VIKINGS SQUAD SHOW: VIKINGS DISMANTLED BY INJURIES, CRUMBLE vs. Atlanta Falcons, 22-6

VIKINGS SQUAD SHOW: VIKINGS DISMANTLED BY INJURIES, CRUMBLE vs. Atlanta Falcons, 22-6

Reality check time. The injuries mount. The Vikings look lifeless on offense. They fall to the Falcons 226. We got all the incident reaction from some Sunday night football. But first, let’s meet tonight’s crew. What’s up? It’s Sam Extramm of Lockdown Sports Minnesota, and I volunteer to play center. I will play tackle next week. I am versatile. Ron Johnson, former uh golfers and NFL wide receiver. The best part of my night was I got to hang out with Robert Smith, former Viking, and uh Jared Allen. I mean, he had a gold coat on, so that was a fun night. And I’m Luke Brun of Lockdown Vikings. The Vikings put about as much effort into this one as I did into my background today. Skull, it’s the Viking Squad. Everything Minnesota Vikings every week, breaking down all the big hits and game-changing plays from the land of 10,000 lakes, the way only the Locked on Podcast Network can. It’s time to gear up. The Viking Squad Show starts now. What’s going on? Back in the lab, back at another Viking Squad show immediately following Vikings Falcons. all the instant reaction you can handle over the next 60 minutes, including uh the injury wos. Why that proved costly tonight, uh JJ McCarthy’s encore and the offens’s sluggish start, biggest turning point. Quick little preview for the Bengals game next week as well. Uh make sure to like, subscribe, keep up with all the action. So close to 10,000 subscribers. And of course, make sure to check out our guy Luke Brown over on Locked Vikings each and every day. Um Ron, you’re batting leadoff as always. I’ll give you the first crack. uh injury wos, you know, it started on Wednesday, right? The Wednesday practice report only got worse somehow as this game went on. Um we’ll rattle them all off here in a minute, but seven bad quarters of football for this offense now. Six points at home tonight. Uh couldn’t sustain drives, couldn’t protect their quarterback, one maybe two explosive plays all night. Short yardage was awful. Third downs wasn’t great. You go 04 in the red zone. Uh no magic tonight, Ron, unlike last week. What’s the number one thing on your mind right now? Uh that we get to play Jake Brownie next week. Uh that is literally what I’m wor I cannot wait for. They beat us last he beat us last year on I know but Jake Brown is coming. His girlfriend’s probably going to show up wearing like a onesie or something. Um I mean they got Kurt Cousins in the building this week. They got another former quarterback coming next week. I mean, this is just the what former Vikings can show up into the stadium and probably walk away with a W. Um, right away right away I could tell that the Falcons did not want to subject Michael Pinnick to any type of Brian Flores games. Like he came out the gate saying, “Let’s try to establish the run.” Last week versus the Bucks, they tried to run the ball, didn’t work. They just pass pass pass and they spread the Buccaneers out. I don’t know if that was a Antoine Winfield type of thing. Let’s keep him busy. Um Josh Matelis on uh the tight end. I don’t really understand that man-to-man matchup. I get as a tight end against a safety. Josh Mattelis on pits. Kyle Pittz, by the way, senior. Um that just like he’s not ready to run quick game as a defensive back. Like that’s not where he’s built for. He’s built to be in that box. He’s built to maybe cover running backs in the flat. That the whole bit just did not look right. But they ran the ball down the Vikings throat. like they came out early and said we’re going to run the ball more times than we’ve ever ran the ball and uh deal with it. And that’s that was what I like I had did not have that on my bingo card. I apologize to every analyst that says stop the run. I was like don’t really care about the run. Oh, they cared. They did not want Michael Penn to have to deal with Brian Flores. And so it was terrible. I mean honestly being in the stadium the best thing was the new like there’s these the wristbands they gave out and on that like I don’t know if it was third quarter. I don’t know if they showed it on TV or not, but the whole stadium went black and there was like an announcement like from the purge of like there’s been a blackout. It’s like these and then all of a sudden like all the wristbands started lighting up and they had purple and yellow and then it went white. It was cool. That was the coolest thing I’ve seen. And then literally after that bad play like it went from that to I think it was a turnover right away. Like I’m like supposed to get crowd hype and then you literally just turn the ball over. So it was like okay this don’t do that again. Let’s let’s throw that in the trash. Yeah. The uh the fourth quarter sequence of events like compared to Chicago where literally nothing went wrong. I mean tonight first play of fourth quarter fumble turnover. McCarthy thank god he didn’t snap his leg because that was a that was a danger. How do you let number 96 go in on blocks? Do you think he’s going to cover? He’s number 96. And that was our our healthy side of the line. Let that one. Nobody looked at him. Yeah. How do you line the protection call got messed up or Brian O’Neal just like busted it? Either way, it is an unfathomable mistake. Even with a secondyear center, he’s wearing 96. He’s br he’s rushing the pastor. Um, I I should just like give the floor to Luke Braun to rant more about the offensive line because it was uh you two two linemen got hurt. The backup center couldn’t snap the ball when he got in the game. We had bad exchanges. Starting center couldn’t snap either. They fumbled two snaps with Ryan Kelly. I’m losing my mind. This is supposed to be a fixed group. Braun Braun’s hitting that extra octave right now. You know he’s losing his mind. You know he’s losing his mind. Yeah, because the because the the false start the false start the one where the entire line false started when they were in the red zone. I think that was the center’s fault because JJ McCarthy started backing up thought the snap was coming and the center didn’t snap the ball. So cuz we were I was sitting with a couple Vikings executives at that point cuz I was down in their suite and that happened and they were like a man like I can’t believe Brian O’Neal. And I was like whoa whoa let’s watch this replay. And I was like no that’s the center. The center screw that. And then one guy was like wait who is Jurgens? I was I was like, “Oh, yep. This is Oh, no. Here we go. This is It’s like h Yeah. So, yeah, Jurgens just I don’t think he understood some of the snap cause or what JJ McCarthy was trying, you know? I don’t know. I have no idea. But Luke’s right. It was that was bad. Like, how do you not snap the ball at that point if the entire offensive line knew you should be snapping the ball? How did the center not know you’re supposed to snap the ball?” And at that point, it was just downhill from there. They were just done after that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean evidenced of the lack of physicality, lack of organization on the offensive line. I my live tracking had the Vikings at three out of 10 converting short yardage plays. Um Jesus Christ down or a touchdown. I think almost all of them were one or two yards to go. Uh there was a fourth and one botched snap, a third and two sack, a first and goal fumble by McCarthy. That was just kind of a a like a botched pitch thing. There was a delay of game which is not part of the three of 10. Completely disastrous on every front. Uh I blame the referee on that delay of game though. Like he was he should have gotten out of there three. What’s the rule on that? I don’t I don’t The problem is he has to wait for the defense to be ready. I I don’t know what you saw in So why doesn’t the defense just take the time until 4 seconds left on the play clock? Yeah. Was that like a really late sub or something? Yeah. So the Vikings the Vikings did a sub and the Falcons didn’t notice it and so then they get their time to sub a guy in and so the referee was like waiting for that guy to get set and so everybody in the stands everybody in this whole stadium is like screaming