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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Eagles vs. Vikings Preview, Week 2 · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. It is Tuesday, September twelve, twenty
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twenty three when we are recording this podcast episode. Things may have changed by
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the time you hear this, but we hope you enjoyed this show and this
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Opposition Territory podcast. All right, everybody, you're listening to Opposition Territory here
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at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
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show in the world, that's right over ten years strong. We got some
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great content coming to you this week before this Eagles Vikings game Thursday night football
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Week two. Right around the corner here, we have got a great discussion
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coming your way. After the Eagles did beat Yes, they did beat the
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New England Patriots during Week one. Seriously, it felt like a loss in
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a lot of different ways. A lot of rust getting dusted off some of
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the offensive players. The Eagles defense overall played pretty well. What are they
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gonna do against this Minnesota Vikings team? What are the Vikings gonna do to
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try to beat this Eagles team in the home opener in Philly? At the
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link, we got a great discussion coming her way. Let's get to it,
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and it is great to have back on the podcast. We've talked to
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Minnesota Vikings with him in the past, and getting into this preview show,
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we have from Daily Norseman dot com SB Nation site dedicated to the Minnesota Vikings.
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For this Eagles Vikings preview show, we've got the one and only Christopher
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Gates. How you doing, Chris. I'm doing all right, Jeff.
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I go out to everything on your end, things are going okay. Look,
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I mean for the Philadelphia Eagles and the team that I follow is a
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little rough out of the gate. Yes, we had win, but man,
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it was really rough for you guys. I mean Tampa Bay coming up
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to Minnesota, and I really wanted to start our conversation with that because like,
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oh my god, buddy, I'm I'm in a couple pick THEMS leagues,
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and I don't think anyone in the world actually picked Tampa Bay to beat
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the Vikings up in Minnesota. It was just so surprising. And to look
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at some of the you know, some of the plays that were run by
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both teams during that game online that I've seen, there's some surprising things not
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so surprising things with regard to Viking, to the Vikings and the Buccaneers But
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I'm wondering what was most surprising for you about what you saw from the Vikings
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in that Week one loss to the Buccaneers, and what do you think the
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team actually learned from that surprising early season loss. I think the surprising thing
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was kind of the lack of aggression on the offensive side of the ball.
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I mean, early on, they had a lot of big plays. They
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were pushing the ball down field to digested Jefferson or in Addison, and they
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were finding lots of open space in the early part of the game. And
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then they just sort of stopped doing that for whatever reason. And you know,
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Jefferson had one hundred and thirty eight yards at halftime. You only had
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twelve yards in the second half, which is ridiculous. I don't know how
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you can even you gotta try to be that bad in the second half.
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But yeah, I hope they learned that. You know, with the talent
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they have on offense, they should be able to push the issue pretty much
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all the time. So we'll see if that changes against a Philadelphia defense.
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It should be significantly better than what they saw from Tampa Bay. Yeah,
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we're obviously going to get into that aspect of the matchups for sure. But
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like you said, from an offensive standpoint, the Minnesota Vikings, they have
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the talent at the skilled positions. I mean even at Alexander Madison, Like
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I think he is a really good running back, and I think he's going
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to be a really good running back in this league, justin Jefferson. Of
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course, you've got Addison as the rookie who is there's expectations for him as
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well, And it was just kind of surprising to see that offense stall the
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way they did against the Buccaneers team that really isn't all that great, No,
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it really was. I mean, they had their opportunities. They had
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three turnovers, two of which were in Tampa territory and one literally right at
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the goal line. That would have made a huge difference obviously. But yeah,
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I mean, any team in the league can beat you when you turn
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it over three times, and hopefully the Vikings can can learn from that and
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be a little more careful going forward here. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean
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we saw what happened to the Buffalo Bills and all those turnovers. Josh Allen's
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turning the ball over like that, Yeah, you're probably gonna lose the game.
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So anyway, I wanted to dive into the offensive line with you,
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Chris, the Vikings offensive line, you know, especially as they're getting ready
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to face this as you mentioned an Eagles defensive front, which here on our
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podcast we gave in a grade two after Week one. You know, players
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like like Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, and Hassan Reddick could. Man,
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they could really have a field day this Thursday night. I don't know if
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it's going to happen because the Eagles they only accumulated two sacks this past week.
