Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 5 - Week 1 Woes, Lawn Care, and Extinction Event

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TSH Ep. 5 - Week 1 Woes, Lawn Care, and Extinction Event · The Skol Hop

0:30
All right, Hey, welcome Vikings fans. We are in another episode of
0:35
the School Hop. Hello, Austin's here with me. We're just a couple
0:39
of dudes from Iowa. We love the Vikings and we love beer. We
0:44
do very much. Do you brought the beers today? Man? Yeah,
0:47
it was my turn today. What do we got this beer? It's the
0:51
first time I've ever had it, and I enjoyed a lot. It's from
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Confluence, which I believe is a Des Moines area brewery. It is.
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I've had a few of their beers before and I've never been disappointed by them.
1:03
I've been to their brewery. It's pretty nice. You should go.
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But this one is the extinction event. It's a New England style IPA and
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it's not disappointing. It's kind of a lighter flavor, almost like a springtime
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ipa. But yeah, it's flavorful. Yeah, it's got a lot of
1:22
stuff going on, but it's good. I like it. I enjoyed a
1:26
lot. Hopefully it does us good throughout the episode. Well, do we
1:32
really want to talk about this? I mean, Evan, I think we
1:34
have to. I know it's gonna be hard, though, You're not gonna
1:38
win them all. It's true, but we do have to talk about the
1:42
loss to the Bucks twenty to seventeen week one. It's been a while since
1:48
we've done one of these, too, so there's a lot of stuff that's
1:51
just happened between episodes. That's true. I mean, I think the last
1:56
time we recorded there was still some concerns about teaching Hockinson and his I'm really
2:01
glad his ear infection and lower back stiffness that all cleared up real quick once,
2:07
so before that ink was dry, I'm sure he was feeling so much
2:09
better. Yeah, but good for him. Honestly, I'm glad he's a
2:13
Viking, glad he'll be here for a long time. But now there's a
2:15
lot of noise around JJ and his contract. Yeah. I was a little
2:20
disappointed as a fan that they didn't get it done, just because that always
2:23
leaves the door open for craziness. But I don't think we should be worried
2:29
about that at this point. I'm not either. He's under contract for the
2:32
next two seasons with this one and all of next year, and next year's
2:38
his fifth year option, where he'll actually start making like requisite money even if
2:43
they don't sign him to a long term deal before that. I think it'll
2:46
get done. However, if it doesn't, it will add to a very
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short list of concerns that I have about Quasi and how he's running things.
3:00
But he knows more than me. So again, even with Quacy, I
3:05
don't think we're at be concerned about him yet. But I mean the proof
3:09
will be in the pudding. Absolutely, it'll be there. But we got
3:13
to talk about this game. We're avoided it too long. We're avoiding it.
3:16
But it was It was a tough one for the Vikings. It looked
3:21
okay at first, our offense seemed to click and Jordan Addison had that nice
3:27
touchdown that was so much fun. That was awesome. That was fun and
3:30
kind of unexpected because you were just used to seeing Justin Jefferson take those huge
3:36
touchdown scores. Yeah, to have a new face. Yeah, And honestly,
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if you go back to previous years, a lot of Adam Thielen's touchdowns
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were like almost like, oh, like out of nowhere, Like that was
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such a cool, exciting play, not routine stuff. Yeah, And I
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would kind of put that Addison touchdown in a similar era of types of plays.
4:00
Oh, that was touchdown. Do you remember was he in the slaughter
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or was he out wide? I watched it again. He was coming from
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the left side. Yeah, it was to Kirk's left. I do know
4:12
whatever defender he ran by. Something went wrong on the defense there, because
4:16
he just ran by that defense he was wide open. Yeah, it was.
4:20
It was a fun play, obviously, one of the highlights of the
4:24
game, one of the biggest ones. Yes, yes, absolutely. There's
4:29
been a lot of talk in the you know, days after the game that
4:33
Baker Mayfield cracked the code on the Vikings defense. What credence do you give
4:41
to that? Well, I mean, obviously I don't. I don't really
4:46
know what he was looking at or what he saw. But I mean if
4:48
you really think that, you know, hey, whenever they make this call,
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they're in zone or they're in made a man or it's a fake blitz
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er. If you think you know what's happening, and it's enough that it
5:00
gives you the confidence, then that's good for you. I will give Brian
5:06
Flores a little bit of credit in that. Let's just pretend it's real and
5:14
Baker Mayfield and a few plays figured out all of the Vikings defensive calls and
5:18
stuff. I have all the confidence right now in Brian Flores to know,
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ah, dang it, he figured out our signals. Now we got to
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switch it up. It'll be fine, That will be fine. But that
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I mean, I don't know. I don't put a lot of credence to
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it. But if it worked for them, it worked and good for them.
5:35
Yeah. Well and then you got a wonder too, and you mentioned
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it as we were kind of talking getting ready to start recording here. But
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you know, are the Vikings and Brian Flores kind of double game planning?
