Latest / The Skol Hop / The Vikings are 5-0! Austin takes a walk, and the Bye Week | TSH Ep. 159

Transcript

The Vikings are 5-0! Austin takes a walk, and the Bye Week | TSH Ep. 159 · The Skol Hop

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right hey vikings fans welcome in to another episode
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of the skull hob i'm evan and i'm austin we're
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: just a couple of dudes from iowa we like drinking
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: beer and talking about the vikings.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah we do and this week we were lured in
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: by a really great beer from tellurian brew brewing it.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Was great uh not so great for you you had
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to spin the wheel of purple punishments.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah that was uh that was pretty painful and it
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: sucked a lot but i made.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: It through Good news is the Vikings are 5-0, and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: we got to talk about their win against the Saints
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that brought them to that mark.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Undefeated, and it feels so good. And then we moved
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: right along to talk about the bye week and NFC
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: North and some other just NFL news in general. Yeah.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: So wherever you are and whatever you like to drink,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: grab a cold one and join us for episode 159
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of the Skol House.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Skol.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Skol. all right we're gonna get to some beer here
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: in just a second but austin beer right now that's
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the next thing no we're not gonna skip over this skip.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Over no we don't i don't know what you're talking about.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: You have to spin the wheel of purple punishments it's
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: happening And it's because you picked against the Vikings again.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: You've got to learn your lesson. You can't do that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Well, I was pretty pessimistic on the opening part of
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the season. But then, if you remember, I turned it around,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and I predicted a pretty high win total for the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Vikings overall. So you know what's going to happen. They're
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: going to win now, and then they're going to tank it,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: and then I'm going to really hit it on both ends.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: But all right, I guess I will subject myself to
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: almost anything that the wheel has to tell me. All right.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: You ready?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I'm ready.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Here we go.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I forgot we did the drum roll.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: The drum roll sound. It's pretty great.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Today you will be performing the Lego walk.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Do we have?
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: We have Legos. We have everything?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: We'll make it work.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, man.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Well, we're going to pause here. We'll get some things
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: set up. And when we come back, Austin will be
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: walking over Legos.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Yay.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: All right, Austin, we've got some Legos here on the ground.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I hate this.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: And you're barefoot. Sandals are right there.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: It's time to go. Man up.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: This is your punishment.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: All right, am I.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: You just have to walk from there to here. That's probably, what,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: like six feet of Legos?
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Something like that. Maybe five. I'm going to go for this.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: I really could, like, make this a one-stepper, maybe a two-stepper,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: but I'm going to be.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Embrace it.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I hate this. We're going to see blood.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: You're not going to bleed.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right. Ready? Ow!
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Ow! Okay.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: You took like three steps. How many Legos do you
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: have on your feet?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: They all fell off. I'm pretty sure I broke a few.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: That was.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: You've got to go back now.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going back. Are you ready? Round two.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Ah okay ow okay this better get three.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Views okay all.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Right you did it now it's over with we gotta
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: leave it on the wheel for you that was terrible
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: no it will it will come off the wheel all
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: right i don't think i'm bleeding though so rules are
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: too bad that could have been worse uh now i
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: hope you get spicy food there so all right let's
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: clean this up let's go let's.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Go all right ev um Well, it's done and over with.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: It was quick. It was easy.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Hopefully slightly entertaining for our audience.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe, maybe.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I almost fell only like twice. And now it's off
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: the board, so you're welcome.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: The bad news for me is like, The spicy stuff,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the sardines, the waxing of the armpits, that's still very
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: much out there.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: You've already done the sardines and the armpits before, though.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Previously, yeah. They're still not fun. I don't want to
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: do them again.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: I would say that's probably not the worst punishment I've done.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: The cinnamon challenge was pretty bad last year. But I
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: wouldn't choose to walk on Legos again. I was telling you,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: within the last couple of months, I was putting one
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: of my my kids to bed and I turned to
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: leave their room and I stepped on a Lego. And
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: it was one of those like little mini bushes with
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: like the, the pokies sticking out. And one of the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: pokies went straight into my heel. That's why I said,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I'm probably going to bleed. Uh, it, this Lego walk
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: was not as bad as that one, but I, I
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: don't recommend it and I don't want to do it again.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: I can still kind of feel the, the Lego pain
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: on my feet. And it was a couple of minutes
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: ago already. So, Don't recommend it.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Let's numb that pain with some beer. I forgot to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: pick up the beer, so you picked me up. We
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: went to the store. I still picked it out, but
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: you were there with me. It was kind of a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: fun little trip to the store. We picked up Tellurian Brewing,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: their Chucktown Brown Ale, 5.2%.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Chucktown....
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Short for charles city which is charles city iowa which
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: is where it's brewed we've had a few tellurian beers before.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah evan actually fun fact do you know why they
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: serve beer there no idea it's tellurian no i knew
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: that was coming i know i've botched that joke so
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: many times so i'm really glad that i got to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: rehearse that before we started recording and.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: What's up dog it's nothing what's up with you.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: It smells like up dog in here um But yeah,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I'm excited for this one, the Chucktown Brown. You just
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: read off all the ones that we've had from them,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: and I wasn't listening. Was one of those an Oktoberfest
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: or something?
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Here, let me look. I can consult our list.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: We had their Big Peel, the Chucktoberfest, so yes, the Oktoberfest,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and then Nectar of the Galaxies, which is a hazy IPA.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: So I was wondering, when you picked this one up,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: I was like, I wonder if this is just the same,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: just renamed of their Chucktoberfest. I doubt that's the case, though.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: This looks pretty brown ale. This reminds me of Birch
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: the Brown Bear.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, from Big Grove.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: You pre-tasted it? I got a little sip.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: I can't leave the drop on the can.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Now the listener is going to know that we're disingenuous.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: You know what? Let's just dive in.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Skol.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Skol.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: That's a perfect fall beer right there, if I've ever
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: had one.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: It's like chocolatey almost.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a full deep flavored brown beer. It's really good.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: But just like that Oktoberfest that we had last weekend.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Last week, not last weekend. I don't think it's very
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: high on the lawnmower scale.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: That's fair.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: It's really high on the campfire scale. You know, the
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: fall cozy sweatshirt campfire weather. But this one, I'll give
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: it like a 6.2 on the lawnmower scale. But it's
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a super good beer. That doesn't mean it's a bad
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: beer at all. It's just too heavy of a beer
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: to be drinking right off the lawnmower. But man, this
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: flavor is fantastic. It's just brown all around. You're not
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: seeing any light through that whatsoever. Yeah, I like it
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: a lot. I would gladly have this one many more times.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we'll enjoy it as we talk about
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: our 5-0 Vikings.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: How crazy is that? Neither of us would have thought
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: that six weeks ago, that the Vikings would be 5-0
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: No.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: We definitely had some optimism, and we were like, okay,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, and yeah, this defense will be pretty good.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Think either of us in our right minds would have said,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, they'll be 5-0 going into the bye week.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was either going to be the first year
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: with a new type of quarterback that Kevin O'Connell had
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: never seen in Kyler Murray, or never had, or it
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: was going to be the second year with a young
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: and pretty struggling quarterback that we had last year. A
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: lot of unknowns, but man, a lot of reasons that
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: this team is good, and it's not fool's gold. I
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: think the Vikings are legitimately good, starting with the defense,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: and there's no question about that, and I don't have
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: any qualms about saying this team right now is led
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: by their defense and then special teams and then the offense,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: which is kind of starting to wake up a little bit.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't disagree with you at all. And I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: just think, and I think I texted you this at
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: some point, the Vikings are going to lose a game
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: at some point.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: Probably.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: It's kind of a foregone conclusion. I don't think we'll
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: be that upset about it. I think we'll sit here
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and be like, yeah, they're bound to lose one.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Speak for yourself. I'm going to be pretty pissed when
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: they lose a game just because I always am.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: You always are.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: I'll probably be the more level-headed one, which is normal.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I think you'll come around eventually and go, yeah, it's
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: one loss. It's maybe two or three losses, whatever it
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: ends up being at the end of the season. But
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I think this 5-0 start has solidified this team as
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a playoff team.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: I think... Things can.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Slip a little bit. Not that they will, because I
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: feel like there's a ton of momentum. But there could
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: be a bad game in there or two.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: And these Vikings.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Are still going to find themselves in the playoffs. And
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I think they're going to be pretty darn competitive in
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. They are already two games up on everybody
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: in the division.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: And I think even despite not scoring a ton of
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: points on offense, they're Plus in the point differential category.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Are they?