like what the f like you know like people are like get get the f you know get the f out of there like you it was just every expletative you can think of was screamed at that point and then the crowd started booing. I don’t know if they were booing the team or if they were booing the referee, but I was like, “Oh, this is about to get bad.” And then it just kept getting worse. It never got better. Like it just it kept getting worse. I think most of the people I thought people were going to leave a little bit sooner, but I feel like most of the people just wanted to like be in the misery of this to be like, “Look, like this is what we wanted. I paid good money. We’re back home. Oh, thank God. We don’t have to have expectations anymore. Sweet. I can fire up my mock drafts. I don’t have to care about the team.” Oh, relief. Let me let me throw this out before we get to the biggest turning points. Chicken or the egg here. You know, your rookie quarterback, I’m calling him a rookie quarterback. Your rookie quarterback uh under constant duress, couldn’t get comfortable. More on the coaching staff, aka KOC, for not making some sort of adjustment or just didn’t have the players, just didn’t have the talent, just didn’t have the personal to be able to do what they wanted. Like, did they ever give him help? Felt like it was just one-on-one getting destroyed. Although I will say after the holding penalty, Walter Rouse did kind of outplay him which like he did. Maybe we should have considered that in August, fellas. Yeah, he did. Should have given that a shot. Maybe like when you when you look at Darasaw and you think about what they’re missing, it’s that it’s like the fact that your rookie Jonathan Jackson is having to help and talk to your veteran tackles. Like he’s supposed to be getting help from Darasaw. And so, you know, I think number 27, you know, he came through and he just kind not not he didn’t manhandle Donovan Jackson, but it felt like Donovan Jackson assumed he was going to have like some type of stiff arm from somebody else to help him out because he just kind of let the guy go in and then he, you know, comes up with a sack. So, it’s it was it was miscommunication. I feel like, you know, I think Luki brought it up the number 96 coming in scot-free. There’s something fundamentally off. What are you doing? Yeah, there’s something fundamentally off with like who they’re labeling as the mic in those situations. The one thing I’ll say, Luke, cuz you said chicken or egg. And I keep saying this and I’ll say it every year. I feel like I say this every single year for the last 11 years. Three-step drop like we saw Michael Pennix do it with the the the K Pitsuh the Cal Pitts slant, the uh Drake London slant, the Bejian Robinson slant. I don’t think there was one three-step drop route today. I don’t think there was one. I feel like every single one was some type of like three in a hitch or four and a hitch or five. Like it just everything was like slow developing and the Falcons corners were I mean there was no separation on some of those sacks. Like some of those sacks were not on the line. There was just nobody open. So I I even after AJ Terrell went out too, by the way. Even after AJ Terrell went out, uh it was still sticky. You know what you’re saying, Ron? brings me back to the Rams game, playoff game. Sam Darnold in that O line struggling and and just those longer developing kind of trying to get those chunk plays, those spark plays, and it just uh that offensive line just not really holding up. Let’s get to the biggest turning points from tonight. I feel like the the a topic that’s going to be on everybody’s mind, you know, the decision to throw the deep ball on third and one when you didn’t intend to go for it on fourth and one. Uh 9 minutes and change left. I want to say 937. uh you decide to punt it. Um still trying to wrap my head around just the decision- making there, the the the thought process, I guess, to punt it on fourth and one. Um after that, you know, I don’t know. Did KOC get a little emotional that McCarthy missed Naylor? I don’t know. I have no idea. But yeah, felt like a white leg down nine 9:30 left. You decided to punt it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I think it was a You’re right. I think it was a little bit of emotion. You can see him talking to McCarthy throughout the like towards the end of the game. It just it did not look happy. like it looked like something was off a little bit like whether it’s like hey you’re you’re not planting on your front foot or you’re you’re you know you’re you’re doing something like it’s something he was doing cuz you can see Kevin Oonnell constantly talking to him but I don’t understand the lack of tush push ability like how do you not get one yard and I was talking to Aaron Jones’s brother you know friend of the program he’s been on our show and he and I you know he was down there we were talking for a little bit Justin Jefferson’s cousin was over there and it’s Like the the the Eagles really just aren’t that dominant. Like the Eagles I don’t know what they figured out but they figured it out because they’re just off sides. They’re off sides every time they do it. That’s how they do it. Must be cuz I don’t like how how do you not You know what? That is true though. The center does like roll forward and snap the ball at the same time. But why? Okay, mimic it then. Why can’t we do that? Like why? or you bring in every fat person you know off the sideline whether it’s DTackle tack or whoever and you put a full out so maybe you make Oliver the fullback you bring other tackles in and you just go big on big and you put Jordan Mason back there you say take a full speed head and go give me one yard like I’m so sick of the tush push with guys that like you don’t have they did trade the strongest man on the team right before the season, by the way. That’s which feels the looming large after you get run on for 200 yards on prime time. You I feel like we’re kind of missing Harrison Phillips here as Ron Ron went in a little robot mode. Yeah. Yeah. The uh the physicality that was present in week one was gone. Um the the patience of KOC with his QB that like he had the patient face, right? the KOC understanding patient face like I’m going to nurse you at pat you on the back go simple man but there wasn’t but I’m just but like visually body language there was an irritation factor there was some some eye rolls some exasperated looks um and and the conversation on the sideline looked a little bit tur didn’t it I thought that some of the that last one I don’t think so I I think he was still trying to be nice but I need to go at KOC for this one you got to do something different cuz it’s been seven eight quarters and seven of them have sucked hot ass. It’s time to do something different. The the offense is way there’s way too much going on. Play calls are 25 words long. They’re breaking the huddle at 10 seconds. They got motions happening with 4 seconds left in the play clock. Every Dlineman is teeing off on your completely overwhelmed backup left tackle that you didn’t, by the way, consider the guy that’s better than him in the room to do that job. It like you’ve got to at some point realize that your dudes can’t do this. They can’t do this. It was super like and Kevin Oonnell’s never backed off of this even when it was Josh Dobs or Jiren Hall or whatever and still had these these crazy complicated things. He’s got whiteboard syndrome. Everything is really cool on the whiteboard. Your dudes can’t do it. Call stick. Holy crap. Call a slant. I now po point of order though. He does come out of the gate with with a with a worse offensive line arguably um to start last year and Sam Darnold with one off season and they were coming. Sam Darnold is a seven-year vet. He can do that stuff. But you got to you got to know that your guy can’t do it. McCarthy can’t do it right now. That’s fine. He’s 22, but he can’t. You got to change things. But here but before I get out of here, this is what I want to say. So, when you think about, let’s go defensively first. The Falcons last week started the game off with a pass, a run, pass, touchdown, came back in the next one, passed, then he fumbled, but he was going to pass the ball. Like, two