Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 7 - Can the Vikings win a game???

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TSH Ep. 7 - Can the Vikings win a game??? · The Skol Hop

0:30
All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome in. This is the school
0:35
hot. My name is Evan. We got austin here school school, and
0:39
we're just a couple of dudes from Iowa. We love the Vikings and we
0:43
love drinking beer. Yes we do. What are we drinking tonight? Tonight,
0:47
ev you have graced us with the back Pocket Brewing october Fest. And
0:54
I did pronounce that correctly. It's the october Fest. Remember, we only
0:58
drink Iowa beer on this podcast, and this is an october Fest from back
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Pocket. That is, it's got a beautiful can. If you're a Hawkeye
1:07
fan, you love the black and gold and uh and I must say,
1:12
after having finished almost a full one so far, it's it's going down pretty
1:17
pretty good, pretty nice. This is apparently an Octoberfest podcast. Now we've
1:23
two weeks in a row, two in a row, and I'm not mad
1:26
about it right now. So for the season, what do you think?
1:30
Do you like it? Well? I like I think I said this last
1:34
week, but Octoberfests are maybe my favorite genre of beer. And I've had
1:40
this before and so to get it again was just just affirming the fact that
1:46
I really like this beer and I like octoberfests a lot. And my favorite
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part about the can. I'm not necessarily a big like can guy, Like,
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sure, it doesn't matter what the can looks like necessarily, but this
1:59
one unique because at least this year. I don't think they did this last
2:04
year. But the top and the bottom Nope, just kidding, just the
2:07
top. The bottom is not, but the top is black like typically like
2:13
like obviously the Hawkeyes are black and gold, but with aluminum cans, you
2:17
get like the silver of the aluminum on the top and the bottom. But
2:23
they've painted the top or at least like put some sort of black something.
2:29
Yeah, you can really taste it. I'm just kidding. You can't taste
2:31
the black paint. Hopefully it's not paint. But anyways, it's really good.
2:36
And the like the black top, I don't know, it's it's kind
2:38
of like black rims on a car. Just looks cool. Yeah, it
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gives yeah, sharp, nice rounded look. Yeah. Yeah, back pocket
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out of Coralville. Your October Fest is pretty good. I will gladly drink
2:50
it again. Yeah yeah, And I mean we're in Hawkeye Country where we're
2:53
at, I mean we're only about an hour away from Iowa. City,
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and so a lot of Hawkeye fans here. We don't I don't anyways fully
3:06
like support the Hawkeyes. I I'm not a Hawkeye fan, sure, but
3:12
I'll cheer for them on occasion. Yeah, I would say, yes,
3:15
yes, I'm a Hawkeye fan. However, no judgment if they lose.
3:21
It's not like a day ruiner. So maybe I'm a fake Hawkeye fan.
3:24
I don't know, but I definitely have always been a Hawkeye fan. I'll
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always be a Hawkeye fan. But it doesn't even compare to my Vikings fan
3:34
hood. That's right, It should never ever get even close to comparing.
3:39
Never. Yeah, so we talked about the beer. We'll give another note
3:44
on what we think after one or two or ten more and what else?
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What else do we talk about on this podcast? Well, we should recap
3:53
the previous week's game. We have to, I mean at this point,
3:59
I don't know, Maybe we can just talk about the Thursday night game that's
4:00
on that we're literally watching right now as we record, because I don't know.
4:06
Yeah, usually when Says are losing, which is a good thing.
4:10
Yeah, usually Wednesdays are a recording day in the season, at least so
4:13
far. That might switch up. We're still trying to figure this out,
4:15
but right now we're looking at what twelve seconds left in the half, the
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Lines are up twenty seven to three over the Packers and at Lambeau. Yeah,
4:25
yeah, Well, it's a new age, people. The Packers are
4:29
no longer the team to beat, and the Vikings have nothing to say about
4:34
it so far, because when your team is owned three, you can only
4:39
trash talk so much. That's right, but it's still the Packers could go
4:43
five years without winning a game and it would still be a very nice thing
4:46
to see a Packer loss. You are absolutely correct. Let's hope the lines
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don't sour us the same way the Packers have for the last thirty years.
4:56
Yes, yes, Well, with a twenty seven to three likely halftime score
5:01
in this game, the Lions look like they're in commanding control of this one.
5:06
So unless the Lions pull a twenty twenty two Colts against the Vikings,
5:14
the Lions are probably gonna exit this game with a win. And as you
5:16
said before we started recording, the Lions are the team to beat in the
5:23
North. I think if we give them this win right now, prematurely,
5:27
they'll have the best record in the North and at the moment they're better than
5:33
the Vikings. Yeah, I can't disagree with you on that. I cannot
5:38
disagree. Hopefully that switches around. Thankfully, teams are not the same at
5:44
the end of the season as they are in the beginning of the season.
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And the Vikings don't see the Lions until week fifteen. Is that the first
5:49
time, like they see the teen in seventeen. Yeah, it's sixteen and
5:54
eighteen or something like that. It's like, oh, yeah, two of
5:57
the last three weeks we play the Lions. Yeah, I forgot that.
6:00
There's with the bye, its eighteen weeks. So yeah, it would be
6:04
week sixteen and then seventeen against the Packers and then eighteen against the Lions again,
6:10
because I think it's like Christmas Eve against the Lions. We should know
6:16
those against the Packers and then the next week in January. I don't remember.
6:24
Yeah, I think you're right either way. It could hopefully the Lions
6:28
will have figured out how to be the Lions again and start losing by the
6:31
time we see them. But yeah, that's enough about other NFC North teams.
6:39
You mentioned it earlier. We got to talk about the Chargers loss at
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home twenty four to twenty eight. There's a heartbreaking loss. I watched the
6:48
tail end of it. I was on the road. I was coming back
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from a wedding in Indiana, and I was just scanning the AM stations.
