Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello and welcome back to the Skullcast, where we are two brothers who enjoy talking about football. We have a strong bias towards Vikings related football, but we also enjoy looking around the league and evaluating how other teams went. And you could say whether or not we wish we were a part of another fan base or whether we like it where we're at.
My name is Asher Witmer and this is my brother Christopher. Christopher, where do you want to start? As we look around the league, is there another fan base that you would rather be a part of? Thank you.
What was that McCarthy said in week one? Where would you rather be?
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Where would you rather be? Is there anywhere else you'd rather be?
No.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. That's what it was.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: I want to gloat on the packers losing to the Browns. I think last week I said something about the Browns being the worst team in the league.
And I don't know.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Oh, do you remember what I said to you?
[00:01:21] Speaker A: What did you say? Did you. Did you say something?
[00:01:24] Speaker B: I believe we got that recorded.
Could be. Yeah. I said, watch the Browns beat the packers there. That was very unpremeditated just on the fact that one of my skepticisms of the packers was that I didn't think they had played a real defense, like a top, maybe even top 10, but definitely top five defense. And that's what the Browns have. And so that. That like popped into my mind and right as we were kind of ending that episode or that.
That pick. I forget what it was I just mentioned. Watch the. Watch the Browns beat the Packers. So I like to think that I called him. Yeah. Excuse me.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: I.
I think I. I think it shows. It shows me that the packers are who I thought they were at the beginning with maybe a slightly improved defense. And I think this is a year of defense. Like, I think. I think so far at least, defenses have been dominating. You know, offenses might figure them out.
Yeah. Yeah. But they're also one and two, so.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Well, I'm saying, even. Even the teams they've played.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Oh. Cause they've put up a lot of points like they.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah. They've been a part of high scoring games.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I.
So I do think that they have a good defense.
But Jordan Love still has that variable about him that. That I might just. I might just do something stupid that.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: I think that's what we were saying.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Finish. Go for it.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: Well, I was just going to say I don't think. Unless he changes midseason, I don't think he can lead them to a Super Bowl.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like when. When the Parsons trade went down, we did not do any recording. We had prerecorded several weeks out.
But that's what we. Our back and forth was. Is like, honestly, this doesn't really scare us as a team, as fans of a team that's in the nfc, because the lack of an aggressive pass rusher was not the biggest issue the packers faced last year. 100%. Parsons makes them better. Parsons makes their defense better, and he's proven that. But he's also proven that he can be quieted for a game, and Jordan Love can do enough to thwart it on his own. And that's the bigger issue with the packers is which Jordan Love are you going to get? And in all fairness, you could say that of any. Every team, right? Like, which Jared Goff are you going to get? Are you going to get the week one right. Are you going to get to week two? Which McCarthy are you going to get? Are you going to get the third quarter of Week one, or are you going to get the other seven quarters? But yeah, which Caleb Williams are you gonna. That's. That's fair enough. But the. I. I think Love's swings.
Let me word it this way. When you look at a team like the Lions, I'll keep it off the Vikings for now. When you look at a team like the Lions, they have a cohesion and a.
An experience that things don't entirely rise and fall on Goff as much as they do on Love, if that makes sense.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I also. I also just really dislike the packers, and I. I really dislike that they.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Oh, is that really what's happening on. We. We just want to bash. On the Packers.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:48] Speaker B: Oh, that. That's right. That's what's going on.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Keep going.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: What. And.
And I think pride cometh before the fall that. Who was it? One of their. One of their guys was like, I think we can go 17 and. Oh, go undefeated.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Undefeated. Yeah. And I mean, in all fairness, they. They silenced the Lions in Week one. They did a good job of that, I think.
If we're done bashing the packers, can I move on to another game?
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: I think the Lions have a chip on their shoulder that you better watch out for.
Yeah, they. They are still.
