Latest / The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast / Vikings vs Bengals Preview & Picks! Recap Bad Home Loss To Atlanta! Offensive Struggles WTF!

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Vikings vs Bengals Preview & Picks! Recap Bad Home Loss To Atlanta! Offensive Struggles WTF! · The Rope A Dope Radio Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings fans, Welcome back to the Purple People Leaders Podcast.
0:07
Speaker 1: He's Aaron, I'm Chris, and yes, we have to talk
0:11
Speaker 1: about the Vikings home loss. The home opener. It was
0:16
Speaker 1: hot garbage and that's putting it lightly. We'll break down
0:20
Speaker 1: some of the stuff. We're not gonna go drive by
0:22
Speaker 1: drive at least with a lot of detail because you
0:24
Speaker 1: saw what happened. It was ugly. You know, the offensive line.
0:30
Speaker 1: We figured it would take a while just because they've
0:32
Speaker 1: never played together with each other. But then you add
0:35
Speaker 1: injuries on top of it. It's looking kind of rough
0:39
Speaker 1: right about right now. The defense played well enough. Yeah
0:43
Speaker 1: they got, they mistackled, they got you know, they gave
0:47
Speaker 1: up a lot of run, but they did play good enough.
0:51
Speaker 1: They bent, Oh they bent, but they did not fully break. Okay,
0:56
Speaker 1: so calm down when you're talking about the defense just yet.
1:00
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're gonna talk it through. Man, it was
1:01
Speaker 1: a tough one. The injuries are piling up. Before we
1:04
Speaker 1: hit record, we were just talking about, you know what,
1:09
Speaker 1: we may need that early buy as it turns out,
1:13
Speaker 1: so I'll eat crow on that and gladly actually, So yeah,
1:18
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk it through. Okay, this is kind of
1:21
Speaker 1: like a therapy session here. We're gonna we're gonna let
1:23
Speaker 1: it all out. My first rant is, I don't want
1:28
Speaker 1: to fucking see JJ's high school record anymore. Okay, that
1:31
Speaker 1: was in high school, not in the college even or
1:35
Speaker 1: the I don't want to know since high school. Do
1:38
Speaker 1: you see the quarterback wins? You know how I am
1:41
Speaker 1: with the quarterback wins, But it's bad enough that you're
1:44
Speaker 1: gonna do it on the pros let alone, using this
1:46
Speaker 1: goddamn high school stuff. Anyway, it wasn't all JJ though
1:52
Speaker 1: he didn't play great. He played horrible, but you know
1:54
Speaker 1: everything around him went all that good either, Right, So
1:57
Speaker 1: we're gonna break it down. Then we're gonna look towards
2:00
Speaker 1: the next game. There is another week. Okay, the sun
2:03
Speaker 1: came up today, it's going down right now where it
2:06
Speaker 1: already went down, and it'll come back up tomorrow. We'll
2:09
Speaker 1: break down that game and get into the detail we got.
2:13
Speaker 1: We got double dipp this week too, a winnable game
2:17
Speaker 1: on the road at cal Berkeley. We'll close the show
2:20
Speaker 1: with a Gophers football segment. Winnable game. Didn't win it though,
2:26
Speaker 1: didn't win it, So we're gonna we're gonna get through
2:28
Speaker 1: this stuff. Okay, we're gonna talk it through. If it's
2:32
Speaker 1: your first time listening to the Purple People Leaders Podcast, Welcome.
2:35
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Speaker 1: four ninety nine were the first month. Okay, let's go
4:01
Speaker 1: ahead and bring in Aaron to the full. Boy, oh boy,
4:05
Speaker 1: oh boy. We've seen some ugly stuff, but that there,
4:09
Speaker 1: my friend was ugly. So that makes what seven out
4:13
Speaker 1: of eight quarters pretty dreadful on offense.
4:19
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. That's I think a light way
4:22
Speaker 2: of saying it. Glad to be back with you again,
4:25
Speaker 2: I guess under a two loss. It's been a while
4:28
Speaker 2: per since we've done a two loss podcast.
4:31
Speaker 1: Double dip man.
4:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think the sound is increasingly getting better.
4:38
Speaker 2: I know, I got some comments. It's better than the
4:40
Speaker 2: first week, but not as good. So maybe this time
4:43
Speaker 2: we dial a computer switch. So hopefully you're listening to
4:47
Speaker 2: my voice clearly, and if not, we'll just keep working
4:49
Speaker 2: on it. Just be patient with us now. I got
4:51
Speaker 2: a rant too, Yeah, I got a few, but I'm
4:53
Speaker 2: gonna go ahead. And because I started it last year
4:57
Speaker 2: and i've been sort of just you know, I don't
5:00
Speaker 2: want to know. I'm not calling for anyone's head, but
5:02
Speaker 2: I guess now I sort of am. It's like, we've
5:05
Speaker 2: gone through a lot of offensive line personnel in the
5:09
Speaker 2: last ten years, but let's just be specific. Let's just
5:14
Speaker 2: go through since O'Connell has taken over, and it's been
5:20
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, low round draft picks or
5:23
Speaker 2: cheap free agents and so on. So we went out
5:26
Speaker 2: and we spent this year to get uh Will Fries
5:31
Speaker 2: and Ryan Kelly, and apart from injuries, Fries during training camp,
5:39
Speaker 2: nursing and coming back to health. And then you know
5:44
Speaker 2: Kelly who probably had won too many concussions and is
5:47
Speaker 2: still playing. It's a great paycheck. I'm not holding anything
5:49
Speaker 2: against him. But look, as we've been watching through this time,
5:55
Speaker 2: and last night was just huge because are you ready
5:58
Speaker 2: for the Carson Wentz Max Brosen era because JJ just
6:03
Speaker 2: getting pummeled and some of that might be JJ's fault,
6:06
Speaker 2: but free runners off the edge and twists that you
6:10
Speaker 2: can't pick up, that's all coaching. So my rant here
6:13
Speaker 2: is like we need to take a look at the
6:15
Speaker 2: offensive line coach slash coaches. There's just been too much
6:20
Speaker 2: turnover there. These are guys who have talent. They made
6:23
Speaker 2: a NFL rosters. Why are they looking confused on stunts?
6:27
Speaker 2: Why are we having free runners? Why is there unschemed
6:32
Speaker 2: things defenses do on a weekly basis that leaves them
6:35
Speaker 2: looking confused and be fuddled all the time. And I've
6:38
Speaker 2: been holding it back for maybe two seasons. It's going, Okay,
6:42
Speaker 2: maybe it's just me, you know, and I haven't heard
6:45
Speaker 2: anybody else really complain about it. But at some point, Chris,
6:48
Speaker 2: it just it can't be all these players. I know
6:50
Speaker 2: you've heard me go on this rant off there, but
6:53
Speaker 2: on their it's like, you can't you can't tell me
6:57
Speaker 2: that all these guys that you've picked up free agents
7:00
Speaker 2: draft are our shitty linemen. You know they can't do
7:05
Speaker 2: their job. Now there's the Brad Barry situation, Brandle and
7:09
Speaker 2: all that stuff. You know you've been over it, but
7:12
Speaker 2: it's just at this point to me, I just can't
7:15
Speaker 2: stomach the fact that you're in week two. Okay, fine,
7:20
Speaker 2: maybe evangel there's a lot of injuries. There's some excuses,
7:22
Speaker 2: you could say, but their excuses. Why are the backups
7:26
Speaker 2: completely clueless? You know Jurgens, Yeah, he came up. This
7:30
Speaker 2: is his first NFL action but he's been there for
7:32
Speaker 2: two seasons or a whole season, and now this is
7:35
Speaker 2: his second season. He should know what to do. He
7:38
Speaker 2: should know the calls. He should know. There's no excuse
7:41
Speaker 2: for him being, you know, not being able to make
7:44
Speaker 2: calls year two. It's just it's not you can push back, Chris.
7:49
Speaker 2: But I've just had enough of it. I'm sick of
7:51
Speaker 2: offensive line issues. I'm not sold on Kelly and Fries
7:54
Speaker 2: at this point. You know, Kelly doesn't want to stay
7:57
Speaker 2: on the field, and Fries look turned around and look
8:00
Speaker 2: as confused as I seen any lineman yesterday and then
8:05
Speaker 2: had a penalty. Brian O'Neal, he's a free runner. I'm
8:09
Speaker 2: not gonna talk about the left tackle replacement because hopefully
8:12
Speaker 2: we don't have to see him anymore. Either Deriso's coming
8:14
Speaker 2: back or they'll put Rouse over there, and maybe Rouse
8:16
Speaker 2: will be just a tiny bit better than School I
8:20
Speaker 2: believe his name is. But we're having issues that's leading
8:23
Speaker 2: to JJ's play.