5:46
Are they looking ahead not just at the Bucks game at home week one,
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but looking at traveling to Philly week two on a short week, playing Sunday
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and then playing again Thursday night? You know, is there anything in there
6:00
that maybe Brian Flores is thinking, Hm, maybe I'll just play a little
6:05
more conservatively on Sunday so as not to give the game plan away for Thursday,
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or so as not to give the Eagles too much film to really study
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and break down. And yeah, I mean that makes a lot of sense
6:18
to me. I mean, again, you and I are not you know,
6:21
NFL coaches or not game planners. But I just feel like, but
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you know, strategy wise, because the whole season is one big game,
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it's you're strategizing. Sure in the moment for each game, you're trying to
6:34
execute every little thing. But like I would think as a coach, at
6:40
least that thought would cross your mind, like, Okay, we're gonna throw
6:43
some tape out and we're gonna do it this way against the Buccaneers and then
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for the Eagles. You know, we got to have something different. And
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like you said, they may have been some kind of dual game planning.
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I don't know, I don't know if that's even possible, but I would
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think you kind of have to, right you only have a couple of days
7:00
to fully prepare for your next game. Something I saw and I guess I
7:05
didn't really pay attention to this too much during the game, but I read
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about it after the game. In previous years, Harrison Smith has played like
7:15
every single defensive snap and never came off the field. But it sounds like
7:19
he came off the field a few times, maybe on Sunday. Well.
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That's been a big talk with Flores's defense too, is that he's going to
7:28
use a lot of safeties. And I mean if you're using, you know,
7:31
intricate safety play on every play. Maybe you need a more of a
7:35
breather too. That could have been a preservation thing. I mean, he's
7:40
Harrison Smith's our age. You know, he's not some twenty year old up
7:44
there, young buck, you know. Yeah, but yeah, I have
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seen the play counts in the past for you know, however, he plays
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people play. I didn't see that for this game on him specifically. I
7:55
did see that Lewis scene didn't play any defensive snaps no, which maybe that
8:01
will change up. Hopefully your first round pick from last year plays in the
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game, right, Yeah you would hope. So, yeah, you would
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hope. So let's uh, let's move into some of the best parts of
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the game. I know, obviously we didn't walk away with a win,
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which would have been great week one even if it was close. But what
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were your top three favorite parts of the game? Top three? That individual
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play that we talked about with Addison that was a lot of fun, kind
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of let us know, like, yep, this kid, there's something there.
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He's not just you know, a practice guy that he's all hyped up.
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There's something there. He looked good. I really liked that. JJ
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surprisingly got some numbers and there we don't have that concern of like, oh
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yeah, sure they lost the game and Justin Jefferson was only targeted once,
8:54
Like nope, he was a he was a solid, you know, portion
8:58
of the game plan. And it didn't feel like they were shoving it down
9:01
his throat like you know, the Calvin Johnson Lions days where all they had
9:05
was Calvin Johnson, so he got you know, that was and passes to
9:09
him every game Like it didn't feel like that. But it was nice to
9:13
see that JJ was obviously effective even though he's JJ and they're gonna try to
9:18
stop him. And just the first half in general felt good. Offense,
9:24
defense, everything seemed okay, like sure, some mistakes and those turnovers are
9:28
not fun and hopefully you can correct that. Hopefully your right guard doesn't splap
9:33
the ball out of your quarterback's hand every game. That guy, My goodness.
9:37
Well yeah, we go back to last season and stepping on Kirk's foot
9:41
and it's just all the penalties and stuff. He's a frustrating player to watch.
9:46
It never seems like we're saying, holy cow, did you see how
9:50
good ed Ingram's did you know, did in that last game. It's always
9:52
oh, he's trying to break Kirk's ankles, or oh did you see him
9:58
just not block that guy? It's frustrat Yeah, what about you? What
10:01
were your favorite parts? I think, uh, we've already mentioned that Jordan
10:07
Addison touchdown. I think that was maybe the brightest spot in the game for
10:09
our offense. Yeah, and just that and JJ just having a great first
10:16
half especially, you know, those are good signs that Kirk has two quality
10:22
receivers to throw to. We've known about JJ, but there are a lot
10:26
of question marks around Jordan Addison coming in, you know, and of course
10:31
Adam Thielen leaving and that was kind of a heartbreaking departure for Vikings fans everywhere.
10:35
Yeah, but more logistically, you know, you're concerned about replacing that
10:41
talent, replacing those targets and replacing those catches, and so I think Jordan
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Addison proved that he can be that guy. So I'm excited about that.
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The second thing that I really liked was just watching Alexander Madison, like it
10:58
just seemed like he was He's the right guy. I think we made a
11:01
good decision there not getting greedy and trying to find some big name running back.
11:09
The running back market was really really slow, and I know if you're
11:13
a running back in the NFL right now, you're frustrated probably with how underpaid
11:20
you feel compared to the effort you put forth weekend and week out. But
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I think he didn't have an amazing game, but he didn't have a bad
11:30
game. And I think he was just consistent. He got yards when we
11:33
needed him, push the ball forward. He's a little bit more of a
11:37
downhill guy, whereas Dalvin Cook is a little more of a shifty side to
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side try to find a hole. And I don't know, I just I
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felt good about that, and I felt good about our backfield, what we've
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got going on there. Yeah. My third favorite wasn't ideal, but it
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was after I think it was an interception that Kirk threw and then JJ just
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just trucked a guy. Oh yeah, he looked it was That was such
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a it was clean, nobody was getting hurt. But yeah, you know
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that defensive back or was a linebacker. I guess I don't remember. I
12:18
felt that that was a bone rattling hit. Yeah, he'll feel he felt
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that one on Monday morning. Hopefully JJ doesn't have to showcase that ability to
12:28
tackle people right much. But I agree that was but that was it was
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kind of fun to watch. It made that play two percent less demeaning,
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like you're still really mad, but like good hit JJ he hit him so
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hard he popped his own helmet off. Yeah yeah, he was mad too
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good And you want to he snatched up his helmet and walked to the sideline
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and blopped himself on the bench. Yeah. Again, you don't want to
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see that. But I mean, if the play had to end in a
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good way, it ended in a pretty good way. Yeah all right,
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man, I don't think it's on our outline here, but we did our
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three favorite it's a loss, so we can make it abbreviated. But let's
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talk about our three least favorite parts of the game of the week of everything.
