False Starts & Stars Fall As Minnesota Vikings Drop Another One

False Starts & Stars Fall As Minnesota Vikings Drop Another One

Probably the most frustrating loss to date as the Vikings once again fall below 500. Welcome to the Locked On Vikings podcast. You are Locked On Vikings, your daily Minnesota Vikings podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. What’s up? What’s up everybody? Welcome to the Locked On Vikings podcast where we’re always trying to learn something new. It’s part of the Locked On podcast network, now the number one sports network. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Today, we will be recapping, of course, the Vikings 27-19 loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens. JJ McCarthy still hasn’t won a game in Minnesota, I guess. Well, he probably did in college, right? But, uh, that game probably got you pretty tilted and you’re listening to this the next morning. Maybe you had a little bit of time to kind of, you know, calm down, rest up, but there’s a lot about that game that’s particularly frustrating. Um, it feels as though every loss the Vikings have incurred this year. I think there’s some contingent of people where that’s the one that ends the season to them. Some people check out as soon as you get your second loss because then you’re not, you know, it’s like a college football mentality. Then you’re not the Super Bowl team. Some people maybe it’s your third or fourth loss. You start to realize, especially if it happens in the first part of the season, okay, we’re not going to win the division. It’s not going to be the year. fifth loss maybe it’s and as you get to six seven eight you start to um flirt with you know actual mathematical elimination and then that becomes a harder thing but I would like to try to zoom out of that a little bit um and inject a little perspective because to be honest with you I think people have heavily overreacted to this game this one sucks and falling to four and five is a tough hole to climb out of and I don’t think the team is good enough to climb out of that hole. But I said that week two, so I’ve been here. Um that the the the Vikings in this particular iteration had problems that went beyond missing O lineman for a little while or missing their quarterback for a little while and those problems reared their heads. To me, the thing I cannot get over, even after being able to kind of stop and step away and think about the game for a little bit with a cooler head, is eight false starts. Now, turnovers and penalties is a phrase that I have said so much on this show that I’m worried that it’s starting to like lose its meaning. You know, like if you ever say like marshmallow, marshmallow, marshmallow too much. For me, that’s turnovers and penalties. It’s like there’s no it’s just syllables. It’s not a word anymore. But it was that again. The Vikings fall three to nothing in the turnover battle. They don’t get any turnovers on defense and of course two JJ McCarthy interceptions. We’ll get to that. And um a Miles Price kick return fumble which turns out to be a total back breaker. I mean, the game was never the same after that. And penalties. I think they end up with 13 penalties. Eight of them are false starts. Eight false starts is a feat that I think uh I want to say it was Kevin Seaffort uh put out not since 2000. So it’s been a quarter of a century since somebody has false started this bad. And all of those other games were like on the road for other times that like the Vikings have had like big penalty problems pre- snap issues. That’s all you know you’re on the road and it’s loud and the crap at home eight. That’s embarrassing. I mean, that’s you could talk about history and when’s the last time someone did that. But no matter what, it’s embarrassing. That simply cannot happen. So, what I want to do though is again, back off. Yes, it can’t happen. I don’t think anybody’s going eightfold starts, it’s fine. Like, I don’t think we’re arguing with anybody, right? So, what I would rather do is answer the natural follow-up question, which is why did those happen and how can they be fixed? Um, the problem is it was like a different guy every time, right? This wasn’t like a Laram tonsil false starts four times and you have to just like figure it out with him and why is he can’t he hold his stance or whatever. Um, no, it’s everybody and it’s a lot of different reasons which is extra concerning because it’s that means that there isn’t like a super easy fix. But as a problem solver, um, I prefer to diagnose then do it right. Why is the problem happening? Then figure out what to do about that why. And what I am what you’re not going to hear is for me to be like this guy should be fired or that guy should be benched or that guy should be you know cut from the team or whatever. That’s never good problem solving. I’m sorry. That’s it’s cathartic and it would feel good if you saw tomorrow woke up tomorrow and saw like the O line coach was fired because you you were unhappy with this pressure and the false starts and all that stuff and and and a head rolled and you would feel like they’re doing something right. Um, but the vast majority of, I think, smart solutions to this problem are the kind that you and I will not see or hear any word of. And in fact, they maybe already happen. It’s funny on the Squad show, um, Ron Johnson talked about that kind of thing. And it’s like that’s that’s like a