6:59
I was in Cogo Land for a while on my way back, trying to
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find anything. And when I got home, it was about halftime and I
7:10
flipped it on and anyways, the second half looked okay, and it looked
7:15
like we could maybe pull it out and make it happen. Yeah, it
7:19
was. It was a frustrating game the whole time. It was. I
7:24
saw sat the Vikings have held a lead in every single game so far this
7:28
year, which held true obviously it's only been three games, but they did
7:32
hold a lead at one point. They were up ten to seven in the
7:35
second quarter, and yeah, they just I don't know if they just got
7:42
tired or they lost their drive or what. But well, I mean that
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that last game clinching interception in the end zone, Yeah that was a touchdown.
7:55
I me mean it was in TJ the Logo's hands. Yeah yeah,
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I mean again, I'm no professional athlete, but I wouldn't have made that
8:05
catch. But he made the dive, he made the player the juke,
8:09
he got open, he looked up, the ball was in his hands,
8:13
and it just, I don't know it. Last year seemed like, for
8:18
once in our entire lifetime lifetime the Vikings, the ball was bouncing the Vikings
8:22
way. Yeah, and that TJ muff was the ball bouncing the way we
8:30
usually see it away from the Vikings and literally into the arms of a Chargers
8:35
defensive back. Well, there's that play earlier on in the game. I
8:37
think it was in the first half. Caleb Evans had the ball like in
8:41
his hands and it just went right through his hands and into a Chargers receiver's
8:46
hands and they scored a touchdown. Yeah, I think it. Yeah,
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I don't know when it was, but that he had that dead to rights,
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that that would have been a you know, highlight player that we'd see
8:54
for Caleb Evans career, and he just it's sane kind of thing, is
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the TEJ thing. He just had it in his hands and I don't know,
9:03
it's like the ball was like hot potato. Nope, you're not catching
9:07
me. And then good grief. Yeah, And I forget who said it.
9:11
Some pundit that talks about pro football last year talked about the luck factor
9:18
and talked about how the Vikings were on the positive end of all of these
9:22
lucky things, and yeah, the script has flipped a lot, yeah,
9:28
between last year and this year, and it's it's frustrating. It's tough to
9:33
watch. And I'll argue that a little bit about last year twenty twenty two.
9:37
I would say, yeah, sure, there were a lot of tight
9:39
games, and I mean you could look at it and say it was luck.
9:43
I think the only lucky game the Vikings won last year was the Buffalo
9:48
game. Oh, I mean, how could you you have to luck into
9:52
Josh Allen fumbling it at you know, his own one yard line like that.
9:56
It made for an exciting game and my kids got ice cream. But
10:01
I think that was the only truly lucky game last year. But yeah,
10:05
I mean, this is just it's tough. It's really frustrating when every time
10:11
they run the ball, I'm not thinking, oh, I hope they don't
10:13
lose a yard. I'm thinking, for the love, just don't fumble this
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football. It's so frustrating. It reminded me of the year after Adrian Peterson
10:26
came back from his torn ACL I just had this thought every time he ran
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the ball and even got like slightly nudged, let alone tackled. I remember
10:35
thinking every time like, oh no, no, take care of him his
10:37
knees. I hope his knees okay, And same kind of thought every time
10:41
they rush the ball. I mean, you love Alex Madison as a person,
10:46
but every time he touched the ball last game, I kept thinking,
10:48
don't don't drop it, don't fumble it. And I mean, and he
10:54
he actually had more production as far yeah rushing yards. Yeah, yeah,
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it was his most productive game for ninety three yards. I think it was.
11:01
Yeah, I would think that was his stat line. And we had
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one hundred and thirty rushing yards as a team between Alex, ty Chandler and
11:09
Kirk, which I think is our top rushing game of the season. Oh
11:15
yeah, by far. I think we've maybe had that combined in the other
11:18
two games. I'm pretty sure we talked about it last episode. The Vikings
11:22
hadn't yet before that game in two games rushed for one hundred yards combined as
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a team, So to put together one hundred and thirty yards of rushing is
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definitely a step in the right direction. Yeah, but it still doesn't feel
11:35
good to every time the running back touches the ball think, oh, please
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don't fumble. Well it's not just him though, right, No, we're
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sitting in a negative seven, negative seven turnover margin right now, the worst
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in the league. It's frustrating because you can't do anything about it. You
11:56
just you see a long punt return and then oh, there's the ball bouncing
12:01
around and oh, of course the other team picks it up, like you
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see the likely league MVP reach out to try and score a touchdown and there's
12:09
the ball. Yep. It's like the ball is two inches to the right,
12:13
it's a touchdown, but it's two inches to the left, and it
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goes out of the back of the end zone and it's a safety or a
12:18
fumble or yeah, it's a fumble and not a safety, turnover, turnover
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and touch back. That's what I'm trying to say. So to his credit,
12:26
though, I think we saw there was a pre press conference O'Connell press
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conference this previous week where we saw not mad Dad, but disappointed Dad,
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where he was basically saying like, all right, well, we're either going
12:41
to fix these fumbles, we're going to get different guys in here that don't
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fumble the ball. Yeah, that's like, okay, all right, somebody
12:48
needs to look up and you know what when Yeah, sure, they essentially
12:52
get cam Akers for free and his salary is low. But I feel like
13:00
if you're a player on a team and they make an addition to your your
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running back room or your position group in the beginning of the season, like
13:09
after training camp and everything, that's got to wake you up a little bit.
13:13
Absolutely, Just like the offensive line, you get Dalton or Reisner,
13:16
and it's got to wake people up a little bit. That wasn't just an
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injury signing. Neither was the camp maker's trade and who knows what other phone
13:22
calls they've made, like which I don't know to already be making moves.
13:28
Yeah, it's nice to think that the Calvary's coming, but like, are
13:33
you that were you that wrong in training camp to think that you're building this
13:37
right team? GM, I mean that you're already reforming it a few weeks
13:41
into the season, And I don't view it that way. I mean I
13:43
view Dalton, Reisner and cam Akers less as a like, oh, let's
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save the season and more of a like, let's respond to what's happening,
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like, yeah, which, we've had some injuries on the offensive line.
13:56
Yeah, Deris has been hurt and Bradberry's hurt. I think Bradbury's lost.
14:01
I agree, I agreed. But we need depth, right, we need
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we need some other guys that can step in and fill holes, and we
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need solid, reliable dudes. And god, Kirk Cousins has been just obliterated
14:16
behind the line of scrimmage and we need guys that can block for him.
