Ben Leber/Kyle Potter - Bumper to Bumper 11/10/25 Hour Three

Ben Leber makes his weekly appearance with his thoughts on the Vikings loss before our friend Kyle Potter from Thrifty Traveler joins to give us what we need to know about the chaos in air travel right now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fan Sierra Nevada Ruined Company brings our nest next guest

(00:24):
to the phone, Nacho Liber, Ben Leber. If you have
questions for him, the usual place to find him is
available the Bradshawn Bryant caffe and text line at six
four six eighty six. I guess you could tweet directly
at him, Nacho Liber as well. Whatever works for you, Ben.
Why did we lose to the Baltimore Ravens twenty seven

(00:47):
to nineteen yesterday afternoon?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Oh boy, I mean, if you want to really want
to simplify it, they had thirteen points off of our
three gibs and we had zero points off of our
zero take. So I would say, right there, that's that's
the game. And I'm not saying that you can't go
into every game and expect not to turn the ball

(01:11):
oger at least once, especially playing a pretty you know,
at least recently a better playing defense. But yeah, I mean,
that's kind of what it boils down to you. And
then then obviously there's this stuff with the false starts
and all the other things, but that was all like
in an effort to try to claw our way back
into the game. But yeah, it was kind of the turnovers.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Certainly didn't help, that's for sure. I felt like early
Baltimore seems sluggish. I thought our defense was playing well.
Obviously we had the first good offensive, good scoring drive
that you know, we didn't sustain that. But when I
looked up at the scoreboard, the old cliche and you

(01:51):
see it's your winning, but it's ten to nine, That
to me is largely where I felt like the game
might have been lost, because I felt, on the basis
of the body of work in the field, that the
Vikings should have been further ahead at the half when
they were, because I didn't think Jackson looked particularly dynamic,
you know, certainly as dynamic as he can look running
and throwing the ball. But I felt it shouldn't be ten.

(02:14):
If it's ten to nine, that's got to be a
little bit scary.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I was actually surprised by the ten to nine because
I went into the game. I had convinced myself that
it was going to be a higher spelling game, and
much higher spelling game, you know, based off of the
momentum that we had from Detroit, based on what I
know thought I knew about Baltimore, and like, look, I
want to give our defense a lot of credit because
they played well enough to win. But I think going
into the game it was more of like, man, you know,
they got this two headed monster thing. They got some

(02:39):
pretty good receivers. Like, you know, I was thinking this
is going to be a twenty eight, twenty four type
of victory for us, and it was kind of a
slug fest, you know, in that first half. And I
look back on it now though, and you know, I
think that Todd Munkin, the offensive coordinator for the Ravens,
kind of took the very intentional approach of like, we
don't have to be explosive. We let's just take care

(03:02):
of the football, let's move the chains. Of course they
want some of those runs to hit a little bit more,
but we did a great job kind of kind of
bottling everything up, aside from a couple of big plays.
But I don't think that they tried to stretch the field.
I don't think they wanted to take any shots. I
don't think they wanted to put Lamar in a five
or seven step drop. I think it was very intentional
about the methodical nature of their game plan and ended

(03:24):
up working out.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Why weren't we more methodical with the running game.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Well, I think, you know, I think a lot has
to do with just the game. The game sequence gets
gets away from us a little bit with all the
false starts. You know now, now four of those false
starts took place in the fourth quarter, and I'm not
sure that we're much of a running team so much
in the fourth quarter when we don't when we don't
have a lead. But you know, I think it did.

(03:49):
It did throw us off, you know, play calling wise,
and so many of them happened on first down, and
it's like, well, you know, if we want to get
the second manageable, I don't know if we need to
run the football here again, although hindsight, you know, we
finished the game. I think between both of our backs,
you take away McCarthy scrambling, you know, we're running for
what five run? That's right, you know, that's pretty darn good.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's very good.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Actually, I agree on the false starts again, different reasons.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
I would.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
The company line is everybody needs to you know, look internally,
and everybody contributed to it. But you're not going to
tell me, or maybe you will that the number one
reason is not that the way the quarterback handled the cadence.
It to me, it's too much of a coincidence to
think that suddenly got a bunch of people, including a

(04:41):
right tackle or not exactly known for that kind of thing.
That we're getting confused whether it was they thought the
play was being the ball was being snapped at one
of at one of those huts, or that they didn't
know that that, you know, JJ was going to try
to change the play again, it's got to be that's
got to be a big piece of this, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
It feels like that, you know. The thing is though,
you know, I heard Kos's presser today and you know,
he's like, look it, this wasn't one. There wasn't a
smoking gun, you know, and it wasn't just about the
one thing. It's it's mystifying for sure when you have
veteran guys doing it, especially O'Neill who did it twice.

(05:23):
And and the one that's the one that I can't
figure out is how often do you see the quarterback
fall starting? Yeah, you know, when the quarterback gets called
for a false start, it's like, okay, what where's the
disconnect with what he's calling in the huddle, what he
thinks when he thinks the ball is going to come
out on whatever caller cadence, and then all other ten

(05:44):
guys don't move. It's like, Okay, something's really off, you know,
in the in the huddle, in the design of the
play calls or something for this particular game. Maybe they
had certain checks, Maybe they changed up the code word
that they they wanted to use for this particular game.
Maybe they had some inside on the Ravens kind of
knew something about their cadence or whatever. They're going to

(06:06):
try to get off on the ball a little quicker,
So maybe they change up stuff stuff that they hadn't
done the past. So I don't know what it is.
I'm confident that they're going to get it figured out
by the Chicago game because it has to.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
We can't.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
We can't play that sloppy before the balls even start.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
Does Jefferson have to make that catch on what I
thought was one of McCarthy's better throws over the middle
on near the end near the goal line.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, it was a dart,
came with some some hot sauce on it. But if
you want to be the best in the in the world,
and I think he is you got to make that catch.
It's a tough catch, don't get me wrong. I mean
you got on your back yep, and you see the receiver,
you see you see the safety. There's some color there
that that possibly could blow you up, you know, but

(06:53):
you know you've got to focus in on that ball
coming in pretty hot and make that catch. So yeah,
I think he's got to make that grab.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Does Some of the jackals, including our four four o'clock
guess Johnny Athletic, very unsettled by what they thought was
some not great body language from Jefferson after the I
iNTS in terms of effort. Now, one of those I
think he knew was down by contact, which I think
Johnny Acknowledge and others have as well.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
I don't know. I have a hard time getting two
worked up on that.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
I if I'm bothered by anything about but JJ I
thought it was more he was in one of those
modes yesterday where he was he was he was looking
for PI calls almost every time he went out in
a pattern. But as a as a former player, would
you be bugged if you sense that a teammate on
offense doesn't seem all that interested in trying to you know,

(07:47):
bring the interceptor down or are we making too much
of this?