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So I'm wondering what does the Vikings offensive line need to do really to
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contain this Eagle's defensive front and to kind of, you know, quell these
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players that are pretty prolific here right like a lot. But actually I should
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I shouldn't. I shouldn't really say that. I mean, the tackles for
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the Vikings are actually really good. I mean the Christian Derrison Brian O'Neil are
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both solid. But the interior offensive line for this team has been a mess
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for about five years. And we talked about it last year. Yeah,
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we talked about it last year too, Yeah, I mean we keep doing
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stuff to try to correct it. Now Garrett Bradberry. He had a back
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injury last year. Now he's his back is injured again. And you know
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when you hurt your back, it never actually gets better, It just gets
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varying degrees of worse. Ed ingram I swear actively looks like he's playing for
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the other team half the time. I don't know what but that guy's issue,
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what that guy's issue is. But yeah, that seeing those those interior
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offensive lineman against Jail and Carter, Jordan Davis, Fletcher Cox, that's going
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to be a bit of a nightmare. And that's something that the Vikings are
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really going to have to find a way to work around. It seems that
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the Viking, especially with the interior line guys that you're talking about, have
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some difficulty picking up stunts every now and then. I mean in the yeah
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and the little bit of film that I've actually seen with the Minnesota Vikings offensive
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line, it's that it's it's it's a problem. It's just a problem what
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you've talked about, and it just hasn't necessarily been addressed. I do wonder
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how much of that kind of comes down to coaching in a way too,
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or if it's just a player not grasping what they need to do, you
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know, when they're in the film room, and then how that translates out
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to practice and then to the field on game day, I'm not sure,
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but it seems like, I mean, the Eagles are going to run some
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stunts and Hassan Reddick is going to be lined up on the outside and he
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is going to come inside within that a gap, and it's going to be
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it's gonna be interesting to watch for I just and I'm wondering, like,
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is it a talent thing? Is it a coaching thing? In your mind?
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I mean, they've used high picks on these players. I mean,
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Bradberry is a first round pick, ezrac Cleveland and Edy Girl are both second
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round picks, so they're using premium picks at those spots. But you know,
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I don't know if it's just a matter of technique, if it's a
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matter of coaching, because you know, Cleveland and brad Berry were both there
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under Mike Zimber's coaching staff and now they're there under Kevin O'Connell's coaching staff.
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So I don't know what the differences are. And you know the thing with
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Bradberry, he's always been under size so he was always going to have issue
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with the bigger, stronger guys on the interior. But it's been that way
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for I think. I think he's in his fifth year in the league,
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now her fifth or sixth year, a hundred percent sure. But yeah,
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that that hasn't changed. I mean he hasn't really added a whole lot of
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size, and you know, he still gets kind of tossed around a bit
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and there. But yeah, the interior offensive line for the Vikings is is
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mess. I mean, I'm glad they've got the tackle situation figured out,
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but the interior is just bad. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see
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what happens this Thursday night for sure. But moving over to the offensive side
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of things here and specifically, we'd like to get into the quarterback position on
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our Opposition Territory podcast, Chris and Kirk Cousins has I mean he had,
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I should say, a very nice game against Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Three hundred
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forty four yards, two touchdowns, an interception. I mean that's nothing to
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sneeze at. I mean he is I think for all the criticism of Kirk
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Cousins throughout the course of his career, I'm just gonna go out on a
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limb here and say I don't think a lot of it is actually valid at
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times. And I know the Philly sports world when he was in Washington,
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you know, there was just a lot of he stinks and all that.
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He's been a steady Eddy type of quarterback, at least in my opinion here,
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I'm not sure what your thoughts are, but I look at the performance
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from week one again, three hundred and forty four yards, two touchdowns.
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That's day Eddy stuff. You can win football games with those two type of
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numbers right there. So I'm wondering, like, what are your assessments of
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Kirk Cousins after week one and can he kind of get it alone or can
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he get it done alone on this offense? Even as we talked about skill
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positions earlier, you know, with Justin Jefferson, you know, with you
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know, you know some talent in the backfield as well, you feel like,
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oh boy, a lot is on his shoulders. What are your thoughts
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with regard to Kirk Cousins after Week one? I thought Cousins played relatively well.
