Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 19 - A Brotherly Shove into the Playoffs

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TSH Ep. 19 - A Brotherly Shove into the Playoffs · The Skol Hop

0:29
All right, Hey Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of the Skull Hop.
0:33
I'm Evan, I'm Austin. Where's a couple of dudes from Iowa.
0:36
We like drinking beer talking about the Vikings. Yes, we do school.
0:40
We'll talk about the beer in a minute, but first, Yeah, we
0:43
are sponsored, So thank you to Big Top Ventures for sponsoring us today.
0:49
This episode is brought to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering taking
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an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our friends
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at top Big Top Ventures. You can do that by emailing Big Top Ventures
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LLC at gmail dot com. Again, that's Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail
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dot com. They can get you the lowest rate possible on several all inclusive
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resorts throughout the region. Big Top Ventures step right up to your next big
1:18
adventure. So thanks Big Top Ventures. Yeah, thanks, we got the
1:22
hat down here, and yeah, it's been fun to feature a friend of
1:27
ours at the end of the show. Yeah, they've been really good to
1:30
us. They're sponsoring. They gave us a gift, which where we are
1:34
working on finding the perfect spot and a way to present that awesome Dante Culpeper
1:40
signed Jersey. Yeah. Yeah, they've been really good to us. Yeah.
1:44
Well, we got to talk about the beer that we're drinking today.
1:47
We have the Peace Tree Brewing Company Red Rambler red Ale. This was something
1:53
that I picked out, and if you know me, you know that I
1:59
like anything in the red Amber Octoberfest family, and that's very obvious by the
2:06
color of this beer. It's definitely a red beer. But I got to
2:10
looking through our list of beers that we featured on the show, and we
2:14
only feature Iowa beers on the show, and I noticed that we hadn't featured
2:21
a Piece Tree beer yet. So this is our first Peace Tree and I
2:24
gotta say, so far, it's pretty good. Yeah, I'm liking it
2:28
a lot. And well, I don't really hate any beer unless it's like
2:34
a spicy beer or something like that, which is weird because I like spicy
2:37
food. But anyways, I don't really hate any beer. But I don't
2:39
normally just go for the ambers. I'm usually more of an IPA guy.
2:46
But I mean, this is doing it. I think it's the time of
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year for me. I've said it before. If it were like July fourth,
2:53
I don't know how much I'd love diving into this one. But yeah,
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this is hitting the spot for me right now. Definitely like and it
2:59
just looks good in the football mug too. It looks like a that's true,
3:02
it looks like a football. It's it's got that color. I don't
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know. That's good. So thanks Pea Street. Yeah, thank you EV
3:09
forol school. It's a good one. Well, another tough week to talk
3:19
about the Vikings. Yeah, not a lot of I mean, I shouldn't
3:23
say not a lot of. There were some good things that happened. The
3:27
final result was not good. No, I mean, anytime you lose,
3:30
it's not good. And we could even go back to the Raiders game.
3:34
Yeah they won, but it still wasn't good. The best thing that came
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out of that game other than the win, at least in my personal opinion,
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is that they finally made the switch at quarterback, which that that's been
3:46
a controversial topic this week after the Bengals game too. I've seen maybe they're
3:53
just a lowed minority on Vikings Twitter, but a lot of people have been
3:58
saying it didn't work. Nick Mullens out of there, and it's been obnoxious.
4:02
Actually, yeah, how many people have said that kind of see like
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okay. He threw two interceptions. The first one was just like a gunslinger
4:13
interception. He tried to ball it out in the end zone and the defender
4:16
made a great play. The second one, the defender still made a great
4:19
play, But that one was just a boneheaded dumb He was being sacked and
4:25
he didn't want to get sacked, so he tossed it right at the last
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second and it didn't hit the ground. The defender, the defensive tackle,
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intercepted it, which good for that defensive tackle heads up play. He made
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a great play as a defender, But my goodness, Nick Mullens made an
4:42
idiotic play right there. However, I'm still I'm still a Mullens fan.
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He was a step above anything we had seen since Kirk Cousins, and I
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know how exciting an electric those Josh Dobbs four quarters between two games were.
5:00
Those were just like Fitt plays where Dobbs was running for his life and he
5:03
got some luck and looked good. But and he wasn't. I don't think
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Dobbs was playing scared at that point. Was he was unhinged. He was
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just playing off the cuff like I'm in a new city with a new job,
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and I have a lot to prove, and I don't know the playbook
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at all. I literally just learned the center's name yesterday and I touched his
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butt for the first time, and you know, like, so, yeah,
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I think once Dobbs got into the system a little bit, it just
5:34
was clear that it wasn't a good fit. Yeah. I don't think I'll
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ever forget. This is something that will always stick in my mind as a
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Vikings fan when I think back on the Dobbs era. Is when last week
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we were talking to Dustin Baker and he made the point and it was kind
5:51
of comical, but it was absolutely true. He said, I don't think
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I have ever seen a quarterback get worse after getting more time in the playbook.
6:01
Now, I'm sure you could go back and be like, well,
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this guy he played on a team for five years and he ultimately got worse.
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I mean that could be injury or poor blocking or whatever, but like
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Dobbs, he got worse. It was, like you said, like I
6:15
think you were kind of alluding to it. He was getting scared almost and
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like I think you mentioned last week, the week before there was an early
6:23
hit on him in the Broncos game and kind the first drive of the game.
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Yeah, and it kind of like maybe that was the final nail in
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the coffin of being his downfall. I can't think of that hit. But
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I think you've got a point there. Dobbs was not it. I think
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Mullens is it. And I don't think they move on to Hall until the
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season is one no chance at the playoffs. Mullens at least gives you that
6:49
chance. Agreed. Well, and if we just look at mullins stat line
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and we compare it to Jake Browning, who is another backup former Viking,
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former Viking, and we could talk about how he made a statement directed at
7:06
the Vikings organization. We'll get to never cut me. Yeah, right.
7:12
Anyways, I think and I told you this kind of in our immediate reactions
7:17
to the Bengals game. I said, I think Mullins marginally played better than
7:27
Jake Browning did. And I think the stat line proves that he was twenty
7:31
six of thirty three three hundred and three yards nine point two average, two
7:35
touchdowns. He did have those two picks, He got sacked three times for
7:40
twenty two yards, and he had a ninety nine point nine rating. Yeah,
7:44
I mean outside of those bonehead picks, which you can't take away.
7:47
Those happened. Yeah, we can't take them away. But even with those,
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he still put the team in a position to win and had the defense
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not melted midway through the third quarter, all the way through the end of
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the game. I mean, you're talking about a Vikings win right now.
