October 17, 2025 • 38 mins
Ben Goessling joins Dan to break down KOC choosing Carson Wentz to start for the Vikings on Sunday and how JJ's injury is unique.
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Headed to the Vikings and Eagles game this Sunday. Go
find our street team on the plaza outside of the
US Bank Stadium and ask us how you can enter
for your shot at Papa Murphy's game day meal deals
for a year. Check out kaffean dot com Keybord Calendar.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
For all the details.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
It's a Friday Football Beast edition of the Bumper to
Bumper Program.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's also a.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Let's Praise the Geezers edition of the Bumper to Bumper Show.
As well, as we alluded earlier in the show, old quarterbacks,
old pictures, old columnists, legendary musicians. McCartney, of course, is
in town tonight, and we're down to our final hour
(01:01):
of trying the to realize the dream of getting Paul
McCartney on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Still doesn't look optimistic, Guardsy, Is that.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Correct the US Bank Stadium from where I'm standing at
Huntington Bank, And no, it does not unless he calls
the hotline in the next forty minutes.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Yeah, well does he do?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The thing?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Wasn't the legend that often Mick Jagger? Could you know
he could just show up in a hotel, lobby bar,
you know, like a half a mile from wherever the
Stones were staying or he was staying. You just never knew, right,
he just could be there just hanging for a little bit.
Do we know whether McCartney does that or is McCartney
(01:39):
such that he can't even afford to do what Mick
Jagger does?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
I don't know, because didn't Mick Jagger he does record
stores too. Didn't he run through like Electric Fetus one
time which people saw him there? Yeah, that's what I
would do if I were those guys, I would do
that too, and just wander around and you know, talk
to because you're not no question, it's not announced, so
there's not going to be any crazy crowd. You're just
going to a store. You're just training an errand it's
(02:03):
not in out and four in town.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
It'd be great.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
How many Husker fans will we have tonight at the
original Bank at Huntington.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
I think we'll have quite a few. Yeah, they usually
travel pretty well.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I would imagine having put a number on it, maybe
ten thousand, you know, it's probably something like that.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
A lot of Husker fans live here too.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Are we selling out? We're close to it?
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Yeah, I think they're pretty close. I think they're pretty
close even to beautiful Saturday, it probably would have been
sold out.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, if it was a Saturday, I think it would
be sold out for sure. Fridays are a little weird,
but I would imagine we're pretty close if we haven't
gotten there. But I'd say probably seven, eight thousand, ten
thousand somewhere in that.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
That'd be my guest. They usually travel pretty well.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
How when's the last time, especially given the fact that
I think pj's tended to win over the Huskers the
last time we've hosted Nebraska and have been as much
as seven and a half or eight points underdogs.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Good question. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
It would have had to Yeah, it probably would have
had to be early in Nebraska joining the Big Ten,
which was Jerry Kill era, So probably twenty eleven, twenty twelve.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
I don't remember who was favored.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
The last time they played was the season opener two
seasons ago here, and I don't remember who was favored
in that game. It ended up being I think thirteen
to ten on a walk off field goal in the
final play.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
But yeah, it hasn't happened often.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
It's been weird as the line started at five five
and a half for Nebraska went up to about nine,
and then in the last year or so it has
been bet down to about seven. So Nebraska, as I
was telling you earlier, they always get kind of a
Dallas Cowboys point bump almost no matter who they're playing.
I think a lot of people just bet Nebraska. But
the analytics showed that Nebraska should be, you know, a
(03:51):
decent favorite tonight.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
So we'll see if that actually pans out.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
All right, can we?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So their big shot running back is one of us, right,
Holy Angels, Minneapolis, Emmit Johnson. We've talked about it during
the week. You know the story too well, that this
team is not handling the run, actually handling the run,
I think even worse than the Vikings are at this point.
So I assume that's a priority. Tell me about what
(04:18):
we know about Emma Johnson, what kind of runner he is,
and how dangerous that part of it might be, because
I thought this is really more of a passing team anyway,
But it sounds like Emma Johnson. In fact, I think
last week didn't rush for like one hundred and seventy
seven yards, so they must Nebraska must be doing everything. Well,
what do we know about Emmett Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Offensively, we'll just say they are kind of passing team,
but it's not what you would think when they have
a high profile quarterback.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
They're very dink and dunk. They're very short passes.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Let the receivers make people miss the spreadulution powers.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
To a t.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, and their quarterback Royal is completing about seventy six
percent of his passes, but they're going for about seven
yards on average, and his wide receivers have one thousand
yards after the catch. He has sixteen hundred passing yards
so far this season. One thousand of those have come
after the catch for the receivers. So they're not they're not,
you know, they have explosive plays and explosive players, but
it's not because they're just lining up and taking deep shots.
(05:17):
They're much more like we say, the power of completions bit.
But Johnson very quick, very elusive. And that's why it's
scary really with all their skill position guys, because.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
The Gophers haven't tackled well.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Early in the week we mentioned we mentioned the Cashman
comment about the Vikings saying we're just too much leakage
where you have a guy wrapped up for a three
yard game and all of a sudden, it's six or seven.
That's been the Gophers for sure, and that's the biggest
issue they have, not they're they're approaching about sixty misstackles
in the Power four games, which if that happens again tonight,
that's where they do put up forty points on you.
(05:49):
And they've scored, you know, pretty much against everybody this year.
Their defense, I don't think has been quite as good.
But they're just a really efficient offense. They've got, you know,
an old head coach, Dana Holgerson who's their offensive coordinator now,
and Rayola is running the system really at a really
really high level and spreading it around. They have four
receivers with at least twenty catches, which the Gophers by reference,
(06:09):
have won. So they've got a lot of different ways
to beat you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
All right.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
So in terms of it's been well documented, the Minnesota
running game is not what it we're accustomed to under PJ.
So what do you see? I mean, you got your
number one running back back. Is he the same? How
much of it is is that he's not quite there
for whatever reason. How much of it is he's getting
hit almost as soon as he gets the ball.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Yeah, I'd say seventy five percent. That in twenty five percent.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Darius I put a lot of this on the offensive line,
and he's had, you know, he had, you know, one
opportunity last week to kind of break one. I think
he kind of slipped. That might be because he's rusty.
I don't know, but they're just not getting enough push.
They're just not getting enough. They're not being physical enough.
They're getting beaten up front. Their short yardage game all
season has not been very good. Third and one, fourth
(06:59):
and one, third and two and two. They're basically in
the thirty percentile for converting, which at a time was
the worst in the Big Ten. I know it was
last week. I can't imagine anybody's gone lower than them.
They just haven't been able to figure out the offensive
line stuff. And then you know, two of the Big
Ten games, they got down double digits so early that
they kind of had to abandon the run. They couldn't
waste any time trying to figure out if they were
(07:20):
going to be able to establish it.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I think they thought they.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Would run the ball better last week, A lot of
people had against Purdue. But once they got down, they
got down ten and they wanted to. They had to
go with what they know they can do, which is
put the ball in Drake Lindsay's hands and try to
get things going. That way ended up working just in
the nick of time for them to salvage the win yesterday.
But a lot of it, a lot of things have
been working against the running game, obviously Taylor being hurt
(07:45):
for one, the way the games have unfolded too. But
part of the reasons that they've been down so early
is because they haven't been able to establish the run
at the beginning and move the ball. But I put
a lot of it up front, and they've mixed guys around.
They haven't really mixed new guys in, they've moved guys
around that are already on the offensive line in different positions.
