to remember the quote exactly,
16:18
but he said something to the tune of oh yeah, his performance.
16:22
It was a fluke performance. And I really wasn't even covering him that much.
16:26
But I think when he was covered directly on when it was JayR and
16:30
Addison, Adison was three receptions for three targets and fifty yards, and I
16:36
think his touchdown came against Jayre. So yeah, he had a good game
16:41
and three catches for fifty yards against one dude is pretty good. Yeah.
16:45
Did Randy Moss ever leap at Lambeau? I'm sure I know he leapt at
16:52
the meat at home. Yeah, I'm sure he did. I feel like
16:55
he had to have. We'll have to go back and find footage of that.
16:57
But it was awesome to watch or Addison Lambeau leap, and we actually
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used it as the kind of the intro video today, Yeah, for today's
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podcast. But my favorite part was the fake leap into the group of Packers
17:11
fans, and the Packers fans were like no, which we would do the
17:14
same thing if we were sitting right there and a bear tried to leap up
17:17
into us and be like for sure, for sure, but then he finds
17:19
a little pocket of Vikings fans and he jumps up there, and I'm sure,
17:22
I'm sure those Vikings fans like have season tickets right there and just go
17:27
to every game, or every Vikings game at least, and sit right there
17:30
just and maybe there's two groups on either side of the stadium for the hope
17:34
that a player might get up there for him, or maybe they're even like
17:38
out of town like Green Bay living non Packer fans and they just wear the
17:44
way jersey of every team, and that would be That's something I would do,
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just like, yeah, come leave to us, regardless of who those
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people were. It was awesome and it was cool to see the Vikings win
17:59
at Lambeau. M not that we haven't won at Lambeau recently, but I
18:03
feel like the I don't have the numbers in front of me. I feel
18:06
like the Vikings in recent memory have done pretty good against the Packers in the
18:10
last four ish five ish years. Yeah, I remember, was it last
18:15
year, the year before Dalvin Cook had a really good game in Lambeau and
18:18
we won by the pretty good margin. This game, it was our first
18:23
are the Vikings first win more than one score of the season, so that
18:30
was nice to see. Everything about this game was amazing, and they're knocking
18:36
on the door of being awesome, granted against a Green Bay team that is
18:38
not the top of the league. But then you get the end and it's
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just like, what do we do now. My kids were all excide,
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Oh, ice cream, ice cream, and I was just sitting there,
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like two minutes left in the game, We're gonna beat them by two touchdowns
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and I could care less, like this sucks. It was a heartbreak moment,
19:00
and not just for the fact that a really good player went down,
19:03
but a really good guy, yeah went down. It's times like this I
19:07
wish Kirk Cousins was a jerk, you know. I wish he I can't
19:12
even say, like I this is the kind of thing that happens to like
19:15
Deshaun Watson, Like that's what you want to happen to. A horrible person.
19:21
And Kirk, unless it's all an act, which I don't think it
19:26
is, Kirk is genuinely one of the most likable players in the NFL.
19:30
He's got to be. He's like what Tim Tebow could have been if Tebow
19:33
was good. Oh that's a great comparison, right, like not even just
19:37
the whole like being a Christian thing, but like being a good dude,
19:40
like helping people out. And he's never gonna You're never gonna read about Kirk
19:44
Cousins getting arrested, you know, being too drunk at a club. Like
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No, he goes home and like reads books to his sons. Like after
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the game, is like that again at TCO. Yeah, on a little
19:57
scooter with his hobbled leg propped up, like signing autographs and passing out candy
20:03
to kids for Halloween. I saw that on Twitter. And you know what
20:07
else I noticed about that? That wasn't a team PR post. That was
20:11
like some he was in like a Duluthe hoodie. Yeah, like had no
20:15
Viking stuff on at all. And he probably volunteered to be there. No
20:19
one told him he had to be. I mean, yeah, and maybe
20:22
he was already like obligated before, but I mean, Kirk's akin guy.
20:25
That's like, well, can I can I walk? Like yes, I
20:27
told people I would be there. I don't know what the event was specifically
20:30
for, if it was like a charity thing or what it was for kids,
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So that's all that really matters. But and the way that the post
20:38
got out was I think just one of the kid's dads was like, Hey,
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check this out, Kirk Cousins. He's still like severely injured and he's
20:48
he's still here talking to my kid right now. Like I said, it
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wasn't the team's pr Twitter handle like, oh, look how great our quarterback
20:56
is. He's he's here for us. Like, I don't think they posted
20:59
anything, maybe reposted what the main guy did. But another thing that really
21:07
kind of indicated to me how much not just the Vikings community embraces him but
21:12
his teammates was Dalton Reisner's post game interview. Like I've mentioned his post game
21:22
interview specifically on the podcast a few times now, because he's a newcomer and
21:26
he's you know, not been around for very long. He's acclimating still to
21:32
his teammates and the playbook and all of that, and Dalton Reisner has had
21:37
nothing but good things to say about the entire team. But then this happens.
21:41
Kirk blows his achilles and Dalton Reisner just kind of is like we all
21:48
love this guy. Yeah, like we're we're deeply hurt, Like we're happy
21:53
to get a victory, but it comes with this cloud of uncertain and we're
22:00
just hoping for the best and hoping that he can get healed up and recovered
22:06
and we'll just see what happens. And you could tell, like even Kevin
22:10
O'Connell after the game was a little tight lipped, like we're not gonna say
22:12
anything, but you know, yeah, we all knew what it happens.
22:18
Yeah, he even I mean right after the game, I think he was
22:19
talking with Ben Leeber on k Fan and he said something like, yeah,
22:25
we're fearing Achilles, but we'll get we'll get more information after the MRI.
22:30
But like, I don't know it was. That had to have been the
22:33
quietest Vikings locker room after a win at Lambeau ever, very somber. I'm
22:40
sure. One thing I really like since KOs has been the coach after a
22:45
win, the team does the It's almost cheesy, but I love it.
22:48
It makes you run through a brick wall where they like film the two minute.