13:16
Do you want me to start if you want to, Well, we've
13:18
already mentioned ed Ingram, and I think he was just a sore spot and
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he's already come into the season with kind of that reputation and so to see
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that he hasn't really fixed some of those things and quite literally caused a turnover,
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which I mean, when's the last time an offensive lineman is the cause
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of a turnover other than the center not getting the ball to the quarterback,
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which that happened. No, never mind, that wasn't that play. That
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was the same play anyways. An, Yeah, that was just really disheartening
13:58
for me. And you know, you you hoped that. Boy we've got
14:03
a pretty decent offensive line this year. If everybody stays healthy, we ed
14:07
Ingram stets up his game, you know, we we could be okay in
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a in a position group where we've really struggled as of late. So that
14:18
was that was definitely disheartening. Number two for me is related to that,
14:20
and that's Garrett Bradbury. Oh my gosh, he's already been ruled out for
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week two. Yeah. I I don't want to talk over you, but
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that's one of my least favorite. I'll talk about what my thoughts on that
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when it's my turn, but I don't have a ton to say about it
14:35
other than it was an issue last year, and then he seems to have
14:39
a good summer, good training camp, everything was fine, and I don't
14:43
even think he made it a full drive. Yeah, it was really early
14:46
on. I mean it was maybe four plays, five plays, which is
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as long as Aaron Rodgers lasted, might have been longer than Bradbury. Let's
14:54
give him some credit. He probably lasted longer than Aaron Rodgers. All right,
14:58
we'll give him. We'll give him that. But yeah, that was
15:01
that was really unfortunate. And if he's gone for any length of time,
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I don't know, Kirk's gonna have a tough time finding rhythm and finding consistency
15:13
at that center position with uh schloatman slotman. Yeah who last year and even
15:20
in the rest of the game has been very serviceable, like better than just
15:26
the technical backup. I think last year when Bradbury was out, I think
15:31
Kirk developed some chemistry with him. But I think Kirk has a lot of
15:35
trust in Garrett Bradberry. Yeah, yeah, and for good reason. There's
15:39
I mean even healthy. You know, there's talk about how Gret Garrett Bradbury
15:43
he's not you know, he's not an All Pro and maybe gets thrown around
15:48
a little bit. But I would say for the most part, he's a
15:50
good player and he hurts the team is not as good when he's not out
15:56
there. I think he's smart and I think he when he's got the ball
16:00
in his hand pre snap. I think he is serving and he's he's commanding
16:07
that line and he's telling them how to shift and the center has they make
16:11
some calls. Yeah, and I calling the blocking schemes and yeah, I
16:15
think and I think he's very intelligent that way, and that's shown. And
16:19
then I think the chemistry with Kirk is second to none. He's the only
16:25
full time you know, center number one that Kirk has had with the Vikings.
16:29
Yeah, that's tight. They joined the Vikings in the same season,
16:33
which, Yeah, that can only be a good thing. Did I say
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was that my third or was that only my second? I don't remember.
16:40
I don't have another one. I don't think. So all those are the
16:42
two really tough things. Yeah, the turnovers, I mean, and especially
16:51
that interception too, because not only did you turn the ball over, you're
16:56
going to score on that drive like they were, well it was on the
17:00
range. Yeah, when the interception happened, it was either a touchdown or
17:03
a field goal. So that and granted you can't just say like, oh,
17:08
they would have scored a touchdown, obviously they would have won the game
17:11
because they would have had more than twenty points. Because the game would have
17:15
been played a little bit differently afterwards, but yeah, that would have been
17:18
nice, that would have been great. We may have won. Yeah,
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very well. Yeah, my least favorite parts. So the turnovers you just
17:32
you can't you can't have those turnovers, and you can you can kind of
17:36
brush them away because I mean the at Ingram swipe hand that wasn't like,
17:41
you know, he got blown up by a defender and that defender was way
17:45
better than him all day, Like it was just a flute play. But
17:48
that's still a turnover that affected the game. The interception. I mean,
17:53
you could probably look at it and see like, oh yeah, I understand
17:56
why Kirk threw it a little bit behind because there was another fender. But
18:00
either way, that's still a turnover. Like those are Killer three turnovers,
18:06
just boom boom boom like that. And I guess I don't remember. I
18:08
should have looked it up if the Buccaneers turned all of those into points or
18:12
not, but either way, like and then the huge lining up in the
18:18
wrong spot on the field goal for who wasn't Jay Ward he uh oh yeah,
18:23
towards the end when the Buccaneers settled for a field goal, kicked it,
18:26
scored it. Well, that was one of those moments for me where
18:30
I'm like, who is that guy? Like, I don't even remember us
18:32
signing him, They drafted him, we talked about him. He's kind of
18:37
like a cornerback, safety linebacker type hat hybrid. He'll play around and I've
18:44
never heard a bad thing about him, But he's now way off my raid.