I think they might try that again tonight. We'll see,
But they have to find a way to run the
(08:07):
ball enough, and Nebraska might be the team to do
it against their allowing.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Five yards of perry or more so far, Traa.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So you'd like to think you got to get it enough,
because as much as you know I like Drake, it's
just a big ask to throw everything on him every
single game.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
You got to give him a little bit of release somehow.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I think that might have caught up with him last
week at times too. Chris writes, if the Gophers repeat
the eighty four to thirteen beat down in Nebraska tonight,
would grim still blame the loss on the officiating.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
If Nebraska repeats it? Yes, Well, it depends when do
the calls happen, If they happen early, I'm important.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yeah, Yeah, there's a lot that we're leaving out there
that hypothetical. Well, see, I did did you hear that
I had to call him Sherol Reeve in the I.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Think it was the Ohio State game. No, I had
to call him Herol Reeve at one point.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, it was a little of the night. There were
a couple of bad calls in the first half, like it,
and he never got throwing nuts on the air. And
so I did a sideline report and then threw it
back to Cheryl Reeve because why not?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
How did he take that?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I think it was. I think he understood where I
was coming from.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, he wasn't. He didn't put that's good.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
No, definitely not.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
The famous long long time ago when I was working
in Dallas. It was the eighty five Bears year and
the Bears come to Dallas. Bayless Skip Bayless was writing
a column. He was a colleague of mine at the
Start Tribute or Start Commune. It's the Dallas Morning News.
And I don't know if he wrote a prediction column
that the that the that the Cowboys were going to
(09:39):
upset him, or he just said it.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Maybe it was both, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And early in that game the Cowboys missed on it.
What it would have been like about a seventy yard
touchdown pass right ball was just slightly overthrown, and Bayless
was trying to tell people that could have changed everything.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That was my way in the game.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I think the Bears won it like fifty five to nothing,
and I can still remember Gary Myers, who was another teammate,
walking up to Bayless in the press box, and you
think it might.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Have been fifty five to seven. Skip. If if Tony.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Hillick caught that touchdown pass, Bayless did not appreciate that
at all, so same kind of same deal.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
We'll never know. They didn't hit it.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
He might have changed the whole thing. But the Bears.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Bears are not a good comfort behind team. Then who's
to say, all right, we'll enjoy tonight. You got good weather,
weather seemed. I think it's great. I don't think I
see some clouds to the west, but I don't think
there's any rain in the forecast, so.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
It shouldn't be Yeah, it looks awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
This should be good.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
All right, thanks for checking in. We'll talk next week.
Thanks Gurchy guards. He will be a part, of course,
the Vikings pregame, which we'll start at five o'clock. That's
why we are out early today. We've got Ben Gesling
for the latest Vikings developments. In fact, we'll get to
some of those developments as confirmed earlier today by the
head coach before we chat with Ben.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And then as I mentioned, we wrap up at five.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Off the bye week, the Vikings will look to the
ground to the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday at noon. Catch
every touchdown, every sack, and every game changing play right
here on the audio home of the Minnesota Vikings Football
kfe Ann and go on the goal, go with the
free iHeartRadio app. And on the goal with the free
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
All right, we are indeed back until well, Ben, guess
I'm going to join us in about ten minutes. Today,
I want to take a look at a few texts
that have come in as we prepare for him. Speaking
of Geezers six or five, one guy writes, I'm not
sure you can call him a geezer yet, but the
current favorite in Vegas to win the Oscar for Best
Supporting Actor is sixty five year old Sean Penn for
(11:54):
his role in One Battle after Another. I've seen the
film and can attest that his performance is outstanding. Yeah,
I don't know what the dividing line is when it
comes to geezerdom, although as young as this whole culture
seemed to be getting, that probably would be considered ancient,
even though it's really not as ancient as it once was.
(12:17):
Who is Carl picking for the Vikings game? I'm pretty
sure he picked on an no brainer, the Eagles to win.
I think I understood him accurately there three to two.
Oh guy, why do you allow this clown on a
Minnesota radio station. We do get some of those, not
as many lately, but occasionally get people whose sensibilities are
(12:38):
offended by our willingness to continue to share radio time.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
With one.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Karl Gerbschmidt, I mentioned last night at the start of
the show, the quarterback duel as it turned out, between
Joe cool Flacco of course, and Aaron Rodgers. I did
see the video after. I think it was rogers last
touchdown pass. He probably got knocked down by one of
(13:06):
his linemen, and celebration did not take that all that well.
I was also told that he got mad at a
I think his running one of his running backs, accusing
basically the player of this was the flea flicker attempt.
And I thought what I read was that Rogers was
angry because he was acting as if that wasn't the
(13:28):
call and the running back had blown it. But I've
read elsewhere that indeed that was the call, and Rogers
either missed it or did not want to acknowledge it.
So there's always you know, I had said to Guardsy
yesterday that I thought this was a much more less tense,
more loosey goosey a Rodge than we're accustomed to helping
(13:50):
people helping jackals attach their microphones to the other microphones,
that doesn't fall off the stage, all.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
That kind of good stuff.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
But you saw, despite his success yesterday, a lot of
crankiness in his part too, so I don't know that
you'll ever take all of the get off my lawn
off or out of Aaron Rodgers. But he looked pretty
damn good to me last night. The game before, what
I'd seen was a lot of safety stuff, a lot
(14:18):
of short passes. Again, there's power and completions, we know that,
but what I saw in that game yesterday was I
think he completed I'm pretty sure you completed a third
and twelve or third and sixteen for a touchdown. And
we haven't seen that Aaron Rodgers in a while.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I grant Steelers looked awful again defensively, that has to
be factored in. But I thought it was a great
quarterback matchup. And I sorry I was doing more of
the projecting about what that form of a Rodge might
have been here.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I got the quick.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Retort, well, if we had, if you would have been
working with art offensive line, they would have killed him
the first two weeks, which sounds good and there might
be some truth to it. But he's the master getting
the bottle of his hands quickly. And I think a
lot of Vikings fans are. They're in defense mode and
they are doing whatever they can to diminish contributions and
(15:20):
accomplishments from any other quarterback that the Vikings might have
had while they wait for their guy, JJ McCarthy to
indeed return. And so now official. If you've not heard,
no surprise, We had already pretty much told you this
on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that Carson Wentz would
start in this game. The head coach made it official
(15:42):
just after two o'clock. And to me, the more tantalizing
nugget is that McCarthy will not be the backup quarterback either.
Guarzi's guy, Max Brosmer will be the backup and McCarthy
will be the emergency quarterback. And I we're going to
(16:03):
talk to Ben about whether we're getting we're starting to
get close to the point where there's some concern about
just the recovery ability of this guy. I mean, that's
another form of ability. There's availability, there's ability, there's availability,
there's durability, and there's recoverability. How quickly can you bounce
(16:24):
back from whatever you have? And some players have the
knack to do that and perform well with injuries. And look,
that's not at the top of the list with JJ
McCarthy but it's an important facet of how we evaluate players,
and certainly how we evaluate quarterbacks, is how quickly can
you bounce back. I still do worry about He just
(16:48):
looks slight to me. He just does not look very strong,
and I do worry that that might catch up with
him as well. Bottom line is, it's when's his team
this week? It gets likely it'll be Carson Wentz's team Thursday,
and then at that point that's where it really gets interesting,
because if you don't play McCarthy when the Vikings return
(17:09):
to action in Detroit the following a week from the
following Sunday, then you'll know something is up. If you
follow a story like we like to do on this show,
these quarterbacks sagas often simply, I guess you could say,
reveal themselves. They take care of themselves. If Wentz struggles,
(17:33):
it'll be easier to say it's time to go back
to McCarthy and give him a chance to really take
the reins of this team. If Wentz plays well and
they beat the Eagles, he's playing against the Chargers. If
he plays well and the Vikings beat the Chargers, I
think he deserves to play again, and I'll keep putting
it off until he gives me a reason to go
(17:53):
back to the other position. I've been around too many
teams and too many coaches for me to think that
the Viking are going to move away from that just
because the original plan was we got to get him
playing time and experience this year. The Vikings, once they
made the decision to build on what took place a
year ago add more talent, they opened the door as
(18:17):
far as I'm concerned, to the possibility that if the
guy they want to hand the ball off to is injured,
they're going to have to keep playing the games with
whoever can help them win. And if that player helps
them win or is not considered part of the problem,
you're going to keep playing him. This coaching staff, we
heard it from Alec Lewis yesterday. This coaching staff, this
(18:37):
general manager has two They they all have too much
to lose at this point to just cavalierly throw away
a season and say, well, if we have to lose
games to get McCarthy up to speed, we will do
so willingly. I just don't think that works. Remember, this
staff does not have a single playoff victory. That's going
(18:58):
to start being noticed pretty soon, even with gaudy regular
season records. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see
what happens on Sunday, and we'll come back and get
the injury update not just at the quarterback position, but
at several other spots with our guy Ben Gestling.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
He is next.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
It's Purple Friday here on the Fan, and we've got
your tickets into Sunday Nights Showdown with Philly. Be caller
number eleven right now to win a pair of tickets
to see the Vikings take on the Eagles this Sunday
call now.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Br indeed, wrapping up the program early today because Vikings,
I should say, go for a pregame show will start
at five o'clock this very evening. We'll have a one
hour edition to Sunday Sermons on Sunday leading into Vikings Eagles.