They are still themselves offensively that they were last year. They didn't get beat like they did by the Packers. But even if you look at two years ago when they went 12 and 5, won the division for the first time in a long time or ever, I forget they, they had some blowout losses that year as well with other games where they blew other teams out. So I do think when I, as I was watching the Lions versus Ravens, they dominated, they dominated the line of scrimmage and they played with a fierceness that made me go, I'm not sure where, I'm not sure the Lions aren't going to be the team from the NFC North. I think a team from the NFC north is going to be in the final four and it might be the Lions. Like they have a, a grit and a, a chip on their shoulder is kind of, you know, getting the number one seed being bounced immediately in the playoffs and, and we all assumed things were going to be bad with them changing out coordinators. And I'm not so sure if Campbell shouldn't win the Coach of the Year, if indeed he ends up, you know, if they win a. The division and if they go on into the playoffs. Obviously I think those awards are chosen before playoff results. But having that much transition, I think they said he lost eight coaches. Six or eight coaches.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: Yeah. That's crazy.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Over the off season and to, to bring them back and still have that same physically dominating sort of presence on the football field. Can we just talk about like during the broadcast?
[00:07:03] Speaker A: No, go for it.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Oh, I was just gonna say during the broadcast, they brought out how Dan Campbell, when he first came into the league as a head coach, compared. He wanted to develop what Baltimore had in the physical, physicality and aggression and everything. Well, in that game Monday night, it, it looked like there was one team that was physical, that, that was aggressive and that was Dan Campbell's team.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, I think it's, it's, it's an interesting storyline for sure. Like, I think I really, I really dislike Ben Johnson. I like Dan Campbell.
I, I, I may be judging Johnson too harshly. I just really dislike the vibrato.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: And we don't like cockiness.
Yeah, we're probably being cocky ourselves.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: The thing is, like the Lions have been cocky and have had vibrato and whatever, but it's from this position. Oh, hi, Joe.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: They follow through.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Well, they follow through, but it's also with this sort of self awareness that people think we're trash. Like people think.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Like that moment.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Hey, Joanna.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: She just woke up from her nap and came in, found me, I guess.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: There you go.
Hi.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: She's fine. I'll leave the door open.
I don't know if you remember that moment when Jared Goff. It was, I think it was the first season together. And it was probably the first season where they really started winning in the locker room and he was giving out game balls and he told Jared Goff, like, you're good enough for us. Because he had just been traded from Los Angeles. And like that. I mean, it annoyed me because it's the Lions, and it annoys me that the Lions have been better than the Vikings after being terrible for so long.
But if I was a fan or if I was a player, if I was in that room, I would have gotten chills. Like, that's an incredible moment.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Oh, 100%.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: And it fits with their, like, their narrative, their story of, like, people think we're trash. We've been the laughingstock of the NFL for decades.
And, and, and like, we're gonna, you know, his, his famous, like, we're gonna bite him in the kneecaps. Like, like that. There's, there's, there's something different, I think, about kind of saying something kind of dumb like, we're gonna bite him in the kneecaps and then we're gonna, you know, and, and then going out and proving it versus, versus the sort of Bears, like, we're gonna take back and we're never gonna give it back. Like, there's one is vibrato and one is like, scrappy. Like, we're not gonna stop fighting. We're just gonna keep fighting. Even like, bite him in the kneecaps kind of hints at, like, I've been knocked down, but I'm just gonna keep fighting, you know?