8:05
But again, like you can't take the interceptions away, you can't take the
8:09
defensive meltdown away either. Although who was it? Was it t Higgins that
8:13
made that insane Like he's like reaching over the pylon, which what a heads
8:18
up play and it was totally one hundred percent true and there was no like,
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oh he stepped out or I don't the refs made No. That was
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a true blue, awesome heads up play by him. And I think it
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was a Caleb Evans. Honestly, he couldn't have done much better on that
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play. I don't know, he was right on him. His coverage was
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great. Yeah, Higgins, Is that who it was? Yeah? It
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was Higgins. He made the catch, but like he also gets he's really
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good too. I don't think a Caleb Evans could have done much more than
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he did on that play outside of just doing better, I guess, But
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yeah, how do you defend that? Like you just can't. And that's
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probably more on Browning being able to elude everything and throw the ball. I
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saw a clip somewhere of JJ going up to T Higgins after the game and
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just being like, man, that was something right and just like acknowledging like
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that was that was an amazing play, and like that's that says something when
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one of the best acknowledges someone else who does something really really well. So
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and it's not like T Higgins is some no name guy that just came out
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of nowhere and made one great play. He's really good. He's just also
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not Jamar Chase. I mean, any anybody on the same team with Jamar
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Chase, unless your name is Kirk kerk Kirk Cousins, unless your name is
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Justin Jefferson, you're gonna be less of a receiver than Jamar Chase. But
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yeah, seriously, though, we'll complain to the Cows come home, but
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I don't think we can refute anything the Bengals. They won that game.
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They earned that win. There was not much controversy. It was just the
9:56
Vikings were not the better team. And they melted down on the defensive side
10:01
a little bit, and Nick Mullens had a couple of bonehead interceptions and there
10:07
were some poor coaching decisions. Yep. Oh my, has been another narrative
10:13
that's kind of run through, at least this season for Kevin O'Connell. I
10:18
don't remember really talking about this last season at all, but I mean last
10:22
season it was just the one score games and the heart attack games, right
10:26
they just the ball bounced for the vikings more often than not. But yeah,
10:31
this year it's really highlighted how koc he's not a good player of the
10:39
game of football as far as the coach goes well. And there was that
10:43
infamous scene in overtime Brian Flores the second time Kevin O'Connell's trying to call this
10:52
tush push play and Flores is in his ear like, dude, take the
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time out, take the time out. And I heard some people throughout the
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week that we're trying to claim like the timeout would have just been nice to
11:03
give the refs a chance to spot the ball. I think the timeout would
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have been good for Kevin O'Connell to just take a step back and go,
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is this really what I want to do, And it seemed like he made
11:16
a very knee jerk reaction. They tried the tush push on third down,
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it didn't work. They were gonna do it again. And I don't know
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what Brian Flores is thinking. Obviously he has had coaching experience. Yeah,
11:30
but from my perspective, I think it would have just been better to like
11:35
just press pause for a moment and get your thoughts together. And is this
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the best play call that I can call to put my team in a position
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to win the game. I have a backup quarterback, I have a backup
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running back. My offensive line is depleted, like and I'm gonna throw the
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smallest guy on the team behind the quarterback. Who I'm not a big guy
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and I weigh more than Brandon Powell. You're gonna put him behind the quarterback
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to try and push him towards the first down. It just it didn't make
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sense. And I think that time out could have benefited Kevin O'Connell in many
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ways. Absolutely. There was a Annie Agar on TikTok and Twitter and or
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really everywhere else. She does her like weekly recap, yeah, NFL meetings,
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well her she usually does a joke for every team, even if it's
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a one liner, and her one liner for the Vikings was something to the
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tune of, you guys really ran the tush push twice in a row,
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and you got the elf on the shelf out there to push the quarterback and
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that's true, Like, yes, you are not a big guy, you
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are you way more than him, And especially when this team has CJ.
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Ham, this team has TJ. Hawkinson, this team has a really good
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offense and ty Chandler, who put out the best rushing performance the Vikings have
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seen this year. And they needed what six inches well, and we watched
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I think it was the first or second quarter, they'd run a successful tush
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push, they got the first down, it was great, and then the
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opportunity came up again on third in inches or whatever it was, and they
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faked it yea, And they dumped a little pass to the right out to
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ty Chandler and he gets like six or seven yards when they needed six inches
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and it's like, yes, that was awesome because it looked like they were
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just gonna keep trying to do the Jalen Hurts Philadelphia tush push kind of thing,
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and they faked everybody out. I mean, they faked me out,
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and here we go getting six yards when we needed six inches, and like,
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okay, And I think in that overtime situation you just run it to
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play before try to fake it again. I don't know, and ty Chandler
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had been running well the whole game. I don't know. I feel like
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at this point, unless you are the Eagles who have figured it out,
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if you try the tush push, that's getting cute. And anytime, whether
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you and me, whether we've been sitting right next to each other watching a
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game, or texting each other or on live you know, talking to each
14:16
other, anytime the Vikings have tried to quote unquote get cute this year,
14:22
one more than often doesn't work, and we always one of us texts the
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other one and says, oh, there they are again getting cute. They're
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not good enough to try to get cute, So don't get cute. You
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have a good offense, use it like, yeah, I know you need
14:37
six inches, but that doesn't mean the field is only six inches. Sure,
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maybe you don't throw a hail Mary attempt on a fourth and six inches,
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but maybe just like run a play that you know is good for a
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couple of yards, like, I don't know, and I think Koc did
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say they did that specific tush push at least the first time they were in
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the formation. They were to try to keep the Bengals from being in there
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like goal line formation, so they spread everybody out a little bit, and
15:07
then they put Powell in motion to try to catch them off guard. But
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my goodness, you try it once and it doesn't work, you don't try
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it again the second the next play, what's the definition of insanity? Like,
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that's really frustrating. A quick little side note that I would like to
15:28
add with this whole tush push conversation. There were some videos that came out
15:33
because Jason Kelsey was caught with a false start penalty ball forward. I don't
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know if he saw that. I didn't know that it was because he moved
15:43
the ball forward, but I knew he got caught well something. So he
15:46
got flagged for a false start, and everybody's just kind of like, what
15:52
how does the center get flagged? And when they went back and replayed,
15:58
you can see Jason Kelsey put his hand on the ball and then kind of
16:02
lurch it forward a couple of he's adjusting himself a little bit, but really
16:06
but really just himself a couple of inches. So it makes you wonder,
16:08
if you know, the Eagles success at the toush push play has largely been
16:14
a result of Jason Kelcey. Uh. I don't know if I'd go as
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far to say cheating, sure, but you know, bending the rules of
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the game in the favor of the Eagles because they have been by far and
16:26
away the most successful. Oh yeah team to pull off that play. They've
16:30
done it countless times and it's worked pretty much every time for them. So
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and I know you're not saying that they're cheating and oh this is whole controversy,
16:38
but it does make me want to kind of pay more attention in any
16:44
football game to the center as he walks up to the ball, just to
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see. Is it something every center does as he gets down, does he
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kind of adjusts himself a little bit? Or is that just that one plage
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Jason Kelcey kind of went a little row. So I my gut tells me
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it's probably just something out of habit to some extent, most centers do a
17:06
little bit, but there could be something there. It seems like though in
17:08
that Philadelphia game that the refs were watching for it because they'd been alerted to
17:15
it previously. At least that's what the commentary had kind of made us,
17:19
as the general viewing public belief. And I mean, they saw something.
17:26
And when you go back and watch that specific play towards the end of that
17:30
game, you can see it, and it's kind of clear as day,
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like, yeah, he does try to advance the ball before the play starts.