Speaker 2 (07:51):
I honestly think we're making too much of it. I mean,
it's not even something I noticed during the game. You
know that fifty to fifty ball that was that was
thrown in zero coverage, which I mean, I saw it
clear as day that even though he was running. I'm like, well,
he's down by contact. He's just wasting injury right now.
I know that he probably didn't hear the whistle, and
maybe that wasn't a whistle, but I'm like, it's very

(08:12):
obvious that he hit him actually in mid air when
he made that play, and so he's down by contact.
So I understand that one, Like, why give all this
extra effort when I know that he's down one hundred
percent is down? The other one, you know, it's thrown
in a double coverage, and you know, I never thought
that there was a lack of effort. You know, maybe

(08:33):
some body language that's unbecoming of Justin Jefferson, But look, man,
he's built up so much equity he is. He's such
a dog when it comes to his effort and the
way that he goes out there, and it's such a
pro and it's such a good role model for everybody
on that team that No, he's got to show me
a lot more, a lot more egregiousness than what they're

(08:54):
talking about right now, and he's got to do it
for a longer period of time before I'm on on
that team, you know, starting to question whether his efforts
there and his focus is there.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Seven to six three guy asks me to ask you
what you thought of the Vikings time management under two
minutes before the half. We got the ball squander at
the time handed it back for a way too easy
field goal to make it ten to nine.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, if I
can remember off the top of my head, I think
we had a minute eleven left to go in the
in the first half, we get the ball with two timeouts.
At the end of that that drive that sequence, I
think only thirty two seconds the game clock had went
off off the board there. So yeah, I mean every
coach talks about it, and we've heard koc talk about it.

(09:35):
You got to win that middle eight that four minutes
at the end of the first half and the four
minutes at the start of the second half, and that's
those moments where you need to own that middle eight
and you need to go down there with the score
views up all of your time, don't allow the Ravens
to even have a possession in which they went down
and scored three points on and then you want to
get the ball back. It's the whole reason why you defer.

(09:57):
You want to get the ball back and the start
of the second half and own that possession as well
and hopefully get some points. And we've seen it, We've
been on both sides of it. But that is a
momentum shifter. I mean that changes the game plan. If
they go down there, let's say they get a touchdown,
there's fourteen points on the board in a span of
a couple minutes. That changes their approach and now puts
them on their heels a little bit defensively, and now

(10:18):
it puts them a little bit of aggressiveness that they
didn't want to have in the second half offensively. So yeah,
I think I think if Kosi had to do it
all over again, sure, he'd love to have that end
of first half back.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
You're a correct one to eleven left, we get the
ball back. McCarthy hits Addison for five to put us
on the on the Vikings forty incomplete pass deep left
Addison and then incomplete pass short to the right hand
side as well. So now it's we're punting with forty
seconds to go on fourth and five, and they ultimately

(10:53):
get to go four plays sixty three yards pretty quickly.
The big play was the Flowers short pass to the
left right that Flowers turned into a big, very big
play for twenty seven yards. That's what kind of opened
the door. And then then the other the gift they
got was the personal file roughing the passer penalty on

(11:17):
on Dallas Turner, which was the classic where you got
to find a way to move to the side. In fact,
I think we got that call a week ago in
a game, and that obviously put them in prime field
goal position as well. So it's ten to nine coming
out for the for the second half.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
How did you feel?

Speaker 1 (11:34):
So we get the ball to start the second as
you said, and we get the running game going early,
and then it's after I think a run and a pass,
it's it's it's going to be third and one. And
that was the fateful pick where I think McCarty where
JJ stumbled the Jefferson stumbled and that ball was intercepted,

(11:57):
and the head coaches said, look, I threw it on
third down because I knew we were going for it
and I had a run called for fourth down.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Do you believe him?

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah? Oh yeah, I totally believe him. I mean, I
think that was that was the plan all along for
you know what he was thinking as far as a
play caller goes. But you know, the one area that
you know, I don't particularly love is the fact that, yes,
you've got a favorable pass situation in that in that
there was zero coverage and you're like, okay, it was

(12:26):
really like third and less than a yard, yes, And like, okay,
we're gonna we've got two downs to go one yard.
Why don't we take a shot here where if we
get the coverage that we're looking for. Yeah, all day long,
we should be able to trust Justin Jefferson in that situation.
But then if you don't, though, now now it's now
it's the same situation but even worse, like of course

(12:50):
everybody's being packed up against the line thinking that you're
gonna run forward. Isn't that a better situation to throw
the football in?

Speaker 4 (12:58):
Right?

Speaker 2 (12:58):
So you know you can you can talk about it
both ways. It's like, yeah, you've got a favorable passing
down on third and one, but don't you have an
even better passing down on fourth and one when everybody's
now pulled into the line of scrimmage and and and
you're showing probably run So like, I don't know, I
think again we have the beauty hindsight. I would much

(13:19):
rather in that game situation have wanted to control the
game a little bit more. Move the chains. Yeah, find
some sort of rhythm, Uh, go with go with a
run play on third and one, and then then if
you don't get it, go again. You know, like, you
have two downs to get six inches. If you can't
do it with the with these new offensive linemen that

(13:40):
you brought in, had a brand new rookie left guard
that's kind of a road raider, I mean, then you
got some real problems that you can't You can't get
six inches and two plays on a on a downhill run.
So you know, we I'd rather much rather be talking
about that than a change of possession.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Well, we don't even like to run on third and three,
And it's okay to run on third and three. In fact,
there's a lot of teams that do it, including Kreit. Frankly,
the team they're going to play this week, the Bears.
The hell they're not afraid to run on second and
ten to get Okay, well, maybe we'll get five, maybe
we'll get six.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
And not all teams are built the same way.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
I understand that part of it, too, But I thought
there are enough good signs.

Speaker 5 (14:17):
Man.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
I mean, Jones looks fresh as hell now again. I
know he can't get hurt and just did again last week,
but he looked awfully fresh to me.

Speaker 3 (14:26):
Do we have a tush push anymore? We don't anymore?

Speaker 5 (14:29):
Do we.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
Our team? You know you're talking about our teams specifically.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, our team specifically? Do we have it?

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Do we have that in our arsenal anymore? I feel
like we tried it a year or two ago, but
haven't since.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't think if we've
tried it, it really hasn't been all that successful. Yeah,
you know the type of play that I think would work.
I mean, shoot, Patrick Ricard, they ran it on us
on a short yard. It's just his I formation quick, Yeah,
belly dive right down the middle with your fullback I mean,
I love that play.

Speaker 6 (15:00):
C J.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Ham. He's a former running back. I don't know if
you know we've heard him before, but he's back from injury.
I think he's fully capable of, you know, plowing ahead,
whether he's getting a push from the backside to pick
up less than one yard. But yeah, there are definitely
some plays out there that could get us that yard.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
The uh so McCarthy again, he had some the great
the first drive was excellent. He had a lot of miscues,
a lot of arrant balls as well. Do you see
any pattern is it he has he gets sped up,
or he has trouble if he's moving around a little bit,
or is it just okay, this is just part of

(15:37):
the process with him. Is there any constant to when
he seems to lose accuracy?

Speaker 2 (15:45):
No, I mean I can't really put a finger on it.
Like you know, I don't think we have a bigger
up sample size quite yet. I mean I think that
there's plays. Shoot, you know the touchdown to Hawkinson last game,
you know that was scrambled to the right. Sure, it
seemed like he was in under duress, and you'd think
that his mind is moving very fast and his body's
clearly in motion and he's able to throw a dart

(16:08):
right between the numbers on you know, kind of a
throw that you'd be like, eh, you threw that back
to the middle of the field, like just just be careful,
you know. So No, I can't pinpoint any specific moments.
I definitely think that, you know, every first time starter
in their fourth game, you know, still has a process,
process that's being sped up, maybe quicker than you'd like.

(16:29):
You don't see a lot of vets. I mean, you
look at Aaron Rodgers even from last night, even though
it wasn't getting a lot of protection and you know,
they didn't do much offensively, but when he rolls out
and he has to scramble like there's there's urgency, there
doesn't seem to be panic. And I think there's a
big difference between the two. And again that comes from
experience and you know, ten thousand live reps sort of things.

