November 17, 2025 • 48 mins
Dan is joined by Vikings legend and Hall of Famer Cris Carter (who was at the Vikings game Sunday) for his thoughts on the season so far, what he's seeing and not seeing from JJ McCarthy, how Justin Jefferson is dealing with the inconsistency offensively and how they can all make it better the rest of the way. Dan finishes the show running through the remaining Vikings Talking Points.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I asked for questions for our next guest, Chris Carter,
and they're pouring in, so we'll try to include some
of those in our conversation with the Hall of Fame
wide receiver Chris Carter kind enough to join us via
the Connectico Water Systems hotline. Welcome back, sir, Are you
still in town? I didn't realize you were at the
game yesterday until my producer guards he mentioned that are
(00:23):
you or have you flown the coup already?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I've already flown the coup.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good for you. Here's the first question. Where is home
these days for Chris Carter? And what is he doing?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's still in boker Ratone, Florida, Okay, And I am
the program manager and player development leader for Florida, Florida
Atlantic University, Florida.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Nice, I missed that completely.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
How I've been doing that the last two and a
half year.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, that shows me for me to not pay attention.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Do you like doing that? What got you to it?
And how have you found that particular role?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, we have the youngest coach and he took over
last year and knewing that from a business perspective, from
an nil's perspective. I knew a few people here in
town and relationships I had with the players and a
couple of coaches. You know, he decided to keep me
on staff to build help them grow the program. So
(01:30):
you know, you're dealing with young people and young people
trying to reach their potential. And you know, the thing
that I try to tell them, it's really not about
my career and what I accomplished is a player. It's
really about the connective points that as a former athlete,
as a recruited athlete, as an athlete that also was
the father of recruited athletes, all those different as a
(01:51):
high school coach, all those connection points of how you
might build to be successful. So you should build utilize
one of my experiences or something, yes advantage because we
all you were in the same pursuit of what I
was in. So that's doing that on a daily basis
very very rewarding to build help direct young people's you know,
(02:12):
path in life.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
That sounds really good.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Somebody also wanted to know what are most modern DAID
wide receivers missing that Chris's era did or had. I mean,
you may not even accept the premise. I don't know
he I think he seems to be suggesting that some
of the old style receivers, like yourselves, offered something that
maybe some of these don't.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Do you even agree with that premise.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, I think that it's really about what does the
job require. Like we always go through ways to try
to take shine off of people that are very, very successful,
and sometimes it's based on time, our technology or rule changes,
and you know, I really not try to be that way.
I really try to appreciate the game. The game has
to make changes. The game changed before I got to it,
(03:02):
the game has changed during the era that I played in,
a couple eras I've played in, and it's changed since then.
So I think the wide receiver position they play at
a very, very at a high level. I believe they
have tremendous skill. You know, they have to deal with
less things, but that doesn't that doesn't make less of
a job than what they're doing. So I'm very, very
(03:22):
proud of the types of receivers we have, all the
different shapes, sizes, and how they're able to get the
job done. But the job is still number one is
to make big plays and catch the football on a
consistent basis.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
All right, You study wide receivers closely, you study quarterbacks closely.
You are at the Viking Stadium yesterday for the loss
to the Chicago Bears, when you watched JJ play, McCarthy
play yesterday, and when you have watched him beyond just
(03:58):
that one game, what do you see?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, I see a young quarterback. I see a young
quarterback who does have some athleticism, but in yesterday's game,
and based on I mean, we don't have a backup
quarterback like I mean, he can't afford to get hurt again.
So you know, he's a quarterback that has some athleticism,
(04:27):
but yesterday, you know, none of that was utilized. I
see a guy that the game sometimes is faster than him.
I see a guy that sometimes he shortens his drops
and doesn't get deep enough and patient enough that then
he's trying to catch up and throw the football, and
(04:47):
typically it makes the ball sell. Sometimes his elbow is
too low and the fundamentals in the pocket, like all
those things are real, and you know, I do enjoy
I can quarterback play, But right now he looks like
almost any other first rounder that played five games, started
(05:09):
five games. It's just unfortunate the biking did this in
the second year. Yeah, now on the other side of
the field had basically twenty more starts than him, and
you could definitely tell the difference in the twenty starts
between the two of them.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know what's interesting, somebody had texted me earlier about
what their recollection was of Dante Culpeper's first year as
a starter, and you can speak to it, obviously a
lot more eloquently than I can. I'm looking at a
quarterback rating of ninety eight. That's the old fashioned quarterback rating.
(05:45):
They didn't do the qbrs back then, I don't think.
And my recollection, again you'll remember more closely than me,
is that you know, there were certainly some ups and downs,
but I don't think I ever felt like, oh my god,
what's going on out there to the degree I think
JJ is worrying people, even if, as you say, he's
(06:08):
not been out there that much. I mean, can you
draw any comparisons there? Why it felt like Dante, you know,
seemed a lot more ready, more quickly to sort of
assume the things we associate with the position.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, first of all, I think it's a brilliant comparison
for the few people are handful of people that might
be able to understand it, and we're there like we
were Dante sat his first year. Yep, we were very,
very explosive, just like basically coming off inherent in last
(06:46):
year's fourteen and three teens yep, like we're going to
stay the same for the most part and plugging the quarterback.
The thing about Dante that was easy to see whate
was a superstar, gonna be a superstar in the league,
but he had that type of I mean, his running
(07:07):
ability was fearless, and I mean he was a problem
if he ran. Dante's anticipation throwing the football was superior
to what we saw yesterday. Dante's ability to throw the
ball with different velocities and speeds was dethomly superior. And
(07:30):
by the way, in that first year, there was two
guys by the name of Multing Party, and there was
no game that we dropped five balls like I saw
them dudes drop yesterday, indoors, perfect conditions, one hundred and
fifty yards passing like That's where I would stop the
comparisons to Dante Culpepper. I think Dante was an MVP candidate,
(07:55):
right he was.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, he had one other year that was better, obviously,
but when you factor in yell for when you factor
in the lack of experience as a pro quarterback, it
was a very impressive start.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It was almost from the from the very beginning. And
there were ups and downs, but not like this. And
so you know, I got to ask you.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
This was a thrower in college? Man?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
He was.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
That's true. That's a good great every.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Team that Dante Culpeper got off from his high school team,
I met his coaches, I met his teammate to Central Florida,
Dante Culpeper was it. He was the show. He was
the system, and he was the reason why they were winning.
He wasn't riding on the bus just to get from
point A to point B.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, that's that's fair. It's all hindsight now. So it's
easy I grant that point. But to me, the dilemma,
the challenge for the Vikings coming off fourteen and three
was obvious. It was, all right, what do we want
to be next year? If we're going to start the
clock on the McCarthy era, can we possibly still build
(09:04):
on what we did last season and be a at
the very least a playoff contender. Because they made a
lot of offseason moves. As you know, that indicated, well,
we're not this isn't you know, we're not wasting this
season at all. And yet, as you know this is
certainly what we've seen from McCarthy right now, is he's
(09:24):
gonna need to play a lot and probably make a
lot of mistakes, and it's hard to win those games.
So if you look at the talent on the team
and look at what they came off of, might they
have been better served saying, you know, we know the
clock's running, but JJ, we might need you to sit
another year, or we're gonna have you know, we're gonna
(09:44):
open it up a little bit. And let's say, if
we don't want to pay Darnold because it was gonna pay,
they're gonna have to either franchise him or pay him
a lot of money. We're gonna bring Daniel Jones back,
and we're gonna make it an open competition between Daniel
Jones and JJ or the a Aaron Rodgers, who, as
you know, definitely wanted to come here. There's no question
(10:05):
he wanted to come here. Would the team and even
JJ have been better served if they put this thing
off a week to see, Well, let's see if we
still we got a lot of good players on this team.
Let's see if we can take another step after fourteen
to three next year and actually maybe even want a
playoff game or make a little bit of a run.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
What do you think, No, the kid is not better
off served sitting any more time. All right, you're a
first round draft pick, you're a fourth quarterback taken early
in the first round. At some point you have to build,
prove your work, all right, and you have to build,
prove their decisions to be right or to be wrong.
(10:43):
You can't just keep pushing it off to the future.
That's not the way to do business. And they couldn't
fortify their offensive defensive line, and Bill pay them the
money if they decided to bring back one of those
other quarterbacks. And no, you can't bring Aaron Rodgers into
the Vikings. Did the Brett Faares thing? It almost God
was there. No, Brett was playing at a higher level.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
I think.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
We had Adrian Peterson. Yeah, so the combination to be
able to run the ball in the playoffs with Brett,
I mean that offensive line we had last year. They
couldn't protect Sam. They wouldn't have been on the tech
to protect a ron. So it's not that I don't
like him as a quarterback. I think from a business
perspective and the way the team is built, they had
some players that they wanted to go out and give
(11:33):
a little money too, because they had been loyal to
them and they had really developed. They were bringing in
a little bit of new blood. But the guys on
the offense and defensive line, and unfortunately the injury was
Ryan Kelly because that's really set the offense back, YEP,
the center because he's a really a blue chip player
and he comes with a mentality Alabama Indian halpliss Man.
(11:56):
They ran the ball effectively and protected the quarterback for
a long long time. A lot of people didn't give
that offensive line a lot of credit, but he is
a really good player who's been the concussion protocol over
a month, and you know that's not a good thing.
So I think that JJ was not best served by
that injury and doing the things the way they did.