17:38
Yeah, and that shouldn't be allowed like that. There should be a
17:42
rule that says, this is where the ball is placed. And I think
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this opens up a whole other conversation about the NFL in this day and age
17:52
and the technology involved, and like let's just put chips and footballs, and
17:59
I think they're already are some chips to some extent, but like let's like
18:03
let's figure out this like ball in position on the field, ball in space
18:11
type of thing, and let's just like get a little more scientific with that
18:17
and make it a little less subject to human error and cheating or not even
18:25
cheating, but just bending the rules slightly like I think the Eagles have done,
18:29
and let's let's just make it a little more precise. Yeah. Well,
18:33
and to that point, I think the NFL does test around with stuff
18:37
because I feel like for years we were saying all the time, like complaining
18:42
to the point where it's like, you guys have pylons at every end zone
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line put a camera right there too, And it could have been in the
18:52
last few seasons. They definitely have cameras in those pylons now, they even
18:57
with the first down mark Yeah, they even I don't know if they've always
19:00
had pylons at the line of scrimmage in the first down markers, they do
19:04
now yep. And those pylons have cameras in them, and they've they've kind
19:07
of made for some really cool footage too, oh for sure. But you
19:11
wonder how many games did they have ten years ago where they kind of tested
19:15
that out a little bit without making a public without saying, hey, guys,
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we're gonna put cameras in this pylon and not even show it on TV,
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just kind of see like, does are we able to see anything?
19:26
I wonder how often they try things out. Sure, there's probably some things
19:32
like for player safety and stuff that they have to be excuse me, be
19:36
public about, but for all I know they're trying out technology of chips in
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the shoulder pads or something, or some kind of a spatial recognition thing and
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they just don't tell anybody, which I mean maybe they don't have to,
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so I'd be interested to know stuff like that if they've ever done that.
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I think we'll continue to see some advancement in the technolo of the game going
20:00
forward to Like, I don't think pylon cams and stuff like that is the
20:07
end of the line. I think no, we're really just at the tip
20:10
of the iceberg for what could be in terms of technology. And yeah,
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and I don't know about you. I'm for it if it improves the quality
20:18
of the game. Do it. I mean there are some fans that are
20:22
like, no, it's just got to be the refs and if they don't
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see it, it didn't happen. Like I don't agree with that. I
20:30
mean, you don't want to take the human element out of it, because
20:33
I don't care how much AI or technology you have, there's always going to
20:37
be something where it's like a human can see that, that's see what the
20:41
right call is, slow mo, real time whatever. Sometimes AI or technology
20:48
is not going to be able to get it one hundred percent right. All
20:48
the time. But I'm a fan of trying things out make the game better
20:52
if you can, and I think there are some things you can do that
20:56
just take the element of human error out of it, or just make the
21:00
game better, like if we were to step away from football altogether, and
21:03
you look at baseball. The introduction of the pitch clock really changed the landscape
21:11
of baseball the better. And yeah, I would say for the better.
21:15
I think it was a really good baseball season. I think a lot of
21:17
the players were leery about it, especially pitchers and catchers because they're the ones
21:22
that have to really deal with the ramifications of being on a clock like that.
21:29
But I mean, the average time of an MLB game went way down,
21:34
and I don't know if viewership went up yet, but I would say
21:41
in the next several years we might see a trend upwards that I can tell
21:45
you this. I mean, I'm not a huge baseball fan right now.
21:48
If I'm going to be enthralled by a baseball game, it means the Twins
21:51
have somehow gotten to the playoffs and have a chance of winning. Like I'm
21:55
a fair weather Twins baseball fan. That's about it. Otherwise I'll go to
21:59
a game, enjoy the atmosphere, but that's the cap of it. However,
22:04
if I'm a six year old right now and just starting to kind of
22:08
enter the idea of liking sports, and a baseball game isn't five hours,
22:14
it's two hours, and I can kind of be intrigued by that. Maybe
22:18
the six year olds now are more apt to like baseball because it's not as
22:22
long and drawn out. So twenty years from now, you're going to have
22:26
theoretically more people who like baseball and who are die hard baseball fans, and
22:30
maybe that one little tweak attributed to that could be. So yeah, I'm
22:34
a fan of improving the game further. Sure, Well, let's come back
22:40
around really quick, because I found this interesting stat that Janet Eckhart had posted
22:47
on Twitter, just coming back to the quarterback conversation that we were having earlier.
22:52
And I guess my knowledge of some of these stats are fairly elementary.
22:59
Oh me too, But Janet Eckhart posted this picture on Twitter and he says
23:04
Vikings fans are calling for Kos's job after he uses that Shanahan Witchcraft is a
23:12
moment I will still laugh about in decades, and he is using that caption
23:21
to refer to this picture of quarterbacks being ranked on EPA and CPOE Composite,
23:30
which I kind of understand. EPA estimated points added, right, Oh okay,
23:37
now you would have to explain it to me. That's a Dustin Baker
23:41
type understanding of stats. I think it's estimated points added. And I'm,
23:45
by no means a statistician, but I think it's just basically like, how
23:52
many points could a team expect to add to their total if this player is
23:59
on their team or not. And I don't I can't even begin to explain
24:06
to you CPOE and I could have just completely destroyed e p A. I
24:10
don't know, not an expert, not a statistician. I apologize. But
24:15
what is interesting is number one on this list is Rock Party, No surprise,
24:22
he's played pretty well this year. Number two on this list, and
24:26
this is minimum of like I think, fifty plays, fifty snaps taken at
24:33
the quarterback position, take one game yep. Nick Mallins is number two in
24:40
this ep A plus CPOE composite. Jake Browning is third, Kirk Cousins is
24:48
seventh, Patrick Mahomes is ninth, Jalen Hurds is eighth, and I wonder
24:55
how those numbers would change if you made that minimum three hundred plays. I
25:00
don't know. It is still interesting, right, It's just and what it
25:04
why? I think what it does say for sure right now. One conclusion
25:07
that we can draw is the sample size for Mullens is very small. I
25:11
mean he has fifty six plays to brock Perties four hundred and fifty seven.
25:17
Yeah, you know, Tua has five hundred and twenty four, Dak has
25:22
five hundred and ninety two. Jared Allen has six hundred and fourteen. Jared
25:26
Allen's back in the league. Not Jared Allen. Sorry, Josh Allen.
25:29
My fault. I just saw Jay Allen. Sorry, I've I had.
25:33
It's like a Freudian slip almost. It'd be cool, though, Jared Allen
25:37
playing quarterback for the Bills. I'd watch that. I mean, I'd watch
25:41
it. No, no disrespect to Jared Allen, ever, it is even
25:45
in his prime, he's not a quarterback. He didn't he long snap though.
25:51
He might have something in his I think that's how he tried to make
25:53
it in the league to begin with. Maybe I guess I bring that up
25:56
and I put that in our notes. Here just because I find it interesting
26:00
that in at least some statistical world somewhere, somebody can justify Nick Mullins as
26:08
the second best quarterback in the league right now, and that's gotta be worth
26:14
something, sure, right, Sure, yeah, I mean I think realistically,
26:19
I don't understand the thought that some of the Vikings fans have behind benching
26:25
Nick Mullins. I think it's all based on those two interceptions. Okay,
26:30
three things, the two interceptions and the fact that they lost the quarterback sneak.
