Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 17 - Panther Prowl, QB Quarrels, Playoff Push

Transcript

TSH Ep. 17 - Panther Prowl, QB Quarrels, Playoff Push · The Skol Hop

0:29
All right, Hey Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of the School Hop.
0:33
I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes from Iowa.
0:36
We like drinking beer, I like talking about the Vikings. Yeah,
0:39
and this episode is brought to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering
0:46
taking an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our
0:50
friends at Big Top Ventures. You can do that by sending an email to
0:54
the email listed in the description below at Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot
1:02
com. That is, Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. They
1:07
can get you the lowest rate possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the region.
1:12
Big Top Ventures step right up to your next big adventure. Yeah.
1:17
Pretty cool that they've stepped up to sponsor this episode. Yeah, thanks tiktop.
1:21
Yeah excited. We've got some good beer here too, we do.
1:25
What are we drinking tonight? We've got the single Speed Prowl And this is
1:30
a beer that's featured in the Panther Collective. Yeah. I don't know if
1:34
you can see it here. Maybe you can zoom in or something like that,
1:38
or maybe not. Maybe you just need to check out our TikTok.
1:40
Yeah, or we did our first taste of this beer. But Austin and
1:44
I both went to the University of Northern Iowa and that's in Cedar Falls,
1:49
Iowa, and that's where Single Speed Brewery started. They've now expanded and they're
1:53
now mostly based out of Waterloo, Iowa. But pretty cool that they've started
1:59
this Panther collective. And as far as we know, some of the proceeds
2:04
from the sales of this beer go back to student athletes. Yeah, I
2:07
don't know exactly how it works, but they say that it supports or it
2:09
helps support student athletes at the University of Northern Iowa. So that's pretty cool
2:15
and we're glad to help support fellow students at the University of Northern Iowa.
2:22
If I could speak, my goodness, what do you think of the actual
2:24
beer? So it is pretty cool, but like it's all moot point if
2:28
it's a garbage beer. It's a golden ale, right, that's what we
2:30
read on the can, and I mean it's I think you said it earlier.
2:35
It's designed to be like a tailgating beer. It's a game day beer.
2:38
So it's four point two percent and it's it's good. I mean I
2:43
would have this on game day and I'd have a few probably, Yeah,
2:46
in a really good way. It reminds me of your your average cors Light
2:51
bush Light stuff like that. It's like a step up. It's like the
2:53
craft brewery step up. Yeah. Like if Single Speed were to say,
2:59
which it seems like they did, let's make a tailgate beer something you can
3:04
just crush and responsibly still enjoy the game and get home safe. But yeah,
3:09
four point two percenters, you can. You can tailgate pretty hard with
3:13
these things, and uh maybe maybe we'll we'll have to do that. Yeah.
3:17
And the added benefit here is it's purple and gold. Oh yeah,
3:22
the can looks awesome. Check out the the TikTok, check out the beer
3:24
itself. They can it. It reminds me of the feeling I got when
3:30
right before the football players came out of that garage door, liked some good
3:37
memories, and the can just reminds me of that. Yeah, for sure.
3:40
Well go. One other thing I wanted to point out before we really
3:49
get into the meat and potatoes of our episode is I'm wearing your gift that
3:53
you got me last week. So thanks again for that. Yeah, it
3:55
looks really good. Yes, looks really good on you. There. My
3:59
first for adult jersey Vikings Jersey, and it's Adam Theelen of course. So
4:05
and like I said when when you opened it, it's a it's a shade
4:09
big, but I think jerseys are supposed to be a little big. Uh.
4:12
Yeah, I think it looks good. And we're supporting a lifelong Viking.
4:15
I don't care how many other teams Adam Thielen plays for. He's a
4:18
Viking. He will have his name in the Ring of Honor just off the
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story alone. He's gonna come back and sign one of those one day contracts.
4:26
Yeah, maybe retire. Maybe he's gonna like force his way out of
4:30
this terrible Panthers team, and he'll say something like I don't care, I
4:34
just want to come back home, and he'll sign a deal that is very
4:39
cap friendly and you know, not disrespectful to him. But you know,
4:43
he's he's made a lot of money in his career. Maybe he just would
4:46
want to come back. And hey, Anthony bar did that. I mean
4:48
he was sitting on his couch a few weeks ago and the Vikings picked him
4:51
up and brought him back, and so, although no disrespect to Anthony Barr,
4:57
I feel like Adam Thielen even if he word to talk his way out
5:00
of the Panthers team, because I think he signed like a three year deal,
5:03
which thelan's character tells us he's not going to, like, you know,
5:09
pout and cry and force his way off that team. But if he
5:12
were, he wouldn't have to take any deal the Vikings would potentially give him.
5:17
There's teams that would pay him requisite money, oh for sure, because
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he's still good. I mean, yeah, he's getting up there in football
5:24
age, but he's still producing. He's one of the best Panthers right now.
5:29
So we can dream as Vikings fans. We can dream hopefully, hopefully
5:33
and at very least, like I said, maybe he comes back on one
5:36
of those one day contracts and retires as a Viking. When it's all said
5:42
and done, I think he will retire a Viking, which is kind of
5:45
cool. Well, it's been a quiet week as a Vikings fan. It's
5:50
been the bye week. But the biggest news I don't know if we want
5:55
to start with this, but the biggest news do we have to are we
6:00
gonna fight? Is that what we're doing. Is that what you want to?
6:01
We might have to. I mean we were texting earlier about this and
6:04
you're like, he seemed a little on edge, all right, So what
6:09
Evan's talking about is Coach O'Connell in his press conference today, announced that Josh
6:15
Dobbs will be your Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback against the Raiders this week. And
6:23
we have differing opinions on that, and that's okay. We get to have
6:26
different opinions. Part of why sports are fun. We can debate till the
6:29
cows come home. But obviously I'm right and you're wrong, and let's just
6:33
talk about why I'm right in your own all right, and you start,
6:38
all right, I I think we have seen the best of what Josh Dobbs
6:44
can give us, and then I think we've seen the real Josh Dabbs.
