Latest / The Skol Hop / Two in a Row! Vikings Surge, Festive Beer Flows, and the Future Gets Weird | TSH Ep. 118

Transcript

Two in a Row! Vikings Surge, Festive Beer Flows, and the Future Gets Weird | TSH Ep. 118 · The Skol Hop

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome in to another episode
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the School Hob. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: just a couple of dudes from Iowa. We like drinking
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: beer and talking about the Vikings.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah we do.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: And for the first time since last season, we get
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: to talk about a Vikings team that has won back
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: to back games, and we couldn't be more excited about that.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: The turntables have turned. We tried a really great beer
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: from No Cost. We tried their gingerbread Festive. Ah that's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: pretty good.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I really liked it a lot more than I
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: thought I would. We also dabbled a little bit in
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: the upcoming twenty twenty six draft and talked some hypotheticals
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: about the rest of the season and how the draft
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: might go.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: But this season isn't over. We still have some games
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: left to enjoy as Vikings fans, even though they didn't
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: make the playoffs. We looked ahead to the week sixteen
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: game against the Giant.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it should be a good one. But until then,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: go ahead and grab a cold one and join us
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: for episode one eighteen of The Skull Hob School School.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: All right, we're gonna give a quick shout out to
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: That's Badass wood Art. I believe Austin is holding a
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: small piece of theirs, but we're getting a fairly large
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: piece of theirs. Yeah, it's officially ordered. It's gonna look
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: like this. This is just a two dimensional flag, but
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: we're getting a three dimensional piece of wood art that's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: exactly this size to go right here.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: I can't wait for a couple of reasons. One because
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: that that new skull hop specific custom piece from That's
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Badass wood Art is going to be awesome. And two
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: because then I can take my personal you know, skull
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: piece that we have here back to the man cave,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: back to the movie theater I have in the basement.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: And yeah, because I've been missing it. You know, it's
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: been here. We've had this agreement here with That's Badass
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: wood Art for a little while, so of course we've
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: been showing this off. But I'm excited to get that
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: new piece in so we can really show it off
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: and have forever. I'm really excited about that. Yeah, so
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: oh go ahead, well and then just take this one
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: back home. But yeah, you can see high quality, high
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: high quality wood art pieces.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, Evan, what did I interrupt you that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I was just going to finish the rest of their
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: promotion here, because we definitely want to promote them. If
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you audience out there are looking for a piece of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: wood art, and it doesn't even have to be Vikings related,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: although everything that we're going to have in this yah, yeah,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: it's going to be Vikings related. You can go to
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: their website that's badasswoodart dot com. Type in our promo
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to s k O L h O P. You're gonna
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: get ten percent off any and all orders. That's pretty cool.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So yeah, you could get one of these skull pieces,
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: which is one of their more popular. I think it's
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: you know, super easy for them to make really high
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: quality and they can just ship them out like crazy,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: or you can have you know, a custom piece commissioned
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: on your own. I do think it takes a little
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: bit for those pieces to get made and shipped out
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: to you, but well, we'll see. We'll see how long
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: it takes for our piece.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: To come in.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Either way, I'm really excited. And it doesn't have to
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: just be Viking stuff. Like you said, He's got all
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: kinds of other stuff on his website. Movies and pop
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: culture related or even other teams. So yeah, skull hop
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: all one word for ten percent off any all orders.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: There you go. Some more good news here, not just
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the fact that we're getting this new awesome piece of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: art to hang up behind us. We don't have to
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: spin the wheel of purple punishments today yet again, just
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: like three weeks three weeks in our which is pretty awesome.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: We correctly picked pre season that the Vikings would beat
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the Cowboys. They did beat the Cowboys, so that's good
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: news too. The Vikings won, and we've got a very
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: festive beer tonight.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: So Christmas is ten days away at as of the
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: time of recording, even less by the time you're hearing
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: us say this. So yeah, I was feeling a little festive.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: So I picked up their beer tonight and we have
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: some gingerbread festive ale from No Coast is it No
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Coast Brewery? No Coast Beer Company out of Oscaroosa, Iowa.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I won't read the whole thing, but it says the
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: description on the can, which I appreciate when beers kind
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: of describe or when breweries kind of describe what the
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: beer is right on their can. It says No Coast
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: Gingerbread Festive Ale is a rich, malt forward seasonal brew
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: that captured the nostalgic flavors of homemade gingerbread fresh from
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: the oven.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: I'm sold.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Usually go for sweet dessert beers, but I'm I'm excited
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: for this one.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And I don't know that it's gonna be a sweet
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: dessert beer. It's a dark ale, yeah, that has a
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: multi toasted caramel cocoa. Yeah, I'm excited. There's a lot
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of flavors in here.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and six percent. We each have too, sixteen ouncers.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: We should be good to go for the for the
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: morning after.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: These so perfect. Yeah, let's let's get them opened and
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: give them a try.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: What a pore? Ev what a pore. I'm just going
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: with the Austin Poor from now on.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: That's that's maybe even like the aggressive Austin Poor. That's
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: like the we're just gonna call that the Evan Poor. Now,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: that's even more aggressive than I usually go. I'm loving it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Ev Oh, it smells amazing. I can smell the maltiness.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it smells great.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, it's really really dark here, tell it's
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: kind of brown, but super dark, really good head retention.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: And I would assume this is a pretty fresh beer too.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: It's pretty seasonal, so yeah, let's get into it. Skull interesting.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: The gingerbread is there for sure, Yeah, like towards the end, Yeah,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: it's on the back end. Yeah, it starts off as
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: like a multi dark beer and then yeah, on the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: back end you get that it's not necessarily sweet, but
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: it is that nice gingerbread flavor. I like it a lot.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I was kind of afraid.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: That this would be like a really sweet dessert beer
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: that would be just like too much. Like we mentioned
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: those pumpkin beers that can be like a pumpkin pie
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: in a can on thing. I was afraid this would
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: be too sweet. But no, this is this is really good.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to decide if I didn't know what it
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: was called, if you just poured me one of these
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: and said, here, give give this a try, if I
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: would know, like, okay, gingerbread, I might get that kind
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: of hint. And there's definitely something there about gingerbread, And
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: if you said it afterwards, it'd be like, oh, yeah,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: that does make sense. But either way, really good flavor.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Six percent is no slouch. But also, it's not like
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: it's a twelve percent or you know, I like it.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: I would drink a handful.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Of these if I say something about one aspect of it.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I don't want to ruin it for you. Oh no,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I don't want to shatter any glass eilings. Can I
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: say something though? Yeah, okay, it's your podcast, man, It's
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: just it's about the aroma. Okay. When you put your
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: nose down into the glass right before you take a sip,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: I get a little bit of a smell of like
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: dish soap, a little bit.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: No, you just ruined this beer. I'm just kidding.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: That's what I was afraid of. No, it doesn't affect
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the flavor at all. Do you smell that?
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: No, I'm trying to smell it, and I'm not getting it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: So I wonder if maybe even like it was just
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: a unfortunate remnant of washing your beer, unless you got
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: it again when you wash it.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get it every sip I take. I wash
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: these in the dishwasher the same way every time.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm glad that I'm not getting that.
