Bercich Breakdown: Will Max save the Vikings?

Bercich Breakdown: Will Max save the Vikings?

It’s the Thanksgiving edition of the Bersich Breakdown and we have Vikings audio analyst. Peter Bersich joining us. And Pete, a lot is going on in the Vikings world again this week. And it looks like we may have a change at quarterback. We don’t have the official word. Probably will come later this week. But let’s go down the rabbit hole of if it is Max Brober, what does this Viking offense look like? Um, yeah, that’s a that’s a good question. The question is, are they going to um let him throw the football more? I mean, obviously, we’re going to continue or we will would try to depend on the run and use the run as much as possible. Um, and it’s not just that it might be Brosmer, but it’s like it could be who’s playing left guard and who’s playing left tackle. Right. Right. Right. I mean, well, we’re going to dive into that in a minute, too. Yeah. I mean, there’s so there’s a lot of questions uh in that regard offensively. Um, yeah, it’s going to have to go back to maybe some pre-season things and some, you know, what the So, you know, just I guess assess what he’s comfortable with, um, that he’s comfortable with and that the offense is comfortable with, the coaches are, and maybe limit the shifting and the motioning and all the other window dressing and just try to keep it as simple as possible for the young man. let him just make his simple reads and throws. Uh maybe get him on the edge, boot him out, roll him out. Um cut the field in half if possible. There’s, you know, some things you can do, but uh again, a good running game helps a young quarterback. That’s there’s no question about that. All right. In your latest Eye in the Sky podcast, which is connected to this uh video clip, after this ends, it goes to you. Uh you broke him down from the preeason. I know that was a long time ago, but what do you recollect and what can you take from that that may possibly give us some insights as to how advanced he can be? Because he is older than JJ. He played more college football. He was more in charge of the Gopher offense than maybe McCarthy was at Michigan because it was such a heavy runorientated program there. Minnesota, they threw the ball a lot and Max excelled at that. Uh, do you think you could tell from what you saw in those preseason clips? Uh, gives you a glimpse of where he’s at now. Um, it’s been a while since he’s been on the field and had some live snaps, so um, you know, that’s obviously a a concern, if you will. Uh, but Max, he did such a great job of of reading what’s in front of him, uh, and being able to take things that he learned from meetings because he didn’t get he didn’t get a whole lot of practice time, right? At the time, he was the number three quarterback. So, you even in training camp, you don’t get a lot of live reps. So, he had to learn by watching. And when he got his opportunity in the preseason, he he took full advantage of it. and he was able to make reads and read the high lows and and and make the proper decisions. So, um yeah, he it he’s I remember him being very accurate, right, which is extremely important. Um he hasn’t had a lot of work with the number with the number one wide receiver core, right? I mean, I don’t know how many passes has he thrown to Addison or Justin Jefferson this year. It’s probably it might be the first this Wednesday, you know, cuz again, you don’t when the backup quarterback’s in, then the backup receivers are usually in if you’re practicing during the week, uh, which isn’t a ton. Um, so yeah, he may he may be throwing some his first passes to Jefferson and Addison this week, which will be, you know, which will be interesting. Um but um you know after the last couple of weeks um you know there again it’s just more than just the quarterback. You you’ve got to get everybody else around him playing well. Uh but there might be an opportunity here or the chance that Brosmer injects some life into this offense. Yeah. You’re making me more nervous now that this could actually be farther down the hole of trouble for the Vikings. I mean, I didn’t think we could go farther off the rails. And that’s the thing is, you know, is you don’t know. Um, you know, uh, it it’s the it’s the I guess it’s the operation of the machine is what I mean. It’s just in and out of the huddle and the plays and knowing and then um, you know, echoing the plays the proper way in the huddle and then getting everybody lined up and the cadence and all those a million to one little things that a quarterback has to do before the ball’s even snapped. So, uh, but, you know, it could be better. Um, you know, we’ll see. I hope it’s better, right? And, you know, for Brosmer, what an unbelievable opportunity for him to go from an undrafted guy who just kind of who gets into camp and now he’s got an opportunity to start in a National Football League game. The other part of it, too, it’s not like he’s starting at home. He’s going to difficult environments in the NFL. Um, you know, it’s Lumen Field is very loud. Uh it’ll be wet. It’s going to rain. It rains every day out there this time of year. Uh and they know, right? They’re they’re aware of what’s going on. So I think their crowd will be fully engaged. They’re in uh what eight and three operation. So they’re still in in the thick of the you know the playoff race and winning the division. So it’s going to if if Brosmer can go into Seattle and have success. I mean, we were skeptical of Darnold last year when he went in there. Meaning it, you know, it’s a tough place to play, right? And it took a it took a, you know, a huge throw to Jeff Jefferson late in the fourth quarter to win that football game. So, can Bromer recreate that? Um, you know, we’ll see. So, it’s it’s it’s like I said, if anything good comes out of it, it’s it’s unbelievable because this is not an easy task at hand. All right. Uh you kind of hinted to it already, the offensive line. Uh this was last week against Green Bay. The first time all five were together and they didn’t finish the game. So it was a fun half. Yeah. So what do they do now if if they have to mix things up? Because these guys have already been in there before. It’s not going to be that catastrophic. Well, the interesting thing will be is is Brandell the next guy in? Meaning, if somehow Donovan Jackson’s able to play guard, um, will they put Brandell at center? And if somehow, um, you know, Darasaw is able to play, will they put Brandell at guard, uh, like they did during the game? So, it’s going to be it’s going to be interesting to see if he’s the next guy in, but you could be looking at Brandell in school on the left side of that offensive line. uh against a team who’s pretty good at getting after the quarterback. They have a lot of athletic outside linebackers. Um they blitzed a ton against Ward. Uh they just