different game plans. So, if this Falcons offense can really be that dynamic, they’re gonna be trouble. But, I think he just looks at the defense and what he doesn’t want to subject his quarterback through. He knew the Buccaneers, it’s their it’s their their their run game is strong. Their secondary takes a lot of chances. The Vikings secondary, he’s like, “Look, front seven, let me just run the ball and see if they can stop it.” Then no Van Ginkle. And then offensively, Luke, you’re right. Like you’ve got to find some simple pass plays like run a slant. Run a just a tight end to the flat. Like do a mesh slant flat. Like if the slant’s not there, take the flat. If the if they Joe play the flat, throw the slant. It’s there’s none of that. It’s literally just deep meshes and trying to run over routes and, you know, long developing plays and you’re asking your offensive line to do a lot and they’re kind of like a band-aid offensive line right now. So, where is protocol now? So, like Yeah. What the hell? Yeah, I do want to I I want to rattle off all the injuries here. Maybe we’ll do that next. But but where is the the panic meter based off what you’re what you’re describing here, Luke, that KOC is not doing enough um to make this scheme easy enough to to open up some easy completions, right? Lean on the run a little bit more and putting too much on McCarthy’s plate. Where’s the panic meter when it comes to, you know, JJ McCarthy and and we know that that growth isn’t linear in this league week to week, but um it this is clearly a little bit more on KOC or at least we’re having a good vent session here right now about KC. the panic meter though KOC JJ McCarthy relationship I guess where’s the panic meter at going into week three yeah look tonight you get to be like they’re going one and 16 nobody can stop you from doing that okay tomorrow we’ll we’ll try to be more sensible but like it is I I think a key hallmark of every bad thing that Kevin Oonnell has hap has done like every time the team has fallen apart has been they are breaking the huddle too late and they are getting into play clock trouble. This has been a operational issue with Kevin Okonnell for a long time. You got to fix it, man. It’s I mean, it’s not like there’s a short leash on Kevin Oonnell or anything like that. The organization loves to be just one coach in a freaking year. Um, but you you you got to understand better what your guys can’t do. Remember when West went up in the booth and it rattled five wins in a row? I was wondering that too. Let’s get a West check. I don’t know. Uh, nobody’s really reported on Check it on Wes. Where’s Wes at, man? Um, I think he’s on the field. I think Wes is on the field because he was down on the field right after the game. Oh, okay. All right. You got to have more voices in the quarterback’s ear. As if he doesn’t have enough verbiage with the 1700word plays that KC gives him. It’s getting He’s getting a little grudesque, man. He’s getting a little spider two wide banana on him. A little a little too grudesque on that whiteboard talk, man. And that leads stuff to get wrong. like okay the one of the first plays of the night I was like this is going to be a bad night it was a just a quick throw to Jaylen Naylor for like two yards I think literal first play of the game first play of the game that came out so late that he couldn’t turn it up even though the play worked out really really well there’s a bunch of reasons that that could happen Naylor maybe is supposed to slow that down maybe supposed to throw it faster maybe it’s it’s because the play clock was I I didn’t see what the play clock was but if you’re up against it maybe you’re going to rush that motion and then your momentum and the timing is going to off. Those little operational things matter a lot and they cascade. You’re you’re one yard too deep and suddenly it turns into a pressure. That pressure turns into a sack and then suddenly your your your head is totally out of it. And and so if the the reason I’m not I don’t think I’m going to click the panic button too hard is because all that stuff is very much about an experience. And you know, these little details are going to be a thing that like come next year, you have to expect that it will be a little better, but that you just hope get a little better every game and every game and every game. But I think it’s really like all the good vibes that I had going into this year have completely gone out of the window. They’ve sucked Dukie for seven out of eight quarters. Just horrible, horrible for seven out of eight quarters. Um, I can’t be excited about that team, but I can now refocus and and get into the mental head space of like, okay, this is a developmental thing. This is now the rebuilding year that they’ve been avoiding for so long. Okay, but that’s where I’m thinking now. Congratulations on your six- win team. That’s where I’m at. Am I panicking? I don’t know. It’s already over. Do you panic about a house that already burnt down? If you don’t have good insurance, I guess possibly. But, um, at this point, that insurance looks like Carson Wentz, I suppose. Or Roseber. Yeah. Right. I mean, if JJ McCarthy does like flame out and in five years he’s on on his fourth different team, like I I don’t think anybody who’s responsible for that’s in the building anymore, right? No. 100%. Um, lots more to get into. Um, I want to rattle off all the injuries that mounted. Uh, dude’s just dropping like flies. Uh, plus what we loved, what we hated. That’s all coming up right after this. Quick reminder, tonight’s episode brought to us by Prize Picks. Prize Picks, America’s number one fantasy sports app. Now with more than 10 million members to date. For me and my money, it’s by far the easiest, most exciting way to get in on all the action. While you watch your favorite sports, you watch your favorite players. So simple, too. All you got to do, you pick more or less on two or more players stats. You watch the winners roll in. Football season is officially back. Uh anytime touchdowns, receptions, tackles, sacks, you name it, they got it. Take your pick on more or less. Add them to your prize fix entry today. Uh, we got the Monday night double header tomorrow. Texans taking on the Bucks. Chargers taking on Vegas. I’m loving Omario Hampton. Over 60 and a half receiving yards. Plus, don’t forget Price Pix now offers Apple Pay. Quick and easy deposits into your account all season long. Right now, download the Price Pix app. Use code lockdown NFL for $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s win or lose on any $5 lineup. You’re getting $50 instantly with promo code lockdown NFL. Prize picks. It’s good to be ready. All right, let’s just uh touch on these injuries, man. Uh just mounting up just dudes dropping like flies. It started again. It started on Wednesday. Christian Darasaw, Blake Cashman, Jeff Okuda, Andrew Van Ginkle, uh CJ Hamstl on the IR, Ty Chandler, Harrison Smith. Um help me out rattle out the dudes that dropped tonight. Ryan Kelly. We talked about that. I mean, we literally sat here on the Thursday squad show and talked about who was the the guy you’re most worried about on this injury report. Ryan Kelly ended up playing, but we all said for the most part, Ryan Kelly, if that dude goes down because the drop off, I don’t think Michael Jurgens gets a completely unrelated concussion like Sure. Yeah, of course. Whatever. Sure. Documented concussion, too. Seafford had that more than one week. The drop off to him to Jurgens, man, I’m telling you, I don’t think Michael Jurgens is an NFL center. Not at this point anyways. maybe he can develop and and you know turn into somehat some some sort of journeyman you know um that we’ve seen in the past. I don’t actually know if I agree with you. I I saw what he did in the preseason was a lot better than it was last year. Um I give him a week and let’s see how it goes. I actually think that could be better than we think but like I’m not exactly going to put any eggs in that basket because he did take some pretty nasty L’s today too for sure coming off the bench. So Ryan Kelly so we’ll we’ll put a pin in that. We’ll talk about that maybe next week on the postcast after the Bengals game. But um Ryan Kelly, Gabe Murphy sounded like he