14:20
Pretty sure, Kirk leads the league in passing yow. Yeah, he is
14:24
the league leader in passing yards right now, like through three weeks. If
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you would have if we could travel back in time to you know, episode
14:33
one of the Skull Hop and be like, hey, Austin and Ev,
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guess what after three weeks, kirk'son have over a thousand yards passing what,
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ten touchdown passes, some more interceptions. We are jumping for joy. My
14:46
kids have had ice cream three times? Yea if you tell me that,
14:50
you know, how do they beat the Eagles in week two? Like we're
14:54
oh my goodness, but no, wait, there's a twist. They're h
14:56
and three and three, you got seven. You know you're losing turnovers minus
15:03
seven, Like, you can't. You can't win games that way. The
15:07
defense has an amazing design, but they're not basically equipped to uphold their design
15:15
of the defense. They just haven't, you know, they haven't put the
15:16
pieces together. The thing about Brian Flores is, yeah, maybe he's the
15:20
best defensive coordinator in the league, which when you're ower and three, I
15:24
don't know how you could back that up. But yeah, maybe he's got
15:28
the best design of a defense. But I mean, Picasso couldn't have made
15:33
all of his wonderful creations if all you gave him was a white crayon,
15:37
you know, Like you gotta have the right pieces, the right uniform to
15:43
uphold what he's designed, and I don't think they do. Let's switch gears
15:48
a little bit. We'll keep on the coaching thread of the conversation. What
15:52
do you make of the clock management down the stretch at the end of that
15:56
game, because there was a pretty controversial situation where the ball wasn't spiked at
16:04
the end of the game. Yeah, and it kind of put the Vikings
16:07
in a pinch where they just basically Kirk just had to throw it Hail Mary's
16:11
style into the end zone. And then it gets picked and the game's over.
16:15
Yeah. I mean, but if we would have maybe hustled a little
16:19
more spiked to the ball, we could have maybe had two opportunities to get
16:23
it into the end zone rather than just the one. Yeah. In each
16:26
of these games towards the end, I've had a thought at one point where
16:30
it's like, what are you guys doing, Like you need to drive down
16:33
the field. It's even you know, at the end of the first half,
16:36
like guys are just walking there. It's not like that they need to
16:40
practice their two minute drill or something like that. I don't know what is
16:44
going on, And I think you hit the nail on the head clock management.
16:45
What's happening? Are they too worried about something else and it just they
16:52
fumble it away, not like they just let the clock go away like I
16:56
think Kirk did say after the Chargers game he couldn't hear the call, and
17:04
he even mentioned last season against the Bills when he couldn't hear the call and
17:10
he just made his own call to quarterback sneak it and it didn't work and
17:15
we saw. You know, there's a little highlight of that. The Bills
17:18
post terrible Quarterback Sneak in the Netflix Quarterback series, you saw Kirk go to
17:26
the sideline and Koc was like, if you wouldn't have just, you know,
17:32
made the decision to sneak it, I could have given you something better,
17:33
Like I could have given you a better play. And Kirk even said,
17:37
like, I remember against the Bills, I made a quick decision and
17:40
ended up not working for us. So like, I don't know, it's
17:42
almost like they're paralyzing themselves with analyzation in game. And but I heard that
17:49
whatever Kirk called in that moment when he couldn't hear Kevin this past week against
17:56
the Chargers was exactly what Kevin was gonna call anyways, And the crowd was
18:00
so loud at US Bank that Kirk couldn't hear it in the headset, and
18:03
Koc was gonna call the same play that Kirk ended up calling. Well in
18:10
the line took Kirk's defense. If that play that we're talking about is that
18:15
TJ, it would have been a great catch. Like he wasn't wide open,
18:19
just standing there with nobody around him. He was diving. It was
18:22
quick. He may not have even known the ball was coming to him when
18:26
he started to dive like it would have been a great catch, but it
18:29
hit him in the hands, both hands he had it. If TJ would
18:32
have executed that catch, we are talking way different about this game. They're
18:37
one and two, and Kurk, we're talking about all the positive things that
18:41
happened rather than the negative things. Yeah, it's just frustrating how a couple
18:45
of unpredictable mistakes can lead to three straight losses. Yep, yep. What
18:56
about the running game. I think it looked better obviously. The talk about
19:00
it a little bit. Yeah, the numbers were better, obviously, and
19:03
definitely it looked better. It's just, you know, do you feel because
19:07
I feel like this is still an achilles heel for this group. I feel
19:11
like if we can't run the ball effectively, which we did last year.
19:15
Dalvin Cook wasn't the league's leading rusher by any stretch of the imagination, but
19:19
there were times when we had to lean on the run and we did and
19:22
he produced, and I feel like we are missing that production. Which I'm
19:27
eating my own words because I've said several times that I think Alex can do
19:33
it, and even after Week one, I'm like, oh, yeah,
19:36
he did fine. I think he can. I just I don't know,
19:40
and maybe I'm being unfair to him because again, as a person, he
19:42
seems like a stand up dude. Absolutely, and honestly, you know,
19:45
he's probably like a top twenty five running back, maybe top thirty. You
19:53
know, he's upper echelon. But I think to be an elite running back,
19:59
if you're the thirtieth best running back in the league, that means you
20:03
should have a better guy in front of you. That you know, usually
20:07
if there's a one to two punch, you've got the number one running back
20:11
in the league and then the thirtieth in the league, and the thirtieth guy
20:14
comes in when the number one needs a playoff? Is cam Akers that guy?
20:18
No clue? I mean, we haven't. He hasn't really had the
20:21
chance to be on the field right for anybody in quite a while. He
20:25
hit his rookie year, he had some flashy rookie numbers, but I mean
20:29
he's still coming back from that achilles injury, which I think he's since then
20:33
shown that he's athletically there again, but like this year, a team has
20:37
already got given up on him and not It's not like the Rams got an
20:42
offer they couldn't refuse, Like there's a chance the Rams don't get anything because
20:48
it's all conditional at this point. They just basically rather than cutting him,
20:53
you know, got a dollar rather than nothing, you know, Like I
20:59
mean, yep, but you never know. I mean, he's still really
21:02
young. If that Achilles injury isn't still an issue for him, there's still
21:08
he still has plenty left in the tank. It's just I don't know what
21:11
do the Vikings have. He could be an answer, could could be.
