Ben Leber! - Bumper to Bumper 12/1/25 Hour Three

Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cuban, not Joe Lieber, Ladies and gentlemen. Bed Leiber, a
Monday regular thanks to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, is

(00:21):
kind of to join us via the Kinetical Water Systems hotline.
Welcome back to the program. I don't know. I mean,
this is a little uncomfortable to say, but I think
we should kind of clear the air on it. You know,
the news about Adam Thielen, and it turns out that
being on this program might well be a curse for

(00:46):
a lot of people. I hope you don't view it
the same way. Because we've had guardian and I have
added them up between coaches, head coaches, assistant coaches, and players.
We've had no fewer than seven regulars maybe eight. Yeah,
and all of them are didn't last. All of them

(01:07):
either didn't get resigned here, left here, we weren't interested
in them, or they got fired.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know. The only person that lasted that we had
as a weekly regular, and it was in two thousand
and nine, Ben Lieber.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Oh, that's a good point.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Ben Lieber was the only one that could break the curse.
Not only break the curse, he parlays it into Now
he's on all the time on the fans, liber is
the only one that was strong enough to stand up
to the bumper to bumper curse.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
So I think we've already you don't even have to
answer the question. You're fine, you're inoculated. I mean you're immunized.
You're immunized, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
It of it, right, Yeah, I mean it's thankfully I
did get it. You know, it's the one shot I
don't regret. It feels it feels really good. Here's the question, though,
as you're going through all those like you're saying, those

(02:02):
all those people, the assistant coaches, coaches plays, they didn't
make it one full season.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Well, no, that's regular. That's a little bit of an exaggeration.
They did make it, they weren't very long, maybe two.
The guy who was had the shortest tenure as a
bumper to Bumper regular was Fred Smoot, And I think
smoot at actually lasted like two weeks. Smoot lasted two

(02:27):
weeks as irregular, one week longer than Zach Perezi. That's
a very good point. That's a very good point. Peise's
one week. How long was got? The old receiver who
also spent time with the bearer, he was about a year.
I don't think he lasted the whole year though, Yeah,
probably not.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, Bernard Barrion had one of the kind of kookiest
oddest It wasn't a rich it was like a it
was something that he had to do for his his
shoes and his feet. Are you guys aware of the
no shoes that he wore every day?

Speaker 1 (03:02):
No?

Speaker 3 (03:03):
So you know, he was always it always seemed like
he was like he'd come back from like running a
go route, and whether he caught it or not, he
was always like he was sort of limping when he
came back. And I found out that he was always
dealing with foot is shoes, and I don't really know
what the injury was per se, but his remedy apparently
he cleared it through the Nike rep and Nike itself

(03:25):
that he would have a brand new pair of shoes
for every practice and game. So he just had boxes
and boxes of brand new shoes and he would literally
put on a brand new paaraishoe every day, every day,
every day, and he would just donate the shoes to
high schools and whatever.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Maybe that was causing the foot problem. Did you ever
think of that?

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Aren't you?

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Supposed to break him in a little bit. That's what
I wondered too. I don't know. Yeah, I mean new shoes,
whether any kind of shoes you're talking about. It usually
takes me a few, you know, a few days or
even weeks where I'm go, okay, they feel prett good,
they feel pretty comfort But that's that's Bernard break. Yeah, well,
Bernard was also. I do remember there were a few

(04:04):
times when Bernard was not on time with us, And
there was a couple of times he was on time
with us and might have been half paying attention half
the time. In other words, I could ask him a
question and he going, now, what was that again? And
you could hear him like get out of his car
having a conversation with somebody else. We call that the

(04:25):
Delvin Cook as well. That's true during the segment. Yeah,
we did run into that with Dallvin, didn't we. That's
that's very good point too.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, well, you know what's funny about that is I
will even throw myself under the bus. I remember specifically
doing a doing a radio hit just like this with
you back in two thousand and nine, and I don't
know why I thought it would be you know, my
wife was asking me to make dinner or something like that,
and we had a victory Monday, and I was home

(04:53):
and I'm like, just I was just like browning the
meat for the spaghetti that we were going to have, yes,
And I'm not not realizing like how loud the sizzling
was going on. And I think at one point in
time You're like, what are you doing. I'm like, well,
I'm just kind of cooking dinner and You're like, you know,
like could you step away from the stove real quick?
And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't

(05:15):
know why. It's just a stupid oversight, and thinking how
much it was actually going to pick up on the phone,
I'm like, I still remember that. I'm like, wow, I
don't remember that.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
But here's here's how well, here's what's funny. Here's how
may perhaps I've mellowed in that regard because I think
if you did it now, I'd actually enjoy it. Adds
a little extra atmosphere to the thing. As long as
you're still talking to us, you might actually love it.
The famous example guards he knows this story, I think,
is the legendary Boston Globe Pro football columnist Will McDonough

(05:48):
I don't know if you ever knew him or knew
of him. Guy was a legend there, just a big time,
you know, NFL national guy, even though he was based
in Boston and on the old Chad and morera show
we used to have him on. So this goes back
obviously decades and decades, and he's answering questions, he's engaged,
he's focused, but we hear splashing in the background, yes, splashing,

(06:14):
And at one point one of us, it might have
been Chad, I don't know who, said Will, where are
you right now? And he said, I'm in the bathtub
because I do a lot of my interviews in the bathtub.
And Will mcdonna, by the way, he's a big, hulking man. He,
by the way, once challenged a New England Patriots player
to a fight in a locker room and kicked his ass.

(06:34):
So he's a big guy. So there's this just juxtaposition
of this great big guy in a bath, in a
bubble bath with a rubber ducky, you know, being interviewed
by Chadden Burrero is too good man.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
You big guys take baths too, I guess, I.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Guess that's the moral of the story, isn't it. You
don't You could be a big guy and still enjoy
the bath. It's too good. Yeah, I can't. The name
of the player will come to me. He was mad
at something he wrote. He challenged McDonough in the locker room,
and McDonough slugged him. He knocked them out, which is
pretty unusual, as you know, because most sports riders are

(07:10):
really not going to be in a position to win
those kinds of fights, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
No, and he didn't lose his credential or like his
access to the locker room.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Oh apparently not, because he got attacked. He was basically
defending himself. Raymond Claiborne. Raymond Claiborne was a good player.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Oh well, yeah, well you should have said the player
everybody knows.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Raymond cle That explains it. There you go.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, he had a coming. Yeah, got that Claiborne. You
got to watch out for him. You know what, I
really enjoy what's that? This is why, this is why,
this is just it's so fun to do these these
radio hits with you, because like you are such a
pro at reading the room and understanding that I don't
want to talk about anything related to the game. I
was just about to say, yeah, we're doing such a

(07:55):
good job of just like tap dance filling time. It's
still good ready. I think people are still enjoying it.
But we don't have to know about the game.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
If well, we're sadly getting very close to the point
where for the next several weeks we might go in
other directions, because, as you say, at some point, what's
going to be left to say? Right, it's all sort
of already been said. And I said this early in
the show, and I don't know how you feel about it.
I'm not as religious about Brosmer as the producer of

(08:26):
the show. Although I have always liked him. I liked
what he did at the University of Minnesota. I thought,
you know, he seems like he had a good head
on his shoulders, and maybe he's a guy who can
have a minute or two. I did not have the
imagination to think it could be as bad as it was.
I'm not saying I thought Brosmer was going to throw
for three hundred and three touchdowns and the Vikings are
going to win. But I got to tell you, I