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I mean, I know he's gonna get dinged for the three turnovers,
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but you know, two of those, I don't think you can actually put
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on him. Like I said, there was the one play where it was
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a third and one and he took the snap and his own guy literally knocked
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the ball out of his hands. Yeah, I mean, you can't really
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account for that. And there's the interception out the goal line. I don't
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think that was on Kirk. It looked like that was more on kJ Osborne.
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But you know, like you said, the guy, the guy's steady.
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He takes more hits than any quarterback in the NFL, and he just
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keeps getting up and doing it again and again. And you know he I
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believe the only games he's missed since he's been with the Vikings he had one
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game at the end of one year where the Vikings just benched all their starters
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because they couldn't change their playoff position. One game he had COVID and the
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one game last the last game against Chicago last year, they benched starters again
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because there was nothing they could do as far as a postseason positioning is concerned.
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But yeah, there are a lot of people that ding cousins for a
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lot of stuff, But you know, he he's not I know, he's
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not a Mahomes or a jail and Hurts or anything. No, there's there's
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really not. I mean, like I've always said, he's top ten ish
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as far as the quarterbacks go. I mean, I don't know if I
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could name ten starting quarterbacks that are better than Kirk Cousins. But you know,
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he's he's kind of at the bottom of that top ten list, and
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in some weeks he can jump up a little bit. I mean, he's
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not going to get to the Mahomes or Hurts, you know, whoever level
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at this point, but you know, he's somebody I think you can win
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with and you know, he puts up those stats. Like I said,
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he's always available. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's gonna be interesting
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to see how he faces or the decisions that he makes, especially in the
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pocket, what his pocket management is going to look like against this Eagles defense.
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And again, folks, we are talking to Chris Gates from Daily Norseman
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dot com. Follow them on Twitter at Daily Norseman. Great great follow for
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some Vikings uh content, some great Vikings content. And as we're moving along
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here, Chris, I want to move over to the defense talk about them
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for a little bit, because the Vikings defense I mean they swarmed from what
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I saw, swarmed Baker Mayfield in the first half in Week one and overall,
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you know, the defense really kept them in the game. So what's
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the biggest takeaway from the Vikings defense that we're we're really gonna need to keep
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our eyes on us Eagle fans, you know for this matchup on Thursday night.
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What are your thoughts? The defense was really a pleasant surprise in Week
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one. You know, they brought in Brian Flores to be the new defensive
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coordinator, and last year under Ed Dontel, the scheme was, you know,
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we're going to rush for We're never gonna blitz. We're just going to
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sit back in this soft zone and hope that you make mistakes or whatever.
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And the Brian Flores defense we saw on Sunday was different. I mean,
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there's there's seven or eight guys on the line of scrimmage on every third down
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and that they blitzed. I believe, if I saw right somewhere, they
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called more blitzes than any team in the league in Week one, which I
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believe last year they were near the bottom in that category of not the very
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bottom. But you know, with all the young players, they have on
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that side of the ball. We all thought it was going to take a
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few weeks for it to really gel and come together. And I don't know
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how much of it was an effect of, you know, playing the Tampa
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Bay Buccaneers, who aren't you considered to be a hugely talented offense or anything
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like that, But right, you know, the young guys and you know
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the veterans, they looked it looked like a really solid defensive scheme, of
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solid defensive game plan. And you know, if the offense can get back
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to the things that they're capable of, they can turn things around in a
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hurry this season. But yeah, the defense was really a pleasant surprise this
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last Sunday, despite you know, losing the game at the end. Something
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we talked about on our table talk interview show this past week, Chris,
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and you know we're gonna be talking about on our regular show, which is
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going to be dropping on Thursday morning, just in case you happen to be
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listening for the first time here, folks, is that it seemed week one,
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and we don't want to put the car before the horse here. Week
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one seemed to be the week of defenses within the NFL. And my guest
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Mark Scofield from sp Nations said he thinks that this year could potentially be the
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NFL Year of the defenses instead of this offensive juggernaut of a league that we
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have seen for years. In years and years, we're seeing defenses potentially figuring
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out these offenses in various ways, and especially from teams within certain divisions,
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and you see certain quarterbacks mobile quarterbacks containing them. This could potentially be the
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year of the defense, and we're gonna be talking about it more on this
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podcast. But I think it's an interesting notion, Chris, that you know
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what, maybe offensive jug or not that the NFL has become over all these
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years, maybe we're pumping the brakes on it. Maybe these defenses are pumping
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the brakes on that narrative and storyline. I think it's just kind of interesting
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to think about and what that would mean for this particular NFL season. And
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I mean, just like everything else in the NFL, this sort of thing
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kinds of goes in cycles and whatnot. You know, the offenses will dominate
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for a while and all of a sudden that the defenses will finally catch up.
