Latest / The Skol Hop / TSH Ep. 14 - Raging River & Surging Vikings

Transcript

TSH Ep. 14 - Raging River & Surging Vikings · The Skol Hop

• 0:06
  Out of the shotgun on 3rd down, Pam Jordan got around the right
• 0:09
  tackle. Dobbs.
• 0:10
  Whoops, he's nothing now. He runs out to the left.
• 0:12
  He points to somebody, turns to the five to the incredible Josh
• 0:22
  Dobbs with a rushing touchdown. Has run Minnesota to a 16-3
• 0:28
  lead. All right.
• 0:30
  Hey, Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of The School
• 0:33
  Hop. I'm Evan.
• 0:34
  And I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes
• 0:36
  from Iowa. We like drinking beer.
• 0:38
  We like talking about the Minnesota Vikings.
• 0:40
  We do school, school. What are we drinking?
• 0:43
  Today we have the Raging River IPA from Front Street Brewery in
• 0:51
  Davenport, IA. We already recorded our TikTok
• 0:56
  trying this beer for the first time tonight.
• 0:59
  I've had it many times. This is the first time you've
• 1:01
  had this one first time for me. Yeah, yeah, it's a it's just a
• 1:05
  simple, in a good way, a simple IPA.
• 1:09
  It's not aggressive. I think you said it.
• 1:12
  It doesn't try to do too much. Yeah, it's just a simple, yeah,
• 1:15
  straightforward. But it's it's definitely an IPA.
• 1:18
  Yeah, I like that. In in the way like a a Bud Light
• 1:20
  or a Coors Light. They're like, you know, a
• 1:22
  simple, you know, light beer. This is a simple IPA.
• 1:26
  It's not not too aggressive so. If you kind of like Ipas, this
• 1:30
  is your deal, yeah? And if you really like Ipas,
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  this is still your deal because it's really good and it's a
• 1:35
  local product right here in the Quad Cities area.
• 1:38
  Yeah, so, so this is my first one in probably a couple of
• 1:42
  months. It's definitely not going to be
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  my last one. I will have many, many more
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  Raging River Ipas over the course of my beer drinking
• 1:50
  career. It is your first one.
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  Is this going to be your last one?
• 1:53
  Probably not. OK, I would have another one.
• 1:55
  Awesome. Yeah.
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  We'll talk about it a little bit more after we've finished at
• 1:59
  least one. Yeah, it's a good start off to
• 2:02
  the episode. Indeed.
• 2:04
  Indeed. We've got to talk about this win
• 2:07
  streak that we've got going on here.
• 2:10
  The Vikings have won five in a row.
• 2:12
  Yeah, we just mentioned you just threw out a little fun little
• 2:15
  stat pre show. The Vikings and the Timberwolves
• 2:19
  are both on five game win streaks.
• 2:22
  I think the Timberwolves are on a little bit longer of a win.
• 2:25
  Oh yeah, but yeah, my factoid was the last time I got this
• 2:31
  from Twitter. I I can't claim that this is
• 2:33
  original knowledge. All of our knowledge is from
• 2:35
  Twitter and it's Twitter, not X. It will always be Twitter.
• 2:41
  Until they pay us. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  And then Even then, it'll be hard to not say Twitter.
• 2:46
  Oh yeah, I mean, if if they pay us, it'll be X all the way.
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  Publicly, but you know, anyways, the factoid that I learned today
• 2:54
  was the last time that the Timberwolves and the Vikings
• 2:58
  both had win streaks of five games or more was 2005.
• 3:02
  Wow, so. Jeez, 2005 we were we.
• 3:07
  We didn't even have driver's license yet.
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  We were 1415. That was, that was a while ago.
• 3:13
  That was almost 20 years ago. 18 years ago.
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  That's crazy. I see the the picture pop up
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  every once in a while when both the Timberwolves and the Vikings
• 3:23
  have like a like a really good, you know, franchise player.
• 3:28
  Cause back in the day, we have that iconic picture, I think
• 3:32
  it's a Sports Illustrated cover or whatever, of Randy Moss and
• 3:35
  Kevin Garnett wearing each other's jerseys, like spinning
• 3:40
  each other's sports ball in their hands.
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  And like, you know, Minnesota, we got, we got some superstars
• 3:46
  here. And I've seen that kind of pop
• 3:48
  up every once in a while. I think there was an Adrian
• 3:50
  Peterson version of it one time. But then again, I don't know who
• 3:54
  The Who the Timber Wolf would have been back in O8O9 whatever,
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  but the current one is JJ and Anthony Edwards and that's the
• 4:04
  that's the picture we need to see.
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  Let's let's get that recreation there, guys.
• 4:07
  Yeah, Sports Illustrated. Get on that.
• 4:09
  Yeah, I'm surprised I haven't recreate that cover.
• 4:12
  Yeah, I'd buy a copy. That'd be fun.
• 4:15
  Yeah, you know, I probably. I probably would, too.
• 4:17
  I can't say that I'm a huge Timberwolves fan.
• 4:20
  The Vikings definitely have most of my fandom, but I will loosely
• 4:26
  follow the other Minnesota sports.
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  I have joked before, well so I'm the same as you gigantic Vikings
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  fan. But if I'm going to root for
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  another professional team, it's going to be a Minnesota based
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  team if there's an option. Although like if the Twins lose.
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  On a random day, it's not going to ruin my day.
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  I might not even know the Timberwolves lose.
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  That's all they've ever done in my entire lifetime.
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  I'm not a huge basketball fan, so, like, I don't really care
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  too much. But if they start doing good,
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  you better believe I'm going to be the biggest Timberwolves fan
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  in the world if they make it to the playoffs and they start
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  doing some fun stuff. But that's not till what May
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  June. Yeah, it's a ways away.
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  We. Got some time.
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  We got time. We got college basketball to
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  worry about first. And even then, for me, college I
• 5:12
  got. You know, you got to get to
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  March for me to start caring about college.
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  If if our alma mater is doing all right, my ears will perk up.
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  Hey, if I was doing OK, I'll kind of pay attention.
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  But you and I, basketball, you watch out for them this year.
• 5:26
  They could be. They could be pretty good.
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  They could be, yeah, it's been. I didn't go last season.
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  We went to the final game of the season two years ago, 2 years
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  ago, when we won the outright conference regular season time.
• 5:38
  Regular season, yeah. And then and then we laid an egg
• 5:41
  in the. Tournament, but Oh well.
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  But we don't have to talk about losing teams right now 'cause
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  our favorite team is a winning team right now.
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  Six and 4. Yeah, both last week in the one
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  game and overall in the season, they have a freaking winning
• 5:56
  record, which is a far cry from what we thought they would be
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  after the O and Three start. I mean, we have been on so much
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  of A roller coaster ride this year between.
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  Preseason. We're going to win the Super
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  Bowl. This is Kirk's year.
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  Quarterback on Netflix, like this is awesome.
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  And then the first couple of weeks it's like, jeez, when are
• 6:18
  they going to start trading people?
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  Like is KFC going to get fired? Like what is happening?
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  Burn it all down. Let's let's start over and hope
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  for Caleb Williams. And then, holy cow, Kirk is
• 6:29
  playing like an MVP and everybody is figuring it out.
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  We don't have a run game. We, we haven't had a run game
• 6:35
  all season. But you know what?
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  It hasn't mattered. The defense is figuring it out.
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  And then Kirk. Disintegrated on the field and
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  Josh Freaking Dobbs has renewed our our interest again and kept
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  us. US.
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  The Vikings. But even before Dobbs, there's
• 6:53
  the little wrinkle of Jaren Hall in there for like, a hot
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  seconds. Yeah, you know, a hot second or
• 6:59
  two or but like, I don't know, it's yeah, you're right, it it
• 7:02
  has been one of these where it's just been up and down and up and
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  down and despite the the chaos, they've won five in a row and
• 7:13
  they've won six of their last seven games.
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  And. I believe they're a game and a
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  half game and a half mathematically out of the
• 7:20
  division lead. I think the Lions are seven and
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  two, the Vikings are six and four.
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  So the Lions have played one less game.
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  And the Vikings? Their bye week is what, Week 13
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  or two more games away? Two games away.
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  We've got the Broncos this week at Denver and then come home to
• 7:36
  play the Bears. And then bye.
• 7:38
  Yep. And I believe this upcoming
• 7:40
  Bears game was my lock to lose and you're locked to win.
• 7:44
  So that's what we have to see. We haven't really touched on our
• 7:46
  locks, our pre season lock and we have it.
• 7:49
  But we should maybe we've we've got it all right behind me.
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  We'll, we'll pull that out. Maybe that's a good fodder for
• 7:55
  the bye week. Yeah, sorry about.
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  That also I believe right after the Bears game, we'll have
• 8:02
  another guest on the show on the week after the Bears game to
• 8:08
  give you a hint. We won't announce who it is, but
• 8:12
  just to give you a hint, it's a guest that we've had on the show
• 8:14
  before. So if you're just listening and
• 8:18
  not watching, I'm winking right now.
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  Yeah. Yep.
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  So for all of those people that are excited for that person.
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  Or any of the previous guests we've had on the show before.
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  Just get Prepare yourself, Get ready.
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  Let us know your guests if you reach out to us on social media
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  and let us know who you think our guest is gonna be.
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  If you're right, maybe we'll send you a sticker.
• 8:41
  Maybe. But yeah, we have winning
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  football. It's it's been an exciting
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  stretch and it's been super fun to watch the team.
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  I mean, there has still been frustrating moments.
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  There have still been like the second-half this last week
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  against the Saints where we had an outstanding first half and
• 9:05
  even more specifically and more outstanding second quarter.
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  We we put up 21 points in the second quarter against the
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  Saints, which is where the game I think was truly won.
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  But then we come out of the locker room in the second-half
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  and it just felt like Koc was just trying not to lose at that
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  point. That was frustrating.
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  Run the ball, Run the ball. Run the ball.
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  Punt. Run the ball.
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  Run the ball. Run the ball, punt.
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  And like, there was just no creativity, no excitement.
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  And the Saints almost came back. Yeah, I mean they were.
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  It came down to the wire, like, even down to the point where on
• 9:47
  one of the Vikings last drives of the game.
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  Like it ended up being a rush by.
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  Josh Dobbs on 1/3 down play and he kind of.
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  Tripped. Yeah, for like it was supposed
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  to be for like 3 or 4 yards or even two or three.
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  And you're right. He like, I don't know if it was
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  a broken play or what, but it was like a fake handoff and he
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  kind of turned around and tripped forward.
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  And I mean, that could have been a pivotal play.
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  Thankfully, it wasn't like it didn't, you know, determine the
• 10:14
  outcome of the game well. I saw there are a handful of
• 10:17
  people on Twitter that do a lot of replays and they get access
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  to the like end zone Cam and all the different other cameras
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  around the building and that play specifically.
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  Somebody mentioned that if he doesn't fall, he's got an open
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  lane. He could have taken it all the
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  way, could have. Highly unlikely, but I mean, who
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  knows It was a busted play because he goes down tripping
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  over his own shoelace or who knows what.
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  Just air, I'm pretty sure, but I'm pretty sure on that play all
• 10:50
  he had to do was get a first down and it would have been game
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  over, right? No timeouts for the Saints.
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  Kneel the ball, run out the clock, game over.
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  You're right. But yeah, that set up a fourth
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  down and a punt that got the ball back in the Saints hands
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  and they had, what, 15 seconds or something like that?
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  Yeah, something like that. To try and do something with
• 11:12
  Jameis Winston because Derek Carr had gone out with shoulder
• 11:17
  and concussion. Yeah, which you hope he's OK,
• 11:19
  but I think that was a turning point for the Saints.
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  I don't know. I mean, obviously the
• 11:25
  quarterbacks play a little bit differently.
• 11:27
  I don't know if they just you're never too lucky in the NFL.
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  Usually, like, things happen for a reason.