But you can't control getting injured. And when he got
(12:19):
injured earlier in the year, his ankle. Anytime you have
a lower extremity to a guy who's athletic, especially to
a guy who's holding on to the ball and don't
want to let it go, like that removes some of
his athletics. Am So now, yeah, yeah, he is going
to struggle based on what I saw, especially the wide
open guys. Like if you can't get guys wide open,
(12:40):
this game gets real, real tough. It's already tough when
you have a lot of talent. But I do believe
in KO. I do believe in what they do. What
they're doing from a player development standpoint of players they
traded for the players they've drafted, they have done a
good job. Like yes, we might have to take a
little seat, you know to the fourteen and three season,
(13:02):
so the team overall financially could be structured to build
go on a run. But I do believe in the
way they develop players. And you can't develop a quarterback
on the bench. Do you don't draft a guy to
keep letting him sit. He needs to build get out there.
But also tight end you're paying him a lot of money, right,
you got to build it. You got to build help
(13:22):
that out. Do you use JJ? They paying him, They
paying JJ a lot of money. Sometimes you got to
make those unbelievable catches because it creates momentum in juice
for the rest of the players. So everyone's got to
take it on themselves just to do their job. And
that's what I saw yesterday, Guys trying too hard. As
soon as you start pointing to the quarterback. Guess what,
(13:44):
you end up dropping the pass. You end up making
a mistake. And that's what I saw yesterday's game.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well do you sense I mean, you were a pretty
demonstrative player, and you were a player who had high
standards and high demands, not just for yourself but for
your teammates, including the quarterback position. So do you sense
frustration it all is setting in for Justin.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, Justin's not AJ Brown, and I talked to him
yesterday before the game. He has a very very good
handle on the team, on the organization what he has
got to do. But as a wide receiver, we can't
(14:33):
do our jobs without a lot of help, exactly, And
when the quarterback is struggling, regardless of what they say
in the press conference, regardless, all right, now, he's going
to take the high road because he is the leader
of that team and he's not going to show any
negativity to the quarterback because he's already committing himself to
(14:53):
go take care of the kid, help the kid in
his journey. But when you can't do your job, it
creates frustrating. Like he's a dominant player. When you come
into the Bears Vikings game, the best receiver on the
Vikings for the last four years, thinks that they can
get one hundred and fifty yards And if I'm playing
the game indoors, there's no win. It was seventy mile pour,
(15:15):
the sun was shining, Like JJ thinks he can get
one fifty. They end up with one fifty as a team.
How could he be happy when you go home? How
could he as good as he is? How could he so?
You know, like Kao said in the press conference, you know, yeah,
I like his energy. I like that he's disappointed because
there are great expectations on the passing game, because the talent,
(15:40):
and because of the standards that have been set through
there through the last three decades.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, let me ask a crew were chatting with Chris Carter.
Is it your belief, on the basis of what you
know about McCarthy that it is just a matter of
you know, reps and time. He didn't he wasn't in
a high volume passing offense. Or do you come out
of a game like yesterday a little concern that this
(16:09):
goes beyond what we usually associate even with young quarterbacks.
I mean, I mean Chris, he was missing people. You know,
the play to the right sideline to Justin that was
I don't know, thirty feet over his head. And is
there any is there any concern that there's more going
on here that might even indicate that there's something more significant,
whether it's mental, physical, fundamental, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Does it give you pause?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Of course, because at this point, even on your fifth start,
there are some simple things that you should be able
to do and not struggle. And yesterday, I mean there's
two biggest statements of evidence. Or yesterday Ko was trying
to give him some easy things to do, Yeah, and
(16:58):
he couldn't even do those. And now it's not only JJ.
I compare JJ to every other quarterback, every other journeyman
that's been in Koc's system, because I know their talent.
They got good running backs, they got good rod receivers,
which they've always had. They got a better offensive line.
So for the talent of this team, this team has underperformed.
(17:19):
But the quarterbacks all of them have performed at a
higher rate completion wise than JJ, all of them, Josh, Dallas,
all of them. So for me, it's not necessarily a
JJ thing. It is man. I believe in KOC. I
believe in the system. I believe they develop players. But
when I compare apples to apples, the one that I
(17:42):
invested the first round pick in because we at one
point we got to developed a franchise quarterback, just like
Chicago had to, just like Green Bay had to. Like
at some point, we have to do that. And the
investment in JJ says he's the guy. So yes, I'm
going to support the guy. But the way I'm going
to be gathering evidence, in fact, I'm not going to
(18:03):
be blind to the information because regardless of what anybody says,
friend or folk, this is a result oriented business. Can
I move the team? Can I get first down? Can
I have more than fifty five plays in a game?
Can I have more than one hundred and fifty yards?
Because if that is the case, we're not going to
(18:24):
be very very good offensively for you? Is it?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I mean to see age old question? After the game,
Kesey's talking a lot about fundamentals, stuff that you'd like
to think has already been settled in him. But that
may enter into this thing. Other people wonder whether, okay,
he is pressing. It becomes mental because obviously he does
not want to make some of those throws. So is
(18:49):
it in your mind do you see fundamental mistakes that
he's making terms of footwork, follow through that sort of thing,
the mechanics, or is it more the mental side of it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Well, when you listen to Koc's press conference today and
he talks about it, and he talks about the speed
of the game, he talks about sometime climbing in the
pockets and sometimes him not standing tall with some of
the bat it passes you know. I don't I don't
like to get into too much commentary as far as
those fundamentals. I like to repeat what another experts secuse
(19:26):
people are, Oh he's a wide receiver. What he's he
doing about the quarterbacks? Well, hell of a lot more
than you. But I try to get the information from
the people, and that's what Koc talked about. He talked
about the fundamentals, He talked about only having five stars.
He mentioned that like that plays a role but the
(19:47):
good players, the game slows down. Yes, the game has
not slowed down for him, Like at some point the
game will slow down or at some point he won't
be that good. One of those two things is going
to happen. And you're not surprised. You've been watching this
(20:07):
by forty years. They're guys that have the most impeccable
resume in college football. They're the most blue blood, the
most uk man. He's not gonna miss. And you see
when they get in the game and they get conflict,
it's like something happened to them, like something took over
their body. They are not the same player that were
(20:27):
on And then there are other players that they weren't
great college players, they become dominant players in this league
because they can continue the groater game and the game
slows down. The jury is still out.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah, that's what I saw yesterday. That's fair. That's the
essence of it, for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Carl is checking in from Cottage Grove, but he writes,
h CC I came across a highlight reel from the
eleven fourteen, nineteen ninety nine game against the Bears. Jeff
George was slinging it and I felt sorry for the Bears.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
dB.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you remember that specific game or any untold Jeff
George stories from that season?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Oh? Yeah, Jeff, before we put the game plan in
for that game, just like I want the whole game plan.
Don't give me no abbreviated via backup, backup quarterback game plan.
He's out there drawing up signals. Hey, Chris, when you
get down the field. If he's on the inside shoulder,
I'm gonna rub the back of my head. That means fake.
(21:29):
That's the way we get our haircuts. I was like, yeah, Jeff,
we've been saying that for a long time. You didn't
invent that.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Oh that's pretty good. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You do.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Were you dominant in that game? I don't remember much
about that game. That's a long time ago, in nineteen
ninety nine November.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, we had we had to spread it around that game.
But you know, you know, I've had a lot of
good games against Chicago. I think the fans yesterday because
they played the recap of my overtime walk off for
that Chicago yes and so the Bears fans were doing.
I was like, thank you the man. I think you guys,
because I wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame without
the Bear fan.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yeah, that's that's that's probably that's probably true. So your
your your recommendation is even if the season might be
slipping away here, you know they've got they got two
road games coming up as you I'm sure no, Green
Bay and Seattle. Now you're sitting at four and six,
so you've got really not much margin for air left.
(22:24):
You keep throwing them out there, you keep you know,
because I always wonder, is there's such a thing if
it's as bad as it was at times, and it
obviously ended better, but as bad as it was at times,
do you ever run the risk of traumatizing a guy,
even a kid who allegedly is this confident, if he
looks so sped up and looks so inaccurate that you go, no,
(22:45):
we actually might have to send him some more.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, I mean, we've got some great examples as far
as quarterbacks that have been through great journeys. Baker Mayfield
is a great example, great success early in his career,
and then there's called film and you know, the league,
they come up with a game plan for you. So
even after you have success early as C. J. Stroud
(23:11):
in Houston, like the league adjust to you, so then
your struggle might not be at the beginning. Geno Smith,
second round pick, he goes out, end up having success
in Seattle, you know, after you know, being somewhere where
people you know he couldn't become the franchise quarterback there
say I'm Darnold. Excellent transition Indianapolis, you know Danny Dimes like,
(23:37):
So there's a lot of different ways that you can mature.
You hope he does it on your watch, you know,
on that first rookie contract. But this is what he
signed up for. Just what you go to IMG for.
That's what you go to Michigan for. Like, no, now
if we have a different option at backup? Do I
(23:58):
believe after seeing and Bryce and them doing the reset
there in Charlotte, like, but we didn't know if that
would work. That reset they did on Bryce, like, it's
really helped that team. They're in a position this year
after benching him last year that they that there are
a playoffs. So once you make that investment, you at
(24:20):
least have to give the kid three years, especially with
the injury was one being canceled. Now you have to
give the guy now it ends up getting hurt again
now it's going to be an issue, and I would
still look at bringing in a a definitely a veteran
(24:40):
backup next year. Yes, I'm definitely gonna do it. I
have to do that. I have to do that for
the team. And that's what they did last year in
Sam Donold with the end of the rookie year. I
did the same thing again.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, I think that's a great point. Well, you're you're
you're hurting the feelings of Gopher fans, who you know,
are big, big believers in Max Brosmer, the Gopher quarterback
last year is the backup. So I'm just saying be
careful because they're very sensitive to the issue of you
not saying that they have a you know, an established
backup quarterback.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
No problem, no problem. I'm sure. I'm sure they wanted
to put him in yesterday.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Chris did, believe me. I'm not kidding. Well, you know
that bit.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
The bit is, uh, you know, you don't the backup
is always the warp free guy, right, because you don't
associate any mistakes because he hadn't played, so you make
the assumption that why not just throw him out there.