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe it'll go away after a while, and maybe it's
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: just a flavor that I'm not used to having before.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I did see on here clove is a spice in here,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: and I'm I don't eat or drink a lot of
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: stuff with clove in it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: The only thing I can really think of is like,
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: don't they make like clove cigarettes. Yeah, and also there's
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: like clove oil you can put on, you know, hurting tooth,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: But I don't know if that's the same thing.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Either way, I like this beer.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: It's a good beer, don't get me wrong. And the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: flavor is great, it's just that original smell, like, I
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: don't know, there's something weird about it.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Interesting.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll keep trying to pick up on that. And
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: maybe you just have a more refined palette than I do.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Or maybe I'm like slightly congested and not smelling things
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the right way.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: Who knows, I think, Yeah, I don't know. I think
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: either way, it's good beer and I'm excited to give
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: a more refined opinion on it after towards the end
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: of the episode.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, let's give our refined opinions on this Vikings
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: win over the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. That felt
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: pretty good to see the Vikings just kind of not dominate,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: but play well and play from behind for a little bit.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: They came from behind. The game was tied at halftime,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: and they had to catch up to make it a
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: tie game early in the first half, and then in
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the second half. They fell behind early in the third quarter. Yeah,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and then got the lead and kept it till the end.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: At one point it was twenty three seventeen, Cowboys were up,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: and yeah, the Vikings weren't you know, they weren't looking awful,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: but it just felt tough.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It felt difficult.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: Things weren't quite going their way all together, but they
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: were in it, and obviously they did come back and
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: they won. It really helped that Aubrey missed two kicks,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: missed two two difficult kicks. I mean one of them
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: was fifty nine yards and the other one I think
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: was fifty one. Yeah, fifty one, So not gimmes at all,
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: but still for a guy that on the broadcast they
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: were saying, oh, yeah, they're eighty yards.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Away from a field goal.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: They feel like they're already in field goal range. You know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: they're saying stuff like that, and you know they would
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: say that, and then you know, Aubrey missed a kick,
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: and they weren't egregious misses, not like, oh my gosh,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: it's not even close, but a miss is a miss,
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: so that definitely helps the Vikings case. It was just
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: really fun to watch after you know, it wasn't down
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: to the wire and it wasn't a heart attack game
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: for us Vikings fans, but it's also, you know, just
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: a good, solid, all around game. It was the kind
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: of game that I think all of us were expecting
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: to see for the Vikings all season. Solid play, you know,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: never feeling like you're totally out of the game, not
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: a ton of egregious penalties. JJ didn't look totally worthless.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think about the only thing you could
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: say negative wise from this game, other than a couple
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: of injuries, which we'll talk about, is that Justin Jefferson
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: still hasn't quite figured it out. Not that there weren't opportunities,
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: but yeah, really fun game overall.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Roses and thorns. Should we get into that. Yeah,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I can start with a rose. I really think that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: early interception, I think it was like the second or
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: third play of the game. Had it was like the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: first pass. This was the first pass play. I just
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: can't remember. I know it wasn't the first play because
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure the first play was a handoff, but
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that first passing play that resulted in an interception really
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: could have derailed things for the Vikings offense. I thought
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: the defense did great by kind of they held them
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: to a field goal on that first drive, and I
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: think that kind of restored some faith on the Viking sideline, like, okay,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we're not like they probably would have been pretty dejected
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: at the Cowboys just turned around and Walston in the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: end zone and scored seven.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Well, if you remember after that interception, I'm pretty sure
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: that Cowboys went three and out. But then if I'm
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: remembering things right, that's when the Cowboys decided to pull
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: that fake field goal to fake field and I ran
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: it for what six seven yards?
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And sorry I had to do that.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Well I did it for your benefit.
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: But then even after that field goal fake success, you
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: know the Cowboys had, the defense still came back out
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: and only held them to a field goal, So that
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: was pretty nice.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: It was kind of a crazy sequence, and I think
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: with that early interception on the who knows second or
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: third play the game, it could have really rattled JJ too,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: because JJ McCarthy's been hearing all this noise is really
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: since he got into the league, and nothing has really
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: quieted down for him. He just continues to garner all
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: this attention. Some of it's good, but a lot of
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: it's not good. And so and I texted you this,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I said, after he because he the pass got batted
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: down and he tried to or it got like tipped
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: up in the air, I guess we should say, And
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: he tried to bat it down and as he was
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: batting down the pass, it ended up in the arms
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: of a defender and that resulted in the interception. And
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: I just I texted you, like, he just can't get
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: out of his own way.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Sometimes, And that's a perfect example of that, Like he
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: was trying to do the right thing, and he was
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: trying to do the smart thing of like just get
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: it in the ground, live to survive another play, and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: try as he might, it went poorly.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: For Yep, Yep, which, like you said, has just been like, well,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: that could have easily been like, well, here we go again.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there were a thousand tweets that went out. Again,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure I texted you and just said, welp, and.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: I mean it.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: You know, it just felt like, all right, well here
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: it is again. Now we're back to JJ sucks after
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: that Commander's game, which was pretty fun to see a
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: whole week of Apparently Joe Burrow to the Vikings is
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: a really fun rumor to talk about, and you know,
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: JJ McCarthy has heard that at least once, you know so,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: but to his credit and to go back to your
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: your rose, I mean, in the moment, it was pretty frustrating,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: but as he was walking off the field, he kind
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: of had a little bit of a smile on his face,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: like all right, I guess now we got to overcome
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: that too, you know. Like but in the moment, as
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: a Vikings fan, it's like, what are you smiling about?
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: It kind of reminded me of earlier in the season.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Was it the Chargers game that Carson Wentz and Josh
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: McCown a like going back to the Yeah, they're going
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: into the locker room for halftime, and McCown was like
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: straight up laughing, and Wentz was kind of given like
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: a smile, but still it's like, why are you guys smiling?
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think you got a great rose there
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: not letting that interception derail everything, because that was really
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: about the worst thing JJ did all game.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And again, it could have soured the whole batch,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: right like, it could have just made the whole game miserable.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: He could have gotten in his head, KOC, could have
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: gotten in his coaching mind and just decided, well, we're
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: not gonna throw the ball. We're gonna do this instead,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: you know. And I don't think it changed anything about
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the game plan or how anybody played it. Just it
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: was it was what it was. The defense did their job,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: held them to a field goal, and I like that
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: you pointed out that sequence of the fake field goal.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: They got the first down and then the defense still
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: held them to three points. There. I think that was
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: a key in just maintaining some momentum and maintaining some
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: leverage in the game. They did that, And I'm not
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: saying it's all of that that led to the win,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: but men, that game could have gone left real fast
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: and it didn't.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: And I think what helps that a lot too, is
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: it's not like it was a crazy, like what are
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you doing ball by JJ? Yeah, he kind of he
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: probably shouldn't have thrown it there anyways, because it immediately
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: was batted down by the defender or you know, tipped
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: up by the defender. But it's not like it was
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: like a totally crazy like how in the world would
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: an NFL quarterback even make that decision. It was just
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: a fluke play and it helped that it was the
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: second play of the game or third play of the
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: game and not like on the final drive where you're
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: hoping to win it, so there are a lot of
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: time to get over that, and they did.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: So.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my Rose, it's kind of a long one, and
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: I need to get better about having roses and thorns
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: that are specific to the game and not just like.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Well I have a thought and here we go. It's
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: gonna expand.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: But podcast, my rose is just how aggressive the offense
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: was and I have a certain play in mind. It
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: was We talked about how in the third quarter the
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: Vikings were down seventeen twenty three, things kind of seemed
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: like the Cowboys were gonna start to pull away a
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: little bit. But the Vikings down seventeen to twenty three,
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: they were starting to drive a little bit, but they
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: got down to a third and one and they tried
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: an end around little pitch play to I think it
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: was Jalen Naylor and it got blown up and he
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: lost two or three yards. It must have been like
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: two yards because you know, the KOC to his credit,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: decided hey, we're gonna we're gonna go for it on
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: this fourth and three, and much to JJ McCarthy's credit,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: he threw a dart a really difficult pass to the
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: sideline too, I think also Jalen Naylor again and it
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: was caught and it was good for like twenty ish
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: yards and then that drive it led to it was
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: the I that in the end zone. Justin Jefferson, I
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: don't think it was that touchdown catch that he had
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: that was called back on a penalty, but it was
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: one that he had basically had the ball on his
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: hands on the left side of the end zone, which
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: would have absolutely been a touchdown, but Justin Jefferson just
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: dropped that one. But ultimately a player two after that,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: CJ hamp He rushed for a touchdown, the fifth one
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: of his career. So going forward on fourth and three,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: that aggressiveness of the offense and then JJ McCarthy and
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: Jalen Naylor are really paying off the coaching decision of
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: going for it by performing really well, and then the
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: offensive line really just everything was clicking, and it was
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: really nice to see an aggressive offense that actually worked.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: You look at the win probability chart, like that fourth
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and three play with two forty nine in the third quarter,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: that was kind of the turning point, Like it was