6:49
I said it. I think last week Dobbs was amazing against Atlanta. Once
6:56
he got started, once he after the couple of turnover is in, after
7:00
the safety, then it was really fun. For like the second half of
7:03
that game, it was awesome. He was the pasture not he was the
7:06
cover photo of the NFL. It was amazing. And then the next week.
7:12
It was the next weekend against the Saints. Right, he came out
7:15
in the first half. My goodness, he had like two hundred and twenty
7:18
passing yards. He's look amazing. It was awesome, so much fun.
7:23
And then he literally had like less than forty passing yards in the second half.
7:27
The second half of the Saints game, all the way up until now,
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I think is unfortunately the true Josh dobs We've seen a couple of flash
7:40
plays since then, but really since that second half started of the Saints game,
7:45
so that's a half and then a full game against the Broncos and then
7:48
a full game against the Bears, it hasn't been great. It hasn't looked
7:53
good. He's looked scared at times. He's just tossed the ball away at
7:58
times, and and I think we can expect to see more of that.
8:03
So I would play Devil's advocate. He call me a little bit. I
8:09
don't think I mentioned this on air. I think I texted you some stats,
8:13
and I think I texted you the wrong stats. But I went in
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looked this is Josh Dobbs. In four games with the Vikings as a passer,
8:22
he's completed eighty five of his one hundred and twenty eight passes for a
8:28
sixty six point four completion percentage, which isn't bad, not bad, it's
8:33
average. Yeah, that's nothing to complain about. Eight hundred and thirty two
8:37
yards in four games, so an average of two hundred games, two hundred
8:41
yards a game, three and a half games, give or take me because
8:45
of that playing game. But yeah, five touchdowns, five interceptions as a
8:50
passer, so even touchdown to turnover ratio there, touchdown to interception ratio,
8:56
I should say. As a runner, twenty five rushing attempts for one hundred
9:03
and forty two yards three touchdowns added to his touchdown total, so eight touchdowns
9:07
total, and he has six fumbles, so he is responsible for eight touchdowns
9:15
and eleven turnovers. So if we compare that to Kirk Cousins in his first
9:22
four games of the season, Kirk Cousins lost three fumbles and threw four interceptions
9:30
for a total of seven turnovers and eleven touchdowns, So slightly better, but
9:35
still a lot of turnovers from Kirk Cousins in the beginning, which we complained
9:41
about as a Viking steam overall, that's why they were losing and they Yeah,
9:46
they went one in four and then they turned it around, and they
9:50
did. And I'm not discrediting anything that Kirk Cousins did. After that one
9:54
and four start, we complained a lot about it, and then he turned
9:58
it around and he was playing at arguably an MVP level before he got hurt.
10:05
And I've even seen I think I saw a tweet this week that compared
10:11
his projected stats if he were to finish the season healthy to Dak Prescott's projected
10:16
season ending and Dak's kind of in the mix for the MVP right now,
10:20
and had Kirk stayed healthy and continued to play and continue to play at the
10:26
level that he was, we might be talking about Kirk Cousins as the front
10:30
runner for the MVP conversation right now. Yeah, and we were right before
10:35
he went down an injury. It was kind of crazy, like, yeah,
10:39
sure, diehard Viking stance would be like, ooh, Kirk Cousins MVP,
10:41
but like he was building his case. He sure was, and he
10:45
sure was. But to bring it back to the relevant topic, you're comparing
10:48
Dobbs and his first few games with the Vikings this year and Cousins and his
10:52
first few against or with the Vikings this year, and my rebuttal to that
10:58
is that the first few were horrible. What were we one in four to
11:03
start off? Yep, and complaining about the turnovers and complaining about coaching decisions.
11:09
We weren't complaining about Cousins because honestly, if I remember right, Cousins
11:13
was playing lights out and then the first like two wins were the only two
11:18
were the first two games that he didn't look great in. That's Cousins.
11:22
He didn't look awesome, and it was kind of like, what the heck
11:24
Cousins has an off day and then that's why the Vikings win. Like,
11:28
what's going on here? I don't know. I need to see what Dobbs
11:33
looks like after the bye week and if they've been able to switch things up
11:41
and change it around. Because I've said it before too, I'm a fan
11:43
of this team. I want to like this team. I'm not gonna crap
11:46
on the team just because they do something that I necessarily wouldn't do. So
11:52
I want them to do good. I want Josh Dabbs to be amazing.
11:56
Do I think he's gonna be Jaalen Hurts right off the bat? No,
12:01
that would be unreasonable. Could I see a scenario where a bye week and
12:05
more study and more preparation really does Dobs well and he starts to utilize everything.
12:11
Yeah, that could absolutely happen. I just usually, especially in the
12:16
NFL, when guys show you who they are, I mean, that's not
12:22
changing. Like, I can't think of any other example. And there's a
12:26
reason he's been on who knows how many teams, even in the last calendar
12:31
year. I mean he's he's been around, and he's been in a lot
12:35
of different systems, and he hasn't really gotten a lot of opportunity other than
12:39
with a really bad Arizona Cardinals team and he started what eight games for them,
12:43
and they won one of those games. So, like, I don't
12:48
know, he just hasn't had the opportunity. He hasn't had an offense like
12:54
the Vikings have, he hasn't had weapons to throw to. He's got JJ
12:58
coming back. Yeah, that's huge, that's big. But he's had Addison,
13:01
he's at Howkinson, he's had Powell, who's come on. I mean,
13:07
I don't know. I'm interested to see. And to that point,
13:11
I did say a few weeks ago, Yeah, Dobbs has Yeah, he's
13:15
been around, he's had a bunch of, you know, different steps in
13:18
the NFL, but he's never really had an opportunity. I kind of said
13:22
what you're saying right now in defense of him, and yeah, a few
13:26
weeks ago me was like, yeah, he's he's doing something with this opportunity.