walked off on his own power, but um didn’t look good. Yeah, knee injury didn’t look good. Um Walter Rouse obviously came in for Justin. Was that a concussion as well? Did out or they just replace him? Was it a head injury? Okay. Aaron Jones with a hammy. Uh Jonathan Grard got banged up. Luckily, he came back one or two plays later. That was good. Um who else am I missing? Am I missing anybody at that point? I’ve rattled off like, you know, a third of the supporting roster. But and and and then I think you got to ask, do you finally get Harrison back next week? Do you finally get Darasaw back? And I think a good chance at Van Ginkle. You might get three key pieces back, but even then, you’re still missing Cman, lynchpin on the defense. Um, still missing probably Kelly if it’s a concussion. Still missing Ham. Still missing Okuda, which I don’t think that the the Okuda thing killed you tonight, but Aaron Jones hamstring. I mean, sound the alarm on that. I know that the Jordan is Ty Chandler gonna be ready, too. Are they gonna be down? It’s Xavier Scott and Jordan Mason. Yeah. Boy. Boy. Yeah. This This just didn’t look like And granted, I mean, so many injuries, there’s only so much you can do. It just didn’t look like the roster they built in the offseason. It looked like a patched up unit just trying to hang on, just trying to get to, you know, through the end of this game to be honest. Yeah. And and the chat’s saying too, McCarthy banged up a little bit in to get his ankle taped. Yeah. Yeah. So, so th this was a demoralizing defeat emotionally and cautioned against this, you know, on the squad show this week, too, saying when you come off a win like Monday night, so emotional, exerted so much, you hear everybody talk you up and you’re riding that wave on a short week on a banged up team. You got to be on on your guard. And we’ve seen this with KC. I’m so sick of hearing about this, man. it. What the emotional game let down? Oh my god. Can we just like have two good days in a row? Can we not like completely crap down our pants like watery fill our socks with brown the second we have something good to us? For once, can we have two good days in a row? I’m so sick of hearing about it. It’s such a bad excuse. Braun just moved into his new spot and he’s already on night one. He’s going to get a noise complaint from the neighbors on night one already. and and he’s gonna say, “Hey, Vikings fan man, someone’s knocking someone’s knocking on the ceiling with a broomstick. They’re like clmping around. Clamping around with their Doc Martens up there.” No. You know, Luke, I mean, you you had a uh you know, a good bit um I don’t know, August summertime that that the the injury luck was going to regress back to the mean this year. They had great injury luck last year. People on Twitter had some really interesting words to call me over that. Uh well, of course they did. I mean, summertime, right? Uh well assuming they were humans. I mean you made a lot of good points though as far as like all the guys that they brought in though. I mean all had red flags with injuries as well. Not saying that all the guys that have been injured in week one and week two are all those guys got Jonathan Allen, Harg Graves, Will Fry, guys like that. But um it it just at this point two weeks into the year how much did we sit on the squad show and talk about this is a very topheavy team. The starters look great, but if if dudes start to drop like flies, the depth is going to be tested. And after watching three games in the preseason, we weren’t loving we weren’t loving what we were seeing as far as the second and third team unit goes. And here we are heading into week three. Granted, Bengals are saying the same thing without Joe Burrow, but nonetheless, that’s the NFL, I guess. I guess if this is going to be the year where your young quarterback learns how to call an offense, it’s probably a good one to have your injury bug, I guess. Yeah. Turnover aggression happening a little bit right now or takeaway aggression. You’ve had you had a cheap one. a cheap one in week one on the lateral play, right? I mean, it counts, but it’s not really not take away. And then you get the peanut punch tonight, but you go minus three in the take give. I don’t know how many times that’s happened in the KOC era, but um so some some warnings, some definitely some uh red flags that are coming to fruition right now. Um two like two of the two of the guys that they had injury red flags in two weeks, Okuda and Kelly. And we don’t know on, you know, Okuda’s concussions. What? Three or four concussions on the team right now. That’s that sucks. That’s that’s awful. Yeah. Not that could compound like if they get a second concussion this year, then we’re talking IR stint potentially. I mean, that’s that’s really dangerous business. Um, just real quick, we’ll talk about winners and losers, what we liked, what we didn’t like, things like that. But uh how did we feel about Dallas Turner getting getting the uh the full slate in Andrew Vanogle’s presence? Obviously again was fresh 20 25 minutes go game just ended. Haven’t watched the all 22 things like that but just just knee-jerk reaction to the naked eye. How would we feel about Dallas Turner? I didn’t get a great look. I I mean I thought the sack was kind of a DJ Wanomesque sack. Cleanup sack. Yeah, for sure. Clean up. Third guy. Not the second guy there. Third guy there. Yeah. From the backside. Yeah. Um, I didn’t I didn’t think he really popped a lot in week one and I don’t know if he popped a lot tonight either, but I need need a closer look. I did not think it was a good night for the defensive line in general. Um, had a couple there were some interior guys that had some good reps. Um, you know, Jaylen Redmond I thought had some nice plays. Grard once he came back from injury, he was flying around a little bit, but um, we they they got bullied. Eric Wilson made a couple plays, but this is going to require an all 22 look to see if the defense did they play well tonight or did they not? Like they a lot of stands in the red zone, a lot of bend but not break. Um in the end you give up 22. You kind of get physically outmatched. You also were on the field 37 minutes. So maybe that’s to be expected end of the game and you’re you know you’re letting them walk in the end zone for a touchdown intentionally. I I think Braun I give the defense about a 6 and a half out of 10. I mean, you still got to stop the run. You got you got 200 rushing yards on you. You got the crap kicked out of you. That’s getting smacked in the mouth. That is embarrassing. I don’t care that it was only 22. The Falcons shot themselves in the foot a bunch. They had like false starts bailing you out and holding penalties bailing you out. You got the crap kicked out of you up front. The reason that it didn’t show that much that Dwight McGloin was in the back field because everybody all the corners are hurt and they didn’t sign any this offseason is because they never had to pass the ball. They ran they could they could have run. I was literally thinking like they they should not pass the ball again. Like they just let Michael Pennock hand off and like let shut him down for the night. Give him a rest. It’s fine because they could not stop the run. And it wasn’t even that like there were, you know, misfits or mental mistakes too often. I think you maybe got out of position a couple times. You just got your butt kicked. You had a random center that’s an undrafted rookie from or an undrafted free agent from five years ago that’s never started before kicking the absolute crap out of Jonathan Allen. I mean just taking him to the woodshed. That was an embarrassing defensive performance. Great job Eric Wilson forcing like the the one good play and you finally got like one sack when they passed. But I think honestly most of the stops they got were as much the Falcons screwing up as the Vikings actually doing something. That is a come to Jesus game in run defense. You got to figure something out. And I’m sorry you traded the best run defender on your team away right before the season and you had this coming. Well, what does it look like moving forward with again we were all wondering. I mean, we all liked, hey, I like Jaylen Redmond. You know, he’s