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: They are.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: They're like plus 43 or something like that. All right.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: And I think they lead the league in points allowed.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I think they've had the fewest points allowed.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're at like 12.8 or something right now.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: I'm just talking about total points allowed.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Cumulative.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: But all of that to say, this Vikings team looks, feels,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and I think is... a playoff team, even if there's
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a rough patch here or there in the next 10
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: to 12 weeks.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And people, myself included, will think of, what was it,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: 2016 with Sam Bradford when they started off 5-0 and
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: then ended up going like, what, 8-8?
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Skidded the rest of the season.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And didn't make the playoffs. This is not that team.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: The defense alone is proving that this is not that team.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: It would take some pretty devastating injuries or players just
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: turning into pumpkins out of nowhere um for this team
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: to really miss the playoffs because as we'll talk about
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: later the nfc north is all really good um but
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: the way things sit right now if the season ended
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: right now which thankfully it doesn't because then that'd be
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: the most ridiculously unnecessary regular season in sports at all
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: um all four NFC North teams would make the playoffs
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: as of right now. And so I'm pretty confident, even
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: in competing with the other NFC North teams, this Vikings
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: team is going to make the playoffs. I am in
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: the mindset, though, and I kind of always am, but
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: we definitely should be, especially with a competitive division. that
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: anytime we see an AFC NFC game, like what was
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: it last night? Um, the Monday night football game, the
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Brown or not the Browns and bills, the Rams and
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: bills you're, you have to root for the AFC team
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: because you want every NFC team to lose no matter what. Um,
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: and then, you know, you go from there. So ultimately we'll,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: we'll take it as it lies. Um, the season will
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: play out the way it's supposed to, um, But yeah,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: this Vikings team right now, 5-0, and it looks like
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: we should be talking about a lot more wins before
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: the season's done with.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Well, let's get into some roses and thorns, and then
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: we'll get to the game ball here in a little bit.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: But there's a lot of good things to talk about here.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I'm interested to hear what you thought was the big
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: positive takeaway from this game.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so my rose is kind of transitioning on from
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: my rose last week. Last week I had TJ Hawkinson
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: as my rose, but it was really just that the
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: offense finally seemed like it was starting to wake up
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: a little bit. And my rose this week is that
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the offense is continuing to take steps forward. Was it perfect? No.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Kyler Murray still isn't quite there yet, but he started
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: off the game with, what, like 11 straight completions? That
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: doesn't just happen. Now I know KOC is always pretty
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: consistent with having a good first scripted series of plays,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: so those first 15 or so plays are always at
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: least pretty decent unless Kyler Murray just throws a rainbow
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: ball interception on his first pass as a Viking. But
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Kyler Murray started off and really ultimately played the whole
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: game pretty decent passing-wise and then rushing-wise. It's like he
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: finally felt comfortable enough with the whole picture. I'm not
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: saying he knows the offense 100%. I'm not saying he's
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: a pro bowler this year. But it did seem like
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: it finally slowed down a little bit to him that
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: he did feel comfortable. You know, he'd get back in
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the pocket offensive line, even with the left tackle and
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: left guard, the starters at those positions out. We were
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: dealing with Joe Huber at guard and then Ryan Vandermark
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: at left tackle. Even with those newer guys, offensive line
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: gave Kyler Murray enough time most of the time. And
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: then when things started breaking down, it wasn't like, oh, crap,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take a sack. I think he took
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: two sacks. Never fun. But he also rushed.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: For, whoa, I've got it right here.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: 51 yards. 10 carries for 51 yards. Now, I don't
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: think any of those were designed rushes. Those were like, oh, crap, oh, crap.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: First read, second read, not there. And running out of time,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: just run it up for four, five, six yards. And, man,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: those five-yard runs can win a game for you.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: It keeps you on schedule. Absolutely.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: So I was thinking about it too. This is the
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: first game that I didn't have the thought of like,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: all right, it's not working right now with Kyler. Let's
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: throw Carson in there because at least Carson knows how
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: to run the offense. This is the first time I
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: never really had that thought. Again, not perfect the whole day.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: but the offense did pretty well. And Aaron Jones, a
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: hundred yards. And every time he rushed it, it's almost like,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: oh man, I let's let him, let's let him rest,
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: you know, but he kept going in there and like a,
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: like a true, uh, true blue football player. He kept
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: coming in. And at one point, Aaron Jones was questionable
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: to return with like a knee injury. Um, and then
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: like the next play, he was back in there. And
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: even after that fumble that he owned up to, and
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: after the game, he, uh, He got a game ball,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: and then he said, hey, to the teammates, thank you
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: for lifting me up even when I wasn't perfect, you know,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: owning up to that fumble. He still came in and
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: had a good game after that too. So overall, there's
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: a lot of reasons to feel good about this offense. Again,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: not perfect, not fully solved. This isn't the greatest show
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: on turf too. Not yet, but baby steps moving forward.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: It's positive.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Steps in the right direction for sure. My rose was
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: that Justin Jefferson got a touchdown and not only got
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a touchdown.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: Which is good. It's great.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: You love to see that with basically your best player
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and arguably one of the best players in the league.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: But he got one in his hometown in front of
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: a full stadium. That was a big headline coming into
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the game was he's never played a game at New
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Orleans with a full stadium. The last time the Vikings
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: traveled to New Orleans and he was on the team,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: It was the COVID year and it was just an
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: empty stadium, which was kind of a buzzkill. I think
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that's more important than we realize, though, because I think
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: that's momentum building for that individual player. And he's the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: spark that will ignite this team. And you saw that,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I think, in... certain flashes was it perfect and pretty
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: no he actually uh had that negative 11 yard yeah
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: that was play that was kind of bad um i
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: that was like a failed trick play.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Absolutely and it shouldn't have been called and i hope
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: they just removed that from the playbook.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: And i think koc even kind of admitted like yeah
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: that was me shouldn't have called it didn't turn out
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the way i thought it would whatever so the point
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: is it wasn't picture perfect it wasn't like justin jefferson's
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: best game ever but i think him catching that touchdown
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: in triple coverage by the way which was impressive in
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: front of his hometown crowd i think that will do
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: a lot to ignite the momentum in this building i
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: think he's proven that he is a phenomenal leader he's
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: a phenomenal locker room guy he is the absolute opposite
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: of a cancer and He's only ever been encouraging and positive,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: even when things are going really, really bad. And I
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: think he's going to take that. I think that's what
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: he needed, right? I think he just needed that little
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: bit of, and he's coming off of injury, missed a
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: little bit of time. He needed that little bit of spark,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that little bit of like.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: Yes, let's go.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: And I think that's going to hopefully ignite this big
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: flame that we can continue to fan bigger and bigger
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: as the season progresses.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I think that was crucial for this team.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: And maybe I'm over playing that a little bit, but
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I think it's kind of like happy wife, happy life
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. Like if Justin Jefferson's pumped and excited, man,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: that's going to be this infectious excitement that spreads throughout
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the locker room. And I think that one touchdown and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: triple coverage in New Orleans will Perhaps be one of
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the defining moments of this entire season.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. That catch was truly added to his highlight reel.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: That wasn't just another, oh, good job. That's what the
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: best player in the NFL does. That was truly up
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: there with the Bills catch. It was up there with.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: His first touchdown where he made the two defenders run
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: into each other and then.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: He gritted into the end zone against the Titans. It's
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: up there with the 97-yard touchdown from Sam Darnold. It's
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: up there with that other touchdown in Seattle from Sam
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Darnold to win the game or essentially win the game.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: It's up there in Justin Jefferson's highlight reel. And it's
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: really important to, and you were kind of dancing around
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: this point, but specifically when you're looking at Kyler Murray.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Kyler, now it's one thing, Kyler's not dumb by any means.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: He knows, hey, Justin Jefferson's one of the best players.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: in the NFL. Everybody knows that. He's probably thrown him