Here's another good question from the audience. From Dustin out
of Bamidgie. As a wide receiver in your prime, wouldn't
the quarterback instability be extremely frustrating to you?
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, you don't know my career. I made the Pro
Bowl with five different quarterbacks different times. That's my career. Yes,
Like we didn't have any consistency, Like we had to
make the quarterback work whoever it was. So I just
don't believe in making excuses.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Have you mentioned that to Justin Because you're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I mean everybody talks about the number of quarterbacks he's
gone to have the deal gone through.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
You went through more than that.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's the same deal, but you got the bread. You're
getting all the credit. Like when they throw that ball,
they don't think it's them, that's true, they know it's you.
So yes, he has extreme pressure on him, but he's
built for it, like he's built for this, and he's
a great team leader, and he's going to say all
(26:42):
the right things. He's not going to say anything, and
I'm not going to speak to him, but I did
talk to him before the game. And wide receivers, man,
most of us have the same DNA. Okay, you don't
have to work too hard to think about what it is.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, yeah, you were, I mean I think you were.
You're not as vocal as some, but you're I think
you're more vocal than he. I think you'd agree back
in the day.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, but that's I got no problem
with you.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
No, that was you.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Like, he's got a great style for which for which
he can get stuff done. And he's got a lot
of younger players in that locker room who really really
look up to him. So what he says is overall,
body language and everything becomes very very important, even if
he's lying.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, you got to right publicly. That's that's what you got. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Well you didn't. You didn't feel obligated to actually though
you you will.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I'm I'm not going to tell a lot, but I'll
also tell you in a way that you can you
can can can do your job.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, that's true. That's a very good way to put it,
and you often did. That's a hundred that's one hundred
percent true.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Is it? In the end? Is part of this too?
You know you mentioned it.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You if they've gone with one of the vets, then
you don't have money to spend elsewhere. But are we
coming to grips with the reality Chris, that it probably
was going to be unrealistic to expect you could do both.
In other words, throw the young quarterback out there and
compete in a way that you wanted to as much
as you did during the regular season last year. That
(28:18):
given his you know, some of his limitations are some
of his struggles at this point, that it just it
just was going to be very difficult to work to
get both things done, you know, because they're big here
on saying we don't rebuild. You know, we're not giving
away a leapy or anything like that. We're we're going
after it. But aren't we seeing the limitations of that
(28:38):
to a certain extent.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Well, for one, you can't you don't know what the
left tackle he designed to come back from a horrific
knee injury a little bit early, but you're trying to
gut it out. He's a great player, all right. His
comeback was a little bit slow. You lose the center,
all right, the quarterback gets nicked up early. So a
(29:02):
lot of things that Jordan Addison was suspended, you know,
So they had a lot of moving pieces that realistically,
the more championship models, especially though a match detrait and
physicality and Philadelphian physicality. They had to upgrade the offensive line,
they had to upgrade the interi of the defensive line,
(29:23):
and they also invested in some players that have been
successful for us. So yeah, I like the business model.
I believe in the front office. I believe in the ownership.
I believe in KOC. But that don't mean that what
I'm seeing right now that it looks better than actually
what I'm seeing it is what it is like this
team has underperformed based on the talent level they have.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah, there's no question about that.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, and again I'm not putting it on the
quarterback because it's not all on him. But the numbers
are alarm you know. I mean they're staggering even by
a young quarterback numbers when we're talking about QBR and
quarterback rating, I mean, they're off the charts here and
and so that's I mean, you know, as you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Like this, but I don't like people who don't really
watch the game, right and yesterday, you know, the quarterback
was a great example, especially for a young player, Like
young players are typically more streaky, but you got to
get them a layup. You got to get them pocket, yes,
so that they can get that gleam in their eye,
(30:33):
get that college filling back where they were dominant players
the past. They throw early in the game down the
middle of the field to Jordan Addison that could have
changed his whole psyche. I mean, I mean that the
forty or fifty yard nugget that. Like, you don't know.
They had a couple other TJ. He dropped the path.
(30:55):
The running back dropped the path. JJ dropped the path. Right,
So all these things, and we're talking about the quarterback
and all these things could have been way way different.
If everybody's doing your job, especially when you have a
young quarterback, your margin from air it decreases. We get
(31:17):
your damn job and help out the kid.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Help them out. Yeah, do what you can to make
a difference. I could keep you all day. As you know,
we're really late. I appreciate you as always. Uh, I'm
glad you're doing well, and uh hopefully we can chat
again soon later this very season.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, man, keep your chin up, biking fans, We're gonna
be all right.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
They need to hear that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I think they probably needed that that message delivered. Although
you say it from the safety of Boca Raton. You're
back there while it's going to snow here tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yeah, so what that don't mean I can't be a
fan and they're not going to hear it on your
show because you're not going to tell them that. That's
why you had to have me on here to give
them some hope many season.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah, you're writing just in time for the for the
holiday season. You're Oh, by the way, that was one
another question. Does Chris Carter put his Christmas tree up
before Thanksgiving? Or after Thanksgiving? That was another hard hitting
question I got from the audience.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Oh before, man, I got light everywhere here there already
I got Oh, absolutely, I got Christmas light on the
palm tree.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Send me a photo, man, send me a photo. I'll
tweet it out. That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Okay, absolutely, I'll walk outside and take a picture of
the front.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Thanks Chris, my man, I appreciate you. That is the
one and the only Chris Carter. We'll get caught up
when we complete. I can't think of a better follow
up to our conversation with the Chris Carter than this
(32:44):
particular Vikings talking point.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
We call it wild high and wild low.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
McCarthy play actions great drop deep one side in complaint
to Addison, who's scorched Naseean Wright. Bad pass by JJ McCarthy.
That should have been a big hitch, absolutely right.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
It was a deep over route and he got some
space between him he and the shot right, and that
thing was just thrown a little bit short. So something
to keep an eye on, Paul. That should have been
a big completion right there. You know, that's that's got
to upset Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Scheme it open, Addison gets open at about the twenty
five of the Bears, McCarthy miss fire.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Minnesota two of two.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
On third down, McCarthy shotgun five man rush passed left
incomplete to Jefferson and McCarthy was hitched shortly after he
threw it justin heads to the sideline, knowing he should
it should have been a first down. It was just
another off target too hard. JJ McCarthy passed.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Yeah, I was thrown behind behind him in his back shoulder.
So that's too inaccurate passes that we've seen already in
this first series. And that doesn't Bowell. I know he's
got he has some issues with the hand. Not exactly
sure what.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Pistol formation McCarthy short shot play action, nice blitz picked
up by Aaron Jones pass right, intercepted. Kevin byered the
third with his fifth pick this year. He heads to
the right to the forty thirty five thirty and he's
out of bounds on the bear's bench side of the
equation at the eighteen. For JJ McCarthy, he has thrown
(34:20):
seven interceptions this year, and that one, I mean, that
one just just kind of hung up there like a
center field or waiting for the ball to come down.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Buyer got the pick.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
Well, Bayern's, you know, really just bait at JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Now it's third and seven from their own thirty three.
McCarthy shotgun takes the snap. There comes a blitz picked
up by c. J. Hamm pass right incomplete. I mean,
I mean, I know it's his fifth start, and I
know experience is required.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
I don't even know how to explain what just happened.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
That was ten feet over the head of Justin Jefferson, who,
by the way, was wide open for a first down.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah it would have been.
Speaker 7 (34:59):
It would have been.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
He was shooting to the sideline and the play was there.
It was open, and just over, just threw it over
his head.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Chris Carter catches that ball? Which one all of them
the last one doesn't matter if it's ten feet high
to find it.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Well he just elevate. You got both feet in, there's
no question.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good as Carter and dropping no
five balls about that the best and so he.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Is still competitive. It's so great. Well that sort of
sizes it up on the downside, right, there is obviously
a great drive late, but there were some moments where
you go, WHOA, and I think you even got from Chris.
I think Carter is like you got to play him.
But I did sense a little bit of concern creeping
(35:45):
in regarding the level of inaccuracy in this game. And
again the kids don't remember Dante Culpeper's first season was
not perfect, but it was nothing like this from the
very beginning. It was nothing. They went to an NFC
title game that year that I mean it ended up
batter down. But yeah, that was his again same as JJ.
(36:06):
He sat for a year and this was his second year,
but the first time really playing in anything that mattered.
And I people have no recollection of it. But and
because right now they don't want to have a recollection
of it, because it would make it even more alarming.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
What's going on right now?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Let's pause, get caught up, and more talking points when
we return. Time now for the Vikings Report on the Fan,
presented by Miller Lyte.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen joins Denver RaRo.
Speaker 7 (36:35):
Next, marccers, all right.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Do you do it?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And let's do another quick Vikings talking point?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
What do you think, Guardie?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I'll let you pick of the ones we have remaining,
anything any in particular you think worthy of our consideration
in this next short little block we have.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I like the last one run is success.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
The power of Christ compels you to run the ball occasionally,
which we did do correct?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Want me to hit it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (37:26):
Now the offense has to do their job. Yep, you
score here, it's only a six point lead. Now we
got some pressure on these Bears, Paul. They've been comfortable,
I think the entire game. It's time to make them uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
Let's go forty two yard return by Price, his longest
punt return so far this year and needs a rookie.