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  But if Jameis had some lucky throws, I mean he he did throw
• 11:40
  two late game interceptions, which probably sealed it for the
• 11:43
  Vikings. I think at that point he was
• 11:45
  just trying to force it downfield to make a play.
• 11:48
  Yeah, which has been his, his play style his entire career.
• 11:53
  Gunslinger. He throws a beautiful deep ball.
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  It's just he's also gonna throw. Didn't he throw 30 interceptions
• 12:00
  one year like? I don't remember 20 plus
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  interceptions he had that beautiful touchdown to.
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  Was it Olave that all that in the back of the end?
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  Zone. Yeah.
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  It reminded me of the almost touchdown that Jordan Addison
• 12:12
  had earlier in the game. It's just Olave's was.
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  I mean, there was no question about it.
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  That was a touchdown. Beautiful pass, beautiful catch.
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  I and you couldn't have defended it any better.
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  I think it was Byron Murphy junior on that play.
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  He couldn't have been in a better position.
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  It's just sometimes that's how it works.
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  Like, yeah. The offense, they get paid too.
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  So so anyways, you know late in the game, not even late in the
• 12:36
  game. Just in the second-half in
• 12:38
  general. Very vanilla play calling it.
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  It ended up being a lot closer than it should have been.
• 12:44
  I also wonder, Speaking of that Olave catch and then you brought
• 12:49
  up the Addison, what could have been catch coach, he challenged
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  that Jordan Addison and we saw pretty clearly on TV replay that
• 13:02
  he had his feet in bounds, but then once he hit the ground, he
• 13:07
  didn't survive the ground and the ball came out.
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  And so my question with that play is 1.
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  You've got to have somebody in the booth watching the same
• 13:18
  replays that we're watching at home like.
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  With if not you know better access to to every even more
• 13:24
  stuff that we can't see, right. So the question I have first is
• 13:29
  did Coach just like thought did he think he had a better
• 13:33
  perspective on it? He's like no, he got that, he
• 13:35
  got that and that's why he threw the red flag.
• 13:38
  And then my other question is that that was pretty early on in
• 13:41
  the game. I think that was first or second
• 13:43
  quarter. It was definitely in the first
• 13:46
  half. That's pretty early to be
• 13:48
  challenging something when we had pretty good control of the
• 13:51
  game at that point. I mean, why are why are you
• 13:54
  gonna challenge something there that you could potentially lose
• 13:59
  and then you end up losing a challenge and a time out for
• 14:04
  later on in the game when it could really matter?
• 14:07
  It seemed like maybe there with that particular instance, there
• 14:11
  were some things that could have gone better, that Kevin
• 14:14
  O'Connell could have done a little differently to net a
• 14:18
  different outcome. They may have been more
• 14:21
  positive. For sure.
• 14:22
  This kind of reminds me, I think soon after O'Connell was hired
• 14:26
  as the head coach over a year ago now, there was some news
• 14:31
  story that came out that basically O'Connell was also
• 14:36
  going to hire like a clock management liaison or like
• 14:41
  somebody to help him out, somebody to be up in the booth
• 14:44
  to kind of give him that analytic, you know, information
• 14:47
  on a play by play basis. And I feel like last season
• 14:52
  obviously a million things went right for the Vikings to go and
• 14:55
  win 13 games and KO CS first year.
• 14:59
  But I feel like we weren't talking about like these missed
• 15:03
  challenges as much and he's KO CS never been perfect with clock
• 15:08
  management. But I feel like it just it
• 15:10
  wasn't like such a detrimental thing that we noticed it too
• 15:13
  much. So I wonder if if that.
• 15:18
  One person or a couple of people that were hired to help with the
• 15:21
  analytics and potentially be a person in the booth, to be like,
• 15:25
  yeah, no challenge, it's we got a good shot at getting this
• 15:27
  challenge. I wonder if it's the same person
• 15:30
  or if they've put somebody else in that role or if they've
• 15:34
  eliminated that role or whatever.
• 15:36
  That'd be interesting to to find out and see if they still have
• 15:38
  that that eye in the sky for Koc, just to help him out with
• 15:42
  those. Punch decisions in the heat of
• 15:45
  the battle, Yeah. And I would feel like as a head
• 15:47
  coach, when you have a million different things happening all
• 15:51
  at once and you have to make a decision literally within 35
• 15:55
  seconds. Like you've got to have other
• 16:00
  people looking at all of those different aspects of the game
• 16:02
  and giving you the information you need so that you can make
• 16:05
  the best decision possible. Yeah, exactly.
• 16:07
  Like I know if it were me, which I'm never going to be a head
• 16:10
  coach of anything. But if it were me and I just had
• 16:14
  someone I knew in my ear, like, let's say a fourth down is
• 16:17
  coming up and it's kind of like, should I go for it, should we
• 16:19
  not? If I had somebody in my ear say,
• 16:22
  hey, it looks like there's a 30% chance of winning the game.
• 16:27
  If you make this 4th down, then at least you know and you can
• 16:30
  still make the decision like, yeah, that's that's good for me.
• 16:33
  Or hey, if you don't make this first down, on this fourth down
• 16:37
  play, you have a 2% chance of winning like.
• 16:40
  Maybe pun it. I don't know.
• 16:41
  Like it's only going to help you.
• 16:43
  Not that that person in the booth makes the decision, but
• 16:47
  they can make it easier. At least feeds you the
• 16:49
  information so that you can make a better decision than just
• 16:52
  like, Oh yeah, we'll just go for it and whatever, so.
• 16:56
  So yeah, I don't know if they still have that that person in
• 16:59
  the booth or wherever, you know, whoever, or if it's the same one
• 17:02
  or what's going on, but it it does seem to be a little bit
• 17:05
  more noticeable. And maybe it's just, you know,
• 17:07
  the ball has bounced a different way in the last few games and it
• 17:10
  did in those similar situations last season with that Addison
• 17:15
  catch in particular. I remember watching it live and
• 17:18
  thinking, oh, he caught that, he caught that.
• 17:20
  And the initial replay didn't show the ball popping out once
• 17:23
  he hit the ground. And so I'm thinking like, oh,
• 17:26
  good challenge, good challenge. And then right before they cut
• 17:29
  to commercial break, you see the ball pop out and then you're
• 17:32
  just like. Yeah, there's one camera angle
• 17:34
  that had plain, plain his day shot of the ball popping out.
• 17:38
  And then, I mean, that's when everybody on Twitter's just
• 17:41
  saying, like, that was a bad challenge.
• 17:43
  That was a bad challenge. Why did he challenge that?
• 17:45
  I mean, it didn't end up really affecting the game too much.
• 17:50
  He did challenge another play in the second-half that ended up
• 17:53
  like, not hurting the Vikings. They won the challenge, but it
• 17:59
  benefited the Saints more. It was kind of a weird
• 18:02
  challenge. Yeah, it was like it only
• 18:04
  benefited the Vikings because after they threw the challenge
• 18:07
  flag was like, oh crap, cuz I think it was.
• 18:10
  It looked like a catch and then a fumble with a clear recovery
• 18:15
  by the Vikings. But then after they threw, the
• 18:18
  Vikings threw the challenge flag, it became pretty clear cuz
• 18:21
  on the field they'd called it as an incomplete pass.
• 18:24
  I mean, Alvin Comerica kind of Bob Comerica Chimera.
• 18:27
  Kind of bobbled it and then so they ruled it on the field to be
• 18:31
  an incomplete pass. And Koc, I'm pretty sure was
• 18:35
  like, Nope, that was a catch and a fumble and we recovered it.
• 18:38
  So challenge flag, which when you're playing Madden, of course
• 18:42
  that's what you that's what you're going to do.
• 18:44
  But it ended up being that they determined it was a catch and he
• 18:50
  was down by contact and then lost the ball and he was down.
• 18:55
  His butt hit the ground like a fraction of a fraction of a
• 18:59
  second before the ball popped out, which is where, like, even
• 19:03
  in replay, it was tough to see. And that's why it took that one
• 19:07
  took forever to process and took forever for the officials to
• 19:10
  kind of come to a conclusion on what had actually happened.
• 19:15
  And that was a better challenge in my opinion.
• 19:17
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:18
  I think you have a strong case here.
• 19:20
  It ended up benefiting the Saints more because they got the
• 19:24
  completed catch as opposed to an incomplete pass or whatever they
• 19:29
  had originally ruled on the field and.
• 19:31
  But because they, the Vikings technically won the challenge
• 19:34
  because the ruling was changed. So the Vikings technically won
• 19:37
  it. They didn't.
• 19:38
  What was it? They didn't lose their time out.
• 19:40
  They didn't lose a time out, but because Koc had lost his first
• 19:44
  challenge in the first half, that was his final challenge of
• 19:47
  the game. Yeah, you only get an extra
• 19:49
  challenge if you if you win two in a row, yeah, yeah.
• 19:53
  So yeah, maybe they just. That's another part of looking
• 19:57
  at your your own self and scouting yourself and figuring
• 19:59
  out how you can do better when you, your starting quarterback
• 20:04
  is a guy that has been there, what, 15 days?
• 20:09
  At this point today as of the recording of this episode.
• 20:12
  You probably have bigger things to think about if that's your
• 20:15
  situation, but as long as you're winning, I don't care if you win
• 20:19
  by one point or two points like the Broncos did last night, two
• 20:23
  nights ago. Or if you win by 200 points like
• 20:26
  that still goes as one one win. So if you can mess up and still
• 20:32
  be winning, then that gives you the the leash to figure out how
• 20:36
  to fix those mistakes. Well, let's talk about this for
• 20:38
  a second. The Vikings are one of the least
• 20:40
  penalized teams in the league this season.
• 20:42
  That's huge, very huge, very disciplined, very focused.
• 20:47
  They they're just not making those silly mistakes.
• 20:51
  And at least they're not getting caught.
• 20:54
  One big thing is when Dalton Reisner, you know, you know,
• 20:57
  Chad Greenway leg, kicks it 200 feet in the air, he's lucky when
• 21:01
  he doesn't kick somebody in the face, 'cause that would have
• 21:05
  been a penalty. That video was hilarious.
• 21:09
  And him on the sideline like I almost I almost kicked that guy
• 21:12
  in the face. What a what a great addition to
• 21:16
  our team. I yeah, as of right now.
• 21:18
  I hope they resign. Dalton Reisner.
• 21:20
  I assume his contract is up at the end of the year.
• 21:24
  Yeah, there's there's that'll be a fun talker towards the end of
• 21:27
  the year. Like looking at the guys who
• 21:29
  will be free agents and who the Vikings should sign and who they
• 21:34
  shouldn't. And then that'll be, that'll be
• 21:35
  a fun episode for us. But yeah, as of right now, I
• 21:39
  want Reisner to be at least a few more years with the Vikings.
• 21:43
  He's doing good. He's yeah, he's playing great
• 21:46
  and I think he's, I think, honestly, Ed Ingram's playing
• 21:50
  better because he's there. Potentially.
• 21:52
  And yeah, maybe they just lucked into timing of Ed Ingram
• 21:56
  figuring some stuff out and getting luckier than not.
• 22:01
  I don't know. Something has worked and that
• 22:03
  offensive line has been incredible, which again, when
• 22:06
  you're starting quarterback as a guy who has been in town for two
• 22:10
  weeks, that's such a luxury to have to to know that for the
• 22:15
  most part. Your line up front is gonna hold
• 22:17
  up and he, Josh Dobbs, had so much time.
• 22:21
  Yeah, and and even on the times that he lost, you know, he
• 22:25
  didn't have much time or he, you know, held it a little too long
• 22:28
  in the pocket. He only got sacked once.
• 22:31
  Yeah. And I mean, we're used to seeing
• 22:35
  234 sacks a game on Kirk Cousins, and that's not throwing
• 22:40
  shade at Kirk Cousins. That's different.