Sunday night text message. That’s something you might have w talked about walking out of the stadium on the way to your car. Like that’s not we got to practice, we got to have a meeting on Monday, we got to talk about it in a film room. No, that’s something that like you will want to handle so immediately that by the time you’re actually preparing for the Bears in your practice week next week, the problem is resolved. So going into this game, I set a goal that I wanted to see, which was no busted plays. I wanted to see everybody more or less on the same page. I’m not talking about like, oh, you know, you could have cut that route under a little and I didn’t quite throw it right at the right angle. That that chemistry stuff. I’m not talking about that. I was talking about like, you know, the running back going the wrong way kind of stuff. And we did not see any of those. So, I guess maybe that’s on me. I set the bar too low because you still had all of these pre- snap issues. Okay. So, why are they happening? So, a few of them to me seemed as though the Vikings were trying to get the Ravens on a hard count and the Vikings just kind of kept flinching on it. And what I don’t know about it is like is that they didn’t know the snap cadence and they went when they weren’t supposed to go or are they not used to the intensity of JJ McCarthy’s hard count because Carson Wentz’s wasn’t as intense and then they flinched. In which case, get used to it, bub. He’s here. It’s November. You probably should have had that down in camp. Like that’s embarrassing to me. And I I like I hope it’s not that because like that really sucks. And you could say, “Hey JJ, little bit too much sauce on that hard count. You maybe want to take some of the intensity off of it, but that would make it less effective in the future.” So I like I don’t want to say that as the note. People just maybe it just takes some getting used to. Maybe I hope it’s just that. Um, but there was one that you probably remember that where a couple of guys went. It was it was Christian Daras and whoever the tight end was over there. I want to say it was Ben Ursk. Um, both went when uh McCarthy said Oscar Oscar. Now, if I recall in these Shanahan McVey playbooks, Oscar Oscar is a flip. It just flips the play. Um, so that was a a a call in like at the line. and he’s just trying to make an adjustment and then guys heard sound and went. Uh when you’re in a hurry up, this is what Ron explained on the squad show. He did a great job of that. Um when you’re in a hurry up, basically you’re everybody’s expecting a turbo snap count. So you you might hear quarterbacks say turbo set hut um or you know turbo set because they say they they mash it all together. Um that means turbo means we’re going now. No hard count, no hut, hut, no set hut, nothing. No white 80 turbo means we’re doing it on this right now. And usually in hurry up situations, um, which I believe they were in or or like no huddler if you’re trying to quick snap them, it’ll be a turbo count and everybody’s expecting a turbo count. So if you’re going to make an adjustment at the line because you think, oh, this run should go left when it’s called to go to the right, but we got an opportunity to do it left. Let’s do that. Um, that’s great. And I love that McCarthy is doing that, but you have to still know, hey, everybody’s amped up to do a quick snap here. You have to go easy, easy, easy. Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, white 80, white 80 set hut and and get that down. It’s part of doing the pre- snap. It like it’s it’s a practical experience thing, right? And it’s so like this whole year for McCarthy has really highlighted and and in a way that is either comforting or frustrating to you, but it really has highlighted the difference between what you can learn in the classroom and what you can learn practically because you can learn in the classroom. I got to if I see that if we’ve got this play called and I see this in the front, I want to flip it. And and you can know that Oscar Oscar is my word to flip that play call. But what you can’t know is how amped up that left tackle is until you make that mistake in a game um or in a practice or in something. And of course with all of the time that McCarthy has missed, we we’re going to be playing catch-up here now. Um but I would say that a quick little pre- snap reync is in order here. And I would even go so far as to say we probably expect this to be an emphasis for the Vikings and I wouldn’t I certainly wouldn’t expect eight ever again. I mean that doesn’t h that only happens every quarter century. But um I would even go so far as to say I wouldn’t be surprised if they got all the false starts figured out next week. It’s another home game. It’s a divisional. Um but a new problem will crop up and we’re going to have to handle it there. But that’s not the only reason they lost. Look, the the turnovers were bad. We’ll get to those. But J how JJ McCarthy played I’ll probably get into a lot more depth. Um and of course the Patreon video which I’ll be working on all day today and and that should be up hopefully by tonight. And uh we’ll definitely talk about that on Wednesday. I think it was a very it’s going to be an interesting game to evaluate from him. But also you’ve got you had some interesting times with the defense and boy Justin Jefferson kind of had a stinker, huh? What’s up with that? That’s not something that we usually