Episode Transcript
[00:00:13] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Skullcast, where we are two brothers, Christopher and Asher, who are Vikings fans and we think we like football.
Football's dumb. This.
This is the worst sport in the world.
Oh. Oh my. What a week. If you, if you missed it, you can go back in our previous episodes and listen to our review of an exciting comeback win that J.J. mcCarthy led the Vikings to last week.
Sunday night was a totally different story. It was.
Yeah.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: How.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Let me just say that I have been feeling just like the air is out of so several things. First of all, McCarthy has a horrible game and there were some flashes, perhaps that flash moments of flashing in that game, but for the most part, what he had, the team had like four fumbles. Did he have all the fumbles? He threw a pick or two and fumbled several times. There was one fumble that he actually recovered himself. So I'm not sure if that is included in the four fumbles, if it's four fumbles lost or what. I haven't not digested the stats because just watching the game was bad enough, let alone going back and looking the. But it was also just a.
I would say, and we'll probably get into this a little bit, I would say it was one of Ko's poorest coached games in his whole tenure. And I think that's almost more like. I expected McCarthy to go through some rough patches. I didn't expect it in that game and we'll get into it more, but I did not expect Ko to have a coached game that like he did. I thought it was poorly coached, maybe even poorly coached by Flores as well on the defensive end. I, I had mixed feelings about that. But on top of everything, we have what, three players leave the game because of injuries. And then after the last couple games or last couple days since the game, more players have ended up injured, including JJ McCarthy now being out two to four weeks. So this is just a wreck of a season. And I'm not even sure what all there is to talk about other than to say this was bad and things need to be better.
What. How are you feeling, Christopher?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that there are, there are plenty of reasons to be despondent about the season.
I think that, I think that that's, that's my go to. Like, I didn't, I didn't even finish the game. Um, I forget when I turned it off, I, I needed to go to bed. I needed to wake up early the next morning and I was like, I'm not giving my attention to this.
Um, how.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: What was the Score when you left?
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Oh, I, that was before their touchdown. So I, I think I left in like the beginning of the fourth quarter, maybe when I was like, oh, yeah, there's 15, six or whatever. Yeah, there's no comeback happening.
Um, yeah, I think if anything, the.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Fourth, the fourth quarter got worse.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's really hard to know how to feel about this. And then JJ's injury just complicates it all, I think. Like, take JJ's injury aside, because we found that out like Monday or two. Monday. Yeah, it was Monday, I guess we found out. So it wasn't a lot of time to stew about the game, but some of my thoughts about the game before I realized JJ was going to be out for a while was kind of that thing of like, okay, so he's not having the start I truly thought he could have, but he's still, he's still one in one, and there's still a big long season ahead of us. Josh Allen had a really miserable first year.
Peyton Manning had a really miserable first year. A lot of great quarterbacks have had troubles in the first year. And part of what happens with the quarterback development is that teams abandoned that prematurely because the NFL is so quick paced. The fans are demanding owners, you know, are spending a lot of money and they want to have a return on their investment and so actual player development gets left to the wind.
But I was like, I think we have, we have the team that can weather a quarterback's development, and towards the end of this year, he could be playing really well and, and we could go into 2025 or 2026 with like a pretty wide open super bowl window. And so like, that was like, okay, I'm backing up bigger picture. There's a lot of really good things to still be excited about. I mean, as far as, like, McCarthy's development, like having.
Is his name Ryan Kelly, our center? Having him go out mid game, to me seems huge. And that's part of why I wonder if, if there wasn't as much of that fourth quarter steadfastness that we saw during the Bears where he kind of collected himself, got together, because the thing that the center is a veteran center is doing is he's helping you read, he's helping a young quarterback read the defense and call out coverages and stuff.