22:52
KOs given the game ball a speech and he's just running around he doesn't
22:56
stop moving the whole time, and just like, yeah, this guy I
23:00
think about Kj's like we couldn't quite get him to one hundred. But he
23:03
gave kJ a game ball and well deserved, and I mean, he could
23:08
just tell this was the most deflated game ball ceremony he's ever had, and
23:14
it's just you understand, and people are still cheering, like, yeah,
23:18
good job man forgetting the game ball. But like, I don't know,
23:22
I don't know how you can rally the troops after that, and I'm sure
23:26
if anybody can, maybe it's got to be Kirk. I think I saw
23:30
something. Maybe it was after coach's press conference on Monday. I think Kirk
23:37
said he's still planning on being in the facility and almost being like a coach
23:42
in the meeting rooms and stuff like that, which I mean, if he
23:48
is the leader that he seems to be for these guys, that's the best
23:51
thing you can do is be there, especially for Jaren Hall or if they
23:56
do make the switch, which we can talk about that a little bit later,
23:59
but it's only going to be most helpful in the quarterback room. He's
24:03
going to be a de facto quarterback coach. This year, and I'm gonna
24:08
say my stance right here. I hope he's back, you know. I
24:11
hope they find a way to compensate him appropriately while still not making a decision
24:19
on like just off emotions. But I hope he's back as the quarterback of
24:25
the Vikings next season. Well that kind of leads into my it's it might
24:30
be a hot take, it might not be. Let's let's recap really quick.
24:34
We've covered a little bit of this, but I feel like some context
24:38
is necessary before my take. So we know that Kirk is an amazing dude,
24:48
right, and we saw that long before this injury. I'd say even
24:52
long before the Quarterback documentary came out. Like just a team player, ruin
25:00
through. He's always there for his guys. He's grown and he's matured since
25:03
his days in Washington. I think he's learned a lot and he's grown as
25:08
a player too. Like he's just I mean, he was playing some of
25:12
his best football of his career in these last five and three quarters of a
25:18
game, arguably top five in the league, playing extremely well at a very
25:25
high level. And so I guess all of that to say we know that
25:32
he's a he's a team guy. We know that all the guys on the
25:36
team love him, and we know that he's just a natural leader. I
25:41
mean, we were just talking about those postgame game ball things. A lot
25:45
of times coach hands it over to Kirk to break down the troops, and
25:49
you know, it's Vikes on three and then they break and it's Kirk,
25:52
who's you know, in the center of that huddle breaking down his team.
25:59
So we know all all of that, and obviously his season is over now
26:03
and there's a lot of regrouping that's gonna happen, a lot of conversations that
26:08
will have to happen. We also know that he's gonna be in the quarterback
26:14
room. He's gonna be on the sideline. I think Cam Biden was even
26:17
quoted saying somewhere this last week, like, I wouldn't be surprised if he's
26:21
on the sideline with his helmet on, listening to the plays, right,
26:25
Like, that's just who we know Kirk to be. He was doing that
26:29
in preseason, right Like, he's not a Marcus Mariota who's gonna just like,
26:33
Oh I got benched, so see I'm out of here. Oh I
26:37
tore my Achilles. Well, and honestly, like not necessarily throwing shade at
26:41
Aaron Rodgers, but like he's not even gonna go sit up in the box
26:45
with the owners, Like he'll be on the sidelines, He'll be in the
26:49
meeting rooms. Who will he will be, like you said, effectively a
26:53
coach for the rest of this season, supporting Jaron Hall, supporting Josh Dobbs,
27:00
boarding Manion or Mullins or whoever else we might find under center for the
27:07
Vikings this year. We just know that that's the natural role that he'll find
27:11
himself in. And we've also kind of briefly mentioned this is the other part
27:15
of the context here that things are complicated moving forward. His contract expires in
27:22
five months, almost five months to the day today, March thirty first,
27:26
His contract is void. JJ has more or less implied. He hasn't said
27:33
it explicitly, but he's implied that he's not signing anything until he knows what
27:38
Kirk's going to do, or at least what his quarterback situation is going to
27:41
look like, right which, again I think the reading between the lines a
27:47
little bit is like, well, what are you guys going to do with
27:48
Kirk? Are you going to move on from him or are you going to
27:51
sign him? Is he going to stay here and not just JJ? But
27:55
then you've got a handful of other players that are going to need to be
27:59
paid darrisaw yep, even I'm thinking guys like TJ. TJ already got his
28:07
contract, did he Yeah? Over the remember it was ten back soreness,
28:12
that's right, Yeah, it kind of went under the radar. Yeah,
28:15
well once that, once those dollars came in, he was so fully healthy.
28:19
But Daniel Hunter Hunter with who's Reisner is? I mean, he's on
28:25
a one year contract right now, and he's already earned a starting spot after
28:30
being brought in in what week three or week four or whatever it was?
28:33
Yeah, the same as Acres, same week as Acres. Yeah, and
28:37
he's another one that could potentially uh deserve a contract if he performs well over
28:41
the home stretch of the season here. So Kirk's gonna effectively be a coach
28:48
this year, and the contract situation next year is really really complicated. So
28:52
here's my take that I don't think anybody's really talked about. It's probably one
28:59
of the lead least likely scenarios, but I could see it happening and it
29:03
wouldn't surprise me one bit. I could see Kirk trading the football helmet for
29:08
a baseball hat. I could see him trading the football pads for a hooded
29:15
sweatshirt, a headset, standing on the sidelines, and actually being a paid
29:22
coach for the Vikings. Because Kirk loves Minnesota, and he said that pretty
29:29
much since he got to Minnesota. I love it here. I want my
29:32
family to be here. He likes raising his kids there. He loves the
29:37
organization, and that's never been more apparent than it has been now. He
29:41
loves the team and the team loves him. And now that he's endured a
29:48
fairly significant injury at age thirty six, I could see him saying, you
29:52
know what, risk reward ratio isn't worth it. Maybe it's time for me
29:57
to hang up the and now that I've got some experience on the sideline coaching,
30:04
you know, maybe I can have an impact here. Maybe I can,
30:08
you know, help some of these young guys improve in their game and
30:14
be a coach instead of a player. Yeah, pretty unlikely. I think
30:18
at this point. I still think he has some football in him, and
30:19
I want him to play football. I'm not saying that I don't want him
30:23
to play anymore. Yeah, but I was thinking about it the other day
30:26
and I was just like, man, that that could be a scenario that
30:30
plays out and it would shock a lot of people. Oh yeah, And
30:34
I think it would shock a lot of people in the Vikings organization. I
30:37
think even Quacy and Kevin might be like, really, yeah, are you
30:41
sure like we will have a job for you. We got got a spot
30:45
for if you want it, But sure you don't want to just you know,
30:48
go out there for a couple more years. So I I think it's
30:55
not crazy to think that Kirk the lead could play or put himself into a
31:03
position to become Kirk the coach. I think, knowing what we've witnessed from
31:11
him and the way he's kind of played out his contracts over the years,
31:18
he's very savvy. Oh yeah, he's a businessman, yes, and good
31:22
for him. Every player should try to fight for and get every dime they
31:26
can while they're physically able to do so. With that in mind, I
31:30
feel like if Kirk has any fuel left in the tank quarterback playing wise,
31:38
even if it's not with the Vikings, he's probably going to pursue that.