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: a few balls in practice and in games where he's like,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: oh man, I didn't think anybody could come down with
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: that ball, but Justin Jefferson can do that. Kyler Murray
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: now knows that was a gutsy ball to throw. And
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: JJ made it look easy. It was a highlight catch
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: and it was not easy, but JJ caught it. And
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: at no point, usually as a fan, you see those
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: and you're like, that was really cool. Did he actually
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: catch it? Like it was close for me. It's like, no,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: that was awesome. I didn't question that catch at all.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: And then they showed the other, um, the other angle
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: from the TV angle, and without question, two feet down,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: solid catch. It was awesome, and Kyler Murray had to
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: have been like, all right, I know what this guy
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: can do. I'm going to throw it up to him
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: any time now. That catch will win other games in
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: the future of this season because Kyler's going to be like, hey,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: I need a desperation ball. I know Justin's down there.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: We're going.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Well, two things with that.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Number one, I had to watch that play like five
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: or six times before I concluded for myself that it
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: was a legitimate catch.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I was like, okay, he got one foot down, but
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: I didn't see the other one. It just like, I
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: had to slow it down.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I had to find the other angle. And I was like, okay,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: it was a catch.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: It took me a minute.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: When I saw it finally and conclusively, I was like, man,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: what a catch.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: The other thing that I would add to that is,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: and we've seen this before with Justin Jefferson, he is
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: not necessarily this touchdown machine. No. I could see those
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: catches being similar to what like the Bills catch was
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: a couple years ago where that sets up this big
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: time play or a Will Reichard field goal and puts
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: us over the top, right? The Vikings win because he
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: made that catch in a crucial moment. Will Reichard comes out,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: knocks one in or something else good happens, whatever that
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: might be. So again, I think that, one play for
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the quarterback for the wide receiver and for the rest
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: of the team I think that was a linchpin and
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: could be a crucial moment that we look back on
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: at the end of the season and go that was
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: one of those moments that got us to hopefully where
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: we want to go let's not say it out loud
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: we're pretty far away I didn't but yeah I love
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: that we both agree on how awesome and important that
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: catch was Evan Thorns.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: There's going to be some bads. I mean, when you're 5-0,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: all the bads are just nitpicking, honestly, at this point.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: There's some actual things that are like, that was actually bad.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: But you're 5-0. I mean, even if you lose the
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: next two games, you're still 5-2. You still have the
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: worst they can do is 5-12 this year. So, Evan,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: what was your thorn from this game?
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my thorn is specific to the game, but it
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: can be extrapolated out to a position group. The offensive
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: line gave up two sacks, 18 yards. In the end,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: didn't amount to much. Disappointingly so, the Vikings defense only
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: got one sack on Tyler Shuck, which was kind of
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: surprising given the tear that they've been on lately. So
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to be outperformed in that way by the opposing team
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: was a little concerning. But I think the bigger thing
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: for me is this offensive line group. And I'm growing
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a little concerned with the fact that the organization keeps
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: going after these name brand wide receivers and not pursuing
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: depth at that offensive line position. Odell Beckham Jr. is
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: on the practice squad and was elevated to play, wasn't he?
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: I think he was elevated but ultimately inactive. I think
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: they had to make the decision to elevate him or
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: not before they had to make the decision on, hey,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: is JJ going to be active? I think it was
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: one of those like they burned one of those three
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: elevations because it was worth it for the insurance of like,
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: all right, just bodies in the wide receiver room. I mean,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Jashon Jones was active and played wide receiver, not just
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: special teams for the team. So I think that wide
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: receiver room, it'll get better. But I think that hamstring
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: for Jordan Addison, which held him out of this game,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: and then not being 100% certain until when you have
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: to declare actives, with Justin Jefferson, it's kind of, they're
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: very aware of that wide receiver position right now.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: And I'm not necessarily opposed to making sure that that
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: room is sound and good, but I feel like this
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: offensive line needs help. And I don't know that it's sustainable.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: And I feel like this is this, it's a, it's a,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: broken record at this point we've we've talked for i
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: think the entire existence of this podcast about how the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: offensive line needs help we watched garrett bradbury get bowled
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: over for years and then they drafted christian derrissaw and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: we're like okay maybe there's some help and they've bolstered
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: that with a few other things you've got brian o'neill
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: on the other side um donovan jackson came in and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: made a difference but now you've got injuries to two
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: of those guys on the left side And they brought
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: in Will Fries, which has been helpful too, I think
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in some ways, but I don't know. I just think
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: there's still kind of this looming question mark over the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: offensive line. And I'd rather see them shore those things
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: up and at least ensure some depth at those positions
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: rather than just, Sign the flashy receivers. The other one
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that we haven't mentioned is Juju Smith-Schuster, who worked out
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: for the Vikings. I don't think that materialized into anything,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: at least as of the recording of this episode, Tuesday,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: October 13th.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: But I don't know.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: The sacks they gave up weren't good ones, and it
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily that Kyler was just sitting there and holding
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: on to the ball too long.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: He does have a tendency to do that.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: But he also has the ability to create with his
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: legs and he's done that. And he showed that with
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the 51 yards of rushing that he gained. Um, so I,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I think this offensive line needs help and I think
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: that's my thorn right now.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: I think that's one of the weakest spots on the roster.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: And I think if they can shore that up, they're
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: well on their way to being a contending team. Yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Um, you definitely valid. I think they ultimately held up
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: when they had to, but yeah, it sounds like, um,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Dara saw really everybody who's injured KFC was kind of
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: making it sound like he kind of expects everybody to
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: be back. Unless, you know, Donovan Jackson, he's out for
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: the year. Like that's that he's not coming back this year.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Maybe if they made a deep playoff run, he'd have
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: a chance later there, but just don't expect that. But
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Dara saw could be coming back even as soon as
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: this Colts game after the buy. Yeah. People hate will
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: fries for some reason.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: I don't quite get it.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: They say he plays terribly, but I've never seen him
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: consistently play bad. You know, he'll have a play here
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: and there where you're like, but not enough to be like,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: get him off the team. I think they just hate
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: how much money he makes, which. Okay. Um, but yeah,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, the offensive line could, could use some help
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: and it is kind of weird that they'd keep the
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: wide receivers and running backs in rotation on the practice
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: squad and on the team, but not really a offensive
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: line at all. Um, side note really quick did you
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: see on twitter today us bank stadium um on their
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: like outdoor video board had yeah it was like a
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: jersey picture and it was number 10 the number 10
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: in the vikings jersey font um hill and then the
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: name uh hill it was at hill hill um like
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: tyreek hill yeah yeah and uh Somebody saw that, walked
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: by it, took a picture of it, sent it to
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: some beat writers, and was like, hey, do you know
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: something we don't know? And US Makes Stadium, their Twitter
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: account replied and was like, hey, just to celebrate our
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: own employees, we always do something like this. And I
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: think his name is Braden Hill or something. I retweeted it.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: I'm going to pull it up in here and even
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: send it to you. But yeah, Hill 10. um, us
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: bank stadium said as an employer, us bank stadium has
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: celebrated our full-time employees for a decade of service with
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: recognition on the exterior digital boards. This was posted today
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: to recognize and congratulate Byron Hill for 10 years of service.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: And then Tyreek Hill replied to that and said, congrats
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Byron Hill or Brian Hill or, well, yeah.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: So that's funny.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: We should, we should put that up, but, yeah, people
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: are just on edge about everything. And had I walked
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: by us bank stadium today and saw hill number 10,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: just out there for no reason, as far as I knew,
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: I'd be like, all right, what's up here. What's what's
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: going on.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: The cheetah has made his way to us bank.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Um, but I think that just furthers my point, right?