8:24
Speaker 1: Now.
8:24
Speaker 2: I'm not making excuses for JJ. Like he said, some
8:26
Speaker 2: of this might be his fault as well, but the
8:30
Speaker 2: kids getting pummeled and we talked a little bit off
8:32
Speaker 2: air about he's never seen this kind of pressure. In
8:36
Speaker 2: his entire life. He had all stars in high school,
8:38
Speaker 2: he had an all star National championship offensive line at Michigan.
8:43
Speaker 2: He's never seen pressure like this with a guard in
8:46
Speaker 2: your lap and a free runner coming at you and
8:49
Speaker 2: your backside you can't even imagine what might be coming
8:53
Speaker 2: from that angle. And you know, does he have a
8:55
Speaker 2: feel for the pocket. Maybe not, But we don't want
8:57
Speaker 2: to turn him to like a David Carr situation where
9:00
Speaker 2: it's just you know, shell shocked back there. It just
9:03
Speaker 2: gets rid of the ball frantically because he he's gonna
9:06
Speaker 2: get hit. And then Cousins was there last night, you know,
9:09
Speaker 2: to maybe like hey man, wait till they step on
9:11
Speaker 2: your foot. You know, it's just it's a lot. So
9:15
Speaker 2: that's my rant. I've had enough of it. I should
9:17
Speaker 2: learn the guy's name so I can say his name.
9:20
Speaker 2: But it's just it's gone on too long. I'm sick
9:23
Speaker 2: offensive line issues. I've had enough. It's up to here,
9:26
Speaker 2: and now you've got a rookie quarterback that you're trying
9:28
Speaker 2: to keep healthy and you're not going to do it
9:30
Speaker 2: with a bunch of confused linemen who look under coached.
9:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I you know, the Koc and Quazy. Since
9:40
Speaker 1: they've been here, you know, it has been an issue.
9:44
Speaker 1: But it goes back to twenty eighteen. Twenty seventeen, we
9:50
Speaker 1: we were second in carries for rushing that year. We
9:54
Speaker 1: all know what happened that year. We had a damn
9:57
Speaker 1: good year whatever, right, especially getting are in the playoffs
10:01
Speaker 1: or whatever. It didn't go to good in that game obviously,
10:04
Speaker 1: but we could run the ball. We our interior was strong.
10:09
Speaker 1: The next year, we had a guy retire, and we
10:13
Speaker 1: had a guy was it Fusco or whatever. He his
10:17
Speaker 1: back was messed up and he played a little bit
10:19
Speaker 1: in his career but pretty much didn't have a long
10:22
Speaker 1: career or anything so ever since then, and we had
10:25
Speaker 1: that Ohio State was it Efrin or I can't remember
10:29
Speaker 1: his fucking name, but the aiso stayed rookie in twenty seventeen,
10:34
Speaker 1: came back and he had that major injury so he
10:36
Speaker 1: couldn't really do much work. He came back a shell
10:38
Speaker 1: of himself. So since then twenty eighteen, we've had the
10:44
Speaker 1: most horrendous interior offensive line and even what people love
10:49
Speaker 1: to say with you know, pff, they no position group
10:54
Speaker 1: there for a while was performing that low. Besides ours
11:00
Speaker 1: not going to go on that list even a couple
11:01
Speaker 1: of years ago, remember we went through the whole list
11:04
Speaker 1: of players who played in the interior. I'm not gonna
11:06
Speaker 1: do it, but yes, you know Cousins got the scapegoat
11:10
Speaker 1: most of the time. Well he can't move, that's the problem.
11:12
Speaker 1: It's Cousin's fault. Well, okay, we've had some movers now
11:16
Speaker 1: and JJ can move. It's a it's an issue now.
11:21
Speaker 1: There's reasons and excuses, and it wouldn't be like a
11:25
Speaker 1: full pushback because because I think that's a fair assessment
11:30
Speaker 1: of the coaching now the old line. You know, we
11:35
Speaker 1: do need to see them play for a game when
11:39
Speaker 1: they're all healthy. Let's hope, let's knock on some wood
11:43
Speaker 1: and what four out of the five starters played without
11:47
Speaker 1: Darsoft for like a little bit in the preseason. But
11:50
Speaker 1: as we know, a lot of these first couple of
11:52
Speaker 1: games are are really getting the rust off because of
11:56
Speaker 1: you know, like JJ, it's hard. You know a lot
11:59
Speaker 1: of people talked about, oh, you had a whole year
12:01
Speaker 1: to learn. Yeah, but he was hurt. He didn't get
12:04
Speaker 1: the he wasn't in even I don't even know if
12:07
Speaker 1: they would have put him as a scout team ever,
12:09
Speaker 1: but he didn't have he didn't have those preseason reps.
12:12
Speaker 1: This year, he had plenty of reps. He still didn't
12:15
Speaker 1: get reps with JJ though, like he has not played.
12:19
Speaker 1: We had a multiple games last year where he would
12:22
Speaker 1: have gotten the game that matters. It's not just all
12:26
Speaker 1: you can pass a test on what play this is,
12:29
Speaker 1: what's the checkdown? What's all that? Yeah, that's great, and
12:33
Speaker 1: but when they call a red shirt year, you're still
12:35
Speaker 1: taking snaps at some point, so that that that plays
12:40
Speaker 1: into it. But the old line needs to be healthy
12:42
Speaker 1: and it we did kind of think it would take
12:44
Speaker 1: a while to Jael because they haven't played together. But
12:48
Speaker 1: with the center going out, the left tackles out there
12:50
Speaker 1: were already on a third tackle. It was it looked
12:54
Speaker 1: like what we've been seeing, it really has and and
12:58
Speaker 1: it's an issue. And like I said, Cousins got the
13:00
Speaker 1: scapego for all those years. And you know you're right
13:04
Speaker 1: though until last year people didn't talk about it. We're
13:08
Speaker 1: the only podcasts almost anyway that we're talking about it.
13:11
Speaker 1: So but because you know, we saw how the media
13:17
Speaker 1: dealt with Cousins, you can kind of like him. You
13:20
Speaker 1: could say he's above average, average or whatever. You could
13:22
Speaker 1: have your own opinion of it. That's fine, but the
13:24
Speaker 1: bottom line is you can just see what was happening
13:28
Speaker 1: on the interior, and that hurts our run game too.
13:32
Speaker 1: But yeah, the offense seven out of eight quarters really bad,
13:37
Speaker 1: super bad. The injuries are piling up, like you said,
13:42
Speaker 1: and it was. And like you said, you could say, oh,
13:46
Speaker 1: he shouldn't have stepped up in the pocket there, he
13:47
Speaker 1: should just thrown the ball away. He'll probably learn that.
13:51
Speaker 1: But he did get hit eleven times, and that's kind
13:55
Speaker 1: of We've been hitting eight to twelve for quite some time.
13:59
Speaker 1: I literally bring it up every show almost because for
14:04
Speaker 1: a reason, because you know, if you get hit double digits, dude,
14:08
Speaker 1: it just affects you. And I did notice when he
14:11
Speaker 1: does have a clean pocket, maybe we start to get
14:13
Speaker 1: the run going and then the play action works or whatever.
14:18
Speaker 1: It seemed like maybe he was holding it an extra
14:21
Speaker 1: hitch when it felt like it was going to be
14:24
Speaker 1: a quick play. But as far as JJ goes, you know,
14:30
Speaker 1: like you said about his two years as a starter,
14:35
Speaker 1: he had the best offensive line in the country. And
14:38
Speaker 1: so I hope they get rid of like my rant early.
14:41
Speaker 1: I hope they get rid of ever showing that god
14:45
Speaker 1: damn high school or college record ever again, because it
14:48
Speaker 1: means nothing right now. But he you know, he was
14:52
Speaker 1: throwing low balls. He should have got rid of it.