[00:09:49] Speaker B: Well, what's, what's so different about the two is one is speaking of a cultural change, the other is speaking of a specific result. So like, Dan Campbell came in and even, even when they've lost, they have established that culture as being one of the grittiest, most physical teams in. If you're going to get past them, it's going to be war of sorts on the, on the football field. Whereas just like we're going to take back the north or I'm going to have fun beating Leflore twice a year or whatever. Like, those are results based and you, you just can't control that. You can't even establish that within your clubhouse. And so, yeah, I think that's even. I think Dan Campbell and Kevin o' Connell both prove that they are really, really good at changing organizational culture and establishing top tier organizations. Campbell's not as eloquent as OConnell.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: But it could be argued that Campbell's actually produced more results than o' Connell at this point. But yeah, the whole lion story arc, like, if I was not a Vikings fan, I would very much be a Lions fan.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Just.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah. What's happening with them. Yeah.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: And I think the difference maybe is even less the. The cockiness. Although, you know, maybe. Maybe this is what we're getting at, is just the authenticity. Like, I think. I think o' Connell and Campbell are both just authentically themselves, like, who they are, which sounds super, super cheesy or cliche maybe, but, like. And I think there's still a chance that Johnson, you know, finds. Finds himself, kind of figures out. All right, all right. I, you know, because I think. I think of Campbell, I think of Sirianni, and I think of Johnson. All. All had kind of weird introductions. Sam Cohen also had like, that.
That weird thing where he said Duvall, you know, just.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: And everybody.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: It's not uncommon for. For these new coaches to have weird introduct introductory press conferences and whatnot, and eventually they maybe figure it out. Sirianni is still a little bit of a nutcase, but again, just in the same sort of way that Campbell's perfect for Detroit. Sirianni, I think, is perfect for. He's a perfect yin to Hertz's yang. And anyways, this isn't what we're here to talk about, but why are we. We're. Oh, we're talking about Lions and Campbell. Um. Yeah, the thing. The thing I think that I come away with, and obviously, you know, there's still most of the season ahead of us, but is. Is the. Is that like, everyone's like, oh, you know, Johnson's this whiz kid up in Detroit and, you know, and may. Maybe Campbell is like, maybe people say they're still using Johnson's offense. Well, maybe it's Campbell's offense, you know.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that. That flip pass that they had on the goal line, I sure hope the Vikings take pick that up and. Because that's. That's almost an unstoppable play because if you're expecting it, it's going to leave St. Brown wide open to just run in. He's the closest one to the end zone, but. But you don't want to abandon him because he could just run into the end zone. So. So it's really hard to determine what's happening. So he, you know, for those that weren't there, snaps the ball, hands it off to St. Brown, who's a wide receiver, runs out. Gibbs runs parallel to him, only wider. St. Brown passes it out, and Gibbs takes it into the end zone. Like, when you're within five yards of the end zone, maybe even 10. Like that's a fantastic almost indefensible play. Like how, how else are you going to. Because it's a run play. It's a run run pass option as well. So you could, it. If everything floats to the right anyways, you could just not hand it off to St. Brown and dump it off to your wide receiver. Two or tight end out on the left. And yeah, those are the kinds of plays we, we came to understand as potentially being Ben Johnson. Maybe that's actually Dan Campbell. Let's thinking up those, those kinds of routes and influencing his offense in that way.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Cause I, I think it was the O line committee.
I was listening, listening to somebody and they were, they were talking about how like those, those game, those.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: The.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: It, the, the, the day of play calling is a little bit overrated. Games are won and lost on Wednesday when they're planning it out. And so it's like just because Campbell isn't calling the game doesn't necessarily mean he's not a integral architect into game planning on Wednesday.
Um, yeah. Doesn't mean that Ben Johnson's not easy. Part of the reason they had huge success is probably because they were working together, you know, and that's the whole, that's the whole thing. That's why you have a staff.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. But there's, there's also the, the sense in which. Has there ever been a tutor or. Where do tutors beat their teachers?
I'm sorry?
Where do students beat their teachers? Their tutors. You know, like K. Koc has yet to beat McVeigh. Right. Has he ever been able to beat McVeigh?
[00:15:20] Speaker A: He, he hasn't.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: But he's beaten McDermott. That's true. Yeah.