(08:47):
did not think it was going to be that frightening
because it was another you were there for it. Obviously
another frightening evening or afternoon in Seattle time for a
young Minnesota Vikings quarterback.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Is there a is there like a Goldielocks quarterback that
we should pick up next, because you know, so far
it sounds like, you know, we have one quarterback that
you know, he's a slow processor that's not getting done,
and now we have a quarterback that's too much of it.
He's ultra processor. I mean he's yeah, yeah, he's like,

(09:22):
you know, like he's shelf stable. I get it. But
he's ultra processed. And now we got to find somebody
that's like just ra right in the middle. I don't
know if we can find that person.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Maybe it's Wafford Well, well whatever his name is.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, Well we know this, right, I mean the head
coach all but made it official that McCarthy all the
signs are that he will be able to begin practicing
full on Wednesday and from that point forward. Uh, then
that that means he would start on Sunday against Washington.
And he hash to Wright. I mean we all kidded,

(09:57):
or I certainly was in the group. Well what a
Brosmer places, pretty well, wait a week whatever, Well, there's
nothing to stop the Vikings from doing what is the
only thing left to do right the rest of this
season is to keep working with the kid, trying to
get some you know, bit of rhythm going. However you
do it, you know, whether you simplify things or whether
you actually go the other direction, say screw it, we're

(10:19):
just going to start flinging it. Whatever it is. You're
out of the playoff race. It's over. So you are
liberated in that way. You didn't want to be, but
you are to the extent that it's about finding out
whether this quarterback can gain any kind of momentum the
rest of the way, right, that's the story from this point forward.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah, it really is. And it's it is sad that
we can't take that same narrative and that same approach
with other positions. You know, like you you do sort
of use this this time where you're not competing for
the playoffs. You are sort of looking at twenty twenty
six already and and you're like, okay, well this is
the time maybe we start injecting some of these younger
players in these other positions. There really is an anybody

(11:00):
out there that we need to start to see to
see if they can blossom into a consistent starter. He's
the only guy. And I think the other disappointing thing, too,
is whether he was the one that got us in
this position or not. He's the guy that you want
to have some hope and a building block of for

(11:22):
twenty twenty six. And I think, sadly, right now, what
square are you on? Are you? Are you really at
square one still? You know, I was hoping to be
even if we weren't in the playoff race in December,
saying like you know what, we're still, you know, three
steps ahead of where we thought we were going to
be with him, and this is this is like good

(11:43):
information though for next year, we know what to work on,
we know what little things he's got to develop in
and again it just comes down to reps. At this point,
we're in December and I think we're still at step one. Yeah, yeah,
And I think that that is the most disappointing part.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
I firmly believe that. And I don't know if you know,
at any point Koc is gonna be willing to reveal
this publicly or not. I think that has surprised him
as much as anyone I believe. I mean, I'm not
saying that he had such hubris that he expected McCarthy
was going to walk in and be all pro from
the first day, but I honestly believe he thought that

(12:24):
he was going to be far enough along from the
start where there's gonna be some ups, there are gonna
be some downs, and he wouldn't have to sort of
like start over with sort of rebuilding whatever it is
in terms of his footwork as fundamentals, whatever the case
may be. There's no way and I believe that Koc
thought it was going to be this bad, and even

(12:45):
at the beginning for young quarterback, and every young quarterback
needs a minute or two. But I don't you think
it's I think he's got to be as gobsmacked by
that position that they are in right now with this
quarterback as anybody.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Yeah, And I think that that would be one hundred
percent fair for him to think that. I think it's
fair for all the fans to think that too. And
you know, we all expected that there was going to
be some ups and downs this year. And if you
were like to graft this thing of yeah, it's gonna look,
you know, it's going to be some peaks and valleys,
and I think again, the disappointing part is nobody really

(13:21):
understood where that those valleys and how deep they were
going to go. And I think where we are right
now is we have seen I've seen some good stuff
out of him. Like I I think that that compete
factor is huge. I think, you know, we heard about
all the intangible stuff. Now I think some of it,
you know, still needs to be worked on from sort
of the mental side of things. But that compete factor,

(13:43):
I love that, you know, I think that's a that's
a one hundred percent of positive from what we've seen
out of him. But the valleys are are way way
way below what we expected. And the thing is, we
just don't know. We're going week to week and we're
not seeing those valleys are of like like pick up
a little bit and start to rise. So again that's
why I said that, I feel like we're back at

(14:04):
square one. It's unfortunate, but we do have a handful
of games left and maybe maybe this is kind of
what he needs. You know, the concussion last week, the
realization that the weight is off your shoulders as far
as getting this team to the playoffs. Put all that
stuff aside. Just just go out there and play football

(14:26):
and play as free as you can, have fun with
the game again, find the love of the game, and
maybe through all of that we do find that spark.
We do see that spark, and we do start seeing
some of that positivity, and like, let's stop micromanaging this
whole thing. Like the kid is. The kid's talented, he's
got skills. Let's just put him in the best position
to hone those skills. And that's that's my hope for
the next five games.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
The fourth and one call and disaster turned into is
obviously a big topic of conversation today. So tell me
what you thought at that moment, what you saw from
your dvantage point and any and what you thought of
the decision to try to roll out Brozemer for obviously
what's going to be I guess it could it was

(15:07):
technically a run pass option, but largely was probably it
was going to be a pass. What did you make
of it? What did you see yesterday?

Speaker 3 (15:17):
I kind of suspected that we're going to be passing there.
I still didn't didn't love it, just because of who
the quarterback was kind of a tough spot that he
was in, and you know, whether it was really fourth
and one. I thought maybe when they when they set
the ball down from where I was standing, that it
was actually closer than just one yard. I really thought

(15:39):
that we would just plunge ahead with you know, either
DJ Ham on a quick fullback dive, which kind of
rarely gets stopped, even though it's like one of those
things like hey, they've got eight or nine guys in
the box, they know it's coming. Well, it's kind of
similar to the tush push, like you know it's coming,
but you get, you get. All you gotta do is
move three feet if that, you know, to pick up
the first down. I thought it'd be a quick hitting

(16:01):
something like that. It wasn't, and it turned out to
be a disastrous decision. You know, the play call itself.
You know, when you watch it back, it's like, all right, well,
justin Jefferson's open in the end down. You know, he's
streaking across the field. He's open. So if you want
to say that the play designand was good from that concept, sure,
but somebody has to pick up that guy and account

(16:21):
for him. And they didn't, and the whole play gets
blown up and he makes a poor decision. So I
didn't love it. I didn't love the play call. But
the thing is, at that point in time, I do
understand what chaos was thinking we couldn't run the ball
worth anything. I mean, I think we had maybe the
first carry of the game went for four yards, and

(16:42):
then everything after that was one yard, one yard, no yards,
minus yards, one yard. It's like we couldn't run the
football against that front. So it is kind of like, well,
damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Well, you know, part of it, as you said for me,
was also and I think Koc kind of acknowledged this today,
although I frankly I don't trust him that he's ever
learned from it, because he we've been here before, to
varying degrees where he says, I understand, I got to
call it differently, I got to do it differently. Whatever,
And here we are again. And you know, when you

(17:17):
factor in who the quarterback is, because whatever he is
at this point, whatever strength you think he might have,
it ain't boots, it ain't rolling. It's just not he's
not that quick. He's atam McCarthy that might make more sense. Right,
there's a lot of quarterbacks we say that might make
more sense, And I just just shook my head because,