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Like we're on edge because it seems a little excessive
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: that they're bringing in these receivers and not, uh, focusing
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: on other aspects of the roster that need help. Um,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the running back position I think is another one and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: we'll get to, uh, the running back position here in
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: a minute with my game ball. But, uh, yeah, I,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I think if Jordan Mason can't come back soon, the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Vikings will need some help at that position.
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like Jordan Mason should be
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: coming back soon. Um, even in the, like the post
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: game game ball video, the Vikings post every time they win, um,
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: KFC gave, um, or he gave Aaron Jones a game ball,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: and then at the end of it he said, and
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: it sounds, I bet you're more excited than anybody else
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: that your running mate's going to be back here soon.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: So it doesn't sound like too much of a secret
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: or a stretch to think that Jordan Mason should be
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: back as soon as right after the bye, which that
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: would be nice, just to give Aaron Jones a little
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: bit of a break, which, I mean, Aaron Jones, he's
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: been doing pretty well during these. Mm-hmm. Four games that
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Jordan Mason's been out. But you can only rely on
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: that so much. I mean, he's 31 years old. Every
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: time he runs the ball, he runs hard.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: He trucked over.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: A Saints defensive back to score his touchdown this game.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: So he's running well, too. But it's also like, come on,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: let's let him take a day or two off. Yeah,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: my thorn. Offensive line, you kind of touched on it.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: there's been some penalties, some pre-snap penalties. And even before
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: the penalty, the Vikings on a couple occasions had to
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: burn a timeout or two because the play clock was
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: getting too low and close to a delay of game penalty.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: I think they may have even taken one or two
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: delay of game penalties on top of that. So penalties
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: and turnovers on on the offense, at least in the
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Saints game, for the most part, the offense has been
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: doing pretty good for turnovers in the last few games,
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: but in the Saints game, Aaron Jones had that fumble
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: that was returned for a touchdown. Miles Price had that
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: fumble that, or was it Miles Price's fumble? Either way,
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Aaron Jones and Miles Price both fumbled, and that really
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: hurt the team against the Saints. Luckily, they won, and
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: it didn't end up killing them, but penalties for sure,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: and maybe that'll those pre-snap penalties should start to level
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: off the more comfortable Kyler Murray gets in this offense.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: And I already spent a handful of minutes earlier talking
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: about how I think we're seeing Kyler Murray get more comfortable.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: So it'll just, it's going to be one of those
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: that the tide is rising and hopefully by the time
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: the Vikings need to compete for the playoffs or in
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: the playoffs or deep in the playoffs, that's when everything's
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: really gelling and we'll see like, man, this Kyler Murray
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: in week two 18 is not even close to the
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: same guy we saw throw his first pass as an
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: interception in week one. So it's all coming up Vikings,
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: but there's still some imperfections.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I have some good news for you. The silver lining
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: when it comes to penalties, the Vikings are top 10
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in the league in fewest penalties.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Assessed to the team.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: And they're also a top 10 in the league in
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: benefiting from their opponents and penalties okay um so and
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: i really think that goes back to the first couple
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: of games uh specifically when carson wentz was playing because
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: when kyler murray came back um this team seemed to
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: be plagued by more penalties than when he wasn't playing
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: and i'm not saying that it's entirely his fault but
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: i think when you change the captain of the ship
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: there's going to be some Some.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Stuff that falls through the cracks. For sure.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Even just the sound of his voice under center, which
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: he was under center a lot more than he typically is.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: He's more of a shotgun quarterback.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: He probably has a different inflection to his voice than
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Carson Wentz. And probably it's just a different feel for everybody.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: So I can sympathize a little bit with the pre-snap
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: penalties and things like that, when there's this changing of
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the guard and you have a new leader, is.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: It completely excusable?
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: No.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: But is it something that can be corrected and fixed? Yes.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: And I think the Vikings have a solid foundation with
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: those penalties. And I think the more and more Kyler
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Murray plays, the fewer and fewer those penalties will be.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, hopefully.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Hopefully.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: All back to the point where I think the more
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: we get into this, the better everything will be. I
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: sent you a different version of that photo, by the way.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: And we can talk about that later. But yeah, I
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: think even with these thorns, it's still 5-0, baby. The
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Vikings are still undefeated. They still lead the division. And
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: the other teams, their losses, one of them, the Bears
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: and Packers have both lost to the Vikings. So really
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: good situation to be heading into the buy. Um, I
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: don't know what the other three teams in the division
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: who's on by who's not, um, this week, next week, whatever. Um,
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: but there's a chance we, we have a little bit
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: of doom and gloom, uh, if any of those teams
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: win and seemingly catch up to the Vikings, but you know, it'll,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: it'll all level out. Um, we said earlier, you know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: we did not expect the team to be in this
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: good of a position, uh, I think the team is proving, hey,
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: this is one of those years. Dustin Baker is famous
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: for saying this, pointing out this fact. The Vikings have
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: this back and forth every year of being mid, good, mid, good.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: And last year they were mid, the year before they
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: were good. And what do you know? This year, true
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: to form, so far, they're pretty good.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Um, as far as bi-weeks in the division, the Lions
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: share the same bi-week as the Vikings.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: So this week, week six is the bi-week for both
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the Lions and the Vikings. And then the Bears have
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: theirs in week 10.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Ooh.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: And the Packers have theirs in week 11. Okay. All right.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: So, um, yeah, the latest bi-week you can have is
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: 14 and the earliest you can have is five. So
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the Lions and the Vikings are obviously on the early side.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: And the Bears and the Packers are trending towards the
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: later side of the bye week, but they're not the
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: latest possible. So there's, I think, not a ton of
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: competitive advantage there, so to speak.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: And importantly, the Vikings this year, their bye week isn't
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: coming right after a two-week overseas trip, and it's not
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: at a point where you're desperate to get a lot
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: of people healthy. Yeah, there's some injuries, and they're hopeful
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: to get Derrissaw and everybody healthy, but Team's looking pretty
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: good overall injury-wise and overall, obviously, record-wise. And they haven't,
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: you know, had to be on a different flip-flop time
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: zone for the last two weeks. So I think that
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: was one thing that kind of derailed the team last year.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: Game ball. Who are you giving it to?