31:45
But one thing I feel like I hear, and maybe it's just because I'm
31:49
a Vikings fan. It's the only team that I die hard follow, But
31:52
one thing I feel like I hear a lot about players who are recently retired
31:59
or going to retire soon. They say something to the tune of like,
32:02
I mean, Minnesota is my home, so regardless of wherever else I might
32:07
go, like I'm going to put roots down and be in Minnesota. I
32:10
mean, we could probably think about it and name off a handful of players
32:15
that are still around even though they weren't born and raised in Minnesota after their
32:22
playing days are still around. So I feel like, even if you know,
32:27
regardless of when Kirk's Minnesota career is over, unless it's ten more years
32:34
in Minnesota, unless it's like a final final, one hundred percent done,
32:38
he probably will make Minnesota his home. Or Michigan. I know he's from
32:45
that. I don't think he was born there. I think he was born
32:47
in the Chicago area, but he's essentially from the Michigan area. He'll probably
32:52
be a Minnesotan forever. I feel like he's probably gonna try to play for
32:58
as long as he can, although I don't think he's going to be a
33:00
Tom Brady, not accolade wise, but like playing time wise. I don't
33:05
think he's going to be playing ten years from now. Yeah, well,
33:07
I don't think he's a Tom Brady or an Aaron Rodgers that are like so
33:15
wrapped up in football that he can't walk away. Like he's not even a
33:19
Brett Favre, where like Brett favor was just kind of greedy almost. I
33:22
feel like, yeah, I've still got this this desire to play, and
33:29
I'm gonna I'm gonna pursue it even if it's not that great. And fortunately
33:32
we got one good season out of him in Minnesota and then that second season
33:37
was not not so good. That was that was deflating season. Anyways,
33:47
Now I agree with you completely. I think I think Kirk still has a
33:52
lot of football left in him. I don't want him to leave as a
33:58
player, But at the same time, I could see him making a business
34:01
decision and saying like we're gonna be at an impass when it comes to contract
34:07
negotiations. I'm gonna be more expensive than you can afford on the roster in
34:13
order to keep this group together. And I think that's a high priority for
34:17
the Vikings seems to be I mean, the competitive rebuild. Part of it
34:22
is being able to rebuild and load up the team and keep in a part
34:27
of that is keeping the pieces that you have that you want to keep,
34:30
and I think that only plays to the Vikings advantage though too, Like,
34:36
I mean, even if the rest of this season isn't a loss, and
34:40
then moving into future seasons, like, if you can have this core group
34:45
of guys that would do anything for each other, like man, you would,
34:52
you'd be pretty unstoppable. And then if you can keep your coaching staff
34:55
intacts. We may lose our defensive coordinator after this into a head coaching position
35:00
somewhere, and rightly so he deserves that, and he's already proven in six
35:05
games that he deserves. Yeah, he's turned the performance around for something has
35:10
clicked for that defense they're playing, they're playing super well. Oh my god,
35:15
I just saw something the other day. We went from being thirty second
35:20
in the league in turnovers to like fourth. Nice, So like he's solved
35:24
the turnover issue, Like turnovers were the name of the game in the first
35:29
three games. Yeah, oh that's why we lost those three games. We
35:31
turned the ball over and it's still a nagging problem. It's just not as
35:37
huge as it was. Well, and our offense is clicking now too,
35:39
and our defense is taking the ball away which helps. Yeah, So Joshua
35:45
tell us man, that interception was beautiful. That was awesome, man,
35:49
that was great. Well, and I think it was the it might have
35:54
been the it might have been. Jonathan Vilma, one of our favorite man
35:58
broadcasters. Does he even watch does he prepare for the teams that he's about
36:04
to announce for? Sorry, Jonathan Wilm is not a good TV voice.
36:08
I agree with you, But he did say something that I was kind of
36:13
like, Yeah, he's kind of right. He was talking about josh Mntellus
36:15
after that play and basically said, like he plays almost every position like he's
36:22
a safety, he's a linebacker. They'll throw him on the edge of the
36:27
defensive line and he'll rush the quarterback at times like he's just he's kind of
36:30
a Swiss army knife. He's kind of the next Harrison Smith almost that can
36:35
like play anywhere or do anything and is a big playmaker in those big moments
36:39
when you gotta have it. Absolutely so, Yeah, he's one of those
36:44
core guys that I would put under that list of guys that you want to
36:47
keep around, and think the lord they signed him was it for a three
36:52
year extension? Two or three year extension before the season started, So he's
36:55
he's around for a little bit, but hopefully a lot more, you know.
37:00
And yeah, that that core that you're talking about, it's got to
37:04
be JJ, It's got to be darrisaw and then after that, Daniel Hunter,
37:08
Mattelis you want to keep around, I don't know who who else would
37:14
you put in that core of players you need to keep around? TJ And
37:17
he's locked up for a good handful of years at this point. Now Jordan
37:22
Addison is I mean, he's on his rookie year, so he's he's here
37:25
for at least three or four more seasons, depending on how they do the
37:34
the what what's THEE but the option year, That's what I was. So,
37:42
Yeah, there's there's some guys that aren't immediately leaving that you can think
37:45
of other than Kirk and that that was already kind of an ify scenario this
37:52
time last week before the injury, just he was playing himself into a Mahomes
38:00
type contract at least per year average money. If he would have kept up
38:06
what he was doing, he would have played himself in the MVP conversation.
