Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello and welcome back to the Skullcast. My name is Asher Whitmer and I'm here with my brother Christopher Whitmer. And we are two Vikings fans who love to talk about football.
And so we talk a lot of Vikings football. If you've been tracking with us so far this year, you know that we typically put out three episodes a week. One recapping the Vikings game and then one kind of looking around the league as a whole, highlighting some, some games that stood out to us and then another one that we usually release right before the Thursday night game. Going over our picks. Last week we had some technical difficulties that came up and was not able to get any of those episodes out. And it was kind of the final straw that broke the camel's back as we were testing out this three episode format, trying to keep it shorter and still get in everything that we want to talk about. But the reality is we are totally doing these episodes on the margins of time. And so three episodes really isn't quite as sustainable as we thought it might be able to be. So we're going to cut back actually to just one episode a week.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: One.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: And actually really.
Sorry, what was that, Christopher?
[00:01:30] Speaker A: I said one glorious episode.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: One glorious episode. We're still going to try to keep it 30 to 40 minutes and tighten it to Purdy specifically focused on Vikings as opposed to even looking around the league. Now the Vikings are on a bi week so we might have some time both in this episode and next week's episode to look around the league a little bit more. But. But yeah, we just really don't have the time for. We spend like two and a half hours recording and then another hour plus doing some editing. And. And just to simplify we're going to keep it to one episode a week where we rehash and review the game and then look forward to the next game. So I will hopefully maybe be able to publish the, the episodes that we recorded for last week because one of the things that we talked a lot about last week that obviously isn't public is how much we do not want to shortcut the development of JJ McCarthy and so I think, I think we'll get into that a little bit again in this episode. But Christopher, why don't we just start off again? People did not see this, but we in our picks. Last week I had picked the Browns to win because I thought our O line was too decimated and the Browns were. They were top two in both run and passing defense going into last week's game as it Turned out the Vikings actually pulled out a win. It was an ugly win. They win 21:17 with a beautiful game winning drive. Like, if the whole game could have looked like that, the Vikings would have been able to blow out the Bengals. I'm sorry, the Browns, they did blow out the Bengals. They. They actually moved the ball fairly well, but they. They had a couple key turnovers that cost them, like the Jordan Mason fumble. And then I think Scott. Xavier Scott also fumbled in the game.
Yeah. What are your takeaways as you review or as you watch that game again? It was an early morning game in London.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Excuse me.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: I. I didn't watch the game, but I.
So I was. I had to recap it because I was at church.
It. Yeah, it.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: It.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: I went into the game thinking this is just going to be an absolute slop fest. Like, the Browns aren't playing well except for their defense. The Vikings aren't playing super well.
And it kind of was like you said, except for that. That last kind of beautiful drive.
Um, we start out the game just right out the bat with the fumble, and then the Browns took advantage of that and got a touchdown. Um, I think. I think my. My. My thoughts are primarily like, I'm. I'm super impressed. And. And this is kind of goes again to some of what we were talking about last week. Super impressed with Kevin OConnell's coaching and the O lines ability to hold it together. Like, they still. Carson Wentz still took three sacks. I think at least one of those was very clearly his own fault.
Like, he took a long time.
And there's only. There's only so long that an O line can hold up against Garrett. What's his name?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Miles Garrett.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Miles Garrett. Yeah. So I'm. I'm super. I.
I sound like such a homer every week. I'm just so optimistic. I'm super impressed with this team being three and two with all the injuries that they have. This O line, like Blake Brand, like, we may have found our backup center to replace if, you know, if feels like there's a pretty high chance Ryan Kelly might not even come back.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Um, Blake, you feel pretty good about Brandle?
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah, just kind of mostly based off of what some football heads have been talking about. Like, they. They've been impressed. They like his primary issue is like his footwork. And at center, you really don't have to move much. Cause everything's just right there.
