December 22, 2025 • 41 mins
Dan kicks off the show recapping the Vikings vs Giants and takes a look at other NFC North games. Dan decides to cold call Gerby and the results are what you would expect.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is You're the China Syndrome Leader fan Fan Radio
Network and k fa N dot com. Two minutes one
second past the hour of three o'clock Central Standard time,
Welcome back to the a Monday edition of the Bumper
(00:21):
to Bumpert program on Almost ball Me weekday afternoon here
in the Twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. My
name is Dan Barrera. I'm the occasional host of the
program about to be taking some good solid holiday time
off Guardzy Is I think has already landed Arizona Way.
He is tracking the Golden Gophers who are involved in
(00:42):
yet another an endless series of meaningless bowl games. And
that means our good friend Sam Byrd is kind enough
to join us. Nice to see it, yeahs having me
I make a mission unlike common I like brightness in here,
but the downside of brightness is because of the reflection,
I can barely see you in that. I think I
get an outline of you, I'm pretty sure. But we
(01:04):
appreciate you helping us out on a busy day because
obviously schedules are tough. Right now, Oh that's much better,
But that's that might be too bright for you. It's okay,
I can you can handle that, You'll be okay? All right? Well, welcome,
good to have you, and we're looking forward to a
very good broadcast between now and I think we're going
the distance today till six thirty. In any case, we do.
(01:27):
We are not going to get a Minnesota Viking player
this week. Obviously it was Adam THELN for most of
the season. Then he asked to be cut and was
and went to Carolina, probably not regretting that move given
Carolina is now in position to win a division. In addition,
(01:48):
there was hope. We've had a couple of other players
since Thelm Feeling bailed, but we're not going to get
a player this week. What they're calling a short week
at TCO Performance Center. So no Vikings player today. Johnny
Athletic is confirmed for four h two today, so in
about one hour. In addition, Ben Lieber, Monday regular, will
join at four forty seven. We have several Vikings talking
(02:11):
points that we will make part of the broadcast, as
is customary the day after Vikings games, and a number
of you have asked for well, a cold call conversation
with Gerby in the wake of what happened to his
Green Bay Packers in Chicago, Illinois, Saturday night. Stay tuned.
We are making some effort to try to pull that off.
(02:33):
That's complicated. We got to find out, try to find
out where he is about him knowing it. But we'll
see if we can get gerby going today. There's a
lot of Vikings fans who reminded me yesterday on sermons
that the schadenfreud a level is very high for Vikings
fans when the Green Bay Packers lose. So we'll try
(02:54):
to include that into the discussion as well. I don't
know how many excuse me I said Carolina. He had
been Carolina previously. He's a Steeler now. He probably doesn't
feel bad about that either, come to think of it,
given the fact that the Pittsburgh Steelers had a very
nice game yesterday, although I don't know if he was
(03:15):
much of a factor in yesterday's ball game. How quickly
we forget, yes, Carolina before the Vikings now a rage
and the Steelers after the fact. How many of you
in the audience if I use the term China syndrome,
or in this case, technically I kind of cheated, it's
(03:38):
China doll syndrome. How many of you in the audience
are old enough to understand the reference as it pertains
to Minnesota Vikings football. I'm guessing I don't think it's
much higher than that, but I might be wrong. I've
(04:01):
been wrong before, and it's on my mind that expression
that goes back, I believe, all the way till to
two thousand and seven in Vikings history, so almost twenty
years ago. And if those of you who do recall,
(04:21):
might note that it was Brad Childress, the Vikings head
coach at the time, was attempting to discuss and mull
over the health and or durability of a Vikings quarterback
named Tavaris Jackson. And at the time, this is what
(04:48):
Childress said. You ask yourself, is this just one particularly
bad year? Is it the fact he is a China doll?
And at the time it became kind of, I don't know,
the talking point regarding that player. We discussed constantly, obviously
(05:09):
the durability of players, certainly football players and quarterbacks at
the top of that list, and it was kind of
a new way, a new term that I don't think
most of us at her associated with the position. Once again,
I think it's relevant and now we ask the same
question of JJ McCarthy. Is he a China Dog. It's
(05:34):
an important question, a crucial question that the Vikings are
going to have to try to answer as they make
a number of decisions this offseason on what they're going
to do moving forward at the quarterback position. Because he's
out again, I don't know that there's been anything official
(05:54):
or that there will be anything official today about his
status or about how long he might be out. It's
possible he's done for the season. There's only two games left.