(16:50):
So he'll get there. I definitely have faith that JJ's
gonna get there, and he's shown enough on talent to
make some certain throws. Yeah, I think once he calms
his body that you know, he'll be a much more accurate.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
Top splash Player of the Game for Ben Lever.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Hop Splash Sierra, Nevada's Hop Splash Player of the Game.
I'm cheating, okay, Dan, I'm gonna cheat. I'm gonna go
with both of our inside linebackers, Cashman and Eric Wilson.
And again for this award, it's for things that don't
show up in the stat books. They went out last
week and played an athletics style of defense, and this

(17:28):
week they had to bow up and play a physical
brand of football, and I thought they met that on perfectly. Yes,
they had some runs, but you know, you got to
take on a big old fullback that's stay near three
hundred pounds leading the way behind a two hundred and
fifty five pound running back. Man. There was one particular play,
Eric Wilson came screaming down a hill in the red zone,

(17:51):
took on, took on Recard, bounced off of him, and
was the first to make contact with Derrick Henry. I
mean I saw multiple plays where they were taking on
the full back and keeping themselves alive. So I thought
they really did a good job of stepping up, you know,
shutting down the run. For the most part, never really
never really got out the gate and felt out of control.

(18:13):
Jonathan Allen I thought played really well against the run
as well. But for this award, I'm gonna give.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
It to those two guys who was the running back
in your career that you absolutely despised having to tackle.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
The bus man I'd play against Drove. Yeah, nightmare fuel
right there. You know. I talked to those two linebackers
after the game and I was like, you know, how
was it playing against that big dude. They're like, not
that bad. You know, like, as long as you don't
let him get going downhill and you get that big
stiff arm, you know, you can get low enough to
take his legs out. I think Cashman did that a

(18:46):
couple of times as well. But and they're right, you know,
he's so long legged and high hips that. Yeah, if
you get to him before he starts chugging, you can
bring him down. I mean the bus was just so low,
you know, like ran with such good pad level that
if it's like I mean, the only way to get
lower than him is a torpedo. But then you have
to lose your feet. Yeah, and if you don't time

(19:07):
it up, he's just going to step over the top
of you.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, that's a good name. I haven't thought about him
in a long long time. He was a hell of
a running back for sure.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
It just goes back to how how long ago I
played A long time.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
That it has been a while, has it not.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, So we got the Bears, got the NFC North news,
the Packers are hosting the Eagles tonight. That's will be
of interest I think the Vikings fans and NFC North fans.
And then we got the Bears coming in next week.
I will tell you that I've continued to disparage the
Bears pretty much every week that I I didn't trust

(19:45):
them as they got the five and three.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
There's still a party that's not sure I.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Trust them as a six and three team because they
have played the easiest part of their easy schedule. It's
about to get tougher, I think within the division the rest.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Of the way.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
On the other hand, I got to acknowledge that with
Ben Johnson, he has figured out a way with this
QB to open the door to him making some pretty
ridiculous comebacks late now again, not against great defenses, but
they found a way to do it. So to me,
this falls into the classification of this amount of game
you can mess around with at all. Given the Vikings position,

(20:22):
and given probably the Bears, whether they're real or not,
have have gained a little bit of confidence in the
fact that they're sitting there at six and three.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well, you just said the word that I was I
was going to use myself. I mean, it's confidence. I
don't I don't think most players really look at the
strength of schedule the way that fans do. You know,
they're they're not saying, oh, I'm going to discredit this
win or this winning streak because you know, we just
haven't played great teams. I mean, you take these wins

(20:51):
and it fuels you, you know, it motivates you. It
in their case, the way that they're able to come
from behind, the way that they're able to watch their
playmaker quarterback go out there and make plays like it's
all just building confidence. It's all just another building block
to their whole season and what they want to build from,
not this year, but beyond. And that's the one thing

(21:12):
that you know, it does worry me. You know, we're
we're still trying to figure out where we sit, and
they probably feel like, hey, we're very comfortable with where
we are. And we like this game plan. We like
that what we can do. We know that division games
are tougher, they're a different animal, and they got to
come into our place with our fans, and you look
at it from the positive things from our game is

(21:36):
that you can fix self inflicted wounds. You know, it's
frustrating for us to walk away from the Ravens game
feel like it's a game that we lost versus a
game that the Ravens won. But to have that comfort
knowing that these are fixable problems and if like we
just fixed some of these very easy, correctable things into
the next game, we're still a hell of a football team.

(21:58):
I think it'd be different if we walked in and
it was playing the Ravens and it felt like the
Chargers game and we're soul searching and we're like, whoa,
what just happened? Like we don't even know where to
begin because everything went bad because they were just way
better than us on this particular day. So I'm not
super super concerned about where we are. I know that

(22:21):
we're going to figure it out, and I know that
we're going to bring some extra juice because it's a
division game.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
Well finish with this. This is from seven to six three, guy, Nacho.
It goes without saying can break down a game like
no one else. So the fans are still out there
in your favor. If your own confidence was it all wavering,
and I'm I'm not here to suggest it was, that
might be the confidence boost you're looking for. A text
out of nowhere giving you a great credit for the
way you break.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Down a game.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Oh man, that does make me feel really good. You know,
I was, I was having one of those like moonday, Yeah,
having a Moonday, and it happens to the best of
us having one of those days, and for no real reason,
it's just so man, you know, thank you. Who was
that again?

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Guy? Yeah, you didn't have a name, but I just
go with the area code. Yeah, I think it's seven
six three, let's be clear.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, seven sixth three.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Guys, So he you, he wins you, You win him over,
and then maybe you feel a little bit better about
yourself the rest of the afternoon.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
And yeah, see there it goes.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
You know, seven sixth three. Guy, I'm going to give
you a virtual hug right now.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
You know, we'll hug it out. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
All you can ask for. I have a wonderful week,
and we will talk to you next week.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
Thanks man.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
All right, and Dan, I promise you I'll give you
a real hug the next time I see you.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
I I got no problems with that. You know that.
I don't.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
I don't even remember the last time I've seen you.
Now that's my fault.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
I never go to game.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
I never go to games. That's the problem. That's the
The jackals are on me for that. But uh, maybe
maybe I'll maybe maybe this's the week Bears week, maybe.

Speaker 3 (23:50):
You'll see it's possible. Yeah, thanks man.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
All right, Ma Nacho Ben Lieber kind of enough to
join us. Let's get to another very saucy Vikings talking point,
and then we'll prepare to talk air travel because there's
a lot to get to there. It's a very timely
subject with the thrifty traveler guy Kyle Potter. He is
scheduled for five thirty oh.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
No famous moments en a gas offense.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
All right, well, let's up flip the script on that,
score a lot of points and actually win the game.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
Really they're gonna okay McCarthy, now with the faull start really,
Paul start by.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
The offense number nine and firegar penalty its first down.

Speaker 8 (24:30):
Join us again another famous moments in a gas offense.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Well Leaver alluded to it, and I always like to
call this particular subject and a throwback and homage to
the salad days at the Metrodome you met in the
junk truck.

Speaker 9 (25:06):
By the way, I want to give you a grand
in your hand as bucks. No, that's okay, grand, I
should have done it coming back. Grand is the final
keyword of the night Cafe dot com keyword Grand Salad
Days Metrodome Walks will haunt if.

Speaker 5 (25:17):
It's third and six for the Vikings three to five.
On third down, Kyle Hamilton threatens blitz from the front
side of McCarthy, then he backs off. JJ takes the snap,
throws deep right side.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
Jefferson intercept it.