see a lot. Do we have to have a conversation? So, let’s There’s still quite a bit more to dive into next on Locked on Vikings. I’m Cody Ror from Lockown Broncos and this episode is brought to you by Pelaton. Pelaton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Pelaton crossraining tread plus powered by Pelaton IQ. This is Pelaton’s most advanced equipment yet, giving you real time guidance and endless ways to move. Whether you’re running, lifting, or you’re crossraining with your favorite instructors like Alex Tucant, it’s training reimagined to make your workout more personal. Pelaton is built for breakthroughs. With features that help you plan, stay motivated, and hit peak performance. You can let yourself run, lift, flex, and go while Pelaton handles all the rest. Plus, Pelaton IQ provides real time strength coaching, tracking your progress and suggesting weights that challenge you so you can get stronger. Plus, the new movement tracking camera. 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And what we didn’t get in this game that we got against the Bears and the Lions was that kind of late game surge where, you know, he had the ball down a score with a chance to do something with it. And that two-minute drive was pretty disastrous based on just kind of a lack of awareness, especially between the whistles. Um, you know, McCarthy runs for 30 yards. It’s a great play to run for 30 yards. I think it was the right decision. I mean, it’s hard to know. I couldn’t see downfield, but um assuming that there wasn’t like a beautiful throw that he should have taken, great. Good job. Run for 35 yards. However, there is no world where it is correct to not clock that ball after an explosive play like that. You get a big one like that, get up to the line and spike it. And that’s I would not be shocked to learn that that is the instruction that he was supposed to clock it there, but he got a little greedy, a little wrapped up in the moment and went I can call a play, right? Which is something you can get away with at the lower levels that at the NFL you want to just save every little second because the NFL can do more with two seconds. Um and and can try to squeeze more in and be a little bit, you know, more efficient about all those tiny little margins. They matter more at this level. So, I I think there’s a lesson learned hopefully, right? Um, you know, the as the game wore on, his accuracy fell away. He was throwing absolute heat in the first parts of the game, especially that opening drive. And I don’t think in a way that you can say, “Oh, he’s only good on the scripted plays because the scriptedness of those plays did not make them easier to execute.” They were actually I think some of those throws were pretty difficult that he made um for the Vikings to to go up 70-0 to start the game. Um, and but as the the game wore on, he started to abandon his mechanics a little bit more. His leg would whip around a little bit more like we’ve been talking about. Look, that over rotation stuff would kind of come back in. It was under wraps at the beginning, but as the game wore on, as pressure started to get to him, as the sort of situations of the game started to get to him, his old habits will show. And when you get tired mentally and physically, your habits will show. That is a universal. That is human. It’s true of every single one of you listening. When you get tired, your habits show. Um, and so those habits still haven’t been truly broken. And so it’s led to some of these inaccuracies. He’s missing high on a lot of these, right? And the completion percentage is terrible. A lot of those were deep attempts. I’m not super concerned about that about it was like 47%. It was awful. Um, but the degree of difficulty is a lot higher. And that is if you’re looking for like a J.J. McCarthy comfort. Um, it is that the degree of difficulty in this offense is so much higher than what we saw with not only Wentz or you know Dobs Mullen’s backup guys, but I would even say that cognitively there is a lot more complexity and there’s a lot more stuff happening at the line than there even was with Darnold. Um, I think this is a mistake. I think that that is that Okonnell should not have done that. Uh but ratcheting it up that extra little bit like he should just be giving McCarthy the Darnold offense. Uh which still has a lot of checks and stuff going on at the line. It just isn’t nearly as much window dressing and extra execution. Um because really they just had Darnold, you know, drop back and launch a nuke, right? Like that’s what we wanted to do. It’s what’s in Seattle’s doing great with that, too. Um and and they want McCarthy to I don’t know. Oh, it’s it’s like they just they wanted to ratchet it up a little bit. It’s like that more is required slogan happened a little more. And truly the guy I’m most upset with at this game is Kevin Oonnell. I think the pre- snap issues, they do go up to coaching ultimately if you’re that disorganized. Maybe yeah, the quarterback is is has a hard count that you’re not used to or maybe he messed up on a certain check or something. But having that super disorganized is a coaching thing. There’s a reason we think of penalties as synonymous with coaching. So, I I I I’m very upset about that. And I think I’m also like so much overthinking still is happening, especially, you know, I’m sure everybody’s going to freak out all week about the fact that the Vikings did