14:55
Speaker 1: A couple of times he was off target, he was
15:00
Speaker 1: bottle and the ball. He fumbled the ball. He tried
15:01
Speaker 1: to do a Joey Burrow duck over when someone was
15:05
Speaker 1: trying to sack him, but he didn't. He didn't control
15:07
Speaker 1: the ball. But that said so he played like shit.
15:11
Speaker 1: You know that ball, that deep ball, and Nailer wasn't
15:14
Speaker 1: even close. But we had some drops too, just because
15:20
Speaker 1: the ball's not perfect there. You still got to catch
15:22
Speaker 1: the dam ball. We've had two weeks of that. And
15:25
Speaker 1: then you know, like you said, he's just never seen
15:27
Speaker 1: this type of pressure, so you got to process it.
15:30
Speaker 1: Even with time, you still got to process all this stuff.
15:33
Speaker 1: So it's gonna take a while. We haven't seen a
15:36
Speaker 1: rookie cornerback or a young cornerback since the days of Teddy,
15:40
Speaker 1: since the days of t Jack, and since the days
15:42
Speaker 1: of Ponder, we haven't seen it. We've had veterans pretty
15:45
Speaker 1: much ever since. Even Dobbs played places, you know, so,
15:50
Speaker 1: and he'd been in league for a little bit. So yeah,
15:52
Speaker 1: it is uh, it's really bad. It's really bad, and
15:59
Speaker 1: you just and it just we need more than forty
16:04
Speaker 1: nine plays on offense or whatever it was to have
16:07
Speaker 1: the turnover on downs. Maybe we should have punted, but
16:10
Speaker 1: we followed up with a three and out anyway, giving
16:14
Speaker 1: them great field position to get a field goal. We
16:18
Speaker 1: had that great seventeen play fifty three, you know, drive
16:22
Speaker 1: it was nine twenty two. Couldn't punch it in though,
16:26
Speaker 1: had an interception for whatever reason at the end of
16:30
Speaker 1: the second quarter. That was a nice play, you know,
16:32
Speaker 1: to Jefferson and hey, that's pretty cool. Like we got
16:35
Speaker 1: down there, scored really quick, came out, had a three
16:38
Speaker 1: and OL seven and out, one play fumble, three and
16:42
Speaker 1: OL four play interception. Like it was just it was
16:47
Speaker 1: really really bad on many many lengths. I am glad
16:51
Speaker 1: that justin Jefferson is a guy who realizes that it's
16:57
Speaker 1: not easy to play quarterback, even when you haven't experienced quarterback,
17:01
Speaker 1: and when they can't you know, have the time to
17:04
Speaker 1: deliver the ball to you. So it is nice that
17:07
Speaker 1: after he's not one of those diva wide receivers that'll
17:12
Speaker 1: freak out and you know that type of thing. So
17:14
Speaker 1: I think that helps. But you know, JJ, after he
17:18
Speaker 1: got up, you were talking about the high ankle sprain.
17:20
Speaker 1: I could possibly see that that's the case either way.
17:23
Speaker 1: He was limping pretty good. But yeah, it's it's unacceptable.
17:28
Speaker 1: But that intier line, I do think that it will
17:32
Speaker 1: get better. I will say that, but the bars set
17:36
Speaker 1: so low. How you know, we do have to see
17:39
Speaker 1: an improvement of it by mid to late season if
17:43
Speaker 1: we want to make anything of this season. And so
17:49
Speaker 1: you know, when will we get them all back together
17:52
Speaker 1: for the first very time. That's a fair question that
17:55
Speaker 1: we don't know yet. And like I said, for the
17:58
Speaker 1: second time Alie Crow on the early buy, because we
18:02
Speaker 1: probably need that a lot.
18:05
Speaker 2: Well, I'll say this, I I'm not really gonna get
18:09
Speaker 2: into the JJ discussion. Yeah, he played terribly for whatever reasons.
18:13
Speaker 2: You know, he just had a kid, maybe he wasn't focused.
18:17
Speaker 2: There's a lot of things, but bottom line is he
18:19
Speaker 2: played terribly. A few good balls, a lot of bad balls,
18:24
Speaker 2: a lot of unfortunate things, you know, with a snap
18:28
Speaker 2: and all that stuff. But here's my real concern as
18:31
Speaker 2: far as that goes and I'll just kind of leave
18:33
Speaker 2: it at that. It's like we saw KAOS have success
18:36
Speaker 2: with Josh Dobbs, we saw KAOS have success with Sam Darnold,
18:42
Speaker 2: we saw KAOS have success with even Jarrett Hall and
18:46
Speaker 2: and some of these other quarterbacks. We're not seeing him
18:50
Speaker 2: have success with McCarthy. To the two for two, what
18:55
Speaker 2: eight quarters? Seven quarters have not been successful. That's a
19:00
Speaker 2: little bit eye opening to me because he's supposed to
19:04
Speaker 2: be the quarterback whisper and so far has proven to
19:06
Speaker 2: be so just with the players, he in the situations
19:12
Speaker 2: that he's had to deal with, and now you throw
19:13
Speaker 2: McCarthy in and you think, well, if McCarthy's even a
19:17
Speaker 2: third as good as Donald, you know O'Connell's job should
19:22
Speaker 2: be fairly easy. You know, McCarthy's been in the system
19:25
Speaker 2: for a year or so. So that's my only kind
19:27
Speaker 2: of wrinkle to it. I'm not losing faith in McCarthy.
19:30
Speaker 2: I think he's got a learning curve here. And like
19:33
Speaker 2: we said from season opening show, after last week, you
19:37
Speaker 2: know you have to this is going to be a
19:40
Speaker 2: wait and see. We're gonna look at eighteen games and
19:42
Speaker 2: make a decision. We're not gonna, you know, jump off
19:44
Speaker 2: the handle and start writing X posts about told you
19:48
Speaker 2: you should be playing once or you know, shouldn't let
19:51
Speaker 2: Donald go. This stuff's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. I just can't
19:55
Speaker 2: even imagine after eight quarters that you're already jumped and
20:00
Speaker 2: ship on somebody. But then it makes sense because you
20:03
Speaker 2: jump ship on cousins you want to. Everybody wants something
20:06
Speaker 2: that they don't have and thinks is better and the
20:08
Speaker 2: grass is always greener and whatever. But yeah, you know,
20:11
Speaker 2: I think McCarthy talented. I think that he's exactly what
20:15
Speaker 2: O'Connell wants. I think that he is twenty two years old.
20:20
Speaker 2: I think that, like he we pointed out earlier, he's
20:23
Speaker 2: never seen his guard end up in his lap before,
20:28
Speaker 2: or a center, you know, pushing him back in the pocket.
20:31
Speaker 2: So you know, he's not gonna be a world beater.
20:34
Speaker 2: And I think everybody thought, well, we're gonna come out
20:36
Speaker 2: win thirteen games, and if not, what we should have
20:39
Speaker 2: kept Donald. It's just ridiculous that the price would have
20:41
Speaker 2: cost for Donald. And look at what Donald did when
20:44
Speaker 2: the chips were down. I mean, do we forget that
20:46
Speaker 2: easily what he did in Detroit as the guy folded
20:52
Speaker 2: up like a tent. It was ridiculous. So you can
20:56
Speaker 2: win your fourteen regular season games and when it counts
20:58
Speaker 2: in the playoffs or to get in the playoffs and
21:01
Speaker 2: be a number one seed, you wet the bed. And
21:03
Speaker 2: then you want this guy back for fifty million dollars?
21:06
Speaker 2: Are you out of your minds? Stop with that shit,
21:10
Speaker 2: Just stop. We got a rookie quarterback, rookie scale deal,
21:14
Speaker 2: he's got talent, he's won a championship. You gotta let
21:17
Speaker 2: this play out, and that's what we're gonna do on
21:19
Speaker 2: this podcast. Let it play out, and we'll talk to
21:20
Speaker 2: you week eighteen or after the playoffs or whatever, and
21:23
Speaker 2: we'll make an assessment of his season, not just two
21:27
Speaker 2: games or eight quarters or whatever. Nonetheless, he's got a
21:30
Speaker 2: high ankle sprain, the dreaded high ankle spring. We're gonna
21:33
Speaker 2: see Wentz Chris. You know, we didn't think we'd see
21:36
Speaker 2: him that soon. He's probably gonna come out and light
21:39
Speaker 2: it up, just because that's Viking fashion.