18:48
Yeah, and I don't know, hopefully he turns it around, but
18:51
that's a bad look. And you know he's beating himself up about that because
18:56
that directly altered the game too. So I don't know if I've defined my
19:00
least favorites. But the Garrett Bradberry injury, I mean, he missed a
19:06
lot of time last year for the lower back injury, and it seems like
19:10
it hasn't gotten any better. Well, I mean, anybody who's had,
19:14
you know, lower back psiatic type pain. It like ruined a year and
19:21
a half of my life. And I'm not a high level athlete, you
19:25
know, I can't imagine being in the middle of blocking a defensive lineman in
19:30
the NFL and then feeling that twinge in your back that that's probably tear inducing
19:34
pain. And I mean I don't know any details obviously, we don't know.
19:41
We're just some dudes in Iowa. But it wouldn't shock me if we
19:45
didn't see him again this year. And I don't think it's far fetched to
19:48
think like this could, if not right now, sometime in the future,
19:52
shortened his career because it's no laughing matter that lower back, especially for linemen.
19:59
Yeah, for a huge thing, and for a guy who's not just
20:02
alignment where you can kind of prop yourself a little bit upright, you are
20:06
leaned over the ball every single play, and it's one of those pains that
20:11
like you can I don't know if he's had surgery or whatever therapy, but
20:15
like you can get it to be good and then sneeze wrong and then your
20:21
back, Yeah, throw your back out and it's excruciating and you can't stand
20:26
up, let alone be an NFL ligneman. Well. Yeah, And something
20:32
I never even thought of until just now as we're talking about it, is
20:34
like, I mean, you're engaging a lot of those back muscles when you're
20:38
snapping the ball too, and more of those muscles are used when you're snapping
20:44
in the shotgun. I would assume, I mean, you're not a long
20:47
snapper at that point. You're really not like throwing the ball under you,
20:52
but you are exerting force on the ball. You're not just handing off the
20:56
ball to the quarterback whose hands are right on your butt. I mean it's
21:00
and we take a lot of shotgun plays. I mean we're in the shotgun
21:04
quite a bit, very well made this upcoming week against the Eagles, just
21:07
to try to slow down the pass rush. Maybe in the shotgun quite a
21:11
bit. Yeah, with quick throws. Yeah, with a stout defensive line
21:15
like they have. Yeah, that was scary last week just seeing the highlights
21:18
of that and knowing what our offensive line has to bring like this, this
21:26
this could be a rough game of do we want to just keep the keep
21:30
the train rolling this sad, lonely Vikings train and talk about week two at
21:37
the Eagles Thursday night. Yeah, yeah, I mean we already said I
21:42
think the Eagles defensive line is gonna cause some problems and they're gonna have to
21:48
scheme around that, because I know, you know, you can always scheme
21:52
around things, but hopefully they're prepared for that. And having a short week
21:57
with no real true practice that's not gonna help either. And you have to
22:03
travel too, so that's everything's counting the vikings out in this game, and
22:08
you're playing in Philadelphia, which is like the cesspool of the NFL. Let
22:15
me know how you really feel. I yeah, no, thanks. I
22:18
hope Philly fans never have another happy moment for their team every again. Their
22:25
offense is pretty stout too. Yeah, I mean, but Jalen Hurts,
22:29
I mean, he had a mediocre performance last week. I mean just on
22:33
his numbers alone. I know, obviously they won, so that's all that
22:37
matters. But I mean, what didn't look like the MVP level player he
22:41
looked like last year? And it's one game. One of the thoughts that
22:44
I had after Week one is, especially with a shortened preseason, now,
22:49
I mean, what effect like we did not see Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson,
22:55
hardly any of the offensive skill positions starters in preseason at all, and
23:02
I would venture to guess Jalen Hurts and some of those guys didn't play either
23:07
at all. So what effect do you think a shortened preseason with teams sometimes
23:14
choosing not to play their top guys? Yeah, does that affect Week one?
23:18
I think it does. I mean I feel like it does, even
23:22
if it's like two percent, you know, like just the it's hard because
23:27
we're just dudes on our couch, so we can't say like, oh,
23:30
obviously you're not waking up at the same time and getting dressed the same way
23:33
and preparing the same way for the whole week. But I just I feel
23:37
like having a practice game, you know, where you prepare similarly to the
23:44
way that you do for a regular season game. I mean some of these
23:48
guys, yeah, they do wake up at the same time for a new
23:51
game, and they have the same breakfast, and they prepare the same way
23:55
throughout the week before the game, and they tape up their body and they
23:59
like put their uniform on the same way. So like, I don't know,
24:03
I feel like it would have to help to go through that ritual at
24:07
least once in a practice setting, rather than just having the first time you
24:11
do it be the real deal. I just I seeing the vikings in that
24:18
first game made me a believer in at least I don't know them a quarter
24:27
preseason action. Now the caveat to that is, you know, you throw
24:33
them all the starters out for one quarter and that's when Justin Jefferson breaks his
24:37
leg, like and you're saying they'll never touch preseason you know field ever again
24:41
like, oh, I definitely think it's kind of a catch twenty two a
24:47
little bit. You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.