38:09
Vikings could have done some amazing things, which the door's not slam shut on
38:14
some cool stuff this season. But yeah, there's some questions. Well,
38:19
let's talk about the the next guy up. Yeah, I mean, I
38:24
guess there's a couple of options. And the Vikings have already indicated that Jaren
38:29
Hall will start this week against the Falcons, so that's a known But they
38:34
also traded yesterday for Josh Dobbs, who apparently I didn't know this before yesterday.
38:42
He's super smart. He in turned at NASA. Excuse me, where
38:47
do you go, Tennessee. He's got his degree is something super smart sounding?
38:52
I should know this, But apparently he's really smart and picked up the
38:58
Browns offense over the off season and then was traded to the Cardinals and has
39:02
started. I mean it's not like he's been lighting up the league. The
39:06
whole Cardinals team has not been lighting up the league, but got down their
39:09
offense really quickly. He has. He's thrown more touchdowns than interceptions. Yeah,
39:15
it's nice. He's more mobile, He's I guess he has more rushing
39:20
touchdowns than Kirk. He has more rushing touchdowns than Alexander Madison, but I
39:27
don't think Madison has any rushing touchdowns. I think I think Josh Davs has
39:30
three rushing touchdowns this year, which is more than Cam Akers, who should
39:35
be more than one. Anybody on the Vikings absolutely, So, Yeah,
39:40
to your point, we know it's going to be Haul against the Falcons,
39:45
and my thought is that at this point it's probably Hall's job to lose.
39:53
That's certainly what it seems like. Otherwise they wouldn't have made the trade.
39:58
Well yeah, and people are questioning like, oh, they don't they don't
40:01
trust Jaron Hall because they did make a trade for a quarterback. They only
40:06
have one quarterback. They would have had two guys that they could have dressed
40:13
against the Falcons if they didn't make any move at all. Because Nick Mullens
40:16
he's still on IR, I think I don't think he can is even able
40:22
to come back off of IR until two games from now something like that.
40:25
Yeah, and that's if he's you know, if he's fully healthy and ready
40:29
to go. So let's just assume that's the case, because we haven't really
40:32
heard anything different, but Nick Mullens and then you have Sean and who they
40:42
could have easily you know, elevated elevated for a game or two, and
40:46
I don't know, they still might. I guess I would. You probably
40:51
would because Josh Dobbs today was his first practice, I mean, and it
40:55
was all walk through today today being Wednesday again, so he has an even
41:00
warn pads for the Vikings yet, so he may not be active after being
41:07
in Minnesota for like four days. So it's still still may be Sean Manyon
41:14
backing up Jaren Hall. And if Hall comes out and has a day like
41:20
who was it Will Levis did for the Titans this past weekend four touchdowns,
41:24
I'm not saying I expect that to happen. It's probably gonna be some growing
41:30
pains. I expect maybe a rough game win or lose. We're not going
41:34
to be singing Jaren Hall's praises overly like he's not gonna be a pro bowler
41:38
after this weekend, probably, But if he does, if he looks good,
41:43
I can't imagine you make the switch immediately. I mean one, Josh
41:47
Dabs will at that point have only been in the in the town for less
41:52
than two weeks and Nick Mullens may not be fully healthy. I don't know.
41:59
They may end up sign another quarterback depending on how things go. There's
42:02
a lot of upside, right, I mean, offensive line has finally kind
42:07
of solidified. I mean, I think the offensive line looked the best that
42:13
it had all seasons. Oh yeah. At Green Bay, I think Riisner
42:19
has proven that he's a starter, and obviously that he's cemented his place there
42:25
because they traded away as with Cleveland, Yeah, which they would not have
42:29
done if Reisner was looking wishy washy exactly. And ed Ingram's kind of shaped
42:35
up. Bradbury's back and healthy, and on either side on the edge,
42:40
you've got two guys that are just one of the best tackle tantems in the
42:45
league, I mean, if not the best. Yeah. Oh, thank
42:49
goodness for Bradbury. I was starting to think like this could be it for
42:52
his career, so with a back injury that could still happen at any point.
42:57
But it's been a few weeks now Bradbury's been play and playing well,
43:00
like better than he ever has before. I don't know what happened. He
43:06
just maybe he's finally feeling okay. I don't know, but I've seen a
43:08
few replays on Twitter that have focused on him specifically and just his ability to
43:15
stick with a guy deep into a play, or take a guy that's way
43:22
bigger than him and just manhandle him like he's playing really well, and he
43:27
played really really well against the Packers. Yeah, well, and having an
43:30
experienced and confident center is only gonna make your rookie quarterbacks job that much better
43:37
because, like we've said before, it's not a secret the center makes a
43:42
lot of the calls for the offensive line depending on what they're seeing. And
43:45
it seems like that's another thing that Dalton Reisner brings to the table is he
43:50
he sees the game well and can pick up on like what guy he needs
43:55
to block and how the blocking scheme needs to work. But for Jaren Hall,
44:00
yeah, we can talk about Jordan Addison being a great asset for him,
44:04
the whole j group, you know, the kJ tj JJ, everybody
44:07
that's only going to make Jaron Hall or whoever starting at quarterback their job so
44:12
much easier. But having Bradburry right in front of him making blocking calls,
44:17
that could be the biggest scheming point of Jaron Hall's success. Well, I
44:22
guess that's the point I'm trying to make, is right, Like our offensive
44:25
line is now really really good, almost like I would say, almost elite,
44:30
playing at a very high level, and then you have a lot of
44:34
skilled players that are just awesome, and we're gonna get Justin Jefferson back as
44:43
early as the Saints game. Nothing has been indicated yet, but that would
44:45
be the earliest he could come back if I'm counting four weeks correctly from his
44:51
injury, So not this week against the Falcons, but possibly next week against
44:58
the Saints. Addison has played really well. TJ's played really well. kJ.
45:06
Jordan Powell like, yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I mean to
45:10
Kj's point too, I've been a critic of him this whole season, and
45:15
he looked really good against the Packers, and we've seen him look really good.