Um, and so it's. And. And then it's his. His experience, actually, because he's been the sixth man he's had to know how to play. He's had to take practice reps at every single position. So he knows where everybody is supposed to be. He knows like what they're supposed to be doing. And so that's the role of the center is you're kind of the captain of the O line and you're also supposed to help the quarterback, which I think that alone could be helpful for him over Jurgens When McCarthy comes back is just his experience, his ability to like help him read coverages and stuff.
And so that, that feels encouraging. What's his face with Score North?
Searles said that he, he's really not concerned with center. Like that's not his concern going forward. Interesting with how Blake Brand episode played.
Yeah, that was, he was on, he was on actual Score north episode. It wasn't the O line committee.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: So yeah, I think, I think and then this is in the context that the Browns have such a great defensive line and the fact that, you know, with Brandle moved into position and we're missing a bunch of our starters and then obviously like Christian Derrissa is like phenomenal. I mean I was just watching some like highlights of him. Just like he shut Myles Garrett down. Objectively the best defense DL in the league.
So with the context that the Browns are incredibly good and should have smashed our second third string O line and the O line held up is pretty impressive to me and it makes me feel good.
And then the team stuck in and and pulled it out. Obviously we're not always going to be playing against an offense that scores so little.
And so in some ways, in some ways you see right there kind of a snapshot of our woes between the Steelers and the Browns.
If you get an offense that even is even slightly more productive than you're going to might end up like the Steelers. But we were still, we almost won. We could have won the Steelers game too.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: So yeah, the Steelers game was gettable. It should have been. Was really on the Vikings for losing that game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I, I, I was so a couple things going into the game. I was impressed with how decimated the O line was at the end of the Steelers game. That's when they came back. That's when the Vikings came back and, and got back in that game. And so that was kind of interesting to me. You know, they, we look at the Bengals or even the Ravens and some other teams that are dealing with key injuries and they're just, they're not good. They're being blown out and obviously the, the Falcons game feels like a blowout as well. But just to go back, I was thinking again this morning, there's no reason the Falcons shouldn't have blown. I'm more thinking about it in terms of I don't think the Falcons are quite what a lot of people think they might be.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: And one of the reasons is they should have blown the vikings out by 30 to 6, if not closer to 40. But they didn't. And that's a testament to the Vikings defense. But I also think it's a testament to Penix isn't quite fully developed either. Getting back to the Vikings and this, you know, other than that Falcons game, even with all the injuries that they've dealt with and Jordan Addison being out the first three games, they've done really well. I, I had them possibly at 4 and 1, but more likely at 3 and 2 heading into the buy. And this is where things are at. They're coming out of the buy and on one hand it looks like a really tough schedule. But with how the Chargers are doing, they, they're dealing with O line injuries as well, and the Bengals are not looking good. Plus Jackson's kind of up in the air as to his injury.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: So. You mean the Ravens.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yeah, the Ravens.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: So, you know, they've got four games here against the Eagles, the Chargers, the Ravens and the L.
And I think they can for sure get two, maybe even more, because the Eagles have some issues they got to clean up.
And I'd like to think, I think they'll probably lose to the Lions in Detroit, but I'd like to think they're more competitive against them than they were a year or the end of the last season. All that to say, like, yeah, I, I, I was skeptical of how they do against such a strong defense. But to your point, how o', Connell, which is interest, did you watch his press conference after the game?
[00:10:33] Speaker A: I didn't, but I, I, I saw some clips and I heard, I heard about it.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: I, I was cleaning up. Was it Monday night? It must have been Monday night, unless it was Sunday already. But I was cleaning up dinner as I listened to it. And you could hear his body language in his voice.
You could hear. I have never heard a press conference by Kevin o' Connell even, even after they lose, where he was, quite frankly, he sounded disgusted at one point. I think he talked about like how his, his brain hurts or his head hurts. And that's kind of how it felt. It just, it was a, but it was a phenomenal game in the sense When I went back, I missed. I missed a good portion of the game as well, especially the final drive because of.
