Can Minnesota Vikings Get REVENGE On Jake Browning With Carson Wentz?

Can Minnesota Vikings Get REVENGE On Jake Browning With Carson Wentz?

Locked on Bengals, locked on Vikings, crossing over for what I guess is now a battle of the backups. Let’s do it. [Music] You are Locked on NFL Crossover, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Everybody, welcome in Bengals fans. Welcome in Vikings fans. It’s Crossover Thursday. That means I am Luke Brun. I do locked on Vikings. So, hello Bengals fans. And I’m here with James Renee of Locked on Bengals. Crossing over here to preview the Vikings and Bengals. Uh, Sunday noon. Weird backup quarterback tilt. Uh, you know, if I had a nickel for every time this happened, I’d only have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. Um, so we’re getting Jake Browning again in US Bank Stadium. It’s like it’s like it’s 21 2021 preseason all over again. James, yeah, it’s Look, I don’t even know where to start, but I guess we should start with Jake Browning, right? We have to start with the backup thing that’s happening. Like, this is the headline of the game. And no doubt about it. And it’s just it’s like, man, I was so looking forward to the the Joe Burrow, Brian Flores chess match. And like when the schedule, I thought about that. And I was I was so scared of this one on the I mean I I still like Vikings like because of what happened in the last game like Vikings fans are like maybe the most scared fan base of Jake Browning specifically. Like he’s already hurt us once. Yeah. But like going into this game I was like oh man Joe Burrow Zack Taylor quick strike like get the ball out kind of quarterback totally will neutralize the blitz. I thought he was like the Bengals are perfectly set up to neutralize the Brian Flores blitz and I was like, man, that one’s going to be a tough matchup and the teeth gets taken out of it a little bit. It does. And it it’s it’s a bummer. And it’s a bummer for a few reasons. I mean, obviously the biggest story of the week for the Bengals is is Joe Burrow going out and it overshadowed much to Zack Taylor’s he pretended he was surprised. He’s like, “It doesn’t feel like we’re 2 and 0 cuz they’re 2-0 for the first time since 2018. Zack Taylor got here fast start Bengals, right? They get off to this fast start and everyone all week is like, including me, I trade those two wins for Joe Burrow. Like, obviously you’d rather have Joe Burrow for sure. And then it’s it’s so interesting to have the the Jake Browning versus Vikings just element of it. And I thought about that during the Jags game is I’m like, man, if Browning before we knew what Burrow was dealing with, if Burrow was going to come back or not, I’m like, Browning has to start next week. He’s going to Minnesota. And so, yeah, that that is a fun it’s not the headline here in Cincinnati, but I think by the time we get to Sunday, that’s going to be a fun storyline for sure. Yeah. And he kind of already had his revenge game, right? Um, and he, if I recall, he came out and said later, he’s like, I probably shouldn’t have said like, you shouldn’t have cut me. And he kind of regretted it. Uh, he was just a little wrapped up in the moment like it happens. But but I wonder if there’s a little bulletin board on that for the Vikings defense that like I don’t know how much you guys paid attention to how that 2023 season ended for the Vikings, but you know Kirk Cousins was out. It was Nick Mullins. We were back up against backup again. Um and that was kind of the day where like in that fourth quarter in those adjustments that Zack Taylor made in that game, the Vikings defense never recovered from that getting put on tape. They got blown out and then they got blown out again. like they they did not win another game after that. And so that’s why I kind of always looked at this one as like, okay, what what does Zack Taylor have for us now? And even with Jake Browning, like that doesn’t change the fact, and it didn’t last time, that Zack Taylor kind of had the secret sauce and showed everybody and then everybody else copycatted and it took a while for the Vikings defense to figure out a way to like play football again. Um, so I I I wonder if it happens again, but then you got to the other side with um Carson Wentz. Now, we haven’t seen anything of Carson Wentz. He signed after the preseason. The Vikings had terrible backup quarterback play in the preseason. They cut everybody but an undrafted rookie out of Minnesota named Max Bromer and brought in Carson Wentz. Um, so we have no idea what we’re going to see. And now we’re going to be treated to Carson Wentz for an entire tour of the AFC South here over the next three weeks. Yeah. Yeah. That I I I have to ask you starting this way because I do think Bengals fans wondered in the moment. I certainly did. This version of JJ McCarthy is Carson Wentz the better option like for this week. I mean people are going to ask that but I don’t think that that’s smart at