13:31
But the more he goes out, I just I and I'm not an
13:35
expert. I don't ever want to make it seem like I know better than
13:39
the coaches, Like obviously they know better than me. They have forgotten more
13:41
in the last five minutes than I'll ever know. Just a couple of dudes,
13:45
right, Just a couple of dudes. I just I don't feel good
13:48
about it. When when he was announced as a starter, I tweeted out
13:54
and said, oof, like you did, you did. What are the
13:58
other options though? I mean, you have Nick Mullins and you have Jaren
14:01
Hall. Those are your other two options, And at this point in the
14:05
season, you have playoff hopes still at six and six. If I can
14:09
still control their own destiny, I think for the division, I might be
14:15
wrong on that. I know they do. For the playoffs, I think
14:18
for the division, I think there's an outside chance that they could still win
14:22
the division. I think it would take winning out and Detroit losing out or
14:26
something very close to that. And we've actually got some information for a little
14:33
bit later on that point. But you're right, they're still in the playoff
14:39
fight, and I think maybe the quarterback decision would be a little bit different
14:45
if you were not, because then you're really thinking, Okay, now we're
14:50
scouting for next year. If their hopes were dead, you know, now
14:54
you're scouting for next year. Do we see what Jaren Hall has or do
14:56
we really focus on what quarterbacks are coming out of the draft or I mean,
15:03
right now, my choice. And again I'm not the expert. I'm
15:07
not the one being paid to make the decisions. I would have chosen Nick
15:11
Mullens. He has some previous NFL starting experience. Yes, he's bounced around
15:16
a little bit. He's a former Raider, the team that the Vikings are
15:20
going to face this coming week. He's not perfect. He had a slightly
15:26
exciting run if you remember a few years ago, as the step in starter
15:31
for the Niners. But even that, it's not like they went on to
15:33
win the super Bowl. It wasn't a brock party run. You know,
15:37
but my whole thing with him is his play style was the most like Kirk
15:43
Cousins, which that playstyle is what this offense was built around. He's been
15:50
in the system for now since two for two full off seasons and now almost
15:54
two full seasons, so in theory, he knows the system and out.
16:00
I just my gut told me that that made the most sense, was to
16:04
go with Nick Mullens. You said a few minutes ago, koc kind of
16:10
said that the best quarterback will probably be the one who plays to Justin Jefferson's
16:15
skill set the best, and maybe the coaches think that that right there is
16:22
Josh Dobbs. I didn't say that. You said that, Well, you
16:25
said JJ's coming back, sure, sure, which is huge. So maybe
16:30
having the NFL's best player come back will make your quarterback a little bit better.
16:33
I don't know. Well, in the case that I would make against
16:37
Nick Mullins starting is Nick Mullins is most like Kirk, and in the last
16:42
four games they've had to adapt this offense to be more of a running quarterback
16:48
style of offense, and so I think throwing another curveball at your offensive line,
16:56
I mean, they've already dealt with a curveball. I mean, they
16:59
went from having Kirk Cousins pocket passer pretty much knowing that he's going to drop
17:06
back and release every time. And I think we talked about it last week.
17:11
You know, there's a big difference with Dobbs dropping back and then taking
17:15
off, and then your guys at the front don't know where you are,
17:18
and that creates all sorts of confusion, and there's there's got to be some
17:23
trust built up. There's got to be some communication involved. I think with
17:29
Dobbs having a few weeks of that now, you know, maybe against the
17:33
Broncos and the Bears, some of those things slipped a little bit. Maybe
17:37
it was simply just the unfamiliarity with Dobbs and the Falcons in the Saints game,
17:44
where it was just like, no, you guys, do what you've
17:45
always been doing and I'll work around you. And maybe those last two games
17:49
some of that just kind of eroded. And I don't know. With the
17:53
bye week, I think they've had more time to figure it out. And
17:57
switching to Niki Malin might involve some like whiplash with especially your offensive line and
18:04
maybe your skilled players too on offense, like oh, okay, Well we
18:08
did this with Kirk, and then we made these changes with Dobbs, and
18:12
now we have to make these changes back to Mullins. That might be a
18:17
lot, especially for a team that's really trying to focus. I mean,
18:21
we have to talk about this soon. They have to win these next two
18:23
games. I mean, these next two games are essentially playoff games if we
18:29
don't win them. Yeah, the playoffs have kind of started for the Vikings.
18:33
Yes, absolutely, yeah. So I you're making valid points, and
18:38
as just a dude and not a coach and not someone who's had, you
18:41
know, experience in that type of an atmosphere, everything you said makes sense
18:45
to me, and I can see it and get behind it. It's just
18:49
it's frustrating because it's not the decision I would have made. And who knows,
18:53
maybe three weeks from now, you and me are sitting here saying,
18:56
Thank the Lord, they didn't do what Austin would have done, because who
19:00
knows how bad that could have been. And here we are three and oh
19:03
in the last three weeks. You never know, like anything can happen.
19:07
Let's hope that's the case. I hope they win every game. I'm not
19:10
somebody that's gonna hate my team, my favorite team, just because they don't
19:14
do something that I would have done. It's just it feels frustrating. And
19:19
I'll say this, and if this whole Josh Dobbs experiment tanks, if he
19:26
comes out and they play him and they keep going with him, and if
19:32
he looks terrible and has more turnovers and looks even more scared, that just
19:38
puts a big stinker on all of our opinions of the coaching staff of the
19:44
GM, because I don't know who's I assume the GM. You know,
19:48
Casey is fully letting Koc make those decisions. That's just an assumption to mine.