Whereas, you know, J.J. mcCarthy was suddenly needing to do that. He's already flustered, he's already confused. He's now needing to do that all by himself. Probably not all by himself, but, like, he doesn't have that veteran center there to help him.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: And, and so having him go out was huge. He still doesn't have, you know, our all pro veteran left tackle and Christian Derrissa, you know, he's been out since last year. He's coming back here in the next few weeks. So, so we had a rookie left guard, a backup left tackle and a backup center suddenly on an already struggling O line with a first year quarterback who's still just trying to figure out how to communicate the plays and read coverages and figure out who's to throw. All of that is like I can chalk it up a lot of injuries. Aaron Jones goes out with an injury. He still doesn't have his wide receiver two in Jordan Addison, who he had the best chemistry with in camp.
All of those things are like, yeah, I think people could look at the Vikings and say, oh, that's cope. I, I think, I think I know this team fairly well. I'm not a football person so I'm not like coming in with, with expertise. But I've been following this team. I think my, my hope in the roster is well founded by, based on people. I respect and admire what they've said and I really still have a lot of hope for this season. And I think that fans in general tend to be impatient and I think that does two things. I think that that spoils your enjoyment of the game and I think that that is just an unrealistic way to watch sports. I mean baseball has a whole farm system to develop their players. The NFL is just much more demanding on their young players.
The injury complicates it tremendously because now you're setting back his development probably four weeks. Like I can't imagine them like they have this game against the Bengals, they have two international games and then they have a bye. I can't imagine them, him being ready in two weeks and going on the European trip. Therefore I can't imagine he'll play the second international game. And then, and then it's the buy, I think. And so I, I can't imagine him starting until we host the Eagles in Week 7, which is a tough team to come back on.
Um, but I think it will be telling. Like, like there's, there's several options for the team to go either Carson Wentz balls out and we're still competitive. And the right thing to do would probably be to put JJ McCarthy back in and pick up where he left off, which is going to be a, a slog and go ahead.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: No, I just want to, I want to make That a point to come back on, maybe even to end on because there's been a lot of chatter around that in Vikings Twitter and media and stuff. Yeah, keep, keep going.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Well so. But there's also the dynamic of you have all of these veterans and you have all of these other players and I don't think people have low expectations for how Justin Jefferson would respond. They think he's a typical wide receiver diva and he's not.
But I can imagine that there, there would be a time for that whole team where Carson Wentz is playing out. Some of these people don't know how long they have in the NFL. It would legitimately start to wear on you of like we're going to put the young guy who's really struggling in. I don't even know if I'm going to be on my this team next year. So why do I care about J.J. mcCarthy's development?
Um, obviously Justin Jefferson is going to be on the team next year but like he's 26, he's entering his prime. I think. I don't think we should worry about Justin Jefferson. I don't think Justin Jefferson should worry about it. But he could have a devastating injury like you just never know. And I can imagine mentally even, even if they're trying to put their best feet forward constantly mentally it would become like this battle of like best case scenario, Carson Wentz balls out and we're still in it and therefore we should keep going with JJ McCarthy's development.
Worst case scenario, everything is horrible. We lose three straight games. You should still put just JJ McCarthy back in for sure because you're not getting anything out of Wentz anyways if that's the case. But now you've probably lost any sort of motivation like, like if we come back from the by one and four that would. That's such a devastating hard position to come back from and you're just spending all of the regular season trying to get into like the wild. The like the last wild card spot.
Mentally that would also be gut punch. So it's, it's just a really difficult situation that the Vikings are put in and we're asking the players to be in incredibly self sacrificial for the development of this kid and the NFL just. And that's just not how the NFL usually works.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, there's a lot there. I've got several things to, to come back to but I want to start with. You talked about how big it was for Kelly to go out. Kelly. Ryan Kelly, the center, he's a Veteran center.
And it was interesting rewatching footage from the Bears game, just how excited Kelly was. I had never really noticed that before, but there's several different plays where he. He like makes really good blocks a couple times on jj Run plays or scrambles or even just a good pass and he's like there fist bumping and jumping up and he's this big center.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: I. I tend to agree with you that I think, I think Kelly was big for JJ specifically.
I'm.
I get the vibe all throughout training camp and then after the Bears game, I get the vibe this team is around JJ and now, like he played horribly. He did not do well. He. Look, I told. I messaged you. We were texting in the middle of the game and I said he looked like they look almost too loose, almost like they were too amped up to play in front of the home crowd. And there's. It's just like all the mechanics and everything went out the window and there's so many things playing in right. He's young. It's his first home game. They had this incredibly thrilling comeback. It was a Monday night comeback. So they're on short rest. And then he has his son, the birth of his son. So he's in and out of practice that week and no doubt tired.