flashing. He looks good. I like Levi Drake Rodriguez. Obviously love Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave. All the pressures they had coming off the Chicago game. But what’s this defense look? What’s this run game look like with no true nose tackle after they traded Harrison Phillips? Obviously, that was a big talker the week it happened. barely like 200 yards a night, man. Is that what we’re doing? I mean, there’s just no way. It’s like a Madden game, dude. It’s horrible. I mean, I guess if if that’s the case, we really are looking at Sam like a a 5 and 12 season. I mean, you I’m not I’m not tripping. I’m not tripping about Harrison Phillips. I mean, we’re we’re talking about Harrison like he was Vince Wilfork or even like Lynvald Joseph. He was not. He was not. you have a deep deep bench of defensive tackles and if one of them develops a little bit and Jaylen Redmond’s pretty much there already like Jaylen Redmond’s really really good. There’s a there there are collective tackling issues tonight like being in run lanes and just getting washed out. Not not one or two guys, a lot of guys. I think that you’ve got some collective schematic issues to address. I don’t think I don’t think Harrison Phillips is is radically change and in fact I would sacrifice a little bit in the run game if you continue to get some interior pressure on the quarterback. That’s not my main concern. Let’s let’s get the defense healthy and then and then figure this thing out. Um you’re not going to get the defense healthy though. That’s not happening. Why are you not getting the defense healthy? Look at them. They’re not healthy. You think they’re getting healthier as the season goes on? Uh gets worse. I think Smith comes back this week. I think Vendinkle comes back this week. Cashman in three weeks. Um, and we’re just not Nobody’s getting hurt in the meantime. We’re just going to be bra You’re healthy. We can shut injuries off. Yeah, exactly. We’re talking about Madden, right? That’s That’s Yeah, you’ve never heard of the team getting healthy at the right time and getting hot. That’s never happened before. It happens all the time. We can’t rely on it, though. That’s the the concern is like it you do not typically get healthier as the season goes on, which is why it’s remarkable when it does happen. Um, but I I think the concern for me is that this is a a maligned offensive line that pushed you around. You just can’t have that happen again. I I think guys just have to do it. You you have maybe it’s time to like activate Taki Tymani or something. You need somebody over 310 lbs on that line. You can’t have a bunch of pass rush specialists. Uh chicken or the egg uh doesn’t help when your offense just can’t sustain drives. I mean, what that 17 plays in the second half, 17 atrocious. You know, I say that though and then I play devil’s advocate with myself. Bean came out the gate just ripping chunk after chunk. I mean, he had like 48 yards in the first drive on the ground. not not not you know a screen pass, two receptions in the passing game. It was all on the ground. So, I mean, he was he was cooking right from the get-go. But again, offense not sustaining any drives. Defense did what they could. They held in there. Um but but you know, and also too, I mean, we’ve talked about this as well leading up to the year. We knew there was going to be more pressure on the defense these first couple games coming out of the season. No, Jordan Addison obviously McCarthy trying to get his legs underneath him trying to figure out what this whole thing is going to look like with the you Jordan Mason, Aaron Jones. What’s is it a 50-50 split? Is it 8020? What what’s that whole thing going to look like? Jaylen Naylor got hurt. Thielen comes in late. Darasaw is not playing. We knew the defense was going to have a lot of pressure and a lot of a lot of uh you know shouldering the load, I guess, if you will. But um but you know, I I look back at the beginning of that game and the defense just couldn’t keep up with Bian Robinson tonight. Yeah. Pace misses a tackle on the first play of the game, goes for like 30 yards and kind of kind of kind of set the tone. Um, but also if the offense So the offense gets an F minus tonight, if they just get a C minus, like how much how different is that for the defense? Like how many more advantageous situations could they have been in? They would have gotten more rest. Like I think there there’s a complimentary aspect that was completely lacking tonight. I think that the Vikings were at least later in the game three for three. All phases doing their part, special teams, offense, defense, 0 for three um in this game, especially late where last week they really turned the dial up as the game went on and and the dial got turned down in every phase. I and I I just I chroled. I laughed out loud when Miles Price botched the final punt, a meaningless punt, just to put the cherry on top of this, man. You know what? We were worried about that. Three yards, man. Three punts for Miles Bryce. He’s getting it out of his system at the right time. I respect it. Yeah. Tonight’s the game to do it. Yeah. You knew he had it in him. You You saw every time he did it at training camp, people were like, “Yeah, that number 31’s kind of bobbling.” I’m like, you knew he couldn’t always do it. Got to get it out of your system at the right time. Yeah. How do you play? Uh yeah, Miles Price big regression game. Not just in the punt game, in the uh return game as well. Were you guys scratching your head on a couple of those? Like why not take the touchback? What in the world was he doing? What are we doing? Mhm. Trying to run trying to run 70 yards across the field. Yeah. I’m trying not to get a a noise complaint for my very new neighbors, but yeah. Like what what are you doing? Everybody agrees to take the touchback goes to the 35. You’re getting tackled at the 18 and you do it like three times. Not even close. Matt Daniels, wake up. It’s Hello, you’re here. Speaking of special teams, uh the Parker Romo revenge game. My goodness, dude. Was that just uh Jacksonville game reincarnated? Five for five. He’s just like not a bad kicker. I think he’s just pretty. Um, can we uh I think we all on this show I don’t know if anybody like really advocated for him, but I’m I’m pretty sure Bronn and I both um kind of kind of chipped on I guess Billy Bowman Oklahoma coming out of the draft and sure enough Billy Bowman comes up with that big interception tonight just to um you know throw that pie in my face I guess tonight. That one kind of stung a little bit I suppose. I I actually think that one was on Naylor. I I think kind of got he kind of got bullied at the top of the route there and and McCarthy has to throw that before he knows that. So, I’m not super The other interception. I have no idea what McCarthy was looking at. Did he think the penalty was on somebody else and like huck it up like it was a free play? Cuz like what the heck, dude? This is going to be tough. I want to do a little segment called what we love, what we hated. We’ve talked for 37 minutes about what we hated. I don’t know. Is there any positive we can glean whatsoever out of this game? It it was ugly all the way around. Like you said, Sam, all three phases, offense, defense, special teams, uh, felt like a, you know, handing out Fgrades for the most part. Is there anything positive we can, even if it’s an individual player, like again, a Jaylen Redmond uh, flashing with some interior pressure or whatnot, any positives, uh, you guys can fling up? There were two consecutive throws to Jaylen Naylor in tight coverage and Adam Thielen in tight coverage backto-back. That got him down to the one yard line. Y, I think it was six to nothing at the time. Uh and I mean turning you asked turning points earlier turning point in the game. You got a chance to as bad as you’d played to go up seven to six in that situation. First and goal at the one or two and then you go bobbled pitch fumble. Um which actually turned into I think an incompletion. Then delay of game, sack, sack. That was the sequence after first and goal at the one. That that’s a momentum killer. That’s a turning point for sure. Um, following maybe the highlight of the game, which were the throws to