Speaker 5 (25:30):
Malakai Starks. Harry comes to the twenty five thirty angles
to the middle of the field of the forty. Jordan
Addison runs him down from behind at the forty seven
yard line. Fifth interception this year for j. J. McCarthy,
and he floated that one up there too much, picked
off by rookie Malachi Stark, who now has two interceptions

(25:53):
this year, third and short two tight ends, they're batanced offset.
I right, McCarthy on third and one is going to
pass from under center. He's going to go deep. Jefferson
him now and Marlon Humphrey picked it up, picked it
off at the five yard line. The veteran Marlon Humphrey
heads up the field lazy lead to the fifteen. Now
he sprints twenty twenty five and JJ McCarthy has thrown

(26:17):
two interceptions. He's sprinting over to the sideline. There's the
loop kit. Here comes Miles Price to the five to
ten fifteen. He dropped the ball at the twenty two
yard line. Miles Price second fumble this year at the
twenty two may give the Ravens the ball and very
good field position after they just grabbed the lead.

Speaker 3 (26:37):
It's a scrum.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
It's a scrum. Three officials in there to establish who
has the ball. Miles Price fumbled at the twenty two
to twenty three Ravens ball for minus three and they take.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Divery kidding me? Are you kidding me? Could have in
minus four The next kickoff of the next kickoff was crazy.
He fumbled it. Then the next guy it up.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
I can remember who picked it up. Yeah, I'm stunned.
We got that one back that would have obviously been.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
A killer.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
So yeah, you're in that goofy zone with Price because
you do not want to you do not want to
discourage what he the kind of weapon that he's already
proven that he can be, so you got to ride
it out.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
I guess I don't.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Think you can bench him because he's a really good
seems to be a really good return man.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
But again, if I tried.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
With a straight face to pick the Vikings to beat
the Ravens, you're not going to give yourself much of
a chance, whatever you think of the relative strengths of
the two teams. If you're down oh three right in
the takeaways, that's just not no chance.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
It's going to be very realistic. And they scored on
all three. They did score all right, thirteen points.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Well, that's the other reason I thought earlier that the
Vikings were in good shape, because the Ravens had to
keep settling for field goals, and the way the games fell,
we played as well. Eventually, that's going to catch up
with them, right that they're that they're they're having to
settle for three points. But our offense wasn't good enough
to make them pay for any of that. It wasn't
consistent enough. It wasn't good enough. And where it was

(28:13):
good enough, we didn't. We didn't even bother to use it.
As it pertains to the to the ground game as well.
So we sit now. We continued to be in last
place in the division. The Lions recovered, perhaps as expected
from losing to US last week. They just toyed with

(28:35):
the Washington Commanders, who are without their number one quarterback.
They scored in the forties, didn't they the Lions. They
were clinical offensively, they in a way that they we
not did not allow them to the week before. And
then you've got the Packers tonight.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Hosting the Eagles.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
They tell me it's going to be bare weather at Lambeau.
I think in the thirties with a lot of wind.
I don't the ESPN crew looks chilly. There is there
any precip because like Chicago area, there's parts of Chicago
area and like Kenosha, Wisconsin just got obliterated with snow.
They had like a clipper come through and they got
a lot of snow. My sister, the coach, originally told

(29:20):
me they were supposed to get a foot but I
think it ended up staying closer to the lake than
she is. So I don't know if they ended up
getting all that much in Loving, Lovely Barrington, Illinois.

Speaker 9 (29:32):
Just clouds tonight in Crane Bay with the lower around
twenty three.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
So chili.

Speaker 9 (29:35):
That's chili col for early November. Yeah, yeah, that's chili.
They may get some snow tomorrow, but nothing tonight.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
Bears, as we talked about with Lieber, I, you know,
I don't know what to say about them. I've been
disparaging them, maybe too much on the basis of who
they're playing.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
But I mean, the.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Giants are up ten, driving right on the field with
the kid quarterback, and he's I want to say, he'd
gotten a first down to like the twenty on an end,
like a running a kind of a bootleg around the
left side. But then he was reckless with the ball.

(30:18):
He fumbles the ball, gets hit pretty hard, fumbles the ball,
and the Bears recover. That's what changed the game. The
Giants were on the verge of going up seventeen or
thirteen if they have to settle for a field and
ultimately the Bears did get two touchdowns. So maybe they
would have won anyway. I don't know, but the game,
the momentum of the whole game switched at that point.

(30:38):
And as exasperating as Caleb can be, as inconsistent as
he can be in terms of putting the ball on
the receiver, in this case, I think they had seven
dropped passes.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Their offensive line did not protect the QB at all.
And this is one of those games where you got
to give William's credit that he won it almost on
his own by his escapability making some plays that ultimately
the game winning touchdown was him scrambling around left end
when I think like twenty five yards something like that.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
So and the Giants have seen enough. They relieved Brian David.
They got rid of that.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
They did that was you could see it in his face.
I'm actually what I was watching the game. He had
one of those like oversized Belichick hoodies and the.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Hood was up. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
He made it seem like it was like the Wind
Shows minus thirty and kind.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Of looks like Larry the Cable guy while he's wearing
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
That's true, but the look on his face I really
felt was I'm done. I'm not going to recover from this.
You could sense it, and that indeed was the case.
So as Leeber said, I don't know, I mean it,
if you keep winning, you start gaining some confidence. Because
remember the Bear started strong last year, then they had

(31:56):
that mess in Washington and never recovered. They were one
of the worst team record wise. The ended up being
one of the worst teams in the league. And so
you got to give the new coach credit for something.
Something is kicking in regarding what they what they're their
clutch offense lately is clearly improved over what it was.

(32:16):
And by the way they can run the damn ball.
They got to their second run their second string running back.
I can't even pronounce it. Is it the Mahanga? No,
I can't remember Monong guy.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
That's his name. Very good.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
I was going to say, what's the river where Pittsburgh
is Manongahela.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
I think that's what I thought his name was.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
He's surprisingly affected and then Swift, who I gave up
on and the Lions gave up on.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
He looks reborn. He's been really really good this year.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
And and by the way, third and seven or second
and se or second and ten.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Can be a running.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Call for them, and not all teams are built the
same way. But I honestly believe we have a coach
who doesn't understand that it is legal on second and
ten to hand them all off. Because the thinking isn't
that you're going to get all ten realistically, but what if.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
You get six? Right? It's the old third and makeup
ale kind of a thing.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
There's nothing wrong with, you know, having the difference on
a second and ten giving the defense something to think about,
you know, I mean it had to be as predictable
as hell.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
For the Ravens. And you heard burst its earlier.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Via the talking point say, well, the way they're playing defense,
you can't forget the running game, the way there, the
way their secondary is set up, by the way, who's
the safety that we passed on that we could have
gotten and the year we moved down?

Speaker 9 (33:45):
Yeah for Lucy, Oh my god, Yeah, I know what
a player. I even watched the game yesterday.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
If I were him, I'd have a hard time doing it,
I admit, because there'd be a lot of self loathing.
There have to be after that. I mean, that's just
that that guy's he's a big time.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (34:04):
Yeah, the mess will be traded down fifty seven spots.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
You get six extra spots, extra picks, which we've squandered
most of those too, I think.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
And unfortunately for lewis seen he's not with us anymore.
Is he in the league? Think he is?