There's a lot of things going on that, that kind of is a perfect storm of sorts that stack against. But I am curious because this is one of the worst struggles, I think another equally comp. Parable game because again, the Jacksonville game, which is complete. Side note, John Parker Romo, who hit the five field goals for Atlanta against the Vikings on Sunday night, the game against Jacksonville, he hit four field goals for Minnesota last year and one. But that game still had a different feel, like they moved the ball, the offense was working. It was just Darnold kind of. Kind of, you know, not hitting his guys in the red zone. It reminded me of the Raiders game two years ago when Josh Dobbs. It was kind of the end of his run with Minnesota where Minnesota shut out the Raiders three to nothing. But it was a miserable game to watch. Nothing was getting completed. The turnover battle was a lot worse on Sunday night as opposed to that Raiders game. But the sacks and all of that was. It was similar. And so I'm looking and wondering how, how is KO Kevin o', Connell, how is he going to bounce back after this major loss? And not just. Again, not just a loss. Like it's different when you lose 20 to 17 to a really good team, but this is, this is just bad. It was miserable. The coaching was not well. The players seemed sloppy. How is he going to bounce back? How is the team going to bounce back? Is there still going to be. Yes. The media has run full throttle with the memes and the gif.
All of this looking at Jefferson and everybody is done with McCarthy. And I guess I'm curious, how, how is Jefferson, how is Kelly, some of the other veterans on the team going to bounce back? Are they still rallied around JJ as a part of his development or.
Or what all is happening in that? I guess based on all of that, I, Yeah, I wonder what people's expectations are and I guess I wonder if we as fans didn't.
Didn't overshoot our expectations for this season. We, we were excited. We're seeing the team come together and we're expecting a deep playoff run. Was that actually realistic? And is that where the team itself is at? Like, they're, they're obviously forced to pivot because of injuries, but are they. Are they as disheartened and concerned and like, oh, this is just horrible? Yeah, I think we need to kind of reset and, and look inward. Like, what were our expectations?
What's interesting is JJ's process wasn't bad. Again, there's. There's. I forget who it was. I was just seeing it this morning.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: JJ's what process?
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Like his reading, his. His looking through his reads and stuff. It wasn't bad. The problem was his mechanics were whack and it's. The game is still fast on him and so he needs reps. The only way to solve that is to get him reps and reps and reps. And of course he can't now that he's injured, but I guess, like, from. From a fan standpoint, I'm just like, I'm not sure that I want to pivot off of seeing who JJ is seeing what this team, even if that means we end up dead last in the division. Like, let's get him reps and know that we're at, like, he's actually a bust before we just pronounce him a bust. This is, after all, the team with the head coach that declared that organizations fail QBs before QBs fail organizations. And so let's see what OConnell does in correcting this and in coming back on this. I think so.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Let's not jump too early. I do think some of the things that were disheartening to me is it felt very reminiscent both defensively and play calling on the offense of The Lions Rams game like the Bears had that similar feeling. But then they came back and we're saying, oh, that's Darnold didn't do that. Darnold kind of collapsed and felt overwhelmed.
Whereas this game now McCarthy struggles the whole game long and the defense felt soft at times when we were used to seeing them be more aggressive though they did a tremendous job in the red zone. Holding. Atlanta should have had way more than 22 points. It should have been 34, maybe even 40 points.
So I think we need to give defense some credit and I guess kind of another.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: We had three major defensive leaders not playing.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly like it. Dallas Turner did do. He had a fairly good game for, for those of us who are calling him a bust after last year. Like he, he came up with some good, some good stops.
I'm, I'm sitting here trying to figure out is Atlanta better than I thought, than I gave them credit for.
And, and so their run game is more effective. Their defense, like I was not expecting the pass rush that their defense provided. They definitely didn't have that last year.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: So there's a lot of like, maybe, maybe we had these low expectations for Atlanta and then we see this bad turn result and so it's all compounded. Like this is just horrible. But maybe Atlanta is actually better than what we gave them credit for.