21:18
It's definitely a big question mark at this point. Yeah, but I think,
21:22
honestly, a lot of the running game problems well, first off,
21:26
the turnovers, which we'll say a million times until they stop turning over the
21:30
dang ball. So it's the turnovers. And then that offensive line. Man,
21:34
yeah, it's I think Kirk's passing performances have made the line look better
21:41
than they really are. And yeah, you could put together a highlight reel
21:47
of each of the five offensive linemen. You know, everybody's got a pain
21:51
cake at this point. But like it's not consistent. It's still frustrating every
21:56
time they snap the ball on offense. It's like, what, how tens
22:00
of a second does Kirk cab now before he has to throw it away,
22:03
like well, and it's like, you know, you've got four holes in
22:07
the ship, and you've got five guys to plug them, and you're like,
22:11
which four are gonna plug those holes? And at some point one of
22:15
them is going to give way and somebody's gonna get through. And somebody always
22:18
gets through, yep, at least it seems that way. And it's frustrating.
22:22
And I think if the Vikings didn't have a Kirk Cousins, if they
22:27
had a lesser quarterback. I mean, you're looking as ugly as the Broncos
22:33
looked against the Dolphins. You're losing by a lot more points. And so
22:37
you brought in the pro football focus that we were talking about this before the
22:41
game. So there are four zero to three teams in the league right now,
22:48
the Broncos, the Bears, the Vikings, and the Panthers, yep,
22:52
all of which play each other this weekend. It's Vikings Panthers, and
22:56
it's Broncos Bears. You brought in an interesting stat that kind of separates the
23:03
Vikings from the rest of this oh to three trash heap at the bottom of
23:07
the league. Oh yeah, So I saw this on Twitter or x whatever
23:11
yesterday, a tweet by Warren Ludford. He says that there are four NFL
23:17
teams with an OH to three record. Their PFF overall grade rankings are as
23:21
follows. The Broncos are thirty first in PFF rankings, shocking. The Bears
23:29
and the Panthers are tied for twenty eighth in PFF rankings, and then the
23:33
Vikings are ninth. As an overall PFF ranked NFL team like ninth, that's
23:41
top ten, you know, if I remember numbers correctly. And sure PFF
23:45
is not a perfect system, but it's good enough that the NFL puts their
23:49
PFF rankings on the you know, the player intros, and that tells me
23:57
it's turnovers. If you're not turned turning over the ball a bunch, you
24:02
probably don't have three losses right now. If the defense isn't on the field
24:06
for forty minutes a game, you probably don't have three losses right now.
24:11
So it kind of gives you a hope. And I think JJ kind of
24:18
said it best today. I'm pretty sure I don't know the exact quote,
24:21
but he basically had the sentiment of that he's frustrated with you know, fans
24:26
trying to trade away good players and already call him this season a lost season
24:30
when they're own three, and he basically said, like, guys, we
24:33
got a lot of season left, like we're a really good team, and
24:37
I don't know, you hope that this slow start puts a really big chip
24:42
on everyone's shoulder and just gets this team pissed off and within the next fourteen
24:49
games they can hopefully figure something out and try to etch their way into the
24:53
playoffs. Yeah. Yeah, I think you captured what JJ said today pretty
24:59
well an exact quote. No, but I mean you summarized it, and
25:03
I think he's right. There's a lot of season left, and I mean
25:07
we don't even play sixteen games anymore, we play seventeen, and there's an
25:11
extra playoff team. Yeah, I mean that third wildcard team when you're talking
25:15
about being in the NFC North where it doesn't look like anyone the winner of
25:21
this division probably isn't going to be an eleven win team. So I mean
25:26
there's a chance that you can, you know, fight for the division if
25:29
you figure everything out right now, like you almost can't lose any more games.
25:34
But it's mathematically far from over. And if you're just trying to get
25:41
in the playoffs, however, you can who cares about the first overall seed?
25:44
That that'd be great, But like you know, it's only the number
25:47
one seed get in the bye, so you're not that buy is already gone.
25:51
Like there's no way the Vikings get the bye. But I mean,
25:55
if you're talking, they can be in the equation for that third playoff spot
25:59
or the third wildcard spot. I'd you know, the ninth team in the
26:03
league, according to PFF, should be in that equation. I mean,
26:07
I'll just say it right now, and I'll go on record saying that crazier
26:11
things have happened. Yeah, we we saw the greatest comeback in NFL history.
26:14
Left, Crazier things can happen. Things have happened. Be annoyed.
26:18
We'll bring that game up at least once a podcast. It's almost a it's
26:21
almost a challenge for us. Now, well, let's jump ahead to the
26:25
Panthers game this weekend. We've got Carolina at Carolina and there are several storylines
26:30
that will cover, but let's keep going on just the O and three v
26:36
OH and three Vikings versus Panthers. We'll get to the Adam feel and stuff.
26:44
But are the Vikings the best oh and three team that's left in I
26:52
mean you just said the stat that we are. By PFF's rankings, we
26:56
are ninth, and the Panthers, Bears, and Broncos are all sub twenty
27:03
five I sub twenty eight or lower twenty eight or lower. I mean by
27:08
that ranking system we are. Oh yeah, the Vikings are the best owing
27:14
three team. Do you believe that? Are we? I mean the best
27:17
owing three team? I absolutely, you know, But it's hard to quantify
27:21
that because all that matters in the NFL or wins and losses. Like Kirk
27:25
could throw for five hundred thousand yards this season, but if they only win
27:30
three games, who cares? You know? Like JJ could catch three thousand
27:34
yards receiving. But again, if you don't make the playoffs, if you
27:37
don't win games, who cares? Like? It doesn't matter. Somebody could
27:41
win the MVP, But if you don't have success in the postseason, it
27:48
doesn't matter, Like I think. Yeah, sure, it's easy to say
27:52
the Vikings are better than the Bears. They're better than the Panthers, and
27:56
obviously I don't know who who isn't better than the Broncos after last Sweek's game,
28:02
Like when you can't, you can't lose by fifty points and have any
28:07
respect for yourself. And I say that, you know what's gonna happen.