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: kind of Dallas, Dallas, Dallas all through the third quarter,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: even at the end of the second quarter and then
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: into the third and then it starts to trend towards
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the Vikings direction, and the Vikings never really let go
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: of it after that.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: So after that play, the Vikings would end up doubling
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: their score by the end of the game, whereas the
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Cowboys only scored three more after that fourth and three conversion.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: So you could argue, if you know, JJ throw is
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: a worse pass and they don't convert on that fourth down,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: the Vikings don't go on to win the game. It's
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: little things. They say game of inches all the time.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: It's little things like that that can totally that could
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: have derailed the game more than that first play, first
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: pass interception. So, yeah, myro's offensive aggressiveness and then the
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: defense was just as aggressive as as always and you
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: could even say, and I tweeted it from the skool hoop,
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Harrison Smith. I don't know if he's just getting you know,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: more visible and the balls kind of going his way
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: and he's seen more on TV, but I think he's
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: really Whatever happened in training camp kind of seemed to
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: really slow him down, and we were all saying, like,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I think this is it. I think he he's showing
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: that he's in the final year of his contract or career.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: But the last couple of games, Harrison Smith has really
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: started to look like the old Harrison Smith again. So yeah,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: aggressiveness all around, but it was just fun to watch
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Thorn's you want to go first? Yeah, yeah, I mean,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: I think I mentioned the thing about Justin Jefferson not
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: getting a lot of run recently. But my real thorn
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: is that the last two games we've seen a lot
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: of success. The Vikings have scored thirty one and thirty
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: four points respectively in the last two games. My thorn
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: is that it's taken too long to get here for
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: whatever reason, you know, sitting on our couch, we assume
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: it's that, you know, JJ's looked better because Koc has
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: kind of let go of the reins and just said
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: go play ball. Maybe that's the case, maybe it's not.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: I'm assuming that's the case. But for whatever reason or reasons,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: this team has really figured something out.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: And maybe it's just.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Like, hey, e fitt, we're just gonna go play. Who cares,
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: what do we have to lose. We're already out of
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: the playoffs. But yeah, my Thorn said, it's taken too
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: long this year to see this success because if they
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: had played all season like they did against the Commanders
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: and the Cowboys, it would definitely have been a different season.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Especially look at the Lions. They're they're not looking great.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: The Bears are pretty good, but they're definitely beautable. And
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: the Packers, you know, same as the Bears. They're pretty good,
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: but they're definitely beatable. Vikings could have had an opportunity
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: this year.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Do you think that a lot of that is Kevin
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: O'Connell and like, do you think more specifically he like
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: was micromanaging JJ McCarthy and like trying to force mechanics,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: trying to force a lot of this football stuff on
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: him instead of just kind of like telling him from
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the get go early on in the season, like Hey,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: just you know, just go out and play and then
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: as we go, we'll fix the things. Because like JJ's
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: mechanics were on glass last night, like he looked that one.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: It was the Jalen Naylor touchdown where Naylor went down
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and got hurt, like his like chicken wing leg like
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: came out as he's.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: Like a hole on puro wette throwing that touchdown past.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: And I get sometimes, you know, when you're an athlete
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and you're in the heat of the moment, your mechanics
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: kind of go out the window. But your mechanics need
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: to be sound enough that you can you know, your
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: your body's trained to make those same motions regardless of
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the stress that you're under. And so I'm I'm wondering,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and I don't know if you feel the same way.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: If maybe Kevin O'Connell tried to just like white knuckle
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: all of that with JJ early on, and like you said,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: maybe he finally got to a point where I was like,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: you know what, just go play and then we'll fix
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: stuff later, or we'll fix little things here and there
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: as we go. I don't know what are your thoughts
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: on that.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's absolutely one of it's at least
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: one of the things that kind of kept this season
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: held back a little bit. I mean they even said it,
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: like I think JJ said something to tune of like
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: you know recently, like you know what, we just decided
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: just go play and then you know, we can fix
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: whatever we need to fix in the off season, which
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: is really the right way to think about it after
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: having seen the way the season's played out. But I think, yeah,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: there's a few things. You can't discredit the fact that
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: this team was so injured early on Christian darrisaw he
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: may not play again this year. They haven't even they
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: haven't announced that. They did announce Grenard he had you know,
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: he's either going to or he's already old the surgery,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: or yeah, just to shut him down for the year, which,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: you know what, in a season like this, I'm not
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: one for tanking, but if you do get to the
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: point where it's like, hey, we actually don't have anything
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: to play for. We want to see wins, but like,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: if you're hurt, just like Christian darisof if he's really hurt,
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: keep shut him down. I think we say the Commanders
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: announced today that they're gonna shut down Jayden Daniels like,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: no sense. Yeah, you want to play and compete, but
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: there's no sense in jeopardizing the future just because you
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: still want to play and compete. So I think that's
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: one thing for the Vikings this year is that they
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: started off this season so injured, especially at offensive line,
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: and then you had the inconsistency with JJ McCarthy. You think,
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: if he didn't have that ankle injury, maybe this whole
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: mindset of fit just go play ball. Maybe that happens
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: way earlier in the season and we see this kind
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: of production. If this production here in the last two
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: games isn't a fluke, I mean, I think we're seeing
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: growth from Kevin O'Connell as a coach. Like you said,
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: it really feels like at some point Kevin O'Connell's like,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: you know what, I'm just going to call the plays
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: and then support my quarterback, my offense, my team the
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: best I can. But ultimately, like if JJ is able
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: to throw a twenty yard pass to Jalenayler in the
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: corner of the end zone for a touchdown, who cares?
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: If JJ looks like he's never you know, looks like
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: he's dancing ballet out there. As he's throwing this ball.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: If the ball gets where it needs to go, we'll
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: work on that in the off season. I think you're
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: seeing some of the reasons this last couple of games
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: has figured it out.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: As you're seeing.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Guys get healthier, you're seeing JJ just kind of get looser,
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: and you know, you can't discredit there's got to be
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: some development from JJ so far too, Like, yeah, his
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: mechanics aren't perfect, and that's something that was talked about
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: a ton on the broadcast last night, but also like
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: even one game of experience is still a ton of
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: experience compared to zero games, and he's had now eight games.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: I think you're just you're seeing a lot of development
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: from coaches and players and things getting healthy and shoot,
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: getting a little lucky here and there too. Like you
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: just wish this all this positive moment would have happened
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: against the Chargers earlier in the season, you know.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Like so a follow up question that I would have
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: then is do you think the Vikings had they taken this, like,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: you know, just let's just go play fitt ball mentality
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: from the get go, and maybe Carson Wentz doesn't even
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: start because maybe JJ's ankle wasn't really that hurt. Yeah,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: you know, do you think that changes where we're at
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: right now? Vikings record? Do you think they win more games?
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Do you think they're a better team overall?
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, if like I just said, I mean, if
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: they had decided, you know, six games ago, to just
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: be like, you know what, hey, Kevin O'Connell in his
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: mind had said like, hey, I want JJ McCarthy's feet
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: to be perfect, but you don't always get what you want.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: And like, if they had just decided earlier on like
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: just go just go play. We're in the season. In
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: the middle of the season is not the time to
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: try to overhaul a quarterback's mechanics. It's one thing to
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: be like, hey, man, you know this one little thing,
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: try to fix it, and if you can and practice
• 27:12
  Speaker 3: and stuff will work on a little bit. Just try
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: to fix this one little thing. That's one thing. But
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: if it's like hey, the JJ said it a handful
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: of weeks ago, he is trying to forget everything he's
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: known about how he's wired to play quarterback, the middle
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: of the season is definitely not the time to try
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: to do something like that. And I think Kevin O'Connell
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: up until this point. We've talked about this handfuls of times,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: but up until this point, as the head coach of
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: the Vikings, he's never had to develop a full on
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: rookie quarterback. Most every quarterback he's had has been some
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: version of a veteran, whether it's Kirk Cousins or Sam
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: Darnold or you know, I mean even the backups Nick Mullins.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: You know, they've had some established NFL career and they've
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: been playing for a while. And JJ is twenty two
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: years old, Like he's not an established NFL quarterback yet.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I think if they had played fit ball
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: from the get go, maybe it is different. But coulda
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: should have would have We'll see next year, I guess.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Well, and all of this makes me wonder too, like
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: is there more going on behind the scenes GM and
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: head coach relationship, Like, you know, was was Quacy really
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: pushing JJ McCarthy on Koc, like, Hey, we drafted him high,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: you need to play him? And was Koc in a
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: power struggle of like, well, oh sucks, he's got a
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: sprained ankle. Guess we're gonna have to play the seasoned
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: veteran for a while. Yeah, and like you know, and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: who knows, maybe that's what Josh McCown and uh and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Carson Wentz were laughing about, like, Hey, isn't this funny
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: how we're in this situation and like you're the starting
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: quarterback for the Vikings, but only for a little bit
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: because it's not gonna last. I don't know, I'm just
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: purely speculating at this point.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say the worst time to try to
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: fix a leak in a boat is when you're in
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: the middle of the ocean. You know, when you're in
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: the leaking, sinking boat, you're doing everything you can to
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: just get to land, which you know in the middle
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: of the season is the worst time to try to
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: fix personnel. Personnel moves in the season should be oh crap,
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: somebody's injured. We need to fill that spot. I think
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell has used this term a few times this
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: season where he said the intention of the roster formation.