26:34
I don't blame Nick Mullens for those two failed sneaks. Sure, maybe
26:40
he could have done something different to make sure those plays happened. I think
26:45
he'd like almost fumbled the second snap, but I don't blame him for that.
26:51
That's more of a coaching decision to make the play call. I'm happy
26:56
with how he played. That's the closest to Kirk Cousins we seen since the
27:00
Packer game when Kirk Cousins went down. I think people are excited because they
27:07
think Jaren Hall is this next coming of Jalen Hurts or whoever, which maybe
27:14
he is, but like probably not, like more likely that he's not the
27:18
next coming of anybody like, I don't. I don't know. We could
27:23
literally be saying that about Dobbs. I'm sure there's plenty of Vikings fans that
27:26
are saying, ah, no, Dobbs at least gives you the mobility.
27:30
No, I think you stick with Mullins because that's what the offense is tailored
27:33
around, until you get to the point that maybe, like if you lose
27:38
the next two games and there's literally zero percent chance of making the playoffs,
27:44
then then maybe try some new stuff out. But I don't think you go
27:47
to Hall just because, Yeah, I'm with you, especially when playoff hopes
27:52
are still very much alive, you stick with Mullins. He played well.
27:57
Yep. Those interceptions really sucked and you wish he could have those back.
28:03
He wishes he could have those and to some extent, losing the game wasn't
28:10
his fault down the stretch anyways. I mean, you could definitely say if
28:14
he didn't throw those interceptions, I mean, they were both on the Bengals
28:18
side of the field. The one was when they were in the red zone.
28:22
They might have both been in the red zone. I don't know,
28:23
So you could argue that those interceptions cost at least a field goal per interception,
28:33
which I mean in that sense they went to overtime. They wouldn't have
28:36
gotten overtime if they had six more points, But they were early enough in
28:38
the game that I don't know. I'm not blaming the loss on those two
28:42
interceptions. I don't think you can fully What do you think about the defense
28:48
and the meltdown in the fourth quarter? Yeah, I mean it really started
28:52
in the third quarter and they allowed three straight touchdown drives. I don't know
29:00
did we talk about it on the mic. The T Higgins touchdown, that
29:03
was just that was just ballers balling out. I mean at Caleb Evans,
29:08
his positioning was great, he played it well, he didn't commit a penalty.
29:15
I don't know how much better he could have done. That was just
29:18
T Higgins and what Browning doing their job and how can you win? T
29:26
Higgins extends his arm out to barely get the ball over the end zone the
29:32
line. That's Higgins. Yeah, that's not even Browning at that point.
29:36
Like, kudos to Browning for making the completion and getting them to the three
29:41
yard line or the two yard line or whatever it was. But yeah,
29:44
it's all T Higgins to have the presence of mind to reach back and score
29:48
that time. And that's just he gets paid to you hear that. Everyone
29:52
hear that every once in a while. Like the other team. Those guys
29:55
get get paid too. They have a job too. They're gonna win sometimes.
30:00
Yeah, I don't know. I think the biggest more than either of
30:03
those two interceptions of Nick Mullens, the biggest deflator of the whole game was
30:07
at third and twenty one. The Vikings let the Bengals complete. If they
30:12
don't get that, it's a whole different ballgame. And again, yeah,
30:18
you get say, if they don't pick off Nick Mullens twice, it's a
30:21
whole different ballgame. But that was just the defense melted down. They allowed
30:26
three straight touchdown drives, and then they had a really good first drive in
30:33
overtime, yeah, which was completely negated by the terrible coaching decision to go
30:37
for it twice on third and fourth down with the same terrible tush push.
30:44
Brandon Powell doesn't need to be on the field for a tush push like.
30:48
Yeah. So the defense they allowed the overtime to happen, But they played
30:52
well in their first drive of the overtime and then you know, they allowed
30:59
the the big play that led to a field goal for the overtime loss.
31:03
But frustrating game. And if Joe Burrow was the quarterback and the Vikings lost
31:11
twenty seven to twenty four, I think it stings a little bit less.
31:15
But they had their backup in there who's been playing really well, but he's
31:19
still a backup. He's still not Joe Burrow, and a backup who had
31:23
some spite, some vengeance towards the Vikings, which I told you, I
31:30
can see that vengeance. I would feel the same kind of way if I
31:34
had gone through something like that because he won the number two job. This
31:40
is Jake Browning. He won the number two job when he was a Viking
31:41
and got cut because the guy that didn't win the number two job was drafted,
31:48
and that's Kellen Mond. They wanted to make sure Kellen Mond was on
31:52
the team, so they got rid of Jake Browning. So I would be
31:56
spiteful too if you earned a job, if you were the better guy and
32:00
you lose your job just because of you know, draft status, that's that's
32:06
a little that's sour taste in your mouth. Yeah, yeah, And I
32:08
agree with you. And I don't fault him for feeling the way that he
32:14
feels. I do think he could have maybe handled himself with a little bit
32:20
more class on the sideline this last weekend and even in his press conference.
32:24
I think he could have been a little bit more like, Yep, no
32:30
hard feelings. I get that the guys that cut me aren't there anymore.
32:35
It's all good, nothing but respect for the Vikings. But I knew I
32:37
had something to prove, and I did that today. I mean it could
32:40
have been as simple as that, and I think Vikings fans would have a
32:45
much different opinion about Jake Browning. Unfortunately. I think a lot of people
32:51
out there think that he's just some you know, selfish, arrogant jerk who
32:59
beat us and now he thinks he's Patrick Mahomes. Yeah. I do have
33:05
a personal mentality about I mean, if if you win, you get a
33:09
little bit of bragging, right, it's like sure, and this is really
33:14
this streak of his right now, it's not just against the Vikings. He
33:16
had what two other wins on top of that. Yeah, he's been playing
33:22
well. He's playing well. I mean, yeah, you kind of get
33:24
a little bit of a leash to to to gloat a little bit. And
33:30
as Vikings fans, we have no recourse. We can't say, oh,
33:32
well, no, you suck, because I mean he won. He and
33:37
his team beat us and our team, and sometimes he's got to take your
33:43
medicine a little bit, like, yeah, that sucks. And sure it
33:45
makes him look like a you know, too cool for school fifteen year old
33:51
quarterback that just threw his first touchdown of high school. But I mean he
33:54
won. He like he can't argue too much until he if he was talking
34:00
all this and then kept losing, like okay, dude, be quiet.
34:05
But like I think, I think we would have much less negative things to
34:12
say about Mullins had the Vikings won. Oh absolutely, And we wouldn't even
34:15
really be talking about those two even if he would have fired those two MISQ
34:21
interceptions, and even if the tush push had failed and the Vikings get another
34:25
opportunity in overtime to go down the field and score, Like who cares at
34:30
that point, Like, oh, Nick Mullins, Like we finally got our
34:32
guy. He threw for three hundred yards and he had a decent completion percentage,
34:37
He had a decent he had a ninety nine point ninety nine rating,
34:39
Like, all right, let's go. We got at least seventy percent of
34:44
kirkback. Yeah, let's make this playoff push, you know. So,
34:49
Yeah, winning games definitely influences the lens through which you view these players.