Here we go first and ten. When the Bears twenty
four run it I'm behind McCarthy. It's a toss right
and turning it up. Jordan Mason gets to the twenty
outside the numbers. Tremaine Edmonds runs him down at about
the sixteen.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
It's a run of eight run.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
It again, dozing run by Jordan Mason. Second and two
thirteen minutes to go in the game. The Vikings, they
got some work to do, but at least they got
some momentum.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Now what a block by CJ.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
Ham on CJ. Gardner Johnson, Paul, I mean that we've
talked about this all day, that they're keeping a defensive
back end basically to play linebacker against base personnel. So
you got the mismatch and CJ. Ham will take Gardner
Johnson all over second and short handoff.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Mason runs the right first job tenn sure Mason with
his fifth rushing touchdown this year, and the Minnesota Vikings
have life.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
It's sixteen to nine Chicago.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Yeah, they had a body there, but he just can't
arm tackle Jordan Mason. Paul, just tell the almost the
exact same play that they had run previously.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Off tackle.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
Mason gets through the arm tackle by Gardner Johnson and
he takes it up and gets it into the end zone.
So what a huge turn of events, the Viking defense
coming out, make it something happen, special teams answering the call,
and then the running game of all things.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
He sounds stunned.
Speaker 6 (39:08):
He did, didn't he We converted a third and two
running the ball as well?
Speaker 7 (39:12):
We did?
Speaker 6 (39:13):
Did people bronx to hear that. I didn't hear that?
Speaker 3 (39:16):
It's a good quote. I don't know though they did.
I'm not sure they might have.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
There were Goggins wrote some bitterness that we passed on
a couple of like a second and two.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
I don't remember that one.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I I think overall I was as a you know,
a run run the ball terrorist as the Mike Zimmer. Yes,
I I have no complaints about the run game. I
think it's it's vindication once again that that it's an
important it can be an important piece. But as I
said on sermons, if you have a quarterback who's going
(39:48):
to be that inaccurate, it doesn't really matter how much
you run the ball.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
There has to be it all has to work. There
has to be.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Harmonic convergence, right and and so and that I don't
think you can put on koc. It just he's just
wildly inaccurate. He's been that way. He's been a fifty
percent completion guy from the beginning of the season, and
that's the part that is scary and depressing about yesterday.
Kaos said it in his press conference. They ran the
ball really well. They had a lot of second in shorts. Yes,
(40:18):
they weren't behind the chains a bunch, and he got
good production.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
He got good much.
Speaker 6 (40:22):
Time, so much of it was set up to have
a really nice passing Yeah. Yeah, because of how they
established a run and I thought it was interesting. Ben
Johnson kind of in the middle of the first half
took the ball out of Caleb's hands a little bit too.
Caleb had a couple of runs in their touchdown drive,
but after he airmailed like four or five, I think
Johnson said, all right, we're going to the backs, give
(40:43):
me the Rutgers kid, give me the other guy. We're
gonna go. We're gonna run it a little bit. Let's
get this thing stabilized. They took the lead off that
that's true, and I thought that was interesting. But koc
I thought set up his quarterback amazingly yesterday, and his
QB was not ready for receivers.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Were open all over the place. There's no question.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Six point two guy earlier, listening to Pete Bursich through
these talking points, I feel like he's going into a
cranky old man, and you can hear it more and
more and more with each passing game. Uh, let me
let me put it this way. If that's what you
define as a cranky old man, I'll raise my hand
and endorse, because I don't think Peter Burstich sounds like
anything but a hell of a radio analyst. I don't
(41:22):
think if he's cranky, it's not a matter of cranky.
It's him evaluating what he sees exactly, which he's paid
to do. So if you turn if in your mind
that defines cranky, then I'm not sure again what you want.
If you it's not like it's not like Pa and
Bursus are afraid to cheer when things are going well,
(41:44):
but if they're not going well in a game, Bursus
isn't gonna lie to you. So I I love his
radio analysis. I can't half the reason we do talking
points brought to you by Federator Federated Insurance, by the
way we appreciate their support is the reaction. It's it's
it's an and and a lot of times. As you know,
I don't know it because I'm watching it on TV.
(42:06):
So I'm amused because you know what's coming and I don't,
And it's it's part of the fun.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
But he he ain't cranky at all.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
What's he supposed to say? Well, he is cranky, but
it's it's cranky in terms of performance. It's not like
he's just waking up wanting to hammer no, Boddy no.
And what bothers him the most, I think should bother everybody. Yes,
the sloppiness, Yes, where they're running guys out, laid on
the punt, where guys are dropping the ball. Where he's
a coach and a player, he doesn't like the sloppiness. Dan,
(42:35):
your criticisms of JJ are factual, but I almost it
almost seems like you're enjoying seeing him struggle and mocking
the fans of support McCarthy. Do you have some vendetta
against McCarthy that's from Kyle, Kyle, keep that between you
and me. Yeah, I'm out to get the guy. I
celebrated the two when the Vikings drafted him. Vendetta against
(42:57):
JJ McCarthy. If he looks like Josh Freeman, It's not
my fault. If he looks nothing like Dante Culpepper in
his first year, his second year with the team, that's
not my fault either.
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Show rap presented by American Pressure Commercial grade Pressure Washers
since nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
It's the bumper to bumper show rap. It's never going
to end, is it?
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Every third text you check Josh Allen stats his first year.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah, let me give him to you right now.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
His first season QBR forty nine to eight, regular rating
sixty seven to nine. Not great. You want to compare
that to what JJ has done this thus far QBR
twenty six point seven.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
It's a little frustraer.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Again, I don't I just don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
We are aware that it's not over for him, but
if the best you can do to make yourself feel
better is look at all these other quarterbacks and what
their numbers were. His quarterback rating was forty points higher,
as ordinary as it was. And again, don't get me
going down the Dante Culpeper road any further than we
(44:15):
already did with Chris Carter.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
I mean, just just stop.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
You're not doing your guy any favors with that, better
to just say, look, it's erratic right now.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
It's worse than.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
I might have even expected. Five games in. It's clearly
worse than what Chris Carter expected. He made that very clear.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
But we're hanging with him, and there's too much upside here.
You're better off saying that than trying to make yourself
feel better by the because none of these comparisons, literally,
none of these comparisons add up if you care about
analytic numbers, the way that quarterbacks are evaluated, whether it's
old school rating or new scale of rating as well,
(44:56):
it's bizarre. A lot of his throws yesterday missed by inches.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
A lot of them, some of them missed by yards.
Speaker 6 (45:06):
And some of them, yeah, missed by zip codes.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Oh have you mentioned Donald's for imts today? Honestly ask him, No,
there are people.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 6 (45:17):
They just got to vote a confidence from somebody. Yes, yeah,
a defensive player. Yeah, who were they playing? Guess who
they were playing yesterday? Who did they play the Rams again?
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (45:25):
No, the Rams are the one team that has Sam
Donald's number.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
And he did. He threw as But here's what's interesting.
He still almost brought him back.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
He cut the lead to one touchdown or even one
field goal, and then they got the ball again late.
But the field goal to try they they they attempted
was like I think sixty eight or sixty six sixty
five yards, So no, there was I'm noticing there are
a lot of people who said, well, what does that say?
Speaker 3 (45:54):
I mean, is he coming back to the.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Pack or is it literally whoever runs the defense of
the Rams. Has Sam Darnold figured out or it's even
become kind of a mental block for him.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
He's had an outstanding regular season, there's no question about that.
You're hearing the music now because we're out early for
some Vikings programming, and that'll be followed by your Timberwolves
back in action against the struggling Dallas Mavericks, who have
everybody out right now, They're two best players are out well.
(46:26):
Kyrie is out for a long stretch right Although a
lot of people think he will try to come back
later this season.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know if they'll want to or will he.
By the way, did you notice I forgot.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
To mention this with Johnny the Thunder, I believe has
lost one game thus far and they've been killing people.
They've been playing bad teams that they've been winning routinely
by you know, twenty thirty forty. The other nugget on
Okie City. I'm sure you've seen it. There's an excellent
chance that they will have two of the top ten picks.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
In the NBA drafts. I know this upcoming in unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
How well they've put that thing together and sustained it.
Speaker 6 (47:05):
They took advantage of being flyover country and having stars
absolutely out of there, man, Paul George. For sure, it's
almost scary when you think of it that way. It
is two of the top ten, and by the way.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
One of those could end up being like a top
three pick eventually. One of them, I think is lottery
protected to an extent. That's great, but one of them
is not. The Rams also have Who's bad right now?
The Rams have somebody's number one pick next year. That's
really good. Let me see I can find it real quick.
We're out of time, aren't we.
Speaker 7 (47:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Chris Carter joined us at what time? Five o'clock?
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Five o'clock. If you miss it, I harghly recommend you
try to get to it. I thought I saved it.
Rams made a great deal when they traded for the
falcons twenty twenty six first round pick, Atlanta's in free
for all their starting quarterback. Gone Cousins looked. He didn't
look good. Hedn't even look interested to me. No, he
looks like he's whipped. He just looks like he's just
(47:59):
at his age.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
Not great. Yeah, I'm probably right about that.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Tomorrow, Kevin Steaffert and Luigi Vikings rewind and then Wolves
hoop action on the fan.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
We'll talk to you at three o'clock.