24:48
Absolutely, you know, but I don't know. I definitely had that
24:52
thought during the Vikings game week one, like man could have some could some
24:59
of these at Ingram woes have been ironed out in a preseason game that doesn't
25:03
matter. And now Ed's got a much better head about him mentally, you
25:07
know, he's he's much more aware of what's going on. He's locked in
25:14
and ready to go, and he's not making some of these silly mistakes that
25:19
cost us the game quite literally exactly. I just I am now forever sold
25:26
on the at least a little bit. What's interesting. What's interesting is if
25:30
I remember ed Ingram did play. He was the Viking starter to play,
25:37
and I think he played a whole Yeah, he did. We are not
25:42
overly, you know, enthusiastic about the play that ed Ingram has put out
25:48
throughout his Vikings career. No, he could turn around and obviously the the
25:53
brass up front feel good enough to keep throwing him out there and not signing
25:59
guys that you could just give a call and be like, hey, Dalton
26:02
Reisner, come be on our team. There. That was funny too to
26:06
see the live tweeting happening, like fans were tweeting at him like Don Risner,
26:11
what's up man? Ready to go? I know I did look at
26:15
something. It seemed like he replied to not just one dude, but like
26:18
any dude, anybody that added him on Twitter. He's like, yep,
26:23
let's go. He kept saying like I'm ready. I'll be there. You
26:26
know, give me a call. Can we get him in after halftime?
26:30
Yep, just give me a call. I'm ready, Which I mean,
26:33
if you're looking for a job, obviously you know that's what you're gonna do.
26:37
And right he seems to have a decent personality. He'd be a fun
26:41
Twitter follow if the Vikings ever did sign him. But now I'm convinced like
26:45
they could be down to one healthy offensive lineman and not sign another guy off
26:49
the street, Like yeah, well, let's uh, let's go off topic
26:56
for a minute. We can come back to the Eagles game, even though
26:59
I don't know that we want to talk too much about fate. But there
27:06
were some rumors this week about Kirk Cousins in a possible trade. Right,
27:14
are you talking about our former hated enemy hearing his achilles number? Former number
27:19
twelve now number eight? Yeah, lasted four plays in his new job and
27:23
now he's out for the season. Yeah. You know what, if he
27:27
was still a Packer, I would just revel in that injury. And initially
27:33
I was really excited. Which is horrible that Aaron Rodgers got injured, like
27:38
a pretty significant one like this, you could argue could be career ending.
27:44
I don't think it will be. I think he'll play again. Did you
27:47
see I don't know the slow mo video of his did you see it?
27:52
I've seen it many times? All Right, does that make you uncomfortable to
27:56
like watch? Not that? Like if it were a physical bone coming out
28:00
of somebody's body, I wouldn't be okay with that. There was like some
28:03
like medical like Twitter account that I found, and they like zoomed in on
28:11
it on his calf and you can see the moment where it just snaps.
28:15
Oh crazy. But if he were still a Packer, I'd be just laughing
28:22
my butt off and jumping for joy. But I mean obviously. The adult
28:29
thing to say is that injuries are never funny and you don't root for injuries,
28:33
which you don't. But he's fine, Aaron Rodgers. If he never
28:37
plays another down in the NFL, his great grandchildren's great grandchildren will never have
28:42
to work again. He will walk again. Like this isn't a life and
28:47
death thing. He is fine. There's definitely a big difference between his injury
28:51
and like a damar him. Oh my gosh, they're not even close to
28:56
night and day like you could. I mean, people live their whole lives
29:00
without legs. But what's funny is I saw a headline today and it was
29:04
on ESPN, and I thought it was a joke when I first pulled it
29:07
up. But they are seriously considering changing all playing surfaces to grass. I
29:15
agree with that, actually, and you can agree with that, and that's
29:19
fine. It's not necessarily that I agree or disagree. I don't necessarily care
29:23
about the playing surface. But what's funny to me is one player gets hurt,
29:27
and it's not just one player, but it's the player. It's the
29:33
guy. It's number eight now, which is weird to say because he used
29:37
to be twelve for so long. But it's Aaron Rodgers, right, Like
29:41
if any other player sustains that injury on a turf field, okay, cool,
29:49
Sorry, I hope you get better. I don't think that will happen.
29:52
I doubt this will be the thing that officially does it that they No.
29:56
I don't either. I guess i'd be a tiny bit surprised. It
30:00
wouldn't shock me to my core, but i'd be a little surprised. But
30:03
we've seen Aaron Rodgers' injuries alter the NFL before. True. Anthony Barr changed
30:11
the way you're allowed to tackle quarterbacks as broke as collar for good or worse,
30:17
you know, Like I can get behind the rule of you shouldn't put
30:21
all of your three hundred pounds forcing down onto another human. Like I can
30:26
see that they got a little crazy when they first introduced the rule that you
30:29
can't, like, you know, just jump on a quarterback. But it
30:33
seems too for the most part, have balanced out a little bit, and
30:37
now I feel like, for the most part they're calling it as intended.