28:10
The Panthers is gonna beat the Bitings by fifty points. But like, I
28:14
don't know how anybody is still a Broncos fan right now, Like people probably
28:18
pulled up their cassette players and watched replays of the ninety eight Super Bowl,
28:23
like or you know, I guess they've won a super Bowl since then,
28:26
but they calling for John Elway to take off his suit and put on a
28:30
uniform and come down and maybe always not even a part of the organization anymore.
28:36
He's not. No, No, I thought he was last year.
28:37
No, it's been I think it's been a couple of years. Like they
28:41
just quietly like let his contract expire. Interesting, And I thought, I
28:45
mean even even last year, I thought he was still like the GM or
28:48
no, he well he hasn't been the GM for a while. He was.
28:52
He went from being the GM to like, oh remember our guy,
28:56
George Peyton, George Patten, the longtime by assistant GM he's been there for
29:02
a couple of years. But anyways, don't need this podcast. We don't.
29:07
Yeah, we don't need to talk about that. I think you're right.
29:11
I don't think it's much of an argument that the Vikings are the best
29:14
oh and three team. But that's I mean, well, it doesn't make
29:18
me feel better. Let me let me ask you this. There are fifteen
29:22
teams that are one and two or worse. I mean it's you're either one
29:26
in two or oh and three, or you're two and one or three and
29:30
oh in the league. Right now, that's how numbers work. It's pretty
29:33
much it's fifteen sub five hundred and fifteen above five hundred in the league.
29:38
Right now. Here are the sub five hundred teams you ready for this?
29:45
Patriots, Jets, Texans, Rams, Jaguars, Titans, Giants, Raiders,
29:53
Cardinals, Bengals, Chargers, Panthers, Vikings, Bears, Goes.
30:00
Yeah, we've established that. Yeah, it's pretty probable that the Vikings are
30:07
the best owen three team. Woo great, okay, but in the lower
30:14
fifteen, I mean, where do we where do we stack up in I
30:18
mean, I don't believe that our O and three record truly encapsulates what we
30:26
can do as a team. Yeah, I agree with that. I I
30:30
think I'm so sour on it right now that like it would be such like
30:34
participation Trophy if you said, yeah, they're the best under five hundred team,
30:41
because like that's fair. I don't care. I'm I imagine myself at
30:48
seventy years old still hopeful for the first Vikings Super Bowl, and that that
30:56
is such a disappointing thought to have. Like, man, just so I'm
31:02
so sour on this, Like you have an offseason that the Vikings did and
31:06
the fans did, and you know, you argue about Kirk actually being good,
31:10
and I don't think there's any question or that he's not only good,
31:12
he's I'm saying it, Kirk is elite. It's just to have this disappointing
31:18
start, Like it's it's hard to find anything to be hopeful about or happy
31:25
about. So like if you're saying there in the upper echelon of under five
31:30
hundred teams right now, like sure, yeah, I'd probably be on board
31:33
with that. But win a game, Win an effing game, Like who
31:40
cares right now? Work harder, don't fumble the freaking football, hang on
31:45
to the ball score more points than the other team. Yeah, and then
31:49
let's go home and figure out that we should be talking about a win against
31:53
the Chargers. Kirk had an arguably wide open kJ Osborne in that last drive
32:01
and overthrew them, and Kirk played statistically by Herbert though, Yeah, but
32:07
when you have Byron Murphy allowing what at least a Chargers record plus fifteen receptions
32:15
to Keenan Allen, like, keen Awen's good, He's really good. Keenan
32:19
Allen was the reason I won Fantasy. Yeah, he's really good. But
32:23
for the love, like, you can't you can't stop a guy like get
32:30
a penalty. I think Caleb Evans even like committed a you know, purposeful
32:35
pass interference penalty and the guy still caught it later in the game, Like
32:37
at least try at least do something like poke him in the eyes, Like,
32:42
okay, don't do that, but still, like, do something have
32:45
some life in you and if it's not up, like if you're looking that
32:47
bad because somebody else isn't doing their job. And I'm not saying I know
32:52
that for sure, but like I don't know, figure something out and at
32:55
what point is that coaching? Yeah, and it's just losing makes everything taste
33:04
worse and they could still have these same problems. But if TJ. Hockinson
33:08
holds onto that ball and the Vikings win the game, We're not even talking
33:13
about Keenan Allen right now, Keenan who we're not even talking about. Justin
33:16
Herbert looking like a freaking Hall of Famer who cares because TJ the logo caught
33:22
that ball. Catch the freaking ball. I'm getting so frustrated right now,
33:28
like I was good and now I'm take a deep breath, Take a deep
33:31
breath, october Fest, you are my friend right now. So both teams
33:37
are zero and three. Who comes away with the win? I'm so pessimistic
33:43
on this team right now. I mean we are at Carolina outside. I'll
33:49
tell you this on the road. I think here's my hot take, and
33:52
it's not that hot of a take. If Bryce Young that's his name,
33:57
yep, for Strober, I'll pick if he arts and plays the whole game,
34:00
the Vikings win. Oh. Interesting. If Andy Dalton is that the
34:06
second stringer, if he starts or even comes in early in the game,
34:12
I think Andy Dalton is experienced enough to will the Panthers to a victory over
34:16
this Vikings team that can't seem to stop sing themselves, you know, like
34:22
I that's my hot take. So if Bryce Young unless this is his breakout
34:28
game where we're talking about Bryce Young throwing for five hundred yards and eight touchdowns
34:31
like which could definitely happen against this team. But I think I think the
34:37
Vikings win. We have the betting odds as of right before this recording,
34:43
they were favorites by foreign The Vikings were favorites by four and a half points
34:46
on Draft Kings, which is crazy being the away team. I think I
34:53
saw a tweet earlier something like the Vikings have been the favorites on the road
35:01
I don't know twenty five times in the last couple of years or the last
35:06
handful of years, and they've won fifteen of those games. So that Vegas
35:12
is usually they usually know something yea. And to the credit, I think
35:16
the Vikings have been dogs for every game except for the first one, and
35:22
the Vikings have lost. So I don't know believe Vegas to a certain degree,
35:27
especially when you're talking about bad teams, which two zero and three teams,
35:30
you're talking about bad teams. Maybe they have access to the script.