all. Even even if you know yeah sure maybe a veteran backup style quarterback is going to do better than your struggling rook but you guys you guys had this in the early days with Joe Burrow too. Guys have to work through it. Um, so you know, benching a a kid that you drafted 10th overall and basically aligned your entire franchise around and your entire career path around if you’re Quy and Kevin Oonnell and then giving up after that uh after six days. That would be pretty bad. And I would even say fireable. And I think people calling for that probably just just they would probably get fired too if they were in this job. Oh, no doubt. I’m not saying bench him. I just mean it’s a way to maybe you could all be like it’s almost scarier I would say if you’re the Bengals with the unknown with Carson maybe not maybe I’m wrong because you don’t have any tape on him there is yeah there is that weird thing um like this is in no way would the Vikings choose this right um but yeah the argument would be that you know hey he’s a veteran he knows how to get in and out of the huddle a little faster the Vikings have had a ton of problems with this they’re getting They’re breaking the huddle at 10 seconds and the play clock is running down on them all the time. Dline is teeing off cuz they you can’t do a snap count anymore. Um they’ve had all kinds of problems with like the timing of stuff. But it’s also kind of hard to time out with a quarterback you’ve never practiced with. So I I feel like we’re kind of just trading some problems for other problems right now. The the the thing is for the from the Bengals side of it, that defense doesn’t know what those problems actually are or how to exploit them and attack them because they they don’t have any tape to work off of. So, they’re going to have to kind of figure that out on the fly for a fairly maligned unit. Yeah, I think that that’s what’s so intriguing to me is this this young Bengals defense that has has four interceptions in two weeks. And you could say, “Oh, well, Carson Wentz is going to give you a chances, too.” And maybe he will. No, you’re getting picks 100%. But but but you had you had the film on McCarthy and outside of that one quarter, one of eight quarters of football essentially where he was awesome, by the way. I watched that. It it’s it’s like, man, it now you have this unknown with Carson Wentz. I don’t know. I just I think it’s interesting, but at the same time, it isn’t as sexy as as as Joe Burrow versus JJ McCarthy. And I would love that element of it. Yeah. And and and we don’t get that. That doesn’t mean it’s not going to be interesting, though. Like, I think this is going to be a really fun game and an entertaining game, even if it isn’t what we thought it would be two weeks ago or a week ago. Yeah, there there will be fun and weird and wild elements. I think both of these quarterbacks have a propensity to, you know, have a disaster play here or there, have some gamesing mistake. Um, but honestly, when it comes down to these battles of the backups, it kind of feels like it comes down to like elsewhere on the roster. I don’t know. We We’ll get into more of those matchups a little later. But I think the goal for both of these teams is to just hide your quarterback. Figure out a way to make it come down to Jamar Chase or Justin Jefferson. Figure out a way to make it come down to Trey Hendrickson or Jonathan Gernard. Make the game about your stars and make it so that we’re not walking away from this one being like, “Hey, you remember the the Carson Wentz disaster game or the Jake Browning disaster game.” I I think it’s a great point because that’s how the Bengals are so Joe Burrow driven and that is why they win when they win most of the time with Joe. And now they can’t be that way. and and the Vikings as JJ McCarthy comes along or Carson Wentz, they’re gonna have to to win that without being quarterback dominant at times. Well, the Bengals are gonna have to we’re going to see if they can do that. And they were able to do it some in 2023 when Jake Browning came in. Obviously, Vikings fans are aware of that. But can they do it again? Like they shouldn’t have won the other day. Like the Jags and Trevor Lawrence and Liam Con. The Jags aren’t a real football team. Like those guy like they made so many mistakes to leave the door open for the the Bengals. I mean, Jake Browning throws three picks and he still gets the ball with the chance to go win. It’s wild to think of, but that’s that’s what happened. And so, yeah, I I agree with you. One, your quarterback can’t make those kind of mistakes and have three interceptions even though one wasn’t his fault. Two, the other guys around him are going to have to pick him up, whether it’s the Vikings or the Bengals. And that’s just how it has to be with a backup quarterback. It’s going to have to be this way for both of our teams moving forward here. Although, you guys are out. Um, can I break some news to Bengals fans? Oh, yeah. I