30:41
Tom Brady was the benefactor of that in its early stages. Oh yeah,
30:45
we've seen We've seen small areas where one instance has altered the way they call
30:52
things. And sometimes it's worked and sometimes it hasn't. But yeah, it
30:56
is funny that one guy gets hurt and now they're actually taking this grass versus
31:00
turf debate a little serious because he's been advocating. Aaron Rodgers has been advocating
31:07
for that for several years now. I know a lot of people have.
31:08
I think even it was today or yesterday the NFLPA, the head of the
31:14
NFLPA came out and probably what you were talking about, saying like, yeah,
31:19
guys, look, just change it to grass. And I think I
31:23
forget who said it, but they're about to have the World Cup for Soccer
31:30
in the US the next few years. Some of those events will be in
31:33
NFL stadiums, and they're going to change the field surface for those games.
31:37
They did it at US Bank Stadium when they had that exhibition soccer game sometime
31:41
in the last handful of years. They physically rolled out sod onto the playing
31:47
surface, like but that's for soccer and obviously different rules, and I mean,
31:53
if it is better for players and performers to be on grass and it's
31:59
reasonable to do it, I think they should look at it. And that's
32:02
I mean, I under I can understand the safety of the players. What
32:07
I don't understand is the And I'd be interested to know the logistics behind it.
32:12
Like you have stadiums like State Farm in Arizona where you've got the retractable
32:19
grass that goes outside and during the week and it gets water and it gets
32:22
sun and then Saturday night they roll it back inside and they get it ready
32:28
for game day and it's all good. But like in a place like Minnesota
32:30
where you're gonna play I don't know, four three four games in November December
32:38
and the cold and there's gonna be snow, how do you do that logistically?
32:43
How do you keep a grass field indoors? You're exactly right in the
32:46
cold months. But the NFL is not a poor organization. No, they
32:54
probably have. I wouldn't be shocked if they've, you know, had focused
33:00
groups and testing on how that problem could be solved. And certainly in these
33:07
brand new stadiums that Allegiant is it Allegiant in Las Vegas? Yeah, yeah,
33:12
they have the same kind of thing, same thing as wheels out And
33:15
I've seen some that's really fascinating to me. The whole Like you can just
33:19
wheel this surface out and it only takes a couple hours to have it fully
33:27
ready inside. It's kind of crazy. Well, you kind of have a
33:30
keen interest in that because you worked in that in college too, like you
33:35
were a part of some of the Oh yeah that's the university, like the
33:39
turf area. Yeah, but that was just rolling up the artificial field turf.
33:45
But it is really cool the logistics, like you said, of how
33:49
that could work. Do they have I mean, you know, NASA has
33:53
designed things that we use every day because they had to figure out a problem
33:58
for the space you know, Shuttle and the astronauts up in space. Like
34:02
maybe this is something the NFL can figure out a huge There are no plant
34:09
lighting system that they just lower onto the field. I don't know. I
34:13
don't know the right way to do it, but it would be really cool
34:15
to see the perfect way. And maybe they have like a turf division at
34:21
the NFL corporate office and they're just round the clock like they could. It's
34:27
such a big thing. Somebody's got to be the head of field surface something
34:32
for the whole NFL. I know each team has their own you know field
34:37
surface, and there have to be protocols that are followed in each stadium,
34:43
All thirty of them have to have these you know, rules and guidelines,
34:49
and they have to meet certain criteria in order to host games every week.
34:52
I think the it was the Hall of Fame game last year, the year
34:55
before. In the last few years, they just straight up canceled the game
35:00
because the field surface wasn't the way it should be. I think they didn't
35:05
know that. There was something like I don't even remember, but yeah,
35:07
I know they like canceled the game pretty last minute because the field surface wasn't
35:13
ready. And so there to that point, there is a quality, a
35:19
minimum quality of play that they won't let something happen if it doesn't meet that
35:23
quality. And what's interesting to me about all of that just we're going way
35:28
off the rails. Hey, yeah, this is a Vikings popcort. But
35:30
just as a high school coach, I don't coach football, but I spend
35:35
a lot of time at high schools for track and cross country, and I
35:38
spend a lot of time around the football fields, and the trend is and
35:43
a lot of schools are finally, just in twenty twenty three, securing the
35:47
funds to convert from a grass field to a turf field, and you know,
35:53
at what point do those high schools renovate those fields back from the turf
35:59
to I'm sure it's happened somewhere. I'm sure some you know Texas football stadium
36:06
school that has you know, millions of dollars worth of donors every year.
36:10
I'm sure it's happened. I'm sure have taken out the two hundred thousand dollars
36:15
turf and replaced it back with grass. Yeah, that'd be interesting to know,
36:20
But you're right, it was like the vogue thing, like, okay,
36:23
oh, your high school has turf. Remember when we were in high
36:25
school, there was the one, you know stadium for like the four high
36:30
schools, and it was really cool because they had turf, but it was
36:34
literally like sandpaper. Oh yeah, well I warmed up on that turf for
36:38
track meet. It's all the time, basically like two percent softer concrete,
36:44
painted green, and that was the cool thing, Like I remember, it
36:46
was better than Yeah, we got to play on that surface like that was
36:51
super cool. But and I'm no expert. I obviously the players think that
36:58
grass is better. I haven't done the research to see, you know,
37:01
injuries on grass versus turf. But if it is, if grass really is
37:06
better, figure it out. These are multi billion dollar franchises that can figure
37:12
out how to put dirt and grass in their billion dollar stadiums. Like,
37:15
well, it's not just the individual franchises, it's the league too, that's
37:19
over these franchises that has some jurisdiction. Yeah, over that, because like
37:24
we've seen, like US Bank Stadium for that one event, they put grass
37:30
in, and sure they did it differently than if they had to mandate grass
37:35
on every NFL game, right, but they could do it well in this
37:38
season. Coming back to the Vikings a little bit, this season is a
37:43
little different because we don't have a true homestand where we're playing two or three
37:47
games in a row at home. It's pretty much in every other schedule all
37:54
season long. It's like week one we were at home, Week two or
37:59
a week two we're back home, week three were away. Yeah, what
38:02
did you say? I think I think it was the opposite. I think
38:05
there was. We don't have back to back home games until like December.