Speaker 5 (48:11):
A lot of things that are easily correctable.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
We've got to get a fire in our ass.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
It's real, it's wrong at times, it's real wrong
Well, I asked for questions for our next guest, Chris Carter,
and they're pouring in, so we'll try to include some
of those in our conversation with the Hall of Fame
wide receiver Chris Carter kind enough to join us via
the Connectico Water Systems hotline. Welcome back, sir, Are you
still in town? I didn't realize you were at the
game yesterday until my producer guards he mentioned that are
(00:23):
you or have you flown the coup already?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I've already flown the coup.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good for you. Here's the first question. Where is home
these days for Chris Carter? And what is he doing?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It's still in boker Ratone, Florida, Okay, And I am
the program manager and player development leader for Florida, Florida
Atlantic University, Florida.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Nice, I missed that completely.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
How I've been doing that the last two and a
half year.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Well, that shows me for me to not pay attention.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Do you like doing that? What got you to it?
And how have you found that particular role?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, we have the youngest coach and he took over
last year and knewing that from a business perspective, from
an nil's perspective. I knew a few people here in
town and relationships I had with the players and a
couple of coaches. You know, he decided to keep me
on staff to build help them grow the program. So
(01:30):
you know, you're dealing with young people and young people
trying to reach their potential. And you know, the thing
that I try to tell them, it's really not about
my career and what I accomplished is a player. It's
really about the connective points that as a former athlete,
as a recruited athlete, as an athlete that also was
the father of recruited athletes, all those different as a
(01:51):
high school coach, all those connection points of how you
might build to be successful. So you should build utilize
one of my experiences or something, yes advantage because we
all you were in the same pursuit of what I
was in. So that's doing that on a daily basis
very very rewarding to build help direct young people's you know,
(02:12):
path in life.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
That sounds really good.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Somebody also wanted to know what are most modern DAID
wide receivers missing that Chris's era did or had. I mean,
you may not even accept the premise. I don't know
he I think he seems to be suggesting that some
of the old style receivers, like yourselves, offered something that
maybe some of these don't.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Do you even agree with that premise.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, I think that it's really about what does the
job require. Like we always go through ways to try
to take shine off of people that are very, very successful,
and sometimes it's based on time, our technology or rule changes,
and you know, I really not try to be that way.
I really try to appreciate the game. The game has
to make changes. The game changed before I got to it,
(03:02):
the game has changed during the era that I played in,
a couple eras I've played in, and it's changed since then.
So I think the wide receiver position they play at
a very, very at a high level. I believe they
have tremendous skill. You know, they have to deal with
less things, but that doesn't that doesn't make less of
a job than what they're doing. So I'm very, very
(03:22):
proud of the types of receivers we have, all the
different shapes, sizes, and how they're able to get the
job done. But the job is still number one is
to make big plays and catch the football on a
consistent basis.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
All right, You study wide receivers closely, you study quarterbacks closely.
You are at the Viking Stadium yesterday for the loss
to the Chicago Bears, when you watched JJ play, McCarthy
play yesterday, and when you have watched him beyond just
(03:58):
that one game, what do you see?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, I see a young quarterback. I see a young
quarterback who does have some athleticism, but in yesterday's game,
and based on I mean, we don't have a backup
quarterback like I mean, he can't afford to get hurt again.
So you know, he's a quarterback that has some athleticism,
(04:27):
but yesterday, you know, none of that was utilized. I
see a guy that the game sometimes is faster than him.
I see a guy that sometimes he shortens his drops
and doesn't get deep enough and patient enough that then
he's trying to catch up and throw the football, and
(04:47):
typically it makes the ball sell. Sometimes his elbow is
too low and the fundamentals in the pocket, like all
those things are real, and you know, I do enjoy
I can quarterback play, But right now he looks like
almost any other first rounder that played five games, started
(05:09):
five games. It's just unfortunate the biking did this in
the second year. Yeah, now on the other side of
the field had basically twenty more starts than him, and
you could definitely tell the difference in the twenty starts
between the two of them.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You know what's interesting, somebody had texted me earlier about
what their recollection was of Dante Culpeper's first year as
a starter, and you can speak to it, obviously a
lot more eloquently than I can. I'm looking at a
quarterback rating of ninety eight. That's the old fashioned quarterback rating.
(05:45):
They didn't do the qbrs back then, I don't think.
And my recollection, again you'll remember more closely than me,
is that you know, there were certainly some ups and downs,
but I don't think I ever felt like, oh my god,
what's going on out there to the degree I think
JJ is worrying people, even if, as you say, he's
(06:08):
not been out there that much. I mean, can you
draw any comparisons there? Why it felt like Dante, you know,
seemed a lot more ready, more quickly to sort of
assume the things we associate with the position.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Well, first of all, I think it's a brilliant comparison
for the few people are handful of people that might
be able to understand it, and we're there like we
were Dante sat his first year. Yep, we were very,
very explosive, just like basically coming off inherent in last
(06:46):
year's fourteen and three teens yep, like we're going to
stay the same for the most part and plugging the quarterback.
The thing about Dante that was easy to see whate
was a superstar, gonna be a superstar in the league,
but he had that type of I mean, his running
(07:07):
ability was fearless, and I mean he was a problem
if he ran. Dante's anticipation throwing the football was superior
to what we saw yesterday. Dante's ability to throw the
ball with different velocities and speeds was dethomly superior. And
(07:30):
by the way, in that first year, there was two
guys by the name of Multing Party, and there was
no game that we dropped five balls like I saw
them dudes drop yesterday, indoors, perfect conditions, one hundred and
fifty yards passing like That's where I would stop the
comparisons to Dante Culpepper. I think Dante was an MVP candidate,
(07:55):
right he was.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah, he had one other year that was better, obviously,
but when you factor in yell for when you factor
in the lack of experience as a pro quarterback, it
was a very impressive start.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Man.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
It was almost from the from the very beginning. And
there were ups and downs, but not like this. And
so you know, I got to ask you.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
This was a thrower in college? Man?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
He was.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
That's true. That's a good great every.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Team that Dante Culpeper got off from his high school team,
I met his coaches, I met his teammate to Central Florida,
Dante Culpeper was it. He was the show. He was
the system, and he was the reason why they were winning.
He wasn't riding on the bus just to get from
point A to point B.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
No, that's that's fair. It's all hindsight now. So it's
easy I grant that point. But to me, the dilemma,
the challenge for the Vikings coming off fourteen and three
was obvious. It was, all right, what do we want
to be next year? If we're going to start the
clock on the McCarthy era, can we possibly still build
(09:04):
on what we did last season and be a at
the very least a playoff contender. Because they made a
lot of offseason moves. As you know, that indicated, well,
we're not this isn't you know, we're not wasting this
season at all. And yet, as you know this is
certainly what we've seen from McCarthy right now, is he's
(09:24):
gonna need to play a lot and probably make a
lot of mistakes, and it's hard to win those games.
So if you look at the talent on the team
and look at what they came off of, might they
have been better served saying, you know, we know the
clock's running, but JJ, we might need you to sit
another year, or we're gonna have you know, we're gonna
(09:44):
open it up a little bit. And let's say, if
we don't want to pay Darnold because it was gonna pay,
they're gonna have to either franchise him or pay him
a lot of money. We're gonna bring Daniel Jones back,
and we're gonna make it an open competition between Daniel
Jones and JJ or the a Aaron Rodgers, who, as
you know, definitely wanted to come here. There's no question
(10:05):
he wanted to come here. Would the team and even
JJ have been better served if they put this thing
off a week to see, Well, let's see if we
still we got a lot of good players on this team.
Let's see if we can take another step after fourteen
to three next year and actually maybe even want a
playoff game or make a little bit of a run.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
What do you think, No, the kid is not better
off served sitting any more time. All right, you're a
first round draft pick, you're a fourth quarterback taken early
in the first round. At some point you have to build,
prove your work, all right, and you have to build,
prove their decisions to be right or to be wrong.
(10:43):
You can't just keep pushing it off to the future.
That's not the way to do business. And they couldn't
fortify their offensive defensive line, and Bill pay them the
money if they decided to bring back one of those
other quarterbacks. And no, you can't bring Aaron Rodgers into
the Vikings. Did the Brett Faares thing? It almost God
was there. No, Brett was playing at a higher level.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
I think.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
We had Adrian Peterson. Yeah, so the combination to be
able to run the ball in the playoffs with Brett,
I mean that offensive line we had last year. They
couldn't protect Sam. They wouldn't have been on the tech
to protect a ron. So it's not that I don't
like him as a quarterback. I think from a business
perspective and the way the team is built, they had
some players that they wanted to go out and give
(11:33):
a little money too, because they had been loyal to
them and they had really developed. They were bringing in
a little bit of new blood. But the guys on
the offense and defensive line, and unfortunately the injury was
Ryan Kelly because that's really set the offense back, YEP,
the center because he's a really a blue chip player
and he comes with a mentality Alabama Indian halpliss Man.
(11:56):
They ran the ball effectively and protected the quarterback for
a long long time. A lot of people didn't give
that offensive line a lot of credit, but he is
a really good player who's been the concussion protocol over
a month, and you know that's not a good thing.
So I think that JJ was not best served by
that injury and doing the things the way they did.
But you can't control getting injured. And when he got
(12:19):
injured earlier in the year, his ankle. Anytime you have
a lower extremity to a guy who's athletic, especially to
a guy who's holding on to the ball and don't
want to let it go, like that removes some of
his athletics. Am So now, yeah, yeah, he is going
to struggle based on what I saw, especially the wide
open guys. Like if you can't get guys wide open,
(12:40):
this game gets real, real tough. It's already tough when
you have a lot of talent. But I do believe
in KO. I do believe in what they do. What
they're doing from a player development standpoint of players they
traded for the players they've drafted, they have done a
good job. Like yes, we might have to take a
little seat, you know to the fourteen and three season,
(13:02):
so the team overall financially could be structured to build
go on a run. But I do believe in the
way they develop players. And you can't develop a quarterback
on the bench. Do you don't draft a guy to
keep letting him sit. He needs to build get out there.