mean, you’ll they’ll they’ll it’ll be like the next day when they’re listening to this, but as we are recording this, the Bengals officially placed Joe Burrow on injured reserve. Little roster transaction news there for you. There we go. Oh, man. Uh, we’re all very happy here. Have a lot crossover. Uh, hey, let’s do this, James. Uh, let’s next talk about some stuff we’re excited about here. some of the things that we think um some of the matchups that we think both of our teams can really get an advantage in and something that could maybe decide this team that’ll be or decide this game that’ll be next on a locked on crossover. This episode of the locked on crossover is brought to you by Mazda. Mazda delivers confidence with every ride. It has more IHS top safety pick awards than anyone else as of August 25. And the craft cars for more for those who do more than simply move. They care about every little detail. And when you’re running an NFL team, especially, details matter so much. You can feel that Japanese crafts craftsmanship in every detail from the metallic accents to the available na napa leather upholstery. And they have all-wheel drive standard in every crossover SUV so you can drive with confidence through almost any season. Just like NFL players, they sweat every detail because when you make every move count, impossible becomes irrelevant. Mazda, move and be moved. Let’s move on here with crossover Thursday on the Locked on Podcast Network. James, I want you to tell me something that you look at in this game and you think, “Oh, the Bengals are going to get him on this. This is how the Bengals win.” If if we’re walking away from a 30point Bengals blowout, tell me who it was who who did it. Who was it about? Well, if if we’re talking that, I think the first thing would be this offense kicks it into gear. And so, it would be the the stars. And what who are the stars? Well, it’s Jamar Chase. It’s T. Higgins on offense. I think it’s Chase Brown who hasn’t been as productive as he’s been involved, but not as productive as I think most would have expected over the first couple of weeks. And so those guys lead the way. And maybe you’re talking about some highlight re real grabs and some long catches and runs from Jamar or from from Brown, but that’s it. I mean, that that’s the way. Now, obviously, you could say Trey and you could get into the defense and turnovers and all of those things, but if the Bengals are going to get to 30 points, not even just win by 30, but get to 30, I think those guys on the road especially are going to have to shine bright and and be be stars. Yeah, I am definitely like part of this matchup even when the schedule came out and I started looking ahead to it was me being worried about Chase and Higgins and who are the Vikings putting out there at corner. Um they’ll probably have Byron Murphy playing outside. He’s a good corner but he’s smaller and that proved to be difficult last time they played the Bengals. And then you have Isaiah Rogers who’s in his first season as a full full-time starter. Jeff Okud is coming off of a concussion. You might not even have him. We’re talking about Dwight McGloin who’s a second year undrafted rookie. Fabian Maro, Journeyman. Like we’re talking about like real, you know, bottom of the depth chart kind of guys on the outside. And the the game within the game for Zack Taylor, I think, is isolating that and finding ways to get an opportunity. If you can catch the Vikings in manto man or in single high where, you know, you’ve got like Jamar Chase one-on-one with Byron Murphy or even T. Higgins one-on-one with Byron Murphy. You just throw one high and say, “Jump up, go get it, be tall.” Um, you I I think that there’s like I don’t really know what you do about that outside of the Vikings just have to get pressure. And for me, I guess I have to ask you about the Bengals O line. What is the vibe around the Bengals O line? I genuinely have no idea. I haven’t followed it at all. Is it has it do we feel like it’s improved over the last couple years where it’s been really frustrating? I think they’re better than the perception among the fan base, especially with Joe’s injury. They’re better than that than that’s been. You got Risner and he’s like in a bunch of trouble because it was like his guy, right? That I guess I Jamar got jam like in in we went over it on yesterday’s show, but Jamar got gets jammed at the line. Joe would have already had the ball out if that didn’t happen. Oh, was it like a quick game jump set? Yeah, ba basically. Yeah. And so there’s multiple Okay. multiple linemen lost. It wasn’t just like Daltton Risner’s guy goes around, hits Joe, and Joe gets hurt. Like it wasn’t that simple. And Daltton took the blame. But honestly, like he’s practiced with the team for two weeks, you know? It’s it’s what he he’s like specifically tuned to do that. He always joins the team in like August. Yeah. It’s wild. It’s wild how that’s happened to him because he at least from