That's where our next guest will be Ben Gestling, joining
(19:56):
us via the Connecticot Water Systems hotline. Ben brought to
you by Stand Heating and Air Conditioning. I'm looking at
a piece. It looks like this is from New York
Post about an appearance by the by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.
He was on in Boston ninety eight point five the
(20:21):
Sports Hub, and the subject was Drake May, who, after
some struggles last year, seems to be emerging right in
his second season. Here's what they claim Breer said regarding
what the Minnesota Vikings offered to move up to get
Drake May. He says the Vikings offered the Patriots the
(20:44):
eleventh pick, the twenty third pick, a twenty twenty five
first round pick, as well as some pickswaps.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Later on to move up.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Now, I think you know very well just how interested
and fascinated by Drake May, Koc and the Vikings were.
Do those specifics align with what you remember? Does that
sound about right?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Or what do you.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Remember about that period? I guess I gotta pot him
up there? Did you now we got him?
Speaker 5 (21:15):
You hear us?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Now no, we don't have uh, we don't unfortunately have.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Mister guestling. So we'll see.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Uh. Kara's working the phones right now to get a
tink a ticket giveaway going, and we'll try.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Let me try Ben again, Ben, can you hear us? Okay?
Speaker 6 (21:34):
Now? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, unfortunately we couldn't. Yeah, we we weren't getting you
on our end.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
Okay, Well, I'll go into my uh. I I had
started a very profound and ribbing answer on Drake May. Yes,
I uh, take one is unfortunately lost to history, but
attempt to recreate it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
The best you can get that summon up that same
emotion if at all possible.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
As hard as that is, Yeah, you know it's always hard.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
For the second time, that's true. I can do now. Yeah,
I do think that is about right in terms of
what they were looking to send to the Patriots in
those negotiations. I think when they made them move up
to get back into the first round in twenty twenty
four to get that second first round pick, I always
thought that was with the idea that they could trade
(22:24):
that pick if they wanted to move up get Drake May.
I think the thing they wanted to avoid the whole
time was having to give up three years worth of
first round picks. I don't think they wanted to be
without a number one choice for three years if they
made a deal. So I think part of their thinking was,
let's try to send two of those and then send
this year's. It would have been twenty twenty five when
(22:47):
I said this year, that's what I mean. It would
have been the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five
first round picks, but they would not have had to
part with another one a further year into that quarterbacks contract.
So yeah, I think that is about right. And obviously
the Patriots decided we don't want to do it. We
want either more than that, or we're going to sit
and pick the guy that we are going to take
(23:09):
it number three. And I think the way Drake May
has played this year shows you why they had to
kind of fat in him. I mean he has I
think the benefit of he's had the benefit of time.
He has done a little bit last year, but the
way he's played he certainly looks like the answer at
that position. I mean that is revitalized that franchise in
a pretty significant way. And you see a lot of
(23:31):
why the Viking has liked him as much as they did.
Ultimately probably in the end why the Patriots said, you
know what, we're going to stick and pick, and it
certainly looks like that has paid off to them at
this point.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
It speaks to a subject you and I have explored
and I've explored elsewhere on this show pretty much all summer,
to the unfairness that JJ McCarthy is going to have
to live with is already living with, and it's definitely
going to have to live with now whenever he comes back,
right because he's not.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
He's not. I don't care what the fans say.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
He's not going to be given because of the infrastructure
of the team itself, the opportunity to struggle quite as long,
quite as often as you say Drake May did a
year ago. The Patriots were in a position a year
ago where they knew they weren't really going anywhere, even
though I'm sure the head coach wanted to win because
he was on his way going to be on his
(24:26):
way out the door and he was fired. But the
fact is they knew, right all right, we're not going anywhere,
So let's throw him out there. He's our best option
right now and see if we can get him to
the other side so that by the time you get
back this year he's starting to feeld a little bit.
McCarthy is not going to have that luxury, whether he
deserves it or not.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
No, he's not.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
And that has always been the tricky balancing act of
this where you have a team that is set up
to win now and I think this is kind of
part and parcel to the way the Vikings have done
things for long time. Not an organization that wants to
drop into these deep valleys and say let's amass all
of these high picks from years of being bad and
(25:10):
then you kind of go at it and say, now
we've got our foundation, we can build the thing back up.
It has been trying to win while keeping the roster refreshed,
and that is a difficult thing to do. There's a
reason you don't see a lot of teams do it,
but it has been very much I think the way
the Vikings have got about it for most of the
Will's ownership of the team over the last twenty one years,
(25:31):
and certainly in the fourteen years I've been covering the team,
that's been the way they've typically gone about it. So
it does in this type of situation put people in
a tough spot, with a young quarterback on tough spot,
I should say, because you're not necessarily talking about this
long development period where there are no stakes to it.
You can still develop them, but it does come at
(25:54):
that time where you're also trying to win. And I
think what they have hoped to do is put enough
piece around him that if he's at least playing kind
of sufficient starting caliber quarterback level, you don't have to
necessarily the best in the league. But if you can
get representative play from him, they're going to be good
enough everywhere else to make it count. And I think
(26:16):
that's still very much the hope when he gets back.
But yeah, there is no doubt it is a unique situation.
It is not when you see a lot of teams
go through and some of that was I suppose they
had so much success with Sam Darnold last year while
they're waiting on JJ McCarthy to recover from that injury,
that it changes the expectations. But that is where they are,
and I think it makes it a unique line for
(26:39):
them and him to have to walk.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
You know, I think it sort of became academic this week,
did it not? As the week went on, Yeah, and
McCarthy was limited in practice, and you have the head
coach on record saying he's got to have a full
week of practice. Whatever debate we want to have or
think we should have regarding who should be starting at
the position, how quickly it became immateial, right, It all
(27:02):
became academic. That mclearly McCarthy is not ready to play,
and that there is no other choice other than I guess,
you know, opening the door to Brozmer playing if indeed
Wentz is favoring that shoulder or he gets re injured
in that area.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
If you're not ready to play, you're not going to play, correct.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Yeah, Yeah, I think that's it. And I think when
he came out on trying to lost track of my
days on Wednesday, when he talked and said, it's not
one hundred percent, it's getting there, but it's not there.
I mean, Kevin O'Connell has been pretty clear that he's
not going to play unless he's fully recovered from that thing.
And the whole idea of the emergency quarterback thing this week.
(27:46):
I know, if he were to get in there, you know,
that could be the one loophole to that, But in general,
they're not going to put him in that situation. I
think it's it's unlikely enough that they end up in
the spot where they need the emergency thing. I'm not
sure it's worth spending a ton of time be laboring,
Oh is he healthy enough for that or is he
not helping enough for the other stuff. I think the
(28:06):
fact that he's not one hundred percent yet is the
main reason he's not starting. You're not going to see
him go back out there when that is still the case.
And I think when he said that on Wednesday, it
made it pretty clear this is how it's going to
go this week.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So we got into the subject yesterday about timetables and
you know, high ankle sprains are problematic. We get all
of that, but when you know, you mentioned the statement
that was the alarm bell to me was the player himself.
And you know, I'm not asking the player to lie,
But when the player itself says I'm not one hundred
(28:41):
percent and it's annoying, and the head coach is calling
the injury unique, then I'm start you know, then I
start wondering, well, is there more going on here? And
internally might there be any sort of frustration that it
is taking this long? Because we're now I think today
is day thirty three. I had my math all wrong.