21:41
Speaker 1: Man.
21:42
Speaker 2: The backup comes out and he takes us on a
21:45
Speaker 2: historic run to the NFC title game at where we
21:49
Speaker 2: lose forty one donut or whatever it is. I'm sick
21:53
Speaker 2: of that whole narrative, especially when you've been waiting around
21:56
Speaker 2: for McCarthy. But yeah, that's my only real concern with
22:00
Speaker 2: Kurthy is why isn't it so smooth with koc as
22:02
Speaker 2: opposed to the other one. And that can be lack
22:05
Speaker 2: of experience, that can be, yeah, a lot it, but
22:10
Speaker 2: this coun needs some seasoning. Let's let's let him have
22:12
Speaker 2: it now. I don't want to jump around too quick,
22:14
Speaker 2: but I also wanted to talk. Oh and then Darris, Yeah,
22:17
Speaker 2: we need him back, but I want him back one
22:19
Speaker 2: hundred percent. I don't want him back. Don't rush him back,
22:22
Speaker 2: especially for Wentz. For God's sakes, you know, save him
22:26
Speaker 2: for when you bring McCarthy back. Of course we want
22:30
Speaker 2: him back. He's an All Pro probably top five left
22:34
Speaker 2: tackle in the league. So you want it back now,
22:38
Speaker 2: Just just jump a little bit. Before I went on
22:40
Speaker 2: the darsaw take quickly, Chris is the cornerback room is
22:44
Speaker 2: still a question mark. I know who's playing now at least,
22:47
Speaker 2: and I thought that's intensively. For defensively, they were on
22:51
Speaker 2: the field all game. They give up fifteen points essentially
22:54
Speaker 2: besides the go ahead, which probably would have happened to
22:57
Speaker 2: anyway touchdown to make it twenty two. I thought they
23:00
Speaker 2: played really, really well, So I'm not here to like
23:02
Speaker 2: diss on these guys. I thought Rogers showed up a
23:05
Speaker 2: lot little mostly good, a little bit of bad. Murphy
23:09
Speaker 2: had a penalty, but other than that, didn't really see
23:11
Speaker 2: much of him, and then whoever's playing the other side
23:13
Speaker 2: of Kuda looked like Mattellus was over there a lot too.
23:16
Speaker 2: I think they're doing a lot of weird stuff. Mcglothin
23:20
Speaker 2: made a play, but I just finally nailed that down.
23:23
Speaker 2: I'm not, you know, casting judgment because against Michael Pennocks
23:27
Speaker 2: they held up pretty well. Against Caleb Williams, they held
23:30
Speaker 2: up pretty well. My concern is, you know you're gonna
23:32
Speaker 2: face Burrow but you think he's heard, but you're gonna
23:35
Speaker 2: face that caliber of quarterback and is it going to
23:37
Speaker 2: be you know that because Fabian Moro's your next backup
23:42
Speaker 2: and we saw what happened him last year. So I
23:43
Speaker 2: think there's a big problem defensively there besides the seven
23:47
Speaker 2: injured starters.
23:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, that that is the big the big one. Now,
23:53
Speaker 1: you know, defensively, sure, they missed too many tackles. We
23:58
Speaker 1: talked about once Cashman got hurt with a hammy where
24:02
Speaker 1: he's on the ir so we know he's missing three
24:05
Speaker 1: more games at least, you know the tackles where it's
24:10
Speaker 1: only a six or seven yard game rather than fifteen
24:13
Speaker 1: or twenty. Because there was a couple of times where
24:17
Speaker 1: they show, you know, the back part of the play
24:21
Speaker 1: and you could see Alan did his job. He had
24:24
Speaker 1: two guys that were on him and there was a
24:26
Speaker 1: hole with no lineback, with no Wilson in the middle,
24:31
Speaker 1: and he was going around the other hole in this
24:33
Speaker 1: big old hole. He's just run right through and then
24:37
Speaker 1: you know you have pace coming from the side trying
24:39
Speaker 1: to ankle tackle Robinson. You know, of course, you can't
24:43
Speaker 1: go high on Robinson. Not many. I suppose somebody can,
24:47
Speaker 1: but not many. But you gotta go at least like
24:52
Speaker 1: two arms close to the knee or something. I'm not
24:57
Speaker 1: saying hit him in that he I'm saying you gotta
24:58
Speaker 1: wrap up a little bit higher than the ankle. But
25:01
Speaker 1: there was a couple of times where you're like, dude,
25:02
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And you know, a lot of
25:04
Speaker 1: people complain about Dallas Dallas Turner not playing. I saw
25:09
Speaker 1: him running sideways a lot too. And I'm not ripping
25:12
Speaker 1: on the kid, but you know, this whole thing of
25:15
Speaker 1: that's the thing ever since social media has been a big,
25:18
Speaker 1: big deal. Everyone loves everyone has an opinion, that's great,
25:22
Speaker 1: But when they act like it's a professional opinion and
25:27
Speaker 1: they act like how could you not see this? You know, Well,
25:31
Speaker 1: I'm not saying Dallas Turner was a horrible player last night,
25:34
Speaker 1: nothing like that, But I'm just saying, like, overall, they
25:39
Speaker 1: gashed us on the run too much. So there was mistackles,
25:43
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Clearly they were high level in
25:50
Speaker 1: the red zone. And like I said that, they did bend,
25:56
Speaker 1: but they never fully broke. You can make an argument
25:59
Speaker 1: they gave up that touchdown just to try to get
26:02
Speaker 1: the ball back and do something at that point rather
26:05
Speaker 1: than let him burn more clock.
26:07
Speaker 2: But yeah, without O'Connell said it directly.
26:11
Speaker 1: Yeah oh he did. Okay, Yeah, yeah, I mean that's
26:13
Speaker 1: what I thought when I saw it, you know, so
26:17
Speaker 1: I don't really look at it like that. Like you said,
26:19
Speaker 1: it's basically fifteen and I mean time and time again
26:23
Speaker 1: with the turnovers and everything like that, and the three
26:25
Speaker 1: and outs they kept playing, but without Cashman there that
26:31
Speaker 1: we did see that being an issue last year when
26:34
Speaker 1: he did miss some time. Clearly, So did the defense
26:38
Speaker 1: have this stellar game and all that. No, I'm not
26:41
Speaker 1: gonna act like they had a great game, but they
26:43
Speaker 1: played well enough for sure, well enough to win the game.
26:49
Speaker 1: And so it's all on the offense.
26:51
Speaker 2: There's just no way around it.
26:54
Speaker 1: Any other things. Before we get into this this year.
26:58
Speaker 1: Since the game, no, I.
27:01
Speaker 2: Mean, I'm just thinking to myself, you know, offense, score seventeen,
27:05
Speaker 2: you probably win that game. You might have to add another,
27:07
Speaker 2: you might have to score twenty because the way the
27:10
Speaker 2: game flow or the game flow went. I guess the
27:14
Speaker 2: game can't flop flow. I guess. I don't know anyway.
27:17
Speaker 2: It's easy for me to say. But you look at
27:21
Speaker 2: how they started these drives in the first quarter, Chris,
27:23
Speaker 2: and just you know, four and out, so you know,
27:26
Speaker 2: Connle's getting a little aggressive, and then it's sack Man
27:30
Speaker 2: three and out, punts and it's just sacks and turnovers
27:34
Speaker 2: and that. You know, speaking of the defense, they play
27:38
Speaker 2: the entire game, Chris, I think you have the stat
27:41
Speaker 2: of the actual plays.
27:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was like thirty eight thirty eight minutes.
27:46
Speaker 2: It's just unbelievable as that of these guys, and they
27:50
Speaker 2: did hold up very well to give it fifteen and
27:54
Speaker 2: Matta gave out that the other one either way. But
27:57
Speaker 2: you know, twenty two isn't isn't bad either, considering put
28:03
Speaker 2: in positions the whole night, right, and it's not like
28:06
Speaker 2: you're and you're down a bunch of starters too, So yeah,
28:10
Speaker 2: everything was just kind of not working. So let's call
28:14
Speaker 2: that the home stinker for the year. Hopefully that's it.
28:18
Speaker 2: We always have one. Let's get it out of the way,
28:20
Speaker 2: I suppose. But now I guess we're onto Cincinnati and
28:24
Speaker 2: I got Burrow on my fantasy team, and I just
28:27
Speaker 2: know that he was hurt and come out of the game.