19:53
But man, if even if you know Dobbs has a terrible first half
19:59
and they bench him, they go with Nick Mullins, I mean, or
20:02
whoever they go with, if they benched him, I'm thinking, man KOs
20:07
is really questioning everything, and I don't know how I feel about him as
20:11
a coach. That being said, if Dobbs goes out and he lights it
20:15
up for the next two weeks and looks amazing, obviously we're all Patton KOs
20:21
on the back. It's saying greatest coach ever, coach of the year,
20:23
Who cares what happens, playoffs, whatever. He made the best decision ever.
20:27
I just this is such a pivotal point in the Vikings season. It
20:32
can't be understated how important simply choosing a quarterback is for these next few games.
20:38
Yeah, I mean, we could be sitting here next week talking about
20:41
a new quarterback. I mean, Dobbs could go out and lay an egg,
20:45
come out in the first half and get replaced by Mullins or Hall,
20:48
and then we're sitting back here next week on the podcast talking about, Oh
20:52
my gosh, Dobbs, he's terrible. Mullins came in. I don't even
20:57
know if the Vikings are gonna make the playoffs anymore. I mean it's a
21:00
huge decision. Or he could go out, like you said, and light
21:03
it up, play great, and you know, lead the Cavalry into the
21:08
Promised Land, which would be awesome. And I've said before too. Every
21:12
player on every team has a leash. It just determined. You know,
21:18
it's different on how long that leash is. Tom Brady's leash right now on
21:22
every team has got to be ten miles long. He could call any team
21:25
be like, hey, what you doing? Maybe the Chiefs would say no,
21:27
but like most teams, especially with all the QB injuries, be like,
21:32
all right, come on, Tom, but Josh Dobbs, his leash
21:36
has got to be like razor thin. And to that point that I was
21:41
just saying earlier, if they do pull him, if his leash does get
21:45
too short and the coaches pull him, that just makes the coaches look bad
21:52
for making the decision they did. And if he looks terrible and they don't
21:56
pull him, coaches still look bad because now we're just saying they're just you
22:00
know, patting their ego because they must have made the right decision. They
22:03
just got a double, triple, quadruple down on that. It's all hypothetical
22:07
and I'm not being fair to any of the coaches or anything right now at
22:11
all. It's just it's frustrating because I didn't get my way and well,
22:15
and it just it sucks that we're in this position to begin with. Going
22:19
back all the way to kind of where this conversation started, we had an
22:25
MVP level of play coming out of Kirk Cousins, and he was looking awesome
22:30
and he was silencing the doubters and he was he was playing well even when
22:34
the rest of the team wasn't and it was looking like, man, if
22:38
we can get this stuff figured out, man, we could really we could
22:41
do something here. And then we went on that five game win streak and
22:45
it was like, oh my gosh. And so, yeah, this is
22:51
It's been this motif all season long of quarterback, quarterback, quarterback, and
22:56
I don't think that's going away. And I think we're gonna be talking about
23:00
it all the way up until the Viking season ends, whenever that is.
23:03
Yeah. Dustin Baker tweeted something out a handful of weeks ago, like right
23:07
when they first I think it was after the Atlanta game. He said something
23:11
to the tune of, man, I can't wait for all these dobbs.
23:17
Mullins hauled arguments on Twitter like we had back in the Bolinger Kelly Holcombe,
23:25
Tarvaris Jackson, you know all that era, like, and darn it,
23:30
he's he's exactly right here. We are here we are. But I think
23:36
we can both agree we're fans, We're rooting for the team. Even if
23:41
you and I would have made different decisions at quarterback, we got a roll
23:45
with it, and either we're both happy next week or we're both mad next
23:49
week, and if it's because of Dobbs, I'm just gonna be a little
23:52
bit more smug about that, and you're just gonna be a little bit more
23:56
sad that the guy that It's not like you've been saying Dobbs, Dobbs,
24:00
dobbs the whole time. I'm not a huge cheerleader of his, but I
24:04
do think he's the right choice just given the fact that he has two wins.
24:11
Yes, he has two losses, but he also has two wins under
24:14
his belt. And I think we can basically call him the starter of the
24:17
Falcons game because he played ninety percent of that game. Well, the Falcons
24:22
game is all the more impressive because he had been on the team, thrust
24:26
into action with little to no introduction to any of his teammates. I don't
24:30
think he got to Minnesota until Wednesday before that game, so a couple of
24:36
practices didn't know guys' names. Like that was the whole talker. It was
24:38
amazing, just a little like shameless plug. You should go to our TikTok
24:44
and find the how I Met your mother slash how I'm at your teammates video.
24:48
Yeah, I'm a little bummed that that one didn't get as many views.
24:51
That was funny. It's like our second least viewed video, and really
24:55
funny. It's I think that video is a higher quality video than our video
25:00
that has one hundred and fifty five plus thousand views, which that's all you
25:04
man, that was luck if you like watching low quality video of TV.
25:14
But no, not even that. Oh yeah, yeah, I did take
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it recording my TV, but of a pretty gruesome injury. If you like
25:21
watching the I'm the sick freak that likes watching NFL sports injuries and just cringing
25:26
at him and just getting that enjoyment out of it. Obviously, I don't
25:30
want people to get hurt, but I like the video. So if you
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like that, go check out our TikTok and it's one of our pin videos.
25:37
It's the Chiefs player that like twisted his ankle all the way around or
25:42
whatever happened, which apparently he didn't even break it. I don't understand how
25:47
that. Yeah, you followed up and like, I mean, he's hurt,
25:49
but he's not broken. Yeah, I guess, Yeah, I don't
25:53
know. There's got to be some injury. I wouldn't imagine he's playing this
25:56
week. Anyways, if you like how I'm that your mother or at least
26:00
knows know what it is, go check out that that TikTok. Maybe we
26:04
should pin it just to see if it gets Just check out our TikTok in
26:08
general. We've been trying to have some fun with that. We've been doing
26:11
some beer reviews. We've both been doing a Beer Advent calendar, which has
26:17
been kind of fun. Austin's doing a legitimate beer Advent calendar. Yours is
26:22
legitimate too. It's just that my wife loved me enough to make me a
26:26
thoughtful, heartfelt beer Advent calendar, and I think my wife loves me enough
26:30
that she'll get me one next year maybe, And I've had to make my
26:34
own. We should work on that. Maybe I'll just make my own from
26:37
here on out. Fun fact, the if you've seen any of my Beer
26:42
Advent calendar videos, you've seen they all open with me opening up that that
26:48
cool sectioned off box is cool. That was made by friend of the show,
26:52
Forrest his mother. So thank you for ut, mom. I love
26:57
that thing. It's awesome. Yeah, do you keep it in the fridge?