(17:39):
as you say, they hadn't run all that well. But
I just I don't think that can stop you in
that situation, because I like the play call that you mentioned,
and I even like, Okay, you want points. Obviously you
don't want to leave. No, you don't want to get
out of there without any points at all. But at
worst case scenario is they've stopped you and they got
to start from their five. And by the way, our
defense is playing a hell of a game. Sam Darnold

(18:01):
looks incredibly mortal in this game, so I on all levels,
he what he admitted today is he's got to stop
looking at what the tape indicates, like, oh, this is
what is going to be open in this situation and
should be open. He's got to stop doing that because
he doesn't have a team that can execute that well
right now, which means to me, that's how part of

(18:22):
how you have to adjust, at least for a week
or two as a coach, you know, is yeah, this, this, this,
and this should be there, but right now it doesn't.
That's irrelevant because we can't execute that stuff. So I
got to rethink my process and not get so aroused
in a given a moment by what I see on
tape and just take the little victories and guess what,

(18:44):
if we get enough of those little victories, then maybe
I can build back up to doing what I like
to do. Does that make sense?

Speaker 3 (18:51):
I think it makes sense. And you know he's even
mentioned this even just from a quarterbacking the standpoint where
he's like, you know, he uses the basketball and nowgy
of you know, sometimes you just have to see the
ball going through the hoop. Yeah, exactly, And you're one
hundred percent right. And I think when you look at
the psychology of all athletes, and really it's not just athletes,
it's anybody, Like everybody wants a small taste of success.

(19:14):
And you know, you can't get that snowball rolling down
the hill without starting somewhere, right, So you've got to
start small, and you have to build up some momentum,
whether that's with the team or or just an individual.
And maybe those are the moments where yeah, I don't
have to be I don't have to outscheme what they're
going to do on fourth and one, let's just let's

(19:37):
us bet on our guys that we can push their
guys back three feet and that our guy that's carrying
the ball can get us that one yard. How about
we just do that regardless if they bring it all
out blitz or they've got this coverage or they got
this and we've we've scouted all their tendencies. So yeah,
maybe just you know, feel the game a little bit

(19:57):
more and maybe don't rely on on all the film
study in those bubbs Hop.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Splash sied avount of hot Splash player of the game.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
You know, this one's tricky because this player had a
great game statistically and really really did splash. It's not
one of those hidden players that just like, oh yeah,
I mean did a lot of stuff in the stat
books you don't you won't see. I feel like everybody
gave the attention to Dallas Turner, and rightfully so. He
had an incredible game. But again, Eric Wilson, he's my

(20:28):
guy that I think just continues to make a lot
of plays, does a lot of things that again don't
show up in the stat books even though he hit
a great game. I mean, he had a couple of
run fits in there where he was bubbling and buckling
some of these offensive linemen and he's not going to
get credit for any sort of tackles, but just sort

(20:49):
of the melee and the chaos that he creates when
he especially when he's going downhill. It really is impressive
and it's fun to watch just from a pure football standpoint.
So I'm gonna give my my weekly award that E Wilson.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, I think that's a very good choice. What's the
moral of the Adam Feeling story regarding his return to
Minnesota and how it has ended?

Speaker 3 (21:14):
You know, I guess the moral is maybe, uh, don't
always think that the grass is cleaner. And I'm saying
that from our standpoint. You know, maybe the cupboard at
wide receiver wasn't as bear as you thought, you know,
when you made that move, and maybe the depth and

(21:34):
I know that a lot of things are kind of
done in the anticipation of somebody getting injured. And obviously
we had the Jordan Madison suspension that we were kind
of dealing with as well, so maybe that was like,
oh boy, we needed to have kind of a backup
plan and maybe he can work his way into that
number three spot. I guess maybe those situations, don't hit,

(21:54):
don't hit the panic button. Let's let the season play
out a little bit. And I know it was a
feel good story and all that stuff, but it didn't
work out for whatever reasons. Not there in the meeting rooms,
not there in the practice field, Donnerstan exactly why he
was able to get more reps. I do see though
with my own eyes. Unfortunately, he didn't necessarily capitalize on

(22:14):
some of those opportunities, right, you know, he got he
got the opportunities and games and wasn't the most reliable
pass catcher. And I don't know really what goes into
that either. So I can kind of see and understand
both sides of this.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, I'm curious to see if he's able to land
in any place. I don't know if Carolina is looking
for any depth. He's got some you know, obviously some
equity there, but hard to say. And I think I
mentioned this earlier in fairness to all the Vikings wide receivers,
it's kind of hard to evaluate them thoroughly, even the
ones in their prime right now, right, I mean, because

(22:47):
of what this team is dealing with at the quarterback position.
Do you you know we're all looking for, you know,
the non verbal communication of Justin Efferson. We're all kind
of waiting for the nationally, especially they've already started the
clock on well, are they gonna have to trade him?
Is he when? Is he going to demand to trade?

(23:07):
Apparently Randy Moss raised that issue before the game Sunday
on the ESPN Morning Show. So what are you seeing
with with with with Jefferson. Clearly he's frustrated. I don't
know how he couldn't be. But do you do you
think this organization has some should have some legitimate concerns
about him hanging in?

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah? I do. Actually, he's been nothing but an actual
pros pro, you know, since he's been here. But he's
not immune to be in human and he's not immune
to hearing what people say. Fans wise, his own family
and friends. I'm sure what some teammates have talked to
him about. Everybody wants to leave a legacy, a personal legacy,

(23:55):
and if you can do both, have your cake and
eat it too, be a Hall of Fame wide receiver
and help get your team to a Super Bowl and
win a Super Bowl. That's the best of both worlds.
But if you don't get the sense that offensively, we're
in a position to create a Hall of Fame type
of production, which also means you're probably not a good

(24:18):
enough team to even compete for a Super Bowl. Then
I think there's a there's a legitimate conversation that he's
probably having, and and I'm not mad at him for it.
I don't hate him for it. I wouldn't be I'd
be disappointed, and you know it would it would suck
because I regard him in such high esteem. I mean,
he's been he's such a good influence in the locker

(24:40):
room and such a good influence in the community. And
I'm not saying that this is a foregone conclusion by
the means, But if you're asking me if if he's
feeling and he's forecasting what this team looks like and
who's throwing the football to him in the next two years,
and if he decides it's not what I want, I
think it'd be hard to to push back against that.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
You're right, excellent work is always my friend. Thanks for
the time, and we will we'll chat next week.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Thank you, ben Al, it sounds good.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Thanks Nacho Leber, will you put him on hold for me?
I keep forgetting to move the phone to a spot
where it's close enough to my headset. Nacho joins us
Weekly brought to you by our good friends at the
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company. We still have a decent amount
of show left and Guards he is out again. He's
got gold to go for women's basketball duty tonight. They

(25:29):
got another game tonight. So Brett Blakemore is back in
that chair. The rest of the way. I didn't even
ask Guards, you are we going the distance?