But also tight end you're paying him a lot of money, right,
you got to build it. You got to build help
(13:22):
that out. Do you use JJ? They paying him, They
paying JJ a lot of money. Sometimes you got to
make those unbelievable catches because it creates momentum in juice
for the rest of the players. So everyone's got to
take it on themselves just to do their job. And
that's what I saw yesterday, Guys trying too hard. As
soon as you start pointing to the quarterback. Guess what,
(13:44):
you end up dropping the pass. You end up making
a mistake. And that's what I saw yesterday's game.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well do you sense I mean, you were a pretty
demonstrative player, and you were a player who had high
standards and high demands, not just for yourself but for
your teammates, including the quarterback position. So do you sense
frustration it all is setting in for Justin.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, Justin's not AJ Brown, and I talked to him
yesterday before the game. He has a very very good
handle on the team, on the organization what he has
got to do. But as a wide receiver, we can't
(14:33):
do our jobs without a lot of help, exactly, And
when the quarterback is struggling, regardless of what they say
in the press conference, regardless, all right, now, he's going
to take the high road because he is the leader
of that team and he's not going to show any
negativity to the quarterback because he's already committing himself to
(14:53):
go take care of the kid, help the kid in
his journey. But when you can't do your job, it
creates frustrating. Like he's a dominant player. When you come
into the Bears Vikings game, the best receiver on the
Vikings for the last four years, thinks that they can
get one hundred and fifty yards And if I'm playing
the game indoors, there's no win. It was seventy mile pour,
(15:15):
the sun was shining, Like JJ thinks he can get
one fifty. They end up with one fifty as a team.
How could he be happy when you go home? How
could he as good as he is? How could he so?
You know, like Kao said in the press conference, you know, yeah,
I like his energy. I like that he's disappointed because
there are great expectations on the passing game, because the talent,
(15:40):
and because of the standards that have been set through
there through the last three decades.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Well, let me ask a crew were chatting with Chris Carter.
Is it your belief, on the basis of what you
know about McCarthy that it is just a matter of
you know, reps and time. He didn't he wasn't in
a high volume passing offense. Or do you come out
of a game like yesterday a little concern that this
(16:09):
goes beyond what we usually associate even with young quarterbacks.
I mean, I mean Chris, he was missing people. You know,
the play to the right sideline to Justin that was
I don't know, thirty feet over his head. And is
there any is there any concern that there's more going
on here that might even indicate that there's something more significant,
whether it's mental, physical, fundamental, whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Does it give you pause?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Of course, because at this point, even on your fifth start,
there are some simple things that you should be able
to do and not struggle. And yesterday, I mean there's
two biggest statements of evidence. Or yesterday Ko was trying
to give him some easy things to do, Yeah, and
(16:58):
he couldn't even do those. And now it's not only JJ.
I compare JJ to every other quarterback, every other journeyman
that's been in Koc's system, because I know their talent.
They got good running backs, they got good rod receivers,
which they've always had. They got a better offensive line.
So for the talent of this team, this team has underperformed.
(17:19):
But the quarterbacks all of them have performed at a
higher rate completion wise than JJ, all of them, Josh, Dallas,
all of them. So for me, it's not necessarily a
JJ thing. It is man. I believe in KOC. I
believe in the system. I believe they develop players. But
when I compare apples to apples, the one that I
(17:42):
invested the first round pick in because we at one
point we got to developed a franchise quarterback, just like
Chicago had to, just like Green Bay had to. Like
at some point, we have to do that. And the
investment in JJ says he's the guy. So yes, I'm
going to support the guy. But the way I'm going
to be gathering evidence, in fact, I'm not going to
(18:03):
be blind to the information because regardless of what anybody says,
friend or folk, this is a result oriented business. Can
I move the team? Can I get first down? Can
I have more than fifty five plays in a game?
Can I have more than one hundred and fifty yards?
Because if that is the case, we're not going to
(18:24):
be very very good offensively for you? Is it?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I mean to see age old question? After the game,
Kesey's talking a lot about fundamentals, stuff that you'd like
to think has already been settled in him. But that
may enter into this thing. Other people wonder whether, okay,
he is pressing. It becomes mental because obviously he does
not want to make some of those throws. So is
(18:49):
it in your mind do you see fundamental mistakes that
he's making terms of footwork, follow through that sort of thing,
the mechanics, or is it more the mental side of it.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Well, when you listen to Koc's press conference today and
he talks about it, and he talks about the speed
of the game, he talks about sometime climbing in the
pockets and sometimes him not standing tall with some of
the bat it passes you know. I don't I don't
like to get into too much commentary as far as
those fundamentals. I like to repeat what another experts secuse
(19:26):
people are, Oh he's a wide receiver. What he's he
doing about the quarterbacks? Well, hell of a lot more
than you. But I try to get the information from
the people, and that's what Koc talked about. He talked
about the fundamentals, He talked about only having five stars.
He mentioned that like that plays a role but the
(19:47):
good players, the game slows down. Yes, the game has
not slowed down for him, Like at some point the
game will slow down or at some point he won't
be that good. One of those two things is going
to happen. And you're not surprised. You've been watching this
(20:07):
by forty years. They're guys that have the most impeccable
resume in college football. They're the most blue blood, the
most uk man. He's not gonna miss. And you see
when they get in the game and they get conflict,
it's like something happened to them, like something took over
their body. They are not the same player that were
(20:27):
on And then there are other players that they weren't
great college players, they become dominant players in this league
because they can continue the groater game and the game
slows down. The jury is still out.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah, that's what I saw yesterday. That's fair. That's the
essence of it, for sure.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Carl is checking in from Cottage Grove, but he writes,
h CC I came across a highlight reel from the
eleven fourteen, nineteen ninety nine game against the Bears. Jeff
George was slinging it and I felt sorry for the Bears.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
dB.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you remember that specific game or any untold Jeff
George stories from that season?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Oh? Yeah, Jeff, before we put the game plan in
for that game, just like I want the whole game plan.
Don't give me no abbreviated via backup, backup quarterback game plan.
He's out there drawing up signals. Hey, Chris, when you
get down the field. If he's on the inside shoulder,
I'm gonna rub the back of my head. That means fake.
(21:29):
That's the way we get our haircuts. I was like, yeah, Jeff,
we've been saying that for a long time. You didn't
invent that.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
Oh that's pretty good. Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You do.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Were you dominant in that game? I don't remember much
about that game. That's a long time ago, in nineteen
ninety nine November.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, we had we had to spread it around that game.
But you know, you know, I've had a lot of
good games against Chicago. I think the fans yesterday because
they played the recap of my overtime walk off for
that Chicago yes and so the Bears fans were doing.
I was like, thank you the man. I think you guys,
because I wouldn't be in the Hall of Fame without
the Bear fan.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Yeah, that's that's that's probably that's probably true. So your
your your recommendation is even if the season might be
slipping away here, you know they've got they got two
road games coming up as you I'm sure no, Green
Bay and Seattle. Now you're sitting at four and six,
so you've got really not much margin for air left.
(22:24):
You keep throwing them out there, you keep you know,
because I always wonder, is there's such a thing if
it's as bad as it was at times, and it
obviously ended better, but as bad as it was at times,
do you ever run the risk of traumatizing a guy,
even a kid who allegedly is this confident, if he
looks so sped up and looks so inaccurate that you go, no,
(22:45):
we actually might have to send him some more.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Well, I mean, we've got some great examples as far
as quarterbacks that have been through great journeys. Baker Mayfield
is a great example, great success early in his career,
and then there's called film and you know, the league,
they come up with a game plan for you. So
even after you have success early as C. J. Stroud
(23:11):
in Houston, like the league adjust to you, so then
your struggle might not be at the beginning. Geno Smith,
second round pick, he goes out, end up having success
in Seattle, you know, after you know, being somewhere where
people you know he couldn't become the franchise quarterback there
say I'm Darnold. Excellent transition Indianapolis, you know Danny Dimes like,
(23:37):
So there's a lot of different ways that you can mature.
You hope he does it on your watch, you know,
on that first rookie contract. But this is what he
signed up for. Just what you go to IMG for.
That's what you go to Michigan for. Like, no, now
if we have a different option at backup? Do I
(23:58):
believe after seeing and Bryce and them doing the reset
there in Charlotte, like, but we didn't know if that
would work. That reset they did on Bryce, like, it's
really helped that team. They're in a position this year
after benching him last year that they that there are
a playoffs. So once you make that investment, you at
(24:20):
least have to give the kid three years, especially with
the injury was one being canceled. Now you have to
give the guy now it ends up getting hurt again
now it's going to be an issue, and I would
still look at bringing in a a definitely a veteran
(24:40):
backup next year. Yes, I'm definitely gonna do it. I
have to do that. I have to do that for
the team. And that's what they did last year in
Sam Donold with the end of the rookie year. I
did the same thing again.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, I think that's a great point. Well, you're you're
you're hurting the feelings of Gopher fans, who you know,
are big, big believers in Max Brosmer, the Gopher quarterback
last year is the backup. So I'm just saying be
careful because they're very sensitive to the issue of you
not saying that they have a you know, an established
backup quarterback.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
No problem, no problem. I'm sure. I'm sure they wanted
to put him in yesterday.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Chris did, believe me. I'm not kidding. Well, you know
that bit.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
The bit is, uh, you know, you don't the backup
is always the warp free guy, right, because you don't
associate any mistakes because he hadn't played, so you make
the assumption that why not just throw him out there.