45:20
I think he just had the yips or whatever for a little bit,
45:22
and hopefully now he's back to being really good again. He might have been
45:25
a little bitter that Addison came in and kind of snatched up that wide receiver
45:30
two role that he was kind of hoping to snatch from feeling when he was
45:34
traded away, and you know, Yeah, who knows, But yeah,
45:38
he has been coming on as of late, and that's that's only gonna help
45:44
whoever's under center, Jaron Hall, Josh Dobbs, the other guys. Yeah,
45:51
I think the best case scenario is obviously you want every player to look
45:55
amazing and be Pro bowlers, But I just I Jarren Hall never lets this
46:02
job go, and then if he does, we're gonna be fully confident and
46:07
fully supporting Josh Stabs or whoever is playing, because I mean, we're fans.
46:10
We like to like our team. But like I just I hope Jaron
46:15
Hall is good. I want him to be good. He's got a lot
46:19
of things working in his favor, not just on the field, but I
46:22
think off the field too. He's been in this organization since he was drafted.
46:25
He did all of the OTAs and training camp and preseason and everything,
46:32
and he's sat on the sidelines with an earpiece listening to the plays being called
46:38
into Kirk, watching Kirk make the plays that he's made, watching Kirk play
46:44
at an elite level. So I think he's got all of the upside.
46:52
And I mean he threw four passes against the Packers, completed three of them
46:58
completed three of them. Yeah, he was sacked from behind and you know,
47:01
was forced to fumble it, and Rising in his postgame interview kind of
47:08
admitted like he's like, yeah, that was our fault. We need to
47:10
do better. And he kind of spoke up and just supported Jaron Hall like
47:17
yeah, like we're behind him, We've got him, and that one sack
47:22
that was that was our fault. We need to do better to protect him.
47:25
But I and to that point too, I think all of the support
47:30
for Kirk in the locker room seeing JJ tweet or quote tweet Kirk's tweet about
47:37
you know, the cast on his leg, he said something like love you
47:39
man. Like seeing all this support for Kirk is only going to also be
47:45
focused right at Jaren Hall or whoever the quarterback is, because they're just gonna
47:52
want to elevate that guy the way that they would love to have elevated Kirk
47:58
like they were. You know, they're starting to play so good. This
48:01
team was getting there. It was getting scary, kind of like the Lions
48:06
turning into a good team in the second half of the last season. The
48:09
Vikings were figuring stuff out, and that can still happen. It's just you're
48:14
not going to have the juggernaut jury same amount of production from the quarterback position
48:21
probably as you would have, and it might take a few games for that
48:27
chemistry to develop, for that timing to develop between the quarterback and the receivers,
48:31
the quarterback in the center, the quarterback and the running backs. Yeah,
48:37
but I mean Jaron Hall and Josh Dobbs are both highly mobile, Yeah,
48:43
way more mobile than Kirk, and they're they're not necessarily going to be
48:47
the traditional pocket passer. They're going to be able to improvise and move and
48:52
get out of some of those hairy situations like we see Patrick Mahomes do.
48:58
Did you just compare Jaron Hall to Pat Mahomes. No, I'm saying,
49:01
oh, you've compared Josh Dobbs to Boy. Wouldn't it be nice? Though?
49:07
Oh? Man? But I mean you talk about a quarterback who came
49:09
in in relief of someone else who had gone down injured and turned out to
49:14
be this amazing player. Patrick Mahomes came in for Alex Smith, did he
49:17
not? I think so? Yeah, didn't know Smith got that gruesome leg
49:22
injury when he was already with Washington, But I think yeah, Mahomes.
49:27
He didn't start his whole rookie year. Yeah, he sat behind Alex Smith
49:30
and then lost his starting Alex Smith lost his starting job to Patrick Mahomes.
49:36
Yeah, but so yeah, officially we're saying Jared Hall is on the Pat
49:42
Mahomes level. I can't even say that with a straight face. You heard
49:44
it here, all right. So that's probably about it for the Packer game.
49:52
Hopefully we beat him again later in the season. They did not look
49:59
good. No, they were a bad team. They looked awful. They
50:02
made a lot of penalties, a lot of mistakes. I tweetedly. I
50:07
tweeted something like, man, I wonder how those Packer fans that were clamoring
50:12
for Aaron Rodgers to get traded. I wonder how they're feeling right now because
50:15
Jordan Love he is not He is not Aaron Rodgers. And that's a whole
50:22
different situation than the Vikings are in because Love he's healthy, he's been there.
50:28
What's this his third fourth year. Yeah, he's been there. He's
50:30
been in the room with Aaron Rodgers. He's been with the same coach as
50:35
Aaron Rodgers had. I think a lot of Packers fans assumed like maybe there'd
50:39
be some you know, step down, But yeah, this guy's gonna step
50:44
right in. He's not gonna make the same mistakes Rogers does. That's not
50:49
how it works when you have your Hall of Fame quarterback, leave the organization.
50:52
Look at the Patriots right now. I mean the last couple of years
50:54
for the Patriots. The Patriots look terrible too. Oh yeah, they're like
50:59
enough that people might get fired, which is crazy to say, but I
51:04
mean, yeah, this Packer game, it was fun. It was really
51:07
fun until it wasn't. It felt a lot like the Niners game until it
51:12
didn't. We hope the best for Kirk, but unfortunately this team needs to
51:20
move on. Yep. Yeah, and we'll see what happens. I mean,
51:22
there's a lot to happen just in this season. Still, you know,
51:29
who knows. We could still be a playoff team very much on the
51:31
table. Oh yeah, after getting to four and four this last week,
51:37
we got to that five hundred mark. I mean, we could still go
51:40
on to be in that wild card hunt. Very well could so hopefully hopefully.
51:46
I feel like the way the rest of the team is playing, even
51:50
with not terrible quarterback play, you could do some stuff. You could win
51:58
some games and hopefully be relevant come playoff time. Hopefully. Otherwise you're looking
52:06
at a decent draft pick for next year. I'm not rooting for the team
52:08
to lose, but I mean, if they have a decent draft pick,
52:13
apparently there's some good quarterbacks coming in the draft. You never know. Yeah,
52:17
I did. I saw something and I agree with the tweet or whatever.