Last week had him out six weeks, So that's not
(29:01):
possible because he played obviously the second week.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
But yeah, we're coming up on to me close to
where you're going. Well, now this is lingering the more
than we thought.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
What do you think the internal feeling is on that
and does that have anything to do with what seemed
like a more tense version of koc as the week
went on.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Well, I think the tension was he has been I
think bothered by this idea that, well, it's not a
real injury. So when he said the unique thing too,
I think that was yes, part of that. He used
the word unique, the word he really wanted to have there,
kind of as a clapback, probably to people with the
(29:43):
fact that he said it's a real injury. I see that, Okay,
got much by his intention of trying to say, no,
this is a real thing. And I think you know,
the conversations I've had there have if it's not real.
They have spent enough on MRI's that I would not
(30:03):
imagine you're sending a bill to a doctor for that,
if you're trying to do it for a fake injury.
I mean that they have done. I mean you're not
You're not doing that. It's a real injury. They have
treated it as such, and I think the fact that
they've done the number of exams they've done with it
is further evidence of that. And they frankly have to
be lying on the injury report if if it was
(30:25):
so some of that, I think he has been bothered
by that. Uh you know, that conspiracy theory that's crept
up a lot, and this idea that he is lying about,
the idea that being a real injury has, you know,
given him a little more edge probably. I think some
of those comments that he made this week are with
(30:46):
regard to that. So as far as internal expectations of
any of this stuff taking too long, I don't really
get that sense. I think it's something that they want
to get resolved. I know he's annoyed with it, and
he talked about, you know, if I could cut my ankle,
if I'd go out there and play, and certainly that's
not going to happen. But the general idea of do
(31:10):
you put him out there now versus thinking about the
fact that he's twenty two and you want her to
be the quarterback long term? There is that tension because
I know, I know he wants to go, and I
know they want him to be available. But you're not
talking about a guy that's thirty four years old or
you know, thirty eight years old or something like that.
You are trying to get him a to a point
(31:30):
where he's healthy that there's not going to be some
kind of bigger issue, and be to the point where
he is feeling strong and trusting that ankle and knowing
he can do what he wants to do and drive
off of it and be able to make plays on
the run. I mean, all of those parts of his
game depend on that back foot being strong. So I
think a lot of what they're dealing with is just
(31:51):
the fact that it's a long timetable. I mean, ankles
are tricky in part because they just they don't get
a lot of blood flow. I mean anything in our feet. Abay,
he's ever had a foot or ankle injury knows that
it take a long time to heal, just because you
don't get as much circulation as that part of your body,
and it makes it a longer recovery process. So you
kind of end up in these spots where it takes
(32:13):
a while, and especially at playing that position in that
particular foot. I think as another layer to the whole
thing why it requires some patience, even if it's frustrating
to have it.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Is there.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Do we get any sense about Wentz's shoulder in that,
I mean, is it sort of like he's one shoulder tweak,
We're one shoulder tweak away from Max Brosmer being the quarterback.
Or is he seemingly come back pretty strong from this thing,
because it feels like all the emphasis or much of
(32:46):
it has been on on on JJ. But what do
we know about the extent of the injury, the shoulder injury,
how he can be it can be protected, or whether
that's a real concern regardless of McCarthy's condition going into Sunday.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean we've talked to
macarthy all week. But yes, Carson Wentz came out of
that game. I think that shoulder was pretty banged up
coming out of it. He played with the harness in
the second half of it. But the fact that he
was a full participant every day this week, I think
it's a good sign. I mean, they did not have
any day where they had to limit him because of it,
(33:22):
So I think they've been able to manage it to
the point where he should be able to do everything
you want to do. And he said, you know, some
of it's a matter I need to slide and need
to take a little better care of my body as
I go through it, But no, I don't think he'll
be limited by anything with where it stands. I mean,
you're always because it's your left shoulder. It's the front
side when you're throwing, and it is possible to get
(33:44):
hit there, and you have to figure out what you do.
You know, can you put it in a harness again?
Can you figure out of the ways to manage the pain?
I mean, people could figure out what I mean by that.
It is something that they'll have to worry about if
it gets if it takes another big shot, you know,
if he has to figure out a way to get
(34:04):
through the game. But overall, I think the way he's
gone through the week, he should be in a pretty
good spot to start. It didn't seem like it was
something that limited any of the work he did this week.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, that seems fair. All right.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
So among the rest of the injuries, well, give me
a sense of who you think will start along the
offensive line.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think Donovan Jackson will be back. The
fact that he did not have an injury status today,
I think it's excuse me, it's significant because I think
he had played relatively well at that left guard spot
to this point. I would expect he is back on Sunday,
and then Blake Brandell starts at the center once again.
(34:46):
Michael Jorgen still questionable coming back from the hamstring, and
I think Brandell played well enough that they will say
let's stick with it, and they announced he will start,
and I think part of that is because he played
well with Carson Wentz and it gives you a little
more size against that Eagles defensive line. When you're talking
about Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis in the middle of it.
(35:08):
It is a lot to deal with when you have
those two tackles, and Brandell gives them a little more
size against those guys. And then obviously Will Fries is healthy,
and then Brian O'Neill will be the kind of the question.
He's questionable for the game. He said today that if
he plays, he'd had to play with a brace. He's
had a fairly big brace on that knee this week.
So I would be a little surprised if they say
(35:31):
let's go out and do it this week, especially knowing
that you have a short week, the turnarounds a little tougher.
I wouldn't be surprised if they say they're going to
wait on that one, but at least as healthy as
they are right now. I mean Ryan Kelly is on
the injured reserve list with concussions. But otherwise, if you
look at kind of their best case scenario, they should
(35:53):
have a lot of it. I think it's going to
be healthier than it's been. O'Neill would be, at least
as I see it at this point. Kind of the
big question going into Sunday. It may be justin school
there again at right tackle, but from Jackson to Brandell
to Fries and then of course Christian Dearris on the
left side, they should be healthier than they've been to
this point.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
All Right, we all got about I think about a
minute left. I have officially picked nebrask could have beat
the Gophers tonight, and the Vikings to beat the Eagles
on Sunday at high noon. Will I regret the ladder
of those two picks?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
You know, I went back and forth on this. I
initially was going to pick the Eagles, but I think
the Vikings recovery from some of these injuries has been
better than what the Eagles have had this week. I
mean Landon Dickerson, their guard, was a full participant today,
but he's still questionable. Jalen Carter's had the heel injury
this week. He said he's good to go, but I
think the Eagles have had some caution with that. So
(36:46):
neither of these teams have been very good at stopping
to run, and I think the Vikings probably will do
it a little bit better, especially with Blake Cashman back.
I think that's a big deal for them as well.
So I actually did pick the Vikings in this one.
And Yeah, much as I I hate to say it,
I think you're going to be right on the Gophers
today too. I was at the homecoming game. I think
they're going to have trouble defensively being able to keep
(37:08):
things where they want them, and it won't be you know,
nineteen whatever year that was, nineteen.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Eighty three or eighty four to thirteen.
Speaker 6 (37:15):
I think Nebraska wins that tonight.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Nebraska is weird, you know. They they can every time
you think they're breaking through, then they turn around and
lose a game they're not supposed to.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, but I still think that's the way it might go.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
And are you in the group that believes that whence,
unless it's a disaster On Sunday he's likely to start Thursday,
just again because it's such a quick turnaround.
Speaker 6 (37:38):
Yeah, I am. I think unless he gets hurt, or
unless there's something that's a major disaster, like you said,
I think he starts. I mean, I'm sure McCarthy would
love to play in that game. Apologies to Amazon that
you don't think the McCarthy versus Harball yese necessarily, But yeah,
I think it's wentz Thursday night, barring anything terribly weird
on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Thanks as always for the help. We appreciate you. We'll
talk next week. Thank you, Ben all right, Ben Guestling's
standard heating and air conditioning brings us Ben to it,
brings Ben to you each and every week. You're hearing
the music early the Spinners because we're done for the
Gopher pregame show. Guardsey and Company are coming up next
(38:17):
Gopher's Nebraska. I'll be back with a one hour edition
of Sunday Sermons at nine o'clock after Gopher football Sunday
as well. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening, enjoy the
evening and we will talk then.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
What you say you
Headed to the Vikings and Eagles game this Sunday. Go
find our street team on the plaza outside of the
US Bank Stadium and ask us how you can enter
for your shot at Papa Murphy's game day meal deals
for a year. Check out kaffean dot com Keybord Calendar.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
For all the details.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
It's a Friday Football Beast edition of the Bumper to
Bumper Program.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It's also a.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Let's Praise the Geezers edition of the Bumper to Bumper Show.