McDermott. Didn't he come from Reed? McDermott's been owned by Reed.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Oh yeah, I think you're right. Yeah.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Ben Johnson comes from Dan Campbell. Like is. They can be elite coaches in and of themselves. But this notion that like somehow every, every aspect of that team, like There's a reason McVeigh is the head coach of the Rams. There's a reason Kyle Shanahan is head coach of the 49ers. Dan Campbell's the head coach of the Lions. And so they might be birthing new elite head coaches, but that doesn't mean that they're the only reason they're elite head coaches. Like part of what makes them elite is the ability to surround them with good, high caliber coaches and then even raise those coaches up to the Next level as well.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Right. And. And something I was going to say earlier is, is how, like, how discourage. To me, it would be discouraging. I could also see it as, like, a positive thing. But imagine coming into your coaching room, to your building, and I know there's a lot more staff in a. In a NFL building than. Than just the coaching staff, but there would be a discouraging, kind of lonely moment, I feel like, when you come in and eight of your closest coworkers are just gone.
Like, like, especially as a leader, where it's like, not just your closest coworkers, but, like, people that you relied on in, In. In, like, passing on the culture and the vision and the energy of. Of the building and for Campbell to come back.
And he's probably. I'm. I don't. I. I don't know. He. I imagine he probably went out and like, poached some people from other teams, probably promoted a bunch of people.
Um, and. And so it was probably a seamless transition, but there. There would be a moment of just like, oh, man, for me, this is. This is overwhelming. I gotta start all over again.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Yeah, but there's. It's. It's almost worse than that. It's not that they're just gone. They're now like, top coaches of opposing teams.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: In your division.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Some of them in your division. And so now the people you used to problem solve with, now they know how you problem solve. They. They know some of your tendencies. And yeah, like, I, I. That's probably one of the biggest reason. Obviously, it's only week three. There's a lot of football to play yet. But why. I would say Dan Campbell is my leader in.
In coach of the year.
Depending on what KOC does with. Between the dance back and forth between Wentz and McCarthy and all that, like, by the end of the season, I might be together a case for him again as well.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: But. But I definitely think coming into the year, Dan Campbell has probably had the biggest potato on his plate to somehow try to. To navigate without dropping and. Yeah, I don't know what metaphor I'm trying to use, but what you. So we talk about the Lions, packers, the. What about our good old friend Sam Darnold out in Seattle? They beat the Saints 44 to 13. There was a moment there where I was like, oh, no, I don't want them to score more than the Vikings.
And then they didn't. And then I was fine.
What. What are your.
Yeah, I don't know that there's a lot to Say the Saints are a bad team. I think they could go oh, and 17. But just in terms of Darnold's. Like, Darnold's looks pretty good out there in Seattle, and. Yeah. What kind of reflections do you have?
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Are they three and.
[00:19:11] Speaker B: Oh, no, they're two and one.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Two and one.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: They.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: They lost their opening game, if I remember correctly. That close. The. The Niners just barely beat them.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm super happy for Darnold. I.
Did they.
Did they.
They bench Darnold at the end of the game? I just see Drew Locke has.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Has three attacks Drew Locke came in for.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I.
I'm trying to remember. I think I was a little bit down on him coming into the season that, like, oh, he may. He may be in for a rude awakening without o'. Connell. I think I was. I think I was kind of 50. 50. Like, there was part of me that's like, No, I think. I think Sam Darnold is a good player. I think.
I mean, clearly he's a good player, because even. It's not like, Kevin o' Connell just has, like, this magic that he sprinkles on people, and suddenly they play well, and then when they leave, that magic goes away. I think. I think Kevin OConnell's magic or whatever unlocks a player to the degree that they are good. Like. Like, even Josh Dobbs fizzles out. You know, the.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: There are. There are quarterbacks who Connell does not want.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. Yeah.
And. And so, like, the fact that Sam Darnold is having.
If he would have a bad year, if he would have a good year, I don't think either one would really surprise me. And I'm super happy for him. Like, I think. I think he did us a solid. I think the Vikings did him a solid.
Making this about the Vikings again, I guess. But it's. I.