34:57
Oh yeah, for sure, absolutely, And it's it's influence seeing how even
35:00
we're talking about Browning versus Mullins. Oh yeah, for sure. I just
35:07
until he has Nick Mullins has a game. Let's say he goes out against
35:12
the Lions and everybody else plays perfect, and the defense does their job like
35:16
they have shown that they can, and then Nick Mullens throws two boneheaded interceptions.
35:24
Then that's a little annoying. But yeah, that hasn't happened yet.
35:30
And the defense was doing their job against the Bengals until what midway through the
35:35
third quarter. It yeah, it just kind of seemed like everything they had
35:38
done to that point just kind of unraveled. One big thing that is going
35:44
to help out the defense. I've got the injury report here, and today's
35:47
Wednesday, and it's the first day of the week that the teams have to
35:52
release an injury report. The Vikings had a handful of did not participates,
35:57
which we'll talk in a little bit. But I think the highlight for me
36:00
of the injury report is Jordan Hicks, middle linebacker. He had that what
36:06
compartment compartmental whatever apartments in yeah, that which apparently is really scary, and
36:12
had they not had, you know, the fast acting personnel they did,
36:15
he could have gone as extreme as losing his leg like that could have been
36:20
nuts. But he had surgery. He's been on injured reserve for a little
36:23
while and they just opened up his twenty one day window. Today was his
36:30
first practice, which I think it was a walkthrough. I think today wasn't
36:34
a full padded practice, but he was a full participant. He was the
36:38
only one on the injury report that is listed as a full participant, which
36:43
I think that's huge, super encouraging to me. That's saying he's good to
36:47
go, Like yeah, I guess I don't know what they said in the
36:51
press conferences. I didn't watch any of that today, but to me,
36:54
having that full next to your name on the injury report, you're good,
36:59
you're quote unquote probable to play the game. And I watched I watched his
37:04
locker room interview. I think it was yesterday, so it would have been
37:07
Tuesday, and he was just very optimistic with reporters. He wasn't quick to
37:14
say, yep, I'm gonna be out there, but he was a pro
37:16
so he's gonna give the answer like, oh yeah, it's up to the
37:19
coaches. But he was also he was also just optimistic like, yeah,
37:22
I'm feeling good. I don't feel bad, and the hope is that I'm
37:28
able to play. And you know, we're gonna try it out tomorrow and
37:32
Thursday and see what happens and we'll go from there. And even even if
37:37
he's not one hundred one hundred percent, if he suits up and he plays,
37:43
you know, fifty percent of the STAPs and the snaps that he would
37:47
have, I mean that's okay because right now you got Ivan Pace who is
37:52
playing really well, and I mean he can kind of fill in the gaps
37:57
if Jordan Hicks needs some gaps filled, you know, if he if he
38:01
needs to take more plays off than normal, and that's only going to give
38:06
Pace more experience and more more reps with the green dot on his helmet,
38:09
which is only going to be good for future Viking years too. So yeah,
38:15
ultimately, even with that defensive meltdown. I'm not. I'm not worried
38:20
about the defense quite yet. The Bengals just had the number. They just
38:24
they made the plays when it didn't look like they were going to the third
38:30
and twenty ones. And the Fluke interceptions not Fluke, they were I mean,
38:37
bona fide interceptions. But yeah, the one, the one to the
38:42
defensive lineman, Yeah, that was just a dumb play. That was a
38:46
bad play. I mean, and we've talked about this. I don't necessarily
38:51
mean to rehash this, but like, I think one of those interceptions was
38:54
definitely justified. Like, yep, it was an ill advised to throw downfield,
39:02
and hopefully Mullins can learn from that. But hopefully Mullins can learn from
39:08
you're literally like nearly on the ground and yeah, a guy's just take the
39:15
sack, yep at that point, just unless you have a clear shot to
39:20
throw it out of bounds. And I don't even remember that play very well.
39:24
If that was like a third down or if they were on the verge
39:29
of being knocked out of field goal range, I'm not sure. I don't
39:30
remember. But sometimes, I mean, it's always better to take the sack
39:35
than to give the ball away, right, I don't. I can't think
39:39
of any other time when it's better to just hand the ball away than to
39:43
take the sack. But I think I think we should talk about what happens
39:50
from here. Mm hm. And we've got a little screenshot here on our
39:57
notes from a friend of the show, Tustin Baker. Yeah, we can
40:00
exploit that a little bit, milk that relationship for all it's worth, I
40:04
guess a little bit. Yeah. Well, I mean we were following him
40:08
on Twitter and referencing his tweets before. Oh yeah, yeah, I'm not
40:13
saying we're in the wrong for seeing front of the show. But anyways,
40:17
Dustin had tweeted earlier today, I believe playoff probability for the Vikings the rest
40:25
of the way, and he's broken it down game by game. So the
40:31
Vikings went out, they beat Detroit, beat Green Bay, beat Detroit.
40:37
We're in the playoffs, in the playoffs, and we are NFC North champions
40:39
because maybe, I guess we do need help from the Cowboys. The Cowboys
40:45
will have to beat Detroit on that in between week week seventeen for that to
40:51
officially be bonafide and happen for sure. So but regardless if the Vikings went
41:00
out, they are one in the playoffs. Even if they lose this week
41:06
and then beat Green Bay and Detroit the following two weeks ninety nine percent chance.
41:12
Beat Detroit twice but lose to Green Bay in the middle ninety eight percent,
41:19
win the next two but lose the final game of the season at Detroit
41:23
also ninety eight percent. So like any combination of winning twice losing once,
41:30
ninety eight percent or better, which makes you feel good to think that you
41:35
could lose, and it's not the end of the world yet, right,
41:39
It just makes it a lot more difficult, But yeah, it's not a
41:44
the playoffs haven't started right now. But then you get into the two loss
41:49
category, and that's where things get more complicated. The best case scenario is
41:54
you lose to Detroit twice but you beat Green Bay. That still gives you
41:59
a forty two percent chance. If you beat Detroit the first time and then
42:07
lose the final two twenty eight percent. If you lose the next two games
42:15
but then beat Detroit in the final game twenty six percent. If you lose
42:20
all three, there's still a point five percent chance that the Vikings make the
42:24
playoffs. But if you lose all three, you're sitting at seven and ten.
42:30
Yeah, and in that scenario, you're doing what you did on our
42:34
YouTube video not too long ago, and you're basically clicking lose on every other
42:38
NFC team's record. Yeah that, I mean, he said it as much
42:46
with saying point five percent chance if they lose all three, you're not going
42:50
on the playoffs, like it would be the craziest thing. And then if
42:53
that point five percent chance happens, you lose all three and you do make
42:58
it to the playoffs, you're not beating anybody in the playoffs. You're probably
43:04
not beating really anybody in the playoffs if you win the next three, like
43:07
it, it's gonna be tough. Although I said months ago if they if
43:12
they fight, scratch and clawed their way into the playoffs, even right now,
43:15
you said it last tough team, You said it last week, you
43:19
said you said it early this season, and then you also said it again
43:22
last week. Yeah, if they make it to the playoffs, it'll be
43:25
a tough team. They may not win, but they'll be a tough team.