As well, as we alluded earlier in the show, old quarterbacks,
old pictures, old columnists, legendary musicians. McCartney, of course, is
in town tonight, and we're down to our final hour
(01:01):
of trying the to realize the dream of getting Paul
McCartney on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Still doesn't look optimistic, Guardsy, Is that.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Correct the US Bank Stadium from where I'm standing at
Huntington Bank, And no, it does not unless he calls
the hotline in the next forty minutes.
Speaker 5 (01:17):
Yeah, well does he do?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The thing?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Wasn't the legend that often Mick Jagger? Could you know
he could just show up in a hotel, lobby bar,
you know, like a half a mile from wherever the
Stones were staying or he was staying. You just never knew, right,
he just could be there just hanging for a little bit.
Do we know whether McCartney does that or is McCartney
(01:39):
such that he can't even afford to do what Mick
Jagger does?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
I don't know, because didn't Mick Jagger he does record
stores too. Didn't he run through like Electric Fetus one
time which people saw him there? Yeah, that's what I
would do if I were those guys, I would do
that too, and just wander around and you know, talk
to because you're not no question, it's not announced, so
there's not going to be any crazy crowd. You're just
going to a store. You're just training an errand it's
(02:03):
not in out and four in town.
Speaker 5 (02:05):
It'd be great.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
How many Husker fans will we have tonight at the
original Bank at Huntington.
Speaker 5 (02:13):
I think we'll have quite a few. Yeah, they usually
travel pretty well.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I would imagine having put a number on it, maybe
ten thousand, you know, it's probably something like that.
Speaker 5 (02:21):
A lot of Husker fans live here too.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Are we selling out? We're close to it?
Speaker 5 (02:26):
Yeah, I think they're pretty close. I think they're pretty
close even to beautiful Saturday, it probably would have been
sold out.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, if it was a Saturday, I think it would
be sold out for sure. Fridays are a little weird,
but I would imagine we're pretty close if we haven't
gotten there. But I'd say probably seven, eight thousand, ten
thousand somewhere in that.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
That'd be my guest. They usually travel pretty well.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
How when's the last time, especially given the fact that
I think pj's tended to win over the Huskers the
last time we've hosted Nebraska and have been as much
as seven and a half or eight points underdogs.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Good question. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
It would have had to Yeah, it probably would have
had to be early in Nebraska joining the Big Ten,
which was Jerry Kill era, So probably twenty eleven, twenty twelve.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
I don't remember who was favored.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
The last time they played was the season opener two
seasons ago here, and I don't remember who was favored
in that game. It ended up being I think thirteen
to ten on a walk off field goal in the
final play.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
But yeah, it hasn't happened often.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
It's been weird as the line started at five five
and a half for Nebraska went up to about nine,
and then in the last year or so it has
been bet down to about seven. So Nebraska, as I
was telling you earlier, they always get kind of a
Dallas Cowboys point bump almost no matter who they're playing.
I think a lot of people just bet Nebraska. But
the analytics showed that Nebraska should be, you know, a
(03:51):
decent favorite tonight.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
So we'll see if that actually pans out.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
All right, can we?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So their big shot running back is one of us, right,
Holy Angels, Minneapolis, Emmit Johnson. We've talked about it during
the week. You know the story too well, that this
team is not handling the run, actually handling the run,
I think even worse than the Vikings are at this point.
So I assume that's a priority. Tell me about what
(04:18):
we know about Emma Johnson, what kind of runner he is,
and how dangerous that part of it might be, because
I thought this is really more of a passing team anyway,
But it sounds like Emma Johnson. In fact, I think
last week didn't rush for like one hundred and seventy
seven yards, so they must Nebraska must be doing everything. Well,
what do we know about Emmett Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Offensively, we'll just say they are kind of passing team,
but it's not what you would think when they have
a high profile quarterback.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
They're very dink and dunk. They're very short passes.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Let the receivers make people miss the spreadulution powers.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
To a t.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Yeah, and their quarterback Royal is completing about seventy six
percent of his passes, but they're going for about seven
yards on average, and his wide receivers have one thousand
yards after the catch. He has sixteen hundred passing yards
so far this season. One thousand of those have come
after the catch for the receivers. So they're not they're not,
you know, they have explosive plays and explosive players, but
it's not because they're just lining up and taking deep shots.
(05:17):
They're much more like we say, the power of completions bit.
But Johnson very quick, very elusive. And that's why it's
scary really with all their skill position guys, because.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
The Gophers haven't tackled well.
Speaker 6 (05:27):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Early in the week we mentioned we mentioned the Cashman
comment about the Vikings saying we're just too much leakage
where you have a guy wrapped up for a three
yard game and all of a sudden, it's six or seven.
That's been the Gophers for sure, and that's the biggest
issue they have, not they're they're approaching about sixty misstackles
in the Power four games, which if that happens again tonight,
that's where they do put up forty points on you.
(05:49):
And they've scored, you know, pretty much against everybody this year.
Their defense, I don't think has been quite as good.
But they're just a really efficient offense. They've got, you know,
an old head coach, Dana Holgerson who's their offensive coordinator now,
and Rayola is running the system really at a really
really high level and spreading it around. They have four
receivers with at least twenty catches, which the Gophers by reference,
(06:09):
have won. So they've got a lot of different ways
to beat you.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
All right.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
So in terms of it's been well documented, the Minnesota
running game is not what it we're accustomed to under PJ.
So what do you see? I mean, you got your
number one running back back. Is he the same? How
much of it is is that he's not quite there
for whatever reason. How much of it is he's getting
hit almost as soon as he gets the ball.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
Yeah, I'd say seventy five percent. That in twenty five percent.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Darius I put a lot of this on the offensive line,
and he's had, you know, he had, you know, one
opportunity last week to kind of break one. I think
he kind of slipped. That might be because he's rusty.
I don't know, but they're just not getting enough push.
They're just not getting enough. They're not being physical enough.
They're getting beaten up front. Their short yardage game all
season has not been very good. Third and one, fourth
(06:59):
and one, third and two and two. They're basically in
the thirty percentile for converting, which at a time was
the worst in the Big Ten. I know it was
last week. I can't imagine anybody's gone lower than them.
They just haven't been able to figure out the offensive
line stuff. And then you know, two of the Big
Ten games, they got down double digits so early that
they kind of had to abandon the run. They couldn't
waste any time trying to figure out if they were
(07:20):
going to be able to establish it.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I think they thought they.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Would run the ball better last week, A lot of
people had against Purdue. But once they got down, they
got down ten and they wanted to. They had to
go with what they know they can do, which is
put the ball in Drake Lindsay's hands and try to
get things going. That way ended up working just in
the nick of time for them to salvage the win yesterday.
But a lot of it, a lot of things have
been working against the running game, obviously Taylor being hurt
(07:45):
for one, the way the games have unfolded too. But
part of the reasons that they've been down so early
is because they haven't been able to establish the run
at the beginning and move the ball. But I put
a lot of it up front, and they've mixed guys around.
They haven't really mixed new guys in, they've moved guys
around that are already on the offensive line in different positions.
I think they might try that again tonight. We'll see,
But they have to find a way to run the
(08:07):
ball enough, and Nebraska might be the team to do
it against their allowing.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Five yards of perry or more so far, Traa.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So you'd like to think you got to get it enough,
because as much as you know I like Drake, it's
just a big ask to throw everything on him every
single game.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
You got to give him a little bit of release somehow.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
I think that might have caught up with him last
week at times too. Chris writes, if the Gophers repeat
the eighty four to thirteen beat down in Nebraska tonight,
would grim still blame the loss on the officiating.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
If Nebraska repeats it? Yes, Well, it depends when do
the calls happen, If they happen early, I'm important.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Yeah, Yeah, there's a lot that we're leaving out there
that hypothetical. Well, see, I did did you hear that
I had to call him Sherol Reeve in the I.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
Think it was the Ohio State game. No, I had
to call him Herol Reeve at one point.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, it was a little of the night. There were
a couple of bad calls in the first half, like it,
and he never got throwing nuts on the air. And
so I did a sideline report and then threw it
back to Cheryl Reeve because why not?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
How did he take that?