38:08
Yeah, it's December. It's after week twelve. Like we have the schedule
38:14
right here. As I move away from the mic, let's see home away
38:19
home away, home away, home away away, home away, home away
38:24
away home home. What are those two home games back to back? What
38:30
weeks Week sixteen a week seventeen, So at the end of the season,
38:35
we don't have back to back home games until the end of the season.
38:38
Which so if the Vikings were to make a change, if us Bank was
38:44
to change from turf to grass, it I think it would create some interesting
38:50
challenges but also some interesting opportunities of like, Okay, we have two weeks
38:55
yep to reset and figure it out. And if we play Week one at
39:01
home and it doesn't go well, well, week two we have an away
39:05
game, so we'll figure it out and we'll get it ready for week three.
39:09
Yeah. Well, and to that point too, I think like there's
39:13
been times in season. I think I've seen it at you know, Soldier
39:16
Field a handful of times in our fan hood. They will basically cut out
39:22
like the very middle portion of the field because it gets between the hashes,
39:30
Yeah, between the hashes, and like from like the twenty to the twenty
39:35
they just get so ravaged during the season that at some point they like completely
39:39
chop that off and replace it. And you can tell a difference visually,
39:44
but like again, if it is better for the players, there you go.
39:50
Yeah, yeah, by all means, by all means, well,
39:53
who knew Evan that this episode would be the field turf episode. Well,
39:58
if there are any grass experts out there, I need a lot of help
40:01
with my yard because it's in tough shape. So if you have any advice.
40:07
Oh yeah, Hey, there's one guy that I watch on YouTube all
40:10
the time. He'll never hear this, but if he does this, I'm
40:14
shooting my shot to have him come on and talk about how it could logistically
40:16
work. Shameless plug right here YouTube, Ryan Nor, I've watched that guy.
40:22
That guy is amazing. He's super smart, super smart, seems like
40:27
the super nicest guy. He's a Vikings fan. All right, Ryan,
40:32
come on our show. Tell us how logistically that could work. Because I've
40:37
seen your videos where you go to You've been to Arizona and you've been at
40:42
the Cardinals field. Everything I know about that field is from watching your video.
40:46
So well, come on our show. Ryan. If you want to
40:49
promote a product, come on our show and then you can test your product
40:53
on my yard because it's a hot mess right now. So he has his
40:58
own land like farmland that he has individual field plots of different grasses. I
41:09
love his videos like it's my guilty pleasure. You're such a dad. Well,
41:15
and it's funny because my lawn. He would cry if he saw my
41:19
lawn, like what are you doing? Man? Like he wouldn't want people
41:22
to know that. I watch his videos if they saw my lawn because it's
41:25
so bad. My front yard looks okay, but my backyard is terrible.
41:31
There's there's nothing living back there except like groundhogs and oh man, yeah,
41:38
my squirrels. I'm kind of the same way, except my front yard.
41:44
Yeah, I couldn't even say it looks okay. But my backyard I've tried
41:47
and there's like a whole portion that's just mud right now because I tried to
41:52
kill all the crabgrass and I did something wrong. Ryan, help us.
41:57
Ryan, come on our show. Come on our show, and I know
42:00
you have grass products and we will talk them up for free. I don't
42:04
even care. Yeah, it could even be your opportunity to get an inn
42:07
with US Bank Stadium and where you go, you know, and you have
42:10
your own show. We can come on and talk about the vikings there you
42:13
go. So there it is one sided partnership that you don't know about yet,
42:17
but you will. I like how most of this episode we've avoided talking
42:21
about the Bucks game, which we lost, and we've avoided talking about the
42:24
Eagles game that may not go very well. I'm calling it right now.
42:28
The Vikings will lose against the Eagles, but that's not the end of the
42:32
world. If they start off one too, that sucks. That's terrible.
42:37
And you can tell me no Super Bowl winner has ever started off oh and
42:40
two or whatever. But one of the Patriots squads had to have started oh
42:44
and two. Maybe, yeah, I don't add to have I don't know,
42:51
but I think we have hit that point we have where we need to,
42:57
you know, call time of death on the Bucks game. Have hope
43:00
for the Philly game, but it's a far fetched hope, I think.
43:06
So, just really quick as we wrap it up, the betting odds for
43:12
the Buccaneers game, we were four point favorites. We ended up losing by
43:17
three. Yep, that's not good. So going into Philly we are six
43:27
point underdogs. Is that what it is? Right now? Because I thought
43:30
I saw something that had opened up. The Vikings are We're a full seven
43:35
point underdogs according to ESPN, which is what I'm looking at. That's my
43:39
source. We are six point underdogs, okay, and my internet doesn't work
43:45
right now, so it's not loading very fast, and I apologize for that,
43:46
but I mean, where do we fall? Do we? So?