35:34
They do you know? Uh key and Michael Key is that his name?
35:37
He's the director this year. Come on, huh, just give us a
35:43
game. My kids haven't had ice cream. They're probably depressed. I know,
35:47
they're starting calcium. Yeah, they're losing weight. They're starting to look
35:52
like normal kids now. Geez, Like they give those kids some ice I
35:55
want ice cream. I get ice cream, and my kids get ice cream.
35:59
Like, let's get some freaking ice cream. The last thing we haven't
36:04
talked about yet with this Panthers game on Sunday is the Feeling reunion. It's
36:09
gonna be pretty emotional, I think, yeah, yeah, both for both
36:15
Feeling and the Vikings. So Adam Feeling, we've talked about him. We
36:20
don't know him, but everything I've known and heard about him is that he's
36:24
a good dude. Seems like a good dad. You know, he's got
36:30
a heart of gold because I think he decided to marry a Packer fan,
36:32
which, if you're going to give goods that I didn't know, that's some
36:36
charity right there, to like giveconditional love to a team that is just so
36:43
horrible. Anyways, I think Adam Thlen is one of my last like childhood
36:52
favorite players. And I say that and it sounds ridiculous because I'm pretty sure
36:57
he and I are the same age. It's like, but he started when
37:01
we were still like in college. Yeah, so like we weren't like fully,
37:07
like we weren't married and you know, on our own quite yet.
37:10
Yeah. He was like the last guy that I still kind of looked at
37:15
as like that's an NFL player, like with the dazzling eyes, you know,
37:19
like cause there was that like every man type of mentality to him.
37:25
And sure he's got the Cinderella story and everybody's heard it. And uh,
37:30
did you know that he went undrafted? Nope, No, you never heard
37:34
of that. No. He just seems like such a good dude. And
37:37
he grew up rooting for the team I grew up for rooting for and jumped
37:43
up and down in his living room when Dante Coulpepper threw a touchdown pass or
37:47
any moss the same way I did. And then he was the guy like
37:52
we all played Madden and made ourselves out of the team. He didn't have
37:54
to do that because he literally did it. And good for him. And
38:00
it's gonna I haven't seen him in another Jersey yet. You know, I
38:05
haven't watched highlights or games of the Panthers yet, but like it's gonna suck
38:08
because you know, you know, he's gonna go off. He's gonna have
38:14
like one hundred and fifty yards receiving and four touchdowns, and it's gonna be
38:17
so hard to be mad at him first scoring against both of our favorite teams,
38:23
because you know, the Vikings are always gonna have a soft spot in
38:25
his heart. Oh yeah, yeah, And it wouldn't surprise me if someday
38:30
he pulls a Kyle Rudolph who just signed a like a one day contract.
38:37
I don't know if they had the retirement ceremony for him. And that's another
38:40
guy. You love that guy, and he seems it helps. Both Rudolph
38:45
and Thelen just seem like good dudes. Oh yeah, and and yeah,
38:50
I'd like to say we'll see Thelen's name in the Ring of Honor at US
38:53
Bank someday, maybe, I mean, I hope. So yeah, I
38:57
don't. I don't think he's a Hall of Famer, but he he's.
39:00
Yeah, he's one of those guys that just like truly encapsulates what it means
39:07
to be a Viking. Yeah, from like childhood through a career of playing
39:15
NFL football. And I really hope because again we only know the what's been
39:21
reported and like the media version of his exit from Minnesota and that it seemed
39:28
to be all just like a numbers game, and it makes sense because he
39:30
hadn't been producing up to his salary for the last season or so. I
39:37
just I hope there's not like some bad blood behind the scenes that would just
39:43
man, that would suck because you want him. I mean, we saw
39:45
it last year when Jared Allen rode out onto us Bank Stadium in a horse
39:50
and we all cheered because he was getting inducted in the Ring of Honor.
39:52
We loved Jared Allen, and you hope, and I feel like Jared Allen
39:58
loved the Vikings back, and you hope that's the case for Adam, that
40:01
he'll be able to come back and sign that one day contract and retire a
40:06
Viking because and have the love for the Vikings that he's literally grown up with
40:10
the same way that we did. And I'm gonna I'm gonna hold out optimistically
40:15
for that. Yeah, I think that's the case. He's never come out
40:19
and said anything bad about the Vikings, and the Vikings obviously have never said
40:22
anything bad. They probably even tweeted like thank you Adam when he signed with
40:25
the Panthers, But like you never know what actually happens behind the scenes.
40:32
I just I hope it's still a good situation. Yeah, me too,
40:37
for sure. But it'll be an interesting game. And I think, uh
40:42
for a lot of those guys. I think for like Kirk and some of
40:46
those veteran guys that have been around for a while, it'll be tough to
40:51
go up against a former teammate. Well, and there's a few former Vikings
40:54
on that team right now, a couple of former wide receivers. So Adam,
40:59
Thielen, Smith, Marsette, he's a he's a Panther right now.
41:01
I think he's there, go to punt returner, kick returner, he's he's
41:07
on their team. He makes some plays. Who else is on there?
41:12
Shoot? That's that's all I can think of. There were a few,
41:15
Oh they I think they worked out Kellen Mond yesterday or today. I don't.
41:20
I don't know that they signed him. But there's some Vikings connections.
41:23
Oh, Xavier Woods, he had that one Viking season where he actually was
41:28
a pretty good safety. He's on the he's doubtful. Oh oh yeah,
41:32
yeah the report right now. So there's some connections there. And I did
41:37
see something. I think Adam said that he was going to get out on
41:43
the field to warm up pretty early, try to talk and converse with as
41:46
many you know, former teammates as possible, and just kind of soak it
41:50
all in, which that that's good. You know, he could have come
41:53
out, you know, could have been a different scenario where he's like,
41:57
no, f those guys. I don't Again, I don't think he would
41:59
ever do that, but yeah, it is going to be emotional. And
42:04
I think if it were at US Bank Stadium, the Vikings would have like
42:08
it's had something like up on the video board like oh yeah, like thank
42:12
you Adam, you know, something like that, yeah, before the game
42:15
or something. They would have done that. And who knows, Maybe I
42:19
don't know why they would do it in Carolina, but maybe there might be
42:22
something there. We're not going so we'd never know, but yeah, we
42:25
won't know. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens this weekend.