Yeah, I guess. Injuries, coach.
Atlanta's like the defense did fairly well, but they did run the ball through the field pretty effectively and Minnesota came in second last year in in fewest yards given up with the run and. But then even KO having Jones start again as a main back and kind of sticking with that for a while before even bringing Mason in, like I would have thought that's a first guess after what you saw against the Bears is we're going to have Mason start our running game because what we saw was even Jones did better. Jones had better runs when Mason was the one kind of setting the tone. Yeah, I don't know. I'm, I've got a few.
These are just a bunch of stuff that I'm like processing and running through my head. I don't, I don't come like, I guess I'm with you when I step back and look at the bigger picture. I'm not as concerned with JJ McCarthy as I am with what's happening with our injuries and how much is that going to affect the season and then what happened with the coaching and the play calling and like what's. What all is going to go on with that.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I. I don't know enough about play calling to, like, feel like I can have a hot take necessarily. I think. I think Ko and Brian Flores have enough of a. Of a.
Enough of a good record that my instinct is benefit of the doubt find.
I find it just very aggravating over the years when fans. Fans are like, their first instinct is like, just fire everybody. And I'm just like, that's not. Have you ever been a part of an organization? Like, that's not how. That's not how you turn things around.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: Organizations that get rid of are bad. Yeah, yeah, they're bad. Lousy organizations, perpetually bad.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Imagine if you were working like, at my coffee shop and like, things would have to be really terrible in order to like, an overhaul of the top management to be a healthy thing.
And so I, you know, I just find a lot of sports. Sports fans are. They're emotional and like, hot takes and, you know, that's why we do it. And it's whatever. I just think sometimes there is such a thing as a dumb hot take.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: But I do think, like, just last week. Week, you know, I was like, you know, I never. I never questioned Ko koc But there definitely was like, that moment of like, oh, man, it feels like the Mason thing right away was just a little bit aggravating because it was just like, we're going. We're going with Jones again.
And like, if it's. If it's like the angle of like a coach being loyal to a player and like giving them more than one game, I think that long term that that's healthy.
Um, but. And now, now it's hard. It's like we're not going to know what he would have done in week three because Aaron Jones is out, which I think ultimately could be a good thing. As far as how long is seeing. I mean, he's. They put him on injured reserve, so it's at least four games. Okay. I.
In Aaron Jones. In that Monday night game, Aaron Jones was pivotal in the passing game, ironically.
Mm.
So, yeah, I think. I think there was that moment. And I've seen a lot of people talk about this and I remember thinking about it when I was playing, when I was watching was. There were a number of sequences and I'm trying to remember if they were all in the same set of downs where it was like three and one or something like that. It was. I feel like it was short yardage and they.
McCarthy missed a massive pass to Naylor. Um, that could have been a touchdown.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: So.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was 3 and 1 and. And. Cause that was the. Wasn't that 9. 9 minutes and 30 some seconds left?
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Yeah. And then. And then he.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Instead of. He punted.
[00:22:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: So it was an aggressive third, third down and then he just punted. And that, like, to me, that's the big question mark around the game is like, what. What was that like? Did you just give up?
Um, and people talk about seeing like the defense kind of.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: The.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: That's when the defense kind of. I guess I watched more of the game than I thought I did.
The defense kind of just gave up. Or like, not. Not gave up. I don't think the defense gave up. I think you could. You could kind of see the defeat kind of settle in. This is very hard to play. I mean, I don't know what it's like to play in the NFL, but it's. It's hard. It's hard to accomplish any big goal or big task when that sort of feeling of, oh, man, it's. It's hopeless, kind of comes over.