Speaker 9 (34:19):
I think we played him, Yeah, but I can't say
he's on anybody's fantasy team.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
The aviation industry is kind of a mess right now,
a lot of flights postponed, canceled, whatever the case may be.
Very special guest Kyle Potter, three feet Traveler AMN dot
com is going to join us next to kind of
update us on how upset the industry is. What the

(34:44):
average rubes, you know, I guess alternatives are, what their
rights are if they get caught in the middle of
a flight that's been canceled because there's been a lot
of cutbacks. How quickly might the system get back to
one hundred percent once if, as expected, the shut down
is over. We'll get to all those things and more
with Kyle Potter. That is coming up next here in

(35:05):
the Fan.

Speaker 10 (35:06):
Time now for the Vikings Report on the Fan, presented
by Miller Lyte. Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen joins Denver
Room next.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
All right, We've had a lot of Vikings conversation today,
as we always do on a Monday, and there'll be
time later this hour and into the six o'clock half
hour to revisit more Vikings talking points. But every once
in a while story comes along that I think, given
our listenership that includes I think a lot of people
that move around the area, move around the country in

(36:06):
some cases, move around the world generally using air you know,
air travel that we didn't want to keep putting off.
What guards He had reminded me last week to get
to with UH with Kyle Potter, thrifty traveler guy UH
in fact yesterday and he'll probably appreciate this. I had
several text from people saying, what are you going to
have him on? So you are in the public kfe

(36:31):
in bumper to bumper slash Sunday Sermon's consciousness.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
That's that can't be all bad, correct.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
No, I'm curious. I'm glad you've clarified that she's got
a lot of people who are traveling around the world
on aircraft, because I'm curious how many are traveling the
excume at that point.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
That's a great point. Well, you know, I'm a throwback.
You know, I'm a throwback. I'm a romantic. I'm a
romantic guy who you know, wishes I could have taken
a you know, a boat across the pond to Europe
or something, which I guess you still can if you
want to write or does that not even exist anymore?

Speaker 4 (37:07):
There's no time like the president and to guard these
point that might be the best bet right now.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Well, you're right exactly it, all right?

Speaker 1 (37:14):
So tell us give me all your best analytics on
the percentages of flight the percentage of flights that are
basically just going away. What the last this weekend has
been like? Is it dogs and cats living together? Open chaos?
Not quite as bad as that? How would you describe
the current scene during this shutdown period that allegedly is

(37:36):
about to end.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
So I'll put it this way, Yesterday Sunday was one
of the worst days in the air travel that we've
had in the last two plus years. There were nearly
three thousand flights nationwide canceled and more than ten thousand delayed.
Today isn't looking a whole lot better than that. The

(38:01):
final numbers might might finish out a little bit better,
but not by a whole lot we're still in. This
is this is everything hitting the fan, basically, all at once,
I think, most importantly, every time I've come on and
we've talked about, you know, air travel melting down, it
has generally speaking been one airline. It was Delta last

(38:25):
summer as a result of the crowd strikeoutage in July
of twenty twenty four. It was Southwest in you know
winter Christmas twenty twenty two into early twenty twenty three.
And this time it is everyone. Everyone is struggling. Some
airlines are struggling more than others to try to catch
up and get planes moving. But there really isn't a

(38:48):
safe haven here. Everybody is struggling, which means, you know,
if you're traveling on a plane, your odds are perhaps
greater than they've ever been that you're not going to
get where you need to go on time, if at all.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
So well, maybe I can introduce this next subject with
a text from six to one to two. Guy who
asks you clee claims he can't find the answer anyplace else.
I've got a kid flying home from Hartford in two
weeks for Thanksgiving. Will this mech mess be fixed by then?
Is it specifically departures from MSP or both departures and arrivals.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Well, well, it's everything, and I will admit six one
two guys, I don't know if the Delta non stops
to Hartford. We're on the list of federally mandated cuts.

Speaker 6 (39:37):
You know.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
I think the question on everyone's.

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Mind is is this going to drag into Thanksgiving? And
you know, I think the good good issues is that,
you know, if the deal in Congress moves through at
some point this week, we'll be we should be past
the worst of it. But I do think we're still
going to continue to see lingering problems with air travels,

(40:00):
probably at least a couple of weeks. Nothing on the
scale of what I just talked about, you know, Sunday
and again today, I hope knock on wood. But you know,
the Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said over the
weekend that in normal times, pre shutdowns, THEESAA would lose

(40:20):
you know, somewhere around four air traffic controllers a day
to retirement, career changes, whatever, and over the past few
days that's been more like fifteen or twenty. And oh,
by the way, all hiring recruiting and training of new
air traffic controllers has been paused for the last forty

(40:41):
plus days, which means, and the way that Secretary Duffy
put this is that this is going to have impacts
that lasts far beyond whenever the government reopens. Now again,
I don't want people to think this means it's going
to be pure chaos over Thanksgiving, but you know that
is the single busiest travel period of the year typically,

(41:04):
and I don't want people to think that it's going
to be completely smooth sailing in a couple of weeks,
because all signs are pointing to there being some lingering
issues with travel disruptions, especially when things get really busy.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
All right, So what are the rights of the average
room under these circumstances?

Speaker 4 (41:26):
You know, really not much here. Travelers in the United
States don't have much in the way of rights when
things go wrong in air travel, especially when it's not
the fault of the airline and it is something like
a work shortage for the FAA as we're seeing now,
or whether you know, we've all been in those situations
where there's been a bad storm and you get stuck

(41:48):
somewhere overnight and you try to get something from the
airline and they tell you to pounce SAMs, and that's
what's going to happen here. The one right that we
really have that does come in handy now is that
the airline cancels your flight for whatever reason, including weather,
including you say, a federal government issues driven by a

(42:09):
forty day shutdown, you can cancel your entire reservation and
get a refund, not just a credit that might fire
a year or less, but actually get your money back,
which means, you know, if you're traveling this week and
things aren't looking good and you're happy to say, you
know what, I don't need to take this trip. I
can try again later this year or sometime next year,

(42:31):
you can cancel that flight altogether and get a refund
back to your original form of payment. And that's kind
of it. It's not nothing, but it's there.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
So do you have to be proactive If you decide
I'm going to roll the dice and then I'm going
to get to that point and I'm going to be
told I don't know how you know, if it's that
day you learn that flight's been canceled. At that point,
do you have that same alternative or do you just
have to live with a credit at that point, No, you.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Do still have that you can really play it up
to you a day of hour of your originally scheduled departure,
and if that flight does ultimately get canceled or significantly delayed,
which the Department of Transportation defines as a delay domestically,
if three or more hours, same same rights kick, you
can cancel that.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Entire reservation for a full refund.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
And one interesting element that I think speaks to the
kind of trouble that airlines are in and trying to
keep up in all of this mess, is that all
of the major airlines have come out and said, yes,
of course, if we cancel your flight, we'll give you
a refund, which I will note is something that they
have not been so forthcoming about, especially when they were
canceling flights by the thousands in the early days of

(43:44):
the pandemic. But they are now saying that, you know,
if you're scheduled to travel at least through this week,
even if your flight hasn't been canceled or affected by
these disruptions, explicitly, they will allow you to just call
in or hex in or go in and advantage your
reservation and cancel your flight for a full refund, because

(44:05):
they're just trying to get as many people out of
seats as possible so they can get away with flying
less than they normally want.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
So it doesn't matter if when you originally booked it
it's it was called non refundable. That doesn't have any
impact given this circumstance.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
Exactly, even a few books the cheapest basic economy flight
for seventy nine dollars to Pittsburgh, you can still cancel
for a full refund.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
That's good to know.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Six one two guy wants to know if Amtrak, depending
I guess on where you're going, might be a legitimate
alternative that that that may sound good in theory, but
that can be complicated and where you're headed and all
that kind of stuff, right right.