I was able to watch the first half, but then we, we had Church over the second half and so. But the way they maneuvered pockets and they ran creative schemes in order to avoid Garrett, in order to, to complement the offensive line, you know, to get their, the Browns strong part of their defensive line to run into the strong part of the, of the Vikings offensive line. I don't know why they didn't do more of that against Pittsburgh. Maybe. I don't know. There, there may have been several different reasons. But I mean, even when you, when you go back to that Pittsburgh game though, and it was true again against the Browns, the Vikings actually yards per play were pretty good, were pretty significant. There were some key turnovers, key mistakes that just totally flipped the momentum. But it's interesting seeing that. Like it was clear o' Connell does not want to have to play every game the way he had to play that game to get a win. But he had the ability to adjust and to coach and create a game plan for them to get a win. And so there's, there's part of me that's. That wonders why, like, will we see more of that happening as J.J. mcCarthy comes back in?
Will we see him dumb down the plays a little bit to kind of let McCarthy grow into the system, or is he going to continue to, to, to run his plays and try to get McCarthy to grow into his system? As it is, I believe Wentz had a time to Throw at like 2.4, some 2.43 seconds or so, which is an incredibly.
I think it was his, his Bengals game and then the Browns game are two of the five fastest time to throw averages in this, in the whole league so far this year. And so obviously that plays a role like McCarthy that's a piece that McCarthy won't be able to get until he has more and more reps. But can OConnell simplify the scheme enough to give McCarthy quick, quick reads? And even like that was one thing o' Connell said in his. Now I might be blending. Maybe it was yesterday, Monday's press conference as opposed to after the game. But he mentioned how it's been good for McCarthy to see Wentz is, you know, getting the ball in play, even if his first progression isn't there or something. And, and so it'll be interesting to see how things go. But it, yeah, it's nice to see that they can pull out ugly wins. And when I look at the rest of the season, I think they're still within shot of the playoffs, but. And maybe, maybe this is where we want to spend more of our time. Like, there's, there's a lot of chatter, a lot of national talking heads who are, well, even. Even locked on. Vikings drift into this lane a little bit too, but who, who are saying things like Wentz is a better QB one over McCarthy or that O' Connell is not committed to a QB. And in my opinion, I think he's been pretty clear all along that McCarthy is the QB one. They want to get him healthy and that's how I think it should be. But on the other hand, Jefferson's had two back to back 120 plus yard games. You know, is there. Yeah, the, the Big Bird's eye view is that the locker room is going to fall apart if, if you get McCarthy back and he looks like he did against the Falcons.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: McCarthy also didn't get to play with Addison or Durasaw.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: And so both of those things allow for Jefferson to get bigger games, especially having. Well, both.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: But I think Addison plays a big role in that as well.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
What did I. Did I say? Yeah. I said yes.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah. You said Darasaw and Addison.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I, Yeah, I.
To me, to me, the, the McCarthy Wentz thing feels really silly.
I say that, but like, I kind of get it. But, but to me, it's just like, as a fan, like, I get it from a player's perspective of like these players who signed up here for a year, they're very like, win now focused. That, that makes sense. They're putting their bodies on the line. You know, they're. They're working hard. And so to put a train wreck quarterback under center would be incredibly discouraging. If you're like one of the, like, Will Fry who's like, signed for a year and it's like, I came here for this, you know, but the, the fan in me. This is where like, I think the Kevin o' Connell and Kwesi administration has kind of just gotten me over the nostalgia for players where it's like, oh, you, you let feeling go or you let Cooks go or whatever. It's like, no, I, I want my team to win. I want my team to have success. I don't really care about your, your personal ambition.
And I care, I care about guys like Jefferson partly because they've, they've been such hard workers and loyal teammates.
And I like, I liked, I liked Harrison Phillips and whatnot, but there's a degree to which it's like, I don't really care what the players think.
I want McCarthy to be developed, and I want him to turn out to be really good.