43:30
And I agree with that. I think this team has proven itself to
43:35
be tough to battle adversity and to win tough games even when situations are difficult.
43:45
Yeah, and they host the Lions this week. I think currently the
43:49
line puts the Vikings at home underdogs, and the Lions just won what was
43:54
it, forty two to seventeen last week, Like, they're not the Lions
44:00
regardless of what happens in the next three weeks. The Lions are a good
44:04
team. And we've both been saying the Lions are the team to beat in
44:07
the NFC North. We've been saying that for the past year. Probably I'd
44:13
say that since the season started. Yeah, definitely since the season started,
44:15
but probably even like at this time last year, Like the Lions were their
44:19
second half of the last year. They beat the Vikings in the second half
44:23
of the twenty two seasons. So I mean, they're they're no chumps.
44:28
It's not just a cakewalk. They're not the Lions of old. The Packers
44:31
have I think they lost last week, but they've figured something out which is
44:37
really annoying. Their defense is still bad. Yeah, they want Joe Barry
44:43
gone, yeah yesterday, which I mean, as far as I'm concerned,
44:47
they can keep him forever. But yeah, they host the Lions at home
44:54
with theoretically a healthier JJ, which I think. I get the sense Jj,
45:00
it was fully good to go last week. He was hundred percent healthy,
45:04
even in the Raiders game. Taking him to the hospital, I get
45:07
the sense that that was a heavy precaution, Like it's not like he was
45:10
complaining about his lungs or anything. He was saying. He was yelling and
45:15
watching the game on his own. Yeah, So I really truly think he's
45:20
as close to one hundred percent as you can be in week what seventeen sixteen
45:24
of the NFL season, And who knows, maybe those those weeks off nursing
45:30
that injury kind of recharged some batteries for him a little bit that could prove
45:36
to be better. I don't know. That's just me guessing here. I'm
45:40
hopeful. I'm encouraged by Jordan Addison's resurgence, albeit with a much better quarterback
45:49
than we've had starting at quarterback for a while, and I don't think that's
45:52
a coincidence. I think the defense is only going to get better with Jordan
45:58
Hicks. Although the report does list to Neil Hunter as a did not participant
46:04
today with an illness, so hopefully that's something he was just not feeling great
46:09
today. He got a veteran day, little illness day. Hopefully he's okay
46:15
under the weather, hopefully. Yeah. The rushing game, I mean,
46:17
it's one game, so it could not turn into anything. But ty Chandler
46:22
we've been we were calling for ty Chandler and then they traded for cam Akers,
46:29
and then we were calling for cam Akers and now he's he's out for
46:31
maybe the rest of his career, and now we're calling for ty Chandler again.
46:35
And after weeks and weeks and weeks, we finally get ty Chandler,
46:37
if only because of an injury to Alex Madison. And what does ty Chandler
46:43
do? He freaking balls out had the best rushing game of any Viking all
46:46
season long. Yeah, so that's encouraging, and that's with an offensive line
46:53
who is still not not one hundred percent. Brian O'Neil again, he's he's
47:00
still down with an ankle injury. He didn't practice today, and who knows,
47:05
maybe that's a season ender. Hopefully not, but I mean, yeah,
47:12
the injury report is not it's not empty, but it could be way
47:16
worse. Harrison Phillips was he out against the Bengals. I'm just noticing that
47:22
I don't think he came out against the Bengals, not that I saw.
47:27
I could have missed that, but it says he was out of practice today
47:30
for a back injury. That sucks. Yeah, that's well. We were
47:37
talking, I think, before we started rolling about some other players that have
47:43
been kind of mia for the Vikings, you had some intel on Marcus Davenport.
47:49
And yeah, you talk about the Vikings defensive line and missing a guy
47:52
like Harrison Phillips. What's happened to Marcus Davenport. I mean, really,
47:58
if you think about it, and I might be proven wrong, but I
48:01
think he's only made an impact on this defense during I think it was the
48:06
Panthers game way back in what week three, week four? And outside of
48:10
that game, he has not been He's either not been on the field or
48:15
he's not done anything, and he's been on injured reserve for a while.
48:22
And Darren Wolfson on Twitter or maybe it was the radio, I saw it
48:25
on Twitter, Darren Wilson was saying that Marcus Davenport, who was on injured
48:31
reserve for I believe an ankle injury or something in his leg. I think
48:37
it was his ankle. He's been out of a walking boot for ten to
48:40
fourteen days at this point. And the sense that Darren Wilson's getting is that,
48:46
I mean, Marcus Davenport is probably not going to play at all the
48:50
rest of the season, and he's on a one year deal and he's not
48:52
going to be a Viking after this year. They're not even going to try
48:55
to sign him, which I think he had like thirteen million dollar deal this
49:00
year. That's a lot of money for a guy who really made an impact
49:04
on one game. And Wilson also kind of alluded to the idea of sometimes
49:10
a player has to want to get healthy and want to put in the work
49:17
to get on the field and get in the game, regardless of injury status,
49:22
and he kind of made it sound like that that want isn't there for
49:27
this player, particularly which if he doesn't have the work ethic or have the
49:32
desire, then he doesn't get to be an NFL player, at least not
49:37
on the Vikings. Like he's he's been a guy that's been he's never lived
49:42
up to his expectations and it's in his NFL career and maybe there's something to
49:45
it. I don't know, I don't know the guy. I'd feel bad
49:50
talking negatively about a guy who won will never hear this, But also I
49:52
don't know him. Like, yeah, but what about like Lewis c in
49:58
too, he's been another miss Street player who and like we another player we
50:04
talked about before we started recording, but like he's been in Street close for
50:07
the last I don't know ten games. And I think he's technically healthy too.
50:14
Yeah, So I don't know if it's a he isn't learning the defense
50:19
well enough or and like I said, I don't know if the MIC's were
50:22
on when we were talking about this a little bit ago either. But at
50:25
this point, if you're gonna put Lewis scene on the field at safety,
50:30
who are you going to take off the field at safety? He's not coming
50:34
on the field in when you're taking off Harrison Smith, I mean, a
50:37
healthy Harrison Smith is on the field. He's a Hall of Famer. He's
50:42
he's under every play, yeah period. Butt Tellus is the Swiss Army Knife.
50:45
He's gonna be on the field almost Smith buying them has played great and
50:51
yeah, usually there's only two safeties on the field. Mettelis might be a
50:54
linebacker, defensive tackle, hybrid whatever, he's playing that play, but usually
51:00
you're seeing two safeties. I think we just named three names that you're not
51:07
gonna put scene on the field ahead of either of those three names. And
51:10
then it seems like what's his name? THEO Jackson seems like he's higher on
51:15
the depth chart too, because he at least gets in on special teams on
51:17
the occasional defensive snap. I just think, I mean, again, a
51:22
guy I don't know and I'll never meet and he'll never hear my words,
51:27
But I don't think it's it's there for him, whether he shattered his ankle
51:31
or not last year. Like, he's just not good and he's not better
51:37
than the guys ahead of him. He's just not getting the opportunity. And
51:42
that's okay. I mean, I'm not complaining about the play of Mattelus.