Speaker 4 (44:47):
Well, and you know, I'll say, I think a lot
of people are acting that question. You know, we got
some data from the aviation analytics company Syrium today that
shows that they have soon started to see a slowdown
in how many people are booking flights for Thanksgiving a week,
which means, you know, I think a lot of people

(45:08):
are asking that question, should I take the train if
that's an option.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Should I just hop in the car.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
And drive for six seven hours when I would rather
fly for you know, an hour and a half or less.
But when things are looking as uncertain as they are
right now, I can't blame them.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
The we keep hearing that we're on the verge of
finally having a breakthrough and that the shutdown is probably
going to handle. I think nothing is certain until it
is certain, but every indication seems to be that it's
going to take a while, right that even if that
if there is a breakthrough there, it's not like then

(45:46):
we snap our fingers and everything is back to one
hundred percent correct exactly.

Speaker 4 (45:51):
And there's a few reasons for that. One, Most importantly it's,
you know, we've we've got a now smaller air traffic
control workforce apparently than we had going into the shutdown,
and those people aren't going to those offices, those facilities
across the country that have been so hamstrung for the
last week and change are not going to be back
up to one hundred percent as soon as a bill

(46:12):
gets tigned, right, It's going to take time to get
those people back in those seats. Two is that you know,
the airlines are clearly struggling to keep up. That's what
we saw really start to spiral out of control over
the weekend is that you know, Delta, for example, on Sunday,
canceled or delayed fifty four percent of its flights nationwide

(46:33):
on Sunday. That's really bad. That is so far beyond
the four percent FAA mandated reductions that the federal government
put in place in order to try to keep planes
moving on time and safely across the country. And then
finally that four percent reduction that the FAA put in

(46:54):
in place starting late last week is going to start
to scale up. It goes up to six percent tomorrow,
and then by Friday it goes up to ten percent.
And Secretary Dusty said today that even if the shutdown ends,
that's not going to change immediately. That it's going to
take time for them to assess the data and say, yes, okay,
we can justify bringing you know, air air traffic back

(47:17):
up to one hundred percent. So all of these things
are really playing against the airlines and trying to get
things moving reliably, and it's going to take time for
them to get back there.

Speaker 3 (47:30):
Well, So what accounts for the fifty stat that you gave.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
You know, the biggest thing is and this is this
is a thing when when an airline starts to melt down,
there's it's never just one thing. So in the case
of Delta, there are these you know, these SAA mandated reductions,
which I think put every airline in the country on
its heels. You need to rework your schedules to to

(47:57):
accommodate those cuts. And you know that crew that you
we're banking on flying from Minneapolis to Denver so that
it could fly on where it from Denver to Seattle.
You know, if one of those legs get cut, you
got to rework everything on the fly, so that automatically
puts you out a disadvantage. And then over the weekend
down in Seattle, which you know, the old joke is

(48:17):
that everything for Delta moves through Atlanta. Right there was
some really bad weather and then there were five plus
hour delays getting off the ground in Atlanta, which again
sets your entire operation back, and so it all ends
up in this kind of ugly snowball effect where an

(48:38):
airline struggles to keep things moving, they start running out
of crew trying to keep the airline running on time
to rescue flights that otherwise might be stuck or stranded
or delayed, and it all leads to, you know, a
pretty pretty nasty day. And again today is for Delta
looking a little bit better, but it's still pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
Kyle Potter is the editor of Thrifty Traveler and joins
us pretty much every time we get into these sorts
of crises, which unfortunately seem not been that often lately,
but this is obviously a big one. A couple texts
I want to get your reaction to this is from
looks like seven two guy seven oh two. As a

(49:22):
former air traffic controller, I can tell you that the
United States is the only West, the only one of
the next the western nations where the government runs air
traffic control. Every other nation is privatized. I think we've
talked about this before. Where are we on that whole process?
Are we any closer to that taking place? Would that
be the best solution moving forward? Or is it more

(49:45):
complicated than that in your mind?

Speaker 4 (49:49):
You know, I don't know. I know I'm not smart
enough to answer that question intelligently. I do think this
will probably result in having more of those conversations at
the federal level, right but also you do I think
there is an element of the devil, you know that

(50:11):
replacing the entire system by which you know, you run
air traffic control and run our nation's airspace is a
really tough sell when there are a lot of other
problems to solve. So I don't know. I know, President
Trump talked about today again for the latest time, more
ways to modernize air traffic control technology. That is obviously

(50:36):
those conversations are obviously going to continue. But in terms of,
you know, the idea of privatizing air traffic control, I mean,
I feel like we talk about that once once a year,
once every two years, and then these stories disappear from
the headlines and everybody moves on. So I don't know
whether that's any more likely, truly likely, than it was.

(50:57):
You know, just a couple of.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Weeks ago, guy asked in a good uh, I think
follow up question. He's mentioning he's got a trip to
DC plan this weekend, including flight and hotel. If his
flight is canceled, does he have any recourse with hotel
reservations because I think some hotels demand a certain amount
of money ahead of time, and maybe there's some stuff
that's non refundable. How does that work or how would

(51:21):
that work in that sort of scenario.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
You know, you're really going to have to handle these
things on a case by case basis. We have seen
some of the major hotel chains come out and say,
if you will, if your travels are affected by these disruptions,
we will refund your reservation. So that's a possibility, you know,
to either look into it with the hotel chain or
at the property itself. You know. The other possible recourse

(51:47):
here is travel insurance, whether it's something you buy it separately,
whether you add it on to your your flight reservation,
whether you booked on a on a good travel credit
card that has these things built in. But we're very
clearly learning we went last week that a lot of
these policies either have terms written into the fine print

(52:10):
or the fine print is so vague that there's a
lot of wiggle room for the insurers to actually deny
claims that are a result of disruption stemming from ro workforce,
air traffic control, and any umbrella term that you can
come up with. So I don't want to discourage anyone
from fighting for reimbursement because they absolutely should, regardless of

(52:35):
what the policy says, but I think everybody who is
in that situation of they get stuck somewhere overnight and
they need to pay for a hotel or they aren't
able to make the trip, and they're trying to recoup
some of those costs, I think everybody is probably going
to need to prepare for a fight in order to
try to get some of that money.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
Last question from the audience. This is I think a
call or a text out of Randy. In fact in
Duluth he says that he and his wife are flying
are flying from Minneapolis Saint Paul the JFK to Athens,
Greece on the fourteenth of this month. What should be
our biggest concern security lines, air traffic control, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
We have not talked much about that.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Are security lines out of control through this period or
what does what would someone in Randy's position have to
be most concerned with.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
You know, the security lines has been I will say,
a surprise and that it hasn't been worse, And maybe
that's just a reflection of the fact that air traffic
control and flight disruptions have been so bad that it's
overshadowed issues at TSA checkpoints. I mean, I think for Randy,
the biggest thing is just making sure that you get

(53:46):
to JFK. You know, fortunately the long haul international operations
has been pretty much spared by these reductions and disruptions
as airlines have struggled to keep things moving. You know,
the same isn't true for a flight from JFK to
to London or Appens. But you got to get to
JFK first, and so you know, I would say if