not run once in a third or fourth and short situation and they had several of them in this game. They passed on all of them and they have a terrible success rate when doing that. They pass so much more than they run on these short yardage situations and their success rate on these their conversion rate on those passing plays has been just dreadfully bad. They they really need to just get back to basics and either run or I’m not going to be one of those guys that’s like you got to run on third and one. No, I don’t mind it. I don’t even mind the deep shot. And let’s get into that interception. I don’t even mind the deep shot on uh third and one. I I think that’s fine because you’re definitely going to go for the fourth and one. You’re at midfield. So, go ahead. Right. It’s going to be a great play action opportunity. Everybody’s super keyed up on it. You’re going to get the one-on-one that you want. Unfortunately, the the pass gets intercepted and and we’ll get into that. And it looks like this way stupider punish. But if you did get the fourth and one, is Okonnell going to just line up and run like a sneak because he should. But will he do what he should do? I don’t know about that. Um, and so there’s over complications. I I just don’t I just I I don’t like that it’s, you know, uh everything has to have a motion and then a fake to that motion and then another fake toss and then a a pump fake to here and then you just just freaking throw the choice route. And I’ve I’ve said this every single week I think for the last two years. The overthinking, overengineered nature of it makes the whole thing bogged down and slow and the timing and rhythm that the McVey style offense relies on completely dissolves. He’s totally lost his connection to that and and they need to go back to basics, but really quick, the um the we’ll talk about the two interceptions. The first one was I think a pretty bad decision from from McCarthy. I So, here’s what I’ll I’ll say because I did get a chance to look at the all 22 for this one. So, it’s quarter quarter half and it essentially looked like it was a Justin Jefferson one-on-one um one one-on-one thing. The inside safety was on the hash. And I do think there’s a little bit of a the NFL hashes are closer. That guy’s closer than you think. But your your brain goes, “Oh, that guy’s on the hash. He’s he’s out of that play.” Cuz in college, that means he’s further away. But in in the NFL, that’s another like getting used to it kind of thing. um where that safety was more in the play than JJ McCarthy realized. That doesn’t that don’t mistake me for excuse making here. It’s there there’s a big difference between explaining a mistake and trying to excuse it. That does I mean you still got to learn from that and do better. But that’s probably why it happened. I I would I would be much I I would be very surprised if the answer was like nope just didn’t see that safety. Like it’s probably not what’s happening and we can give guys a little credit with that. There’s a lot of people also think that maybe Jefferson should have made a more of a play on that ball um if he had turned tried to high point it. I actually do think he had an angle at that one. Um it was way too dangerous and I don’t think McCarthy should have thrown that. And I think if M if if Jefferson did go up for it, we probably would or at least I think I would still probably be saying like, “Ah, you probably shouldn’t rip that one, but glad it worked out.” Like that would pro that’s probably the best that can go for me. Um, so I I kind of can you can hold both criticisms at the same time and argue over which critic o over both of those criticisms separately of each other. And then when it comes to the second interception McCarthy threw, it was also a deep bomb to Jefferson and Jefferson just got tied up. That one was a true blue one-on-one opportunity. Um, when he throws it, Jefferson has inside leverage on Marlon Humphrey and he basically is trying to lead him to the inside. I think that throw is perfectly defensible and fine. Totally good to throw that one. I’m I got no problem with McCarthy on that one. Jefferson just gets tripped up. Keep your feet. If everybody stays upright on the play, you’re fine. Like I I feel like my expectations for the Vikings aren’t that high. Can everybody just please know what they’re supposed to do and then like stay upright for most of the play. That’s all I’m asking. Surely that is reasonable. But Justin Jefferson also had quite the day to forget. And I don’t want to neglect the defense either. We still got a lot to get to. So let’s keep moving on the Lockown Vikings podcast. This episode of Lockdown Vikings is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of a game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will be the next to score to fourth quarter comebacks or you can even take adapting lines for player props or, you know, yards or touchdowns or whatever. combine them all into a same game live parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when the Vikings aren’t playing or when you are trying to will them to a to a late push. You can even combine things across sports, Anthony Edwards threes versus Jordan Mason touchdowns or whatever you want to do here. Right now, FanDuel is also giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanuel do.