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, man.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Evan, the last few weeks, one guy has gotten a
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: game ball from me because he has been not only
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: the only point scorer on the Vikings— He's been one
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: of the best players on the Vikings and definitely, without question,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: one of the best players at his position in the league.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: And you could argue one of the best players overall
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: in the league. Of course, my game ball this week,
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: yet again, goes to Will the Thrill. Will Reichardt, he
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: gets my game ball. I think he still was the
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: highest point scorer against the Saints here. What was overall,
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: he was three for three on field goals, and then
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: obviously two for two on extra points. He's perfect this year.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: So far, we'll knock on the skull man's center to
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: not jinx it. Maybe I've already jinxed it a little bit,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: I don't know. There's been a few famous years where
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: the Vikings kicker has been perfect, or at least very good,
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: and then it didn't end up going so well at
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: the end. We won't talk about specifics on that one.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: But so far, three for three. That's nine points, two
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: for two on extra points. That's another two. He scored
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: 11 of the 23 points, and you take 11 away,
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: and that's the Vikings losing the game. That's 12 to 13. So,
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Will the Thrill, we love you. You get my game ball,
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: especially when we saw former Vikings kicker Daniel Carlson miss
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: an extra point against the Vikings while playing for the Saints. So,
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: that just outlined it that much more, how much awesome
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: kicker we have for this team and.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: I love it it's a good one yeah um i
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: don't know that i can beat that and i wish
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: i could you don't have to but i think if
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: we were to give another game ball out i think
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and i'm pretty sure koc gave one to this guy
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: okay um we've already talked about him this guy has
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: just gone out there and continued to grind despite other
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: injuries at his position and despite some uh setbacks with injury,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: minor things that he's been dealing with, and working with
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: a new quarterback. Aaron Jones is going to get my
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: game ball. You mentioned it earlier. He's 31 years old.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: He ran for 113 yards and a touchdown, averaged 4.5 yards.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: That's pretty rare at that age for a guy that's
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: been doing it since he was in high school at
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: least Um, and doing it consistently year in, year out. Um,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: and to come off the field with an apparent knee
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: injury only to come back and just keep going.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Like that's the kind of guy you want on your team.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: And that's the kind of leader that the Vikings have. Um, and,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and this, it's kind of amazing to me, honestly, that
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: this Vikings team is full of leaders like that. I
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: think what's unique about the Vikings team is these leaders lead.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: In different ways.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Aaron Jones leads differently than Harrison Smith, who leads differently
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: than Justin Jefferson, who leads differently than Kyler Murray and
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: KOC and whatever. Sometimes you get too many of those
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: big personalities in a room and it's difficult for.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Everybody to get along.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: And then the band has to break up and it's
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: just bad. Um, But Aaron Jones, he's been referred to
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: as a warrior. And I like that term because it's
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: very fitting for him. He just keeps going out there,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: play after play. He's been the bell cow. KOC has
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: wanted to emphasize the run game for a while, and
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: he's been criticized for not doing so. And I think
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: he's doing a pretty good job of doing that. And
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: in order to emphasize the run game, you've got to
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: have a good back.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: That you can rely on. Aaron Jones has been that guy.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: And I'm excited.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I think if he can stay relatively healthy and continue
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: to do what he's doing, um, and then you get
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Jordan Mason back healthy and you keep DJ Dallas and
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: DeMond Claiborne, you've got a good running back room. Uh,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: you've got some depth there. You've got some young guys
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: that can learn a few things from these older vets.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: And, uh, I don't know.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I think you've got a leg on that three-legged stool
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: in the offense that you can lean on time and
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: time again to make stuff happen.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: So, Aaron Jones, game ball.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Well deserved. One thing I would kind of just... I'll
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on and I would expect to see
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: a little bit is when Jordan Mason does come back.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: I think we can almost say it'd be surprising if
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: he wasn't back for the Colts right after the bye.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: So let's just assume he's back then. We're probably going
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: to see... at least for a few weeks, Aaron Jones
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: get like five touches. He had 25 rushes against the Saints.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: And I know that's part of how the game dictated
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: itself and the running game was working enough that you
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: can't really go away from it. But I think Aaron Jones,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: he's going to get not a benching, not like he's
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: going to be inactive or anything like that, but I
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: think he's going to get some well-earned nice, easy reps
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: for the next handful of games just to kind of
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: balance that back out. They're going to be really cognizant
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: of how many carries he has, how many times he's
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: hit on the field. And Jordan Mason's good and healthy.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: Let him carry the load for a little bit and
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: give Aaron Jones a little bit of a break. But
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: then I would expect after a few weeks then to
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: see that. Hopefully, unless it's super necessary... to keep going
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: with Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason's injured again or whatever.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: But I would expect, you know, a few weeks of
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Aaron Jones to kind of take a step back and then,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: you know, second half of the season, maybe, maybe they
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: start ramping it up to be more 50, 50.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: And you see it too, in the injury report every week, um,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: guys like Jordan, not Jordan, uh, Aaron Jones, uh, Harrison Smith.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: And they, they take their allotted veteran days off to
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: just rest and recover. And I think that's important. Like,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: If you have it in your contract and you can
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: take it, take it. Especially if you can come out
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: and perform on Sunday the way they did without those
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: reps in practice. Absolutely.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Evan, I want to give you your flowers a little bit.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: At the end of last week's episode, we both predicted
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: a Vikings win. I predicted a score of 21-20. I
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: figured it would be really close. Not that I'm completely
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: convinced on the offense, but I was definitely still We'd
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: only really seen two decent drives at the end of
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: the Dolphins game. So I was still thinking, like, all right,
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: the defense is still going to do this, but the
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: Saints offense is pretty decent, and the Vikings offense is
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: still figuring out. I said 21-20, the Vikings would win. Evan, Evan,
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: remind the listeners what you predicted for, obviously you predicted
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: the Vikings to win. What did you say the score
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: was going to be?
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Well, to be clear, we... Picked the games preseason. Yeah, yeah,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: for the Purple Punishments. We're not picking them week to week.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: All of the picks for the Purple Punishments are preseason.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: We went through the whole list. You can go back to, I.
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: Don't know what episode that was. Something like that.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: A long time ago.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: But week to week, we update those predictions based on
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: how things are going. We both said the Vikings would win.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: I said the Saints would only score 13 points, and
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I was spot on.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Nailed it.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: On that.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Nailed it.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: And I'm a little disappointed that I was one point
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: off on the Vikings' point total. I predicted 24 points,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: and they only scored 23.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: I'll still.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: But, yeah.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: Thanks.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: I'll say that's a victory.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: I was within one point of predicting the outcome of
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: that game. I didn't honestly.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Realize it until I looked at our outline and I
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: was like, oh yeah, I did predict that.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: That was interesting.
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: It needs to be pointed out. Give you some flowers there.
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: Skull there. Skull. All right. Well, I think we can
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: put that to bed. We did the whole 24-hour rule
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: for us a little bit longer because we record a
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: little bit later.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: Vikings are 5-0.
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: And now.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know about you Ev, but the Vikings bye week,
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: it's kind of bittersweet for me as a football, a
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: fan of watching football. Um, a few days ago, I
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: think it was the Sunday night football game. Uh, I
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: was watching it, you know, kids had just gone to bed.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: My wife was getting ready to go to bed herself.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: And she was, uh, she's asking, she's like, do you
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: really like really after watching football all day, do you
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: still enjoy watching the Sunday night football game? Like, don't
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: you get tired of it? And I was like, I
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: almost get more enjoyment out of watching non Vikings games
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: just as a football fan. Cause when I'm watching the Vikings,
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: I'm so hyper-focused that like it's, it's unhealthy, but then
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: I'm watching, you know, what was it? The Rams 49ers
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: or whatever. What was the, the bills last night? It's like,
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: I just sure I was rooting against the Rams cause
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: they're an NFC opponent, whatever. But ultimately it's like, I
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: had one or two fantasy players. I just enjoy watching football,
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: and there's no stakes in this. The Rams could have
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: won by 100 points, and yeah, I was rooting against them,
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: but ultimately, I didn't really care. It's just fun to
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: be like, oh, that was a good hit. Oh, what
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: a catch. Oh, what a terrible decision. It's just fun
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: to watch football. So all that being said, I still
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: enjoy the Vikings bye week. Do you still enjoy the
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: Vikings bye week, or do you kind of take a
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: break from football a little bit too?
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: No, I wouldn't say I take a break from football. Um,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: I'd say pretty much all day Saturday, it's college football
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: and all day Sunday, it's the NFL and the TV's
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: on and there's a game on.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: As long as there's a game on.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Whether you're intently watching it or it's just kind
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: of on when you're doing other stuff too.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I will watch games this weekend. Uh, even
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: though the Vikings aren't playing, I will be paying attention
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to the divisional games.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Um, how the.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: Packers and the Bears play. Obviously, the Lions won't be playing.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I'll be paying attention to some of these other NFC
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: teams and how they're doing and how that ultimately affects
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the Vikings. And to your point, it's a football game.
• 47:34
  Speaker 3: And I just love football. I like watching it.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: I've gotten more involved the last couple of years at
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: my school. with football specifically, not coaching or anything, but
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: I sit in the press box and help with some stuff.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: And I've found myself, even when I'm working the game,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: getting super caught up in the game.
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, that was a bad call.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: What are we doing? Oh, crap, I need to work
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: on something.
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: No, I'm working here.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: And other people next to me in the booth are
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: also working.
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: I can't distract them.
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: The guy with the microphone sits right next to me,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: so I can't say stuff out loud.
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: Son of a.
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: So, no, I'm a football fan. Love football.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: I have it on all the time during football season.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: I will not take a break during bye week. I
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: have two fantasy teams right now. Not to brag, I'm
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: doing pretty well. I'm 4-1 in the league that we're
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: in together. And 5-0 in the other league.