• 22:41
  The reality of, you know, your traditional pocket passer versus
• 22:46
  a guy who can get out and run and make plays on his feet,
• 22:51
  which Josh Dobbs continue to do. I've seen regarding Dobbs and
• 22:58
  his like, his ceiling and where he is in his career and where he
• 23:02
  could be. And I've even said, I think on
• 23:05
  this podcast like I don't, I don't see him becoming out of
• 23:10
  nowhere a Pro Bowl type quarterback just because look
• 23:14
  where he's been and look what he hasn't done already.
• 23:16
  But looking at it, he's never really gotten an opportunity.
• 23:21
  His first couple years he was a backup behind Ben
• 23:24
  Roethlisberger, like even, you know, retiring Ben
• 23:28
  Roethlisberger is. Not somebody who's going to lose
• 23:31
  his job to a young journeyman, you know rookie type quarterback
• 23:35
  and then everywhere he's been, I mean you that you can see the
• 23:39
  joke about where he's been the last calendar year what 5 teams
• 23:43
  he's been to Cleveland twice. Yeah.
• 23:45
  And who, where else has he even been out?
• 23:48
  Of He was a Jaguar. I saw something.
• 23:50
  There's a picture of Jacksonville Jaguar quarterbacks
• 23:53
  Josh Dobbs. Nick Foles and Gardner Minshew
• 23:57
  all on the same team at the same time.
• 23:58
  It was a fun picture. Wow.
• 24:01
  Where else was he? Was he in Houston?
• 24:03
  No. Tennessee.
• 24:05
  Tennessee. I think so.
• 24:06
  Tennessee. I believe the Vikings, Cardinals
• 24:10
  and Titans are the only teams he started for.
• 24:12
  OK, but he's been with Cleveland twice.
• 24:15
  Yeah, and he His last stint was just an offseason deal, which
• 24:20
  that's kind of an interesting like, sub storyline with Deshaun
• 24:24
  Watson going down. Yeah, with a season ending
• 24:26
  injury this last week. So great.
• 24:28
  I love it so much. If anybody needs to have his, Oh
• 24:33
  yeah, ability to play football taken away, it's that dude.
• 24:36
  Well, I think what's more ironic for the the Browns is Dobbs is
• 24:41
  now playing well. Yeah, I mean as a starter
• 24:44
  somewhere else. He is the NF LS cover photo
• 24:46
  right now. Like the joke was that he
• 24:49
  usurped Taylor Swift as the cover photo on the NF LS pages.
• 24:53
  Like, that's awesome. Hey man, more power to you.
• 24:58
  Yeah. Any any any reason to not talk
• 25:00
  about Taylor Swift, which I'm doing right now, so whatever,
• 25:05
  he's playing into it. Josh Dobbs But to kind of go
• 25:08
  back to my point, Dobbs has never really gotten a major
• 25:12
  opportunity. Other than Yeah, he started like
• 25:15
  the last two games with the Titans a couple seasons ago.
• 25:18
  And then what, eight games with the Cardinals and they won one
• 25:22
  of those games? I'm going to chalk that up to
• 25:25
  the Cardinals being a garbage organization.
• 25:30
  We see all these videos. I tweeted about it earlier.
• 25:32
  I like, retweeted one of the Vikings videos of like Byron
• 25:35
  Murphy and Harrison Smith. It was after Byron Murphy's
• 25:39
  interception that was such a cool video.
• 25:41
  And Harrison Smith walked up. He's like, Congrats, man.
• 25:43
  Did you see me? Did you hear me yelling?
• 25:45
  You, you like? And Byron Murphy retweeted that.
• 25:47
  It's like, yeah, Harry in the play was like, no, you take
• 25:51
  this, you take this. Like Harrison Smith could have
• 25:52
  easily taken it. Oh yeah, didn't step back and
• 25:55
  let his teammate take the interception.
• 25:57
  Yep. Yep, super cool.
• 25:58
  But that just highlights I feel like as an outsider who's never
• 26:03
  set foot in the Vikings locker room, I feel like those guys
• 26:05
  play for each other. That locker room is so cohesive
• 26:09
  right now. Another cool moment was game
• 26:13
  balls. After the game in the locker
• 26:15
  room and coach gives a game ball to Ty Chandler.
• 26:21
  And he had that touchdown pulled off the board because of the
• 26:25
  Brian O'Neill holding penalty. And Brian O'Neill comes up to
• 26:27
  him and puts his hand around him.
• 26:29
  He goes, I owe you one man. Like, you're right, these guys
• 26:33
  are playing for each other. And I said it last week and I
• 26:36
  think I've even said it in previous weeks, like the culture
• 26:39
  of this team is built different than any other team in the
• 26:44
  league that I've seen. And we only really closely
• 26:47
  follow the Vikings. So we can't speak knowledgeably
• 26:50
  about all 31 other teams in the league.
• 26:53
  But I I truly think that the, the brotherly love that this
• 26:58
  team has makes it. It makes it different.
• 27:01
  And it's the reason they've been so resilient through an O and
• 27:05
  three start, a one and four start.
• 27:07
  Losing their starting quarterback, losing Justin
• 27:09
  Jefferson, which by the way, they've won five in a row
• 27:11
  without him. Yeah, that's crazy.
• 27:13
  Which is unbelievable. Losing, playing a few games
• 27:16
  without Darasaw and a lot of other injuries that, I mean, we
• 27:22
  don't have time to mention, probably because it would take
• 27:25
  the rest of the episode. Jordan Hicks went down this last
• 27:28
  week. That'll be a big hit for the the
• 27:30
  defense. I mean, just blow after blow
• 27:34
  after blow. And here they are, 6 and four.
• 27:38
  Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah and all that to go back to
• 27:42
  Dobbs and his other biggest opportunity is a starter with
• 27:46
  Arizona. You just the meet the what we
• 27:49
  hear about the Cardinals from you know our seats here in Iowa
• 27:53
  is. The organization, like, they
• 27:56
  make you pay for lunch and the head coach is not that great and
• 28:01
  obviously they're a losing team right now.
• 28:03
  And who's the quarterback? Blah, blah, blah.
• 28:05
  How would anyone thrive in that that locker room in that
• 28:10
  situation? And maybe it's just Dobbs
• 28:13
  getting out of that situation and being like I have to focus
• 28:17
  100% on football. So we're reaping the benefits of
• 28:20
  that. It's been fun to listen to
• 28:21
  Dalton rise in their talk. Oh yeah, post game locker room
• 28:26
  interviews, just like he talks about that and he's very open
• 28:30
  and transparent. And I think I think it was the
• 28:35
  Vikings were two and four, so it would have been after Week 6,
• 28:41
  whoever they played that week. Anyways, he made the comment to
• 28:45
  whoever was interviewing and just said we're not a two and
• 28:49
  four team. I've been on a two and four team
• 28:52
  the last three seasons referring to the Broncos, which Oh yeah, I
• 28:57
  can play. So yeah, that's kind of a fun
• 29:00
  storyline. But he said that this team is
• 29:03
  not like those teams. This team is different.
• 29:06
  And I've I've really appreciated his perspective this season and
• 29:10
  I've watched several of those post game interviews in the
• 29:13
  locker room because he brings that kind of fresh perspective.
• 29:19
  He hasn't been around. He wasn't there last year.
• 29:22
  He doesn't know Kevin O'Connell or these guys as well as those
• 29:27
  that have been around for a year or two.
• 29:28
  So yeah, it's just been fun to kind of get his perspective as a
• 29:34
  a newcomer to the team. Yeah.
• 29:36
  And and yeah, we gush on our perspective of what we think the
• 29:41
  locker room is like and what we think as outsiders.
• 29:45
  It's like to work with that coaching staff and how everybody
• 29:48
  feels in that that area, in that facility every day.
• 29:53
  Honestly, we we can't know. I mean, as I say about Kirk
• 29:56
  Cousins all the time, unless it's all an act, you know, like
• 29:59
  unless all this media stuff that's coming out and these
• 30:02
  interviews, unless it's all fake for some cameras, which would be
• 30:05
  extremely hard to do for a professional football team to
• 30:09
  like, have to put on a a happy face during these locker room
• 30:13
  interactions. I I think it speaks volumes to
• 30:17
  the GM and mostly the coach. I think Koc, it starts with him
• 30:21
  to to bring that energy and that leadership to make it a good
• 30:28
  place for these players to go every day.
• 30:31
  A good place to go to work, you know, and to be happy and to be
• 30:35
  a good teammate. He was.
• 30:37
  He was miked up. Kevin O'Connell was miked up.
• 30:39
  Did you watch any of that? I saw some, I saw the like.
• 30:42
  Arms out. Like, what the heck, after Josh
• 30:46
  had that crazy rushing touchdown?
• 30:48
  Oh, that was that was awesome. I I wish we could have been in
• 30:53
  the stadium when that happened. That place had to have been
• 30:56
  electric. Yeah, it probably similar to
• 30:59
  when we watched Kirk Cousins on I think The Last Longest
• 31:04
  Vikings. Quarterback, quarterback,
• 31:07
  touchdown against the Cardinals when we were there last season,
• 31:10
  Yeah. So which?
• 31:11
  That was electric, but I can't even imagine.
• 31:13
  It's got to be a whole enlightened sense of excitement
• 31:17
  in that stadium right now with Josh Dobbs.
• 31:19
  Like, for sure. For sure.
• 31:22
  Anyways, just a plug for anybody listening in for you.
• 31:27
  Go and listen to the whole Kevin O'Connell they did like the
• 31:31
  Vikings did on YouTube. Like a like a combo video
• 31:35
  between Harrison's Phillips, Harrison Phillips and Koc.
• 31:39
  They were both miked up against the Saints at home and both were
• 31:44
  worth listening to. But it was it was really fun to
• 31:48
  Of course they're not going to like publish any of the actual
• 31:53
  play calls that Koc gives. But you could just hear just the
• 31:57
  like the calm, cool, collected, like he's talking to Josh Dobbs
• 32:02
  in his headset and he's just like, you need to play again.
• 32:04
  All right. Here you go, man.
• 32:06
  I did see that. Yeah.
• 32:07
  He just give it to you again. Yeah.
• 32:09
  He just, he's not rattled. He's not faced.
• 32:11
  He's not mad. He's not upset.
• 32:14
  He's just like, all right, here we go.
• 32:15
  And I mean just, you know, giving him options like, hey,
• 32:20
  you've got check downs if you need them.
• 32:22
  Use your feet if you need to like, go out and do what you
• 32:26
  need to do, man. A lot of trust, which was fun to
• 32:29
  see. Well, I I tweeted during the
• 32:33
  game. That I feel like KOC is It's out
• 32:39
  of necessity. But I feel like he is unlocking
• 32:41
  a whole new enjoyment, a whole new skill set out of being a
• 32:46
  play caller and a coach. When it comes to a quarterback
• 32:51
  that's been there for less than two weeks, I feel like KOC has
• 32:56
  to read the field more from the sidelines.
• 33:02
  As if he were the quarterback. And it's only helping that KFC
• 33:07
  did play NFL quarterback. I think I saw last last week or
• 33:13
  this week he had a quote where it's basically like, yeah, you
• 33:19
  can be the best classroom quarterback in the world.
• 33:23
  You can be a Hall of Famer in the classroom, and even to step
• 33:26
  out on the field and read the defense and be able to perfectly
• 33:29
  know exactly what's going to happen.
• 33:31
  And everything go perfectly right.
• 33:34
  But maybe you just can't make that throw to to score a
• 33:37
  touchdown. And maybe you'll never.
• 33:39
  You'll know I have to throw it right here, right now at this
• 33:43
  perfect time. And if I do that every single
• 33:45
  time because I'm reading the defense, it's going to be a
• 33:47
  touchdown, we're going to win the game.
• 33:49
  But maybe you just can't make that throw.
• 33:50
  And he even said, like, I just, you know, a lot of times I just
• 33:53
  couldn't make that throw. But that's a huge difference
• 33:57
  between like. He could have been a Hall of
• 33:59
  Famer. You know as far as the classroom
• 34:01
  part of being a quarterback goes, the pre snap reads, the
• 34:05
  the game planning, he could have been you know the greatest of
• 34:08
  all time and he didn't say that. He could have been.