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: He talked about it first off, like with injuries. You know,
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: it wasn't intended for the left tackle for the first
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: few games to be just in school school, school school.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: It wasn't intended for Blake Brandell to play center for
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: multiple games and play it pretty darn well. Actually, it
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: wasn't intended for Sam Howell probably to be traded away
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: from the team before he ever got a regular season
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: forgot about that. Yeah, like this, this whole team, its
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: intent in early September does not look the way that
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: it you know that the season doesn't look the way
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: they intended it to, you know, here in December, from
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: the beginning of the year.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: So I would.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Say maybe maybe there is you know, some GM coach
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: disagreements on how things have gone, but you would assume
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: they would have been at least in agreement, if not
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: in tandem, all the way from the draft through the offseason,
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: through the building of the roster they intended to have
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: and maybe just the quick twitch signings, re signings, trades,
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: cuts have happened just in the middle of the fire
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: as the ship is sinking. And this offseason I think
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: is going to prove a lot of things. We're gonna
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: probably be surprised by a few moves personnel and players,
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: and it'll be entertaining.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: At least.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: I think the school hop will not run out of
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: things to talk about.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: We never do. I can share my thorn pretty quickly.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: It's not anything super crazy. We had a good little
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: run there though with your thorn. Yeah, but I felt
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: like they did not run the ball efficiently enough. And
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I've been pounding the table for the Vikings to run
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the ball for a few weeks now. Last night as
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: a team, they averaged two point eight yards per rush.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: That was Aaron Jones average. Jordan Mason averaged one tenth
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: of a yard better two point nine. JJ McCarthy was
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: actually the most efficient rusher of three point eight yards.
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: Per carry off of what one or two four carries.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, but he had that rushing touchdown. And then of
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: course there's CJ. Ham who had one carry for one
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: yard and a time Towns.
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: Did you know that was only a seventh touch or
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: a seventh overall touchdown of his career.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: That's wild to me that he's been in the league
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: for that long and only has that many touchdowns. But
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: like that, I think that just proves how awesome that
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: guy is. Like he's just I'm gonna get down and
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: dirty for my team, and I'll go out and block,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I'll go out and do all the stuff that no
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: one else wants to do, and I don't care if
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I get the credit or not.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you really got to respect guys like CJ. Ham
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: and Harrison Smith that have been with this team for
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: a long time and maybe are at you know, towards
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: the end of their careers, you know, and could probably
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: contribute with other teams. But both of those guys have
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: really not quit on this team ever. And it's something
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: that I admire a lot. When when you easily could
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: quit and just say, hey, release me so I can
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: go play with Aaron Rodgers. It would be really easy
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: to quit on the Vikings. But it's it's really nice
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: that Harrison Smith and CJ. Ham have never quit on
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: this team.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Who you're talking about there is c and Harrison Smith.
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: Who else would you? Who else would you?
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: I would definitely not talk about a lifelong Vikings fan
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: who became a Pro Bowl, you know, top top wide
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: receiver in the NFL, who gave and got so much
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: from this team and then just quit when the times
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: got tough. You know, I wouldn't be talking about a
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: guy like that from Detroit Lakes at all. What a
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: what a quitter? I wouldn't be talking about that.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: But yeah, CJ.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Ham, Harrison Smith probably i'd say Brian O'Neil too. You know,
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: there's probably another couple of guys that just don't quit
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: on this team, and it's really encouraging to see.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Well, coming back to my Thorn.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Sorry I blacked out there for a second.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I think this team needs to figure out how to
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: run the ball more efficiently, especially with what I would
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: say are two Pro Bowl caliber running backs on their roster.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I think both of them. I don't know that both
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: of them will make.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: The Pro Bowl, but I don't think either will. But
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: it's hard like they're in that atmosphere.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I think they're in that category for sure. They're great backs,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: and Jordan Mason has not disappointed at all. I think
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: he's he's performed admirably. I wish we'd give him the
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: ball more. I think, you know, we talked about it
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: from the get go. He's not going to be necessarily
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the number two. He's more of the one.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: B, and I would say that hasn't really played out
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: the way exactly the way that we thought it would correct.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: I think he's definitely taken more of the number two role,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: but I don't know that Kevin O'Connell has that one
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: A one B kind of like that Gibbs Montgomery won
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: two punch.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they they're not there.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I don't think he has that figured out in his
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: offensive scheme yet. I'm hoping he can get there.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: But I mean, sorry to cut you off. I would argue,
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: like I said.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: You know he's a pass heavy, yeah coordinator, the.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: The intention of the roster. I think the intention of
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell's game plan is not really focused on having
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: a thousand yard rusher, maybe a thousand yards r ushing
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: as a team. But like I think his just the
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: way he designs his game plan, his offense, his mentality,
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: good or bad, is you know, we're not going to have,
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: you know, an Adrian Peterson rushing for two thousand yards.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: Like I wonder what a prime Adrian Peterson in this
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell offense would look like, you know, like would
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: he would he just will himself to getting two thousand
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: yards again like he did in twenty twelve, or would
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: it you know, be a really good overperformance of like
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: thirteen hundred yards. You know what did Aaron Jones get
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: last year? I think he got like eleven hundred yards
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: and that was that was pretty good. You be I
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: think it was the most he's had as a as
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: a pro. Last year he had eleven hundred and thirty
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: eight and yeah, that was his highest total as a pro.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: I think that was kind of fluky. I think that
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: was just Aaron Jones willing himself to that many rushing
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: yards despite Kevin O'Connell's game plan, which is very pass heavy.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: So yeah, the only reason I'm pounding the table for
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: a better run game is this the sole purpose of
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: developing JJ McCarthy, giving him time to to see plays,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: giving him time to catch his breath between either passing
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: plays or running plays. And he's proven a few times
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: that he can run the ball. There's a play early
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: in the first half where he bullied himself down to
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the one yard line and like went head first, and
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: I think all of us are.
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: Like, even in slow mo, he kin of his head
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: on the ye.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: His neck kind of you know, it took an awkward
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: turn there. It was kind of a cringe play for
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: us as Vikings fans, like, well, there's another concussion or
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: there's a neck injury or something right like. But again,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: I think the Vikings need a solid ground game and
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know that I'll we'll ever get it with
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connell the way that we want to. But I
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: think that's going to help balance this out for JJ,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and it's going to increase his longevity as a quarterback
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: in this league, and it's going to speed up his development.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: Now, I will say, and I totally agree with you.
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: I think that's definitely a good thorn, It's a valid thorn.
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: But I will say I'd be interested to see the
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: numbers from the last two games I know against.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: The way better against the Commanders.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Against the Cowboys, they had twenty eight carries for seventy
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: seven yards and two rushing touchdowns, one of those being
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: that that maybe the greatest, one of the greatest fakes
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: I've ever seen from JJ McCarthy to to get that
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: rushing that was pretty touch beautiful. But I wonder, are
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: you pulling up the Commander's game stats.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: So the Vikings had one hundred and sixty two yards
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: on the ground as a team, and that was with
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Aaron Jones getting seventy six I mean overall.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So, like I said, with Kevin O'Connell's offense,
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: you're probably not gonna get a one hundred yard rusher
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: too often, but you might get four guys that you know,
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: account for one hundred plus yards well, and things go well.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: And I just look at the average yards per carry,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: like two point eight against the Cowboys, four point eight,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Like that's that's a big difference. Yeah, four point eight.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: You can run the ball on first and second down
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: and you're basically getting the first down every two or
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: three plays. Yep, if you just run the ball that
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: efficiently and that consistently when you're rushing it for two
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: point eight yards. Now it's third and five, third and six,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: third and seven, and you have to pass and you
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: have to rely on your young, inexperienced quarterback to make
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: accurate down the field throws. Whereas if it's third and two,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: the whole play the whole playbook is open to it's
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: and two or second. Yea, the whole playbook is open
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: to You can't take that down the field shop, but
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: you can also hand it off. And you've got so
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: many options in your pocket that way, And that's what
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: I like. I'm a guy that likes to have options. Yeah,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: I don't like to be restricted in like, oh, well,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I guess we only have you know, four verts here
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: that's the only play we can run. I hope somebody
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: can get open.