For what the Vikings were trying to build with their salary cap and their rookie QB and stuff, I just don't think it made sense to keep him. And I think it made all the sense in the world for Sam Darnold to be like, hey, I can go get a big contract and take a team like the Seahawks to the playoffs. I. I hope that they do well. I think they have a. A fun team. I think JSN is incredible.
Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how far they go.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I think the only truly challenging defense they've played so far, they. Look, it was an ugly game with the Niners in week one, obviously. Week One games are a little bit.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Whatever, a little bit weird.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: But the Steelers, I don't think the Steelers have like on paper they have. They're supposed to have a really good defense, but they haven't looked particularly good.
First three weeks. Obviously they held the Patriots. Yeah. Week two was when they played, when they played the Steelers and then obviously the, the Seahawks played the Saints. So I'm, I'm still skeptical as to how good the Seahawks will be. Sure. I agree with. They have a fun team. And I also think Darnold, I think Darnold could replicate last year's stats with the Seahawks potentially.
It will be interesting to see. So they're going to play the Bucks next week, I believe.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: No, no, the Eagles are playing the Bucks.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Where are the Seahawks? Oh, they play the Cardinals. Yeah. And then they play the Bucs. So it'll be interesting.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Cardinals, Seahawks will be interesting. Yeah.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: And they play. Yeah. Yeah. What about the Colts? Tracking.
Tracking the other, the other visitor. Former quarterback, I guess. I guess the other visitor. That's a better way to put it.
He never played.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: It is funny.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Daniel Jones. So here, go for it.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: Here.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Here's the thing. Through his first three games with the Colts, Daniel Jones has averaged slightly over 31 points a game. Now, you remember who played for the Colts, right? Did you know that no quarterback has ever done that for the Colts before?
[00:22:52] Speaker A: That's incredible. In, in three games, in a three.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Game stretch or particularly. I, I don't have the graph in front of me. I, I saw it on Twitter someplace. I'm seeing if I can find it, but I can't remember if it's like to start a season or if it's just in a three game stretch. Yeah, but that stat like not. I think Peyton Manning, the highest he was ever 30. He averaged 30 for a three run, three game stretch. Again, I can't remember start a season or just any three game stretch.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: They.
Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, Johnny Unit is way back in the day.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: You know they, they haven't, they haven't played like the Dolphins looked really terrible those first two weeks and the Titans I think aren't great, but they, I mean they, they eked one out against the Broncos which is super impressive. What are the Broncos at? Are the Broncos one and two?
[00:23:49] Speaker B: Broncos are one and two.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's, I say it's impressive because the Broncos I think have a, have a good defense. I don't know how their offense is shaping up this year.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: You think so what? I think what you think the Broncos have A good defense?
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I mean, they certainly have good players.
Um, and, and it's. What's, what's his face is there. Let me look. Sorry, I'm doing some research.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: You're talking about the Sir Tan.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: Yes. I mean, he was the defensive player of the year last year.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: Right. I guess they don't have a star coordinator. I was thinking that they had a, had a name, household name coordinator. But Vance Joseph, I don't, I've never heard of.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess I, I, they're.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: Putting up fights, certainly.
The Broncos.
[00:24:36] Speaker B: Yeah, they are. They're putting up fights. They're kind of through three games. They're kind of middle of the pack as far as holding points down. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how they do. I do think, like, that's the one thing that I thought about with the Colts is so who do they play this week? The Colts play the Rams. And I think this, this will be a really telling game because it's probably the best defense that they've had to play against so far. Yeah, for sure. So I, I just want to point out that I like my hot take. I can't remember if we actually said it because we had floated doing like a hot takes episode and then we decided just to do a review around the league and I don't remember. I, I haven't checked if replay the episode. But the second episode after week one, reflecting on the rest of the league and particularly reflecting on that Bills Ravens game to open the season, my reflection after watching that is that both Bills and Ravens are going to miss. Like neither of them are going to make the Super Bowl.
Watching the Bills, I think they very well, let me double check. I think I have them in the final four. Yeah, I like, they're. They're pretty good, the Ravens.