27:02
That that thing lives in my garage? Oh? So it's just heated.
27:07
Although I will say usually I open the I find out the beer right
27:14
after work, and then I do the beer video right after dinner. So
27:18
when I open it up, I figure it out, record that, and
27:22
then I put the beer in the fridge, and then a couple hours later
27:25
I record the beer the beer video. So there's a little bit of production
27:29
magic. Yeah, it's not quality straight from box to glass. I see
27:36
how you are, but check it out TikTok. We're a lot of fun
27:37
with that. Whether whether it's a video we spend two hours on or a
27:41
video we spend eight seconds on. I don't know. I think we have
27:47
some at least somewhat entertaining videos on there. I like him. Yeah,
27:49
So if you like the podcast, you like our vibe, you'll like the
27:52
videos. Had some fun with Kirk Cousins. It looks like he's been on
27:56
a little bit of a vacation here with his family, and good for him.
28:00
So yeah, s by a week. He deserves it. But we
28:03
we found some videos of him rolling on a little scooter at the ride and
28:10
dirty there. Yeah, he was riding dirty for sure. We we caught
28:14
him scoring a touchdown in the ocean yeah, so yeah, those were a
28:18
fun video. Call Ellen, how'd you get Pa to call that? He's
28:22
a friend of mine? I called him up. Pa, Please come on
28:26
our show. We love you. We would love that you've been on ten
28:30
thou ten k takes, which we are nowhere near ten K takes. Maybe
28:34
someday. We love you guys at ten ten K takes, Pa, we
28:38
love you. You are our happy place. I think, come on our
28:42
show. That'd be great. Yeah, shameless plug. Yeah, check out
28:47
our TikTok and all our socials. Which feels like we're closing an episode.
28:52
We're not even done yet. Oh no, we've We've still got to talk
28:53
about the playoffs here because we we spent a lot of time talking about the
29:00
quarterback and how important the quarterback decision is when it comes to this final five
29:07
game push towards the playoffs. But where are we sitting right now in terms
29:12
of our playoff probability? Playoff probability? Oh I didn't even write that one
29:19
down for at the moment, What are we at like forty eight percent or
29:22
something like that. Yeah, it's right here, Oh you got it.
29:26
It says right now forty two percent. This is Dustin Baker, Yeah,
29:30
who tweeted this out currently? This was December fourth, so a few days
29:33
ago, but nothing's changed. Forty chance to make the playoffs. Okay,
29:41
well that kind of blows because just a couple of weeks ago it was like
29:44
seventy five percent or something like that. But when you go zero to two
29:48
against the Broncos and the Bears, like, good grief, Well, losing
29:52
a divisional game hurts. Of course, it might convince the Bears to keep
29:59
their quarterback for a little bit longer. So that's a plus, right,
30:03
Like, yeah, their quarterback who's more of a running back. Yeah,
30:06
there rb one, all right, but yeah, so Dustin Baker, he
30:11
did kind of say last weekend, the bye week's NFL matchups pretty much all
30:18
went against what the Vikings would have hoped for. It was a bad week
30:22
if you were a Vikings. And even though the Vikings didn't play, they
30:26
didn't turn the ball over, which is a good thing because they couldn't they
30:30
weren't playing. But everything else that could go wrong pretty much did. Yep,
30:36
he said. Well, he pointed out the Rams one, the Falcons
30:41
one, the Buccaneers one, the Lions one, and then ultimately I don't
30:47
even know. This is so annoying. The Packers beat the Chiefs Now,
30:52
people are all move Jordan Love He's the next far of Rogers Love like and
30:59
if that freaking happens, I'm gonna just be a golf fan, like this
31:04
is so dumb. It will be Timberwolves fans. They're playing well this year.
31:07
Now you jinks did ev Now you jinks? Anthony Edwards got injured and
31:14
that's a pre pre happening of your current jinks. You're you're at fault.
31:19
I hope you feel good. I didn't even know Anthony Edwards kind of.
31:22
It was a few weeks ago, and I think he's already starting to play.
31:25
But I will go on record I will be a die hard Timberwolves fan
31:30
if they're good and in the playoffs. Other than that, I just can't
31:36
any season longer than eighteen games. I just can't put my emotions into.
31:40
If the Wild played twenty games, I'd be the biggest hockey fan in the
31:45
world. I just every time I sit down and watch a hockey game,
31:49
I'm on edge the entire time. It don't even try to talk to me
31:53
because I'm so focused. And then like it's eighty some games, right,
31:59
Like that's I couldn't put my heart through that. So yeah, I mean,
32:05
if the Vikings win their next five games, you know, the final
32:07
final five games of the season, they would be the division winners. Because
32:13
in that scenario the Lions have lost two games, I guess they wouldn't automatically
32:17
be division winners. They would need the Lions to lose at least one other
32:22
game, it wouldn't It would make the divisional race very very interesting. Yeah,
32:25
So, like we know, if the Vikings keep winning and the Lions
32:30
lose one before their first game against the Vikings, we know, okay,
32:36
full destiny all on the Vikings. I feel like if the Lions, because
32:40
what are they what do we just say they're nine and three? Vikings are
32:45
six six and six. So if the if the Lions went out, they
32:49
will only have three losses. If the Vikings win out, they will have
32:52
six losses. Like that that's something that can't change. Although no, I
32:58
just I'm talking in circles again. If the Vikings win out, the Lines
33:00
have at least five losses because the Vikings lines played twice. All of that
33:07
to say, the next two games for the Vikings are crucial and our friend
33:15
Dustin Baker has laid it out very nicely for us. If yeah, I
33:22
think he uses like ESPN probabilities or whatever for these stats you're about to say,
33:25
but yeah, it's just nice to have them all here, like he's
33:30
done the hard work for us so that we don't have to dig through these.