Um, and I don't blame J.J. mcCarthy. I like, I kind of like the aggressiveness. If J.J. mcCarthy hits that throw, that's an incredible play. We're talking about it all week long. Patrick Mahomes missed a very similar throw and nobody's talking about it. Cause he's Patrick Mahomes. But I'm. I'm just saying. What.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: There are some people talking about it. Oh, he's not doing well, Pat. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: I think, I think more of my point is like, great players miss those throws. And so I'm not going to pin that on JJ McCarthy as like, oh, he couldn't even hit that throw because, like, I've seen him make that throw. And I think that's just a matter of maturity and like, becoming more established. I think that in that whole sequence, I like it up until they don't go for it. Like, yeah, like, what are you, what are you playing for? Because you need, you need a touchdown here in order to be in the game. And so it's kind of like, what yardage are you. Are you fighting for? Like, like, the only positive is if you, if you think so highly of your defense that you think punt it, get closer to our end zone defense will make a play and get like a defensive touchdown or something. Like, I don't know what your hoping to get out of punting, whereas, like fourth and one, like.
But also, was. Was he injured at that point? Maybe. Maybe KO knew that he was injured and maybe KOC had kind of given up on the, on the play.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it could have been. There's, there's several things that I actually found concerning about that. One is McCarthy had just not that long before converted a, I believe it was, was a fourth and one on a QB sneak. So they had tried a QB sneak early on. Atlanta stopped them. But then somewhere there. It may have still been in the third quarter, but I was thinking it was maybe in the fourth. He converted a fourth and one. And so my question is, why, why are we not trying either a run play or a QB sneak on third down, like, doing so? Like, I'm tired of these large, extravagant passing plays on third downs. I don't think we're going to get away from that. I think that's an Achilles heel. Ko. Sometimes it's going to look amazing and then other times it's going to be like that. Um, so I, I probably would have preferred to see a run play, try to get a yard. Like Mason gets you a yard. Mason was getting, Mason gets a lot. He breaks pushes through tackles. And then especially when a. Who was it? Uh, I'm blanking on.
I think it was Jackson Donovan. Jackson 74 was like pulling Mason at one point. There was one run where Mason's like pushing backwards and Jackson's pulling him. That was kind of funny.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: I was surprised that was legal.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: You can, you can get your yard, you can convert it, get it on the third down and then go do a big play on your, on your first down. Yeah, but the other thing is, for as poorly as McCarthy was playing, why are you. That's a big boy pass. Why are you putting that. It's a big boy pass, not just because of, of what it requires in the skill set, but of where you were at in your downs. Why are you putting that much on a rookie QB who's obviously struggling and maybe. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure. Again, what are may, yeah, maybe there were other dynamics that, that KO isn't aware or that KO knew that we're not aware of, but those are, those are some of the things I, it just like there were other alternatives you could have gone to. And obviously you're down nine points, so you're going to have to go down and score and then hope to get the ball back to be able to go down and, and score again. But I'm just quickly looking at the injury report. Were Jonathan Allen and Jayvon Hargrave out of the game the whole, the whole time?
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Oh, no, not the whole time. I, I, I Wouldn't have remembered that they went out at all. They're the, they're the two interior linemen, defensive linemen.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I was reading this report wrong. Yeah, they, they missed several practices that week.
Not because it said, not injury related rest.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: So interesting that, I mean, that does bring up the Harrison Phillip.
The two interior like, does feel like that defense misses the size of Harrison Phillip in the run game when they traded him.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it does. So maybe just to help us land the plane of, of reviewing the Vikings, what if Wentz, and you've kind of alluded it to it a little bit. I've alluded to it. What if Wentz balls out and leads us to three straight wins? We're 4 and 1 going into our buy. What happens then when McCarthy's ready to come back? I see even our guys over at Score north, our guys, the people we follow, we've never collaborated with them or anything, but they're, they're all about like, you got to give it to Carson Wentz then. And everybody's writing this narrative of Carson Wentz beating the Eagles when they come to town. And as a Viking and all of this. Where are you sitting with that?
[00:28:22] Speaker B: That would be interesting story for sure. As a, as a fan, I want to see the Vikings win. And so there's, there's like this degree of like, hey, if Carson Wentz plays well for us.
I don't necessarily want to win the super bowl with Carson Wentz, but if that would happen, fine.