43:54
I did see somebody tweet we lose the game. I think maybe sorry I
44:00
interrupted, you go ahead? Well, I think I think it was Dustin
44:01
Baker tweeted, and that's what we're gonna call it because X doesn't sound right.
44:07
So he tweeted, tweeted that the Vikings have been seven point underdogs.
44:14
I'm gonna butcher this. It's not right. I think it's something like ten
44:16
times in their history or since they've been keeping track of, you know,
44:23
betting odds, and they have lost every single one. So I don't I
44:30
don't think they bucked the trend. I think we're not seven point underdogs though
44:34
we're six. Yeah, but on that tweet whatever he had said, it
44:37
was seven point underdogs. And I've been trying to get DraftKings to load this
44:42
whole time. Evan, you need to fix your internet. I know I'll
44:45
work on it. And it's not loading otherwise I would have to the second
44:51
odds. It's still not loading, so it's not worth keeping too. I
44:54
don't have good cell phone service in my house either. It said, it
44:59
said it was decent, but it's not working right, it's bad. Oh
45:00
well, don't bet people, it's terrible. Although I'll probably make a bet
45:05
on this game, I will not, and I will tell you what I'm
45:08
gonna bet because I'm to try to win money. So all right, well,
45:13
I hope you win money. I also hope the Vikings win despite the
45:17
odds absolute and I don't know, who knows. Maybe maybe they were just
45:24
saving it all for Thursday night at Philly. They just wanted to put on
45:30
a shell for the Buccaneers. And they're like, all right, whatever,
45:34
give them that one and hopefully hopefully they come out guns of blazing. Yeah,
45:40
put on a good show. I hope we're sitting here three months from
45:44
now, amazed that the Vikings actually lost to the Buccaneers. We're gonna say
45:51
something like, can you believe they let that one game go? I hope
45:55
that's what we're saying. I hope so too. I hope so. Or
46:00
we could be sitting there, you know, after getting smacked by some team
46:07
down the road, like the Giants got smacked down by Dallas forty to nothing
46:12
and go, can you believe we only lost to them by three? Yeah,
46:15
that's true. Hopefully it's the positive version of that and not the negative
46:22
version. But yep, either way, we're gonna be well, I'm gonna
46:25
be watching. You have other plans, Well, we're gonna be watching.
46:30
I'll be listening and or watching. I may be driving, but I'll at
46:35
least have my ear on the game when we play the Eagles, so we'll
46:39
be able to break it down. I'll be there for the play by play,
46:44
and we'll hope for the best. Yeah. So that's the game plan
46:49
from now on though, folks. As we're playing weekly episodes now that we're
46:52
in the season, yep. So we'll recap the previous game, look ahead
46:57
to the next game, maybe go on some random tangents about turf and yeah,
47:00
who knows if we can by some long shot, get Ryan Norda know
47:06
we exist? Is it nor or canor I think it's nor right. I'm
47:09
so sorry if I'm getting that wrong, because you're totally listening right now.
47:14
Maybe he is, Hopefully he is. Reach out to us. Ryan,
47:17
I'm tweeted him right now. All right, Well you can tweet him this
47:21
episode once we get it posted, for sure. But yeah, we uh,
47:25
we're gonna break down the Eagles game. We'll look ahead to the Chargers
47:30
game week three, that's a home game. And yeah, what do we
47:36
have for picks? By the way, for the Eagles game? First,
47:37
you've got the picks in front of you, all right, So these are
47:43
the picks from a few episodes ago when we went through the entire season.
47:50
The only one of all of us, if you remember we did families and
47:52
wives and everything, the only one who correctly predicted this Buccaneers game was my
47:57
daughter Natalie, who said that they would lose. And she's the only one,
48:00
so hopefully she just keeps being right because she predicted a twelve and five
48:06
season, which I think would be good for us. But obviously both of
48:10
us predicted a win for the Buccaneers, which didn't happen. I did predict
48:16
a loss against the Eagles, and I did too, I believe, and
48:21
Evan you did as well. So hopefully hopefully we're both wrong. That would
48:29
be nice. I'm okay with being wrong, Oh yeah, especially if it
48:31
means the Vikings won. That's right. Social media, you've been You've been
48:37
pretty active. I've been trying, but not as much as we could be.
48:42
Everything is at the skull Hop, Twitter or x whatever you want to
48:46
call it, Instagram, Facebook, We should probably be a little bit more
48:52
high reaching, although that's the extent of my social media knowledge. So that's
48:57
where we are. Reach out to us. We have an email address.
49:00
We have some stickers that we are trying to give away. I still have
49:04
them here and we'll send you a sticker. We'll get you one for Our
49:09
email is the skull Hop at gmail dot com. That's correct, yep.
49:16
Or you can find us on the other social media outlets and if you reach
49:21
out to us, we will talk about our interaction on this podcast unless you
49:25
say not to. So that'll be fun. And Ryan, Ryan Nor,
49:30
we hope to hear from you soon. All right, Well until next week
49:36
when we break down the Eagles game and look ahead of the Chargers game.
49:39
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