Thelen and Naylor. Love it. Love it. Let’s go to bed. Let’s wrap up. Yeah, let’s wrap up. Only thing about those ninegame win streak coming. Here we go. Uh, chat has a couple people in chat said Ryan Wright kind of had a monster class. Yeah, he did. That’s kind of big for him because he needed that after a bunch of shanks. Um, I I’ll I’ll also shout out Ty Felton on special teams. I don’t think it quite soothes the sting of a dude getting that got taken like 20 picks after him picking you off uh at a position that you’ve like kind of really badly need. But uh hey, at least he was a pretty good punt gunner. So, you know, if if you drafted Dan Chesenna in the third round, at least you got Dan. How about the um the second straight week with a like sub 302 uh field goal drive before the end of the half? Yeah, big breakdown on the back end from the Falcons. Big shout to Justin Jefferson. And I think this this corroborates the take that I have that things are way too complicated because the Vikings are only simplify it, man. Yeah. They’re only good when it’s when it’s just got to be something just run a staple. Just get up, run something you can communicate quickly. Uh maybe we should try to incorporate some of those ideas in the downto down thing, right? Maybe get a little bit more simple in the huddle and just run your the things that you know these guys can run. Do what you can execute instead of trying to outsmart everybody in, you know, 5D chess. Do stuff you know that you can execute and challenge the defense to stop it when it is executed well. It’s easy to stop something that’s executed poorly. You just don’t do anything and watch them fall apart. If I made you guys pick one, what did you guys hate the most? Is it, you know, for me it’s maybe how fragile this roster is? You know, talking about just how these injuries are piling up. Luke’s right. This is a gauntlet. This is a grind. 17 games now. It’s not 16. I know it only sounds like it is only one game, but like it’s a lot of football and guys get dinged up. Like it’s so hard for guys to play 17 games healthy. Um just how fragile this roster is now, especially after this game now too going into week three. Um that and then not being able to stop the run and and not being able to protect your quarterback. I mean, very staple foundational things for any successful team in this league. Um those those ones are tough and and we’ll see. Again, it’s all fresh. It’s all raw. you know, this game just ended 40 45 minutes ago. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow morning. Watch the L22 flip on the replay and whatnot. But, um, those things are really, really tough to watch two games into the season. It’s tough to watch the exciting young QB struggle. I think the reason that he is struggling is one that doesn’t fill me with a ton of concern. You know, I mean, he he had a couple of misses, the one long one to Naylor that could have kind of changed turned things around and sparked a comeback effort, but he overthrows it. Those are a bummer. But it’s it’s that it’s it’s the operational thing. And that’s a really basic thing, but it also is kind of exactly like the the the precise thing you can’t really work on when you’re sitting out your whole first year. You got to be in a game to do that. So these are the growing pains you have to happen. Um, but it, boy, it just sucks to see secondyear QB just completely fall apart like that and get crazy outplayed by Michael Penn who did a much better job of just executing what was in front of him, getting to the line quickly. They were breaking the huddle at 20. Like I started looking at the play clock every play and it’s like 8 n seconds they’re doing their motion and they’re snapping and get the ball out quickly, execute what you have to move the ball downfield like a very humble workman game from Michael Pennix after everybody laughed at the Falcons for that and it’s like okay they’re actually figuring out a way to make that work and I want I why can’t we have that? I want that for us. Sam, favorite or I I should say least favorite thing. Least favorite thing tonight. It’s going to keep you up tonight. Trying to trying to figure out how to be as snarky as possible. Um I don’t I can’t top I can’t top Braun’s performance on this show. This has been an absolute mass. Crashing out. Um I mean the offensive line much looking this way. I I think you just like you you fall back on no dare. No Daresaw, right? I mean, when when the tackles are in place, it all feels better. When when your left tackle is just in school, my gosh. Um, so I think there’s room to improve. There’s a lot of room to improve and belief that like with the pieces in place, it can improve and time on task for JJ McCarthy. I think that he is requiring a lot more reps, a lot more cohesion than we anticipated. And that’s that’s a harsh reality check, but these things can happen quickly. Um, you know, we could see like progress isn’t linear, I know, but there there could be something like that throughout the year. A bit of linear progression as we see him start to understand how to diagnose blitzes, things like that. Uh, plenty more to come. NFC North implications, Bengals preview after what we just witnessed tonight. That’s all coming up right after this. Quick reminder, tonight’s episode brought to us by Better Help. Better Help. When your schedule is packed with work projects, kids, whatever it may be, it’s easy to let your priorities start to slip, right? Even when we know what makes us happy. 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Will Johnson last week, Arizona Cardinal rookie uh from Michigan, cornerback. Uh that’s each and every Tuesday. So, make sure to like, make sure to subscribe, keep up with all the action. Uh week three snapshot NFC North implication kind of big picture. Before we get to that, we talked about it right before the show, before we hit record. Can I just bring it up one more time? biggest turning point. Opening drive, JJ dives at the pylon at the first down. Looked like he got it. They mark it short. They try the tush push. They don’t get uh they don’t get it. Uh turn the ball over. Why in the world are we not challenging that play? Looked pretty obvious to me sitting on my couch because the whole staff was asleep on the sideline and they couldn’t do anything. Is it like a playoff like no, I want to keep this in my back pocket. It’s too early though. What if it, you know, I’ve gotten burned before? I got to get my 30-word play call in or we’re going to get a delay of game. I I’m just I’m a little weirded out too at the and you could probably look it up here in real time, but the spot on the field there, I mean that it was the inside their own 40, I think. Um and they go for it there pretty quickly, pretty decisively in in, you know, early in the game. Yet, they don’t go for a fourth and one with nine minutes left, down by nine. And you don’t get the ball back until there’s four minutes left and then give up a 12play drive. Way to give up the score to save some time, dude. That was a 12play touchdown drive almost exclusively on the ground. Embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah. Daras’s not helping you with that, man. Yeah. No, that’s true. Uh yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. I I was just thinking about this during during the break. We’ve had this we’ve had this conversation after a lot of week twos, haven’t we? Like I can think of just a few off the top of head like 2017 team got absolutely dump trucked in Pittsburgh that year with Keenum. Remember that? And we had these conversations and second week of KC’s tenure in Philadelphia Kurt Cousins Monday night lost Monday night. Actually Monday Thursday no it was Monday I think because the next year was Thursday. um embarrassed embarrassed in Philly. Won 13 games that year. That was that the JJ Pylon touchdown when when for the touchback or was that your Thursday game you’re talking about? There there were two back week two Philly prime time games that So, so week the week 2 2023 that was Thursday night when they had a million turnovers and still had a chance at the end. Got it. Um they were much worse the previous year. My point is is that it’s all black and white. It’s all black and white this time