52:22
I saw that, Like we're just the Vikings are too good of a
52:24
team to tank at this point. Like there's just there's no point in throwing
52:30
in the towel. Obviously, the trade deadline has now passed and we did
52:34
not just trade everybody away. Yep. You know, I think there's a
52:40
lot of hope left despite a very gruesome and possibly career ending injury to career
52:51
that's potentially I mean hopefully not, but hopefully not. But I mean also
52:57
just to beat this dead horse Kirk. Yeah, it came out yesterday or
53:02
something that Aaron Rodgers, you know, reached out and talked to Kirk about.
53:07
You know, they have both suffered the same injury, which is nice.
53:09
I feel like Aaron Rodgers is an actual, like halfway decent dude overall.
53:14
Whatever, But in Kirk's own locker room. Cam Acres is coming off
53:19
of an achilles injury and know that, Yeah, that was a big reason
53:23
why he wasn't productive last year's because he tore his achilles. So there's another
53:29
guy who can go put his arm around Kirk and be like I have been
53:34
there and Acres. He's in a position and he looks fine, you know,
53:37
health wise. Now he's in a position that requires you to be very
53:42
physical and athletic, and that achilles, I'm assuming is a very big part
53:47
of being athletic. So I would assume cam Acres can be another point of
53:54
support and knowledge and hey, you should do this. I didn't do this,
53:59
but you should do this. Or hey, don't don't do this because
54:01
it didn't work for me. You know, stuff like that. Just another
54:06
positive note in the recovery of Kirk cousins aspect. I meant to say that
54:10
earlier, but I forgot I had no idea. It's interesting and it's also
54:15
remarkable considering how well he's played. I mean, we've been singing camp Aker's
54:21
praise since he got to Minnesota, Like, give him the ball more.
54:24
He looks so good. Yeah, he makes big plays. I still stand
54:28
by that. I agree. I thought Madison looked better this week. We
54:32
still didn't even rush for one hundred yard No, I think it was like
54:35
sixty total. Still not a great rushing performance, but the first rushing touchdown
54:40
of the year, and it was Cam Akers. Yeah, that had it.
54:43
So Yeah, I don't know a lot of room to improve there where
54:46
the Vikings are by far one of the worst teams running the ballah in the
54:51
league. It's definitely an area to improve. Absolutely. Maybe that improves with
54:55
a more mobile quarterback. I don't know. Maybe maybe you were I on
55:00
the rush more than you've had to. Yeah, because who cares if the
55:02
rushing isn't working because Kirk's slinging it, you know, right, But now
55:07
I don't know, you don't have Kirk slinging it anymore. Could get ugly.
55:10
You don't want to be slinging interceptions. Get back to leading the league
55:15
in turnovers, because that's a pretty dark place to beep. So this Falcons
55:22
game, Yeah, it's coming week. They're going to Atlanta, right or
55:24
no? This would be yes, we have this. This is one of
55:29
two two game road trips at Green Bay and now at Atlanta before we come
55:34
home to play the Saints next week. Got it? Okay, so it's
55:37
a noon game. What do we got Taylor Heineke. Yeah, former all
55:44
time Viking preseason player. He always looked good in the preseason. The Vikings
55:51
saw him last year against the Kamis when even the refs were trying to tackle
55:58
the Vikings players. But yeah, he played pretty well last year for Washington.
56:05
Yeah. He's always been a guy that's up and down, and I
56:07
feel like, for whatever reason, wherever he is, once he like does
56:13
one poor thing, it's like, oh he's out, let's pull him out.
56:16
Like people don't believe in him. I'm not saying they should. I
56:19
don't know, but that just seems like the case, like people just are
56:22
quick to pull him out. So hopefully he doesn't look good against the Vikings
56:28
this coming week. I don't know. It's always nice when you can say,
56:32
hey, a backup quarterback's coming in, like the Falcons will be saying
56:37
about the Vikings. This defense is playing well, and I think it behooves
56:43
the defense to take advantage of the backup quarterback coming in, which again,
56:49
you can say that about the Falcons defense against the Vikings too, But I
56:53
don't know, I feel good about this game ish, you know, all
57:00
things considered, I feel decent about it. I'm not saying they're gonna go
57:04
in and win and dominate, but they're not just gonna quit. So there
57:07
would certainly be more challenging games on the schedule to play immediately after a Kirk
57:15
Cousins injury, like playing the Chiefs or playing the Niners and having to,
57:20
you know, face those giants without your guy under center. Yeah. I
57:25
can imagine as a player in the locker room, you could be thinking all
57:28
this and then look up and say, oh, geez, now we've got
57:31
the Eagles, and we're going to the Eagles. Now we got to try
57:36
to beat a juggernaut right now. Like I feel like the Falcons are I
57:40
guess I don't know how the Falcons are playing this year four and four.
57:44
Okay, so the same as the Vikings. I feel like they're not one
57:46
that's making the Vikings shake in their boots, Like it's not, oh,
57:52
we lost Kirk and now we have to play this Falcons team. Like,
57:55
I feel like there's still a winning mentality when you're looking at the game,
58:00
even with general Yeah, well, and last weekend, even the week before
58:05
you know, you look at the next several games and they're all winnable.
58:08
Not saying that the Vikings will win those games, but the potential to win
58:14
is there. It's not a Chiefs, Eagles Niners like ooh man, yep,
58:20
this is gonna be tough. I mean, we went through last podcast
58:23
and talked about like how many what were there five games left? How what
58:28
would the Vikings record be? And I think you said going into the buy,
58:31
the overall Vikings record would be a five hundred above five hundred. Are
58:36
you still I'm still confident we can get there. I think Atlanta is a
58:42
winnable game. It's indoor, and I think the turf in Atlanta is very
58:46
comparable to the turf in Minnesota. I mean, obviously there are challenges to
58:52
playing on the road, but I don't know, I think I think it's
59:00
a very winnable game. And then you come home against the Saints, who
59:02
the Saints kind of had a little mini resurgence this last week. Their offense
59:09
looked better than it has but there's still a lot of question marks in New
59:15
Orleans that they've got to figure out. And then where do we go after
59:22
that? Is it Denver go to Denver and then Chicago at home before the
59:28
bye, so Denver obviously shocked the Chiefs. Yeah, but that's a division
59:34
game too, Like the Vikings are always going to play the Packers, well,
59:37
I mean, I don't. I guess that's probably the same thing.