And I don't want to spend four years cycling through quarterbacks and trying to hit draft picks and whatever. Like, I want McCarthy to work out.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: And.
And it's like, you could. You could either go through trying to hit on a quarterback, which is probably pretty likely under Kevin O', Connell, that we'll have kind of 20, 24 Sam Darnold years.
I don't want that.
I would rather spend the next three years wasting it trying to figure out if McCarthy has it. I don't know that it would take three years. I would rather spend this year and know by the end of this year. Is there something there with McCarthy or is there not?
And the thing is, Wentz hasn't played well up until that last drive in the fourth quarter. Like, that took all of two minutes. He wasn't playing super well.
And so there's this degree of like, okay, we could get to the end of the year, you know, maybe at best 9 and 8, 10, 10, 7 or whatever, and have watched terrible quarterback play. Or we could get to the end of the year maybe, you know, I would think, like, at worst six or seven, at best, maybe 10, and wins and have watched a young QB develop, which, yeah, is. Could be painful, but I don't think it will because I think Derrisa's back, Addison's back. Obviously, we're only six weeks, five weeks into this, and all kinds of stuff has already happened, so who knows what could happen in the next couple of weeks, you know, but it feels like the amount of injury, bad luck that we've gotten in the first five in the first three weeks is just statistically unlikely to happen again and that things will start evening out. Sal will hopefully stay put. O' Neill will come back.
Cashman will be like, we'll just like the.
You know, I don't know if we'll get Ryan Kelly back. I don't entirely know if we'll get banged Ginkgo back, but, like, all of these players should be coming back here soon. Yeah. And, yeah, I feel like I'm just kind of repeating the same thing over and over again. I just want to see McCarthy develop. I don't really care about the player's personal ambitions. I know that I'm not Kevin o'. Connell. O' Connell has to navigate that a little bit more. I think that. I think that we're judging McCarthy off of his first two games.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Like yeah, it's, it's phenomenal to me. Like you have Drake May who just beat Josh Allen and looks every bit as much like Josh Allen, but he's played 10 times more games than J.J. mcCarthy. And people, people forget like go back and look at Caleb Williams, Drake May, Jaden Daniels, even pat Patrick Mahomes first game in the NFL. And there's an argument that could be made. McCarthy actually had a better first game in the NFL because he came back well and he threw two touchdown passes. None of, none of those QBs, even Patrick Mahomes threw a touchdown pass in their first NFL game. And yes, the, the Falcons game was ugly. But again, go go look at the stats of those other QBs within their first two games. They, they didn't look that impressive either. In fact, Jaden Daniels who led his team to the playoffs and to the NFC chan. Yeah they were in the NFC Championship.
He didn't really start finding his own until the midway point of the season. If I remember last year I think he had kind of struggled and then got injured a little bit. I remember he missed at least parts of a couple games if not a week or two. And then after that is when he started they started showing up and beating some of the, the better teams, even playing the Eagles tight. But so I, yeah I'm just to. In my opinion we do not know at all like if anything what we've seen from McCarthy. He's slow. That ought to be a given. That's a given. That's, that's going to happen with a rookie QB, especially a 22 year old QB. He needs reps. The only way to speed up is to get him reps. So he needs reps. And then considering the, the O line I, I was again thinking through like so this is what Wentz did with a decimated O line against the Browns who had, who have a very strong defensive line. But you have to remember so many of the injuries that, that have now led to, to the Browns game happened in that Falcons game. And so when you're swapping out, Brian o' Neill goes down. Ryan Kelly gets another concussion. Michael Jurgens got injured in that game.