my vantage point and it’s been a few weeks. Seems like a really good dude. But yeah, this line you have a rookie and Dylan Fairchild at at left guard. You have Daltton Risner at right guard who’s been here for a few weeks. Fairchild performed pretty well last week. and you look at the advanced numbers, makes sense that that that uh that they would be so bullish on him and and so they believe in him. I thought Orlando Brown Jr. was really solid last week despite kind of the perception. It’s just so weird. I think the perception versus the reality is different and yet this offensive line still isn’t great run blocking wise. There’s a reason why I didn’t say, “Oh, well they go to Minnesota with a backup quarterback and run it 40 times.” Like that’s that’s just not who they’re going. That can’t be the move. Yeah. No. So I I think they’re they’re solid, but they’re they’re far from great, if that makes sense. So that’s the thing that I think has to happen for the Vikings is you have to be able to get pressure on Jake Browning. If you’re going to throw it 35 times, get pressure on Browning and make him do dumb stuff and then hope that dumb stuff bounces your way. That’s what has to happen for this one. If we’re talking about like a comfortable Vikings win, we’re probably looking at a whole bunch of like Looney Tunes offensive mishaps from the Bengals because of some cool blitz stuff that happened because of some cool schematic stuff because you got a free rusher because somebody the Vikings have greatly improved their interior pass rush. So, you’re going to have somebody like Jayvon Hargrave who just worked Drew Delman all day on Monday Night Football, had a much worse game against the Falcons. So, I don’t know what we’re going to get out of him, but if he’s up one-on-one with Risyner and he can beat him, that becomes the the the the like path for the Vikings to really styy um a Bengals offense that I think I just always sort of expect to be really really explosive. Yeah, I I shake my head for those listening especially, I was shaking my head because Javon Harrave, oh, that was one of the many many defensive tackles I think Bengals fans were thirsty for. Oh, you wanted him. Of course. Yeah. Just something anything, you know, just anything that anyone that can be dominant as you said in week one that you know, you take that here in Cincinnati. No, I Yeah. Well, if if it makes you feel any better, go look at what Chris Lindstöm did to him on Sunday Night Football. It was unholy. It was illegal in 10 states. Really? Okay. Yeah. So, we we got it up. We got a down. We’re one in one. Well, yeah. and and and that honestly I I think that’s such a huge that’s going to be a huge storyline for the Bengals during this Jake Browning era is is can they do enough in the trenches and do enough on the ground to take pressure off of him because he’s not going to go there and throw it 50 times. Joe could have like Joe might have like you never know but like you’re you’re not going to be able to do that with Jake and you’re probably right 30 to 35 times which is normal but can they be more normal and successful and in and that balance I think is is interesting because the Vikings defense they’re going to treat we saw it with the Jags they treated the the Bengals weapons different the moment Joe Burl went out and I’m curious to see how it how it looks now that you see the the good and bad for Jake Browning and and do you see some man-to-man coverage? Like Jake Browning will take it. Maybe that’s the Joe in him or or being around Joe, but but he saw Mitch Tinsley one-on-one on an RPO and he just throws it to him. There’s not one Vikings fan that knows who Mitch Tinsley is. I don’t I don’t know. Is that a tight end? No. No, it’s a a wide receiver. He caught his first ever first ever NFL catch and it was a touchdown last week. 13 yard touchdown. Tied the game at 17. Yeah. Well, sometimes that works with the guys you got like chemistry with from the twos. Yeah. onehanded and and so I I would say that like Mitch Tinsley, Andre, guys that Jake Browning has worked with could also uh make an impact for sure and and they they’re going to need it need those guys to make an impact with what Jamar and T are going to command attentionwise. Yeah, it’s it’s going to require like you can you can kind of sell out for that and then like okay, make make Jake Browning beat you has to be the the sort of angle at it. And I think on the other side is it has to be, you know, make Carson Wentz beat you because I think everything that I’ve said about Browning also applies to Wentz. If the Bengals can get pressure, Wentz will do dumb stuff and give the game up. Like that has to be what the thing is. But I do want to ask you about that defense. I’m fascinated with it. I talked a ton of crap about it on uh Locked on NFL and it appears that I am eating crow. So I want I want to get into that uh next on the Locked Onover. This crossover episode of the Locked on Bengals and Locked on Vikings podcast is brought to you by 5Hour Energy Caffeine just got a flavor upgrade. 