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Moving on here with the Lockdown Vikings podcast. Um, hey Justin, you good dog? Really, really rough day for Justin Jefferson, uncharacteristically so. However, I have maybe a little concern here um for the short term, not the long long term, but for the short term as in like the rest of this season, right? that Justin Jefferson’s worst days have come with JJ McCarthy in the lineup. Those two are just not on the same page. There was all kinds of problems with the Bears and the Falcons games with those two. A and the last two games haven’t exactly been barn burners for Justin Jefferson either. And this this last game had all kinds of mistakes in it. If you want to count the whatever you want to count of the two interceptions against him, for me getting your legs tangled up is not something that I like need to give you a flogging for, but it is the thing that caused the interception. So, be as mad as you choose to be about that. Um, be as mad as you choose to be about the first one if you think he should have turned around and high pointed it. I think that’s a really tough play to ask him to make. I think that’s a really bad situation to put him in and McCarthy shouldn’t have thrown it. But I do think that if he did turn around and try to get a hand on it, he could have. So, again, take that and be as mad about it as you want. Let’s say your answer is zero for both of those and say, “No, he’s Justin Jefferson. He can do no wrong. All those are fine with me.” And you set him aside. Even with that, he drops a touchdown on the goal line. I mean it just made to order perfect throw on the goal line would have brought the Vikings into a totally different situation and he drops it. They end up kicking a field goal. Um and gets the Vikings out from behind of one of those false starts but he couldn’t bring it in. Um I think he was targeted like 12 times which you got to understand 10 11 12 targets is a dominant market share. Uh and only four of those were were hauled in. Some of those were McCarthy misses. again, just not on the same page. But some of those were just not winning against a corner group that hasn’t always had it with with this Ravens defense. Then their pass rush has been much more of a problem than their secondary, but that dude had a bad day and looked pretty frustrated. I think he was mostly frustrated with the refs. That’s where he was directing a lot of it because he was getting mugged all day. But like, man, every single team has played you that way at this point. You know, you got to know that. Although what I will say in his defense is arguing those sometimes leads to one later. If you’re like, “Man, he’s holding me every play.” That ref might just have a little bit more of an eye on things and maybe get you one, right? Um, but that connection needs to figure it out. You’ve got to get the these guys are in the building for three years now together and there’s kind of nothing anybody can do about that. So that connection just needs to get figured out that that those two guys are bolted down with with iron and they are encased here in carbonite. You have to figure it out. Um no matter what it is, but obviously not the uh not the day you want out of your superstar wide receiver. Um I do want to I’ve spent only time talking about the offense and I do think that that’s appropriate for this game. I think the offense has a lot more to be embarrassed about than the defense. The defense, I think, had as good of a day as you could have hoped for. Uh the the Lamar Jackson Ravens are like specifically built to attack everything the Vikings have been bad at this year from QB rushing to they love to throw over the middle and a hard-nosed run game. Like those are the three things that have if you look at, you know, the way the Falcons won, hard-nosed zone run game blasted you. how the Chargers won. QB rushing throws over the middle. QB scrambling for the Eagles. Like every loss has been that, right? And to the Vikings credit, they basically shut down Derrick Henry outside of one drive. Um they I thought they did a great job against Derrick Henry in that run game. I thought they did a phenomenal job at something that’s incredibly hard to do, which is having good pass rush contain lanes, like being disciplined about your rush gaps and stopping Lamar Jackson from getting explosives into the secondary. Sometimes he got past the line of scrimmage and got a little bit, but I think it was 36 yards rushing. That ain’t bad at all for Lamar. I’ll take that. And and while there were a couple of completions over the middle, it certainly didn’t dominate the game. The Ravens offensively did not have a game that the Ravens will be very happy with. I don’t think that that unit will be happy with their game and that means that ours kind of gets to be. I can’t say it was like a dominant performance. I mean, they were in the red zone like six times for getting a couple of short fields and even if you take those away, it’s like okay, four times. Um the but they they held up really really really well in the red zone and forced the Ravens to kick a lot of field goals which kept the Vikings in the game and and and kept things from being too much of a blowout. But I I if those if the Vikings had not done that in the red zone, I mean they they would have given up 45, right? Like it it would have been a total blowout. Um and so to their credit, the Ben don’t break worked out okay. Um I think that the Dtackles deserve a lot of flowers for this, especially