of year and you freak out after the first loss and you you pat the team on the back after the first win and you need a greater body of work. Yeah. Um I I just wanted So to your point here, Sam, that that’s a that’s a good segue. Like is this a a oneoff injury game, quote unquote, or is this more of a a sign that the lack of depth, I guess, could could derail this season if if the reinforcements don’t step up here pretty quickly? Yeah, I mean I think I think it all comes back to the quarterback and you don’t have any priors on JJ McCarthy, right? There’s not enough equity to say that like he will figure it out. I think there was maybe some of that with with Kirk Cousins for instance. You you knew that you would get some bad Kirk games once in a while, but you knew that there’d be the good ones as well. We don’t know that for sure with JJ McCarthy. That’s probably the biggest concern. Um, the injury count, I wrote down 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 like 12 guys right now that have legitimate injury concerns, whether it’s lower body concussions, longer recoveries. I mean, most of them most of them are starters, you know. Well, if you, you know, consider Justin School, you know, a starter because he’s filling in for another starter or someone like CJ Ham who’s kind of a a 15 snap a game guy, but an important 15 snaps. Like these are call him a starter. Yeah. Tw 12 of the 30 important players on the team. Yeah. Like Yeah. It’s it’s legitimately concerning the count right now. Um but I think there’s there’s belief that a lot of them will return and and hopefully get to a better spot. If you can’t stop the run and and you can’t protect your quarterback, any quarterback, let alone albeit right a rookie quarterback for the most part, uh you’re not going to beat anybody in this league week to week, not consistently anyways. You you might get lucky. he might pull some magic uh you know late game heroics things like that but you know McCarthy’s learning curve probably showed up tonight uh more than we maybe expected coming off the Chicago game but I I I feel like the bigger issue may be the veterans around him just didn’t make his life any easier nor did KC the head coach for that matter as well I don’t think like the the usual cope of like well you know there was there was 60% pressure we can’t blame the quarterback back for playing poorly is like usually pretty solid. Like pretty much anything over like 45% pressure, you kind of can’t play quarterback. That’s like the rule of thumb. And they were at 60. It was insane. Um but I think the better like if we want to find something that can like we can take forward and say, “Hey, long season, it’s going to be all right because of this.” I feel like the better answer is this. This is exactly what they needed. If you go back to last year since they poured a bunch of water on Sam Darnold’s head, they’ve been putrid bad for 15 out of 16 quarters. They are on a absolutely horrible slump right now. But the first couple games you could write off and say, well, you know, we’ve we’ve changed this position. We don’t have um Cam Robinson anymore. No more Ed Ingram, right? We got we got Ryan Kelly instead of Garrett Brad. We fixed the problem. We got this young QB now. We And you you could kind of write those off. And last week you could write it off cuz well they won the game, right? How mad can you be? They figured it out. Clearly they got some momentum going. But I feel like you can’t with this one. There’s nowhere to hide from this game. It was on national TV and everybody saw you poop in your pants. So now I feel like that’s the thing you need. It’s I mean it’s uh oh stinky, man. It’s rough out there. Uh, but maybe that’s exactly what Kevin Oonnell needs to finally look at his young quarterback and say maybe I can’t call the PhD offense just yet. Maybe we we this is what finally gets him to to make adjustments. I love that Kevin Oonnell believes in his players so much. I think that’s beautiful. I think that’s awesome and has led to a lot of success, but he he over he just believes too much in these guys’ capability. They can’t do what you need to do and it’s not on them. You have put too much on his plate very clearly to everybody involved and you just put up six points. There’s nowhere to hide from that. So change it. You got one of the ailing like an alien defense that just got absolutely worked uh by the Jaguars for for three and a half quarters. You have them coming to town. They got a backup quarterback. Hopefully those guys aren’t hanging 40 on you. Figure out a way to move the ball. I don’t know if it’s what you want to do, but you got to find something that works because the PhD offense doesn’t. Some uh some updates from the press conferences. JJ McCarthy, we have to take better advantage of opportunities and it starts with me. I got to play better. Um injury updates. Ryan Kelly concussion. Justin School concussion. Gernard oblique which he came back from but sometimes you know day after it can uh it can flare up. Aaron Jones hamstring Gabe Murphy MCL will be evaluated. Um KOC says our team will handle the adversity that is now right at our feet. We’ve got to go back to work and improve immediately. Put that on a bumper sticker right now. Sell that million bucks right there. Love that. Uh real quick break. When we come back, week three snapshot, NFC North implication. Um, you know, biggest adjustments that need to be made again versus the Bengals possibly. Sounds like without Joe Burrow, by the way. Uh, that’s all coming up right after this. 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Go to upside.com for terms and conditions. All right, real quick snapshot. Week three finally just your normal standard noon game at the bank. All is right with the world again hopefully. Um and then you know before they’re they’re off to London and Ireland right after that. But um when you look at tonight’s game, let’s simplify it. What’s just the number one way too early number one story line you’re already starting to think about versus the Bengals? Chris in the chat. Cousins QB1 Bengal next week. Oh my god, that’s so true. Jake Browning’s money. Jake Brown is like one of the best backups of the league, is he not? They do like Browning a lot, but that would be that would he got a win today and he led an incredible late drive, but he threw three picks. He threw three picks, but I think if if that that could totally happen. I don’t know what happens this week because they I don’t think they do that after a win, right? They got to find out if Burrow is really going to be out three months, right? If he needs the surgery or not first and foremost. How many days does that take? I don’t know. Does that take tomorrow by they’ll know or does it take a couple days? I feel like John Lynch has a reserve on this anyways. You’re just waiting for M. Jones to have a bad game and for things to look a little bit dicey and then you go send a second round pick. to Atlanta. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Um they got scary receivers and even with Jake Browning, I mean, he’s been enough enough big spots now where he’s going to sling it and Jamar Chase is going to make plays and man, I would love to see Justin Jefferson kind of Hulk up knowing that he’s going against Jamar. I think what for the first time in I guess four years. That’s the usual cadence. um first time since 2021. He’s got I don’t think he played in the Jamar Chase didn’t play in the 23 game, right? Oh, wait. Was Chase in the So, the last time they played was the Jake Browning game. The last time that By the way, Zack Taylor was the one that first cracked open kept showing Nick Mullen’s uh uh wife in the crowd. Remember it was Nick Mullen with Browning and Jordan Addison made that string catch and and took it to the house all yak on that. Uh fun game. And the the game before that that they played Cincy, was that the Mike Zimmer week? That was the opener overtime. Heartbreaker. Yeah, Heartbreaker. Fourth and one Joe Burrow play action. It’s like a 25. Speaking of replacement kicker, revenge games. Why does this keep happening? Uh, so this has got to but also Jefferson needs opportunities too. Like you got to Can we make a rhythm throw for more than two yards? Like