5Hour Energy Shots deliver tasty caffeine and 17 bold flavors. Each 2 oz shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 oz cup of coffee plus B vitamins and nutrients with zero sugar and zero crashes. Plus, it’s portable. Big taste, tiny shot. You can take it anywhere and get that boost when you need it. It kicks in super fast and gives you that nice clean boost of energy that you need. Whether you’re doing something outside and it’s hot and you’re crashing and you need something a little pickme up or it’s something in the morning, uh, whatever you’re trying to do with it, 5our Energy is there for you. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5h hour energy shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at www5 the number5oury.com or on Amazon today. This episode is also brought to you by Prize Pickics. Of course it is brought to you by Prize Pix. It’s Crossover Thursday. Prize Pix is a great way to get a little extra fun in on a game you otherwise wouldn’t care a ton about like a Sunday night football game or whatever. or right now they have these max discounts going on that are genuinely broken. If you think Patrick Mahomes will get more than half a passing yard, you can put that square into your play and it like super super breaks the the the value that you can get. So, you have to get in on these while the getting is good. Look, you make decisions every day and you have all kinds of takes about how games will go. Maybe you disagree with me and James about how Chase Brown will play or how Jamar Chase will play or how Jake Browning or Carson Wentz will play. Go be right. You just pick more or less on two to six player projections and if you’re right, your takes will turn into real prizes. Download the Prize Picks app today and use code locked on NFL to get 50 bucks in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on NFL for 50 bucks in lineups after your first $5 play. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Let’s move on, James, with this locked on Vikings locked on Bengals crossover. Um, so I don’t know how familiar Bengals fans are if if how many of you your Bengals fans are also listening to Lock on NFL, but there is a locked on NFL show twice a day and I go on their Wednesday mornings with Tyler Roland and we spent a lot of the offseason monitoring what was going on with the Bengals and Trey Hendrickson and just the look of that defense, how much it struggled last year and how a lot of the same guys were run back and then they had that rough preseason start. We’re going, “Oh no, here we go again with the Bengals defense.” But it appears that the Bengals defense has I mean it played pretty well against the Browns. It’s just the Browns. The Jaguars move the ball a little better on them. What is the vibe around the Bengals defense right now? I I I genuinely think this is a huge key to the game is how much can they execute versus a Vikings offense that has not been able to execute, but if they get it together, they have a ton of talent. Would the Bengals be able to keep up? Yeah, I think that’s it’s such a huge question and I thought you were about to set me up to to to brag on the Bengals defense just for Justin Jefferson and Adam Thiel and TJ Hawinson to take him down the peg on on Sunday which could happen, right? And I I think No, but that that’s what’s what’s so interesting like my fantasy team that has Justin Jefferson on it kind of kind of painful the first couple of weeks, you know, it hasn’t delivered necessarily the same the way you’d want. And I I think for the Bengals defense, like it’s been encouraging, but during both of these games, there’s been times and in moments where you’re like, same old Bengals defense. They’re the same as last year. They may be worse than last year, and then they have an interception, an opportunistic interception, or they get a stop, or they they find a way to to get off the field. And I I there’s been at least three different drives in the past two weeks that were aided by drops, but those drops have happened. And so I don’t really know, okay, which way to go. Is luck just on their side? Are they better than last year? They I I will say this, they need someone, anyone to consistently generate pressure that isn’t Trey Hendrickson. And that’s been a huge issue when they’ve they’ve given up a bunch of yards. and Joe Flack was going up and down the field at times and stretches in week one and Trevor Lawrence almost put them up 14 nothing. And then Trey Hendrickson got pressure and threw the ball right to Dax Hill. It was an easy interception for Dax and it gave the Bengals some momentum the other day and kind of turned the game around a bit. So they’ve been able to force those kind of plays and create those plays, but during that early stretch you’re like is this defense just the same as it’s always been? And so that’s why I I stopped short even with