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: In our league, I think I'm definitely one loss because
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: you beat me in week one. I think I might
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: be two losses, but I'm doing pretty decent in fantasy
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: as well. I've got two leagues myself. I went 2-0
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: this past weekend. Nobody cares. But it's still fun when
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: you do well. And that's another thing. Like I said,
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: when you're watching football, maybe you're trying to decide which
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: game to watch if your team's not in it. And
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: you're like, oh, I do have that running back in fantasy.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Except a lot of times, since you're in two leagues,
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: have you ever run into like, oh man, I really
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: hope this running back does good because he's in my league.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: And then you look at your other team and you're like,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: oh crap, I'm going against him in the other league.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: But Yeah, I think football is fun, and it's still,
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: even when your team's not playing, it's still fun.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: Football's fun, sir.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: So Adam Schefter tweeted out this graphic, and I don't know,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: maybe we'll put it up, maybe we won't, but it's
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: just the current NFL playoff picture. As things sit right now,
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: if the season were to end, and the important thing is,
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: there's actually two kind of fun tidbits. The Vikings currently hold...
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: the number one seed in the NFC. And I think
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: that's currently dependent on a handful of tiebreakers. I think
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: those two victories in division are pretty heavily weighing the
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Vikings over teams like the 49ers right now, too, in
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: those seedings. But if the NFL season were to end
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: right now, Vikings would have the bye. they'd be the
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: number one seed and they would be awaiting either the
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: Bears or probably the Lions. And that's the other fun part. Well,
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: fun to me, I guess. I don't know. Every team
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: in the NFC North right now, if the season were
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: to end, would make the playoffs. The Vikings. I wonder
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: if that's ever happened, especially since it's only been a
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: few years since that seventh playoff team on each conference
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: was added. I forget the year that that was added,
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't too long ago. Um, but now there's
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: three wildcard teams for each conference. Um, and I don't,
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: I wonder if there's ever been a division that has completely,
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: every team has made it that that would be pretty
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: fun to be, you know, a part of that equation, but, um, yeah, it's,
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: it's super fun to think that the Vikings would be
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: the number one seed of things played out that way.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: And at 5-0, you're starting to think not just are
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: they going to make the playoffs, you're starting to look
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: at things like, oh, seeding. Like if things keep going
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: the way they've been going, even if you sprinkle in
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: a loss or two, you're still looking at seeding rather
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: than playoff chances. And that's always the mark of whether
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: you had a good season or not.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: And I think I texted you that picture of the
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: NFC standings, and I think my caption in the text
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: was basically like, If the playoffs started today, all four
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: NFC North teams would be in and the defending Super
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: Bowl champs would be out, which I think is also
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: kind of interesting. Sam Darnold has played decent and he's
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: got Jackson Smith and Jigba, who's an enigma in this league.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: He's really, really good. The pun is intended there for sure.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: And they've got a decent defense and they've got a
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: few other weapons, but um they're just not playing like
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: they did last year you know and they've they've played
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: a tough schedule i think they've had to play the
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: niners um who else did they lose to um i
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: don't remember.
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: I think they lost to the rams as well uh
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: i'm not too sure but they well that's important to
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: the commanders oh yeah they've only got two losses so
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: the the seahawks have the same record as the bears
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: packers and lions um which is kind of crazy to
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: say like the whole NFC North might be in and
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: the way tiebreakers work out right now, only one of
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: the NFC West teams would be in right now too.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: So, and it doesn't mean a ton because it's week
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: five slash six and that's going to change for sure.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: But the Seahawks have some work to do if they're
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: going to kind of go on this, you know, repeat
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Superbowl run that they're hoping to go on.
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: So, um, Yeah, it's definitely interesting.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: And the bye week gives us a chance, I think,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: as Vikings fans to step back and look at the
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: bigger picture.
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: Where do we sit? Where are we?
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: And the good news is we're sitting pretty.
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: Well right now. So far.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: I don't expect the Vikings to stay there. I expect
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: the Vikings to stay in that top seven in the NFC.
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: I don't expect them to fall so far from grace
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: that they fall out of that top seven.
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: But crazier things have happened. I mean, Sam Bradford, 2016, 8-8.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Missed the.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: Playoffs.
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: After going 5-0.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: So things can look way different five weeks from now.
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: It's a marathon, not a sprint. But like we keep saying,
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: 5-0 is a really good spot to be in. It's
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: like getting a head start on the rest of the season.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: Nobody expected the Vikings to be here. And let's hope
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: they keep that up. Yeah, do you remember what my
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: response was when you said, oh, it would be right now,
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: although all the NFC North teams are in it and
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: the defending Super Bowl champs are out? Do you remember
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: what I replied to you?
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you said something like F the rest
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: of the North or something like that.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Especially the Lions, who have the worst fans in the
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: history of sports. Lions fans are absolutely the worst fans
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: in all history. They're the worst group of people in
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: world history. I think we can say that.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: Like more so than the Nazis?
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: They're up there. They're all, loop them all in the
• 54:32
  Speaker 2: same group. I'm not concerned about the lions. Famous last words.
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: All right, Evan, we don't have to belabor all this,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: but bi-week is a kind of time to, take a
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: step back and having an early bye week or rather than,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: you know, one after the trade deadline kind of lets
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: you take a break. And then we all start to
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: see these headlines of like, Oh, we've talked about the
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: old line. We've talked about, uh, the Vikings wide receiver position.
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: You know, there's, there's some other holes or strengths, um,
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: maybe some trades that could be made. Uh, I mean,
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: I put together just an objective, you know, throwing darts
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: at the wall list of Vikings that could be traded away, uh,
• 55:15
  Speaker 2: and I just kind of want your opinion on some
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: of these names. I said, well, there's a little bit
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: of headlines. I think Rapoport was on some show today
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: and said, like, hey, keep an eye on Jawan Jennings.
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: Might be a guy that the Vikings would be willing
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: to trade away. The Niners, Jennings' former team, have some
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: concerns at wide receiver right now. So I listed out
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: Jawan Jennings as a guy the Vikings could listen to about,
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: Jordan Addison could be another guy. I'm not advocating for that,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: but if there's somebody in the building that's like, hey,
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: Jordan Addison, he's coming up on a payday, and it's
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: going to be a payday that looks very similar to
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: what Justin Jefferson's current deal looks like, if not a
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: little bit higher because the market always goes up. If
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: the Vikings are not interested in paying that right now,
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: it could be a decent time to see what you
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: could get. Will Fries as a guard, and more importantly,
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: I think– Joe Huber has been playing pretty well in
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: Donovan Jackson's absence. So maybe that makes a very expensive
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: Will Fries, someone that you could see if you could
• 56:24
  Speaker 2: get something for. Maybe you're not, maybe the Vikings are
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: nowhere near that. Ivan Pace Jr., just because, you know,
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: he's a good special teamer, but other teams have needs.
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: And then even due to the draft, this past draft situation,
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: investment into the defensive tackle position with Caleb Banks and
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: the big Citrus. And then you have Jalen Redman, who's
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: really good. That might make a guy like Levi Drake Rodriguez,
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: who's been playing really well, somebody the Vikings might get
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: an offer for. So, Evan, of those names or all
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: those names, what are your overall thoughts on those? Am
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: I crazy for listing those guys out?
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: I don't think you're completely crazy.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: I think the two wide receivers are the most likely
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: to be traded. And I think the most likely is
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Jawan Jennings. The headlines I've seen are he's just been
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: super quiet, and it doesn't seem like he's a fit
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: for this offense.
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: For whatever reason.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: For whatever reason. And it's tough when you've got two
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: basically wide receiver one guys in the room. Where's your place?
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: And these two guys have essentially operated, Jefferson and Addison,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: have basically operated on a like, okay, Um, if we're
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: both on the.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: Field and one of us is doubled, the other one
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: will be open, make a play.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. If one of us is hurt and not on
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the field, you're the guy make a play. Um, and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: I think that's one of the reasons why like Adam
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: Thielen didn't fit when he came back.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: And then quit on the team.