59:40
Broncos are always going to try to play the Chiefs. Well, yep,
59:44
even though this is their first win against the Chiefs in like sixteen or seventeen
59:50
games. But still it's not like they've been easy wins for the Chiefs every
59:53
time. Right. Well, the Broncos kind of just owned the Chiefs.
59:59
I mean, it pretty lopsided. So anyways, I guess all of that
1:00:04
to say, it's certainly a week to week league, and you play every
1:00:09
week to win the game, right Herm Edwards. You play to win the
1:00:14
game. And there's truth in that. It's kind of a simple sentiment,
1:00:20
but it's true. And I think the Vikings need to go out and continue
1:00:24
to play to win these games and see what happens, and see if you
1:00:30
can't build some confidence into a young quarterback, see if you can't surprise some
1:00:37
people even without an MVP caliber quarterback who has been playing lights out like I
1:00:46
don't know, go out and play to win the game. See what happens.
1:00:49
Yeah, I expect the Falcons to be very blitz heavy against the inexperienced
1:00:55
rookie Jarrenholl. That just seems like the thing that you do against a rookie
1:01:00
that's never played before in the NFL. He's got some experience in college in
1:01:06
a you know, at BYU. But yeah, I expect to see a
1:01:09
lot of blitz. Is probably a few sacks. Hopefully he can hold onto
1:01:13
the ball and not throw some dumb interceptions. Well, if they're gonna blitz
1:01:16
a lot, you know, see if you can get those backs involved or
1:01:20
even some of those receivers involved out of the backfield and throwing some of those
1:01:23
screen passes. If everybody's coming off the line, well then just go to
1:01:28
the outside and see if you can gain some yards that way, or you
1:01:31
know, see if you can find some one on one matchups with Addison or
1:01:36
TJ down the field and see if you can get some big chunk plays or
1:01:39
even some nice touchdowns. And you know, there are ways to you know,
1:01:45
combat that offensively if they're gonna throw everything at you at the line,
1:01:50
and the Vikings have learned that too, and Brian Flores, I think has
1:01:53
had to try to balance that out, like, yeah, you can't just
1:01:55
throw eight guys on the line every single time. Mm hmm. And there
1:02:00
are times that he'll he'll put eight guys or nine guys up there and then
1:02:05
you know, four or five of them back off. I love when you
1:02:07
see Harrison Smith like run up and then right before the ball is snap,
1:02:10
just sprint back and it's like, oh, geez, I wonder what that
1:02:14
quarterback's thinking to that point too. Expect to see quite a few screen passes,
1:02:20
quick passes. I think against the Packers, the Vikings had their most
1:02:25
productive screen pass that I've ever seen the Vikings have. I think it was
1:02:30
to Brandon Powell, just a quick pass for like twenty plus yards. It
1:02:35
was awesome. But yeah, those are I feel like easy, productive plays
1:02:40
for a rookie quarterback to have and get some completions under his belt. So
1:02:45
I would expect to see a bit of those during the game. Keys of
1:02:51
the game. Yeah, So I've got three. I think the number one
1:02:55
first and foremost is Jared Hall. And by that I mean, you know,
1:03:00
not just essen your pants the whole game, but he's gonna have coach
1:03:05
in his ear the whole game, or you know, whenever it's legal and
1:03:08
their communications working. His biggest thing is to trust Kevin O'Connell and just play
1:03:17
the way he's been playing his entire life. I mean football. Yeah,
1:03:21
sure, it gets harder when you're in the NFL, but it's still the
1:03:23
same game. He has had success. He can be successful. He just
1:03:29
needs to trust himself, but most importantly, trust Kevin O'Connell and do what
1:03:34
he's told and hopefully because the rest of the team has proven they're gonna have
1:03:39
his back. The line's gonna hold up, the receivers are gonna catch.
1:03:44
I mean, for the most part, they're gonna catch the balls if it's
1:03:45
within reach. The play, the game plan is gonna be there, so
1:03:51
he just needs to trust the process and play well. The defense keep it
1:03:54
up, keep looking like they have been. Against the Packers. It was
1:04:00
their second lowest total of blitzing this whole season, so they've kind of toned
1:04:04
down the blitzing a little bit, and that might have just been against the
1:04:06
Packers. I don't know how the game plan looks weak to week, but
1:04:12
maybe you don't blitz so much if you're not getting home and it's opening up
1:04:15
holes for the offense to succeed. Just defense, if they can look the
1:04:18
way they did against the Packers, that'd be great force turnovers. For some
1:04:24
turnovers that Josh Mttelli's turnover felt like it came at the perfect time, and
1:04:29
especially that first play that KOs called. They took a shot to the end
1:04:33
zone and it worked. It's what you're supposed to do, big turnover and
1:04:38
then just dagger it and it worked and it was amazing that that was the
1:04:42
turning point in the game. So yeah, defense, keep looking good and
1:04:46
literally turnovers is my next key. Try to limit them on offense I said
1:04:51
before, and I'll still stand by it. If the Vikings go a whole
1:04:55
game without turning the ball over, even with Jaren Hall or not Kirk Cousins,
1:05:00
they will win the game because they're good enough everywhere else. So that
1:05:04
that's my thoughts. Do you have any other thoughts? No? I like
1:05:09
what you said. I think Jaren Hall has to not just be a game
1:05:14
manager, because I think that's what a lot of people are expecting him to
1:05:15
be. Just you know, come in manage the game. Let everybody else
1:05:19
do what they've been doing. And you know, at the quarterback position,
1:05:24
you just can't do that and win games. Yep, right, Like,
1:05:27
there's just there's not You have to make some place. You're gonna have to
1:05:30
make some throws. You might have to run the ball. You might have
1:05:34
to you know, move around a little bit and try to elude some defenders
1:05:41
and make some throws on the run. Don't just be a game manager,
1:05:45
but play to win the game, right like they've already said. And I
1:05:49
like what you said too, Yeah, trust the coaching. It'll be interesting
1:05:54
because I think Kirk, you know, Kirk has this like vision for the
1:05:59
field when he steps out there, and he he's very savvy, and he
1:06:03
he can quickly audible and can quickly move guys around or change the blocking scheme
1:06:11
for the offensive line and stuff like that. It'll be interesting to see what
1:06:14
a younger quarterback does with some of those tools and resources at the line,
1:06:19
and if even O'Connell wants him to do some of that, or if he
1:06:24
wants to keep it very vanilla, very simple. You know, that'll be
1:06:29
it'll be interesting to see. Yep. But then yeah, me and the
1:06:32
defense, I would maybe argue against your point a little bit to blitz a
1:06:39
little bit more. If Taylor Heineke's going to be playing quarterback for the first
1:06:42
time this season for the Falcons, by the same logic that the Falcons might
1:06:47
come after Jaron Hall, well, why wouldn't we go after their new quarterback.