Carson Wentz because you may look up and it’s 14 nothing Vikings and it’s because this Vikings offense is moving the ball up and down the field and the Bengals didn’t force that turnover that they’ve done in each of the past couple of games. Yeah, this is the scenario that is like kind of you you alluded to it earlier where like the Bengals defense struggles and the Vikings move the ball really easy and then everybody’s suddenly going, “Oh my god, have we been playing the wrong quarterback?” um that that would be an extremely annoying narrative that will probably get really prevalent, but I think everybody in the building understands this is a backup that’ll be and and that McCarthy would be back theoretically after the buy. Um even if things go well against a defense that is like very maligned. Um so let’s walk with me a little bit here. Let’s walk the Bengals. If they are getting lucky, let’s say it’s just totally unsustainable and they it’s really just been buoyed by drops and they’re actually not playing that well. What is the issue there? I mean, it’s not the names we know, right? It’s not Trey Hendrickson. He ain’t the issue. What what is the way that people have been attacking this Bengals defense? Well, it would be that they don’t have enough talent in the trenches to get regular pressure. And I think Dax Hill is their best member of the secondary, but they don’t have any stars in the secondary right now. And so that would be the argument. And at linebacker, they’re young outside of Logan Wilson. Like I I don’t think that there’s any gigantic glaring oh my goodness holes right now outside of pass rush, but that’s obviously a huge huge void and something that they got some some from down the stretch out of BJ Hill in week one. But you you’re like there’s no the reason why Javon Harrave would have been so intriguing here is because you just don’t have that consistently and that’s such a nice thing to have when you have Trey Hendrickson commanding a bunch of attention. You throw in the fact that Shamar Stewart is doubtful this week. He’s out this week. He’s not going to play. And he was disruptive. He doesn’t have a sack yet, but he was disruptive and and you lose him. And so now it’s on Joseph Osai and Miles Murphy and some of these other guys that have either underachieved, been injured throughout their career, or both that the Bengals are relying on to to get pressure. And if they don’t get pressure, then Carson Wentz should be able to find someone open because it’s going to be hard to guard all of the Vikings weapons for for three and a half seconds, 4 seconds. Yeah, it’s tough on the back end. One one thing that you should be aware of, the Vikings don’t have Christian Deras yet. Um they he’s still coming off of the ACL injury and MCL injury that he suffered last year. We’re kind of right in that range where it’s about time where guys would come back from that kind of injury. We’re at that 9 10 month range of recovery. So he’s kind of week to week. It’s been Justin School. He’s been a disaster. I mean, he’s been a total catastrophe. You’ve probably seen it on prime time. Um now Justin School has a concussion. And it’s the guy who was backing up him, Walter Rouse, who’s a secondyear dude out of Oklahoma, who I actually kind of liked in the preseason. I thought he actually had a pretty reasonable start, but he was not in front of Justin School who was struggling quite a bit. And either we find out that the Vikings made a big depth chart mistake there and and maybe cost themselves um a couple of plays early in the season or that the guy who’s backing up the bad guy is even worse than the bad guy. But I I’m I’m if I’m the Bengals, I mean like I’m looking at Trey Hendrickson and I’m looking at the third stringer over there at left tackle and I’m drooling. Yeah. No doubt. Michael B. Jordan and Sinners and I need to see that by the way. Sorry. No, it’s okay. I I haven’t no spoiler. It’s fine. Look, that if they if they win the game, he has to dominate that matchup. I there’s been times where I’ve thought that going into games like he went up against Fred Johnson last year was like you’ve got to win this matchup. It was against the Eagles and he didn’t he didn’t really win it and those are the type of matchups. Those are the type of games where you need Trey Hendrickson to be just a a terror and so if he’s that well then this defense is probably going to make some plays and create some chaos and force some turnovers. If not, I don’t know where else that comes from. And maybe Al Golden has a wrinkle or two that he hasn’t thrown out there, but they’re going to have to find a way, especially without Shamar Stewart, to do that. Yeah. And you have to like chip him, right? Like you have to I mean that’s if I’m the Vikings, like I’m I’m very aware of where he is every play and I’m throwing a chip at him. I’m doubling him. I’m getting sliding toward him. Like help help. And then everybody else has to be one-on-one. And maybe