28:29
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's back this week or not.
28:30
Speaker 2: I'm assuming he's not, but that changes a lot. I
28:34
Speaker 2: think it's go back to Jake Browning again. Another Jake Browning,
28:37
Speaker 2: uh sighting after he left here, and we'll get to
28:42
Speaker 2: hear about his wife and all that other fun stuff.
28:44
Speaker 1: Another guy we should see, We should have kept him,
28:47
Speaker 1: should have kept him right for seven guys that.
28:50
Speaker 2: They're yeah, and then we get to see Jamar Chase
28:56
Speaker 2: and a pretty good Cincinnati team, and we're beat up
29:01
Speaker 2: and banged up, and it doesn't seem like many guys
29:04
Speaker 2: are returning this week either Darrisaw. Maybe Harrison Smith, who
29:09
Speaker 2: knows at this point what's going on with Harrison Smith.
29:13
Speaker 1: Ben Ginko if he's you know, never knowing. These concussions too,
29:20
Speaker 1: sometimes they take.
29:21
Speaker 2: Two weeks, you know, right, Darrisaw JJ Now, So I
29:30
Speaker 2: mean we're going in there a shell of ourselves. So,
29:34
Speaker 2: you know, interesting game in Cincinnati. I think last time
29:36
Speaker 2: we were there, Addison had a great catch to win
29:39
Speaker 2: it for us. But yeah, always fun to go play
29:42
Speaker 2: the Bengals.
29:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I remember we almost won a game at
29:48
Speaker 1: Cincinnati to a chunk of years ago. That's in that
29:52
Speaker 1: year that that'd have been probably twenty one, maybe it's
29:56
Speaker 1: twenty two actually where we had so there was so
29:59
Speaker 1: many almost to Kansas City, and you know, it was
30:02
Speaker 1: just like we're this close. But yeah, they're they're doing
30:08
Speaker 1: pretty good on offense. But clearly that you know, it
30:10
Speaker 1: is a toe, the old turf toe. And some people
30:14
Speaker 1: are saying, you know, maybe he needs surgery. Maybe not.
30:19
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's mostly online shit, so that that's
30:22
Speaker 1: way too early and a lot of times when we
30:24
Speaker 1: talking injuries. You know, it's Monday, right, so we we
30:29
Speaker 1: don't really know a whole lot. But he's not playing.
30:32
Speaker 1: I'd assume, you know, they haven't been able to run
30:36
Speaker 1: the ball all that much. So hopefully the combination of
30:40
Speaker 1: them not being able to run the ball all that
30:42
Speaker 1: much playing with their backup, who he's a decent backup
30:47
Speaker 1: or whatever. But they've also given up a fair amount
30:50
Speaker 1: of passing yards. So if we're gonna have a game
30:56
Speaker 1: where we can get you know, over two hundred yards past,
31:00
Speaker 1: which you know, this isn't college, you know what I mean,
31:04
Speaker 1: so you should really be able to do that. There's
31:09
Speaker 1: a stat here on Fox Sports that says the Vikings
31:14
Speaker 1: negative eight yards and golden goal situations are the fewest
31:19
Speaker 1: in the NFL so far. Now that's two games, and
31:22
Speaker 1: some of these stats are you know, silly or whatever, right,
31:25
Speaker 1: but Cincinnati did beat Jacksonville. They lost to Cleveland. Both
31:30
Speaker 1: of those games are really really close. You know, I
31:35
Speaker 1: think Van Gingle will probably be back, hopefully Daris Oz back,
31:39
Speaker 1: but it's too early to say that, you know, I
31:42
Speaker 1: guess there's I guess that you know, we tried to
31:45
Speaker 1: give him like a little workout in game one. But
31:49
Speaker 1: the rules. Koc was trying to say that the rules,
31:53
Speaker 1: the rules are a little different. So that's why he
31:56
Speaker 1: was questionable, uh, and not doubtful or whatever, because we
31:59
Speaker 1: wanted to get him on the field to try it out.
32:02
Speaker 1: So hopefully he comes back because like you said, and
32:05
Speaker 1: the dude's a stud. And but you got to make
32:07
Speaker 1: sure you know, of course, as you said too that
32:11
Speaker 1: that you know, gotta get him back. Now. You know
32:15
Speaker 1: the office line's not playing great. They do have some
32:19
Speaker 1: edge rushers. You know, do you just go to wins
32:24
Speaker 1: and just bite the bullet and just say screw it,
32:27
Speaker 1: we might as well or you know, is JJ's ankle? Okay?
32:32
Speaker 1: You know that we'll know more Thursday and how much
32:35
Speaker 1: work he gets done in the week and all that.
32:38
Speaker 1: It opened at the Vikings three and a half. It's
32:41
Speaker 1: now free. You know, there's a chance that they'll play.
32:47
Speaker 1: Both will play with their backup quarterback. Probably a low
32:52
Speaker 1: scoring game forty one and a half. It's it's it's
32:56
Speaker 1: tough to say, like it's tough to say that the
32:59
Speaker 1: Viking are gonna put up like I twenties right now,
33:03
Speaker 1: you know, I just don't have the confidence to say it,
33:08
Speaker 1: but I am gonna go with a win. They the Bengals.
33:15
Speaker 1: You can run on them a little bit, but the
33:17
Speaker 1: combination of run pass, uh, maybe some wrinkles that they
33:21
Speaker 1: throw in, it's just hard to pick them like confidently
33:27
Speaker 1: because of that. You know that line right now. It's
33:32
Speaker 1: one thing to know, like when you have your tackles
33:35
Speaker 1: figured out like we have, you know previously. You know,
33:41
Speaker 1: when Darresna comes back, we could at least maybe they'd
33:44
Speaker 1: scheme around a little bit or get you know, we
33:46
Speaker 1: gotta go real West coast with it. You know, it
33:49
Speaker 1: just short passes. You know, I'm gonna say the Vikings win,
33:55
Speaker 1: but it might be a late field goal. But I
34:00
Speaker 1: think our defense will you know, I think they play
34:03
Speaker 1: pretty good against Burrow anyway. But if it's the backup,
34:06
Speaker 1: which it's probably the backup, then you know, I'm thinking
34:10
Speaker 1: that our defense will once again keep us in the game,
34:14
Speaker 1: and then the offense will do just enough to get
34:19
Speaker 1: this to get this dub. So I'll say something like
34:25
Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty, twenty, twenty to seventeen, twenty to sixteen,
34:30
Speaker 1: something like that. But I am gonna go with I
34:33
Speaker 1: just I don't know. I just don't think back to back,
34:40
Speaker 1: you know, back to back home games. I'm gonna go
34:43
Speaker 1: with the Vikings here.
34:45
Speaker 2: I don't think they'll.
34:47
Speaker 1: I don't think they'll lose back.
34:48
Speaker 2: To back at all. Well, I hear what you say,
34:51
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna go completely the opposite. I'm gonna go
34:53
Speaker 2: with Minnesota sports as long as we've been watching when
34:58
Speaker 2: steps on that field, which it appears that he's going to,
35:01
Speaker 2: I think O'Connell said.
35:02
Speaker 1: Oh, you're saying like blowout, like hole thirty eight points.
35:05
Speaker 2: I'm saying, like this guy is gonna set the world
35:09
Speaker 2: on fire. Will be the rejuvenation of Carson Wentz right,
35:13
Speaker 2: unfortunately for everybody involved. But you we'll get a w
35:16
Speaker 2: out of it, and then we'll get everybody singing his praises.
35:18
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll sign him for fifty million.
35:20
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's the next thing. Can we extend him
35:22
Speaker 1: now or no?
35:23
Speaker 2: Exactly? He means an extention, Just guys, just great.
35:28
Speaker 1: You know he's from the Midwest, right, you know he's
35:29
Speaker 1: from North Dakota right.
35:31
Speaker 2: Right in the line. Now, it draws me back a
35:34
Speaker 2: little bit, like you said, it's just the offensive line
35:36
Speaker 2: and the stated saying the injury is all that stuff.