Here's another good question from the audience. From Dustin out
of Bamidgie. As a wide receiver in your prime, wouldn't
the quarterback instability be extremely frustrating to you?
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Well, you don't know my career. I made the Pro
Bowl with five different quarterbacks different times. That's my career. Yes,
Like we didn't have any consistency, Like we had to
make the quarterback work whoever it was. So I just
don't believe in making excuses.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Have you mentioned that to Justin Because you're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I mean everybody talks about the number of quarterbacks he's
gone to have the deal gone through.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
You went through more than that.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
It's the same deal, but you got the bread. You're
getting all the credit. Like when they throw that ball,
they don't think it's them, that's true, they know it's you.
So yes, he has extreme pressure on him, but he's
built for it, like he's built for this, and he's
a great team leader, and he's going to say all
(26:42):
the right things. He's not going to say anything, and
I'm not going to speak to him, but I did
talk to him before the game. And wide receivers, man,
most of us have the same DNA. Okay, you don't
have to work too hard to think about what it is.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, yeah, you were, I mean I think you were.
You're not as vocal as some, but you're I think
you're more vocal than he. I think you'd agree back
in the day.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, but that's I got no problem
with you.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
No, that was you.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Like, he's got a great style for which for which
he can get stuff done. And he's got a lot
of younger players in that locker room who really really
look up to him. So what he says is overall,
body language and everything becomes very very important, even if
he's lying.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Well, you got to right publicly. That's that's what you got. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Well you didn't. You didn't feel obligated to actually though
you you will.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I'm I'm not going to tell a lot, but I'll
also tell you in a way that you can you
can can can do your job.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, that's true. That's a very good way to put it,
and you often did. That's a hundred that's one hundred
percent true.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Is it? In the end? Is part of this too?
You know you mentioned it.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You if they've gone with one of the vets, then
you don't have money to spend elsewhere. But are we
coming to grips with the reality Chris, that it probably
was going to be unrealistic to expect you could do both.
In other words, throw the young quarterback out there and
compete in a way that you wanted to as much
as you did during the regular season last year. That
(28:18):
given his you know, some of his limitations are some
of his struggles at this point, that it just it
just was going to be very difficult to work to
get both things done, you know, because they're big here
on saying we don't rebuild. You know, we're not giving
away a leapy or anything like that. We're we're going
after it. But aren't we seeing the limitations of that
(28:38):
to a certain extent.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Well, for one, you can't you don't know what the
left tackle he designed to come back from a horrific
knee injury a little bit early, but you're trying to
gut it out. He's a great player, all right. His
comeback was a little bit slow. You lose the center,
all right, the quarterback gets nicked up early. So a
(29:02):
lot of things that Jordan Addison was suspended, you know,
So they had a lot of moving pieces that realistically,
the more championship models, especially though a match detrait and
physicality and Philadelphian physicality. They had to upgrade the offensive line,
they had to upgrade the interi of the defensive line,
(29:23):
and they also invested in some players that have been
successful for us. So yeah, I like the business model.
I believe in the front office. I believe in the ownership.
I believe in KOC. But that don't mean that what
I'm seeing right now that it looks better than actually
what I'm seeing it is what it is like this
team has underperformed based on the talent level they have.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Yeah, there's no question about that.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
I mean, and again I'm not putting it on the
quarterback because it's not all on him. But the numbers
are alarm you know. I mean they're staggering even by
a young quarterback numbers when we're talking about QBR and
quarterback rating, I mean, they're off the charts here and
and so that's I mean, you know, as you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
Like this, but I don't like people who don't really
watch the game, right and yesterday, you know, the quarterback
was a great example, especially for a young player, Like
young players are typically more streaky, but you got to
get them a layup. You got to get them pocket, yes,
so that they can get that gleam in their eye,
(30:33):
get that college filling back where they were dominant players
the past. They throw early in the game down the
middle of the field to Jordan Addison that could have
changed his whole psyche. I mean, I mean that the
forty or fifty yard nugget that. Like, you don't know.
They had a couple other TJ. He dropped the path.
(30:55):
The running back dropped the path. JJ dropped the path. Right,
So all these things, and we're talking about the quarterback
and all these things could have been way way different.
If everybody's doing your job, especially when you have a
young quarterback, your margin from air it decreases. We get
(31:17):
your damn job and help out the kid.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Help them out. Yeah, do what you can to make
a difference. I could keep you all day. As you know,
we're really late. I appreciate you as always. Uh, I'm
glad you're doing well, and uh hopefully we can chat
again soon later this very season.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, man, keep your chin up, biking fans, We're gonna
be all right.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
They need to hear that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I think they probably needed that that message delivered. Although
you say it from the safety of Boca Raton. You're
back there while it's going to snow here tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yeah, so what that don't mean I can't be a
fan and they're not going to hear it on your
show because you're not going to tell them that. That's
why you had to have me on here to give
them some hope many season.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Yeah, you're writing just in time for the for the
holiday season. You're Oh, by the way, that was one
another question. Does Chris Carter put his Christmas tree up
before Thanksgiving? Or after Thanksgiving? That was another hard hitting
question I got from the audience.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Oh before, man, I got light everywhere here there already
I got Oh, absolutely, I got Christmas light on the
palm tree.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Send me a photo, man, send me a photo. I'll
tweet it out. That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Okay, absolutely, I'll walk outside and take a picture of
the front.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Thanks Chris, my man, I appreciate you. That is the
one and the only Chris Carter. We'll get caught up
when we complete. I can't think of a better follow
up to our conversation with the Chris Carter than this
(32:44):
particular Vikings talking point.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
We call it wild high and wild low.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
McCarthy play actions great drop deep one side in complaint
to Addison, who's scorched Naseean Wright. Bad pass by JJ McCarthy.
That should have been a big hitch, absolutely right.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
It was a deep over route and he got some
space between him he and the shot right, and that
thing was just thrown a little bit short. So something
to keep an eye on, Paul. That should have been
a big completion right there. You know, that's that's got
to upset Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Scheme it open, Addison gets open at about the twenty
five of the Bears, McCarthy miss fire.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Minnesota two of two.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
On third down, McCarthy shotgun five man rush passed left
incomplete to Jefferson and McCarthy was hitched shortly after he
threw it justin heads to the sideline, knowing he should
it should have been a first down. It was just
another off target too hard. JJ McCarthy passed.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Yeah, I was thrown behind behind him in his back shoulder.
So that's too inaccurate passes that we've seen already in
this first series. And that doesn't Bowell. I know he's
got he has some issues with the hand. Not exactly
sure what.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Pistol formation McCarthy short shot play action, nice blitz picked
up by Aaron Jones pass right, intercepted. Kevin byered the
third with his fifth pick this year. He heads to
the right to the forty thirty five thirty and he's
out of bounds on the bear's bench side of the
equation at the eighteen. For JJ McCarthy, he has thrown
(34:20):
seven interceptions this year, and that one, I mean, that
one just just kind of hung up there like a
center field or waiting for the ball to come down.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Buyer got the pick.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
Well, Bayern's, you know, really just bait at JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Now it's third and seven from their own thirty three.
McCarthy shotgun takes the snap. There comes a blitz picked
up by c. J. Hamm pass right incomplete. I mean,
I mean, I know it's his fifth start, and I
know experience is required.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
I don't even know how to explain what just happened.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
That was ten feet over the head of Justin Jefferson, who,
by the way, was wide open for a first down.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah it would have been.
Speaker 7 (34:59):
It would have been.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
He was shooting to the sideline and the play was there.
It was open, and just over, just threw it over
his head.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Chris Carter catches that ball? Which one all of them
the last one doesn't matter if it's ten feet high
to find it.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Well he just elevate. You got both feet in, there's
no question.
Speaker 6 (35:18):
Yeah, yeah, that's a good as Carter and dropping no
five balls about that the best and so he.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Is still competitive. It's so great. Well that sort of
sizes it up on the downside, right, there is obviously
a great drive late, but there were some moments where
you go, WHOA, and I think you even got from Chris.
I think Carter is like you got to play him.
But I did sense a little bit of concern creeping
(35:45):
in regarding the level of inaccuracy in this game. And
again the kids don't remember Dante Culpeper's first season was
not perfect, but it was nothing like this from the
very beginning. It was nothing. They went to an NFC
title game that year that I mean it ended up
batter down. But yeah, that was his again same as JJ.
(36:06):
He sat for a year and this was his second year,
but the first time really playing in anything that mattered.
And I people have no recollection of it. But and
because right now they don't want to have a recollection
of it, because it would make it even more alarming.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
What's going on right now?
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Let's pause, get caught up, and more talking points when
we return. Time now for the Vikings Report on the Fan,
presented by Miller Lyte.
Speaker 6 (36:32):
Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen joins Denver RaRo.
Speaker 7 (36:35):
Next, marccers, all right.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Do you do it?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And let's do another quick Vikings talking point?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
What do you think, Guardie?
Speaker 1 (37:04):
I'll let you pick of the ones we have remaining,
anything any in particular you think worthy of our consideration
in this next short little block we have.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I like the last one run is success.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
The power of Christ compels you to run the ball occasionally,
which we did do correct?
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Want me to hit it? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (37:26):
Now the offense has to do their job. Yep, you
score here, it's only a six point lead. Now we
got some pressure on these Bears, Paul. They've been comfortable,
I think the entire game. It's time to make them uncomfortable.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
Let's go forty two yard return by Price, his longest
punt return so far this year and needs a rookie.