I think by the end of the game Jackson was out even and those are happening on the fly. They didn't have any practice time to practice and prep and create a scheme that can what they can do with this O line. And so you had a whole week at least for, for Wentz and the, the offensive line to practice and get it prepped I just, I don't think it's fair to, to zero in on that Falcons game and define J.J. mcCarthy by that. That was total decimation. And I think Wentz would have looked very similar. I also think McCarthy would have looked very similar against the Bengals, but with how decimated they were. And so again, we've said this several weeks in a row now, but there's so such a drastic difference between that Falcons game and the Bengals game. All that to say if the, if the Vikings went down the route of like, ah, we don't like what we see in this young qb, instead of continuing to develop him, we're going to try to rehab Carson Wentz or rehab some other quarterback. And Kevin o' Connell is really good at rehabbing quarterbacks. But if they did that route as opposed to actually putting, putting action to their words and giving the time and the space and the mentorship to develop a qb, it would start feeling to me like the Vikings are trending in a Minnesota Twins trajectory of this sort of half hazard. Like not actually doing the. What it takes to develop a good championship team, but constantly kind of buying low and getting these repair jobs and seeing what you get out of them and striking gold sometimes and then, you know, it totally flopping some other times. And, and right now for anybody who doesn't follow baseball, the Twins are the most embarrassing franchise in baseball. Basically just with how pathetic the ownership in front office is and non committal to getting good players to actually come and perform. And, and they're young. They're young rookies that are good, have no oomph or want to show up and play because it doesn't feel like ownership is behind them and, and coaching is really there.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: The Oaklanders probably like to have a word. Yeah.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Although they've, they're, they're turning their ship around. They have, they probably have the rookie of the year this year. He's a, he's a former Amish dude really. From Lancaster County. Yeah. Nick, Nick Kurtz. I don't know. I think he'll probably win Rookie of the Year. I could be wrong, but all that, all that to say that that's just. I am absolutely not like Carson Wentz would have had to blow us away. He's done a phenomenal job as a backup. That's exactly what a backup QB should do, even bring a veteran presence. But he didn't blow us away. Like I've, I think it's very likely, maybe that Steelers game would have been a little worse if McCarthy was in there. But I think McCarthy could have done equally well against the Bengals. Against the Browns, I think he probably would have done just as good.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: I'm just not at all interested in foregoing the development of McCarthy. What do you think? Like, do you think they should bring him in against the Eagles? It. It doesn't sound like he's quite practiced with the team yet. He is working out.
[00:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: But.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: I would. I would like him to play against the Eagles, but, you know, it is a high ankle sprain. And so this part of me that's like, keep him out to bring him back week eight, let him have a get right game against potentially the struggling Chargers.
Although that is a primetime game, and he's had nothing but primetime games so far Thursday night.
It feels. It feels like.
Yeah, it feels like you couldn't really go wrong, like, by bringing. Bringing him back week eight instead of week seven, just because it's like, it's kind of a long shot that we win that game.
I know that that's not against the Eagles. Yeah, I know that's not how coaches. Coaches are worried about, are we going to win this week?
And so, you know, I don't know that they're evaluating what are our chances to win this week. Okay. You know, it's only marginally better. So that's. Make him start next week.
I. Yeah, I think, personally I would. I would prefer. I prefer Wentz against the Eagles.
I think it's. I think it's a nice. It's a nice story.
You know, potentially has a revenge element there, which is. Is not nothing.
And.
And then we, you know, potentially are three and three at best. We're four and two. If we're four and two, we're in a really good spot. If we're three and three, we're all right. And then, I mean, yeah, like, I think the Chargers are gettable, the Ravens are gettable, The Bears are still gettable.
Um, you know, if he. If he beats the Chargers, Ravens, Bears, Cowboys and Giants, you know, that's eight wins. I would feel like eight wins is probably like eight wins total for the season is probably our basement.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, I, I think.
I think there's 10 wins in there. Obviously. I'm. I'm assuming that McCarthy is not the first half of the Bears and Falcons game version for most of that, but I think there's easily 10, if not closer to 11. And part of that is, like, I'm not sold on. There's a very good chance we're swept by the Lions The Lions look strong and pretty good, but I'm not sold on the packers entirely. Like, I don't know that there is. They are, if you look up their team defensive stats, they are top, pretty much top five in every category. But they've played one less game so far given they're very Minnesota. The Minnesota and Packers are very close defensively in yards given up per game. Lions aren't that far behind either, but they are about 10 yards per game more than even Minnesota. Minnesota's top three in passing defense.