Speaker 5 (09:10):
I think it was. I think he understood where I
was coming from.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Okay, he wasn't. He didn't put that's good.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
No, definitely not.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
The famous long long time ago when I was working
in Dallas. It was the eighty five Bears year and
the Bears come to Dallas. Bayless Skip Bayless was writing
a column. He was a colleague of mine at the
Start Tribute or Start Commune. It's the Dallas Morning News.
And I don't know if he wrote a prediction column
that the that the that the Cowboys were going to
(09:39):
upset him, or he just said it.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Maybe it was both, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
And early in that game the Cowboys missed on it.
What it would have been like about a seventy yard
touchdown pass right ball was just slightly overthrown, and Bayless
was trying to tell people that could have changed everything.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
That was my way in the game.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I think the Bears won it like fifty five to nothing,
and I can still remember Gary Myers, who was another teammate,
walking up to Bayless in the press box, and you
think it might.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Have been fifty five to seven. Skip. If if Tony.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Hillick caught that touchdown pass, Bayless did not appreciate that
at all, so same kind of same deal.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
We'll never know. They didn't hit it.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
He might have changed the whole thing. But the Bears.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Bears are not a good comfort behind team. Then who's
to say, all right, we'll enjoy tonight. You got good weather,
weather seemed. I think it's great. I don't think I
see some clouds to the west, but I don't think
there's any rain in the forecast, so.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
It shouldn't be Yeah, it looks awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
This should be good.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
All right, thanks for checking in. We'll talk next week.
Thanks Gurchy guards. He will be a part, of course,
the Vikings pregame, which we'll start at five o'clock. That's
why we are out early today. We've got Ben Gesling
for the latest Vikings developments. In fact, we'll get to
some of those developments as confirmed earlier today by the
head coach before we chat with Ben.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And then as I mentioned, we wrap up at five.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Off the bye week, the Vikings will look to the
ground to the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday at noon. Catch
every touchdown, every sack, and every game changing play right
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Speaker 3 (11:32):
All right, we are indeed back until well, Ben, guess
I'm going to join us in about ten minutes. Today,
I want to take a look at a few texts
that have come in as we prepare for him. Speaking
of Geezers six or five, one guy writes, I'm not
sure you can call him a geezer yet, but the
current favorite in Vegas to win the Oscar for Best
Supporting Actor is sixty five year old Sean Penn for
(11:54):
his role in One Battle after Another. I've seen the
film and can attest that his performance is outstanding. Yeah,
I don't know what the dividing line is when it
comes to geezerdom, although as young as this whole culture
seemed to be getting, that probably would be considered ancient,
even though it's really not as ancient as it once was.
(12:17):
Who is Carl picking for the Vikings game? I'm pretty
sure he picked on an no brainer, the Eagles to win.
I think I understood him accurately there three to two.
Oh guy, why do you allow this clown on a
Minnesota radio station. We do get some of those, not
as many lately, but occasionally get people whose sensibilities are
(12:38):
offended by our willingness to continue to share radio time.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
With one.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Karl Gerbschmidt, I mentioned last night at the start of
the show, the quarterback duel as it turned out, between
Joe cool Flacco of course, and Aaron Rodgers. I did
see the video after. I think it was rogers last
touchdown pass. He probably got knocked down by one of
(13:06):
his linemen, and celebration did not take that all that well.
I was also told that he got mad at a
I think his running one of his running backs, accusing
basically the player of this was the flea flicker attempt.
And I thought what I read was that Rogers was
angry because he was acting as if that wasn't the
(13:28):
call and the running back had blown it. But I've
read elsewhere that indeed that was the call, and Rogers
either missed it or did not want to acknowledge it.
So there's always you know, I had said to Guardsy
yesterday that I thought this was a much more less tense,
more loosey goosey a Rodge than we're accustomed to helping
(13:50):
people helping jackals attach their microphones to the other microphones,
that doesn't fall off the stage, all.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
That kind of good stuff.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
But you saw, despite his success yesterday, a lot of
crankiness in his part too, so I don't know that
you'll ever take all of the get off my lawn
off or out of Aaron Rodgers. But he looked pretty
damn good to me last night. The game before, what
I'd seen was a lot of safety stuff, a lot
(14:18):
of short passes. Again, there's power and completions, we know that,
but what I saw in that game yesterday was I
think he completed I'm pretty sure you completed a third
and twelve or third and sixteen for a touchdown. And
we haven't seen that Aaron Rodgers in a while.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Now.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I grant Steelers looked awful again defensively, that has to
be factored in. But I thought it was a great
quarterback matchup. And I sorry I was doing more of
the projecting about what that form of a Rodge might
have been here.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I got the quick.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Retort, well, if we had, if you would have been
working with art offensive line, they would have killed him
the first two weeks, which sounds good and there might
be some truth to it. But he's the master getting
the bottle of his hands quickly. And I think a
lot of Vikings fans are. They're in defense mode and
they are doing whatever they can to diminish contributions and
(15:20):
accomplishments from any other quarterback that the Vikings might have
had while they wait for their guy, JJ McCarthy to
indeed return. And so now official. If you've not heard,
no surprise, We had already pretty much told you this
on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday that Carson Wentz would
start in this game. The head coach made it official
(15:42):
just after two o'clock. And to me, the more tantalizing
nugget is that McCarthy will not be the backup quarterback either.
Guarzi's guy, Max Brosmer will be the backup and McCarthy
will be the emergency quarterback. And I we're going to
(16:03):
talk to Ben about whether we're getting we're starting to
get close to the point where there's some concern about
just the recovery ability of this guy. I mean, that's
another form of ability. There's availability, there's ability, there's availability,
there's durability, and there's recoverability. How quickly can you bounce
(16:24):
back from whatever you have? And some players have the
knack to do that and perform well with injuries. And look,
that's not at the top of the list with JJ
McCarthy but it's an important facet of how we evaluate players,
and certainly how we evaluate quarterbacks, is how quickly can
you bounce back. I still do worry about He just
(16:48):
looks slight to me. He just does not look very strong,
and I do worry that that might catch up with
him as well. Bottom line is, it's when's his team
this week? It gets likely it'll be Carson Wentz's team Thursday,
and then at that point that's where it really gets interesting,
because if you don't play McCarthy when the Vikings return
(17:09):
to action in Detroit the following a week from the
following Sunday, then you'll know something is up. If you
follow a story like we like to do on this show,
these quarterbacks sagas often simply, I guess you could say,
reveal themselves. They take care of themselves. If Wentz struggles,
(17:33):
it'll be easier to say it's time to go back
to McCarthy and give him a chance to really take
the reins of this team. If Wentz plays well and
they beat the Eagles, he's playing against the Chargers. If
he plays well and the Vikings beat the Chargers, I
think he deserves to play again, and I'll keep putting
it off until he gives me a reason to go
(17:53):
back to the other position. I've been around too many
teams and too many coaches for me to think that
the Viking are going to move away from that just
because the original plan was we got to get him
playing time and experience this year. The Vikings, once they
made the decision to build on what took place a
year ago add more talent, they opened the door as
(18:17):
far as I'm concerned, to the possibility that if the
guy they want to hand the ball off to is injured,
they're going to have to keep playing the games with
whoever can help them win. And if that player helps
them win or is not considered part of the problem,
you're going to keep playing him. This coaching staff, we
heard it from Alec Lewis yesterday. This coaching staff, this
(18:37):
general manager has two They they all have too much
to lose at this point to just cavalierly throw away
a season and say, well, if we have to lose
games to get McCarthy up to speed, we will do
so willingly. I just don't think that works. Remember, this
staff does not have a single playoff victory. That's going
(18:58):
to start being noticed pretty soon, even with gaudy regular
season records. So we'll see how it goes. We'll see
what happens on Sunday, and we'll come back and get
the injury update not just at the quarterback position, but
at several other spots with our guy Ben Gestling.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
He is next.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
It's Purple Friday here on the Fan, and we've got
your tickets into Sunday Nights Showdown with Philly. Be caller
number eleven right now to win a pair of tickets
to see the Vikings take on the Eagles this Sunday
call now.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Br indeed, wrapping up the program early today because Vikings,
I should say, go for a pregame show will start
at five o'clock this very evening. We'll have a one
hour edition to Sunday Sermons on Sunday leading into Vikings Eagles.