42:31
Both teams are zering three, so somebody's got to walk away with a
42:34
win. Yep, for the second week in a row. We're gonna watch
42:37
our Vikings in a game where somebody's gonna get their first win, hopefully,
42:40
and my official prediction the Vikings will win. I'm thinking thirty five to twenty.
42:51
That's my that's my prediction. All right, what do you what do
42:53
you think of I don't think our offense is that productive, but I don't
43:00
know. Maybe twenty eight twenty four Vikings. I think we still produce.
43:05
I think our defense still has a lot to figure out. I think we
43:07
give up a little more than maybe we would want to give up. But
43:13
you know, a win is a win. You mentioned the defense, and
43:15
I agree with you about the game prediction. You mentioned the defense. I
43:21
am a little surprised because they've made a couple of moves personnel wise on the
43:27
offense, Akers and Reisner, I'm a little surprised they haven't closed the deal
43:32
or officially made any moves on the defense. On Twitter over the weekend,
43:39
I don't think it was anything real, but a Keen Hicks tweeted something about,
43:45
you know, a picture of him sacking Kirk Cousins. But it was
43:50
something that was like, hey, there might be some interest there, and
43:53
maybe it was all, you know, fan based interest, but I'm kind
43:58
of surprised they haven't done something like obviously they need some help with the defensive
44:05
backs. I don't know, I mean their linebackers. When when your best
44:08
linebacker apparently is an undrafted guy who's five to ten and sub two fifty.
44:15
Like, don't get me wrong, he's exciting, he's made some plays I've
44:17
and pace, but yeah, I don't know. And d line doesn't seem
44:23
to be big enough to stop the run consistently. I don't know. I
44:27
am surprised they haven't made some kind of a move. And and with the
44:30
big you know, it's not an acquisition because it's a coaching change, but
44:38
with the coaching change, Brian Flora is coming in in a revamped defense,
44:43
and you kind of hope for some of those things to manifest themselves early on
44:51
in the season, and so far it hasn't. It hasn't played out that
44:54
way. Yeah, And you'd think, yeah, sure, even if you
45:00
you know, rode up your perfect defensive plan, you'd think you have an
45:04
idea of the kind of player that needs to fill the spots on your defense.
45:09
And I don't know, if it's we need to get a bigger guy
45:15
at the defensive line or whatever it is. I don't know if he just
45:19
underestimated his team or overestimated as team, or if there was some pushback on
45:28
being able to sign players. I don't know, because all of this is
45:31
under the idea that I mean. Kracy said pretty early on, before he
45:36
even was any game was played under his GM reign, he mentioned the term
45:42
competitive rebuild and maybe this is just last year was the competitive and this year
45:47
is the rebuild. I don't know, We're just does the chicken come before
45:52
the egg? I don't know. I just, like I said earlier,
45:58
it doesn't seem very hopeful. I think the Vikings win against the Panthers.
46:02
I think, but I'm at the point where I'm I'm not even yelling at
46:07
the TV anymore. It's like, oh, yep, another fumble, Yep,
46:09
there we go, Oh, another tipped pass that was intercepted. Hope
46:14
they're gonna get the ball with less than two minutes left and be twenty five
46:19
yards away from the end zone and have every opportunity to win the game,
46:22
and they're gonna lose it. Like I just, I'm so I texted you
46:25
earlier this week or after the game, like you're still hopeful, and I
46:30
envy your faith right now and I'm just burn it down, you know,
46:32
I just I can't put this emotion to the game anymore. Well, I'm
46:37
definitely the optimist and you're definitely not. Yeah, we are the yin and
46:43
the ing. I'm a pessimist right now. We'll see. It's a defense
46:46
mechanism. I can't. I can't fall in love with this team again.
46:51
Darn it. I can't let them. I can't let them pull a two
46:54
thousand and nine NFC championship on me ever again. I won't let it happen.
47:00
Well, let me ask you this. If we are three and three
47:07
headed into the game against the forty nine Ers in a couple of weeks,
47:10
so three and four were no, we're three and three weeks? Oh yeah,
47:15
I'm saying after that Niners game, if you walk into the with three
47:19
wins, listen, listen, we have the forty nine ers at home.
47:22
We're not walking into their stadium. We're walking into our stadium. We're three
47:27
and three and we've beaten the Panthers, the Chiefs, and the Bears.
47:32
Who you got in a couple of weeks. I don't think you beat the
47:36
Chiefs at this point. That Bears game is looking at the question I'm asking
47:39
you if we're three and three walking in in that very stadium against the Niners,
47:46
I don't know. It depends on how you look in the next three
47:49
weeks. If you if you pull the Dolphins and you beat each of these
47:52
three teams by fifty points, You're not gonna beat the Chiefs by fifty points.
47:57
But if you do that, then you've got all the optimism in the
48:00
world. To be fair, the Chiefs are two and one and they haven't
48:02
looked great. They've good, sure, but I'm still looking at the Niners.
48:07
I think the Niners are winning the Super Bowl this year barring a crazy
48:12
injury. Like Niners are really good for sure. Yeah. So in that
48:16
fairy tale three and three scenario, you'd have to have just clabbered three straight
48:22
teams, one of them being the ragning Super Bowl champs, like clobbered and
48:30
even then I don't know, and you have to not have a single turnover
48:35
between now and then. You have to have stopped some elite offenses, which
48:38
you're only playing one elite offense. But like you have to have consistently stopped.