Speaker 5 (25:35):
Today?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Is a six point thirty show? Or is it six fifteen?
I never know these days. I've got to go in
the distance the distance. Okay, So we got many more
Vikings talking points to discuss. Keep the text coming into
the brat Shawn Brian Caffean text line, and we may
even broaden some of the discussion in the regarding some
other National Football League developments over the last twenty four

(25:57):
to forty eight hours, and who knows where else we go,
But will continue with another Vikings, a very juicy Vikings
talking point when we come back. Somebody people wanted to

(26:26):
go ahead and kick the field goal on the fourth
and one. I you can you can defend it on
the basis of how low scoring the game was at
that point, the fact that the Vikings defense did play
a very representative game, probably a game good enough to
win until things got out of hand late. But I

(26:48):
go for it and I run. It's not it's just
not that difficult, and I would rather do that than
kick the three. I think the least desirable option is
to do is to play, to call the play that
Koc invariably wants to call because he wants to flex
and he wants to justify what all his work that

(27:12):
he plans that's based on what he sees what kind
of defense they're going to be in at a moment
like that, Which sounds good in theory if you're interested
in flexing, But it doesn't sound like a coach who's
got a very good handle on the condition of his
football team and who he had a quarterback at that moment.

(27:32):
It's just it's just it's mind boggling to me that
there's that big of an inability to understand that. Now,
could they have been stopped handing them all off on
fourth and one, Yes, the answers, yes, there's no guarantee
they were gonna they're gonna make it on the fourth
and what. It doesn't always happen, but the and and look,
there was a breakdown in terms of the blocking on

(27:54):
that play on the on the roll to the right.
You could say, if you're kocit, well, if it's blocked correctly,
then he's got time and the receivers open. But I'm
still going to say, when you factor in who he
had out there, and his strength is not mobility, I
don't even think it come close to calling it. But
I'm not surprised that he did. And I will tell

(28:16):
you quite honestly, I will not be surprised if under
the same circumstance, no matter what he said today, he
did it again, because in the end, I just don't
think he can help himself in that sense. I think
it's something that we've talked about for years to varying degrees,
and I think we're seeing it play out worse this

(28:36):
year because he doesn't have a good enough passing game
for people to kind of forget about it. Yeah, but
look at that. Did you see that throw for twenty
seven yards? So the notion that's suddenly now he has
found religion on this subject, I find I'm rather skeptical,

(28:57):
rather dubious about that at this point, let me get
to a text also that came in. Haven't heard anything
about the receiver's performance. That's Craig who listens from Boston.
It's because I'm not as willing to go as far
as a lot of other people regarding the receiver's performance.

(29:19):
I'm really not. I do know the Addison ball over
the middle earlier was a catch that is makeable. I
don't think it was as easy a catch as people
are suggesting. And I'll say the same thing I said
when McCarthy was throwing inaccurately. In my view, seventy five

(29:40):
percent of this is quarterback inaccuracy. Does the offensive I
mean in all honestly, I would say the offensive line.
There should be more discussion about the line than the
wide receivers. But I get what happens. One drop and
we get fixated. Two drops, we lose our minds and
we act like no team ever has had any body
drop a pass over the course of a game. But

(30:02):
you can't possibly have watched that game and seen how
many inaccurate throws by Brozmer behind people, in front of people,
over people, over people's head and think that that was
a wide receiver problem. I don't think it was a
wide receiver problem at all compared to a quarterback issue. Now,
there was the one pass. The TV analyst guy did
a good job of saying, there was one Brozmer pass

(30:23):
over the middle that he said basically shouldn't have been
thrown because of the depth of the linebackers. In other words,
it made it impossible. The idea of threading it over
the first line of defense's head and then in front
of the second line of defense was almost going to
be impossible for Peyton Manning and his prime let alone

(30:46):
a rookie quarterback who's out there on a road trip
playing for the first time in a game that matters.
So there's a combination of things. But I I just
I didn't buy it when it was with JJ mccar rothy,
and I don't buy it with Brosmer either. And you know,
we've got, like I said, there's some mc bobo's who

(31:09):
I'm not surprised at this, but I think they're kind
of enjoying the misery for Vikings from Fightings fans today
because they view it as vindication that, well, you guys
all thought the whole world was going to change. You
brought Max Brosmer in the game, and we saw the
limitations of that particular belief. But we've had one guy

(31:34):
earlier is like, well, you guys are ripping Brosmer like
you ripped Jj. Well, first of all, I'm going to
grade on a tougher curve in general with JJ McCarthy
than Max Brosmer for reasons that I think should be evident,
self evident. I mean, I don't think it should be
very difficult to understand why I would expect more from
JJ McCarthy than Max Brosmer. But beyond that, we've had

(31:59):
no difficulty just how hideous a performance it was for
Max Brosmer. It was another unprofessional quarterback performance for a
team that has had several of them this season. We
laid out the some of the fancy analytic numbers that
suggest that the Vikings, according to one analytic, this season,

(32:23):
have had two of the worst nine offensive performances in
the last for the Vikings in the last fifty years.
Two of them have both come this year, and the
one yesterday topped the list. According to this one analytic,
it was and it was it like lapped number two,

(32:45):
which was the first game of the nineteen eighty four season.
That was, of course, the team infamously coached by Les
Less Steckel, a disastrous one season. That was the only
season his ten lasted a one year. That's the when
Bud Grant came back, but it already retired. They brought
Bud back for one year to stabilize, and then ultimately

(33:09):
gave the job at that point to Jerry Burns as well.
You wouldn't you take JJ on the Packers, wouldn't you?
If the Vikings decide which one, well, Joh, I guess
I should clarify Jesson Jefferson number eighteen.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
I would It'd be okay, pretty good. Thanks Carl Good.
He's unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
They would never. They would never obviously trade within the
division in this case, I don't believe.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
But no, it would be if it were to happen,
which it won't. If it were, it would have to
be a far situation where he goes to somewhere else
and then he comes to Green Bay.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
But that's not gonna happen. A couple of good texts
coming in late. Let's do this. Let's pause here. Uh,
we had let me double check my Vikings talking points list.
We still have one, two, three, four. That should do
us quite nicely the rest of the way and keep

(34:05):
the text coming as well. Lots of football conversation today.
Don't forget it's our big annual Toys for Tot's appearance
at Shields in Eden Prairie tomorrow. We're very much looking
forward to that now. Originally Josh Mattelis was scheduled to
join us on location, as he did a year ago.

(34:28):
The question is whether he will change his mind on
the basis of the Bumper to Bumper curse, which is
now I guess one. I guess you could say player
deeper in that Adam Feelen is gone and we've now
had I think Guardsy and I have added up seven
players and coaches who've been unable to survive their weekly

(34:51):
appearances on the Bumper to Bumper program. Mike Mattelias say,
you know, I enjoyed talking to you. I thought it
was okay, it's a good cause, but maybe not this year.
We will find out when we're on location. We hope
you'll come to see us in Eden Prairie tomorrow. All right,

(35:31):
let's get to another Minisota Vikings talking point. It is
worth noting who had this via ax. I don't remember
the individual who did when. The feeling announcement today is
not earth shattering because I don't think realistically he was

(35:54):
ever going to be a big part of the Vikings
success or failure this year. But it is a good
example of how when things turn you feel like it
all turns right, because this at the start of the
season was a feel good story. You know, you start

(36:16):
the season with high hopes coming off fourteen and three.
You know there's risk involved with a kid quarterback, but
the signs out of training camp are at least, you know,
relatively positive, and you've added some pieces that allegedly mean
you're gonna be able to run the ball better and
be a little bit more balanced offensively, the whole bit,
and with feeling, we've got to remember Adam Field was