That's where our next guest will be Ben Gestling, joining
(19:56):
us via the Connecticot Water Systems hotline. Ben brought to
you by Stand Heating and Air Conditioning. I'm looking at
a piece. It looks like this is from New York
Post about an appearance by the by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.
He was on in Boston ninety eight point five the
(20:21):
Sports Hub, and the subject was Drake May, who, after
some struggles last year, seems to be emerging right in
his second season. Here's what they claim Breer said regarding
what the Minnesota Vikings offered to move up to get
Drake May. He says the Vikings offered the Patriots the
(20:44):
eleventh pick, the twenty third pick, a twenty twenty five
first round pick, as well as some pickswaps.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Later on to move up.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Now, I think you know very well just how interested
and fascinated by Drake May, Koc and the Vikings were.
Do those specifics align with what you remember? Does that
sound about right?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Or what do you.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Remember about that period? I guess I gotta pot him
up there? Did you now we got him?
Speaker 5 (21:15):
You hear us?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Now no, we don't have uh, we don't unfortunately have.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Mister guestling. So we'll see.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Uh. Kara's working the phones right now to get a
tink a ticket giveaway going, and we'll try.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Let me try Ben again, Ben, can you hear us? Okay?
Speaker 6 (21:34):
Now? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Yeah, unfortunately we couldn't. Yeah, we we weren't getting you
on our end.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
Okay, Well, I'll go into my uh. I I had
started a very profound and ribbing answer on Drake May. Yes,
I uh, take one is unfortunately lost to history, but
attempt to recreate it.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
The best you can get that summon up that same
emotion if at all possible.
Speaker 5 (21:57):
As hard as that is, Yeah, you know it's always hard.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
For the second time, that's true. I can do now. Yeah,
I do think that is about right in terms of
what they were looking to send to the Patriots in
those negotiations. I think when they made them move up
to get back into the first round in twenty twenty
four to get that second first round pick, I always
thought that was with the idea that they could trade
(22:24):
that pick if they wanted to move up get Drake May.
I think the thing they wanted to avoid the whole
time was having to give up three years worth of
first round picks. I don't think they wanted to be
without a number one choice for three years if they
made a deal. So I think part of their thinking was,
let's try to send two of those and then send
this year's. It would have been twenty twenty five when
(22:47):
I said this year, that's what I mean. It would
have been the twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five
first round picks, but they would not have had to
part with another one a further year into that quarterbacks contract.
So yeah, I think that is about right. And obviously
the Patriots decided we don't want to do it. We
want either more than that, or we're going to sit
and pick the guy that we are going to take
(23:09):
it number three. And I think the way Drake May
has played this year shows you why they had to
kind of fat in him. I mean he has I
think the benefit of he's had the benefit of time.
He has done a little bit last year, but the
way he's played he certainly looks like the answer at
that position. I mean that is revitalized that franchise in
a pretty significant way. And you see a lot of
(23:31):
why the Viking has liked him as much as they did.
Ultimately probably in the end why the Patriots said, you
know what, we're going to stick and pick, and it
certainly looks like that has paid off to them at
this point.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
It speaks to a subject you and I have explored
and I've explored elsewhere on this show pretty much all summer,
to the unfairness that JJ McCarthy is going to have
to live with is already living with, and it's definitely
going to have to live with now whenever he comes back,
right because he's not.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
He's not. I don't care what the fans say.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
He's not going to be given because of the infrastructure
of the team itself, the opportunity to struggle quite as long,
quite as often as you say Drake May did a
year ago. The Patriots were in a position a year
ago where they knew they weren't really going anywhere, even
though I'm sure the head coach wanted to win because
he was on his way going to be on his
(24:26):
way out the door and he was fired. But the
fact is they knew, right all right, we're not going anywhere,
So let's throw him out there. He's our best option
right now and see if we can get him to
the other side so that by the time you get
back this year he's starting to feeld a little bit.
McCarthy is not going to have that luxury, whether he
deserves it or not.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
No, he's not.
Speaker 6 (24:47):
And that has always been the tricky balancing act of
this where you have a team that is set up
to win now and I think this is kind of
part and parcel to the way the Vikings have done
things for long time. Not an organization that wants to
drop into these deep valleys and say let's amass all
of these high picks from years of being bad and
(25:10):
then you kind of go at it and say, now
we've got our foundation, we can build the thing back up.
It has been trying to win while keeping the roster refreshed,
and that is a difficult thing to do. There's a
reason you don't see a lot of teams do it,
but it has been very much I think the way
the Vikings have got about it for most of the
Will's ownership of the team over the last twenty one years,
(25:31):
and certainly in the fourteen years I've been covering the team,
that's been the way they've typically gone about it. So
it does in this type of situation put people in
a tough spot, with a young quarterback on tough spot,
I should say, because you're not necessarily talking about this
long development period where there are no stakes to it.
You can still develop them, but it does come at
(25:54):
that time where you're also trying to win. And I
think what they have hoped to do is put enough
piece around him that if he's at least playing kind
of sufficient starting caliber quarterback level, you don't have to
necessarily the best in the league. But if you can
get representative play from him, they're going to be good
enough everywhere else to make it count. And I think
(26:16):
that's still very much the hope when he gets back.
But yeah, there is no doubt it is a unique situation.
It is not when you see a lot of teams
go through and some of that was I suppose they
had so much success with Sam Darnold last year while
they're waiting on JJ McCarthy to recover from that injury,
that it changes the expectations. But that is where they are,
and I think it makes it a unique line for
(26:39):
them and him to have to walk.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
You know, I think it sort of became academic this week,
did it not? As the week went on, Yeah, and
McCarthy was limited in practice, and you have the head
coach on record saying he's got to have a full
week of practice. Whatever debate we want to have or
think we should have regarding who should be starting at
the position, how quickly it became immateial, right, It all
(27:02):
became academic. That mclearly McCarthy is not ready to play,
and that there is no other choice other than I guess,
you know, opening the door to Brozmer playing if indeed
Wentz is favoring that shoulder or he gets re injured
in that area.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
If you're not ready to play, you're not going to play, correct.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
Yeah, Yeah, I think that's it. And I think when
he came out on trying to lost track of my
days on Wednesday, when he talked and said, it's not
one hundred percent, it's getting there, but it's not there.
I mean, Kevin O'Connell has been pretty clear that he's
not going to play unless he's fully recovered from that thing.
And the whole idea of the emergency quarterback thing this week.
(27:46):
I know, if he were to get in there, you know,
that could be the one loophole to that, But in general,
they're not going to put him in that situation. I
think it's it's unlikely enough that they end up in
the spot where they need the emergency thing. I'm not
sure it's worth spending a ton of time be laboring,
Oh is he healthy enough for that or is he
not helping enough for the other stuff. I think the
(28:06):
fact that he's not one hundred percent yet is the
main reason he's not starting. You're not going to see
him go back out there when that is still the case.
And I think when he said that on Wednesday, it
made it pretty clear this is how it's going to
go this week.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
So we got into the subject yesterday about timetables and
you know, high ankle sprains are problematic. We get all
of that, but when you know, you mentioned the statement
that was the alarm bell to me was the player himself.
And you know, I'm not asking the player to lie,
But when the player itself says I'm not one hundred
(28:41):
percent and it's annoying, and the head coach is calling
the injury unique, then I'm start you know, then I
start wondering, well, is there more going on here? And
internally might there be any sort of frustration that it
is taking this long? Because we're now I think today
is day thirty three. I had my math all wrong.