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, but whatever.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: It's why am I blinking on his name? He plays
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: for another team.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: Former wide receiver three.
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: Jalen Naylor?
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: Jalen Naylor. There you go.
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: It's why he didn't fit and why he ended up leaving.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: And now I think he's injured and maybe on IR. Oh,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: is he? I haven't paid any attention to him. I
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: think he's hurt. I don't know his status completely. But anyways,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: I think Jawan Jennings tops that list. Move on from
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: him if the Niners want him and they know him,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: they're comfortable with him.
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: Why not bring him back?
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: And maybe the Vikings can get some draft capital or
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: something to build their stock a little bit. Jordan Addison,
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: good player and definitely gives an advantage to this Vikings offense,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: especially when Justin Jefferson is out. But even when he's in,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: he becomes this kind of dark horse wide receiver one
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: that emerges when Justin Jefferson is literally triple teamed sometimes.
• 59:01
  Speaker 3: And that's an asset.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: But as you mentioned, the price tag is only going
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: to increase and it's going to increase very soon. um
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: if it's advantageous to move on from him now so
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: we don't get stuck with that i'm okay with that
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: i would hate to see the vikings move on from
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: a guard who yeah is pretty good, even if they're
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: paying him a lot. Um, I think that's a dumb
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: decision and I don't think they should do that. They
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: need as much depth at those offensive line positions as
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: they can get. Um, Ivan Pace and L Presidente LDR. Um,
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not sold on moving on from either of those guys.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: They seem like they're like organizational fits. They just, they
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: get it. And Ivan Pace has shown flashes as a starter. Um,
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: And even though Levi Drake Rodriguez probably.
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: He's.
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: Been starting this year. He's been playing really well.
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: He's been starting.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: The point I was going to make was he will
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: probably be surpassed by the guys that were drafted.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: Hopefully, I mean... Hopefully.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: I think he's worth hanging on to. And I think
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: both of those guys are... They're just like... They're kind
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: of like... They'll never be the... full-fledged Harrison Smith kind
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: of players, but they kind of have that element to
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: it where it's just like, no, they're, they're homegrown Vikings
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: players and that's who they are. And there's some loyalty
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: there and they're willing to go out and do whatever
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: they can to, to win games for this team.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: So those are my thoughts. Do you have any thoughts
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: on those players?
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: I agree with you on those players. I mean, Jordan Addison,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: as far as a fan of the Vikings playing football
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: on the field, I want Jordan Addison all day long,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: but I don't want the Vikings to be another version
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: of the Bengals where you have two different receivers making
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: $ 100 million plus and that much cap devoted to one position. Yeah,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: it would just be tough. So I'm not advocating to
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: get rid of Jordan Addison, the player, but it'd be
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: tough to keep him... at the rate that he should
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: get paid. And I would hate for the Vikings just
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: to let him play out his contract and decide not
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: to pay him and then let somebody else just sign
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: him in free agency when the Vikings get nothing. I
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: would rather the Vikings get a decent haul for Jordan Addison.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: That's the only reason I've got him here. I don't
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: want him gone, but I'd want the Vikings to get
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: their requisite value. Will Fries, I'm not saying they should
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: trade him, but I mean, if Joe Huber was playing
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: well and Donovan Jackson was healthy right now and somehow
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: all three had been getting playing time, because I think
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: Joe Huber is playing pretty well, especially for a guy
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: who is a backup, and just watch the game back
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: and only pay attention to Joe Huber. He's wailing on
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: guys and making blocks and doing pretty well, and I
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: think it's In a few weeks, we'll start to say, like, hey,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: this Joe Huber guy, he's really good. Like, everybody else
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: is going to see it. That's the only reason I
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: was like, well, maybe he's a lot cheaper than Will
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: Fries right now. Ivan Pace Jr., I don't think anybody
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: would trade for him. He's on a one-year deal. The
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 2: Vikings are either going to keep him or not after
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: this season. He's a really good special teamer and has
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: shown decent plays as a starter. But, yeah, I don't know.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: And LDR, you know, hopefully just to make good on
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: the first-round pick and the third-round pick, Levi Drake Rodriguez
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 2: kind of starts taking a backseat. But, hey, if he's
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: still playing well, there's no reason to bench him. And
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: then Jalen Redman, you know, the Vikings are going to–
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: he's going to get paid this offseason. And that is
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: one player I'm very okay with the Vikings paying. And
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: eventually the numbers are going to shake out that somebody
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: in that defensive line room is– going to have to
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: be on the outs. I'd rather get some value from
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: LDR than let some other team get him for free, basically,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: just for a contract. And then real quick, I kind
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: of wrote down a few positions that the Vikings could
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: make a trade for, and then I put some names there. Evan,
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: we don't have to belabor all the positions and all
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: the names, but of guard, running back, or even quarterback,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: Are there any names on there that you're like, oh,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: that'd be super fun? Or, I mean, sure, but no. Or, yeah,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: there's absolutely no reason. What are your thoughts on just
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: those names?
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: Well, I've already made my opinions known that I think
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: the Vikings need to add depth at the offensive line position.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to stand pat there. I don't know
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: that they need a flashy quarterback. trade for quarterback i
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: think you roll with kyler murray so far you've got
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: a serviceable serviceable backup in carson wentz um i think
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: you roll with that um running back you get jordan
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: mason back i think the vikings are good as if
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: aaron jones can hang on to the end of the
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: season there's no concern there you listed guard and you
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: listed four names at guard And I don't know any
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: of their names.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: Only two of them. Except for one.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: I don't know one.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: And it's because his brother plays for the Vikings.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: Oh, you don't know the last one I listed out?
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: I don't know the last one.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: You would. You would. Because he's the best guard in
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: the NFL right now.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 3: Well, that's fair.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: I don't honestly pay attention to the offensive line that much.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: But the third one you listed was Ben Bredesen, who
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: plays for the Bucs. And when the Vikings played the Bucs,
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: they broadcasted a little special on Max Bredesen, his brother,
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: who just got drafted by the Vikings, and Ben, and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: they had family in attendance at the game. So anyways,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: for that connection alone, I think that would be kind
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: of cool. And like, yeah, bring older brother Ben over
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: from the Buccaneers and let's get him in purple and
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: let's see what he can do and maybe add some depth.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 3: Who knows? Quentin Nelson, if he's the real deal.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: He might be the best offensive lineman in the league.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: And definitely the best guard.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: Pocha, guard? It wasn't Will Fries?
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Will Fries and Ryan Kelly, remember? The center both
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: last year and two off seasons ago. But yeah, Quentin
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: Nelson would be like, it would cost a first round
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: pick and more. And then he's right now in the
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: final year of his deal. And he's making like 20
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: plus million dollars this year. So it would be a
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: very swing for the fences guy. Nolan Teasley would have
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: to think like, all right, this Vikings team is making
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 2: the super bowl. And the only thing stopping them is
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: interior offensive lineman. That would be the like, Holy crap. The,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: the sauce gardener trade of, of the year, you know, um,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: I don't expect that to happen. I would almost be like,
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: I don't think they needed to make that happen, but
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: just because he's, you know, conversationally available and the Colts
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: have not said, yeah, we're going to trade him.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Um, Well, and the Colts season isn't completely over.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: No, but they're also not.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're not going to probably be that competitive.