(36:38):
one of the best receivers in Minnesota Vikings history, big
time producer, out of nowhere, right, no expectation. It's a
hell of a story, and the idea that, well, God,
what a perfect way to end it comes back here
for probably one last season, fills in here and there
every once in a while, makes a key third down

(36:59):
complet a reception, maybe helps out when one of the
other receivers gets hurt a little bit, and you go
you just like having around and you feel good about
the story, one of our own coming back here. And
so when it turns the other way, it turns dramatically.
So now that feel good story looks like, man, could

(37:22):
it have ended any worse than it's ending. He doesn't
even complete the season. He barely is a factor on
the field. He is listed as a healthy scratch for
the most recent game. Help. We thought it was a
great victory when I found out that he was going

(37:44):
to be our regular. I'm going, okay, he may not
be a guy who catches eighty balls this year, but
he'll make some catches and wiley veteran theory, he'll just
help us get a better understanding of what's going on
with this team. But when it goes bad, even the
field good stories go away. They transformed dramatically into the

(38:06):
other thing, and now got people texting, basically hammering him,
saying he should give his money back, et cetera, et cetera. Remember,
for the records, he told us he did take a
pay cut. That was the only way actually this deal
got done in the first place. So you start the season,
thinking maybe we can have a lot of nice things
about the end of the season, and even before the

(38:27):
end of the season, it's now in this kind of year,
you're four and eight, you're not gonna have any nice things.
And the Adam Feln story that felt so good not
that long ago now feels awful. The way it's ending.
He can't like the way it ends. And it sounds
as if, based on what the Vikings have said, he

(38:48):
asked to be released hoping that he could end up,
you know, someplace else, will we land someplaces? I have
no idea. I don't know. I have no clue whether
he's got they've got an opening in Carolina where he
did have some equity and has some success. I'm not
sure as that as it sounds, I frankly think the

(39:09):
Vikings were also counting on injury at receiver, like you
count on injury at every other position where you go, Okay,
of course you see him to get nicked up. There's
gonna be a hamstring, there's gonna be something that takes place,
and then we got a guy we can kind of
plug in there, and none of that took place. Maybe
you can't go home again, as the I think the

(39:33):
oacliche is you can go home again, maybe you can't,
or in his case, it certainly is not ending the
way here that he wanted it to end, that his
family wanted to end. Remember week ago, he was just
telling us this whole family for the first time went
to Green Bay to watch that game, and so their
intent was this was going to be kind of an
emotional so long year. We're going to celebrate having a

(39:56):
second chance to come back here. And who extolled the
virtues maybe too much of JJ McCarthy this whole off
season and with us Adam feeling worked with him a
couple you know, a couple of often in two last
off seasons, et cetera, and at least to this point,

(40:17):
none of that has worked out particularly Well, let's get
to a we got, as I mentioned, a bunch of
vikings talking points we have not yet explored. Well, I
call this one the ultimate insult. We'll play it and
explain it. Presently only four.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
Man rush pocket still collapses and a sack for DeMarcus Lawrence,
making Max Grosmer Phil his presence the last couple of possessions.

Speaker 7 (40:54):
Yeah, I mean, we sound like a broken record. But
it's just the ability to rush with four and then
they've got seven guys in coverage.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
You're in third and a mile, you're.

Speaker 7 (41:03):
Trying to push the ball past the sticks, and just
their ability to generate pressure on the quarterback without adding
a fifth or.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Sixth rusher is just very unique in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (41:14):
And be honest, I'm a little surprised Seattle didn't take
a time out.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
I've got all three. Yeah, I'm not sure.

Speaker 7 (41:22):
Why they didn't take a time out after that sack. Instead,
Minnesota's gonna run a ton of time off here.

Speaker 6 (41:29):
Number of minutes ago, all three timeouts for the Seahawks,
who have not done anything offensively.

Speaker 8 (41:34):
The lone touchdown was scored by the defense and use
Zach charbonnay conservatively you're right up the gut, but gets
nine and the clock continues to wind carbon powering forward
and getting the ink down by Blake Cashman spot him
right at the marker twenty four seconds.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Still have not used the timeout, and now they will.

Speaker 7 (41:58):
This is yes, huh so think they sacked Rosmers a
minute forty with like a minute forty, They just took
their first time out with twenty three seconds left. They
got a chance here to go down, score a touchdown,
get the ball back to start the second half, and
by the time Minnesota's offense that hasn't shown they can

(42:18):
do a whole lot, possesses the ball again.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
It'd be twenty to nothing, twenty four to nothing.

Speaker 7 (42:24):
So a conservative approach, to say the least, an heasy.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Fuld goloks out from here.

Speaker 6 (42:31):
Pressure coming from the Vikings and Harrison Smith this time
continues the volleyball match on evaded off of the edge
right there to just spike it into the ground.

Speaker 7 (42:43):
Listen, we are You're not gonna find a bigger Mike
McDonald fan than the two guys sitting in this booth.
And we could go on and on about the job
he's done, call it two years here in Seattle, the
job he did previously in Baltimore. I just you have
the game, You're at home, a struggle Minnesota offense, you
force the sack, you're going to now go into halftime

(43:05):
with two remaining timeouts, and you're settling for a.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Six short field goal from Myers.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
It is good.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
So there you have it. The moral of the story is,
I mean, you heard it on the play by play
call and the analysis that's the stuff that that's the
deliberate approach that gets coaches barbecued after games. You got
the timeouts, what do you need to save them? They
don't carry over the second half. But I think the

(43:39):
reason that the Seahawks played it as conservatively as they
did is they were utterly convinced that they weren't going
to need any touchdowns at this game. Now, that can
be dangerous, They can come back to bite you because
it all it takes is one play that goes the
other way or even something fluky, and then you got
a ball game. But it really is kind of a

(44:03):
back of the hand to the Vikings offensive approach, or
I guess you could say competence at this point to
have a team go as conservative as they did, and
so we'll just keep kicking field goals. They're not gonna
they're not going to score realistically, but they're sure is
hell not going to score in double digits. So we
just keep getting field goals. We're going to be fine.
It was about there was no effort to say, well,

(44:25):
let's try to get seven now. It was we're going
to go as slow as we can and then if
we get to their forty we'll kick a fifty five
fifty six yard field goal. Will be absolutely fine with that.
And in the end you can't argue necessarily with that
approach because ultimately it worked for them. Text from Doink

(44:49):
out of Highland Park. Doink Nobody talking about how off
the Vikings were on JJ being ready, fact that they
did not play them in preseason over the health risk concerns.
Health was the least of concerns looking back, Yeah, it's
easy to say this now, but one would say, now,

(45:12):
JJ McCarthy needs to play in every preseason game, three
quarters minimum in each of them. Now, again, we all
know why teams don't want to take that risk, especially
in his case coming off of an injury. Right, you're saying, well,
we can't. We just cannot take that risk. And they
clearly felt they saw enough to convince themselves that he's

(45:34):
coming along fine in practice. But if you look back
on that in retrospect, can you not say, do we
really know how good he looked? Because who are you
comparing him to? In all seriousness? I mean the backup

(45:56):
Sam Howe. The Vikings ultimately were so terrified by the
traded him away and then went out and added Carson Wentz.
They may have liked what they saw of Brosmur as
a as a third option or a guy, you know,
maybe one of those guys you keep around the practice
squad and see if he develops into something. But there
was no real competition in campings. There was no one

(46:17):
else who's wowing. You know, we hear all the time,
we heard it. I said this earlier in the show,
early in the TV broadcast. What were they saying about
Brosmer before it turned back? Ball didn't even drop practice
this week. That's what they're saying out of TCO. It's like,
what are you doing? Don't insault people's intelligence with that
nonsense because it may or may not be true, And

(46:40):
even if it's true, we now know it means nothing. Right.
We know that that's just the idea that you can
get a sense from practice that the ball never touched
the ground, That your quarterbacks find to go to Seattle
and to be a professional is preposterous on its face.
So stop, I would say, across the board, with with

(47:01):
JJ McCarthy and with Brozmer, whoever else we might use
at the quarterback position rest of the season, stop trying
to burnish their image just go about the business of
preparing these guys as well as you can, and then
let's just see if you can, you know, piece together
two or three drives. Just make it simple. Go at
it pretty much that way as far as I'm concerned.