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And I'm sure eventually the NFL will have more rule changes to favor the
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offense and get the scoring back up again, and eventually the defenses will catch
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up to that too, and it'll just keep going and going. But I
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did notice that there weren't really a ton of points put up in a lot
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of games this weekend. I mean, there was that at Miami Los Angeles
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game where there was a bunch of points scored a Cowboys. Yeah that was
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putting at forty by themselves, and yeah, but you know, it didn't
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seem like there were a lot of points put up, at least in Week
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one. I don't know if that trend's going to continue throughout the season,
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but like you said, this is this is the sort of thing that we
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see in all these sports, I mean even basketball, hockey, football.
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You know that the offenses get things going for a while and then the defenses
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finally catch up and they have to innovate into something else in order to get
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back to the dominant point again. So we might be seeing that this year.
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It's gonna be interesting to seeing how that goes the rest of the year.
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Absolutely, and to the Eagles fans out there listening to this podcast,
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keep in mind what Chris just said. The Vikings defense was a surprise in
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a lot of different ways. You know, don't necessarily think that they're going
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to be sitting down at all in this Thursday night matchup. So, as
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we're moving along here, Chris got a two part question for you, as
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we're kind of just getting into these matchups here and what we're going to be
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seeing on the field, I'm wondering where you think the Vikings are most vulnerable
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on offense after what you saw in Week one. I would imagine it would
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be the interior the offensive line, like we were talking about, But just
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to solidify where they're most vulnerable, what is that? In your opinion?
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Absolutely, it is the interior the offensive line, particularly against a defensive front
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as talented as Philadelphias is. I mean, Cousins can still get flustered when
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there's pressure, and if there's pressure immediately right up the middle in his face,
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it's going to be a really long night because because the pressure up the
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middle is not something you can really mitigate in a number of different ways.
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If it's pressure off the edges, you can put tight ends out there to
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help block and chip and whatever. The interior guys are just kind of on
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their own in there unless you can slide or running back in there to try
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to get in someone's way. But yeah, the interior offensive line for the
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Vikings is definitely the weak point. I'm sure the Eagles defensive coordinators know that,
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and they are going to be a scheming up a lot of interior pressure
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if the Vikings can do something to mitigate it or avoid it, whether it's
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rolling cousins out or whatever the case might be, quick screens or whatever.
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Although the screen game has been a disaster for the Vikings at least through the
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first part of the season. But you know, if if they can't do
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something to mitigate that that interior pressure, it's going to be a long night.
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Yep, It's gonna be a long night for sure for the Vikings offense
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if what Chris is saying does come to fruition. On the flip side of
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that coin, Chris, where do you think the Vikings are most vulnerable on
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the defensive side of the ball. Well, their secondary is pretty young,
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with the exception of Harrison Smith. I mean, they're their corners are by
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Murphy who's been in the league for a while but has never really been the
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number one guy until now. At Caleb Evans is in his second year,
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Mackai Blackman as a rookie, Cam buy and him was in his third year.
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So there's a lot of youth and inexperience in the secondary. And if
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those blitzes that Brian Flores loves to call so much don't get home, there's
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going to be a lot of opportunities on the back end for a j Brown
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and the rest of the Eagles receiving corps. So if the offensive line for
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the Eagles, which is one of the best in the NFL, can keep
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Jalen Hurts upright and you know, be able to keep him on rhythm and
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on schedule, he's probably going to find some plays back there in the secondary.