• 34:10
  I'm just saying. But if you can't make that throw
• 34:13
  and then you got to find you got to become a coach and then find
• 34:16
  the guy that can make that throw and teach him how to read the
• 34:19
  field that way, which I feel like that's kind of what we're
• 34:21
  seeing with with KFC. And then there he seems to be OK
• 34:26
  with like, hey. Here's your read.
• 34:28
  Here's the play. If it breaks down, you know what
• 34:31
  to do. Just go run it like we'll we'll
• 34:32
  live to see another down and maybe you'll run for a almost 20
• 34:36
  yard touchdown like you just never know.
• 34:39
  I think you mentioned this before we started recording, but
• 34:42
  you had a theory that maybe the Dobbs rushing touchdown was
• 34:49
  something that KFC had drawn up that he was really hoping to
• 34:52
  see, and it wasn't the Dobbs Rushing touchdown.
• 34:55
  Well, yeah, if you if you watch that, like you said the Vikings
• 34:58
  YouTube clip, as he's like watching the play happen, you
• 35:03
  just see KFC like what? What's going on?
• 35:06
  Like what? Oh, he's running.
• 35:08
  What? And then he scores a touchdown.
• 35:10
  The stadium goes nuts. He doesn't look mad, but he's
• 35:12
  touching his head. Like what?
• 35:14
  What just happened? Like, and whoever he's talking
• 35:17
  to in his headset, he's like, did you, did you see that?
• 35:19
  Like, he just pointed that way and he just ran for a touchdown.
• 35:22
  Like what? And then as Dobbs is running to
• 35:24
  the sideline, he just puts his arms over like, what are what
• 35:27
  are you doing? Like, wow.
• 35:28
  Like, OK, like, we'll go for it. Hey, we got six there.
• 35:32
  It it almost seemed like obviously he wasn't mad about a
• 35:35
  touchdown, but like it almost seemed like maybe he had drawn
• 35:39
  up. And called at the perfect time,
• 35:42
  like he was waiting for this defense to show up a certain way
• 35:45
  in this part of the field. And he called what he thought
• 35:48
  was the perfect play. He's like, oh, it's going to be
• 35:50
  perfect. It's going to be a end zone,
• 35:52
  like a touchdown on the off shoulder of this.
• 35:55
  And it's going to be amazing. I'm going to get so much praise
• 35:57
  for this play call. And then like that doesn't
• 36:00
  happen at all, but it's still a touchdown.
• 36:02
  And all you have to do is like, OK, like, let's go.
• 36:05
  Like, you have to be happy about that.
• 36:07
  Yeah. And he'll he'll never be the guy
• 36:09
  that's like, oh, I did have the perfect play call.
• 36:11
  You know, it did break down. And now he'll just be like, no,
• 36:14
  Josh made a great play. Yeah, and to to your point too,
• 36:18
  even if you know Josh starts around him and he loses 30
• 36:21
  yards, maybe we'd see the sideline video of him like Josh,
• 36:25
  what are you doing? You had.
• 36:26
  You could have thrown this way, or throw it away like.
• 36:28
  But he would have never gone to the the press conference after
• 36:31
  the game been like, yeah, I had the perfect play called like it
• 36:34
  just it is what it is. Well, and we've seen chaos.
• 36:37
  He like put his arm around Kirk, 'cause I think something we've
• 36:40
  seen with Kirk Cousins in the last handful of years is he he
• 36:43
  gets a little bit of a hot head. Oh yeah, When when games get
• 36:46
  really, really intense and maybe he throws a pick or something
• 36:51
  happens that ends a drive and he's got to come off the maybe
• 36:54
  he throws an incomplete pass or whatever.
• 36:57
  I can think of a handful of instances where Kirk has just
• 37:00
  been frustrated visibly. Like you can almost see the
• 37:04
  steam coming off of his head as he's walking off the sideline
• 37:07
  and you just, you never see Koc freak out.
• 37:12
  You know? He just puts his arm around and
• 37:14
  like, hey, it's all right, we'll make it work.
• 37:17
  It's OK. Calm down.
• 37:18
  I think the most angry, and sure, if we really, you know,
• 37:22
  paid attention to him at every second of every game for his
• 37:25
  entire career so far, we could point out like one thing where
• 37:28
  he's, like freaked out right there.
• 37:29
  But I think the most angry he's ever seemed as the Vikings head
• 37:34
  coach, at least publicly, was one of his press conferences
• 37:38
  earlier in the season where he's talking about guys fumbling.
• 37:41
  And he's like, yeah, it's a problem we need to fix.
• 37:43
  And if we can't, then we need to.
• 37:45
  Get some other guys in there that can, you know, fix this
• 37:47
  problem. And and we haven't seen as many
• 37:51
  fumbles since then. Yep, so that problem has
• 37:55
  resolved itself for the most part, which is good.
• 37:58
  Dang it, Evan. Where's the wood we've got?
• 38:00
  We've got plenty. Yeah, there you go cuz to talk
• 38:04
  about the Broncos game. Like, that's one of the huge
• 38:07
  reasons the Bills one of the better teams in the league.
• 38:11
  They lost to the Broncos a couple days ago is because they
• 38:13
  couldn't stop turning the ball over.
• 38:16
  I think they turned. They fumble it.
• 38:18
  James Cook fumble it on the 1st. Offensive play of the game,
• 38:21
  yeah, and then he got benched for a little bit and to his
• 38:25
  credit, he came out and he started running like a maniac
• 38:27
  and had close to 100 yards, if not 100 yards.
• 38:31
  But Josh Allen, what do you throw at 2 picks, 3 picks,
• 38:35
  something like that? Yeah, he they just they couldn't
• 38:37
  stop turning the ball over. And ultimately they'd lost.
• 38:41
  By two points even. I mean the this isn't a Bill's
• 38:45
  podcast, but even to the point that that it came down to a last
• 38:51
  second field goal attempt for the Broncos 'cause they're the
• 38:53
  Broncos were down by 1 and it was something like a what?
• 38:57
  30 ish yard field goal. They came out, clock was
• 39:01
  running, no timeouts left. I think it was a little bit
• 39:03
  longer initially. Yeah.
• 39:05
  Well, yeah, yeah. But yeah, they.
• 39:09
  Rushed the field goal team out and set everything up and barely
• 39:15
  missed the kick. Will Lutz barely missed that
• 39:18
  kick. It was wide right by like it
• 39:20
  seemed like a yard. And then all of a sudden, Oh no,
• 39:23
  the Bills messed up. They pulled the Vikings and
• 39:25
  there were 12 men on the field. And if not for that one mistake
• 39:30
  compiled by all the other mistakes throughout the game,
• 39:34
  the Bills send the Broncos home as losers.
• 39:37
  But. So the Vikings going up against
• 39:41
  the Broncos, need to keep their mistakes in check.
• 39:44
  You mentioned earlier they're one of the least penalized teams
• 39:47
  in the league. They need to keep that up.
• 39:49
  The turnovers, which they're prone to turn the ball over.
• 39:54
  They need to continue to not turn the ball over.
• 39:56
  Josh Dobbs fumble it three times in his first game over.
• 40:00
  You know, over a week ago, I don't think he had any fumbles
• 40:02
  against the Saints. We didn't turn the ball over,
• 40:05
  which, Oh yeah, you said. If the Vikings don't turn the
• 40:08
  ball over, they'll win the game. Well, here we are.
• 40:11
  They finally completed a game without a turnover and they won
• 40:14
  the game. Yeah, so prove me right.
• 40:16
  You know, it's a small sample size, but yeah, and I mean, I,
• 40:20
  I, I think traveling to Denver presents some interesting
• 40:25
  challenges. Playing at altitude is
• 40:27
  different. Playing outside in the middle of
• 40:30
  November in Denver is different. It'll be cold, probably.
• 40:36
  And then playing on Sunday night, prime time?
• 40:40
  That's different too. Oh yeah, that a whole different
• 40:44
  set of variables there. And then you add in the wrinkle
• 40:48
  that the Broncos are riding this three-game win streak
• 40:52
  themselves. I like how you said they're
• 40:54
  riding it. That's right.
• 40:59
  Oh, man, that's so bad. I I hate Russell Wilson just
• 41:03
  because he's so cheesy and I feel like he's a robot.
• 41:07
  And what was what it was his video that he posted this week
• 41:10
  He he like, I forget what buzzword he used, but he used
• 41:14
  some buzzword. This is how bad it was.
• 41:16
  I don't even remember what it was.
• 41:20
  But he's like, you know, selfie. Like at his house, by his pool
• 41:24
  or whatever, like. Was it the unlimited thing?
• 41:26
  That's what it was. That's from.
• 41:28
  A few years ago. Oh really?
• 41:29
  I thought I I'd never even seen it.
• 41:32
  So I thought it was from like this week.
• 41:33
  No, it's it's so cringy, 'cause he's like, I've been thinking
• 41:37
  about what my alter ego should be.
• 41:40
  Yeah, you know, if you're going to be awesome, you're going to
• 41:42
  be unlimited, Like you're going to be Mr. Unlimited.
• 41:46
  I don't care who you are, how many millions of dollars you
• 41:50
  make. You're not cool.
• 41:52
  If you say that you are Mr. Unlimited, like it's so
• 41:55
  annoying. Like I'd hate myself for just
• 41:57
  saying that right now. And yeah, he seems like not a
• 42:01
  real person like R2D2 or C3PO like his.
• 42:06
  His AI hasn't been figured out quite right, and I just hope he
• 42:12
  doesn't tear up the Vikings secondary well.
• 42:16
  Hopefully the Vikings defensive line can get after him and put
• 42:19
  him in the dirt quite a bit. Yeah, get Daniel some some
• 42:23
  runtime. DJ Wanam.
• 42:24
  How good has he been looking? My goodness, both of those guys
• 42:28
  coming off the edge have looked great and and the Vikings picked
• 42:33
  up previously #55, Now number 54 Anthony.
• 42:39
  Barr Yeah, yeah, that's that's intriguing.
• 42:41
  It seems kind of like another Madden move, but when you lose a
• 42:46
  guy like Jordan Hicks for. Who knows how long they've kind
• 42:50
  of, I mean they've said that Jordan Hicks is what what's the
• 42:54
  the the injury he had. So he had compartment syndrome,
• 42:58
  which if I understand it correctly, it's swelling within
• 43:03
  a compartment in your muscle where it like it can't like
• 43:07
  expand. And so generally for most people
• 43:13
  compartment syndrome isn't going to be super bad, it just means
• 43:17
  you need to stop being active for a while.
• 43:20
  But in his situation, it was like, yeah, we need to operate
• 43:23
  on this right away. Or like it could get way, way
• 43:27
  worse. Yeah, they they made it sound
• 43:29
  like had they not acted as quickly as they did, it could
• 43:32
  have become severe. So ultimately, I mean as far as
• 43:37
  health wise, he's going to be OK, but.
• 43:39
  I don't know if that means he misses.
• 43:42
  Well, no, they they put him on IR, didn't they?
• 43:44
  Yeah. So he's out for four weeks.
• 43:45
  At least, yeah so but for initially it was kind of
• 43:49
  confusing. And even now, like is it 4 weeks
• 43:51
  or is it like the whole season? You don't know and you
• 43:56
  definitely felt it against the Saints when he came off the
• 43:59
  field. Well that's really when they
• 44:02
  were able to kind of come back and make some plays and yeah and
• 44:06
  he's he's definitely the he's the captain.
• 44:12
  I mean he's the he's the What is the term that they use for the
• 44:17
  the one with the headset? Is he the mic the they call him?
• 44:21
  Well, he he wears the green dot. The green dot, That's.
• 44:23
  What I say so I think he's is he an inside linebacker?
• 44:26
  Cuz it's 3-4 defense. The mic would be the middle
• 44:29
  linebacker, sure, but I think he's just one of the defense.
• 44:34
  He's one of the two listed inside linebackers.