I’m fine with one-on-one everywhere as long as Trey has two guys on him. That’s how I feel. I was Minnesota. Absolutely. And so who’s the most likely guy to step up then and be that dude? I would say Joseph Osai defensive end because we’ve seen it. We we’ve seen him have the flashes. He’s had the the moments last year. He ended the year well. He’s he’s someone that and he signed a one-year deal. He’s in his fifth season. This is very much a prove it year and this could be a prove it game for him where he kind of busts out. So yeah, Joseph Osai would be the one that I would look at and say, “All right, man. This is your time.” And and if he can be win one-on-one, then who knows? Maybe they finally get some pressure that they’ve been waiting on. But honestly, look, we’ve been waiting on it and waiting on it and waiting on it from from all these guys. It’s not just Joseph. I’m not singling him out. Yeah, that there’s I’m I’m familiar enough with a lot of the like Miles Murphy type situations that you got going on in Cincinnati that, you know, fans are not not so happy with. Well, let’s um get down to to brass tax on FanDuel as I am looking at this. Maybe it has changed by the time you’re listening to this, dear listener, but uh right now the Vikings are favored by three at home. Yep. Uh minus 105 plus or minus 115 for the Bengals, plus three. to the money slightly edging toward the Bengals. Overunders at 42 and a half. How do you feel about that line? I don’t like making predictions. I just don’t really want to do it. It’s just not a fun game to I’m not a power rankings guy or anything like that. But um I I do like to look at the the betting lines and just kind of figure out how the world feels about this, which I do every week on Fridays, by the way, if Bengals fans want to check it out. Um but how do you feel about that? It’s it’s a tough one. And it it it was like minus one and a half in favor of the Vikings before Joe got hurt and before they played their week 2 game before the Vikings did. And then it went up to I think minus five and a half and now it’s come down a little bit and it’s been going back and I think I think you lean home team here. Maybe I’m wrong. Um ju it’s just my initial thought. You you already said we’re recording on Tuesday. could feel differently by Thursday, but like I it’s just it’s a tough turnaround. Both teams are short-handed. One’s at home, one’s coming off of an awful loss and I think is well coached. And so I would expect the Vikings to respond naturally even if Joe were playing. And so without Joe, even though the Vikings are short-handed like you mentioned, I think it’s going to be be a tough game for the Bengals. I had this as a win coming into the season. I had the Bengals starting 3 and 0. And so maybe I just stick with that anyway. But just spread-wise, I I would be I think it’s tough to take the Bengals in this spot given Jake Browning’s starting at quarterback. I think it’s kind of nuts to me how much how close the that FanDuel feels Joe Burrow and JJ McCarthy are in value. Like the loss of both of those guys only moving the line one and a half points toward the Vikings feels like a big underreaction to me. Um, but maybe the markets just believe in Jake Browning a little bit more than I thought they would. Um, either way, or I guess in in spite of that, I kind of feel like the Bengals are being underrated here. Um, I think we’re doing the thing where two like down in the dumps podcasters with who have dealt with a lot of bad news in the last two days pick the other team in a crossover. But I kind of feel like the problems that were exhibited in that Atlanta game were more concerning than just an off night. And I’m not really willing to dismiss them maybe as much as like FanDuel is. So I do think that the Bengals are a little underrated there. But we’ll see. We’ll see where where everything goes. And obviously I mean with these two quarterbacks, this game probably gets decided on some weird lucky crap. like some some stupid thing is going to happen that sort of makes all these little like marginal things about what are you doing, who’s chipping who like not matter as much. So, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s I I expect an entertaining game. I expect it to be chaotic back and forth and I do think there will be some big swings. Just I just lean the home team as of today. Reasonable safe bet uh to to lean the home team when in doubt, but we don’t really know what we’re going to get out of this one. Everybody, tune in at noon and get your splash guards on because you will get wet. For James Rapine, I am Luke Brun. Thank you so much for listening to this Crossover Thursday episode brought to you by Prize Picks. We will see you all next

Two years ago, Jake Browning gave the Vikings a brutal comeback loss, ending with a victory lap over his 2021 release. Can the Vikings get their get-back with a backup of their own?

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