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Alright, alright, very good. And the last topics that I like
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to get into on our opposition Territory shows with our guest is the one thing
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that both teams are going to need to hit on for a win. So
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let's start with the Minnesota Vikings. Chris, what is the one thing that
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the Vikings are going to need to hit on this week for a win against
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the Eagles. They are going to have to do something that they definitely didn't
19:06
do when these two teams met last year, and that's contained the run game
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for Philadelphia. They just have so many ways, whether it's hurts or whether
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it's the running backs whatever. I can't remember how many yards they put up
19:17
on the ground last year when these two teams played on Monday Night, but
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yeah, it was the Vikings had trouble stopping them. And you know what,
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if you gain consistent yardage and early downs with the run, you know,
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it opens everything up for the for the later downs rather than you know,
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it's a second or third and long, we gotta wind up and throw
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the ball and everyone can pin their ears back and come after the quarterback.
19:41
But yeah, the Vikings need to slow down the running game for the Eagles
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that they want to have a shot at this one. Okay, And I
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guess what do you think the Eagles are going to need to hit on?
19:52
You know, your perspective as a Vikings fan, what are the Eagles going
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to need to hit on this week for a win after they after they kind
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of stumbled out of the gate, you know, during this first during the
20:03
first week of the season, what are your thoughts they need to get pressure
20:07
on Cousins to make sure that you know, the Jeffersons and the Addisons and
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T. J. Hawkinson don't get open down the field. They can't give
20:15
him enough time. Because if Cousins has time, he's one of the most
20:18
accurate quarterbacks in the league. I think we've seen that. Ye But yeah,
20:22
they need to get him off his spot, because once he gets out
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of the pocket and has to improvise a little bit, he's not quite as
20:30
good as he is when he's just able to stand there and fire passes.
20:34
I know the Eagles did a really good job against Justin Jefferson last year.
20:37
I think Darius Slay had a lot to do with that. And I don't
20:41
know with James Bradberry potentially being out for Philadelphia, if it's going to be
20:47
a lot of Jefferson versus Slay again, or if they're gonna try to implement
20:52
something different here or too uh to keep Jefferson contained. But they the Vikings
20:56
need to try to be aggressive on offense. But they need be if I
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don't know how much sense this makes, but they need to be aggressive quickly
21:04
because that yep, that that pressure from the inside is going to be there
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more often than it's not going to be there. I think and if Cousins
21:14
can get the ball out of his hands to his targets, they can make
21:15
things happen. But that if the Eagles are going to have to to get
21:21
to Cousins in this one, and then they probably will more often than they
21:22
won't. But I will have to see how the Vikings handle all that.
21:26
Yeah, we're gonna have to see how both teams handle this matchup. It's
21:30
going to be a fun one for sure, this Thursday night, Thursday Night
21:33
football. And again, folks, Christopher Gates from the Daily Noorseman dot com,
21:40
just type out Daily Noorseman dot com you're gonna get yourself some great Vikings
21:42
content. Chris Man, it was so great talking to you. Thank you
21:47
so much for taking the time to jump on our Opposition Territory pod here at
21:49
the PSD Podcast Show. Hoping to talk to you at some point down the
21:52
road, my friend, oh hopefully, Jeff, thank you for having me
21:55
and I appreciate to appreciate being here. Look, I do think this is
21:59
an eat team that can beat this Vikings team, especially at the Link this
22:03
coming week here in week two. I mean it's going to be electric in
22:07
that stadium. It is going to be fun. If you are going to
22:11
the game, we'd love to hear from you. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail
22:15
dot com. Love to read your email on the show. Talk about the
22:18
experience, just talk about that electricity that's going to be inside the link for
22:22
this opening game here in twenty twenty three this season that expectations are so high
22:29
for this Eagles team. Eagles got to get through the vikings, I think
22:33
in order to really be that NFC contender that folks have really been talking about
22:37
with this team. We've been talking about it here on this podcast, National
22:40
analysts have been talking about it. Other podcasts have been talking about it as
22:44
well. So let us know what your thoughts are with regard to this Eagles
22:48
team. We'd love to hear from you. And thanks again for Chris for
22:51
jumping on board. That's going to do it for us on opposition territory this
22:55
week. Folks, make sure you are following us on the Twitter dot com.
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