And so that's nice. I mean, last year they were, they were really, they struggled rushing, their bottom third.
And that's where it's a little more frustrating because they, they up until the last two games of the season last year, they, they led the league in rushing yards. They also have not done. It's almost like they completely swapped with the Eagles. The Eagles are very mid in terms of how many yards they give up, but they've had a lot more highlight reel plays defensively, blocking, field goals, a few more interceptions and so forth. Whereas last year that was the Vikings. The Vikings were middle of the pack in terms of yards per game that they were given up and so forth. But then they had way more kind of splash plays.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: And so it, it'll be interesting, hopefully. I mean, we as a fan base expected this defense to be a top three defense out of the gate, and it has not been that. And so we're really discouraged and frustrated. But then when you actually go and look at the numbers, it's like the Vikings are.
They're top six in almost every category. Rushing is, is bottom third. Yeah. 20, 20 to 30 range.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: And, and we have, we still have a long se. We're still at the stage where we can say we have a long season ahead of us. We still have 10 plus games.
11 games, I guess.
But no, 12 games.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: We have 12 games.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm bad at math and so, and so like, to me, it's just like a lot of those kinks where it's just like our new guys, you know, there's still plenty of time for them to step up. And I get it, they should have come into the season ready. But I, But I do. I mean, a lot of NFL legends and coaches have said, you know, the season, you know, Belichick famously says the season doesn't start until Thanksgiving.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: And so that's where it's like, if you can hang in there with the record and if you can get healthy and stay healthy, which historically the Vikings are Fairly healthy as a whole. Obviously there's one year where our whole season was wrecked because Kirk Cousins got injured.
But just, I just think, you know, mid, mid November, we could look at this team very differently and this, the, that defense could be getting up to par. You know, they could be in mid season form.
We would have our O line back.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: And McCarthy could have three times as many games as he has now.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, I, I will say, kind of touching back to something you said. I, I do hope that o' Connell pairs down at least for a couple of games.
Pares down the offense to where even if it's winning ugly, that like McCarthy is able to like get his feet under him and show, show a couple of good games and then start putting in some of that more elaborate game plan.
Like to me, if, if O', Connell, there's two ways you could take it. Either O' Connell really believes in McCarthy and so he keeps playing in that way or, or he's just a little, a little bit, his ego is getting in the way and, and that would be a bummer. Like, that would like an ego is a championship killer.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I, yeah, I agree with you. I don't think that's it with o'. Connell. I think there's, there's probably a bit of just frustration with nobody plans for the adversity that they're dealing with and that he's had to.
And I, I'm guessing he's excited to see how McCarthy can put together these plays, what they've been practicing and prepping for and they just can't, they haven't been able to yet. And so that's frustrating and, and probably knows the way that he's been, that Wentz has been playing these games is not sustainable. Yeah. For, for a season, but especially deep into the playoffs, they're not, we haven't, if, if Wentz performed every drive like he did that final drive, he'd look like an mvp. But we've only seen one drive really where it was like he made some tough throws that were beautifully thrown.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the, my big concern for McCarthy would be like that whole thing like he's, he's reading the field slowly and, and on top of that, now he has an ankle sprain that he'll probably deal with in a sort of minor way the rest of the year.
And so if, if teams just like rush him, just send all of their forces to confuse him and then also he's limited in his, in his like movement that, that could be really Difficult.