35:39
Speaker 2: So Wentz could end up just, you know, quickly going
35:42
Speaker 2: to Brozemer on this one. You know, his leg going
35:45
Speaker 2: two different directions, who knows, but I'm gonna say I'm
35:49
Speaker 2: going with just you know, we've been through this enough
35:54
Speaker 2: Man Case Keenum, fucking Sam Darnold. It's just go back
36:01
Speaker 2: to Jeff, George and Brad Johnson and Randall Cunningham. Oh
36:05
Speaker 2: my god, we've.
36:06
Speaker 1: Been like, yes, George Man, Randy East attack so good
36:09
Speaker 1: about him because George had just put the ball. He
36:11
Speaker 1: didn't give it two ships, he had just put the ball. Uh.
36:16
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna Gordy, Hey, I'm happy, I'm good.
36:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, golly yeah, I'm just gonna go Vikings, and I
36:24
Speaker 2: think I'm gonna take the over for sure. I think
36:28
Speaker 2: our defense is good enough to win it even if
36:30
Speaker 2: we don't score more than seventeen points. But I'm gonna
36:34
Speaker 2: go Vikings thirty two, Cincinnati seventeen ish. So i'll say
36:43
Speaker 2: thirty two seventeen. Wentz comes out, does exactly what you know,
36:48
Speaker 2: Conna Watson fire, Yeah, just dissects Cincinnati and then we
36:53
Speaker 2: have a whole new conversation on the lovely Internet about
36:58
Speaker 2: the future of JJ, the future of the franchise, the
37:02
Speaker 2: future of O'Connell and Quacy and everything will be up
37:06
Speaker 2: in the year now with this whole situation, and hopefully
37:09
Speaker 2: they put that to bed and say JJ's ankles better
37:11
Speaker 2: and he'll be back in going into London. So that's
37:16
Speaker 2: my call. I hope that, I guess. I mean inward, Lee,
37:22
Speaker 2: I would like to win, like I would like to
37:26
Speaker 2: go with yours, because I think that's more in line
37:29
Speaker 2: with the plan and what I want to see happen
37:31
Speaker 2: in the future.
37:32
Speaker 1: But I can see your point though. I think it's
37:34
Speaker 1: a good angle.
37:35
Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, I just do that's you know, and then
37:40
Speaker 2: maybe Brozemer comes in and he plays better than JJ,
37:43
Speaker 2: and then we got a whole different issue. So this
37:46
Speaker 2: is gonna be a fun year, man. So I'm thinking
37:48
Speaker 2: the Vikings thirty one, thirty two, seventeen, something like that.
37:52
Speaker 2: Now we went on to California, Chris's Aaron Berkeley kawait
38:00
Speaker 2: Paris with a little bit of a a little bit
38:03
Speaker 2: of a game change and play there and not a
38:05
Speaker 2: positive one.
38:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So just the backup real quick though, So
38:10
Speaker 1: people you're saying Sunday at about three point thirty, people
38:15
Speaker 1: will be googling trade deadline. We could, we could, we
38:19
Speaker 1: could trade JJ. We can trade him, and then we
38:22
Speaker 1: could you know, we already got a backup with Max.
38:23
Speaker 1: They're already gonna be selling JJJWN the Mississippi River.
38:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be the national media first.
38:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly what are they gonna do with JJ?
38:33
Speaker 2: They could trade him, you know, I think Harball will
38:36
Speaker 2: take him back.
38:37
Speaker 1: You know, it's just that's exactly exactly.
38:40
Speaker 2: It'll be a rumor fricking machine, just like it was
38:43
Speaker 2: after the Game one comeback where JJ was the second
38:47
Speaker 2: coming of God. John Elway Cousins could never do this.
38:53
Speaker 1: It's like, do you know he has the biggest comeback
38:55
Speaker 1: of all the time. But we'll move on. We'll move on,
38:57
Speaker 1: We'll move on. Okay, so we're we're already on a
39:00
Speaker 1: parent spear and that we we've got Turner's hurt too now,
39:03
Speaker 1: so we got Tailor and Turner out. However, there are
39:08
Speaker 1: some bright signs at that running back position. We'll get
39:12
Speaker 1: to that though. But you, like you said, a very
39:15
Speaker 1: winnable game once we you know, once we saw it
39:19
Speaker 1: play out, very winnable. But they didn't get the job done.
39:23
Speaker 1: Cal quarterback. Uh we said he was legit. He showed
39:29
Speaker 1: it again, legit, multiple great, great throws and also these
39:34
Speaker 1: little his pocket presence. You know, he can get outside,
39:40
Speaker 1: he can do a little shimmy shake he get but
39:43
Speaker 1: he's looking he's not looking to one check and read
39:47
Speaker 1: or you know, go, He's looking to scramble actually on
39:50
Speaker 1: the outside and keep throwing the ball. Good sized kid
39:55
Speaker 1: buying time very well. They asked, PJ, why didn't you
40:00
Speaker 1: lits more? Well, did you see what was happening when
40:02
Speaker 1: we were blitzing the kid? It was a deep right
40:04
Speaker 1: over the top of us. So there was times though
40:08
Speaker 1: that we we did. You know, we actually did contain
40:12
Speaker 1: them for a little bit enough to win the game anyway,
40:16
Speaker 1: and then you know we didn't. The bargain wasn't there, right,
40:21
Speaker 1: we didn't. We didn't. We didn't play good enough to
40:23
Speaker 1: win that game. We really didn't. Uh it's there was
40:29
Speaker 1: so there was a so we started to finally get
40:32
Speaker 1: there to run in the ball pretty well. Right we
40:34
Speaker 1: had that. We had that touchdown drive, really nice drive,
40:39
Speaker 1: sixteen plays almost seven minutes to tie it. And they
40:44
Speaker 1: did a really good job of bounce of right back
40:47
Speaker 1: and at forty three seconds getting that field goal to
40:50
Speaker 1: go in. And I would say two things with Drake
40:56
Speaker 1: the third quarter. To begin that quarter, we he had
41:00
Speaker 1: a little drive going and he threw that pick. There's
41:03
Speaker 1: really no reason to throw that ball there. So that
41:08
Speaker 1: was a bad pick or whatever. But and maybe he
41:12
Speaker 1: didn't have to take a sack. He could have he
41:14
Speaker 1: could throw the ball away or whatever. So but other
41:17
Speaker 1: than that, I thought he will get to him in
41:20
Speaker 1: a little bit. But there was a point in the
41:24
Speaker 1: fourth quarter where it was third and seven and we
41:27
Speaker 1: ran the ball, and we had a third and five
41:31
Speaker 1: play on that same driver ran the ball and we
41:34
Speaker 1: picked up a first down. So his but once you're
41:38
Speaker 1: third and seven, I would have liked to see a
41:40
Speaker 1: pass there because Flex said, well, I didn't want to
41:46
Speaker 1: take a sack. Well, that tells you he doesn't fully
41:49
Speaker 1: trust the young buck just yet. He didn't want to
41:52
Speaker 1: take a sack. Okay, cool, But they he said he
41:56
Speaker 1: had to watch the film still because they don't know
41:58
Speaker 1: how a free guy came or whatever who didn't pick
42:01
Speaker 1: him up. But either way, we lost yards. Anyway, it
42:04
Speaker 1: was a fifty yard fifty one yard attempt. We missed
42:07
Speaker 1: the field goal, so I would have liked I think
42:10
Speaker 1: that is one of those plays with like I think
42:13
Speaker 1: it was like eight or nine minutes left, I don't
42:15
Speaker 1: really know, but I would have liked to seen a
42:18
Speaker 1: pass play there. So I thought we got a little
42:21
Speaker 1: too conservative. Some people were freaking out about that, and
42:24
Speaker 1: I think that when it was happening, it felt like
42:28
Speaker 1: we were gonna get about four or five yards and
42:30
Speaker 1: then there was gonna be a decision on fourth down,
42:32
Speaker 1: but it would have been a closer field goal, but
42:34
Speaker 1: we lost yards either way. So I would have liked
42:36
Speaker 1: to take a past or you know, call pass there.
42:41
Speaker 1: And when you're in that game, you know that that
42:44
Speaker 1: Koy Parrish calling everybody to stay away from the ball,
42:49
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden he looks as like,
42:51
Speaker 1: oh I could pick this up. He scooped and did
42:53
Speaker 1: not scoop it all the way up, which gave them
42:57
Speaker 1: a great, you know, field position to get touchdown. So
43:01
Speaker 1: that that really did it. The crazy thing is like
43:04
Speaker 1: two plays before that, he almost had a pick six.