(47:23):
Speaking of Max Brosmer, I call this talking point JJ
without the EyeBlack.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
It's fourth and one snap. Rosner rolls out to the right.
He's in trouble. He's gonna pull the ball up. Hennet's
pissed up.

Speaker 9 (47:39):
Awful decision by Max Brosner, and this is going to
be a defensive touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks. It's Ernest
Jones top four put the first.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
Touchdown of his career, and Seattle has taken a nine
zero lead. Max Brozner to the field, decided to underhand
it to absolutely nobody accept Ernest Jones, and he's gonna
go the distance for the first touchdown of the game.

(48:12):
Seattle has taken a nine zero lead. It'll be a
pick six up right around eighty five yards nineteen zero
Seattle a minute ten in counting to go. On the
third quarter, first and ten from the Seattle forty five,
Max Brozner play action straight drump good protection, throws over

(48:32):
the middle, intercepted the over through Jalen Naylor, and the
Seattle Seahawks have picked off Max Brozmer at the twenty
one yard line. It's Kobe Bryant, fourth year from Cincinnati,
with his third pick this season and Seattle as a
nineteen zero lead, and it gets the ball Aaron Jones

(48:54):
questionable to return save your Scott to the left of Brosner,
goes back to pass.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
He's gonna throw over the middle.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
It bounces off the Viking and or Seahawk and is
intercepted by Ernest Jones, B four, having the day of
his life.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
That's his second interception. One went to the end zone.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
Three picks for Max Rosmer and se analyst turned over
the Minnesota Vikings with a.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Nineteen zero league.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
Rosemer second and six from the Seattle twenty eight four
men rush Rosmer Rose to Addison and it's intercepted by
Rieke Wollen. And here he comes fifteen twenty heads to
the right, shakes the tackle of Bill Froze at the
thirty heads to the center. Now he dropped it and
it's up for grabs up the thirty seven yard line.
Goodness so I mean, I think the Vikings they covered it,

(49:47):
Yes they did, so they're gonna have it first and
ten from their own thirty seven in serendipitous fashion.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Wow, you really can't make it up. Four interceptions starting
with the one that was was the kind of play that,
as I told guards the earlier and mentioned that, you
you kind of you turn your head away and you

(50:15):
WinCE and you go, my god, that's not professional. How
many times could you, in all honesty, say yell at
your TV screen or whisper it, my god, that's not professional?
Way too many this season for this club, especially regarding
the quarterbacks. Did Carson wentz Ever have his surgery, because

(50:38):
if he did, I think he did. If he did,
I think even during his rehab period, he might be
a better choice than what we have going on right
now at the position it's It was, I think worse
than any of us could have imagine. It was worse

(51:00):
that I thought it was going to be. Again, I
didn't think that Brozmer was going to lead us to
victory and throw for four hundred yards and three touchdowns.

Speaker 5 (51:11):
But that.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Decision under duress, put there by the way by his
head coach. That play is one hundred in my opinion,
one hundred percent on the head coach, especially given the
lack of mobility of the quarterback you're asking to make
a mobile play. But regardless if the Max Brozberg, the

(51:39):
one attraction to him, the one calling card is he
doesn't do anything stupid. That was about his lame brained
a decision, a panic decision. As you will see, you
end up blindly tossing the ball underhand to avoid the sack.

(51:59):
Ain't nothing about that play that says Max brozmers cool.
He may not have all the physical skills of a
lot of the quarterbacks who were drafted, but he's cool
as a cucumber, and he knows when you fight for
another day, you take the sack, you kick the field goal. Well,

(52:21):
actually they would, they would have to kick the field
goal without going for it, but you get my point.
It was and it was in this case only one
of of four. I'll have to double check his his
QBR was his QBR. I think his QBR this week
was had to have been worse than JJ's last week,

(52:41):
but we'll double check that. Bottom line is they're both
Their QBR numbers are so far off the off the board,
so far below pretty much everybody else. They're in of
themselves rather historic. It is astonishing that this is what
the Mission Vikings have been left with in twenty twenty five,

(53:05):
a season in which they had as possibilities, remember Sam Darnold,
Daniel Jones, and the bloodied Aaron Rodgers, all at least
in the mix, all at least possible. There is a

(53:29):
conspiracy theory going around. Have you heard this one? The
one of the latest conspiracy theories is that secretly the
head coach encouraged JJ McCarthy to not be available, even

(53:50):
though he was in concussion protocol, because deep down he
might have had a suspicion that as much as many
of the nice things he said about Max going in
to the game, there's a very good chance that he
was going to struggle to such a degree that the
folks who've been clamoring for Max Brosmer were going to

(54:12):
have to return and withdraw to their Brosmer brownstones and
very quietly say I'm sorry, I mentioned it right, because
I think it's fair to say, and this is unfair
to evaluate Brozmer forever on the basis of this one game,
as nightmarish as it was, But I do think it

(54:33):
was a level of performance that even has the most
devoted of Brozmer fans saying Okay, well maybe maybe someday,
but not right now. And I'm sure as hell can't
crow about how he's going to show the world the
error of the ways of being as patient as the
fightings had been with JJ McCarthy to this point.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
Last week, JJ McCarthy QBR, Okay, that's what I was
looking for.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Sixteen point four. That's like, that's that's otherworldly bad.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
Just wait, okay, Max Prosmer this week, yeah, five point six,
QBR five point six.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Somebody had a stat that if the Vikings on every
pass play had just spiked it every time, they still
would have had a higher quarterback rating than they did
in this game. From Max Brosmer.

Speaker 5 (55:25):
If you're into the passer rating, it's more similar JJ
last week thirty four point two, Max thirty two point eight.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Yeah, very similar, and yeah, very bad. That's that's we're
a long way from where we were supposed to be
fourteen and three last year that didn't end well. And
by the way, as I mentioned earlier, you don't I
didn't come away from that game the single game at
least gone Sam Donald. Man, they did a good job
on Donald. I thought Donald looked very mortal. I thought

(55:55):
he looked a little flustered. Now he didn't make any
hugel unders, although he did get stripsacked once if I'm
not mistaken. But you can't, even as if your a
Viking fan, enjoy that peace of mind to say, well,
at least I don't have to hear for a week
how we didn't need Sam Donald. It's hard to spend

(56:18):
that much time on that given the fact that you
lost twenty six. Nothing got shut out for the first
time in forever.

Speaker 5 (56:23):
Sam Donald QBR yesterday. Yeah, eighteen point three. Yeah, that's
not very good either. It's no, that's it. Their offense
was not. The Vikings defense finally played well enough to
win the game on the road. I honestly do believe
that if you have anything going offensively at all, and
by doing so also, that would have put a little
bit more pressure in the fourth quarter on Sam Donald.