• 44:38
  Because the outside would be Daniel.
• 44:40
  And shoot, I don't even know Patrick Jones.
• 44:43
  I'm not sure who we should know this.
• 44:47
  But yeah, like you said, Vikings signed former Viking Pro Bowler
• 44:53
  Anthony Barr. So this might be one of the
• 44:56
  better defenses he enters into. I think even coming out of
• 45:01
  college, they kept saying like Anthony Barr, he's he's better
• 45:04
  served in the 3-4 defense. Which for his entire Vikings
• 45:08
  career, I'm pretty sure they were in the four three defense,
• 45:11
  which there is a pretty big difference.
• 45:15
  So it'll be interesting to see one if he gets play time and if
• 45:21
  he's not just a depth guy, which something is wrong if he gets a
• 45:27
  lot of play time, even this week, because you don't just
• 45:30
  sign a guy off the street who doesn't know he knows the area,
• 45:33
  he knows the facility. He knows some of his teammates,
• 45:36
  but he doesn't know the defense. Like, he's never played in this
• 45:39
  defense. Yeah, I wouldn't expect him to
• 45:41
  play a lot this week and and probably not even next week
• 45:44
  against the Bears. But I could see him coming out
• 45:47
  after the bye after having some time to acclimate to this Brian
• 45:51
  Flores defense and really, really get comfortable in the
• 45:56
  system. Yep, Well, and I'm pretty sure
• 45:58
  he's on the practice squad, so he'd have to be elevated, I
• 46:02
  think even. It would be very telling if he
• 46:04
  was elevated for the Broncos game because then that means
• 46:09
  they need more, more bodies in there at the linebacker
• 46:13
  position. So well, and I've said this
• 46:15
  before and I know he's listed as a safety, but Josh Matellis,
• 46:19
  man, I feel like that guy, he's not.
• 46:23
  He looks bigger than he is in his pads on the field.
• 46:27
  I've looked at his like weight and height.
• 46:31
  He's he's a little shorter which makes him look a little stockier
• 46:35
  maybe. But I don't know he he's played
• 46:39
  that linebacker position effectively before, even though
• 46:43
  he lines up as a safety. And I think that's what's
• 46:45
  interesting about Brian Flores defense is you got guys coming
• 46:50
  from all different directions and and Flores just thrives on
• 46:54
  chaos and thrives on confusing the opposing offense and
• 46:59
  confusing the opposing quarterback and and that's where
• 47:04
  he finds success. But anyways, Josh Mattellis I
• 47:08
  think has effectively played that like middle linebacker kind
• 47:12
  of inside linebacker position before.
• 47:17
  I heard in Anthony Barr's kind of like welcome back press
• 47:23
  conference, they were talking about the AA gap blitz and they
• 47:28
  were like, well, yeah, you used to run that all the time with
• 47:30
  Zimmer when you were here. You know, do you think you'll be
• 47:35
  a part of some of those type of things here with the Flores
• 47:38
  defense? He's like, well, yeah,
• 47:40
  definitely blah blah. And as I'm watching that, I'm
• 47:43
  just thinking like, yeah, we've seen Mattelis in that exact
• 47:46
  situation as a safety. Yep.
• 47:48
  Coming in on that double leg blitz and being very effective
• 47:53
  in that role. So I I don't know.
• 47:55
  I I feel like even without Barr in the next couple of weeks,
• 47:59
  you've got guys that maybe aren't listed as linebackers
• 48:03
  that can effectively play that position.
• 48:06
  Yeah, absolutely. I think also to your point, the
• 48:12
  Brian Flores defense, everyone in the backfield, so not on the
• 48:15
  line, everyone in the backfield, they're so fluid.
• 48:18
  There's I mean, you just need to watch a series of Vikings
• 48:21
  defense right now to see how much movement there is pre snap
• 48:25
  like Harrison Smith does. Like six wind sprints before the
• 48:28
  balls even snapped like. And it's not just him.
• 48:31
  They're all moving around. And that's the design of the
• 48:33
  defense. Did you see that one play?
• 48:35
  This was another one of those plays where somebody broke it
• 48:38
  down on Twitter, but Harrison Phillips was lined up a little
• 48:44
  bit to one side of the center, and then right before the ball
• 48:49
  snapped, shifts over and Mattelis was right behind him.
• 48:54
  And if Phillips doesn't shift over whatever video I was
• 49:00
  watching, I should find this to give credit to whom credit is
• 49:03
  due. But they did a great job of
• 49:05
  breaking down. Like OK, when the offense first
• 49:09
  comes up to the ball, this is who's blocking who based on what
• 49:13
  the offense is looking at. And then Phillips shifts over
• 49:17
  one guy, one guy moves over over the center and it just blows up
• 49:22
  the whole play. Mattelis has a free shot right
• 49:25
  at Derek Carr and takes him down.
• 49:28
  Yeah, absolutely. And I've I noticed a couple of
• 49:31
  times that Phillips shift, it's kind of quick, kind of violent
• 49:36
  and it's like out of nowhere, like you don't expect it at all.
• 49:39
  It's like, holy cow, it's almost like like what are you doing?
• 49:42
  And then boom and like, so he did that a couple of times.
• 49:45
  But I know I, I did see the same breakdown you saw.
• 49:47
  I I wanna say that was Will Raggetts.
• 49:51
  I don't think it was. I don't think it was him.
• 49:53
  I think it was somebody else. And there's also another guy
• 49:55
  that's doing a lot of good stuff.
• 49:57
  I'm I'm gonna butcher his name. Leighton Glodoc.
• 50:02
  I've seen some of his stuff, too.
• 50:03
  Yeah, it's not. He followed us on on Twitter, by
• 50:05
  the way. Yeah, there you go.
• 50:06
  It's not either of those guys. Yeah, I'd recognize it if I saw
• 50:10
  it. OK, maybe I have to dig through
• 50:11
  and find it again. I may have bookmarked it on
• 50:14
  Twitter somewhere. But anyways, it was it was
• 50:17
  fascinating to watch. Cuz there's like, man, 11 little
• 50:21
  movement. And it's not like Harrison
• 50:23
  Phillips, like, went to a completely different side of
• 50:26
  like he just shifted over one guy.
• 50:28
  Could change the read of the offensive line blocking system
• 50:32
  completely. You never know like, and it was
• 50:34
  it was so close to the snap that the center nor the quarterback
• 50:40
  had any chance to, like, adjust. Yep.
• 50:43
  It was just like boom, snap, sack, all in and and it was
• 50:49
  just, it was beautiful. It was just textbook.
• 50:51
  Like, wow, that was something they practice that was cool to
• 50:54
  watch. And to that point, it took a
• 50:57
  little bit for the Vikings defense to to start performing
• 51:02
  well, and it seems like maybe they just had to get down the
• 51:06
  Brian Flores defense. Obviously, they've been doing
• 51:10
  pretty darn well the last handful of games.
• 51:12
  This whole win streak, they've been doing OK.
• 51:14
  So when you bring in a new guy like Anthony Barr.
• 51:17
  Or when a guy that's been injured starts thinking about
• 51:20
  coming back, like, I'm thinking of Davenport, Marcus Davenport.
• 51:23
  If he does come back, you wonder, like, is that going to
• 51:26
  be a hindrance? Like, are they up to speed on
• 51:29
  the playbook and the nuance of even the stuff that's not in the
• 51:33
  playbook, like, oh, Harrison Smith telling Byron Murphy like,
• 51:37
  you're in position, you you, you like that could have been
• 51:40
  devastating if Harry tells him that.
• 51:42
  And then, for whatever reason, Murphy's not on the same page
• 51:45
  and drops the interception. Not devastating.
• 51:48
  They probably still win, but like stuff like that, that whole
• 51:52
  you, you, you and then you catch the ball.
• 51:54
  Like that's just playing together and knowing each other
• 51:57
  and almost like hearing you, you, you without having anybody
• 52:01
  say it. You know it's chemistry.
• 52:03
  So hopefully Barr gets it up to speed.
• 52:06
  It'd be nice. I like Anthony Dubar.
• 52:08
  I'm excited for the signing, but it'd be nice if.
• 52:12
  He doesn't see the field because that means the likes of Ivan
• 52:15
  Pace and Andre Carter are playing very well and Josh
• 52:19
  Matellis are playing very well. And I don't think, I think if
• 52:23
  Anthony Barr gets in, that doesn't mean, you know, we have
• 52:25
  to be concerned about Andre Carter or Ivan Pace, but it'd be
• 52:29
  nice if we didn't have to worry about it.
• 52:31
  I think a lot of Vikings fans would like to see Anthony Barr
• 52:34
  back out there. It will be weird to see him and
• 52:36
  his college teammate and Viking teammates #54.
• 52:41
  I guess he did reach out and got the quote UN quote blessing from
• 52:45
  Eric Kendricks to wear that 54 but which is kind of a a cool
• 52:48
  story but that is cool. It will be weird.
• 52:51
  Like it's cool. A bar wearing 54.
• 52:53
  Where has he played Anthony Barr?
• 52:55
  I know he was a Cowboy after the Vikings.
• 52:57
  I think that's it. He played last season for the
• 52:59
  Cowboys and then they released him 'cause he got hurt at the
• 53:02
  end of last. Has it only been one season
• 53:04
  without Anthony Barr? Yeah.
• 53:06
  Wow. OK.
• 53:08
  Feels like forever. I guess he was a Zimmer guy.
• 53:10
  He was Zimmer's first draft pick and not that Zimmer was making
• 53:14
  those draft picks, but yeah, I looked it up today.
• 53:16
  He played from 14 to 21 and then played for Dallas last year.
• 53:21
  I think he started 10 games, played in 14 or something like
• 53:25
  that, got injured hamstring or something and then was released.
• 53:30
  Interesting the end of the season and no one signed him in
• 53:32
  the offseason. Here we are, November 15th, and
• 53:38
  he's a Viking again. Hey, I'll take it.
• 53:40
  So hey, we're both empty, so we need to refill quick and then we
• 53:45
  should talk about the the keys to the game.
• 53:47
  Keys to this upcoming game. Yes, to the Broncos game.
• 53:50
  We've kind of touched on a few of them.
• 53:53
  Yeah, we've we've been fluid in talking about that a little bit.
• 54:00
  You kind of have written down what do we do at quarterback,
• 54:03
  which I think we both know the answer to that question.
• 54:06
  Well, I I just think that's an ongoing conversation, right.
• 54:09
  Like Jaren, Hall as of today, as of November 15th is still
• 54:16
  limited in practice, which means he's probably not going to play
• 54:21
  this. Week.
• 54:23
  Well, I mean he, he could turn it around.
• 54:25
  He could still be active, could be and could be the backup or.
• 54:29
  Theoretically healthy enough to be the backup suited up, but.
• 54:33
  Need a fresh school here? Yeah, let me let me get the the
• 54:36
  foam down a little bit. You you're.
• 54:38
  I don't know. I'm I'm off my game right now.
• 54:40
  Although they say you're supposed to have a hard pour to
• 54:44
  some extent. So this is for the YouTube
• 54:47
  viewers right now. I've got about, what, 2 inches
• 54:52
  of foam here? Basically 2/3 of your glass?
• 54:55
  Yeah, or 1/3 of your glass. It'll it'll figure it out.
• 54:59
  I'm going to blame it on the football glass.
• 55:05
  But yeah, I think school. That's school, quarterback
• 55:10
  situation, obviously. Josh Dobbs, he's the starter, I
• 55:14
  think the unquestioned starter right now.
• 55:17
  He was on the injury report for today.
• 55:20
  He was a full participant according to the injury report,
• 55:23
  but apparently there's an ankle issue.
• 55:27
  Let's hope that doesn't turn up anymore.
• 55:30
  Let's hope tomorrow he's not on the injury report.
• 55:34
  But yeah, I don't think there's any question right now.
• 55:37
  He is the starter until he loses that job.
• 55:40
  Yeah. I don't think there's any
• 55:41
  question right now in the immediate future.