Um, yeah.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're right. Well, we're gonna. Let's. We're gonna wind down our times. We're still gonna do our picks, but we're not gonna spend as much time going over it. We're. We're gonna track and obviously some weeks we may not even really depending on how excited or frustrated we are at how the.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: This has to be the worst week of the. Of the year, I would think.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Too many upsets you're saying, as far as how our picks turned out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was saying like depending on how the Vikings game turned out, we may not have time for, for going over picks.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: I see.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: But yeah, this week was pretty rough. We both went five and nine in our picks. Out of 14 games, we. We picked five correctly and there were some upsets. Some of them maybe should have smelled coming, but a couple like you don't pick against the Eagles, you don't pick against the Bills, you don't even really pick against the Chiefs. And yet they all got got this week.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: I was, I was looking at. When I sent you my picks, I, I did them with our nephews and the Chiefs game. I said feels like it could turn. Turn out different. So I, I said I picked the.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: We. We picked the Chiefs.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Feels like it could turn out different. So it.
[00:34:38] Speaker B: I, I like they played the Jaguars and I, yeah, I'm kind of on the Jaguars. I think Jaguars. The Jaguars are better. I just didn't see them pulling off a win against the Chiefs, especially when the. Within the first quarter, I think they were down 14 to nothing.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: And yeah, that was. That was an interesting comeback. I'm not like I. The part that was the most I've watched the Jaguars actually in a game.
And there's a. There's enough about Trevor Lawrence that I, I don't believe he'll go deep, but the, the way he hung in there and, and even his athleticism, that, that final touchdown play like could have been a disaster.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Paired that with their defense. I think they have a good shot at the division. Obviously the, The Colts have a thing or two to say about that as well as that's the same division as Houston. Right?
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: Because Houston. Houston is very much on their way back as well. So here's week one.
I mean game one of week six. The Eagles and Giants play. We're picking the Eagles to take over the Giants. Even though it is played at Giants Broncos should be a fairly easy win in London. We're split. I'm going to Stick with my Jaguars. They're at home.
I think. I think the Jaguars have a little bit better defense.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: It's.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: It could be a close game and it could go to the Seahawks, but I'm going to pick part ways this year and pick the Jaguars to beat the Seahawks. Chargers, you think? I was surprised the Chargers lost and then that they lost by as many as they did. They only scored 10 points in this. In, in week five. Do you think the Dolphins could sneak in and get them or do you feel pretty confident?
[00:36:27] Speaker A: I feel pretty confident. I, I think that that Dolphins team is, Is dismantling right in front of our face.
[00:36:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Did you see. Have you seen some of the reports floating about Mike McDaniel possibly being on his way out?
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I saw that.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: And then some people have linked him to coming to the Vikings, which.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be interesting. I don't know. Yeah, I don't see Kevin o' Connell doing that mid season.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he's too loyal. He's too loyal or too stable.
I mean it could. I guess you had. Was it. Robert Sala went to the packers for the rest of season last year. It's kind of a. Yeah, that's true. He could come maybe like that, do something like that. Yeah, we have. We're split on the Brown Steelers. Why do you think the Browns are going to beat the Steelers?
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I really deliberated over this and I'm trying to remember why.
I think.
I think it, it comes down to like they just traded Flacco. They. They're consolidating around Gabriel. They s. They must. I mean you could take that either way. One is that they're just so done with Flacco that they're like get him out of here for a pick.
But I mean that leaves them with two rookies and then what's his face who was injured?
[00:37:47] Speaker B: I don't.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: I don't even know. Or wait, did they trade him? Yeah, I think they just have. They just have.
Yeah, they just have Gabriel Sanders and Watson.
[00:37:59] Speaker B: Watson.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
So. Yeah. I don't know if. To me it feels like they must be pretty excited about either Gabriel Sanders or the two of them together.
And with that defensive line, again, it's a great defense base, basically. Basically. I get. I'm deliberating too long over this. Basically. I think if the Steelers and the Browns are pretty similar teams in my opinion and if the Browns defense gets a little bit better, I could see them pulling it out. I mean, offense.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I think the Browns is. Defense is. Is pretty Good. They. I think the Browns are a little bit like the jets and that they have systemic issues.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: So it might. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that turns out.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: I'm either going against.
Oh, I was just going to say it'll either be a steal from the Browns or like a beat down by the Steelers.