Hargrave, who I think had another nice day uh against the run. Stack up two of those now and I start to back off my little narrative. Um and and well, I don’t start I will back off my little narrative like until it comes back like that’s you’re you did whatever was going on, you’re good. like maybe you were just tired because of the travel or something, but uh it seems like it’s working out better now. Um from a secondary perspective, no, Theo Jackson didn’t seem to harm them that much. Uh Fabian Maro got a lot of run because apparently they don’t trust Dwight McGloin. Again, I I just need to point out that he was the fourth guy. He was the first backup to go in on week one on purpose and I was not really convinced that he was going to make the team. And now this and and and you you’ve taken a player off the street for the second year in a row to elevate him to the position above Dwight McGloin. We definitely get to ask questions about how does one concussion mean that you are suddenly taking guys off the street. That is not an acceptable place to be. However, to his credit, I thought Fabian Maro played fine. That will not sustain. If Fabian Maro needs to keep taking snaps, they will eventually start picking on him. Um the Ravens just couldn’t find a way to get there. But defensively, these are, I think, valid critiques, but they are critiques that do not wash away that the defense had a pretty good day and gave the offense enough of a chance to figure it out if the offense could pull it together, but the offense could not pull it together. So, where do we go from here? And and I think the answer is different if you’re a fan. If you’re or if you’re trying to kind of pretend you’re part of the team, where do they and you want to ask the question, where do they want to go from here? where, which is usually more the question, where do we go from here is where should the team go from here? And we’re all asking ourselves to kind of cosplay as Vikings GMs and coaches. Um, you know, if you are, if you’re a fan though, you need to join me in kind of reshaping your expectations for this team. This was clearly not a Super Bowl team out the gate, and they have not turned things around in nearly enough of a a way. And that definitely goes for J.J. McCarthy 2, who has now played two more games to go on top of the two that we argued about for like 6 weeks. Um, and those two games, while they were better, they weren’t better enough for us to suddenly think that this is going to be some kind of Jaden Daniels miracle run, right? That dream is out the window if he ever had it. Um, so to me, I still want to do what kind of my promise was to you going into this year, which is to evaluate JJ McCarthy as a learning experience and cover the progression of him as a quarterback, not evaluate him as a quarterback. And I’ve I done okay, I think, at that promise, but not perfect because I got wrapped up in narratives and people talking about Carson Wentz or Brosmer trading for Kyler Murray or whatever the heck was going on. Um, and I got a little wrapped up in trying to like parry that away, but really what I want to do here on this show is present it as, okay, what is going wrong and what needs to be learned and let’s see if it gets learned. And so going into next week, what needs to be learned? I think the priority is pretty obvious. It’s the pre- snap stuff. And I think the secondary priority is keep yourself calm. I want your mechanics to look the same all 60 minutes, right? Not a good first couple of drives and then get all skittish as things get a little more improvisational. You have to start adapting to, you know, whatever adjustments the defense makes and and the changing circumstances of the game. No. be the same guy on play one as you are on play 55. That’s what I really want to see JJ McCarthy do once this season at any point. And that I don’t know if we’re going to see that once this season at any point, but I would be very thrilled if he could put together a game like that and and kind of prove that that’s in the cards. That’s that’s a a goal I think is worth striving for and then fix the freaking false start crap. But that this pre- snap stuff happened without McCarthy in the lineup, too. So, I still think that there is something very wrong operationally with the way that Kevin Oonnell has organized his staff. And if that does mean that somebody is like uh such a disorganized mess that he’s screwing up the whole chain, okay, get rid of that guy. But I think it’s more you just don’t have the right people talking to the right people and everybody just needs to reync on how you get everybody on the same page, players and coaches alike. And I’m sure that they’ve talked about that well before you’re listening to this podcast. So, we’ll see if their adjustments work next Sunday against Chicago. For now, get me your questions. Town Hall Tuesday. You can submit them to the Google form in the show notes, and I’ll do my best to answer as many I can, as many as I can. And if you have a hot take, you can confess it to me anonymously, and I will read and react to it on the same show. I’ll see you all for that tomorrow. And as always, skull.

When Justin Jefferson is having a day to forget, you know you’re in for a long day. From JJ McCarthy’s struggles to the defense’s ups and downs, there’s a lot to forget – and the problems go all the way to the top.

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