They just don't look that good. And, and the, the thing that stood out to me about that Bills Ravens game is the main issues that ended up being their Achilles heel last year were still their main issues. And for the Bills, that's their defense that, you know, the Bills gave up a lot of points last year. Now interestingly, they've actually played fairly good defense in the two weeks since then. The. The Baltimore Ravens have proven to have probably a weaker defense. But the biggest thing that I think the Ravens Achilles heel is their ball security. They crucial catches last year, missed catches cost them literally their, their season as Mark Andrews dropped his ball. But then even, even some other fumbles. The Ravens. Yeah. And now this year It's. It's from Derrick Henry, which he's fumbled in every single game of the season so far. Three for three. And that is so abnormal for him. I don't think that's going to continue throughout the whole season that he has 17 fumbles. But it's just kind of a, I guess a microcosm of the fact that these two teams still have, like, the Eagles. When I look at the Eagles or even the Rams, I think they have the pieces there. They're just playing sloppy right now. Like, they're playing like you could get them.
Whereas I'm not convinced the Bills and the Ravens fixed with proper personnel or proper pieces or training or whatever. Like, I don't know if they fixed the issues that cost them their seasons last year. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, the Ravens, certainly. In some ways, the Ravens have the feeling of coming into this year like, they didn't do anything.
Like. Like, like, they're. They're still good, they're still formidable. But. But, like, as far as, like, improving, how did. How did you improve?
There's a certain complacency there, and I think it's exposed by John Harbaugh talking about kind of being defensive, about the idea that there's super bowl or bust.
And I think anytime a team is like, no, we're not super bowl or bust, that is like, okay. I mean.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I said that last year about the Lions. Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: It's like.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: And some. Some Lions fans were kind of defensive of that, and then they got bounced one time in the first time in the playoffs.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: It's. I mean, yeah, it's kind of. It's kind of like. It's kind of like this. This. You know, it kind of. It kind of makes sense, I guess, for fans to be defensive. Cause it's like, my season's not a waste if my team doesn't go to the Super Bowl. I don't. I don't think that about the Vikings.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: But.
[00:28:34] Speaker A: But there is a certain mentality of, like, if.
If as a player you're not thinking super bowl or bust sometime within my career, why am I. Why am I playing? That's the thing with Cousins is like, I think Cousins legitimately wanted to win a Super Bowl. I think he wanted to give his family, like, long term, wealth more, which is fine. You know, I maybe have some of my disagreements in how I would approach life with all of these people.
And so that's a fine maybe, cousin. That's a maybe so I'm not going to get into an argument, Cousins, about how he's dealing with his finances. But, but there is like this, this thing of like, as a football team, why would I want to pay a player millions of dollars if they're not like dead set on getting a Super Bowl? Like. And I mean, I mean, yeah, if we want to dive into the philosophy of this, then it's like, I mean that's, that's probably part of why it would. It's difficult for Christians to, to be the best, to be the best at anything, because oftentimes to be the best at anything, it has to be all consuming and it's very difficult.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: It has to be the most important thing to you.
[00:29:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
And, and in order. And it's, and it's. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is a very difficult thread to needle, to be obsessed with a goal and faithful to all of your other relationships.
Um, I don't, I don't. I'm not going to say it's impossible. I just think it's a very difficult thread to needle. Anyways, all, all that, all that to say. I think if a, if a coach is saying it's not super bowl or bust, when, when you are in your super bowl window, like, like you, like Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, they've been here for a couple of years. You could have gone to any of these recent Super Bowls.