(56:45):
But by the time they ended up getting their touchdown,
it was all loosey goosey in the game was pretty
much over at that point. Top of the hour pause
more NFL conversation. Maybe not all of it related to
the Vikings.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
We've got a bonus Vikings talking point that might add
insult to injury, even though it does not feature a
single Minnesota Viking player or cod line. The Fano. The
Vikings are teaming up for toys for tots.

Speaker 5 (57:12):
Join us Live Shields and Eden Prairie tomorrow five thirty
am to six thirty pm for our annual broadcast presented
by Unreal Bring a toy, spread some joy, and if
you're one of the first fifty donors to each show,
let's score a Sweet Cafe and Unreal Winter Beanie Cafe
on dot com slash toys For all the details, see
you tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Lots of good texts coming in late on kind of
a post mortem Monday. We've had a few of those, right.
Vikings have fallen out to four and eight this season.
It's at Washington coming in this week. Do we know
if they're going to have their starting quarterback? They had
a They're involved in a very dramatic finish in overtime,

(58:08):
ultimately losing to the Denver Broncos. I think a game
that I was played in Washington or the Washington area.
I've not heard what the status of the QB or
what the quarterback situation is for Washington for next week.
I mentioned a Vikings talking point that's really not a

(58:30):
Vikings talking point at all, but I think is worthy
of discussion. In fact, we entered into some of this
conversation on Sunday sermons. We call this our bonus b
m I talking point. Let's listen. Eventually you heard the

(59:08):
voice of Ben Johnson after he had removed his shirt
after the Chicago Bears knocked off the Philadelphia Eagles, that
was in the visiting locker room in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He
I think maybe solve the BMI who's got the best
BMI in the division mystery with what he exposed. Why

(59:37):
is it apropos today? What's what's the relevance to the
current condition of the Minnesota Vikings. He's a coach who
respects the ground game, who relishes the ground game, who
doesn't really have to finesse the ground game or explain

(01:00:00):
himself for why he didn't run the ball. He relishes
running the ball. Bears ran for almost three hundred yards
in that game. Now, it's interesting even the Ben Johnson's
of the world can have some regrets. I think one
of the close room after the game was I probably

(01:00:21):
should have called more running plays than we did. I
think the Bears through thirty two passes, and he said,
based on how well we were running, that's probably too many.
But he's got a proven track record going back to
his time with the Lions and now his first season
with the Bears, of believing in the soundness of handing

(01:00:45):
the ball off. You could say, well, their offensive line
is better suited to that. Guess what. They had to
rebuild their offensive line similar to what the Vikings allegedly
did this offseason, and maybe they got people who are
a little bit better at the ground game. I'm not sure,
but it was a not so subtle reminder of the

(01:01:09):
contrast between here and there regarding the ground game and
respecting it and not having to look back and go, yeah,
fourth and one. Given the circumstance, she probably should have
handed the ball off. By the way, we keep hearing, well,
all the Vikings were averaging with that point was one
yard a game. I don't even know if that's one
yard carry. I don't even know if that's true, but

(01:01:31):
that's all you needed was one yard. It's fourth and one.
In that situation, you only needed the single yard, and
it's the old deal of then you could live to
I guess tell the tale for another series of downs.
It's about Adam Felin told us as recently as a

(01:01:51):
week ago before he became a former contributor weekly contributor
to the Bumper to Bumper Show. We just need more
plays offensively. Whatever we want to do, whatever we want
to fashion, whatever identity we want to carve out. We
really haven't had a chance to do that because we're
not in the field enough. You know, how you stay

(01:02:11):
on the field. It's not always throwing thirty two yards
down field. It's just getting the two yards on third
and two, handing the ball off, pitching it, swinging a pass,
wherever you want to do it. It could be pretty simple,
but it can be pretty important for sure. Some interesting

(01:02:33):
texts are coming in, including this one, Don't forget Knowledge.
They let cousins Darnold Rogers and Daniel Jones walk. They
also passed on bow Nicks in the draft. I don't
know what to make of bow Nicks. Denver's record is impressive.
I think that team is built largely on defense. When

(01:02:55):
you look up where bow Knicks ranks, either stat either
the old fashioned quarterback rating, maybe both how high up
and also how high up he ranks ranks in terms
of the ESPN QBR. Now, remember this is Nicks's second year, right,
he played a lot last year. What I will grant

(01:03:16):
is I was certainly in the group that said, ain't
nobody liking Bo Knicks over JJ McCarthy in that draft?
And what can we say about Nick so far? Well,
two things. He's been available, played in a lot of games,

(01:03:38):
and I don't believe I think it's pretty fair to
see he hasn't had the transformational lows that JJ McCarthy
has had in his first season. I don't even think
bow Knicks had as much of that a year ago.
Where do we have him in the National foota league rating?
It might not support a loo. Bo Nicks has been solid. Yeah,

(01:04:01):
I've got him ranked as twentieth. Okay, Yeah, So that's
why I say I don't think I mean they're they're.
What I do think is fair to say is he
hasn't been hideous the way JJ McCarthy has been. And
now Max Brosmer on a consistent basis, he's not. I
don't think he can say he's the reason they're in

(01:04:22):
the position they're in this year. I think that has
largely to do, as I mentioned earlier, with the defense,
so we can that's one of those second guesses we
can argue about forever, and in all honesty and fairness,
the only real evaluation that it's going to take years.
It's going to take several years before we can really
fairly compare bow Knicks as a quarterback to JJ. The

(01:04:45):
advantage bow Knicks has is, as I said, they were
ready to play him almost from the beginning last year.
They threw him out there, he got time, and he
also stayed relatively healthy, I believe. Well, he also only
have two losses. So that's it. They wouldn't football waying
football games as well, There's no question about that. Is
this story true? The New Jersey home of Eagles offensive

(01:05:06):
coordinator Kevin Patulo was vandalyzed with the eggs early Saturday morning,
according to the Morristown Police Department. The incident of curred
after the eagles twenty four to fifteen home loss to
the Bears on Friday. I haven't read much or heard
much about that. Is that true? Not sure, it's not true.
I mean, it wouldn't strain credulity in Philadelphia, would it?
I mean, I don't think it would be. It's the
one place where you're more likely to believe that this

(01:05:29):
isn't one of those AI generated stories and is real
than pretty much any other town in America. And by
the way, their offense is a mess. But I watched
that game and I thought a lot of it had
to do with you. We're talking about execution, about you know,
accurate throws, receivers helping out. I didn't think there was

(01:05:49):
a lot of that from the the Eagles. In fact,
I think the Eagles had a lot of opportunities to
do better offensively in that game. And the qbat it
just didn't even find didn't even okate, let alone throw
two open receivers from time to time as well.

Speaker 5 (01:06:05):
Here's a Bonick stat that's good. He is the leader
in the NFL in game winning drives.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
That's bad. Quarterback, that's pretty good. You can't argue with's
that bad? No, that's not bad at all.