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: Now, I will say we are looking at numbers from
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: two very different defenses that the Vikings were facing. You know,
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: the Commander's defense is not the same as the Cowboys defense,
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: and the Cowboys defense isn't even you know, league best.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think, yeah, all this is proving your
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: point here. The Vikings need to run the ball more efficiently.
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: They need to figure that out, and hopefully that that
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: is something we see as another point of growth from
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell. I did see a tweet. And this is
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: a little bit of a tangent here.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: But I saw a tweet.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: I forget who who tweeted it, so I'm sorry whoever
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: that is. But if the Vikings, I think it was
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: power Trip Bets that tweeted it. If the Vikings do
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: not move on from Kevin O'Connell this offseason, which I
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: think at this point none of us are expecting Kevin
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: O'Connell to be fired this offseason. I'm not advocating for
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: KOC to be fired, but if they do keep him,
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: it will.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Be the first time.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to find the tweet really well I think.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: I saw this too. It'd be like one of the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: first times that a coach has made it five seasons
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: without a playoff.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I found that the tweet. It's from at
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Power Trip Bets. If the Minnesota Vikings choose to bring
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: back Kevin O'Connell's head coach for twenty twenty six, it
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: would mark the first time since twenty eighteen with Jay
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: Gruden that a coach has received a fifth season without
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: a playoff win. So that's important. Playoff win is important.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: He's been to the playoffs, what twenty twenty two and
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four, and he's gonna miss it obviously eliminated
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: this year. So I mean, you look at stats and
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: you're like, we've seen a bunch this year where oh,
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: JJ McCarthy's the first player to have two passing and
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: one rushing touchdown three times since you know, nineteen sixty two.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: You know, stuff like that. We've seen stuff like that.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: But it also goes the other way too. You know,
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell could be the first head coach since COVID
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: to get a fifth season without a playoff win. And
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: that's I mean, Brian Dable, the fired Giants head coach.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: He got a playoff win against the Vikings. Like that's
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: it's not a small thing. It's also not everything, but
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: it's not a small thing for sure.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we should move into game balls. Yeah,
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: we got to keep this train moving a little bit here.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: This might be the longest we've talked about a single
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: game in a while.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and it's easy to talk about just a
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: really good game that the Vikings put together all start,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: because I tend to do this with game balls. You
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: tend to be really vague and kind of open ended
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: with your roses and thorns, and I have a hard
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: time singling out one guy, Blake Cashman stood out to
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: me on the box score because he continues to lead
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: the team in tackles and the Vikings continue to play
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: well when he's on the field. And obviously they didn't
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: play very well all season, but they played especially poorly.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: And I think was it the Chargers game or it
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: was one of those early season games that was really
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: miserable at the Bengals. No, they want that one. The
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Falcons game. That's what I'm thinking of, the second game
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of the year, the Falcons game where he was out
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: that it was just like man. And I think the
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Chargers game too, he might have been out. But anyways,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: Cashman just I think he's gotten a game ball for
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: me more than once this year. He continues to deserve that.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: He led the team in tackles, may have led the
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: whole both of both defensive groups. Maybe, I don't know.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: I'd have to go back and look at the box score.
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: He had eleven tackles.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he led both teams and tackles. Yeah, he had
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: eleven overshown number zero for Dallas had seven. So he's
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: head and shoulders above anybody else. But I would also
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: like to give one to Jonathan Grenard. Jonathan Garnard got
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: the only solo sack for the Vikings, and I don't
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: know if you remember that play, but he had Dak
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: dead to rights, Dak got away from him, Jonathan Garnard
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: got up, tracked him down and took him down for
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: the sack. And I think it was that play that
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: he kind of reaggravated his shoulder and that's why he's
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: going to be sitting out the rest of the season.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: And so like to put your body on the line
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: like that, and I'm guessing it wasn't just when the
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: sack was finalized. But I'm guessing it was the original
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: attempt at the sack that Dak slipped away from that
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: probably reaggravated it.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: Uh, we'll have to ask Jonathan Grenard. Maybe he wants
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: to come on the podcast to talk about.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Gee, let's get you on the show here, you got
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: some time.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: I'm guessing he was in some pain and got up
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: despite the pain, took the guy down. And to me,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: that's just like, that's the effort you want to see.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: That's that's the grittiness, that's the toughness, that's that's a
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Harrison Smith kind of play, Like I'm gonna go out
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: here and put my body on the line for my teammates.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: And uh, that's that's admirable. That's worth a game ball
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: in my opinion. So I think both of those guys,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and surprisingly, I've been giving a lot of defensive game
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: balls this year.
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: They've been the more consistently, you know, well playing part
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: of the phase of football.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: Here.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: If the Vikings have rarely lost the game this year
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: because of defense, usually it's either been because of the
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: quarterback position, slash offense, or you know, come of offense
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: and special teams blunders, usually the defense has done enough
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: to keep them in each game. This year, I think
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: for the most part, you might be able to I
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: might be blacked out and forgetting some like forty to
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: nothing game, well, the twenty six to nothing game, but
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: even then, the defense only gave up nineteen points and
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: a lot of those were field goals, Like that's that's
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: as many points as they gave up against the Cowboys,
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: and we are saying the defense played very well. So yeah,
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: it's definitely respectable and understandable that most of your game
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: balls this year have gone to defensive players.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Who are you giving a game ball to?
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: Well, I do want to say, I do think JJ
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: McCarthy is deserving of a game ball, and I think
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: he literally got one from the head coach after the game.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: And then didn't he turn around and like give it
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: to his offensive.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think yeah, he immediately tossed it over to
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: Brian O'Neil on the whole offensive line.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Admirable. JJ McCarthy's going to be that guy.
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: They showed him before the game tapping up all the
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: service members that were carrying on the flag of the field.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: You're just gonna get that from JJ McCarthy, the guy
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: that gives his hat to the kid at the autograph signing.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: You know, he's just gonna do.
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: Stuff like that, So I think he's deserving. But my
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: official game ball, Jalen Naylor, Yeah, I think he only
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: had like forty something yards receiving forty seven three catches,
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: two of them were touchdowns, and one of them was
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: the one. I really I don't know, but I feel
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: like with the way he was down bad on the
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: field after catching that ball, landing straight on his back,
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: maybe it was Jordan Addison coming up and giving him
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: the revive.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: I saw that, which was awesome, that was.
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: Funny, But I think he must have just gotten like
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: the wind knocked out of him, which I think you texted.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Me like, that's what it looks like to me. He
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: just landed on his back hard, and I wonder if
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: his lungs kind of like needed a minute to get
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: back into their rhythm. I don't know.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: I think we've all had the win knocked out of
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: us at some point. I think I was a kid
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: the last time it happened to me. But it's one
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: of those like, oh you just remember it's a shock.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: I texted you, it's a shockingly painful thing to happen.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: So I'm assuming. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm assuming when
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: he landed down he just got the wind knocked out
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: of him real bad, which is why he was down.
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: They took him in the medical tent and he even
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: came back in the game, and I think did he
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: catch another touchdown after that or was that his second touchdown?
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I can't remember the sequence of those touchdowns, but either.
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: Way, Jalen Naylor in this game was a solid target.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: I think he was the one again to catch that
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: that fourth and three pass from JJ McCarthy in the
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: third quarter.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Those really turned the gamer.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Those were his three catches, the two touchdowns in that
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: fourth down.
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: Catch, So yeah, really good play. Really all most of
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: the season. How many times in Jalen Naylor's career we
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: said I probably even said, like I'm done with him.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: Who cares he's gonna get wide oak and then drop
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: a pass. We've seen a couple of highlight reels from him,
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: you know, one catch highlight reels throughout his career. But
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: this year he is the most consistent he's been and
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: you can tell that well. JJ McCarthy and Justin Jefferson
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: don't quite have that that relationship going, which I've seen
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: people kind of blame on training camp a little bit,
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: which I don't know, maybe that's overblown, but Jalen Naylor
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: and JJ McCarthy, there's something there. There's a good connection there.
• 48:30
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's been all luck and we're putting too much
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: into it, but maybe it's just like, hey, JJ McCarthy,
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: he can trust the guy, not that he can't trust
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: Justin Jefferson, but yeah, he gets my game ball Jalen
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: Naylor just for coming back after that painful probably wind
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: knocked out injury anyway, So yeah.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: It's a good one. I like Jalen Naylor speedy.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: Speedy, which that came out of nowhere too apparently, Like
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: was it last season right before the season last year?