I, the. I, I think the right thing to do though, for the long term of MacArthur's, like, for my future self, my future fandom next year and for the franchise, the right thing to do is to keep developing McCarthy. But that's, that's a really, that's a really difficult decision to make. And if to. To face like. I think, I think there could be a scenario where I just, I don't see a lot of scenarios in the NFL where someone gets benched after starting, comes back and plays at a high level.
Um, they tried to do that in Carolina and I think the Vikings are a much better team than Carolina. And so what's his name, the quarterback?
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Bryce Young.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Bryce Young. Like in, in some ways you could do that where like Carson Wentz just plays until he's no longer hot and then, and then you put McCarthy back in.
You know, Penix played for what, three games last year and is now the starter.
I don't know. It's really, it's really hard. I Think. I think my, like, my very logical instinct is to say, as fans, we just, you have to be patient if you want long term success. You just have to be patient.
And, and we've never, we just very rarely get this opportunity. And so I would, I would be willing to sacrifice the season for JJ McCarthy's development now if it never comes through, like, if, if he's horrible next year too, then I probably would be pretty, pretty, like trivially mad.
Like football ultimately doesn't matter, but it.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: Would be, it would be disappointing.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Yeah, but at the same time, like, that's, that's a hard thing. I don't know that. I don't, I don't see anybody. If Carson Wentz plays well and they win three games, like, if they win three games because of Carson Wentz, it's hard to see them benching Wentz. Like, in some ways that would be like, that would almost go against their culture where it's like, hey, if you play well, you get, you get the start. And it's like, well, not if you're Carson Wentz and there's like this shiny toy that we're trying to get to work.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, obviously, I think a lot of this is just pontificating at this point, right off the cuff. I would say I'd love to be in that situation.
Let's, let's see if we're there and then we'll see what the Vikings do. I am, I am royally exasperated by how Minnesota Vikings are doing the exact thing that we just either praised the, the front office and KO about, like, you know, not give, you know, QBs need development.
We don't want to, you know, it's foolish to spend a lot of money on someone that is going to take up so much cap space. You know, work with a rookie qb, like, in order to just hand the key keys over to Wentz full time. Like, you're, you're punting on McCarthy's development as well as his rookie contract in many ways. And so I'm kind of exasperated at that. Like, let's wait and see how it turns out because from what we know today, it would be best for the franchise and for development for, for. To give it back to McCarthy and continue developing. That's what happens when you draft your franchise QBs. You are kind of hanging a lot on it, but you can't like be sort of in and sort of out and just like trying to guess who's going to take you more if, if Carson Wentz balls out and we're Looking like a hot team in the NFL, then. Yeah, that'll be of interesting conundrum.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: Vikings fans are not unfamiliar with that.
I mean, I feel like most of our successful seasons have been under like a surprise qb.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: I sort of want to see Brosmer.
Yeah, I don't know. He probably would look a lot overwhelmed too. Like.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it'd be interesting. I mean, it'd be an interesting story. I.
I don't want to do the Brock Purdy experiment. I don't. I don't know that that's working out very well for.
Yeah, for the Niners. I mean, I say that they went to the super bowl, so. So maybe. Maybe I'm being too critical.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how things go for them this year as well, but. Yeah, it's a bummer. It's. It's not at all how we expected things to go.
At least with this week, I expected Atlanta to be one of the teams that McCarthy could bounce back on and. And actually have a better half. And it is different. Like, when you think about it, he's had one bad game versus he's had seven bad quarters. Like, it all depends on what narrative you kind of want to go with, how you frame it. Is it concerning that he's had seven bad quarters? Sure. And yet one really good quarter, that's how history's made, is one good quarter can wipe out a bunch of bad quarters. And to see that McCarthy can do that and stick in it, I think it's. I think it's fair to say he brought the team back. And so I want to see what he can do with other types of adversity. We want to know that. But it is a very disheartening place to be heading into week three of the NFL season in 2025.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: So in our next episode, we're going to be looking and reflecting back on the league as a whole. Some interesting games, some very dominating games, including two in the NFC North. So if you're interested in more breakdown of the NFL and the NFC north, click like and subscribe and then stay tuned for that next episode.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: All right, we'll see you.