43:10
Speaker 1: The now, you always want your defensive lineman or any
43:14
Speaker 1: blitzer to tip the ball at the line of scrimmage
43:17
Speaker 1: on average, but the tip messed up the pick six.
43:21
Speaker 1: It was kind of funny how that worked, but that
43:23
Speaker 1: those small little things happened. But in that point, it's
43:26
Speaker 1: twenty four to fourteen. Not not that good. Right third
43:31
Speaker 1: and eight. There was a lot of pressure when we're
43:33
Speaker 1: down twenty four to fourteen, and it wasn't a great pass,
43:38
Speaker 1: or maybe it wasn't a great route. I really don't
43:40
Speaker 1: know on fourth and eight, but some people were kind
43:42
Speaker 1: of saying, oh, I had fourth and eight, So how
43:45
Speaker 1: do you run on a third and eight, but then
43:47
Speaker 1: you pass on a fourth and eight. To an extent,
43:50
Speaker 1: that's fair, but at that point in that game wasn't
43:52
Speaker 1: that high scoring. I didn't mind going forward where they
43:55
Speaker 1: were in the field position. You know, it is what
43:59
Speaker 1: it is as far as Drac goes. Once we got
44:03
Speaker 1: that run game going as well, I really liked in
44:06
Speaker 1: the play action. Oh the other play that I thought
44:08
Speaker 1: he that he missed was Brockington coming wide open across
44:13
Speaker 1: the field. He put it in type coverage. He had
44:18
Speaker 1: a first down maybe even more. But other than that,
44:20
Speaker 1: I thought Drake played just find some bright spots. Brockington
44:25
Speaker 1: had a great game, Smith really good. Besides the bad
44:30
Speaker 1: penalty late. I liked the red shirt freshman Roy out
44:35
Speaker 1: of Wisconsin. He played good, like I said, he had
44:38
Speaker 1: that bad penalty at the end, but the game is
44:40
Speaker 1: pretty much over by then. But we lost Turner, the
44:44
Speaker 1: second guy that we transfer, kind of a scatback type dude,
44:48
Speaker 1: didn't have Taylor. But you know, fammy look good. Red
44:56
Speaker 1: shirt freshman big kid was running really really hard along
45:01
Speaker 1: with the transfer senior Cam Davis. So they did. There
45:05
Speaker 1: are some bright spots in there, but we just didn't
45:09
Speaker 1: play well enough to win the game. Man.
45:15
Speaker 2: That's that's exactly it. You just didn't play well, and
45:17
Speaker 2: you wouldn't have had to play that much better to
45:19
Speaker 2: win well. He just didn't play well enough. And then
45:23
Speaker 2: you know, Paris's mistake was huge, very I get it,
45:27
Speaker 2: I understand it, but you know, still that was a killer.
45:32
Speaker 1: And he didn't have as much green as it seemed.
45:34
Speaker 1: Aaron I forgot to say that, like, yeah, there was
45:37
Speaker 1: there was a gap between him and the defenders, so
45:40
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, there is green. But then when I
45:42
Speaker 1: hit the you know, I rewound it really quick. Two
45:46
Speaker 1: of the gun, like the other two dudes were in position,
45:49
Speaker 1: so he really didn't have any play. Now he could
45:51
Speaker 1: have juked somebody, sure, but yeah, that was costly.
45:54
Speaker 2: And I agree with you on Lindsay for most of
45:56
Speaker 2: your takes on that. I just would add there was
45:59
Speaker 2: a play in the reds he missed a guy. Now
46:01
Speaker 2: he did complete the pass, but he would have to
46:03
Speaker 2: walk in touchdown. Yeah, you would have went left into
46:06
Speaker 2: the flat. I think it was on the third or
46:08
Speaker 2: second down. But I think he's playing well enough. He's
46:12
Speaker 2: not the cal kid.
46:14
Speaker 1: The kid is right. Yeah, that guy's a five star recruit.
46:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, one year, one time of year, and certainly not
46:21
Speaker 2: in the big ten. I don't think anybody's that skilled.
46:23
Speaker 2: We'll hold on, hold on a second. Let me think
46:25
Speaker 2: about everybody in Ohio. State's got good guys all the time. Anyway,
46:31
Speaker 2: that quarterback position that I don't think Ryola is kind
46:36
Speaker 2: of good. But he's not you know.
46:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think you'll see a guy like that.
46:41
Speaker 2: And that's tough for anybody to face. And unless you're
46:43
Speaker 2: specifically set up to start with. Now, that's not an excuse.
46:46
Speaker 2: You could have won that game. It was there for you.
46:48
Speaker 2: I liked their running back. You're talking about the recher freshman. Yes, yeah,
46:52
Speaker 2: he came back. He sucks for a j sucks for Darius,
46:57
Speaker 2: but we need we'll get him back eventually in the
46:59
Speaker 2: in the but I think we're good. In the running game,
47:02
Speaker 2: I thought you're right. Fleck did kind of go back,
47:05
Speaker 2: which I wanted him to. So I'm not taking this
47:07
Speaker 2: away because I thought we would just lean on him
47:09
Speaker 2: for the game. I think I thought that too, we'd
47:11
Speaker 2: just lean on him and eventually the fourth we'd win.
47:16
Speaker 2: And I think it went that way for the most part.
47:17
Speaker 2: Had Paris not done that and we, uh, you know,
47:21
Speaker 2: because we were up fourteen thirteen or fourteen twelve or
47:24
Speaker 2: fourteen ten going into third game, jameson Gears caught one,
47:29
Speaker 2: you know, so you can't catch him. But yeah, I
47:33
Speaker 2: think it's a tough loss. Just a few plays. Like
47:37
Speaker 2: people always say, it's a play here, play there. This
47:39
Speaker 2: is a game that's absolutely that it was a play
47:41
Speaker 2: here at play there, and the outcome would have been different.
47:46
Speaker 2: I thought that this the X factor was the cal quarterback.
47:52
Speaker 2: He did just enough. I don't think he had lights
47:54
Speaker 2: out day, but the plays that he did make were
47:57
Speaker 2: big plays.
47:58
Speaker 1: They're really good. Yeah, We're like, okay, the coverage is
48:01
Speaker 1: there nothing we can do about that ship.
48:04
Speaker 2: The good offense beats good defense or however you want
48:06
Speaker 2: to say it. But yeah, we'll look at that. Like
48:09
Speaker 2: you said, he might be at Cal for one year,
48:10
Speaker 2: you never know, pick up a dealer or what have you. Defensively,
48:14
Speaker 2: I thought, you know, for the most part, they played
48:17
Speaker 2: pretty well Cal. It's going to be interesting to see
48:20
Speaker 2: how they do for the rest of the year and
48:22
Speaker 2: kind of their ac is open.
48:25
Speaker 1: They they don't play a lot of teams, so they
48:28
Speaker 1: let's see how that might look like a pretty good loss,
48:32
Speaker 1: you know, after twelve games.
48:34
Speaker 2: Yes, So now on the Rutgers, the thorn in our side.
48:39
Speaker 1: Uh it, we have a b so it's not this week.
48:43
Speaker 2: Yes, we get a little time to mend or to
48:47
Speaker 2: scheme heylor please go. The buys coming at a good time.
48:52
Speaker 2: I don't think we're riddled with injuries besides the running
48:55
Speaker 2: back position.
48:58
Speaker 1: Where had.
49:02
Speaker 2: A little regroup a little early by action on that
49:05
Speaker 2: side too. But yeah, so I guess we'll talk about
49:09
Speaker 2: Rutgers a little more next week. But I thought, play
49:14
Speaker 2: here and play there, like I said earlier, would have
49:16
Speaker 2: would have been the difference in this game. And I
49:18
Speaker 2: think what we said last week about leaning on him
49:21
Speaker 2: about just the lines being a little bit better. What
49:24
Speaker 2: it came to fruitionhead, had you just made a different
49:27
Speaker 2: play here and there, you wouldn't Now you wouldn't blew
49:31
Speaker 2: him out, but you would have squeaked out of there
49:32
Speaker 2: with seventeen or fourteen something like that, some kind of win.
49:36
Speaker 2: So it's unfortunate, but I think it was a loss
49:39
Speaker 2: that you can stand. It's early in the season. Yes,
49:42
Speaker 2: col will probably have a pretty nice season, so I
49:44
Speaker 2: don't think it's a death nail type of loss. But
49:47
Speaker 2: it sure would have been better to win that one.
49:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, that Willcox. He's legit, especially defense. You get a
49:54
Speaker 1: defensive guy with the with a quarterback like that, it'll
49:58
Speaker 1: be interesting. And we're not trying to that. You know,
50:02
Speaker 1: shots out to cal Berkeley for a lot of stuff.
50:05
Speaker 1: The you go back a handful of decades, shots out
50:10
Speaker 1: to Berkeley. But we're not trying to be like, oh,
50:13
Speaker 1: that dude's not going to be there. It's just, you know,
50:14
Speaker 1: it's college football. It happens.
50:16
Speaker 2: You know.
50:17
Speaker 1: I hope he stays there, you know, for the sake
50:20
Speaker 1: of the you know, yeah, because he went to Oregon.
50:28
Speaker 1: He went he went to Oregon originally, but he's a
50:32
Speaker 1: he's a truth not even dude. He went there and
50:35
Speaker 1: then dipped, so so he's a true freshman doing that. Dude. Yeah,
50:43
Speaker 1: it's pretty crazy. Kids got the tools. Man. Speaking of tools, though,
50:47
Speaker 1: it's not a rebuild this year, but it is a retool.
50:50
Speaker 1: I don't really know, unless you lose your coach, I
50:53
Speaker 1: don't as long as you got a decent NL, I
50:57
Speaker 1: you retool. You don't rebuild like that per se, unless
51:00
Speaker 1: like I said, you have to start from the beginning
51:03
Speaker 1: with a new coach or whatever. But it is a
51:05
Speaker 1: retooling year. And I remember multiple message through the year
51:10
Speaker 1: last year when I was said to have overrated the
51:14
Speaker 1: talent that we had on that team, and then as
51:17
Speaker 1: the year played out, it was clear, I mean, look
51:19
Speaker 1: at me, fifty three man roster. I mean guys are
51:23
Speaker 1: right now off of that team last year. So don't
51:27
Speaker 1: fool yourself. That was they underachieved last year. There's just
51:31
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. It's it's it could have been
51:33
Speaker 1: ninety three very easily.
51:37
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's been this program's kind of bugaboo is
51:42
Speaker 2: it's underachieving, you know, whether it's dropping a game to
51:45
Speaker 2: bowling green or dropping a game to North Carolina in
51:48
Speaker 2: Week one last year, just barely. It's not like they're
51:51
Speaker 2: vastly underachieving. It's even worse. They're just they're minorly underachieving.
51:57
Speaker 2: So it's tantalizing, and you want, oh, if they had
51:59
Speaker 2: just kick that field goal or made that tackle or
52:02
Speaker 2: let the ball roll or whatever, you know, you're a
52:05
Speaker 2: game or two better, and then you're in a whole
52:07
Speaker 2: different atmosphere. But no, we're just kind of always riding
52:11
Speaker 2: that line of between mediocre and very good.
52:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, we're not going to hit ten
52:19
Speaker 1: and two that many times like we did in twenty nineteen.
52:22
Speaker 1: We do realize that we were eleven and two ultimately,
52:27
Speaker 1: So we're not even saying, oh, we got to win
52:29
Speaker 1: ten games almost every other year. No, No, it's not that,
52:31
Speaker 1: it's just when you have you got to strike when
52:34
Speaker 1: you when you have it. And in twenty one, twenty two,
52:37
Speaker 1: or twenty two, twenty three, Yeah, twenty one to twenty two,
52:40
Speaker 1: one of those years, especially when we were in the West,
52:45
Speaker 1: which is no longer. You know, it could have been there,
52:48
Speaker 1: we could make the playoffs in twenty nineteen. But so
52:52
Speaker 1: I think it's a retooling year. But if you look
52:54
Speaker 1: at like I don't want to look to next year, right,
52:59
Speaker 1: but if this team gives us pretty good vibes right
53:03
Speaker 1: where you're like seven and five, eight and four with
53:06
Speaker 1: this schedule. You know, like I said earlier this year
53:09
Speaker 1: so far, I kept hearing it's a man of manageable schedule.
53:14
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you clearly don't watch college football. You're
53:18
Speaker 1: telling me at Oregon, at Ohio State and at Iowa
53:22
Speaker 1: is a manageable schedule. Really, it's it's harder this year
53:27
Speaker 1: than it was last year because remember Michigan was down
53:30
Speaker 1: last year, like pretty far down. So this is a
53:36
Speaker 1: retooling year. It looks like we have our quarterback for
53:40
Speaker 1: the next few years. That's what it looks like. He
53:44
Speaker 1: was under recruited, he came here. It seems like we're
53:48
Speaker 1: gonna be able to keep him. Right, if you look
53:53
Speaker 1: at the players on the roster for the next two
53:57
Speaker 1: to three years, including this year, if they can have
54:01
Speaker 1: a pretty solid year this year, I will be very
54:04
Speaker 1: high on them next year in the year after now, obviously,
54:09
Speaker 1: Jalen Smith he had another ball that he caught, but
54:12
Speaker 1: he was holding it. He was kind of holding the
54:14
Speaker 1: ball Aaron like. He was like there was like a
54:18
Speaker 1: raccoon in the road and he didn't want to hold
54:20
Speaker 1: the thing because it was gonna bite him. He didn't
54:23
Speaker 1: tuck the damn ball. This young dude has a lot
54:27
Speaker 1: of potential. He just needs to either catch the ball
54:29
Speaker 1: or when you're gonna catch it, tuck it because it'll
54:31
Speaker 1: get knocked out. But either way, I digress. We're gonna
54:35
Speaker 1: have to hit the portal on D line next year,
54:38
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. So I'll stop people right there.
54:41
Speaker 1: I realize that that is for sure. But if you're
54:45
Speaker 1: you could say tight end too. I think we've got
54:47
Speaker 1: some young, talented guys at tight end, but we have
54:50
Speaker 1: three seniors that are all gonna be gone. So yeah,
54:53
Speaker 1: defensive line, we're gonna lose three guys, you know, because
54:56
Speaker 1: they don't have anymore. Well Smith technically has eligibility. I
55:00
Speaker 1: think you'll go. We would have to win like nine
55:02
Speaker 1: games this year for him to be like, hey, I
55:05
Speaker 1: want to come back. But there's talent on this roster.
55:10
Speaker 1: It is underdeveloped, it's young. Some of it's not experienced.
55:14
Speaker 1: They're they're heading in their second or third year. But
55:18
Speaker 1: if you we all know, in college football, if you
55:21
Speaker 1: can have the same quarterback for two to three years,
55:25
Speaker 1: there's a good chance you're gonna be pretty damn good.
55:28
Speaker 1: So let's let this year play out. For folks saying
55:32
Speaker 1: this schedule is lighter than last year, you don't watch
55:35
Speaker 1: college football because it's not lighter. But it'll be nice. Ruggers, member, ruggers.
55:41
Speaker 1: Last year they had that that buy for us. Well,
55:44
Speaker 1: now we got to buy for them.
55:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's that's a good that's a good point. Yeah,
55:53
Speaker 2: I think you're right about the the nil defensive line.
55:56
Speaker 2: And look, the state of the program is much better
55:59
Speaker 2: than it's been in consistently. And I don't think FLEC's
56:01
Speaker 2: going anywhere. He's in eight year eight, what is this
56:04
Speaker 2: a year zero and it's maybe seven eight, it's nine.
56:09
Speaker 1: It's technically his ninth, but eighth with we you know,
56:13
Speaker 1: with right, people do forget that we had four healthy offensive.
56:17
Speaker 2: Lineman in spring, right exactly, and weird quarterback room and
56:23
Speaker 2: the coach that couldn't wait to get out of the
56:25
Speaker 2: courl is. Yeah, it's in a far better place. And
56:27
Speaker 2: now when to get in n AL, you're actually getting
56:29
Speaker 2: some talent and be able to make deals for people.
56:31
Speaker 2: But yeah, so I'm happy with the program, and I
56:35
Speaker 2: think we're going to enjoy the bye. Get on to Rutgers,
56:37
Speaker 2: and we'll talk about that next week. Cincinnati, let's hope
56:41
Speaker 2: for a win and let's hope Carson Wentz can hold
56:44
Speaker 2: his water for this week until the end piece.