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Last year that it really came out. But what was
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: funny was who does Sunday Night? Is it? Who's one
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: of the broadcasters not Collins Collinsworth and Tariko Tarico. Mike
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Turico kept trying to call him speedy, and at one
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: point it was like they went to a commercial break
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: and Tarico's like, and that's Jalen's the Speedy Naylor. You
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: don't have to say his nickname. Just call him Jalen Naylor.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: It's fine.
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: I think I sent you a TikTok in the last
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: few weeks where somebody like they have a Jalen Naylor
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: jersey and they cricketed some words and they ironed it
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: on their jersey and it uh, it says one of
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: my favorite jokes. It's got Naylor's name and it's Naylor
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: question mark I barely know where. And for that reason,
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: I wanted a Jalen Naylor jersey because I would absolutely
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: do that that add on to to the name plate there.
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't know if I'll ever get to
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: calling him speedy. I will be interested to see. I
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: think he's a free agent after this year.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Oh that's a good question.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: I'll excuse you.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Canna be all right over there?
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a burp untimed burp. Excuse me, guys.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: But I will be interested to see if the Vikings
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: do too much to try to keep him.
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: He kind of feels like, who's.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: The Osbourne k They just kind of let him walk.
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: I wonder if they're going to do that with Jalen Naylor.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: I don't really know if I have much of an
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: opinion on that right now, But at least for this year,
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: he has shown up when he needs to show up.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: For the most part, we haven't been saying, oh, they
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: lost this game because that wide open drop that he had.
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: You know, he caught two touchdowns against the Cowboys and
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: that that was enough points to put them over the top.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: So yep, He's an unrestricted free agent after this season.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: And maybe some other team is going to try to
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: offer him more than the Vikings can or are willing to.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: Either way, he's uh, he's come around for me. I
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: was ready to be done with him before this year.
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: I probably even said he might be a cut in
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: in training camp. But I'm I'm a Nailor fan.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: With with feeling gone, he makes a lot of sense
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: as a Yeah, I know, he makes a lot of
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: sense as a wide receiver. Three. In my opinion, if
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: you can keep Jefferson and Addison, which I think both
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: of them are obviously around next year. I don't know
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: that Justin Jefferson is not gonna like, oh, he's not
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: going to demand a trade.
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: And if Justin Jefferson gets traded because he's demanded it.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: He has done everything publicly to try to hide frustrations.
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: It's almost like.
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: Kind of weird how he even just said, uh, like
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I'm proud of myself for how I've handled myself. I
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: think he said that in his presser after the game,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: like I'm proud of how I've handled the adversity this season.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Then like, yeah, good for you, Like this is part
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: of being in the league. I think there's a lot
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: of pressure and not every year is gonna be this glossy,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: amazing year. And he's used to glossy, amazing years. He's
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: never had a down year, and this is a down
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: year for him.
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: I will say not to because we're starting to derail
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: here on Justin Jefferson a little bit, but that's fine,
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: we're Viking's podcast. I will say it hasn't one hundred
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: percent been you know, the quarterback position he had. He
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: had a touchdown in his hands yesterday, you know, against
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: the Cowboys and dropped it and he said it would
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: have been a good catch, but he dropped it. He's
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: had a couple from JJ McCarthy that he could have
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: caught it, and you'd think the best wide receiver in
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: the NFL would catch those, so he's not blameless. It's
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: also not like he's been getting Aaron Rodgers thrown in
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: the ball, you know, like the one of the greatest
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: of all time. But he's still not blameless in all this.
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: But to his credit, he's people have been saying usually
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: wide receivers or divas, and he's not a diva. I
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: think he really respects the captain role that he has
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: and he's taken it to heart. You've got something pulled
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: up here though.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Oh I was just looking at spot rack. Jordan Addison
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: is signed through twenty twenty six, and then the Vikings
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: could pick up an option for twenty seven before he
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: becomes a free agent in twenty eight.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: Would you pick up Addison's option?
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: I think so, especially if he can stay out of trouble,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: you know, if the off the field issues can get
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: cleaned up, and he has basically a spotless record, no
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: run ins with law enforcement, he's not missing team meetings,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: he's a consummate professional. Then sure, yeah, let's extend that
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: because he's We've said it before, he's a wide receiver
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: one on other teams, at least half the teams in
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: the league he's their top wide receiver. So I think
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: if you can keep Jefferson and Addison as your one
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: two punch at wide receiver, you've got a really good
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: receiver room already, and then if you bring in someone else, great,
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: But if you can keep Naylor, I think, Man, you've
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: got a solid group, and you've got some you've got
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: some opportunity. Then I think to maybe bring in some
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: younger guys, develop them, and maybe you get somebody to
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: fill in that gap when Addison leaves eventually, because he
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: could I could see him being a digs and not
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: being a career long Vikings. He might, you know, have
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: the like once in a lifetime memorable catch that like
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: our kids will remember for the rest of their lives
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: and then move on because that's just how he is.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: I could see that happening. So if you can, if
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: you can build around those two for sure, and then
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: maybe Jalen Naylor as well, Yeah, I'd be a about that.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: I think Addison the only reason he wouldn't continue to
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: be in Minnesota is if I don't really ever heard
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: him talk. But I don't know if he secretly hates,
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: you know, being in the cold of Minnesota.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: If he.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: If he does, I haven't heard him say anything about that.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: I think he gets plenty of you know, playtime and
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: ball opportunities. So he's not one that's going to complain
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: about I never get the ball because he does get
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: the ball. I think it would just be a pure
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: business thing, like, hey, you can't necessarily pay Justin Jefferson
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: and Jordan Addison because I think Jordan Addison, if you
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: look at his true value, he's probably pushing you know,
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: he's a borderline Pro Bowl player. He'd be wide receiver
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: one on a lot of teams. He could be one
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: that realistically could you know, demand and not demand in
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: a bad way, but call for one hundred million dollar contract.
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: He's not Justin Jefferson. Nobody is. But I don't know
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: if the Vikings are a team that are going to
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: pay to wide receivers one hundred plus million dollars, we
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: shall see. It's nice that we don't have to know
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: for another at least another year, a year and a
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: half or so for him.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Can we completely derail the wide receiver conversation because we
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: have this on our outline, so it's not like we're
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: derailing for derailing's sake, But something we wanted to talk
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: about tonight was should the Vikings tank for a draft pick.
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: They obviously have won two in a row now. They
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: beat the Commanders pretty badly two weeks ago, but they
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: were still in the playoff hunt at that point, and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: then the Bears won, and by virtue of the Bears winning,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: the Vikings are, yeah, they're out of atlantically eliminated from
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. So with that, the Vikings are kind of
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: in this weird spot of like, well, do we just
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: lose out and get a high draft pick or whatever?
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: And you've said before like you're not necessarily a tank candidate,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: like you'd rather see the team win and you know whatever.
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: Yep, we get so few, you know games a year
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: and NFL fans we get seventeen game regular season games
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: a year. Even in bad years, it's still fun. Are
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: you Are you not more happy right now?
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: As a fan of watching football, it's one thing to
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: like understand the numbers and like how future could work
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: and think business wise, yeah, it might be strategically better
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: to have a higher draft pick. But are you not
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: more happy as a fan in the moment watching Sunday
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: night football, watching them beat the Cowboys. Like I, that's
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: more fun, and that's for future quacy to worry about
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: if they have the twelfth or the fifteenth pick, Like
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: I'd rather a win and three picks worse than feeling
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: really crappy about my team and one or two picks better.
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: And maybe I'm wrong, and that's fine. You can argue
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: with me that I can see the logic of like
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: tank and lose out. But for a if it's one game,
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: maybe lose out for the first overall pick, But if
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: it's the rest of the like four games, Come on, guys,
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: this is entertainment, Like, this is what we want to
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: see our team win.
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: And I think you said something similar last week and
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: I don't disagree with you. Right now, the Vikings are
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: sitting at the twelfth pick in the first round, which
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: isn't insignificant. I mean, to get a top fifteen pick
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: means you're getting a decent player theoretically.
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, now if you if you want the best player,
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: you're gonna have to trade you know, the next five
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: years of yours draft status. But I mean, twelfth is
• 58:42
  Speaker 3: not terrible.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: But looking at tankathon dot com, their mock draft, which
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: I'll give the caveat right away. A mock draft is
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: a dime a dozen. There are so many of them
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: out there, And I mean you and I could sit
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: here in mock draft, oh yeah, yeah, the Vikings and
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: we could put it out on Twitter and say, oh,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: the school Hub, We've got the best mock We will
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: never do that, by the way, We'll never do We'll
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: never do that. But uh, Tankathon's mock draft. I just
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: this caught my eye and I want to talk about
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: it because I'd be interested to hear your opinion. Uh.