Um, and the idea that you're getting towards the end of Henry's career, you're getting towards the, the mid tier of Jackson's career. I mean, Harbaugh's been in the league for, like, do you feel. Go for it. Sorry.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I guess, like thinking from Harbaugh's vantage point, do you feel like the, the question is disrespectful. He's won a Super Bowl. As long as he's head coach and functioning the team, this team has a chance at a Super Bo. Like, is that, is that kind of his framework? Like, I agree it feels short sighted and even like what's going on here if you don't recognize the window you're in and like doing whatever you can to try to get another one here. But I guess is, is that some of where his defensiveness is coming from? Like he's a, he's an elite head coach. Yeah. He's done it. He's done more than what even his own brother has done.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah. In the NFL, I mean, may maybe like, like for some personalities having that pressure, I think, you know, for someone Like Tom Brady, it was super bowl or bust the day after. Yeah, his super bowl win, I think. I think he thrives under that sort of pressure.
I. And you know, even someone like Jalen Hurst a little bit, who has a little bit of a similar personality to Brady, where it's just like, I'm a little bit of a robot.
I thrive under pressure. But then, you know, I could.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: I could see a sense you get. Yeah, you get that sense from them. Like they're going to show you every new year that they can do it. Like they.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Whereas other people might not. Like. I. I don't necessarily thrive under pressure. Under that kind of pressure, I guess, like, where it's like, if you mess. If you mess up in this one instance, everything goes to waste. I'll pro. I'm more statistically more likely to mess up. Um, now if. Now if I'm pressured in the sense that I have something coming up and I have many opportunities to achieve the thing that's coming up, that kind of pressure can be helpful. Where it's like. Like I have, like 10 tries at it and, you know, I don't. I don't know if my illustration is working. Like, like there's different kinds of. Different people thrive under different kinds of pressure.
And so maybe he's trying to alleviate. Maybe he just knows himself and his team that, like, they don't. Right now, they don't need this sort of back talk where it's like, oh, we gotta win a Super Bowl. It's like, no, do, you know, keep doing your thing. It's sort of that thing of like the repetition.
You know, we talk about it at our coffee shop where it's like, go slow. Go slow to go fast. Where it's like. Like, in order to make this drink, I need the new people to slow way down and get all of their mechanics, all of their muscle memory down path. And then as that muscle memory becomes second nature, then you'll just naturally become faster. Maybe he's doing something similar where it's like, I don't need my players thinking it's super bowl or bust. I just need them working on their mechanics, on their throwing, on their. Their mental processing on the plays. And as all of that comes together, I'm so confident in our play calling and in our strategizing and in our talents that we will make a Super bowl run. I just think.
Seems like it would have the potential to kind of cut. Cut the wind under, you know, out from where it's just like, oh, coach. Coach doesn't think the Super Bowls, you know, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not a player, I'm not a coach.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: I do wonder seeing some of Henry's reactions to his fumble and stuff, like maybe that is part of, of things going on. Like one of the big, like Henry is an elite first round hall of Famer, first ballot hall of Famer running back, and seems like maybe he needs to get out of his head a little bit. Like just, yeah. Move on. Like move on to the next play that you can control.
They also fielded some stuff like that around Mark Andrews and the fact that until this last game, until Monday night, he hadn't been given the ball much in the first two weeks. And so was there some sort of.
I forget how it was phrased question. And, and Lamar Jackson was like, Lamar always. Or Mark always starts slow. Like starts slow, doesn't get the ball a lot. And then eventually we start getting him the ball towards the end of the season. So may maybe as a whole they're a little bit defensive as a team and maybe I'm counting them out. Like they're probably going to do well, probably going to come back in and have a good rest of the season. They've certainly started fairly with a fairly intense schedule and they've had some close losses. And so maybe they are better than I'm giving them credit for. I just, I do look both at the Ravens and the Bills, wonder like, did they solve the things that kept them out of the super bowl last year?
[00:35:34] Speaker A: And the thing.