(54:08):
if you if you are booked on the same ticket,
meaning you know you're flying from Minneapolis to JFK and
JFK to Appens. Fortunately, Delta or whichever airline you're flying with,
is responsible for getting you all the way to Appen.
Even if you know your your first flight to New
York City gets canceled or delayed, they'll put you on
the next available one. But I would say, you know,

(54:30):
the best thing anybody can do right now, especially if
they're trying to make a connection, is to take the
first flight of the day, so you know, even if
it's going to be a brutal wake up time getting
to the Loot Airport down to Minneapolis and onward to
Athens or onward.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
To New York.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
You know that that's six or seven am departure, getting
on that flight, Changing your flight if you can't is
going to be one of the best things that you
can do just for peace of mind.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Thank you for the intel as always, we appreciate it.
And and why don't you give folks an opportunity to
maybe learn a little bit more about Thrifty Traveler.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
Yeah, well, right now, our whole team is really just
later focused on helping people out here, whether it's you know,
figuring out what they can do if they're flying in
the days to come, or or asking the questions of
you know, is this going to extend into Thanksgiving? So
thrifty Traveler dot com we're writing about these things every
single day, writing about travel insurance policies, all the ins

(55:30):
and outs of what you need to know to try
to get where you need to go on time. And
then beyond that, you know, we send our paying members
who sign up for our premium service some really great
cheap fare alerts from their home airports, including here in Minneapolis,
but two hundred plus across the country and in the
United States, both you know, cheap domestic and international airfare

(55:51):
alerts as well as us to use those credit card
points and a fair.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Line mile invaluable stuff. Thanks my friend. It's always good
to chat with you, Kyle.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
One of these times we'll get to talk about something fun.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
Today is definitely not that day. Thanks again. Have a
good week. Yeah you too. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Kyle Potter, Editor, thrifty traveler with a lot I think
of really helpful info and intel as well. Vikings lost yesterday.
I don't know how much of how many of you
know that. Maybe you weren't paying attention. Maybe I should
have offered up a spoiler alert because you were going
to tape, you had taped the game you're going to
watch tonight. Well, cat's out of the bag. I got

(56:30):
another at least one more Vikings talking point. As we
get back to a very disappointing afternoon at the People
Stadium in downtown Minneapolis yesterday, Stay tuned.

Speaker 5 (56:40):
No famous moments. Kid gas offense thirteen Ravens. I think
that's number six.

Speaker 8 (56:48):
You've got to be kidding me with this fall start
offense number seventy five.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
It's a five year penalty. It's court down.

Speaker 8 (56:55):
Join us again for another famous moment.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
A good gas offense.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
By Barbara from us from just pounding away at a
disappointing twenty seven to nineteen loss. There were a couple
of nice things that happened in the at the People
Stadium yesterday. It sure started out awfully encouraging, didn't it.

Speaker 5 (57:51):
McCarthy empty backfield, he's out of the shop. Done. Three
receivers right, two to the left, Hawkinson and Jones to
the left. The Ravens showed blitz from the left of McCarthy.
Then they pack off. Actually it's a three man rush
and McCarthy fires right, caught Jefferson Appen twenty two runs
out of bounds up in twenty three. HiT's a ten
yard hit and a first down for the Vikings Pete.

(58:13):
They only rushed three guys. One got through and hit JJ.
That's Kyle, Kyle Hamilton just doing it. It's a three
man stunt, just trying to get everyone to pass that
thing off. But great job by JJ McCarthy recognizing the
coverage and putting that football out there. Before JJ was
even in his break, that football was on its way,
So that was great anticipation by McCarthy. McCarthy wearing the

(58:36):
nine facing a four man rush. He's gonna fade left
to Dalen Naylor cot at.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
The forty, then a Raven blue and tackle step up by.

Speaker 6 (58:44):
Nailor at the thirty, falls to the twenty, wins to
the ten down at the five hey sixty two yard
catching run by the speedy Jaalen Naylor.

Speaker 7 (58:58):
What a huge play for JJ McCarthy, Paul, he lines
up in empty sees man across the board, no one,
he's gonna get pressure.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
Up the middle.

Speaker 7 (59:06):
Of course, he knows he's gonna get Jalen Naylor without
any help from the free safety, and delivered a beautiful
fade down the sideline. And you know it's a great
fade when Naylor, after catching it, has the ability to
make a move and make a couple of people miss.
So just an explosive play. And for McCarthy it's important
because when defenses want to roll up and they want

(59:26):
to blitz you, you gotta make them pay, You gotta
burn them. The Ravens are gonna think twice about blitzing
JJ McCarthy.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
After that one.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
So promising, but as we've learned, how many times you
can't go Harvey kit Tell on the bit too soon.
You have to let a game play out. That's what
the best teams do. That's why the best teams don't
panic early. Ravens have been through their head coach Harbaugh

(59:55):
has been through this a million times.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
Like eighteen years exactly.

Speaker 9 (59:58):
He's like fifty and twenty against like rookie quarterbacks at
the number quarterbacks, some crazy number.

Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
And I think now the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Number for Jackson for Lamar against NFC teams is twenty
five and three, counting yesterday's game, twenty five and three.
That's a pretty good mark. But it did start well,
and I liked what the Vikings did early. Defensively, I
didn't think the Ravens looked all that motivated. They didn't

(01:00:28):
look that It just it just didn't feel like they
were ready to start the game. And it looked like
the Vikings were ready to start the game. But you
got to be able to start the game, and you
have to be able to finish the ball game as well.
Interesting question offered by a six point two guy. Back
in the days of the famous bumper and bumper pole questions,

(01:00:50):
This might have been one, Oh yeah, those are days.
What has a better chance of happening the Twins sing
payroll or koc running the ball? On third and one.
We know it's not good baseball. I think it might
be the Twins increasing payroll. Wow, that's you think that's
a good.

Speaker 9 (01:01:08):
So we've got sty years of Kaos's only in year four.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
But I understand the center doesn't like running it. I
don't understand why. Well, I do understand why. I think
we've got him pegned in this regard. He sees one
of those aesthetic guys.

Speaker 9 (01:01:27):
But but that's what's so maddening about it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
The run is esthetically pleasing the way that they do it.
It should be. They've had, they have some beautiful runs.
Should be.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
I mean, maybe I'm Toro throwback because I I love
a good run.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
I do I and I like, like I.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Said, we all live in this world now where second
and ten is supposed to be has to be a run.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
And again, depending on the team.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Forty nine Ers don't feel like they have to run
on second and ten, do they? The Ravens don't feel
like they have toss. I should say, pass on second ten.
I don't know if the Ravens feel like they have
to pass on the second ten. Eagles don't feel like
they have to pass on second intent. The Bears with
it with Ben Johnson. He proved it with the Lions
last year, saying this year in Chicago, he might view

(01:02:15):
second and ten as a running down if you have
enough faith in your running game and you don't lose
your mind if you don't get it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
But when we're throwing the number.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Of incompletions, and again, be careful mac bobos. I'm not
saying that means I'm giving up on JJ McCarthy. It's
just a fact that right now he's throwing a lot
of incompletions. He made the argument that a run is
actually makes more sense because if you pass on second
and ten, it's an incomplete pass.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
What's that third and ten, third and long and third
and long?

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
And if you run, maybe it's gonna be second and
six or third and six. I should say, maybe it's
gonna be third and two. If you break one, parish
the thought maybe it'll be a first down. So I
don't know, Well, might as well get to one more.
This one is named lovingly for Mike Tice. We call

(01:03:13):
it Live by the Dog, Die by the Dog. We'll
explain after Jackson.

Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
Now in the shotgun is sound man. They're gonna flank
came in late Dallas Turner with the sack and he
smashed Lamar Jackson back at the thirty six.

Speaker 7 (01:03:29):
But they're gonna get They're gonna get Dallas.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Turner for roughing the passer, roughing the palace center runs
in the first under fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
Body, wait, it's a fifteen money when they not a
first down?

Speaker 7 (01:03:43):
Well that's yeah, I mean that's what they're gonna call that.
I mean, they're gonna they're gonna protect the quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
I've seen Dallas Turner in no way thrust to push
or tried to harm that young man.

Speaker 7 (01:03:55):
No, no, not at all, not at all. I mean,
it's just the way, it's just the way the league
is now. I mean, they're they they're going to protect
the quarterbacks. We had one called last week on JJ
McCarthy that was probably yeah, I'm somewhere in that ballpark.
So it's just a it's kind of a shame in
that regard that, uh that that was a great play

(01:04:17):
by Dallas Turner. He was the penetrator on a looping
stunt and came free and the acceleration of the quarterback.
I mean, it's it's just too bad that they got
to tack that on. I mean, because that was a
huge play. You and Ben played linebacker for many years
in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (01:04:32):
If you were teaching a front side form tackle, tell
me you wouldn't teach what you just saw.

Speaker 7 (01:04:37):
I don't know what. I wouldn't know what to tell him, honestly.
Got it's like you're you're unblocked, you got a running start.
I mean, what else can you do?

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Versuch is right. Versuch called it that I hate the call.
I hated it when it was that when we got
the fifteen yards a week ago.

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
Last week, Yeah, hates it, Yes, I hate it. We
hate it. Burkhart was bitter, Brady was bitter. But that's
the rule. It is a bad rule.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
It's it's the reality is that all you really have
to do, I think is half fake going to the
side a little bit, and they're probably not going to
make that call. And again, we can't get high and
mighty about going against us this week when we received
the very same call I think a key situation the

(01:05:28):
week before. It's just and it was the exact same
deal where there was no it wasn't like the player
the quarterback was ground into the ground. But if you
land fully and you don't find some way, even though
I think it's unfair to expect it of a defensive
player and unnatural to expect of a defensive player to

(01:05:49):
sort of roll to the side a little bit, they're
going to call it. It's just the way it works.
By the way, I rarely see that same sort of
sack called roughing the passer in college? Is the rule
by letter different? I think its different? Where is it
we just give more license to kids because they're kids.

(01:06:10):
I don't think they have the body weight rule in college. Yeah,
grim would know if he's listening to he knows every rule.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Maybe if we got to.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Protect pro investments, you know, that's that's probably a lot
of it. And again I don't I don't think there's
a fairness to it because, like I said, how do you?

Speaker 5 (01:06:25):
It was a hard how do you?

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
It's the way I want to do it. I'm worried
that if I turn too soon, what if he gets away?

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
And that's why to me, I don't know what the
answer is, uh, but I think it's it's one hundred
percent unfair to the defender. But it was that's the
way now it's it tends to be called and it
was called to our favor the very same call.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
The week before. Can't hit him.

Speaker 9 (01:06:50):
I can't hit him low and can't hit him perfectly
in the mid section and have your weight on top
of his weight. That's the tough part about being a
defensive play. That's why at the end versus show, I
don't know what you tell him. What people also forget
is how fast this thing is moving. Yeah, oh yeah,
no question. Dallas Turner comes free. He's got a free
shot at Lamar Jackson. He's got he's got a fire

(01:07:11):
on it. He's got to go and in the in
that tenth of a second you're asking him to Then also,
by the way, can you turn a little bit so
all your way doesn't go on? It is exactly None
of it makes any sense, no, none of it. It
sounds good on slow motion. Yeah, you can turn a
little bit. It's just it's not a good rule. I
think they I almost think they have to get rid

(01:07:32):
of it. Well they might, I don't know if there's
any movement for that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
That's a subject we can explore with the officiating guy,
Kevin Siefers. He's had to cover that part of the
National Football League for many, many years. All right, let's
wrap up. The program will remind you of well kind
of try to summarize what we think we learned today
and prepare you for tomorrow's program as well.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
That's next year. In the fan.

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
Nomus moments, guess justin Jefferson slot left, TJ. Hawkinson inside
slot left.

Speaker 3 (01:08:05):
Oh, here we go.

Speaker 5 (01:08:06):
This is our seventh Paul start in one game fall
start offense.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Number seventy five in one five penalty. It's their down.

Speaker 8 (01:08:15):
Join us again for another famous moment in up Gas Offense.

Speaker 9 (01:08:21):
Show rep presented by American Pressure Commercial grade pressure Washers
since nineteen seventy five.

Speaker 3 (01:08:26):
It's the Bumper to Bumper show wrap.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Thank you to Adam Thielen who joined at three point thirty,
Johnny Athletic at four, Ben Lieber about four fifty ish,
and a thrifty traveler guy Kyle Potter to change the subject,
albeit briefly, at about five thirty. But we do have
a lot of people who travel, and a lot of
people curious about the state of the of the air

(01:08:50):
travel in the United States of America right now. And
the picture what was more bleak the picture that Kyle
Potter laid out or the current condition of your favorite
football team after losing yet again.

Speaker 9 (01:09:01):
Man, tough call. Well, what how about this for a
toss up? Which gets better by Thanksgiving?

Speaker 8 (01:09:07):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (01:09:08):
The Vikings are the travel situation. That's what everybody's thinking about, right,
I'd be travel Thanksgiving, traveling, people are going places. It's
two weeks off? Is it two weeks from Thursday? I'm
bad on the covers that three weeks from Thursday? What's
the day today? Yeah, it's got to be two weeks
from this Thursday. Today's the tenth, right, Thanksgiving's got to
be two weeks from this Thursday. Yes, yes, Thanksgivings the

(01:09:29):
twenty seven, so that would be two weeks from this
third around the corner.

Speaker 3 (01:09:32):
You got a big week though. You're headed west? Right
when you are? You out Thursday and Friday? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
I figured, yes, you got to prepare for the Ducks
Friday night. Well, now I can't get that on my own, like,
I got to go with the team, you know, Is
that right? Well, there's times where I go on my own, yeah,
you know, to not miss as much work. Have you
booked anything already?

Speaker 6 (01:09:49):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
Okay, so this is probably working out, Geen? Is is
is it a unique one to get to that makes sense.

Speaker 9 (01:09:54):
And uh, heck of a barn burner between the Hawkeyes
and the Ducks in duck weather basically right, a lot
of rain. The back to back your club, Yeah, that
was in Penn State into Iowa and Oregon.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
Was a nice ball games. That's what Kevin Warren dreamed of.

Speaker 9 (01:10:12):
What the TV windows right like Fox to CBS, really
really compelling games, great finishes, very true.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Tonight after vikings rewind here on the fan, we got
more Wolves action. We're playing Utah again, this time on
the road. I think our coverage will begin at seven
forty five tonight right here on the Flagship and then
via the Timberwolves channel as well. We were going to
play a good team again. I want I mean, we're
we're doing better. Yeah, we're building something, but I want

(01:10:41):
to see us this king on Friday.

Speaker 3 (01:10:44):
Really. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
We'll probably have Mike Conley later this second as well.
Fatten up on the schedule. That's that's all. That's good too.
Tomorrow is Kevin Seafert Day. It's also Luigi Day, and
who knows what else. Thanks for watching today, Thanks for texting,
and thank you for listening. We will talk to you tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (01:10:59):
Three