• 55:43
  But I mean, I mean, what do you do if he has a bad game this
• 55:46
  week against Denver and Jaren Hall's healthy.
• 55:49
  What do you do if he has a bad game against Chicago in two
• 55:52
  weeks and you go into the bye week and Jaren Hall's healthy
• 55:56
  coming back, what do you do? I I definitely think there's
• 55:59
  still a little bit of uncertainty there.
• 56:01
  It's not like it's not like when Kirk Cousins went down and it's
• 56:06
  like, yeah, oh crap, what do we do?
• 56:10
  And I I guess at that point we had Jaren Hall and it was like,
• 56:13
  well we're just gonna roll with him and we'll see what happens.
• 56:18
  But yeah, it it's definitely it is Josh Dobbs job until he loses
• 56:23
  it. I agree 100%, but I don't know,
• 56:29
  you know there there's a chance that he does lose it and and
• 56:32
  maybe the magic wears off and maybe the pasture not as
• 56:36
  grounded. I mean, that's always a
• 56:38
  possibility, but I mean, even nobody is safe from that.
• 56:43
  I mean, if you know Dalton Reisner starts screwing up a
• 56:47
  bunch, he's going to lose his job.
• 56:49
  You know, if if JJ just suddenly can't ever catch a ball again,
• 56:54
  his leash is only so long. Like.
• 56:57
  You're JJ's leash is very long right now.
• 57:01
  But I mean everybody's got a leash, right?
• 57:04
  Like everybody has a certain limit until they lose their job.
• 57:08
  If Kirk this year, if he wouldn't have gotten injured
• 57:11
  against the Packers and he came out and who is the next game
• 57:14
  against the crap? The Falcons.
• 57:18
  If he had been fully healthy and then was a starter again against
• 57:22
  the Falcons and threw 3 interceptions.
• 57:25
  Yeah, I mean, you're a little annoyed, but you're not.
• 57:28
  He'll play the Koc. Is not going to bench him for
• 57:31
  one game where he throws 3 interceptions.
• 57:34
  Now if he throws 3 interceptions in one game and then another
• 57:37
  three in another game and then another three in another game
• 57:40
  and you're on a losing streak, then even Kirk Cousins lease is
• 57:43
  pretty short. Dobbs has earned a little bit of
• 57:47
  a leash. Kind of came in.
• 57:50
  He was the only option when he came in.
• 57:52
  Against the Falcons, I mean, I think it was the only healthy
• 57:55
  quarterback. We were talking about KM Akers
• 57:57
  coming in as the emergency third guy.
• 57:59
  Yeah, But now, like you said, I think it's Josh Dobbs job to
• 58:04
  lose and to the whole 3 interceptions.
• 58:08
  Example if he comes out against the Broncos and let's say Jaron
• 58:12
  Hall is fully healthy and in the first half Dobbs throws 3
• 58:16
  interceptions and has like 10 yards passing.
• 58:20
  That leash is really short and that's when everybody's saying
• 58:23
  all right, the magic's done, the pasture not has been grounded
• 58:27
  and we need to see what Jaron Hall does for us.
• 58:31
  But I mean that's the truth for any non MVP level quarterback.
• 58:37
  You come out, you have a bad outing, the fans are clamoring
• 58:41
  immediately after the first interception for the backup to
• 58:44
  be in there, but I think as of right now we've only seen good
• 58:48
  things. It's his job to lose.
• 58:52
  Yeah, unrelated to the quarterback job.
• 58:57
  If Alexander Madison doesn't suffer A concussion this week,
• 59:02
  do you think there are any major changes at running back given
• 59:06
  his production? I mean, as far as like the role
• 59:10
  of a starter, they seem pretty content to have him be RB1 and
• 59:15
  they they've shown that even after trading for a guy who was
• 59:18
  playing. Seemingly just as well in Cam
• 59:21
  Acres, but we already saw it like this before Madison's
• 59:26
  concussion. That game was the most we had
• 59:29
  seen Ty Chandler all season. Now granted we had Cam Acres as
• 59:33
  well, but it seemed a lot more balanced without Cam Acres.
• 59:38
  They seemed to like kind of wake up to having a more balanced
• 59:41
  rushing attack. And yeah, we saw.
• 59:45
  A lot more of Ty Chandler or even any backup running back
• 59:49
  than we have all season, which I think is only going to be the
• 59:53
  case. Obviously it's going to be the
• 59:55
  case right now because Madison's in the concussion protocol.
• 59:59
  But even when he's back fully healthy, you're only going to
• 1:00:02
  see. Hopefully you're only going to
• 1:00:04
  see more running backs until somebody plants their flag on
• 1:00:08
  that starting position if. Ty Chandler comes out and rushes
• 1:00:13
  for 300 yards against the Broncos.
• 1:00:16
  Who's the RB one now? Like, I don't care who's healthy
• 1:00:19
  and who's not. If you have a guy explode, his
• 1:00:22
  leash gets a little bit longer and maybe they switch up jobs
• 1:00:26
  and. It was interesting to see.
• 1:00:28
  I mean, not only was Anthony Barr brought in this week, but
• 1:00:31
  Miles Gaskin sign of the practice squad, so.
• 1:00:36
  Adding a little bit more depth, albeit on the practice squad for
• 1:00:39
  now. But I mean, your starting
• 1:00:43
  running back is at this point Tai Chandler, right?
• 1:00:48
  I think at at this moment, even if like Madison suddenly is
• 1:00:55
  passing the concussion protocol. He didn't participate in
• 1:00:59
  practice. Yeah, he's still in the
• 1:01:01
  protocol. So at this moment, I mean
• 1:01:03
  unquestioned Ty Chandler is RB1 right now and starting against
• 1:01:08
  the Broncos and even if he kind of if Madison kind of comes back
• 1:01:11
  and is cleared to play, I think they're still cautious with him.
• 1:01:15
  The Vikings this season have been quick to be cautious with
• 1:01:21
  players. I think of Marcus Davenport even
• 1:01:23
  before he was on IR, like they they kind of held him back a
• 1:01:27
  little bit. I mean, they're they're letting
• 1:01:30
  guys get healthy a little bit. And I respect that.
• 1:01:34
  Yeah, that's that's the way to go.
• 1:01:36
  That's how you make it through a long season.
• 1:01:39
  But yeah, I think it's Ty Chandler until Madison comes
• 1:01:44
  back. And I get the feeling when
• 1:01:46
  Madison is fully healthy, they're still going to ride or
• 1:01:48
  die with Madison. But like I said, everyone's got
• 1:01:52
  a leash. And let's hope Madison either
• 1:01:55
  figures it out or they enact that whole leash idea and make
• 1:02:00
  some changes. It's definitely an interesting
• 1:02:02
  aspect of the Vikings game right now.
• 1:02:06
  I mean, it's the running game has been the worst aspect of
• 1:02:13
  everything. Offense, defense, special teams,
• 1:02:15
  it's been abysmal. I mean we're we're bottom tier
• 1:02:20
  in the league running the ball. Yeah.
• 1:02:22
  When you're quarterback who's been on the team for two weeks,
• 1:02:26
  is is he in the lead for rushing touchdowns Now he's at least
• 1:02:31
  tied, right? Well, he's got two in two games.
• 1:02:35
  I think that's two more than Madison has all season, rushing
• 1:02:38
  touchdowns. Madison's got a couple of
• 1:02:39
  receiving ones. Right.
• 1:02:40
  But purely on the ground, yeah. And Kim Akers had the only other
• 1:02:46
  one, I think. So yeah, I think you're right.
• 1:02:48
  Oh, and Ty Chandler? He had that Wildcat.
• 1:02:51
  Oh yeah. Yep.
• 1:02:52
  He had a rushing touchdown. He had another one that was
• 1:02:55
  wiped off the board because of the holding call.
• 1:02:57
  Yeah, I think I saw it to this season so far he has three
• 1:03:00
  touchdowns called back from penalties.
• 1:03:04
  Ty Jane. Yeah.
• 1:03:05
  Which to be a backup running back.
• 1:03:07
  You know, a a guy that's fighting for every play you can
• 1:03:10
  get to have three different touchdowns wiped off the board.
• 1:03:14
  Like that's got to be a. Little devastating, A little
• 1:03:18
  demoralizing. Like, come on guys, come on.
• 1:03:21
  And that that touchdown that was called back, man, he he was
• 1:03:25
  booking it. He's fast, he's got some speed.
• 1:03:29
  Too. He's got a lot of get up and go,
• 1:03:31
  yeah, it's fun to watch. I even saw it in pre season,
• 1:03:34
  like just watching him in pre season and I was like, man,
• 1:03:37
  this, this kid could be something.
• 1:03:39
  Yeah, got to get on the ball more.
• 1:03:41
  I hope we see him more. I mean, it'd be nicer.
• 1:03:45
  It'd be easier to talk about this if Madison were a horrible
• 1:03:48
  person, you know, if he were somebody that were like get this
• 1:03:52
  guy off the field. He's terrible.
• 1:03:54
  He's mean to people. You know, he's, he's a Deshaun
• 1:03:56
  Watson type, you know, But he's not like everything we know
• 1:03:59
  about Madison is off the field. He's just the nicest person in
• 1:04:02
  the world. So it's you don't clamor for
• 1:04:04
  somebody like that to lose their job.
• 1:04:06
  But if they can't get more than two yards of carry, if we're, if
• 1:04:09
  our eyes are bulging when he gets 6 yards on a rush, like
• 1:04:13
  there's something wrong with that.
• 1:04:15
  Yeah. Well, we hope that he can
• 1:04:17
  recover quickly. And obviously we hope all the
• 1:04:22
  other guys on the team that are hurting right now can come back.
• 1:04:26
  We've got a a lengthy injury report as of today, the 15th.
• 1:04:30
  So yeah, it was long and kind of scary, but I mean a few guys
• 1:04:35
  were full participants even with, you know showing up on the
• 1:04:38
  injury report. Greg Joseph, hope everything's
• 1:04:40
  good with him. He was, what did it say?
• 1:04:42
  Personal reasons he wasn't participating in practice today.
• 1:04:46
  So that could mean anything. That could mean he had a cough
• 1:04:50
  or, you know, somebody close to him is in serious situation.
• 1:04:53
  You hope he's OK? Yeah, because he's been playing
• 1:04:55
  well outside of that one game. Something I thought about too
• 1:04:58
  when I was looking at the injury report.
• 1:05:00
  The injury report put out by the Vikings said that they didn't
• 1:05:03
  hold a formal team practice today.
• 1:05:05
  I didn't see that. So just fascinating like you
• 1:05:10
  don't do anything Monday or Tuesday, guys are maybe coming
• 1:05:14
  to the facility, getting treatment, maybe having some
• 1:05:17
  meetings and things like that, but.
• 1:05:19
  Other than that, nothing formal Wednesday.
• 1:05:22
  You don't do anything formal either. 2 days of practice, then
• 1:05:26
  Thursday, Friday, and then well, and you think about it, that's
• 1:05:30
  all the Broncos are getting too. I mean true.
• 1:05:32
  They played Monday night. Monday.
• 1:05:33
  Night. So it's not like the Vikings
• 1:05:36
  would be like, you know what, we're going to be nice to the
• 1:05:37
  Broncos and only practice a little bit.
• 1:05:40
  This could be some. Maybe they have it scheduled
• 1:05:42
  this way for, you know, every third game on Wednesday.
• 1:05:46
  We just have a walkthrough. I don't know.
• 1:05:48
  I yeah, I get it. I just it was to to me it's
• 1:05:51
  fascinating. Just from a like work week
• 1:05:53
  perspective. Like, man must be nice.
• 1:05:56
  Well, and I'm sure they still had maybe that today was a very
• 1:05:59
  meeting heavy day where they have less meetings potentially
• 1:06:02
  on, you know, other regular Wednesdays.
• 1:06:05
  But that is a talker. I didn't notice that.