Here we go first and ten. When the Bears twenty
four run it I'm behind McCarthy. It's a toss right
and turning it up. Jordan Mason gets to the twenty
outside the numbers. Tremaine Edmonds runs him down at about
the sixteen.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
It's a run of eight run.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
It again, dozing run by Jordan Mason. Second and two
thirteen minutes to go in the game. The Vikings, they
got some work to do, but at least they got
some momentum.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Now what a block by CJ.
Speaker 5 (38:08):
Ham on CJ. Gardner Johnson, Paul, I mean that we've
talked about this all day, that they're keeping a defensive
back end basically to play linebacker against base personnel. So
you got the mismatch and CJ. Ham will take Gardner
Johnson all over second and short handoff.
Speaker 4 (38:24):
Mason runs the right first job tenn sure Mason with
his fifth rushing touchdown this year, and the Minnesota Vikings
have life.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
It's sixteen to nine Chicago.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Yeah, they had a body there, but he just can't
arm tackle Jordan Mason. Paul, just tell the almost the
exact same play that they had run previously.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Off tackle.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
Mason gets through the arm tackle by Gardner Johnson and
he takes it up and gets it into the end zone.
So what a huge turn of events, the Viking defense
coming out, make it something happen, special teams answering the call,
and then the running game of all things.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
He sounds stunned.
Speaker 6 (39:08):
He did, didn't he We converted a third and two
running the ball as well?
Speaker 7 (39:12):
We did?
Speaker 6 (39:13):
Did people bronx to hear that. I didn't hear that?
Speaker 3 (39:16):
It's a good quote. I don't know though they did.
I'm not sure they might have.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
There were Goggins wrote some bitterness that we passed on
a couple of like a second and two.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
I don't remember that one.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I I think overall I was as a you know,
a run run the ball terrorist as the Mike Zimmer. Yes,
I I have no complaints about the run game. I
think it's it's vindication once again that that it's an
important it can be an important piece. But as I
said on sermons, if you have a quarterback who's going
(39:48):
to be that inaccurate, it doesn't really matter how much
you run the ball.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
There has to be it all has to work. There
has to be.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Harmonic convergence, right and and so and that I don't
think you can put on koc. It just he's just
wildly inaccurate. He's been that way. He's been a fifty
percent completion guy from the beginning of the season, and
that's the part that is scary and depressing about yesterday.
Kaos said it in his press conference. They ran the
ball really well. They had a lot of second in shorts. Yes,
(40:18):
they weren't behind the chains a bunch, and he got
good production.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
He got good much.
Speaker 6 (40:22):
Time, so much of it was set up to have
a really nice passing Yeah. Yeah, because of how they
established a run and I thought it was interesting. Ben
Johnson kind of in the middle of the first half
took the ball out of Caleb's hands a little bit too.
Caleb had a couple of runs in their touchdown drive,
but after he airmailed like four or five, I think
Johnson said, all right, we're going to the backs, give
(40:43):
me the Rutgers kid, give me the other guy. We're
gonna go. We're gonna run it a little bit. Let's
get this thing stabilized. They took the lead off that
that's true, and I thought that was interesting. But koc
I thought set up his quarterback amazingly yesterday, and his
QB was not ready for receivers.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Were open all over the place. There's no question.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Six point two guy earlier, listening to Pete Bursich through
these talking points, I feel like he's going into a
cranky old man, and you can hear it more and
more and more with each passing game. Uh, let me
let me put it this way. If that's what you
define as a cranky old man, I'll raise my hand
and endorse, because I don't think Peter Burstich sounds like
anything but a hell of a radio analyst. I don't
(41:22):
think if he's cranky, it's not a matter of cranky.
It's him evaluating what he sees exactly, which he's paid
to do. So if you turn if in your mind
that defines cranky, then I'm not sure again what you want.
If you it's not like it's not like Pa and
Bursus are afraid to cheer when things are going well,
(41:44):
but if they're not going well in a game, Bursus
isn't gonna lie to you. So I I love his
radio analysis. I can't half the reason we do talking
points brought to you by Federator Federated Insurance, by the
way we appreciate their support is the reaction. It's it's
it's an and and a lot of times. As you know,
I don't know it because I'm watching it on TV.
(42:06):
So I'm amused because you know what's coming and I don't,
And it's it's part of the fun.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
But he he ain't cranky at all.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
What's he supposed to say? Well, he is cranky, but
it's it's cranky in terms of performance. It's not like
he's just waking up wanting to hammer no, Boddy no.
And what bothers him the most, I think should bother everybody. Yes,
the sloppiness, Yes, where they're running guys out, laid on
the punt, where guys are dropping the ball. Where he's
a coach and a player, he doesn't like the sloppiness. Dan,
(42:35):
your criticisms of JJ are factual, but I almost it
almost seems like you're enjoying seeing him struggle and mocking
the fans of support McCarthy. Do you have some vendetta
against McCarthy that's from Kyle, Kyle, keep that between you
and me. Yeah, I'm out to get the guy. I
celebrated the two when the Vikings drafted him. Vendetta against
(42:57):
JJ McCarthy. If he looks like Josh Freeman, It's not
my fault. If he looks nothing like Dante Culpepper in
his first year, his second year with the team, that's
not my fault either.
Speaker 6 (43:12):
Show rap presented by American Pressure Commercial grade Pressure Washers
since nineteen seventy five.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
It's the bumper to bumper show rap. It's never going
to end, is it?
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Every third text you check Josh Allen stats his first year.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah, let me give him to you right now.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
His first season QBR forty nine to eight, regular rating
sixty seven to nine. Not great. You want to compare
that to what JJ has done this thus far QBR
twenty six point seven.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
It's a little frustraer.
Speaker 7 (43:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Again, I don't I just don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1 (43:53):
We are aware that it's not over for him, but
if the best you can do to make yourself feel
better is look at all these other quarterbacks and what
their numbers were. His quarterback rating was forty points higher,
as ordinary as it was. And again, don't get me
going down the Dante Culpeper road any further than we
(44:15):
already did with Chris Carter.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
I mean, just just stop.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
You're not doing your guy any favors with that, better
to just say, look, it's erratic right now.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
It's worse than.
Speaker 6 (44:27):
I might have even expected. Five games in. It's clearly
worse than what Chris Carter expected. He made that very clear.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
But we're hanging with him, and there's too much upside here.
You're better off saying that than trying to make yourself
feel better by the because none of these comparisons, literally,
none of these comparisons add up if you care about
analytic numbers, the way that quarterbacks are evaluated, whether it's
old school rating or new scale of rating as well,
(44:56):
it's bizarre. A lot of his throws yesterday missed by inches.
Speaker 3 (45:03):
A lot of them, some of them missed by yards.
Speaker 6 (45:06):
And some of them, yeah, missed by zip codes.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Oh have you mentioned Donald's for imts today? Honestly ask him, No,
there are people.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 6 (45:17):
They just got to vote a confidence from somebody. Yes, yeah,
a defensive player. Yeah, who were they playing? Guess who
they were playing yesterday? Who did they play the Rams again?
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (45:25):
No, the Rams are the one team that has Sam
Donald's number.
Speaker 3 (45:31):
And he did. He threw as But here's what's interesting.
He still almost brought him back.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
He cut the lead to one touchdown or even one
field goal, and then they got the ball again late.
But the field goal to try they they they attempted
was like I think sixty eight or sixty six sixty
five yards, So no, there was I'm noticing there are
a lot of people who said, well, what does that say?
Speaker 3 (45:54):
I mean, is he coming back to the.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Pack or is it literally whoever runs the defense of
the Rams. Has Sam Darnold figured out or it's even
become kind of a mental block for him.
Speaker 3 (46:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
He's had an outstanding regular season, there's no question about that.
You're hearing the music now because we're out early for
some Vikings programming, and that'll be followed by your Timberwolves
back in action against the struggling Dallas Mavericks, who have
everybody out right now, They're two best players are out well.
(46:26):
Kyrie is out for a long stretch right Although a
lot of people think he will try to come back
later this season.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know if they'll want to or will he.
By the way, did you notice I forgot.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
To mention this with Johnny the Thunder, I believe has
lost one game thus far and they've been killing people.
They've been playing bad teams that they've been winning routinely
by you know, twenty thirty forty. The other nugget on
Okie City. I'm sure you've seen it. There's an excellent
chance that they will have two of the top ten picks.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
In the NBA drafts. I know this upcoming in unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
How well they've put that thing together and sustained it.
Speaker 6 (47:05):
They took advantage of being flyover country and having stars
absolutely out of there, man, Paul George. For sure, it's
almost scary when you think of it that way. It
is two of the top ten, and by the way.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
One of those could end up being like a top
three pick eventually. One of them, I think is lottery
protected to an extent. That's great, but one of them
is not. The Rams also have Who's bad right now?
The Rams have somebody's number one pick next year. That's
really good. Let me see I can find it real quick.
We're out of time, aren't we.
Speaker 7 (47:34):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Chris Carter joined us at what time? Five o'clock?
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Five o'clock. If you miss it, I harghly recommend you
try to get to it. I thought I saved it.
Rams made a great deal when they traded for the
falcons twenty twenty six first round pick, Atlanta's in free
for all their starting quarterback. Gone Cousins looked. He didn't
look good. Hedn't even look interested to me. No, he
looks like he's whipped. He just looks like he's just
(47:59):
at his age.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
Not great. Yeah, I'm probably right about that.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Tomorrow, Kevin Steaffert and Luigi Vikings rewind and then Wolves
hoop action on the fan.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
We'll talk to you at three o'clock.
Speaker 5 (48:11):
A lot of things that are easily correctable.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
We've got to get a fire in our ass.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
It's real, it's wrong at times, it's real wrong
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