Speaker 5 (01:06:14):
For sure, he's top two or he's tied for first
in fourth quarter comebacks.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Okay, so you sat, hey, when the crunch time is there,
he's on well, JJ, he has had a couple fourth
quarter comebacks. One of them was a victory, the other
one Wasn't his fault that we didn't handle the kickoff
returned very well? Is that his fault? Is that McCarthy's fault?
Probably not. We still have another Vikings talking point to
get to a couple of other notes around the National

(01:06:42):
Football League and what I think is fast becoming one
of the more interesting and unpredictable seasons that we have
seen in a while. It's the bumper to bumper show
raps brought to you by American pressure. Are we as
a fan base prepared for what's coming? I mean we

(01:07:04):
have some We do have some experience with lost seasons
that have turned into lame duck situations where by this
point you pretty much know you're not a factor in
the postseason. I think it probably hurts more no though,
right now, coming off fourteen and three, and with the
hope so high on McCarthy that he could be one

(01:07:25):
of those quarterbacks who almost from the beginning, would at
the very least not get in the way of where
this team might be going. I don't know, it's it's
an interesting issue. Somebody's texting that the top three teams
record wise right now, the Bears, Broncos, and Patriots all

(01:07:45):
have quarterbacks from last year's draft. That does hurt probably
a little bit. And as we said, all three played
those quarterbacks extensively in their first year, and so he
could get some of the kinks out, they could work

(01:08:06):
out some of the issues. And you know, again, I
still don't think Cale Williams is playing great, but it's
where the Vikings are further handstrung. And as we talked
about earlier, because they have not been able to start
the clock on McCarthy as quick as those teams were

(01:08:29):
able to start those quarterbacks, and sooner or later, the
elephant in the room regarding Justin Jefferson is going to
rear its head because, as I mentioned much earlier in
this show, if JJ McCarthy needs as much game experience

(01:08:51):
as it looks like he's going to to figure it out,
you can make the argument that next year is going
to be another sort of a transitional year in which
you're not going to see McCarthy at his best. And
in the eyes of Justin Jefferson, one of the best
receivers in the league, is he gonna look at it

(01:09:14):
as well that's another year of me and my prime
somewhat wasted. And then at some point you say, well,
is there even any point in his salary, even knowing
how good he is, if we're not gonna be able
to maximize with him. I don't know. It's one of
the many questions moving forward. I think there's gonna be
a lot of them this offseason, and it does probably

(01:09:40):
in some ways make Sunday easier. It really though, couldn't
have been crueler. We talked about this Sunday the way
it played out before the game. We said, I bet
you the ratings are going to be through the roof
because the only thing Vikings can hold on to now
is the curiosity factor. Let's say one of those Brozemers,
guy's got a little and, as we said Sunday, if

(01:10:03):
he's got nothing, or in this game at least he's
got nothing, it's going to be crueler and even more
devastating than it would have been if it had just
been JJ McCarthy going and starting another game, because there
were people starting to work themselves up, especially some Gopher fans,
thinking he might want to watch this guy, he might

(01:10:23):
surprise everybody. We even quoted some of the national folks saying,
where on the street is He's sneaky good And he
might be sneaky good from the beginning because of that experience,
while we saw nothing that suggested moxie and experience on
one of the worst quarterback decisions and plays in the
underhand interception as you'll ever see, who is the old

(01:10:45):
Tennessee quarterback? Is he still with him? Who is the
Tennessee quarterback who routinely Leviss remember he had routinely made
throws like that. He goes, what are you doing? You
think you're a You think you're in your backyard playing
flag football. You can't do that, And that was one

(01:11:05):
of those you can't do that moments that unfortunately Max
Brosmer did or is it Brosmer? I don't know. I
did to hear both, as you said, here both a
lot even on the broadcast. Maybe we save I think
we have one Vikings talking point left, but maybe we
save it. Let me see if I can find it.
Did the bonus did the JJ, Yeah, we did. The

(01:11:29):
we'll save the point of positivity talking point called the
defense rests for tomorrow's program, which, by the way, as
we said again on location are annual Toys for Tots event.
Come and see us in Eden Prairie at the very
fashionable Shields location. Josh mctellus's scheduled to join us on

(01:11:53):
location at least for now. More than that later, Kevin
Seaffert is scheduled to come to see us, and Luis
lou Nanny will join us by phone. When's the Wild's
next Wild's next Games of tourne You're supposed to know this, Kevin,
Kevin Falness, You're supposed to know the entire schedule. Well,
of course, because I were you were you in for

(01:12:16):
the world premiere season premiere.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
I was of Beyond the Pond. It was emotional, it
was it controversial, Yeah, it always is. Well, they had
John Mayasi Chehn with Pat mcletty. Gopher fans go crazy.
Next game is tomorrow the Oilers on the Road.

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
Is koc relieved that Max played that way less controversy.
We did talk about this Lindwood Township guy, and I
think the answers yes, I mean, I don't think he,
you know, could possibly have wanted to endure the agony
he did yesterday to his offensive reputation. But I do
think as we talked about earlier. It it will without

(01:12:54):
any question quiet the bros Obos. I think even they
will say, I'm not giving up on my guy. I
still think he's got a chance to turn into something.
But it's really going to be kind of foolish for
me after that performance to say you got to keep
throwing them out there. I think even they have been

(01:13:15):
neutered enough, chastened enough to say, yeah, you got to
put Macarthy back out there and see where this thing goes.
It's just a it's a set of circumstances the quarterback
position that I don't think any of us could possibly
have anticipated that it could be this bad, this miserable,
this dreadful. They didn't score yesterday, Right was the yardage total?

(01:13:40):
I think it was for like four quarters going back
to the second the second half of the previous game,
weren't we like at around like forty yards or something.
I mean, it's just stuff that you just don't even
associate with any offense, let alone a KOC offense. Was
very unfortunate. Naylor was hurt in training camp Jags from hamstring. Yeah,

(01:14:03):
we were aware injuries there. We were talking about feelin
earlier and what I don't think the Vikings counted on
was the durability of the wide receivers through the season.
To this point. It's been the one position where they've
had no injuries to speak of once the season began,
and I think part of the reason you make the
Feeling move is a little depth thoroughly with Addison facing

(01:14:24):
suspension and then guess what, He's going to have some
opportunities in and out occasionally because somebody's going to get
nicked up, and we at least have a guy who's
contributed in the past, maybe past his prime, but knows
the system, he's a pro, knows how to play, and
none of that has happened, and Naylor has emerged, he's developed.

(01:14:44):
So I'm not sitting here saying that Feeling should have
played a lot more, but I think that's part of
what worked against him being successful this year. And I
think the quarterback disaster makes it almost impossible to evaluate
any of the wide receivers on this team, even those
who are much closer to the prime of their career
than Adam Thielen is at this point. Thanks as always

(01:15:07):
to our good friend Ben Lieber who joined at four
forty seven today, Johnny Athletic moved up to three point
thirty with Feelin unfortunately not with us this week, and
we've got an APB out form. If he wants to
come on one last time to say goodbye to Vikings fans,
he's more than welcome to do so at any point.
We do hope that indeed happens, but it did not
happen today. A lot of good Vikings talking points, a

(01:15:30):
lot of good texts coming in as well. Monday night
Football and the fan tonight. Is that correct? That is correct?

Speaker 5 (01:15:35):
A little Vikings rewind and then go right in Monday
Night Football and that's New England versus is the Giants.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
It is oh interesting. Speaking of speaking of young quarterbacks,
we wanted, we wanted Drake May and Darts back as well.
Concussion back. There you go, Thanks for watching, Thanks indeed
for listening and hopefully we will see you where we
will be tomorrow, Shields in Eden Prairie for our big
toys for Tot's Day. Please join us then, need frustrating

(01:16:08):
I