• 1:06:08
  Yeah, I don't know. For all we know, it was holy
• 1:06:11
  cow, the injury reports long. So let's kind of just do a
• 1:06:14
  walkthrough. Or they've had it on the
• 1:06:16
  schedule to do it this way since, you know, July.
• 1:06:18
  I don't know. Yeah, but who are we to say if,
• 1:06:24
  especially if they come out and win?
• 1:06:26
  We're just a couple of dudes. Couple of dudes from Iowa, like
• 1:06:29
  drinking beer, talking the Vikings.
• 1:06:31
  You have a note here. The Vikings open up as
• 1:06:34
  underdogs. I'll be it on the road.
• 1:06:38
  Do you know what the point spread?
• 1:06:39
  It is. It was too.
• 1:06:41
  I don't know if it's changed well, and in theory the home
• 1:06:43
  team gets three points, so that should be a close game.
• 1:06:47
  Vegas is saying it's a close game and the Vikings have been
• 1:06:51
  winning those close games. And the Broncos have won three
• 1:06:54
  in a row. So I mean it.
• 1:06:56
  It will be close. Probably.
• 1:06:59
  Probably, yeah. And I mean, who knows if we're
• 1:07:04
  going to have a Josh Dobbs can't play on, you know, prime time
• 1:07:08
  games talker like we've somehow had the last handful of years
• 1:07:11
  with Kirky Kirk. But you never know.
• 1:07:14
  I mean, I don't know. I feel like this whole season
• 1:07:18
  has been the Vikings figuring it out on the fly and this kind of
• 1:07:23
  seems like a figure it out on the fly.
• 1:07:25
  Dobbs has not with the Vikings played in a prime time game yet
• 1:07:28
  or a night game. This will be his.
• 1:07:33
  After this game, he will play have played more Rd. games with
• 1:07:36
  the Vikings than home games. And he's got two prime time
• 1:07:39
  games in a row coming up Sunday night this week at Denver and
• 1:07:43
  then Monday night next week. Yep, and that one's at home.
• 1:07:46
  Correct. Yes, that's at Minnesota.
• 1:07:49
  So yeah, I don't know. I'm excited for this game.
• 1:07:54
  I think it'll be a fun one to watch.
• 1:07:56
  I hope. I hope Koc can kind of throw out
• 1:08:03
  the idea that you need to switch it up and kind of let your foot
• 1:08:07
  off the gas because like we've said a few times already
• 1:08:10
  tonight, that second-half for the Vikings offense and even for
• 1:08:13
  the defense. But I kind of throw that the
• 1:08:15
  defense hadn't prepared for. Not Jacoby Brissette for Jameis,
• 1:08:20
  Winston, Wilson. Winston There it is.
• 1:08:26
  Wilson the The defense hadn't really seen Jameis, you know,
• 1:08:30
  and prepared for them. So I kind of I kind of throw
• 1:08:33
  them away a little bit. But the Vikings offense, they
• 1:08:36
  just it was a tale of two halves, and the first half they
• 1:08:42
  played so good we kind of forgot that they didn't play that great
• 1:08:46
  in the second-half. And that I guess.
• 1:08:47
  I mean we're we're getting a little late into the the episode
• 1:08:51
  here so I don't want to take too much more time.
• 1:08:53
  But I thought I had was perhaps Kevin O'Connell burned up all of
• 1:08:58
  his. Creativity in the first half and
• 1:09:02
  didn't feel like he could recycle some of the stuff.
• 1:09:06
  I don't know. I don't know.
• 1:09:07
  Maybe I or I mean, you just, I don't know.
• 1:09:11
  As a coach, maybe you just try some things and sometimes they
• 1:09:13
  work and sometimes they don't. And maybe the Vikings
• 1:09:15
  second-half everything you tried just happened to not work so.
• 1:09:20
  It seemed like everything they tried was a run play, and run
• 1:09:23
  plays just haven't worked. Vikings don't have a run play.
• 1:09:26
  So I think back to Tom Brady and his, you know, the majority of
• 1:09:32
  his years with the Patriots. We're not talking about, oh, Tom
• 1:09:35
  Brady and his Hall of Fame running back.
• 1:09:38
  He didn't have a run game. Tom Brady's run game was his
• 1:09:41
  short passing game and occasionally they'd have a
• 1:09:44
  running back, have a decent day. But most they were a pass first
• 1:09:48
  team. So maybe the Vikings need to
• 1:09:50
  embrace the fact that they don't have a run game.
• 1:09:53
  Now, you never abandoned it. You don't want Josh Dobbs to be
• 1:09:56
  thrown 60 passes a game. That's not sustainable.
• 1:10:00
  But I mean, you don't. You don't keep going back to the
• 1:10:04
  run game if it doesn't work. Like, everybody knows, OK,
• 1:10:08
  they're going to run it here and they're going to lose 2 yards.
• 1:10:10
  Like figure it out or figure something else out.
• 1:10:14
  And to your point, they just stop.
• 1:10:17
  Stop going to it. And I can't remember if I've
• 1:10:19
  said this just to you not. On air or if I've said this on
• 1:10:24
  the podcast but I'll come back to it, I I think the Vikings are
• 1:10:28
  a pass first team and you use the run game to set up the
• 1:10:32
  passing game not. Or am I saying that right?
• 1:10:36
  No, I'm I'm wrong. I'm going to say that backwards.
• 1:10:40
  You're going to use the pass game to set up the run game not
• 1:10:44
  the other way around because we are a pass first team.
• 1:10:49
  I think you pass and pass and then.
• 1:10:53
  You run occasionally to take the attention away from the passing
• 1:10:57
  game, get some of the pressure off of your receivers and the
• 1:11:01
  arm of your quarterback. It's not the other way around.
• 1:11:04
  It's not a Pittsburgh Steeler type run it down their throat
• 1:11:08
  type of offense. Run, run, run.
• 1:11:11
  And then maybe use the play action to draw them off and
• 1:11:14
  throw for a first down. It's pass, pass, pass.
• 1:11:19
  All right, let's run. Let's give guys a break.
• 1:11:22
  All right, let's keep passing. Let's keep going on the passing
• 1:11:24
  game. OK, Let's run again a couple
• 1:11:27
  times here. Or situationally, right?
• 1:11:30
  Like we need to run here. We need to burn some clock.
• 1:11:32
  We need to do this or we need to do that.
• 1:11:34
  Whatever we need to, it's second one.
• 1:11:38
  We can get a first down on the ground here.
• 1:11:40
  Let's do that. You know, whatever.
• 1:11:43
  So I I I think the the running game sets up the passing game,
• 1:11:48
  the passing game. Am I saying that wrong again?
• 1:11:50
  Yeah, I I know what you're saying.
• 1:11:51
  They they have to complement each other.
• 1:11:53
  Yes. Old school football says run to
• 1:11:55
  pass. You know, you need to, you need
• 1:11:58
  to run, run, run, and then you can throw a play action and then
• 1:12:00
  you can pass. That's not how the Vikings are
• 1:12:02
  are set. Up.
• 1:12:03
  That's what I'm trying to their their talents.
• 1:12:06
  It's not their play caller's talent.
• 1:12:08
  Like they just, they don't have it.
• 1:12:11
  If we knew every time Madison was going to get 5 yards every
• 1:12:14
  time, he's going to get at least five yards, which that would be
• 1:12:16
  incredible. He'd bought.
• 1:12:17
  He'd be a Hall of Famer. Then you can let your foot off
• 1:12:21
  the the gas a little bit and just run it because he's going
• 1:12:24
  to get 5 yards. Who cares?
• 1:12:26
  And maybe you need 10 yards. Well, you can get five and then
• 1:12:30
  you figure it out from there. That's not how this is.
• 1:12:33
  This team is not built that way. And all that to say, Koc needs
• 1:12:39
  to maybe not completely forget the idea of playing with a lead
• 1:12:45
  and kind of working the clock a little bit, but maybe just
• 1:12:49
  figure out his own way to do it. I mean, you can incorporate
• 1:12:54
  plays that have very high percentage passing plays.
• 1:12:57
  Or give Josh Dobbs. I mean, this is something you
• 1:13:00
  don't have with Kurt too much. Give him one to two reads,
• 1:13:05
  passing, and then make sure he has some kind of a lane to rush
• 1:13:09
  out of if he needs to work with the screen.
• 1:13:13
  If the screen's gonna die, then run it.
• 1:13:15
  There is a way that Koc can find it in his style, in his team
• 1:13:20
  style, in his play calling style to design A let your foot off
• 1:13:26
  the gas type playbook in the late game if you have a lead
• 1:13:30
  like they did against the Saints, they just couldn't
• 1:13:34
  figure it out. They did not play the clock
• 1:13:37
  working play style to their advantage in a similar way.
• 1:13:42
  Like we just said earlier, Brian Flores, something about his
• 1:13:46
  defense has changed and he's a good enough coach that maybe he
• 1:13:50
  switched up some of his play calling style and some of his
• 1:13:53
  defense style. Maybe the players just finally
• 1:13:56
  figured everything out and they're playing to the best of
• 1:13:59
  their abilities. I'd say there's probably a a
• 1:14:01
  little bit of both situation in that.
• 1:14:03
  Maybe KOC, specifically when it comes to, you know, playing with
• 1:14:08
  a lead, he needs to figure that out too.
• 1:14:11
  Switch up his play calling style.
• 1:14:13
  Maybe the players need to figure something out a little bit.
• 1:14:16
  All this would be so much easier if the Vikings had a run game.
• 1:14:18
  But they don't, so I don't. Know.
• 1:14:21
  Yeah. And then I guess it'll remain to
• 1:14:23
  be seen. You know what?
• 1:14:25
  What the Vikings do kind of down the stretch here, you know, with
• 1:14:29
  a couple of games before the bye and then five games after the
• 1:14:32
  bye. I mean, late bye for the Vikings
• 1:14:37
  is both, I think. Kind of.
• 1:14:39
  Good and bad. It's kind of a blessing and a
• 1:14:41
  curse, yeah. Well, with an injury report like
• 1:14:44
  they had today. It's definitely a blessing that
• 1:14:46
  way. And then you have guys like JJ
• 1:14:50
  who you can kind of stretch it out a little bit more.
• 1:14:53
  If he's still not 100% when you're RB One as bad as he seems
• 1:14:59
  to be, maybe you'd find that blessing and let him get another
• 1:15:03
  week to get over the the concussion a little bit.
• 1:15:06
  Marcus Davenport, we've seen him when he when he's healthy and
• 1:15:09
  playing, he's a disruptor in the defense.
• 1:15:12
  DJ Wanham has kind of filled that role pretty well in the
• 1:15:15
  last few weeks, but maybe Marcus Davenport with that late bye
• 1:15:19
  that helps him out a little bit more.
• 1:15:21
  So I tend to believe the late bye is helpful injury wise.
• 1:15:25
  But I don't know. If you keep winning and then you
• 1:15:28
  have a bye week, maybe that disrupts your.
• 1:15:31
  Yeah, it disrupts the rhythm. Yeah, a little bit.
• 1:15:32
  Who knows? We'll see.
• 1:15:34
  I mean, teams usually play better.
• 1:15:36
  They usually win right after they're by for the most part.
• 1:15:40
  But we'll see. I guess.
• 1:15:41
  I don't remember last year if they'd won right after their by
• 1:15:44
  it. Was a late by last year too for
• 1:15:46
  the Vikings, if I remember correctly.
• 1:15:48
  I don't remember. Was it well?
• 1:15:50
  Was it right after the Arizona? Game that we went to that could
• 1:15:53
  have been and that was like Halloween weekend.
• 1:15:56
  Yeah. So yeah, we'd have to go back
• 1:15:58
  and check, but anyways. Coming all the way back, like,
• 1:16:04
  just super exciting to be 6 and four, Oh my gosh, right now with
• 1:16:10
  two more games before the buy and then those two games being
• 1:16:16
  arguably winnable games, all things considered.
• 1:16:19
  And then, I mean, who knows after the buy.