[00:35:36] Speaker B: Not sure.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: The thing I was going to say about the Bills, I saw someone post on Twitter that like, the AFC has quarterbacks, the NFC has teams, which I thought was. And they, you know, I think they were making the point that the NFC was going to win the Super Bowl. And I, and I think, I think that that's probably true. Like, unless it's the Chargers, like, I don't think the Bills can't win a Super bowl. If, but if I was like, I was a betting man, I was putting money down on it. I would just, I would just, I just think that, I think that Josh Allen can put this team, this team on his back and get to the Super Bowl. I don't know that like Josh Allen could single handedly beat like the Eagles or the Lions or the Rams.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: The chart, the Chargers, I think are a lot more well rounded. I just, I don't know that I. How much I believe in them yet. Like, I just have to see them.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: Play it out.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. And obviously like as. As we look at these first three weeks, it sure seems like the Chiefs have been a fairly non factor in terms of competitiveness. Now they did beat the Giants 22 to nine.
Were a little bit like who. Who wouldn't beat the Giants 22 to 9? Obviously the Cowboys played them low, but I also think it just to kind of point this out. We didn't touch on the Bears game at all. I'm not ready. I think it was a fantastic game, a get right game for Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. But the Cowboys have a horrible pass defense. Like everybody just needs to know that. Like that's why Russ was able to throw 450 yards and that's what, that's why Williams was able to put up if. If the Vikings had not blown the Cowboys out on. On big. Like I think again going back. Like I think it said more about the Eagles opening than it did about the Cowboys. The fact that that game was close and some of that may have had to do with Jalen Carter not being in the game. Chiefs beat the Giants. Russ looked awful. How did he look so good the week before? Because it was the Cowboys and I just don't think the Cowboys have a good pass defense. But the Chiefs do have Rasheed Rice coming back in.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: In the middle of the season. So like maybe we're counting them out too early. They. They have the capacity to come back in and, and play championship caliber football. I'm not going to discredit that. They're just not really on my radar right now to take them seriously based on the fact that they're not winning just like the Eagles. Like their games would kind of say the same thing had they actually lost to the Cowboys. The Cowboys had several chances to take that game or the, I mean the Chiefs game with them was pretty close. But then the, the Rams were set to win it in a walk off fashion.
And so if, if the, if the Eagles were sitting one and two, I'd be like, yeah, like let's see how the season plays out and take them seriously. Instead, the Eagles are looking like the new Chiefs in getting these wins, these ugly fashion. Wins, these wins in ugly fashion. And that's a reason for me to like sit up and be. Not only the fact that the Eagles didn't look that terribly clean until about week 11 last year.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: In the same way the fact that they're looking ugly but winning, that's. And the. And they've been there. They. They have the personnel to do that It's a matter of cleaning things up. I would keep them on the radar, but I don't know. The Chiefs are. Are definitely kind of quickly sliding to kind of a.
We'll see what happens there. There were definitely years where the Patriots weren't much of a factor in the. In the Tom Brady era as well. And so Mahomes has had historic performances with the team. Mahomes and Reed, they still would be on a historic dynasty. There's going to be lulls in the middle of that, and this year might be one of them. Well, we are. That was. That was a lengthy kind of recap as we rehashed things and got lost in our. In our various threads. In the next episode, we're going to pick week four winners and losers.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: All right.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: And we're going to reveal we did something different. A lot of people will give their super bowl picks before the season even starts.
We just didn't really even have that planned. But then there's also this aspect of, like, what if we were to wait a few weeks, see how some things play and then make our picks and then say we don't get mea culpas at Thanksgiving or whatever the typical thing is to do. Um, I guess maybe we can make Christmas or something.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Well, maybe by the time we actually know the playoff teams, we can make another prediction.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Which ones are going to go deeper? So we're going to make reveal our super bowl picks in the NEP next episode. If you aren't already subscribed, go ahead, like and subscribe it. This is a podcast where we are two brothers who love to talk about football. And yes, we do want to see the Vikings win a Super bowl before we die. But I think our identity, Christopher, correct me if I'm wrong, I think we want to see the Vikings win multiple Super Bowls.
That's why we're not.
We're not just jumping off of McCarthy right now. We want to see them develop a meaningful quarterback and franchise for years to come.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Yes. Let's do it.