[00:38:55] Speaker B: Yeah, probably something like that. With the Raiders. Titans I'm going against. They're similar teams. They both feel like they're going to really struggle this year.
I think the Titans have the better quarterback, even though they are the road team. And I think that win coming back on the Cardinals is going to put some juice in them. And. And maybe they played the Cardinals. Right. They played the Cardinals.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: So. But my.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: It'll be. Go ahead. Good.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: My thought was I'm done.
I think. I think the Raiders coach is better.
I think the running back is better.
And the. The win with the Cardinals, like the one touchdown came because he threw an interception. The Cardinals fumbled it and they kicked it into the end zone for a touchdown.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: And then. And then the Cardinals had a big goof where. Where he fumbled a touchdown into the. Into the back of the end zone. And so that's.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: That.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: That doesn't deny the fact that they were still there. Like they were still there to make the points, but that's kind of where I was just like I gave it to the Raiders. It felt like two very similar teams.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, you're. It very well could turn out that way. We have the Buccaneers winning. We have packers winning. Maybe the. Maybe the biggest piece is the Lions over the Chiefs in Arrowhead. That'll be an interesting game. I was looking at the Lions schedule and they definitely have a hard slogan out of. Well, they don't have a buy but out of. Out of the next couple of weeks as well. Or maybe they have a buy in the next couple of weeks, but they have. The next four to five games are pretty. Pretty tough for them. It'll be interesting. I think it's either going to galvanize them as the NFC favorites or kind of expose them.
Obviously, I'd love if it's.
If it's more of an equalizer, but the way they've been playing and the thing that I think about with the Chiefs and the Eagles this year is both of them are just sloppy. Like their. Their mistakes are basic mistakes, fundamental mistakes. Eagles are having extracurricular issues and just penalties that are foolish. The Chiefs are not running routes well or trying to force balls in where they. Where they typically Maybe would have done or even like Chris Jones kind of gave up on the. The last play of the game against Jacksonville. Like stuff like that you don't see out of them typically, I thought, and especially when compared to the Lions. I think the Lions have the exact opposite discipline issue right now. What were you going to say?
[00:41:40] Speaker A: Well, the. The Chris Jones things. I was watching that last few, like that last drive and I thought they were purposely letting him score because they knew like there's 25 seconds left and it's the Chiefs famous for the 13 second drive, you know, and they could have done it. They made. They made just some really. I think it was a couple of penalties that just killed that drive.
But I was. I was fully expecting. I was like there.
[00:42:11] Speaker B: It.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: This feels like a prime Mahomes moment.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I was expecting that as well.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: It.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: Those types of things haven't happened in this year, so I was.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: Little interesting. I also thought like the. The. There was one guy that had his arms the whole way around Lawrence and something to be said about that. Kind of a broken tackle. It's like, what.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Why. Why did you not bring him down? But well, well, that is. There it is it for this week. We will.
We'll see how things go. Obviously the Vikings don't have a game this weekend, so we don't have anything to review with the Vikings, but we'll review the rest of the league and look forward to the Vikings Eagles game this time next week.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that'll be interesting.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Anything more you want to add, Christopher?
[00:42:59] Speaker A: No, other than that. I think if I said it before, I said it again.
[00:43:04] Speaker B: I think if.
[00:43:05] Speaker A: If watching sports makes you miserable, go find something else to do.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Yeah. This is the ride of.
Of sports life and it's the ride when we all wanted a QB drafted and QB developed. It's sort of the ride that you're settling in for even if you don't like jets trade for Aaron Rodgers and he promptly gets injured and they have the. The ride of their life since. And now they fire Robert Salah and they're off to a worse start this year than they were last year. So like there's all kinds. Yeah, that's true drama and unmet expectations that. Yeah.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: I think if you're Vikings fans, I think it's a fun time to be a Vikings fan. They're not as bad as they could be.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: We have a lot to be grateful for.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: Okay, we'll talk to you guys later.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: All right.