play Tennessee, so they, you know, against younger quarterbacks, they they they don’t mind throwing the kitchen sink at them, and they blitzed them a lot. So, um I would expect the the aggressiveness of that defense with the crowd noise and everything else that they’re going to have going for them um to pin their ears back and get after uh Young Max if he ends up being, you know, regardless if it’s McCarthy or Brosmer. I just think that they’re going to they’re going to get aggressive and, you know, try to make it as tough of a day on whatever whichever young quarterback we put in. All right. Um, this is probably the most appealing part of this game for me is Brian Flores going against Sam Darnold. He knows all the flaws in Sam’s game. He knows what buttons he thinks he has to push in order to rattle them. And we’ve seen him get rattled even again this year. The Rams figured out how to get into his head. Yeah. So, so how does Brian go after Sam? And do you think Sam will be able to handle it? Whatever Brian dials up. Yeah, I mean it depends on the guys around him. You know, Darnold, we we saw we saw him last year. We’re familiar with him. Um the thing where I saw him get into trouble, especially against the Rams, is just he gets he can get fixated on on Jackson Smith and Jigba. He um Injigma and Jigma leads the team in receptions by I mean I think it’s 30. I mean the the a vast majority of the passing game goes goes his way. Um, and if you can get pressure on him, and I’m not saying you just sack or anything, but just get people in his face, get people at his legs, uh, push the offensive lineman into his lap, all those things affect him. And, uh, that’s the that’s going to be the task at hand. I think the task at hand is also going to be to stop the running game. Um, you know, they they have they have a couple really good couple really good running backs. Uh, Charbanet being one of them. He’s he’s the guy. He hasn’t gotten as many rushes this year, but I’m pretty impressed with him and his speed and his explosiveness. So, uh yeah, it’s it that part of it is going to be tough as well to just try to get M try to get um Darnold in a situations where he is going to throw, you know, third and longs, those kinds of things. Offenses this year, they have a lot more patience. Um they don’t feel the need to be throwing the football down the field. Um, and so it’s because of because they’re, you know, they’re already ahead. They’re leading. Uh, they’re not worried about our offense scoring quickly. Um, they’re a little more patient, so they’re running the ball more, shorter passes, controlled passing game, move the chains if you can, that kind of thing. So, we’re not we’re not getting offense as desperate, right? This this defense faced more passes last year than any other defense in the league. So, it’s not quite and you’re not quite seeing that. It’s flipped around. You’re seeing a lot more runs. So, but to get to get somebody in Darnold’s lap, not let him feel comfortable. They they don’t do a ton of drop back. They roll them out. They bootleg. They do all they keep them on the move quite a bit to help out with that presence. Um, you know, they’ve got kind of a uh a bit of a revamped offensive line. Gray Zable is their is their rookie left left guard. He’s actually doing real well. Um Charlie Cross their left tackle, he’s playing well. It’s it’s you know Olua Timmy and Bradford and Lucas. Those guys struggle sometimes. So I think they just want to keep Bradford not on one spot. They want to move them around as much as they can. All right. Um last thing for you. Where do you think the team is at mentally right now? I’m talking the whole Vikings squad after that trip to Lambo. It it it hurt Viking fans. It I’m sure you know we were bothered by it. How does the team put this back together again? Well, you you have two choices, right? You either fight or you give in. You can make it you go dialectic on it. Make make it simple, right? You’ve got one or two choices. You either continue to fight or you just give in. Um and which one do you choose? And I would assume most of them would would choose to fight. The other part of it too is is about what you can control because if you’re on defense, you really can’t control when you have to take the field. Um so you can’t be disappointed whenever you’re walking on the field after a turnover or um you know after any situation like that. So they just they defensively they got to stay physical, right? Teams are going to again wanting to run the football. Um, and so it may not be as fun as as the interceptions and the blitzing and all that, you know, all that all that kind of stuff, but at the same time, that’s kind of where they are right now. And that’s reality. So, you you just have to make the best of of what of what you have um in that regard. And you never know, all it’s going to take is a I mean, seriously, if it takes a play or two out of out of Brosmer, it could juice up that entire team, right? Um, conversely, Seattle might not, you know, they’re not facing, um, you know, uh, you know, a Bradford or or someone of, you know, of that caliber, uh, Jared Goff. So, they, you know, maybe they take it a little bit easy or they don’t prepare in the same way. Um, so, you know, that could happen and we could surprise them in that regard. And it won’t take but a few good things to happen for this team, I think, really to get pumped up and psyched up and and and to get some wind in their sales again. So hopefully uh you get a couple big plays early to build some momentum and then you try to ride it out the rest of the day. All right, that is Peter Bersich. Check him out this Sunday. Fox 9 Game Day Live has the call with Paul Allen on the Vikings audio network and then he’ll also make a cameo on Vikings postgame tonight. Remember, it’s a late start 3:00 here in the Twin Cities. Peter, have a great Thanksgiving. Thank you so much. We’re very thankful for all the time you spend with us. It’s quite a bit and I’m sorry it’s gotten to be such a task. Well, thank No, no, it’s it’s I love doing it and thank you and happy Thanksgiving to you and and to all the listeners. All righty, that’ll do it for us. We’ll see you Sunday. And uh Viking fans, keep your chin up. They’re going to turn it around. Pizzas.

This week on the Bercich Breakdown, Vikings analyst Pete Bercich gives some insights into what Max Brosmer will bring to the Vikings if he does start this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks. Plus, Pete discusses what surprises Brian Flores will have for former Viking quarterback Sam Darnold. Don’t forget to watch the game on FOX 9 this Sunday! Our coverage starts with GameDay Live then the game at 3:00 p.m. and we wrap it up with Vikings Post-Game Tonight at 10:35 p.m. All on FOX 9, your home of Vikings football.

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