51:45
If he's playing well, he's got to be on the field. Harrison Smith,
51:49
you can't take off the field, Yeah, and you can't. I
51:51
mean, other than some of these late game collapses like we experienced with the
51:55
Bengals, you can't really like you can't really fault our dee. You can't
52:00
fault the players and you can't fault the coaching. They've done everything and in
52:05
fact, like two weeks ago, they're the reason we won that game against
52:08
oh absolutely Raiders. Yeah, because the offense wasn't gonna do anything, and
52:15
it seemed to wake something up in the Raiders because they came out and scored.
52:17
What did they score? Was it sixty something? Sixty three? I
52:21
think geez. I think they definitely broke a record of like the biggest point
52:24
differential between one from one week to another for any given team ever. Well,
52:30
and they got Staley and the GM fired. Yeah, they also I
52:35
think I saw too the Raiders. They're the first or they they broke their
52:40
team record for points scored in a game, and the week before they literally
52:45
got the fewest points you can get in a game, which is zero.
52:49
So they went from the least you can get to the most they've ever gotten
52:52
in less than a week because that was a Thursday night. Yeah, they
52:55
played a Thursday night game. It's impressive. Yeah, definitely impressive for sure.
53:01
Well, looking ahead to the Detroit game, Yeah, we've kind of
53:06
touched on it a little bit, but yeah, what are your what are
53:09
your initial thoughts on that game? Well, I've already heard that Mullins is
53:15
probably going to start again, and that seems logical to me. I don't
53:20
think you take that away from him. Despite a loss, and despite the
53:25
unfortunate turnovers, I think he still played well enough. And I still hold
53:30
to the fact that I think he played just marginally better than Jake Browning quarterback
53:37
versus quarterback on Saturday. So I think I think you give him another opportunity.
53:43
Oh absolutely, And you know, at this point, for Llans Mullins,
53:47
I think this is a whole new thing. Like divisional game playoffs are
53:58
kind of on the line. It will be his first, I think his
54:02
first time ever playing in a regular season game at US Bank Stadium. I
54:08
don't know that he's ever played, like even come in for a play.
54:13
I might be wrong on that. He's definitely never started at US Bank Stadium.
54:17
So it'll be a nice little They don't have to travel. That's I
54:22
wonder how much traveling actually is a hindrance on a team. It doesn't seem
54:28
like the home team wins every single time. I mean, the away team
54:31
wins feels like just as often. But it is nice to think they will
54:36
be at home. It's one less thing they have to worry about Mullins.
54:40
It's I mean, it's his job. He can feel good about how he
54:44
played outside of those if you want to throw in the two failed push push
54:50
plays. Outside of four plays, Mullins played really well enough to win the
54:55
game. He did have a few of those like question ble like the one
55:01
I think it ended up being a touchdown to Jordan Addison where he's getting sacked
55:07
and he just throws it last second and Addison scoops it up off the ground
55:12
before it touches the ground. I mean there were a few questionable things like
55:15
that too, where it's like and I think even Dustin Baker's yeah, I
55:20
was gonna bring like this play went from like yeah, it's like no,
55:27
no, no, don't don't throw it. Oh he's gonna take the sack.
55:30
Dang it. No, oh, dang it, he threw it.
55:31
Oh he caught it. Yes, touchdown like you did. I just but
55:40
yeah, I mean this is gonna sound crazy, and I promise you I
55:46
don't mean it the way that it's gonna sound. Mullins has some Brett Farv
55:52
in him. Mullins is not a Hall of Fame quarterback. He is not
55:55
Brett Favre, but he's got that gun slinger mentality. And I'm pretty sure
56:01
when Brett Favre retired he had he was number one in both touchdown passes in
56:07
NFL history as well as interceptions. So you're gonna get some of that.
56:15
And I'm pretty sure Mullens was two and two as far as touchdown passes and
56:19
interceptions against the Bengals. Yes, So I think that regardless of how good
56:24
or bad you are, the gunslinger mentality that Mullens shares with Brett Favre is
56:30
gonna come with some ups and downs. I even tweeted it, like I
56:35
said, we're milking this whole friendship with Dustin Baker for all we can.
56:38
But I tweeted at Dustin Baker saying, this whole Mullens thing is gonna end
56:44
with an ill timed across the body interception in the NFC Championship game, isn't
56:50
it referring to two thousand and nine? At this point, I'd be okay
56:55
with that. No, I don't think I have another heartbreaking loss like that
57:00
in me. That might I might have to take a year off from the
57:05
skull hop if we lose like that again. But considering all that's happened this
57:09
season one and four start, losing JJ for a chunk in the season,
57:15
losing Kirk Cousins playing at his best for the rest of the season, Losing
57:20
countless other players to injury at either you know, different points throughout the season
57:27
or for the rest of the season. It's been a tough go for the
57:30
Vikings from an injury standpoint. Yeah, And to be to be seven and
57:35
seven and to still have a shot at the playoffs at this point, you
57:38
got three divisional games left, I mean, man, to make it to
57:45
the NFC Championship game, that would be crazy, that would be And if
57:49
you remember, all the way back I think it was episode three of the
57:52
Skull Hop, the coin predicted an NFC Championship Game appearance for the Vikings.
58:00
It sure did you loss? Yeah, yeah, it predicted a loss,
58:04
but the coin predicted that the Vikings would make it all the way to that
58:08
phase of the playoffs. And to toot my own horn a little bit too,
58:13
on that same episode, we made our individual picks, or we at
58:16
least announced our individual picks, and I predicted a ten and seven season for
58:23
the Vikings and so far I've only gotten one prediction, one game wrong between
58:30
my prediction and what's actually happened, and that was Week one against the Bucks,
58:34
I said they would win. Outside of that, my personal and you
58:37
know, it's all luck. I'm not the world's smartest person by any means,
58:42
but outside of that one game, I'm completely correct, at least in
58:45
the win loss. And let's hope that I'm incorrect again because I think I
58:52
predicted these final three games to be win win loss. So let's hope I'm
58:58
wrong about two games this year and we go win win, win. Well,
59:02
even with a win win loss, I mean, we're still looking at
59:06
what we're looking at ninety eight percent chance of making the playoffs, which would
59:14
be huge, when at this moment it's what fifty ish. It's essentially a
59:19
coin flip as things sit right now on Wednesday. Yeah, Well, the
59:23
the the reason it's so up in the air right now is the Vikings still
59:30
have three divisional games to go, and two of those divisional games are against
59:35
the current division leader. So there's a lot of NFC North football to be
59:42
played, and it's it's going to come down to Week sixteen and Week eighteen,
59:47
and we've been saying this all along. Yeah, but the Lions can't
59:52
be feeling secure right now. They can't be feeling like, ah, we've
59:57
got this in the bag. I mean, they're coming off a game where
1:00:00
they scored forty two points. If the Vikings had just scored forty two points,
1:00:05
we would be talking about, Oh, it's a cake walk from here.