33:32
So I'm gonna start on the positive end. If the Vikings beat the
33:37
Raiders and beat the Bengals, which are both road games by the way,
33:42
the Vikings playoff probability is at seventy which very crazy. Yeah, that's almost
33:47
a given. Yep. If they only beat the Raiders, that's that's not
33:55
including or not looking ahead to Cincinnati yet, that's just in these next two
34:00
games. If they just beat the Raiders, fifty five percent. If they
34:04
beat the Raiders but lose to the Bengals, it's a forty chance. Or
34:10
if they lose to the Raiders and beat the Bengals, So basically, if
34:15
they go one and one in the next two games, their playoff chances dip
34:19
to forty percent because neither of those games are conference games or division which is
34:23
a bit of a silver lining. Yes, this is a crucial point.
34:27
You have to win these next two games, but forty is still workable.
34:32
Yeah, all hope is not lost if these next two games are losses,
34:37
but it becomes pretty bad if well, if these next two games are both
34:45
losses, what does it say? That's tough. You cannot lose both of
34:52
those games. No, And that's why, say one or the other.
34:55
You just can't lose Bowl. And that's why the co we had earlier about
35:00
the quarterback is so important because it's going to affect what happens in these next
35:07
two games, whether we like it or not, it's going to affect that
35:09
so well, even losing one of those games is a thirty percent swing in
35:15
your whatever ESPN uses to track playoff probability. Like that's huge, Like that's
35:23
crazy. Yeah, I just yeah, you hit the nail on the head.
35:30
This quarterback decision right now is the most important thing that has happened all
35:37
season. I mean, everything that has happened has led up to this decision.
35:44
And you can't you can't miss on this decision. I'd be happy to
35:49
be wrong and to eat my words and say, you know what, I
35:52
was wrong about my initial thoughts on or my thoughts right now on Dobbs.
35:57
But man, that's the part of the reason I'm so upset about the decision
36:02
is because I know how important it is and I know what I would do
36:07
well. I think another thing that we didn't really talk about earlier is how
36:10
thin of a margin those last two games truly were had a total of three
36:16
points against it's and it's not even like those two games were against the Chiefs
36:22
and the Eagles, like you lost to. Yeah, the Broncos are kind
36:28
of surging right now. Ever since their game where they allowed seventy points to
36:34
the Dolphins, they've they've looked better and better. That'll sure wake you up,
36:37
so that feels a little less crappy. But to lose against the Bears,
36:45
who are not good this year, and who I mean, before that
36:52
Vikings loss, you're talking like they may fire their coach. Before that Vikings
36:57
lost, Ye're talking the GM and the coach have beat an NFC North opponent
37:01
like and that sucks because forever now, whether it's the next few games that
37:07
they're the coach and GM or if they last and they're the coach and GM
37:10
for years to come. The Vikings are the first NFC North team to lose
37:15
against them, that that sucks, But like to lose against that team when
37:20
they didn't even score a touchdown, that's disappointing. That that sucks, and
37:27
that that right there is why I'm upset about the quarterback decision. And it
37:31
doesn't it doesn't help his case that he threw four interceptions in that game,
37:37
or it's hard to throw four You talk about bad quarterbacks. If you're bad
37:42
enough to throw four interceptions, that's also a coaching decision because that means they
37:46
left you in after the third interception and the second interception. Like it's not
37:52
like, you know, tom Brady, if he throws a third interception,
37:55
you're not taking him out. You're not worried about that. It's Tom Brady.
38:00
He's fine, he'll figure it out. It's gonna be by fifty,
38:01
and you can afford to yeah, if you're on if your new quarterback who's
38:10
been with you less than a month or whatever, throws four interceptions, like
38:17
I we've already kind of come back on this and I've kind of simmered down,
38:22
but I'm just getting worked up again. Now. That's coaching. That
38:25
is coaching. That's as much coaching as a poor decision to not go forward
38:29
on four and one and at some points in the game, to leave a
38:32
guy in after four interceptions is ridiculous, it's insane. Well, you could
38:39
throw Ryan Wright in at quarterback and it would still take some of the pressure
38:45
off because he hasn't thrown four interceptions. Like, okay, I'm sorry,
38:49
I'm sorry, Skulhoppers. Maybe maybe he would be a better quarterback than he's
38:53
been punting this year. He knows, yeah, and it's been masked because
38:58
you're not focused on him, and you can kind of forget about a bad
39:00
punt two seconds later because then you're focused on the defense. But well,
39:04
let's look ahead to this Raiders game. We've talked about the quarterback decision.
39:07
We've talked about what's at stake here these especially these next few games, and
39:13
how big of a swing it will be if they win both as opposed to
39:15
losing both on the road against the Raiders and the Bengals. But the Raiders
39:22
are in front of us right now, and in a couple of days the
39:27
boys will be getting on a plane and heading out to Vegas. Are what
39:30
are they needing to do to walk away with a victory. So I'll be
39:37
honest I'm not as knowledgeable on the Raiders, especially the current two day Raiders
39:43
actually paid a lot of attention to them. I know there's been some turmoil
39:45
there. I know they have benched Garoppolo, which they're also on a quarterback
39:52
change. It's been a few weeks, but still it's not they initially started
39:55
with fired their coach. Fired their coach. Did they fire their GM two
39:59
out I don't know either way, couldn't. I think it was just their
40:02
coach. But there's a lot of unknowns with that team, even if it's
40:08
been a few weeks since, a lot of those changes, which can be
40:12
scary when you I mean, just like Josh Dobbs against Atlanta, like you
40:15
just don't know, so it's hard to play against him. It's a way
40:20
in Vegas, I don't know. I'm more focused on the Viking, so
40:27
I think the defense, which I don't know how much more you can do
40:30
than only allow twelve points in a game like they did against the Bears.