Last week had him out six weeks, So that's not
(29:01):
possible because he played obviously the second week.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
But yeah, we're coming up on to me close to
where you're going. Well, now this is lingering the more
than we thought.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
What do you think the internal feeling is on that
and does that have anything to do with what seemed
like a more tense version of koc as the week
went on.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Well, I think the tension was he has been I
think bothered by this idea that, well, it's not a
real injury. So when he said the unique thing too,
I think that was yes, part of that. He used
the word unique, the word he really wanted to have there,
kind of as a clapback, probably to people with the
(29:43):
fact that he said it's a real injury. I see that, Okay,
got much by his intention of trying to say, no,
this is a real thing. And I think you know,
the conversations I've had there have if it's not real.
They have spent enough on MRI's that I would not
(30:03):
imagine you're sending a bill to a doctor for that,
if you're trying to do it for a fake injury.
I mean that they have done. I mean you're not
You're not doing that. It's a real injury. They have
treated it as such, and I think the fact that
they've done the number of exams they've done with it
is further evidence of that. And they frankly have to
be lying on the injury report if if it was
(30:25):
so some of that, I think he has been bothered
by that. Uh you know, that conspiracy theory that's crept
up a lot, and this idea that he is lying about,
the idea that being a real injury has, you know,
given him a little more edge probably. I think some
of those comments that he made this week are with
(30:46):
regard to that. So as far as internal expectations of
any of this stuff taking too long, I don't really
get that sense. I think it's something that they want
to get resolved. I know he's annoyed with it, and
he talked about, you know, if I could cut my ankle,
if I'd go out there and play, and certainly that's
not going to happen. But the general idea of do
(31:10):
you put him out there now versus thinking about the
fact that he's twenty two and you want her to
be the quarterback long term? There is that tension because
I know, I know he wants to go, and I
know they want him to be available. But you're not
talking about a guy that's thirty four years old or
you know, thirty eight years old or something like that.
You are trying to get him a to a point
(31:30):
where he's healthy that there's not going to be some
kind of bigger issue, and be to the point where
he is feeling strong and trusting that ankle and knowing
he can do what he wants to do and drive
off of it and be able to make plays on
the run. I mean, all of those parts of his
game depend on that back foot being strong. So I
think a lot of what they're dealing with is just
(31:51):
the fact that it's a long timetable. I mean, ankles
are tricky in part because they just they don't get
a lot of blood flow. I mean anything in our feet. Abay,
he's ever had a foot or ankle injury knows that
it take a long time to heal, just because you
don't get as much circulation as that part of your body,
and it makes it a longer recovery process. So you
kind of end up in these spots where it takes
(32:13):
a while, and especially at playing that position in that
particular foot. I think as another layer to the whole
thing why it requires some patience, even if it's frustrating
to have it.
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Is there.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Do we get any sense about Wentz's shoulder in that,
I mean, is it sort of like he's one shoulder tweak,
We're one shoulder tweak away from Max Brosmer being the quarterback.
Or is he seemingly come back pretty strong from this thing,
because it feels like all the emphasis or much of
(32:46):
it has been on on on JJ. But what do
we know about the extent of the injury, the shoulder injury,
how he can be it can be protected, or whether
that's a real concern regardless of McCarthy's condition going into Sunday.
Speaker 6 (33:01):
Yeah, it's a good point. I mean we've talked to
macarthy all week. But yes, Carson Wentz came out of
that game. I think that shoulder was pretty banged up
coming out of it. He played with the harness in
the second half of it. But the fact that he
was a full participant every day this week, I think
it's a good sign. I mean, they did not have
any day where they had to limit him because of it,
(33:22):
So I think they've been able to manage it to
the point where he should be able to do everything
you want to do. And he said, you know, some
of it's a matter I need to slide and need
to take a little better care of my body as
I go through it, But no, I don't think he'll
be limited by anything with where it stands. I mean,
you're always because it's your left shoulder. It's the front
side when you're throwing, and it is possible to get
(33:44):
hit there, and you have to figure out what you do.
You know, can you put it in a harness again?
Can you figure out of the ways to manage the pain?
I mean, people could figure out what I mean by that.
It is something that they'll have to worry about if
it gets if it takes another big shot, you know,
if he has to figure out a way to get
(34:04):
through the game. But overall, I think the way he's
gone through the week, he should be in a pretty
good spot to start. It didn't seem like it was
something that limited any of the work he did this week.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, that seems fair. All right.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
So among the rest of the injuries, well, give me
a sense of who you think will start along the
offensive line.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think Donovan Jackson will be back. The
fact that he did not have an injury status today,
I think it's excuse me, it's significant because I think
he had played relatively well at that left guard spot
to this point. I would expect he is back on Sunday,
and then Blake Brandell starts at the center once again.
(34:46):
Michael Jorgen still questionable coming back from the hamstring, and
I think Brandell played well enough that they will say
let's stick with it, and they announced he will start,
and I think part of that is because he played
well with Carson Wentz and it gives you a little
more size against that Eagles defensive line. When you're talking
about Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis in the middle of it.
(35:08):
It is a lot to deal with when you have
those two tackles, and Brandell gives them a little more
size against those guys. And then obviously Will Fries is healthy,
and then Brian O'Neill will be the kind of the question.
He's questionable for the game. He said today that if
he plays, he'd had to play with a brace. He's
had a fairly big brace on that knee this week.
So I would be a little surprised if they say
(35:31):
let's go out and do it this week, especially knowing
that you have a short week, the turnarounds a little tougher.
I wouldn't be surprised if they say they're going to
wait on that one, but at least as healthy as
they are right now. I mean Ryan Kelly is on
the injured reserve list with concussions. But otherwise, if you
look at kind of their best case scenario, they should
(35:53):
have a lot of it. I think it's going to
be healthier than it's been. O'Neill would be, at least
as I see it at this point. Kind of the
big question going into Sunday. It may be justin school
there again at right tackle, but from Jackson to Brandell
to Fries and then of course Christian Dearris on the
left side, they should be healthier than they've been to
this point.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
All Right, we all got about I think about a
minute left. I have officially picked nebrask could have beat
the Gophers tonight, and the Vikings to beat the Eagles
on Sunday at high noon. Will I regret the ladder
of those two picks?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
You know, I went back and forth on this. I
initially was going to pick the Eagles, but I think
the Vikings recovery from some of these injuries has been
better than what the Eagles have had this week. I
mean Landon Dickerson, their guard, was a full participant today,
but he's still questionable. Jalen Carter's had the heel injury
this week. He said he's good to go, but I
think the Eagles have had some caution with that. So
(36:46):
neither of these teams have been very good at stopping
to run, and I think the Vikings probably will do
it a little bit better, especially with Blake Cashman back.
I think that's a big deal for them as well.
So I actually did pick the Vikings in this one.
And Yeah, much as I I hate to say it,
I think you're going to be right on the Gophers
today too. I was at the homecoming game. I think
they're going to have trouble defensively being able to keep
(37:08):
things where they want them, and it won't be you know,
nineteen whatever year that was, nineteen.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Eighty three or eighty four to thirteen.
Speaker 6 (37:15):
I think Nebraska wins that tonight.
Speaker 5 (37:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Nebraska is weird, you know. They they can every time
you think they're breaking through, then they turn around and
lose a game they're not supposed to.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah, but I still think that's the way it might go.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
And are you in the group that believes that whence,
unless it's a disaster On Sunday he's likely to start Thursday,
just again because it's such a quick turnaround.
Speaker 6 (37:38):
Yeah, I am. I think unless he gets hurt, or
unless there's something that's a major disaster, like you said,
I think he starts. I mean, I'm sure McCarthy would
love to play in that game. Apologies to Amazon that
you don't think the McCarthy versus Harball yese necessarily, But yeah,
I think it's wentz Thursday night, barring anything terribly weird
on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Thanks as always for the help. We appreciate you. We'll
talk next week. Thank you, Ben all right, Ben Guestling's
standard heating and air conditioning brings us Ben to it,
brings Ben to you each and every week. You're hearing
the music early the Spinners because we're done for the
Gopher pregame show. Guardsey and Company are coming up next
(38:17):
Gopher's Nebraska. I'll be back with a one hour edition
of Sunday Sermons at nine o'clock after Gopher football Sunday
as well. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening, enjoy the
evening and we will talk then.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
What you say you
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It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.