1:00:08
The Lions might be feeling pretty good right now. They have to go
1:00:12
up against Brian Flores and that defense though I don't know, yeah, and
1:00:16
the Cowboys who looked vulnerable last week. But yeah, I mean, realistically,
1:00:23
the Vikings have an uphill battle. Realistically, the Lions it's not a
1:00:28
cake walk, but they probably have a better chance, you know, objectively,
1:00:34
than the Vikings do at this point. I don't know. It will
1:00:37
be a very entertaining, hopefully happy for Vikings fans three weeks and I think
1:00:45
at this point, correct me if I'm wrong, But there's really only two
1:00:47
scenarios. The Vikings are a six seed playing at Detroit in the wild card
1:00:55
round, yeah, or the Vikings are a three seed hosting Detroit who becomes
1:01:01
the sixth seed. I don't know that there's another scenario other than that,
1:01:05
Yeah, I feel like the highest they could be would be the three seed,
1:01:08
right, because who are haven't there already been the Niners? Did the
1:01:13
Niners have already clinched their division? I think? And did they or did
1:01:16
they just clinch a playoffs? They're in the playoffs. I don't know if
1:01:20
they clinched it, because I mean that's you know, Cowboys Eagles like that.
1:01:24
They're all, No, the Niners are not in Niners. Yeah,
1:01:29
Okay, they may have already clinched. I know they clinched a playoff spot,
1:01:31
but I know the Cowboys have clinched as well. The Eagles have clinched
1:01:36
as well. Yeah, but like the Cowboys. So you're talking Niners,
1:01:38
Cowboys, Eagles. They can't be one, two, three seeds because the
1:01:44
Cowboys and the Eagles are in the same division. So I think the Cowboys
1:01:49
or Eagles are either gonna be the two or the five seeds. Yeah,
1:01:54
so yeah, I think you're probably right. The Vikings could be as good
1:01:58
as the three seed or as bad as the six well really the seventh seeds,
1:02:04
six or seven. But yeah, it's probably more likely if they make
1:02:07
the playoffs, they'll either be the three or the six. I think with
1:02:09
the conference record, they'll win any tiebreaker and for the most part make that
1:02:15
sixth seed. So yeah, I mean you're either hosting a game against the
1:02:22
Eagles or the Cowboys whoever loses their division. Oh maybe, because if you're
1:02:31
the three seed, you're probably playing the sixth seed, the sixth seed,
1:02:37
and that wouldn't be the Eagles or the Cowboys, that would be one of
1:02:39
the other. I think that's what I'm a team. I think it's it's
1:02:44
Vikings Lions no matter what. If the Vikings make the playoffs, it's Vikings
1:02:49
Lions no matter what. It's just a matter of who's the three and who's
1:02:51
the six and who hosts unless they luck into it and get the seven seed
1:02:58
by losing a few more games than they should and then getting help by getting
1:03:01
in the playoffs. And if they're the seventh seed, they're going to San
1:03:05
Francisco, San Francisco and hopefully Cinderella ing against the forty nine ers. So
1:03:14
there's a few options. We could be talking about draft status right now.
1:03:17
We could be talking about, Oh, the Vikings have anywhere between the fifth
1:03:22
and the twelfth pick and the draft, and I don't want to talk about
1:03:25
it. No, but like I'm saying, like that could be a reality
1:03:29
for sure. The Vikings were one and four, that's where we were headed
1:03:31
for sure. And to be a week less than a week away from Christmas
1:03:36
and talking about who they might play in the playoffs, that's a win.
1:03:39
That's a huge one, yep. And we're gonna ride that train until it
1:03:44
till it ends. And we've said it before. I know I've said it.
1:03:46
I'm a fan of the team. I'm never going to root for losses
1:03:50
just for playoffs or for draft stock, because if there's a guy they want,
1:03:55
they're gonna do everything they can to trade around and pay whatever they are
1:04:00
to pay to get that guy, whether they have the first pick or the
1:04:02
thirty second. The draft will figure itself out. That's a whole other animal.
1:04:08
That's other podcast episodes. Right now, you're in the season and until
1:04:13
the super Bowl is out of reach, it's in reach. I mean you're
1:04:16
still within playoff talking, so you're still in the dance. That's the optimism
1:04:23
that I like to hear out of you. Yeah, but it's hard when
1:04:29
you see Kirk Cousins go down. Well, let's start looking at quarterbacks in
1:04:31
the draft, like that's my initial gut check first thought. But I want
1:04:38
my team to win, darn it. I want to see a freaking super
1:04:40
I'm literally wearing a shirt right now that says just one before I die.
1:04:45
That would be nice. Yeah, I think it's possible. You know,
1:04:49
Dustin Baker for the twelfth time, we're mentioning his name. When we talked
1:04:55
to him last week and I asked him about if he feels bad for bringing
1:04:58
his kids into this fandom, he said, like, yeah, my son's
1:05:01
probably got another seventy five eighty years left in him. The Vikings are gonna
1:05:05
win a Super Bowl in that time. And I kind of got scared,
1:05:09
like I don't have seventy five years left in me, like I might have,
1:05:14
Like I don't know, fifty are the Viking They've already been a team
1:05:17
for sixty years, they've never won it. What they don't win in the
1:05:21
next fifty years, ev like, what are we gonna do? We'll be
1:05:26
fans no matter what. We'll be old man on the skull hop, Welcome
1:05:30
to the skullp We can't drink beerd anymore because we're so old, but we'll
1:05:39
be here and we'll be talking about hopefully multiple Viking Super Bowls. By the
1:05:43
way, we'll have to we'll have to pause the podcast a few times to
1:05:45
go take our meds. Now, we'll just have the IV drips right here
1:05:49
and the cathers. We won't even have to get it for anything. We'll
1:05:53
do it from the hospital room. That would be ideal. We should probably
1:05:57
wrap this up because I don't have a catheter. Gonna need to, you
1:06:00
know, take care of that pretty soon. But good beer. I do
1:06:04
like this beer. What is it the peach Tree or pere peace Treehill Iowa,
1:06:12
the Red Rambler? What was it? Four point eight percent? A
1:06:15
little more than that five point eight Oh nice? Yeah, but yeah,
1:06:17
it's a good beer, good beer. Definitely would have it again. And
1:06:21
we haven't had a peace Tree on the show yet, so I don't know
1:06:26
if i've I'm sure I have, but I can't think of a time I've
1:06:29
had peace Tree. I definitely will now because this beer is really good.
1:06:32
It's good stuff. Well, good chat, good beer, and uh some
1:06:36
optimism moving forward for the Vikings. Hopefully we can get into the playoffs,
1:06:42
and hopefully we have some more Vikings football to talk about beyond these next three
1:06:46
weeks. And we're gonna the School Hop will be here weekly through the playoffs
1:06:50
or at least through right before the Super Bowl yep, maybe longer. We
1:06:55
haven't really talked about it, but we'll be here so you can join us
1:06:58
here until next time. School School Hey Vikings fans, Evan here from the
1:07:18
School Hop and we just wanted to say thank you again so much for listening
1:07:23
to the School Hop. And we also wanted to take one more opportunity to
1:07:27
let you know that this episode of the School Hop has been brought to you
1:07:30
by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering taking an all inclusive trip to either
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Mexico or Jamaica, reach out to our friends at Big Top Ventures at Big
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Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. Once again, that's Big Top Adventures
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LLC at gmail dot com. You can get the lowest rate possible on several
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all inclusive resorts throughout the region. Big Top Ventures step right up to your
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next big Adventure and thanks again for listening to the Schoolhop. School