40:34
But the defense just has to keep doing what they're doing. It's working.
40:37
Maybe it looks a little ugly at times, but ultimately they've been doing well.
40:40
Twenty points there are twenty one points they allowed against the Broncos, which
40:45
you don't love, but that's not fifty and twelve points against the Bears.
40:50
And even after that, which I'm saying, those point totals are pretty decent
40:53
again for the defense, even after that you're owing to So the Bears are
40:59
the the Vikings. Defense just has to keep up with what they're doing.
41:07
And they're healthy, I think, which is a good thing too for the
41:09
most part. I mean, you're still without Jordan Hicks, which who knows,
41:13
he may not be playing again this year. I don't know anything about
41:15
that, but yeah, you're right. The bayle Evans I think might be
41:20
coming back this week. H Yeah. I meant to write down the injury
41:23
report from today, but it is pretty clean, which you would expect after
41:28
the bye week. You'd expect the most of the guys to be coming back
41:32
if they were hurt. Yeah, if I remember right, everybody who was
41:36
listed on the injury report was either limited or full participants. There were no
41:40
did not participate, so everyone not on injured reserve was at least participating in
41:46
some capacity in practice, which is good coming off the bye week. You
41:50
like to see that. So, yeah, the defense is at least what
41:55
they were at for the Bears game, which they only allowed twelve points.
42:00
Usually your defense only last twelve points and no touchdowns, you win that game.
42:04
But we're moving on. What about the offense. The offense a quarterback,
42:09
We've been talking about it all day, quarterback, but most importantly,
42:13
most importantly, you just gotta stop turning the darn ball over. I mean,
42:19
you can't have foign interceptions. You just can't. You can't win a
42:22
game with four interceptions. I'm sure somebody could look it up and tell us
42:28
how many times a team has won after throwing four interceptions. You can't do
42:31
that. And if Dobbs throws three interceptions, he better not see that field
42:37
again. I don't care who it is. If you throw three interceptions,
42:39
you should be done. So no turnovers and you need to actually score.
42:45
And if you don't turn the ball over and you got a better chance of
42:46
scoring. So that's the offense. Also, this is a pivotal game for
42:53
koc We've been I've been saying it for the last handful of weeks. His
42:59
game may management the actual playing the chess that is football. As a coach,
43:05
he needs to step it up. He needs to figure out clock management
43:09
strategy. He needs to play play better. He needs to be a better
43:14
coach. He's been exposed a little bit. I think he's he's been able
43:17
to kind of hide behind his playmakers, justin Jefferson's organ Addison, even Dobbs
43:23
for those couple of weeks, he's been able to kind of hide behind those
43:27
big plays. But yeah, his his game management and the ability to strategically
43:31
call the game to win the game, not just avoid losing the game has
43:37
been on full display. I think of the Titans coach Mike Vrabel and how
43:42
like there's been a few times he's like instructed his team to like get a
43:47
penalty on purpose because it ended up working the clock better so that they you
43:53
know, it actually helped their team better, or you know, savvy just
43:58
ingenious plays that at the time aren't technically against the rules. We've never seen
44:01
a savvy move like that. About the savviest move we've seen from Koc is
44:08
the couple of times he's like done a fake punt, which I don't know
44:14
even how much we can attribute that attribute that to coach O'Connell. It just
44:19
he's he's been good and ultimately he's won more games than he's lost. But
44:23
you're right, he's been exposed a little bit. He's he needs to step
44:29
it up on that, which is super easy for me to say as a
44:31
just a dude in Iowa. But and I think we can cut him a
44:35
little bit of slack. I don't know that he's the sole reason we've lost
44:38
games. It's not like it's come down to, you know, the last
44:42
little bit, and it's it's been only him and everything else has gone well.
44:46
I mean, the Bears game dobs through four picks. Like you said,
44:52
you can't win a game when you throw four interceptions. So yeah,
44:57
Koc didn't call the greatest game, and maybe didn't with the team in the
45:00
best position down the stretch. But he's only a part of the problem.
45:05
He is not the sole problem. And no loss ever comes down to one
45:09
play or one player, one person. But yeah, he's a really great
45:15
motivator. He just needs to also be a way better game manager, and
45:24
maybe Dobbs being a better quarterback now that he's been there a little bit longer,
45:29
will help. But I think having a competent MVP level quarterback like Kirk
45:32
Cousins hid a lot of that, and that's why you won a lot more
45:37
of those one score games than you lost. Well, and you saw Kirk
45:43
calling different plays at the line, I mean, based on what he sees.