• 1:16:22
  I mean, a lot of those games seem fairly winnable too.
• 1:16:26
  I saw something. I I thought about it earlier.
• 1:16:30
  When we were talking and I wanted to save it for the end.
• 1:16:33
  But I I agree with this tweet that I saw earlier today that
• 1:16:40
  for the NFC North, it's going to come down to those last three
• 1:16:43
  weeks when the Vikings and Lions play each other twice in Week 16
• 1:16:48
  and Week 18. I'm I'm pretty sure the Lions
• 1:16:50
  also have either two or three division games.
• 1:16:54
  I think they play the Packers at some point in that well, the
• 1:16:57
  Vikings played. It's Lions.
• 1:16:58
  Packers. I don't know.
• 1:16:59
  I'm not sure. Well, for the Vikings, it's Week
• 1:17:01
  16 Lions. Week 17 Packers.
• 1:17:04
  Week 18 Lions. Yeah, that's a huge.
• 1:17:06
  Stretch Lions to end the season. So I would say right now, the
• 1:17:13
  way it's looking is the divisional race is gonna come
• 1:17:15
  down to the Vikings and the Lions.
• 1:17:17
  Yep. And it's gonna come down to
• 1:17:19
  those two games in the final three weeks of the season.
• 1:17:25
  And I believe both the Lions and the Vikings still, at this
• 1:17:29
  moment, hold their own destiny. And by that I mean, you know,
• 1:17:34
  they control, you know, by winning.
• 1:17:36
  If they keep winning, then they're gonna determine if they
• 1:17:39
  go to the playoffs or not, or if they win the division or not.
• 1:17:42
  I think at this point, what are their, you know, what's the ESPN
• 1:17:45
  odds to make the playoffs to the Vikings?
• 1:17:48
  As of right now, it's like something like 70 something
• 1:17:51
  percent. It's like 75% If they would have
• 1:17:53
  lost against the Saints, it dipped pretty drastically to
• 1:17:56
  like 30 or 40 ish percent. Yeah.
• 1:17:58
  If they won, which they did, it went up to like 75%.
• 1:18:01
  So I mean, like at this point, it's looking likely that the
• 1:18:05
  Vikings are in. It's just a matter of where they
• 1:18:09
  end up. I I saw and it's the like
• 1:18:13
  unlikeliest of scenarios, but I saw.
• 1:18:16
  The Vikings being a one seed, I mean, mathematically, sure,
• 1:18:20
  that's probably still a possibility.
• 1:18:22
  Possible, but they'd have to win out and and get some help the.
• 1:18:26
  Eagles had would have to like lose like five more games or
• 1:18:31
  something like that and it would be ridiculous and preposterous
• 1:18:35
  to think that that's a a reality.
• 1:18:37
  But like, I mean, yeah, mathematically at this point,
• 1:18:40
  anything's possible and and that's why.
• 1:18:44
  I'm a believer in the culture. I'm a believer in Kevin
• 1:18:48
  O'Connell and and quasi Adolfo Mensa and and what they've
• 1:18:53
  created here in only a year and a half of being with the
• 1:18:59
  Vikings. And shoot, I mean, if this is
• 1:19:02
  kind of what we can expect every season, sign me up.
• 1:19:06
  I'm. I'm excited.
• 1:19:07
  Yep. Good stuff.
• 1:19:08
  And for anyone, the last six weeks of Vikings football has
• 1:19:15
  pretty much made you have to believe in Quasi and Kevin, like
• 1:19:21
  you don't have a choice but to at least at least give them
• 1:19:24
  credit for the last six weeks. Like we we talk about the locker
• 1:19:28
  room and we talk about these in season editions and Risner and
• 1:19:31
  Barr and stuff like that and how you know everything.
• 1:19:35
  These guys are playing for each other and they're playing for
• 1:19:37
  the coaches and that's that's not an accident.
• 1:19:40
  You look at like the Bears where they've had, you know, the same
• 1:19:47
  GM and coach change at the same time the Vikings did.
• 1:19:50
  And in that time the Bears have traded for Chase Claypool and
• 1:19:53
  that was a locker room cancer. And they have a quarterback
• 1:19:57
  controversy, which they really do in their, you know, high
• 1:20:01
  first round pick and then they're what was he undrafted or
• 1:20:04
  fifth round or something like that?
• 1:20:05
  Tyson Bajan? Yeah, I mean.
• 1:20:07
  I don't remember, but low, low draft pick if he was drafted or
• 1:20:12
  possibly undrafted. I don't know.
• 1:20:14
  So from the Vikings and Bears at the same time, basically hired
• 1:20:19
  AGM and a coach. And since then, the Vikings are
• 1:20:23
  obviously in a way better position than the Bears.
• 1:20:26
  So, like, you know, they're doing something right.
• 1:20:29
  And not to completely pick on the Bears, we have friends who
• 1:20:32
  are Bears fans and whatever, but I mean.
• 1:20:35
  You just, you, you have to feel good about this team.
• 1:20:39
  And I think I even said it talking about the playoffs
• 1:20:42
  again. I think I said it at one point
• 1:20:44
  when the Vikings had lost like their third or fourth game.
• 1:20:49
  I said something like, well, I mean, Evan, you're an optimist.
• 1:20:54
  And obviously I'm a pessimist and obviously I'm right because
• 1:20:56
  this, this Vikings team is terrible because they're one and
• 1:20:59
  four. But like.
• 1:21:01
  I will say this, if they do get to the point that they make it
• 1:21:04
  to the playoffs, look out, 'cause they're going to be
• 1:21:06
  dangerous. Because in that hypothetical
• 1:21:08
  scenario, they've battled back and beaten, beaten the 49ers and
• 1:21:12
  beaten these teams that like they'd have no business beating
• 1:21:16
  at a as a one in four team. You know at the point that the
• 1:21:19
  time that I was making that point, and look at them right
• 1:21:22
  now, yes, there's still a lot of season left.
• 1:21:25
  Yes, there's still a full. Chance that we are talking
• 1:21:29
  about, holy cow, how did this team go from 6:00 and 4:00 to
• 1:21:34
  6:00 and 10:00? You know, like, that's still
• 1:21:37
  technically a possibility, But you know what?
• 1:21:40
  As of right now, they're in the playoffs.
• 1:21:42
  If the season ended today, they're in the playoffs.
• 1:21:44
  And we couldn't say that a month ago.
• 1:21:47
  Maybe. But it's exciting.
• 1:21:49
  It's fun. This team is dangerous.
• 1:21:51
  Let's go. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
• 1:21:54
  We should probably wrap this up here.
• 1:21:56
  Yeah, we've been talking for a while.
• 1:21:58
  I like it. It's been fun.
• 1:21:59
  Yeah. And like a beer and 1/2 in.
• 1:22:01
  And yeah. What'd you think?
• 1:22:03
  What have you thought of this beer?
• 1:22:04
  It's good. I mean obviously very drinkable,
• 1:22:08
  very enjoyable. I would say it's probably not
• 1:22:11
  my, like all time favorite IPA. OK, but it's it's just, it's
• 1:22:17
  good. It's easy to drink, enjoyable,
• 1:22:21
  crisp and it let I'll come back to what I said earlier it's it's
• 1:22:26
  not trying to do too much. Yeah, you know it's just it's
• 1:22:29
  unashamedly an IPA and that's all it is.
• 1:22:32
  It's not like a like bang pow pop whiz.
• 1:22:36
  This is the cool thing that we can do with an IPA.
• 1:22:39
  It's just not we're an IPA. Yeah, it's all so.
• 1:22:42
  I agree with, I agree with that. I think about people talking bad
• 1:22:46
  about like a Coors Light or like a Bud Light.
• 1:22:48
  You know, because like they're they're, you know, cheap.
• 1:22:52
  Lager, you know, they're they're just nothing beers.
• 1:22:54
  But like, also one thing I always think about those beers
• 1:22:57
  is like, yeah, maybe they're not world beaters, maybe they're,
• 1:23:00
  you know, they are the cheap beers.
• 1:23:01
  But one thing about them, they're consistent.
• 1:23:04
  If you buy a Coors Light today and drink one, it's going to
• 1:23:09
  taste the exact same as one that you bought, you know, and drank
• 1:23:12
  two years ago. Like, they're consistent and
• 1:23:15
  that's not the easiest thing to do when you're brewing beer.
• 1:23:17
  I think the Raging River, it's consistent.
• 1:23:20
  There's a a simplicity to the the flavor, but it's delicious
• 1:23:24
  and I love Ipas and I like this one a lot.
• 1:23:27
  It's very good, very good. Thank you Front St.
• 1:23:30
  Front Street. Anyways good beer.
• 1:23:32
  I you asked me earlier if I'd have it and I was kind of like
• 1:23:35
  yeah, maybe I would have another one.
• 1:23:37
  Yeah. Obviously I've had this is yeah,
• 1:23:40
  this is the second one right here.
• 1:23:41
  So I have had another and I will have more.
• 1:23:44
  They're good. And yeah, maybe we'll have to
• 1:23:47
  have some more Front St. Front Street on the the podcast.
• 1:23:51
  Absolutely so. And you guys should too.
• 1:23:54
  If you do have some Front St. beer or any Iowa Brew beer, let
• 1:23:59
  us know what you think. How can they reach out to us,
• 1:24:02
  hit us up any of the socials? Yep, I really wanna get some
• 1:24:05
  emails. I wanna read some emails off.
• 1:24:08
  Like, I think it'd be cool to read some some direct emails to
• 1:24:11
  us on the podcast. Send us an e-mail.
• 1:24:14
  We just created a link tree, which I didn't even really know
• 1:24:16
  existed until this week. But Link Tree the skull hop?
• 1:24:21
  You can find us there. And that literally is just a
• 1:24:24
  rundown of every place that we are on the Internet.
• 1:24:28
  From e-mail to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Instagram, Facebook,
• 1:24:37
  Twitter, Tiktok, it's all there in one spot.
• 1:24:41
  So wherever you like to interact, you can find us there
• 1:24:46
  on Link Tree and yeah, you can send us a message anywhere.
• 1:24:51
  Yeah, on any platform. And Austin's usually the one to
• 1:24:57
  to be the guy behind that. But yeah, we'd love to interact
• 1:25:01
  And we have stickers. We'll, we will give you a
• 1:25:03
  sticker. We'll, we'll put it in the mail.
• 1:25:06
  If you give us an address, I will.
• 1:25:08
  I will personally pay for the stamp.
• 1:25:11
  We can split it. I have stamps.
• 1:25:14
  All right, so yeah, reach out to us.
• 1:25:16
  It'd be a lot of fun. It'd be fun to start getting
• 1:25:18
  some interaction and add that as a wrinkle to our podcast.
• 1:25:24
  We're we're talking about some some ways we can expand, maybe
• 1:25:28
  some different content we can put out, maybe some some real
• 1:25:32
  time content we can put out. Tiktok's been a lot of fun for,
• 1:25:36
  at least for me so far. You've been putting together
• 1:25:38
  some really fun clips. I've been enjoying making the
• 1:25:41
  content and then watching people enjoy the content.
• 1:25:44
  Yeah, it's been fun. So hopefully we get a nice
• 1:25:46
  little following. Let us know.
• 1:25:48
  Like we wanna know if you're out there, if you're following us,
• 1:25:51
  give us some feedback. We'll take it to heart.
• 1:25:54
  We can We can all be Skullhoppers together and we can
• 1:25:58
  come up with a better name for for our our little community.
• 1:26:02
  But I like it. It's Skullhoppers.
• 1:26:05
  It's nice. I spent.
• 1:26:07
  Not even a 10th of a second thinking about that.
• 1:26:09
  So it's got a nice little ring to it.
• 1:26:10
  Yeah. All right, man.
• 1:26:12
  I think this is a good point. Let's do it.
• 1:26:14
  Let's let's go beat the Broncos. Let's do it all.
• 1:26:17
  Right. Till next time.
• 1:26:18
  It's cool. It's cool.