1:06:53
He's not a rookie. He's a little more experienced. He's been in
1:06:56
the league for a while and kind of knows what to expect. But still
1:06:59
like he hasn't been the one under center this season Desmond Raider has, and
1:07:04
I don't know, maybe Flores tries to take advantage of that, and maybe
1:07:09
he's not blitzing eighty percent of the time, but maybe he's blitzing five percent
1:07:14
more than he did at Green Bay, just to see if there's something to
1:07:18
exploit there. Yep, And you gotta think heinike, he's probably he's gonna
1:07:25
be pumped for this game. No, it's his for one of his former
1:07:28
teams and maybe one that he probably had the most chance to succeed in but
1:07:33
never really got the opportunity for various reasons. But yeah, I would agree
1:07:40
with you wholeheartedly. I think Flores is gonna come after him, But that
1:07:45
excites me for this game, whereas in previous games, I've been like,
1:07:48
why are you blitzing so much when it's not working? Like I think it'll
1:07:51
work this game. Dj Wanham has turned something on. He had two sacks
1:07:57
last game, like it's it's crazy how good he's well want them Hunter Phillips
1:08:04
Like they've just they've been playing really really well up front and they've got some
1:08:10
depth there too, which is nice. Yeah, sure, so it'll be
1:08:14
It'll be an interesting game, a very intriguing game, and one that we
1:08:18
here in Iowa don't get to watch except you will because you've got the NFL.
1:08:23
So I'm pretty sure, don't. We have plans we have, We
1:08:26
have vague plans that I meant to talk to you about that. So all
1:08:30
right, can I come to your house to watch the Yeah? I thought
1:08:31
we already kind of talked about it. We kind of threw it out there
1:08:34
and we haven't talked about it in a few weeks. But let's make it
1:08:36
official right now. Yeah, your your family. My family will do it.
1:08:42
I will have ice cream prepared. I will not prepare the ice cream.
1:08:46
I will buy it from the store. I'll bring the beer. Okay,
1:08:49
all right, it sounds good. That's kind of crazy. Will that
1:08:54
be our first game that we're watching in person together since we started the podcast?
1:09:00
I feel like we've watched a game together this season, haven't we?
1:09:03
Didn't you come over earlier this year? Didn't we watch a game here?
1:09:06
I came over and we watched college football together? That's right? I don't
1:09:12
remember. I don't remember either. Maybe this will be our first game since
1:09:15
we started the podcast. May be true, And you know what will be
1:09:19
together? Well, we got to at least do some TikTok or some mini
1:09:25
episode or something like we can we can figure something out. We'll get some
1:09:28
content out there. Oh yeah, anything else about the Falcons? I think
1:09:31
we've said that one. Do you think they'll win? Yeah? I think
1:09:35
they'll win. I don't see any reason why they won't. Both teams are
1:09:41
coming in with question marks at quarterback, and I think the Vikings have a
1:09:46
lot fewer question marks as a team than the Falcons do. And I think
1:09:53
there's a whole lot more unity, brotherhood and just sheer love in that locker
1:10:00
room. And I think these guys go out and fight for Kirk this week,
1:10:03
Like, let's go out and win this one for him. I hope
1:10:06
that's the sentiment the whole rest of the season. Like, I hope,
1:10:10
I hope Kirk gets a ring this year. I'm not saying that's gonna happen,
1:10:15
but man, that'd be that'd be awesome, that'd be movie worthy.
1:10:19
Let's let's get cam bynum some some movie all right. Man. Well,
1:10:28
if you think the Vikings are going to win or get completely demolished by the
1:10:32
Falcons, let us know, reach out to us. We're on TikTok,
1:10:36
the school Hop, Twitter, slash x at the school Hop, Instagram at
1:10:44
the School Hop, and Facebook the school Hop. We're also on YouTube.
1:10:47
We had our first video episode last week, so this will be our second
1:10:53
video episodes. You can find us there as well. Drop a comment on
1:10:56
one of our videos. Yep, let us know what you think. Yep.
1:11:00
So, and I think the plan is to kind of mirror our TikTok
1:11:02
page to YouTube shorts and everything like that. But yeah, if you're one
1:11:05
that enjoys video podcasts over audio podcasts, that will be an option because we'll
1:11:14
have the whole podcast on YouTube as well. That's true, and who knows,
1:11:17
maybe in the future we'll do some live podcasts on YouTube or twitch or
1:11:24
whatever. But yeah, there's plans to be made, So yeah, reach
1:11:29
out. Let us know if you think we're right or crazy or anything.
1:11:33
Tell us your favorite bread recipe. I don't care this beer. What do
1:11:39
you think? I liked it? Sit your culture from Adventurous Brewing. It's
1:11:42
a good one. It's a solid one. It's one of mine to just
1:11:45
sip on slowly and enjoy. Like I said, crisp, clean, easy
1:11:51
drinking. I like it. Yep, it's one of my favorites. Definitely
1:11:55
one of my favorites of local beers. So yeah, I'm never gonna be
1:12:00
sad if you hate me a citric nature. All right, man, I've
1:12:03
got just a little bit left, So until next time, Until next time
1:12:08
school at I think I think, I think I think I think I think
1:13:13
I think A A A A A I I think I think I think I
1:13:44
think I think I think I think I think I