45:47
You know, there's two or three plays that he's got when he steps
45:52
up, and he can kill the first one and go on to the second
45:53
one based on what he sees. And you know sometimes that has to you
46:00
know, probably Irk the coach a little bit like, no, I really
46:02
wanted this play to to go and you called something different and it didn't work
46:07
out and whatever. But you know, I don't know, at the end
46:10
of the day, a lot of things have to improve. I mean,
46:15
when you're a five hundred football team, when you're six and six and the
46:20
playoffs are still right there, you got to you gotta shore up some of
46:25
those weaknesses if you want to make that push. If you don't, then
46:29
you're gonna be sitting at home in January and February. And that's just the
46:31
reality of it. So exactly, big couple of games for the Viking is
46:37
huge, the biggest two of the season so far. Yep. And I
46:42
like what Harrison Phillips said. I caught it on one of those field access
46:46
videos and I think I may have tweeted it out on my personal account in
46:50
response to something that we posted on our schoolhop account, But Harrison Phillips said
46:55
in a in a little pregame huddle with his teammates, he said, this
47:00
game is the most important one, and you know why because it's the next
47:04
one. Yep. And I like that mentality, and I think he's been
47:08
a great leader in a great addition to the team. He's the Walter Payton
47:12
Man of the Year nominee from my team, so well deserving too. It's
47:15
not like I think the big thing of that award is his his advocacy for
47:22
those with special needs, and that has been something he's been doing for years
47:27
and years and years. It's not like this random thing that came out just
47:30
so you can kind of try to win that Walter Payton Man of the Year
47:32
award. No. I mean, he'd be doing that without awards. He
47:36
was doing that without awards, which is pretty awesome. I think he even
47:40
he liked your tweets. Yeah, yeah, so thanks for that. We
47:44
appreciate that. If you're out there listening to Harrison, yeah, hey,
47:47
let's let's do it again. Harrison Phillips, would you like to come on
47:51
the podcast. We actually take load, we take you. We are totally
47:55
open to guests on our show. Yeah, I love it. It'd be
48:00
a lot of fun, it'd be awesome. Well, we're getting down to
48:02
the bottom of this, uh prowl from single speed here. What do you
48:07
think? Way better than your Core's Light or bush Light or michelob Ultra.
48:16
Sorry about your advent calendar. Yeah, you just spoiled like the next three
48:22
and I was gonna come on. Uh, yeah, it's it's fantastic,
48:25
it's not. I mean, I think it revels in the fact that it's
48:29
nothing world beating, it's nothing that you haven't tasted before. But it's just
48:34
really good at what it is. It's good beer. It's for a good
48:37
cause. It Uh, it's good. I will gladly have more. And
48:43
it comes in a purple and gold can. Yeah, that's a that's a
48:45
displayable can. Right there. Might just have to stay there. I mean,
48:49
I'm not mad about it. I'm not either, And even if I
48:52
were, it's your house. We'll keep it there, Okay, we'll keep
48:57
it there. All right. It's a part of the set now, I
48:59
like it. All right, Well, we're gonna have a lot to talk
49:02
about. I feel like on the next episode because we had a lot to
49:07
talk about tonight, and the Vikings are going to have played a game between
49:10
now and then. Yes, and I hope I get to sit here and
49:14
say I was wrong. I was just terribly wrong about the quarterback situation.
49:20
I hope that's the case. Well, despite my glass being almost empty,
49:24
I still view it as half full, and you probably view years as empty
49:30
mostly empty. Yeah, that just defines our relationship. That's okay, But
49:37
good beer, good conversation. We will for sure be doing it again next
49:40
week. Absolutely, So if our listeners have any opinions on what we've said
49:45
or maybe didn't say, how can they reach out to us? Well,
49:50
we're pretty much everywhere that you can find us on the internet. We do
49:52
have a website www. Dot We do theskullhop dot com, so you can
49:58
find everything that we do there links to every single outlet that we are on,
50:04
every single platform, even down to every beer we've featured. Yeh,
50:07
that's pretty cool. Yeah, So if you go to the podcast episode page,
50:13
you can go into each episode and you can see which beer we've featured
50:16
on each episode. So if you're curious as to all of the different beers
50:22
that we've featured. That's where you can find that. In addition to the
50:28
website, I mean, we're all over the place. YouTube, Spotify,
50:30
Apple Podcasts, that's where you can listen to us. Of course, you're
50:36
probably already listening on one of those platforms or something similar, but if you're
50:39
looking to connect with us in other ways social media. We've talked a lot
50:44
about TikTok on this episode. We've been having fun with that. Oh yeah,
50:46
you've also been interacting with a lot of people on Twitter. You're kind
50:51
of our primary point person that way. So we're on Facebook where we just
50:57
started a reddit even yeah, we got to reddit threads, the reddit however
51:00
you say it, we're there. We're out there. Yeah. I mean,
51:04
if you want to find us, just search the skull Hop you'll I'll
51:07
find us. We're there. Yep, we're there, and we're having a
51:10
lot of fun with this. It's been awesome, and I mean even before
51:15
we stuck a few microphones in front of us, it was oh yeah,
51:19
beer and Vikings hanging out having a beer and talking about the Vikings. So
51:22
yeah, we're glad that you're joining us. That's why we started this,
51:27
and also if you want to kind of interact with us in real time,
51:30
we are planning on live streaming during this upcoming Vikings Raiders game this Sunday.
51:37
It's like a what three twenty three, fifteen three o'clock ish game, Yeah,
51:40
late late window, not night game, but late window game on Sunday.
51:45
It's in that game of the week time block that's not the necessary primetime
51:52
game. But yeah, yeah, we'll be We'll be on YouTube live streaming,
51:55
so come out and join us. We'd love to interact with you in
51:59
the chat. And if you get tired of listening to the commentators on the
52:02
TV broadcast, just sync your TV up with our live stream and you can
52:07
listen to us talk about what's happening in the game. We got to the
52:12
talking heads. Hopefully we see JK and Joey, Bag of Donuts and the
52:17
couple of regulars we've seen in there before too. Yeah, for sure,
52:22
Well I'm looking forward to that for sure, looking forward to some more good
52:24
beer and yeah, yeah, all right, man, it's been a good,
52:29
good episode. It has been till next time. School School, Hey
52:38
Vikings fans, Evan here from the School hop and we just wanted to say
52:42
thank you again so much for listening to the School Hop, and we also
52:45
wanted to take one more opportunity to let you know that this episode of the
52:49
School Hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering
52:52
taking an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our
52:57
friends at Big Top Ventures at Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com.
53:02
Once again, that's Big Top Ventures LC at gmail dot com. You can
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get the lowest rate possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the region. Big
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Top Ventures step right up to your next big adventure and thanks again for listening
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to the skull Hot Goal