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: Tankathon's mock draft has the Vikings taking Jeremiah Love, a
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: Heisman candidate running back out of Notre Dame. Yeah, Harrison
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Smith played at Notre Dame. Yeah, yeah, Kyle Rudolph didn't
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: he play for Notre Dame? He did.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: For a while, the Vikings had like like six Notre Dame.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Fight the Vikings. The Vikings have had this little pipeline
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: from South Bend, Indiana to Minneapolis, Minnesota a few times.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: I really like Jeremiah Love, and I like the statline
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: of thirteen hundred rushing yards eighteen touchdowns. Yeah, you can
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: take a peek at anything else. You want to over here.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: I'm just intrigued by that at pick number twelve, the
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: Vikings taking Jeremiah Love, if that's where the Vikings end up.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: Even given what we just talked about a little bit
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: ago about Jordan Mason and Aaron Jones, like they're a
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: good one two punch at running back. Jordan Mason still
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: has probably a few good years left in him as
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: a back, but I think.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and they re up Jordan Mason, yeah, when
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: they traded, but.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: We're seeing the riding on the wall with Aaron Jones.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: No, I mean, he's gonna be like thirty two, you know,
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: the ole next season.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: You hit that thirty year mark as a running back,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: and if you're a good one who has a lot
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: of carries, you're pretty worn down at that point.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: The two players I've kind of seen, and that's kind
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 3: of why I scrolled on your computer there, that I've
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: kind of seen for the Vikings so far, which again
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: it's way too early to start talking draft, but I
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: guess when you're eliminated from the playoffs, it's never that early.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: We're here.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: The two players i've seen have been Love, the running back,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: and then I was trying to think. I can't think
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: of his name off the top of my head. I
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: think there's a safety from Ohio State that that people
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: have been talking about too, and I just can't remember
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: his name. We are not draft experts, will never claim
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 3: to be. But yeah, I mean, you know you talk.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: You said Harrison Smith going to Notre Dame. He's probably
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: gonna retire and you need to fill that safety role.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 3: Aaron Jones, he's gonna be thirty one thirty two next
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: season and you're gonna need to fill that running back role.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: But we did just spend a few minutes talking about
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: how Kevin O'Connell doesn't Caleb down. So that's thank you
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: for looking that up. That's the other name I've seen
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: so far. But yeah, maybe you don't need a dynamic
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: twelfth overall pick at running back. I'd love it if
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 3: they drafted him, but maybe.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: This one has him going fifth over all the Jets.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: Oh there, Kale Guy, I see it. Yeah, it'll be
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: interesting to figure that all out. But to answer the
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: root of this question, I just don't think. I don't
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: think you need to tank at this point looking at
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: draft order. If we really want to analyze the idea
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: of losing the next three games. Just for draft order,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: the Vikings right now are six and eight, the current
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: ninth overall pick. If the Vikings at six and eight
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: have the twelfth overall pick, the current ninth overall pick
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: is at four and ten, which is the same as
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: the seventh overall pick. So like, you're already too far
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: away from getting to a good, good pick. I think
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: the best you could hope for would maybe be like
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: the tenth pick, if you lost all three games, and
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: then you'd need Atlanta in Kansas City to both win
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 3: the next couple to really pass you. I think you're
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: no matter what the way the Vikings are sitting right now,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: they hold the twelfth pick. The best they could get
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: might be the tenth pick, But really the worst they
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: could get would be like the seventeen ish maybe eighteenth pick,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: because then after that the nineteenth pick, you're getting into
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: playoff teams. So if they win out and get to
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: nine wins, they're probably still looking at the sixteenth seventeenth pick,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: and in the grand scheme of things, and I know
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: people are gonna be like, you're an idiot, twelfth is
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: way better than seventeenth, But like the grand scheme of things.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: When the draft is just a luck anyways, especially when
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: Quacy Adapha Mensa is the guy making the draft picks,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: it's really not that different. I mean, you're gonna have
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: the same needs anyways, and if you need to make
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: a move, Quacy can make a terrible trade to move
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: up six spots. And it's Quacy is not gonna be
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: the guy that's gonna draft the diamond and the rough anyways.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: So it's not gonna make that bigot of a different,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: big of a difference to be three or four picks different.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: You know, I'd rather have the entertain of watching three
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: wins in the next three weeks. Then, you know, the
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: seventeenth pick over the nineteenth pick.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: If Jeremiah Love is available at sixteen, seventeen eighteen, whenever
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: the Vikings pick, do you think they take him?
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 3: That'd be interesting because, like I just said, a few
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: minutes ago, we just spent like fifteen minutes on how
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell doesn't really put an emphasis on the run game.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: So do you think it would take some convincing to say, hey, Koc,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: I'm Quacy and we hold the fifteenth overall pick and
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: Jeremiah Love is somehow available, I'm gonna take him. Don't
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: you think Kevin O'Connell would be like, let's get a
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: better I don't know, center or a better safety if
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: Caleb downs, which you just said he's mocked to left
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 3: fourth overall pick, top five, Yeah, fifth overall pick. Like
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: we see mock drafts, we see these, you know, the
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 3: whole draft process totally changes this time. You know, in December,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: before JJ McCarthy was picked, we were talking about him
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 3: being maybe a third to second round pick, and then
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: he moved all the way up to tenth overall, which
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: things changed like crazy. But yeah, I mean that's why
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 3: I'd rather watch the Vikings beat the Lions on Christmas
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: Day than worry about you know, three different you know,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: pick three different you know, my goodness, I can't talk
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: to tra I don't care enough about you know, draft
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: status when you're talking three different picks.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: I think all of this. I should have done my
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: homework a little bit more. I was kind of assuming
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: that Aaron Jones was a goner after this season.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: But he's They re upped him before this season.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: He's under contracts for one more year and at a
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: pretty hefty price tag. He's got a base salary of
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: nine million dollars in a cap hit of fourteen point
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: eight next season. That's a lot to be paying a
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: thirty mid thirty year old.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: Especially I didn't know that, but especially when you remember
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: when the Vikings made the decision to release, not trade,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 3: not restructure, release Dalvin Cook. It's because they were set
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 3: to pay him fourteen million dollars and he was not
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: the same Dalvin Cook. And granted, they made the right
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 3: move to get rid of him because he's not done
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: a single thing in the league. I think he hasn't
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: played in the last season or two. But yeah, when
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: we have historical information on the Vikings in the running
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: back position, if they keep I don't know what it would,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: you know, is it a fourteen million dollar cap hit?
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: Dead cap? If they release Aaron Jones, I don't know,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: maybe he retires, maybe that. I have no idea, but
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: dead's cat of money.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: Dead cap a six point eight. According to Sporect. My
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: thought was like, you look at the Rams. They've got
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: Kyrin Williams, who's a great RB one, and then you've
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: got Blake Korum, the younger guy who played with JJ
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: McCarthy on that Michigan championship team as that solid number
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: two guy, like if Jordan Mason could move into that
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: number one spot and you get a guy like Jeremiah
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: love Boy, that would be something, and that would be
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: a foundation on which to build a young, developing quarterback
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: when you get that one two punch at running back.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: If KOC can tweak his coaching style a little bit
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: to help JJ McCarthy out, But yeah, that might be
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: totally pointless and useless because that might not happen at all.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 3: But that's all conversation really for a month from now.
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, when we really the you know, nflc and
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 3: is deep into the playoffs and we're talking about overall
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 3: playoff games and hey, now we know the Vikings have
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: the this overall pick.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: It'll be interesting.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: This offseason is going to be fun or at least entertaining,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 3: if not exciting.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we're starting to run out of beer here,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: so I think we need to wind things down. We
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: need to look ahead to the what is it Week
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen? I havest three games left and there's eighteen,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: so yeah, Week fifteen, Week fifteen six it's Week six,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: Week sixteen.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: The Giants Giants game.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: The Vikings are going to New Jersey, which doesn't make
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: any sense because they're playing the New York Giants that
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: happen to play their home games in New Jersey, which
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: is stupid. But anyways, they're going to play the Giants.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: The Vikings are three point favorites.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: Yep, so far as that's what they open up as,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: and that's from ESPN as of like four pm today.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: So forty three and a half is the over under.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: Keys to victory, what are you thinking for the Vikings
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: to win this one?