48:44
Then that seems like a fairy tale scenario. But that's why they play
48:50
the games and not just on paper, because if they only played it on
48:52
paper, the vikings would be at least two in one right now, that's
48:57
very true, very true. Well, we'll have to wait and see how
49:00
the next couple of weeks play out. But next episode you can guarantee that
49:05
we will break down the Panthers game no matter how it goes, win or
49:08
lose, yep, And we will look ahead to that Chiefs game at home
49:14
against the Super Bowl defending Kansas City Chiefs. Who knows, maybe Taylor Swift
49:21
will be in attendance. Oh boy, it's so funny at US Bank.
49:25
What a what a storyline that's been. Yeah, it's taking the league by
49:30
storm. Good for Travis Kelcey to finally have a reason for people to talk
49:34
about him. Oh yeah, well I've heard that. I mean they're playing
49:37
the Jets this week. I've heard the Jets tickets have soared from like eighty
49:42
bucks to like one hundred and fifty bucks. So good for the Jets too,
49:45
I mean, boosting that New York City economy right there, it's all
49:49
a marketing play. Well, Taylor does have a flat in New York City.
49:53
I think like she has an apartment oh down there, so sorry.
49:59
Flat That was kind of a like British term for like a high city.
50:05
That was a little pretentious there, I mean, I teach high school English.
50:09
We talk about different words that mean the same thing. Well, if
50:16
you thought that that was a little pretentious, you should tweet at us at
50:21
at the skull Hop. And if you're not on Twitter or x we are
50:25
also on Instagram and Facebook and who knows, maybe other social media outlets in
50:32
the future, but so far, yeah, those are the three that we're
50:37
on. Also, you could be old school. Send us an email.
50:40
We still have stickers and we want to give them to you. We do.
50:44
So it is the skull Hop at gmail dot com. Shoot us an
50:49
email. We will talk about on our interaction on the show. I'll even
50:54
say it. If you follow us, we will follow you back on the
50:59
socials. Yeah, so we did talk last week about my our friend Forrest
51:06
that Bruce his own beer and how he's an Illinoian so he can't have any
51:10
of his own beer on the show because so he reached out to me.
51:17
I'm past the point where it's like, all right, my friends have to
51:21
listen to support us. He's still listening, So thank you Forrest. He
51:25
did reach out to me, he said, thanks for the highlight or the
51:30
shout out on the show, and he offered it up. He said,
51:32
let's just bring the equipment over to the Iowa side and well, we'll brew
51:36
our own beer. Let's do it. So I'm saying this right now with
51:38
certainty. Maybe I don't know how long it'll take, maybe it'll be an
51:45
off season thing. But we will enjoy a skull hop on this show.
51:52
So a beer called the skull Yeah, And I just took the liberty right
51:57
now of naming that beer without talking to you at all that it's okay because
52:00
that's what I would want to do too. We just need a skull hop
52:05
or the skull Hop. We'll make our own can design. At least I
52:07
don't know it's gonna happen. If if it doesn't happen, then this whole
52:13
podcast was a sham. And we're just talking to unplugged microphones right now.
52:19
We're not though this is this is going on the internet. People will listen.
52:24
Yeah, maybe a few, maybe hopefully more than a few. Yeah,
52:29
looking at you wives of ours, where I think only one of our
52:31
wives has ever listened to any of this mine. Yep, I give my
52:37
grief tonight before I came over. Well, hopefully we can gain another listener
52:40
that way, maybe even if it's fake and she just downloads it and doesn't
52:45
listen. We are in the newly renovated yeah, skull hot Man Cave though.
52:52
That's pretty awesome, the Skull Hop Cave two point zero one point oh
52:57
being twenty feet away from us right now, and I like it. It
53:00
feels more comfortable. Yeah, so we went from one room in my basement
53:05
to another room in my basement. But what's great about this new room is
53:12
we've got some comfy you r chairs. We're not like slouching over in these
53:16
couches that we were sitting on. And h we actually have the Thursday Night
53:21
game on right now. It's only been slightly distracting this whole time. I
53:24
mean it hasn't really been a game. It's twenty seven to eleven. Yeah,
53:29
these packers. It's so so nice to see the powers. It's lovely.
53:34
Its to the lions. It's the Lions. So it's not that great
53:37
because it's still a divisional foe. But is that a score of Gami?
53:40
Do you think I do follow the score agami X account? It's Twitter.
53:46
It's Twitter. I just I can't give into the X thing. It's not
53:51
Yeah, I do follow that account, and it's fun. I think there
53:54
was at least one score Gami last week. I think so, yeah,
53:58
maybe even two because that Dolphins Broncos game might have been I don't know.
54:02
Either way, we're rambling. This has been a good episode. Thank you
54:07
listeners for dealing with my rant and how pissed I got. Evan was kind
54:13
of looking like, do I need to call somebody like you? Okay,
54:15
Bud, winning will solve everything. So hopefully we're talking about a one in
54:20
three team this time next week, h and that team being the Vikings,
54:25
because I guess that could have been the Panthers too. No, the Vikings,
54:29
the Vikings, and three winning solves everything I said last week they were
54:32
gonna beat the Chargers. It would be the first win in a string of
54:35
wins. That string just took a minute to really take hold. So yes,
54:42
you know what, I'm hopeful you're right of three wins in the next
54:45
three weeks and then they're gonna get clobbered by the Niners. Who knows,
54:49
Maybe something happens to the Niners. Brock Party gets hurt again. Oh man,
54:54
it is weird. I don't know a cyclone winning at this rate.
54:58
Like that's a whole other episode, right, remains to be seen. We'll
55:02
see what happens. It was a good show, av Hey follow us on
55:07
the socials and make sure you pick up some october Fest. Oh I'm ending
55:13
it. Yeah, what'd you think? I liked it? I mean I've
55:15
had it before. I think the black Top on the can just like it's
55:21
a whole experience, the Cherry on Top. I'll put it up there with
55:23
exiles of Octoberfest, all right, but maybe just a tinge higher because I'm
55:29
a Hawkeye fan and this can looks really cool. Look it up back Pockets
55:34
october Fest to get yourself some. It's delicious. Uh yeah, that's all
55:39
I've got. And you need to have at least one Octoberfest in this fall
55:44
season. It's not even October yet, otherwise you haven't fully celebrated autumn.
55:49
Yeah, so that's that's my take. Agreed, all right, Well,
55:53
until next time, School School at I think act after at a