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: I just think any of those four that you listed,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: Ben Brown from the Patriots, Christian Haynes from the Seahawks,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: Bredesen from the Buccaneers, Nelson from the Colts, if you
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: can bolster that offensive line at all in any way, shape,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: or form for the Vikings, you do that and you
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: do it wisely and so not super cheap and just
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: waste whatever you're spending to get somebody here. And then,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: you know, the guy gets cut or the guy's only
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: a practice squad guy or whatever. Um, but also not
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: like super exorbitantly either. Like you're not going to pay
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: Quentin Nelson a ton of money because he's on the
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: last year of his contract and hamstring your franchise for
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: years to come. And you're not going to give up,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: you know, a first round and other stuff just to
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: go get him.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: Like, You do that wisely. You find that middle ground.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: You find that pick that's like, or not that pick,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: that trade that's like, yep, this will benefit us in
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the immediate, but will also not completely destroy our future.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: If there's a guard out there that you can do
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: that with, great. And I think that adds depth. I'm
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: not concerned about other positions at this point.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: Yep. All right, real quick before we close it out here,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: the rest of the NFC North, While the Vikings are
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: on by this week, the Lions are also on by.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: We've said that. The Bears travel to Atlanta for a
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: noon game. How do you think that game shakes out?
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: The Bears are coming off of a tough game against
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: the Packers. They didn't play well at all.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: They played terribly, yeah.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: They only scored a touchdown, and that's kind of embarrassing
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: for Ben Johnson, who said before the season, I'm going
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: to set the league record for points scored.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: And he's had games in the division where he scored
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: a total of 10 points.
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: So not a good look for that right now. I
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: think he's going to be, and the rest of the
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: Bears team are going to be ready to go out
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: there and prove some things. I think one of the
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: biggest question marks right now, unless I missed something, is
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: the quarterback position for the Bears.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: When does Caleb Williams come back?
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: And if he's not coming back, who's the starter? I
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: think it was kind of an eyebrow-raising move for Ben
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Johnson to put....
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: Tyson Bajan? No. Oh, Case Keenum?
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: Case Keenum out there for a play as the starter.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: yeah that was yeah a couple weeks ago yeah it
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: was two weeks ago but it was just like why
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: would you do that if if you're not gonna start
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: Tyson like Tyson's the starter well they were both out
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: on that play I know yeah so it was just
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: weird and it was like it was such a blurry
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: vague move and and he was probably just trying to
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: mess with the media a little bit and try to
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: like not create these narratives, but the narratives are there.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: The narratives form themselves. The media doesn't form the narratives.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: The narratives form themselves. The media just highlights them, brings
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: them to our attention, and that's a good example of that.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: I think the Bears will be fine.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Against the Falcons. The Falcons haven't really shown a ton.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: They're not a bad team, but they're not a great team.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: They're definitely a meh team.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: In the league right now. And Pennix missed a bunch
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 2: of their most recent game and was replaced by Tua,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: who threw two passes, and one of them was the
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: game-ending interception.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not super worried.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: If I'm a Bears fan, the Bears will probably win
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: this week.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: All right. And then Sunday night football, the Packers host
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: the Cowboys. A game that Micah Parsons, I guess we're
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: not Packers, you know, podcast here, but I think I've
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: heard Micah Parsons might be available for that one.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 3: Interesting.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: But that's not a done deal yet.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 3: Don't really care. If I were Stephen A. Smith, I
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 3: would do the like....
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: I love your Stephen A.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 3: Smith.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: Every time, no matter who wins that game, I would
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: just laugh into the camera maniacally for three minutes or
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: so after that.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 3: There you go.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: Because it would be funny if the Packers lost to
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: the Cowboys. That would be really funny.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: It would be comical. Yeah. It would entertain me.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: But it would also be funny if the Cowboys just
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: continued to be terrible like they have been. And, like,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: I saw, I don't know, the Cowboys played one of
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the primetime games recently. And they did this whole thing.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: And he's sitting in this, like, dark room. And he's
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: got this spotlight on him.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: Stephen A.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: Smith?
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 3: No, Dak Prescott. Oh. I think I said Dak.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: You might have. I might have missed it.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: Anyways, he's being.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: Interviewed by one of the female reporters from one of
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: the big networks, whatever. It's, you know, the super creative
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: cinematographic thing.
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: You like that word?
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: I like that word.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: And I just caught, like, a little bit of it,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: because it was on in the background, and he was
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: just saying something like, yeah, you know, like, you know,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: this is kind of my time, like, we had all
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: these guys before, like we had, uh, Zeke Elliott and
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: we had, uh, Tony Romo and we had these guys
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: and this guy.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 3: And like, this is my moment.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: Like I'm getting older and I, I gotta make it happen.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: And like, I just shook.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: My head and I'm like, you're not making it happen
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: right now, bro. Like you're not doing much of anything. Like,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: I don't even know what the Cowboys record is right now.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: It's not great. Okay.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: So a losing record, not by much. Um, The Packers
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: are 3-2, I think, right? So I could see that.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: Game going either way, and I don't know.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to laugh either way because the Packers
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: are going to lose, and it's going to put them
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: farther back in the division against the Vikings, or the
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Cowboys will lose, and that will just be funny for
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: other reasons because the Cowboys have just been this, like,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: mediocre team that can't really get over the hump for
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: the last five years or so. Yeah.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: All right, well, we are rooting for Atlanta and Dallas
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: ultimately this coming week. Evan, I've been rooting for a
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: good beer. I always am. What did you think of
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: this Chucktown Brown from Tellurian? I am going to make
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: a statement here. Oh, man.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: This might be a top 10 beer of all time.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 3: It might be. It's really good.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: The complexity to the flavor profile.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: It is astounding.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: It's really good. It is, the can says crisp, malty,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: and roasty. And I have to agree with that. I
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 3: think it's all of those things.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Every time I've taken a sip of it, I've tasted
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: something slightly different in a very good way. Early on,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: I was like, well, there's some chocolate. And then a
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: little bit farther down the road, it was like, oh,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: there's some like peanut butter in here. It was almost
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: like a peanut butter cup.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: Kind of thing.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, man.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: And now it's just like. It's like I'm by the fire.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: It's like a s'more kind of thing. I don't know.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: It's evolved over time, and it's been really good. It's
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: perfect because it's October, and I'm ready for a good
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: fall beer. I'm going to have to get this one again.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: What do you think?
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: I agree. This one is absolutely perfect for the weather
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: to start getting a little crispy outside, a little cooler.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: The sweatshirts start coming out, and you want a good, full-flavored,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: darker wine. tasting beer. Um, and this one at what, what,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: what one is this? 5.2%. Man, you could, you could
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: throw back the whole four pack next to the fire
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 2: and still be doing pretty good. Uh, I really enjoy
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: this one. I agree. I will be getting this one again. Um,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: it's just a really solid fall beer.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 3: Agreed.
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: Um, you gotta tell the people, where can they find us?
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: Uh, just search everywhere. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, X, whatever you
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: want to call it. TikTok, YouTube, wherever you're listening, because
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: you're listening now, like us, subscribe to us, leave us
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: a review, comment, do all the things. We will reply back.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 2: We haven't said it for a while. I think we
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: still have a couple stickers. If you send us an
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: email to theskullhop at gmail.com, and if you'd like one,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: we will send you a sticker, a Skullhop sticker. We
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: just want to keep the conversation going. Uh, Facebook, I
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: think we are just barely over a thousand, uh, followers
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 2: or likes or whatever it is now. Um, I know
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: YouTube we're at like three 50. It'd be really cool
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: to get to a 400 before the end of the season.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: I think we can totally do that. So, uh, and
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: share us wherever you, you find us, go ahead and
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: share us with people you think would, would like us. Um,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: if you think people would like to laugh at us,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: a share is a share. So go ahead and do
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: that too. Um, and then Evan, uh, you are wearing
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: our Sammy D shirt. That one, unfortunately we flew a
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: little too close to the sun and can no longer
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: sell that, but we do have other merch, um, on
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: our website. It's, uh, actually a T public store. So
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: T public.com slash the school hop. You'll find a few
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 2: of our, our, uh, designs out there. We get almost nothing. Um,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: as far as money, every time somebody buys one, uh,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 2: but it does get our name out there and you
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: guys get really high quality shirts. So go ahead and
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 2: do that. But, That's where we are. And hopefully you
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 2: keep on keeping on and follow us everywhere you can. Yeah.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 3: Well, it's a pretty good beer. Yeah. Pretty good conversation.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: Really good conversation. It's a really good episode of.
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: You might say it's the best one yet.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: Skol. Skol.