even the easy stuff that they’re trying to strip has been has been bad. Two targets, zero catches until the last drive. A drop that almost got picked. Like that was just rough. Is he just a shell of himself at this point or um still ramping up or is this more on the quarterback timing situation? Uh because that that is supposed to be especially as we talked about with Addison out these first three weeks that was supposed to be like your number two weapon in this offense and he’s been totally non-existent. I I will say about Hawinson, I don’t think they win Monday night against the Bears without Hawinson. Um you know, key block on that McCarthy touchdown. Couple of key blocks elsewhere in those drives that really sprung Jordan Mason free. You know, we talk about Jordan Mason being the spark. Look at his lead blocker. He was doing work. Um that like I don’t think they win that game without TJ, but yeah, disappearing act tonight from everybody. I mean, everybody sucked that you scored six. Nobody on the offense is free. None of you are free of sin. Everybody go to hell. Tell us how you really feel though. NFC North talk real quick. Packers 2 and 0. Yeah, the Packers have clinched the NFC North. Yeah, congratulations to them. Pop the champagne. Two games in. Um, how about how about Dan Dan Campbell against Ben Johnson goes for it on fourth down to hit it to get a 50 burger against the Bears. Really? Oh my god, I missed that. That’s fantastic. That’s amazing. Yeah. Um, yeah. L obviously Packers 2 and 0. Lions Vikes one and one. Bears sitting at uh sitting at 0 and2. Obviously, this thing’s clearly still wide open. We’re two games in here. We’re what, one eighth, not even one ninth of the season in, but um but how do we feel about the NFC North? Ju just kind of big picture, how do we feel just the way things are kind of shaping out uh thus far through two games? It’s a two team division right now. I know both the Vikings and Lions are one andone, but it’s a very different one and oneonone. Um I I think the Vikings and Bears are both figuring it out. They they they have to find themselves, and that might happen in the middle of this season. It could happen later this month. It could happen on week 12 when they’re already out of it, but I don’t think either of those teams are really ready to be like serious, you know, let’s push all the contenders in the NFC. I think we can see that. Um, the Packers are insane, right? I mean, they’ve just they just absolutely steamrololled two of the better teams in the NFC. And I think it was pretty fair to give the Lions a mulligan on week one, but you had to see them go beat the crap out of the Bears, and they did. So, like I I feel like we can kind of all reby into them. Um, but it’s tough because the Packers already have a win against the Lions and it was a convincing one. But even if you do totally write it off, like the tiebreaker still counts. So, yeah, Packers are in a pretty strong driver’s seat, as strong as you can be early in week two. But, you know, yeah, long season. Who was number one in the power rankings after two weeks last year? Remind me. Was it the Saints? Probably think it was the Saints. was probably in the power rankings. Probably I don’t think people were I think people saw the morale. The Saints were like the best team in the league after two weeks. I um so I’m trying to be Mr. Rosie tonight because Braun is just has taken the vitriol to like epic proportions. I got the devil on my shoulder on this side. I got the angel right here on this side. Um you’ve been given a gift. I’m not going to lie, one of you has been way more convincing tonight. And I wish I would have taken the under. Who’s playing the part? Uh the uh you’ve been given a gift. A lot of people like when we did the the win loss projections before the season, a lot of people had L’s on that Bengals game because of Joe Burrow. He’s not playing most likely. Then you go overseas for Steelers and Browns. There is still a pretty real chance of going 4-1. If you get this offense to a mediocre level, just a mediocre level, you can win the next three games. And if you get to four and one, if you stumble to four in- one at the by-week, you still have have every every bit of claim to try to go get this division. But you gota you right now they are they’re they’re not even treading water offensively. They are flailing. They are drowning off offensively. You’ve got to get a life raft to JJ McCarthy stat. You have to figure out how to move the ball. Yeah. And and what better team to do it against than the Cincinnati Bengals. Uh, look, the Browns defense actually looked like they kind of were giving the Ravens a run for their money for a minute and then it kind of fell apart on them and ends up being a 40 burger. Um, Steelers are no slouch to move the ball against. It’s But I I think to to Sam’s point, if you can do that, if you can figure it out and take out a couple of AFC North teams that are that are kind of also faltering, uh, you then go into this like horrifying gauntlet after the buy. If you can go into that at four and one, a few wins in your back pocket, you kind of buy yourself some time to find yourself. But for me, th this next couple months of Vikings football is going to be a lot more about the vibe than the actual result. Like I will be very willing to grant a moral victory if they can look good but maybe fall a little short against like the Eagles or whatever because they look like they figured it out. But you just have to figure out like we don’t know what a true JJ McCarthy offense looks like. We know what a Kevin Oonnell offense looks like and we know that JJ McCarthy can’t do it. We got to figure out what a JJ McCarthy offense actually looks like. Should they have been doing this all summer? Yeah, probably. And we can hold their feet to the fire about it. But now you are where you are. So figure out what you can do and figure out how to move the ball. That’s what the next three weeks are about for me. Whether they win or lose, can you at least look like you know how to play football again? Anybody win their bets tonight before we get out of here? I know we’ll touch on this tomorrow on the squad show. Anybody Mason? Uh I won my Falcons plus three and a half. I lost my parlay of Penn over his rushing yards and JJ. JJ hit his rushing yards. Pennix did not. So I went uh I definitely got the money line. You got the money line. The RJ got the reverse jerk. Yeah, the reverse jinx money line. And then I’m looking up. I had you reverse jerk. Come on, man. Reverse jerk. Yeah. Uh and then I had Jordan Mason under. Yeah, I went two and0. Nice. How’ the over do tonight? What was the Was the over 27? Did the over hit? The over did not hit 44 and a half. You know, I bet you a lot of people looked at that game and and thought, uh, oh, that’s way too low, man. In a dome. You know, McCarthy built some momentum. Three touchdowns, fourth quarter, they’re going to come out. No, no, Vegas knows. Vegas was right. Sam, how’d you do? Oh, 0 for two. Did did not get the over as you’ve notified me. And, uh, I had the Penn rushing. Did not I don’t think he had a yard. Minus one. One for minus one. That must have been a kneel down at the end. I’m I shut my TV off for uh Vikings get dismantled by injuries. More offensive woes. Couldn’t stop the run. Special teams was garbage as well. U but besides all that looked pretty good. Final score first the Falcons 22 to6. They dropped to one and one on the year. A huge shout out to all you guys, all the everyday out there that always make us your first listen. Go check out Ron Ron Johnson show each and every Tuesday. Uh Luke’s always crushing it over on Locked on Vikings. New episode again. Viking squad party dropping every Monday, every Thursday morning. Uh, and of course, make sure to like and subscribe. Help us get to 10K. Uh, we’ll see you back here in a week. Vikings, Bengals, Jefferson vers Chase. Until then, thanks for staying up late with us. We’ll catch you next time.

The Minnesota Vikings took on the Atlanta Falcons in the battle of Top-10 quarterbacks with Michael Penix and J.J. McCarthy, but it wasn’t McCarthy night as the offense sputtered to a 22-6 loss. Join Luke Inman, Luke Braun, Ron Johnson and Sam Ekstrom with immediate analysis.