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 3: I think we've hit on this point a handful of
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 3: times already this episode. The development of Koc as a coach.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: I think the key to victory is just Koc continuing
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 3: to coach and make decisions based on the strengths of
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: his players and not necessarily the idea and the overall
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: game plan that he has. He needs to know, like, hey,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 3: fit ball, let's just go play a fitball And that's
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: kind of my key to victory. If he does that,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: we should see another thirty plus points scoring game, which
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: is insane for me to think that I'm saying that,
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: but I truly believe it. They play fitball again, they're
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 3: going to score another twenty eight to thirty points and
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: we'll be talking about another victory.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: And I mean, now's the time to do it. Like,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: you're out of the playoffs. You don't have anything to lose.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: If you lose to the Giants, no one's gonna be
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: that broken up about it. It's not like, oh man,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: you just let the playoffs slip out of your finger
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, nope, the Bears did that to us
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: this last week.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 3: So I say, like, don't lose out, but that's on purpose.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 3: Like if they do end up losing, they're out of
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 3: the playoffs. Like, I'm not really that mad. I want
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: to see wins, but like, you know what, I can
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: see the logic behind how a loss could help their
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: draft status, and I you know, I'm okay with that,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: but I still want them to win.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: JJ McCarthy will be out there, justin Jefferson will be
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: out there, Aaron Jones will be out there. It's not
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: going to be Brozemer and Xavier Scott and Jalen Naylor
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: is not going to be wide receiver one with who
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: knows who.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 3: I think back to the year Jared Allen was chasing
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 3: the sack record much like Miles Garrett is right now,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: that was a terrible year for the Vikings record wise,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 3: but we had that sack record to be excited for.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 3: Every time the opposing team passed, immediately we're like, oh, yes,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: maybe Jared's gonna no or oh yes, oh you got
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: another sack. I'm kind of thinking JJ McCarthy throwing Justin
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: Jefferson to a thousand yards receiving is that is the
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty five version of the Jared Allen sack record.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 3: Every time Justin Jefferson catches a ball, that's what I'm
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 3: really excited for, is just get him over a.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: Thousand and I think my key to the game is
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: gonna help feed that Justin Jefferson success. Yeah, I would
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: love to see him get a thousand yards. I'm not
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: gonna hold my breath that that's gonna happen.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 3: But there's three games and he's less than two hundred
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: yards away. He's the best wide receiver in football. He'll
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: get there.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: We'll see. I'm gonna reserve my judgment until I see
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: anything else but the run game. Man, It's got to
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: start with the run game. And I think Chaos has
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: been a little stubborn with that, and stubborn to the
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: point where he's like, Okay, well watch me. I'm gonna
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: the first five plays of the game are gonna be
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: run plays, Like I'm just gonna put my middle finger
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: up to everybody that doubts me, and everybody says that I'm,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: you know, a pass only coordinator, like whatever, Like we'll
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: just run, run, run. I think two weeks ago against
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: the Commanders, they had like five or six rushes in
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: a drive, which doesn't happen a lot, but it did,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: so run game, I still think is the key to
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: unlocking JJ's success. And maybe I'm a little old school,
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: maybe i'm a little narrow minded, but I think if
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: you can get Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason running the
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: ball efficiently, not two point eight but four point eight
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: yards per carry or better, you're gonna unlock a whole
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: lot of possibilities for your offense. And then Kos's gonna
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: be able to like with poise, with control, with a
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: lot of just comfort in the headset, like all right,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: this is your moment. Here's what you're gonna do. Tell
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: JJ McCarthy what to do, and he goes and just
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: kills it.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, so for purple punishments. As far as
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: next episode, which will be episode one to nineteen, we're.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: Getting up there, man. Yeah.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 3: Preseason, we both said the Vikings would beat the Giants,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: and I think we're both still with that mindset as
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: of right now. My official prediction the Vikings twenty eight,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: Giants seventeen. I think the Vikings win. And you know what,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 3: maybe I'm jinxing it because the last few weeks I've
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 3: been saying out the Vikings are gonna lose by a
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: thousand points. Yeah, I think realistically, if we see what
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: we've been seeing in the last couple of weeks, there's
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: no reason this team shouldn't beat a Giants team that
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: has nothing to play for it all.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: Thirty one nothing Vikings.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: That's just the second week in a row you said.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: I think I'm just gonna stick with that until the
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: end of the season.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 3: Hey, you were wrong about that on the Cowboys game,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: but not by much much. I mean, yeah, defensively, they
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 3: scored a lot more than nothing, but the Vikings actually
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: ended up scoring thirty four points and you said thirty
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 3: one nothing.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: So you know what, I'm with you. Let's roll with it.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: My official prediction is still twenty eight seventeen, but I'm
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 3: not saying you're crazy. Last week, I literally laughed out
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 3: loud when I saw your prediction.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: This week, let's go. I'm here for it.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, what did you think of the beer?
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: Really good I got as I got more into the
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: second one. I definitely got more hints of that gingerbread
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: flavor in a really good way. It still never turned
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 3: the corner as far as like an overly sweet dessert beer.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: It's more of like a multi almost porter like beer
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: for me. But that gingerbread bread flavor is just subtle
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 3: enough that it's really nice.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: I liked it a lot.
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: I think the soapiness went away, and I think I
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: attribute that like soapy smell to the cinnamon. I think, oh, okay,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: I think that is a thing I think some people
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: and I've never really been one, but maybe it's just
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: this particular beer, like when you smell cinnamon or taste cinnamon,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: you taste soap soap. And the second one definitely grew
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: on me, Yeah a lot. And the aroma, the soapiness
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: of that smell that went away, and yeah, I like it.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: It's a solid beer. It's dark, it's malty, it's definitely
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: right in my category of beer on the darker on
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: the darker end, but maulty, toasty. I like that kind
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: of stuff. Yeah, it's a good beer for sure.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I really liked it. I'll gladly have it again.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 3: No Coast good job on this one. Yeah, I need
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 3: to have more No Coast beers. It's been a while.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: I think I haven't really had any since we did
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 3: the tour of their nitro beers back.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: A year or two ago. So those are good too.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I haven't seen those in a while, so
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: hopefully they're still making those. But yeah, really good beer.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 2: I liked it a lot.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, where can people find us?
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: Want to keep the conversation going, Go ahead and comment
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 3: on this YouTube video that you're watching right now. Let
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 3: us know what you liked about this episode and if
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 3: you have any thoughts on any of our opinions, let
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 3: us know if you think we're totally wrong major Bluestone.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: I know you're probably watching, so let us know what
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 3: you what we got wrong on this one. So I'm
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 3: interested to hear your thoughts. But yeah, you can find
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 3: us everywhere on social media Facebook, Twitter, or x Instagram.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 3: Blue Sky is still out there, even though we've kind
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 3: of abandoned that one.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: TikTok for sure.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 3: If you want to find injury videos, we have the
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 3: video of the Pat Mahomes injury.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 2: Evan.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 3: You sent me the video of Micah Parsons, which I
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 3: haven't posted yet, but keep an eye out.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: I might.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: I might post that one up here. Both of those
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 3: guys are out for the year with torn acls.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: This was a big week for like big made sure,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: high profile players getting hurt is crazy.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 3: But yeah, we're everywhere Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, X, TikTok. If
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 3: you want to send us an email, I think we
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 3: still might have a sticker or two. So if you
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: want a free sticker and you're willing to give us
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: your address, we've got something. I think we've got a sticker,
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 3: go ahead and send us an email to the schoolhop
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 3: at gmail dot com. I got one other than that. Yeah,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 3: just comment, share us with your friends because if you
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 3: like us, you probably know people that will like us
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 3: as well. And yeah, like I said, even if your
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: comment is man, you guys are terrible and your take
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 3: on this is awful. Let us know because you can
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: only help us have better takes. So yeah, we are
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: out there. Go ahead and find us everywhere.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah all right man, did I miss anything?
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: I don't think so.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 3: All right, Well this is a really good episode.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: I agree episode one eighteen. Yeah, that's a lot of episodes.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and this may be the best episode yet.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: I would agree to call.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 4: I think, I think, I think, I think, I think,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 4: I think, I think I think I think I think
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 4: I think I think, I think, I think, I think,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 4: I think, I think, I think, I think, I think,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 4: I think, I think, I think