The X rays allegedly were negative on whatever was going
on on his hand. He looked like when trainer Guy
touched the sensitive area, he acted as if trainer Guy
(06:20):
had lopped off a finger. The video has made the rounds,
has become quite viral, but let's be honest. The game
itself is relatively meaningless. We can pretend it means a lot.
We can pretend that we're supposed to celebrate the fact
that the team isn't quitting. And I come from a
(06:40):
belief system that says we should not applaud, that we
should expect that from professional athletes, from professional players, in
this case representing the Minnesota Vikings. This is what they
should do, the fact that we've got to swoon. They
could they could have mailed it in. They could have
(07:03):
They didn't have to play. Aaron Jones didn't have to
keep going out there. I mean, come on, seriously, you
wouldn't want to go back out there against the New
York bleeping Giants. It's one of the worst operations I've
seen in recent memory. They're awful. So let's be careful
about what kind of conclusions we want to draw over
winning our third game in a row in garbage time
(07:27):
of the season against probably the worst team in football,
certainly one of the very worst teams in football. But
we are evaluating actively the QB. I thought he, despite
what we're hearing from Koc, took a significant step back yesterday.
Don't text me about the drop passes. I know about
the drop passes. I'm well aware of the drop passes.
(07:48):
We'll get to that too as part of the Vikings
talking points. But in all honesty, I didn't think he
was as good as he had been the previous two weeks.
He got bailed out on a very questionable sides call,
then what would have been a pick six. He did
a terrible job getting rid of the ball at the
end of the half. That's the cardinal sin you're trying.
(08:09):
You're basically trying to run out the clock, or maybe
we're going to take one shot at it to just
see if we can get a chunk play and then
think about a field goal because we have the greatest
field goal kicker ever. And you not only can't hold
onto the ball, can't read what's happening, You get stripsacked,
ball gets picked up by a former goalfer I believe
score a touchdown. So I don't think he was there
(08:35):
was anything to write a home about his performance yesterday.
Do you have other plays that were nice? Yes? Was
the scramble into the end zone? They run good? Were
there a couple other very nice throws? Yes? But the
question I think today on JJ is China syndrome related
the larger question, regardless of what you think he is
(08:58):
doing to improve to start, since he hit that stretch
where he played as dreadfully as he did, so now
to me, the question is not just evaluating him, but
saying can he stay healthy in the National Football League?
Is he a China doll? And if he is or
(09:21):
he can't, how many games has he played. Is it
eight and a half now? I think it's eight and
a half games out of Let's see what the totals
I have here somewhere. Let's just say this. Put it
this way. He has missed a lot more games than
he has played so far in the National Football League.
(09:42):
He has had now what is it, four different injuries
thus far. And I'm not saying any of the injuries
were not legit. They could well have been legit. But
the fact of the matter is he has well. As
Bud Grant says, the greatest ability is availability. He has
(10:04):
not been available enough. You could argue, he argues, has
not been available enough to evaluate fairly. There's something to that.
But there are players who forever, for whatever reason, can't
stay on the field, and that's troubling, and that's concerning.
So you can put me firmly in the camp that
(10:24):
is growing. I think in belief that even if you
think he's got a chance still to be a franchise quarterback,
you cannot afford to bring him back and hand him
the job again without if not meaningful competition, a meaningful
(10:45):
backup quarterback who when you sign him, you tell him
there's a good chance you're going to play half the season,
or you have to be prepared to play half the season,
because we're not sure. As much as we like what
JJ McCarthy offers, what we think he can offer, we're
not sure he may just be one of those unlucky
guys who cannot stay on the field. So that is
(11:09):
what I come out of that game with that injury with,
even if it ends up being a relatively minor injury.
He's had too many in too many to just say
it's full speed ahead, we're going to hand him the job,
and we're in total agreement. We have full confidence that
if he just gets more games under his belt, he's
(11:30):
going to be fine. Too much China doll in him
right now, too breakable right now, too fragile right now.
That's not me saying he's soft. It's not me saying
again that he's not tough enough. It's me saying that
if you can't stee on the field, it's almost irrelevant
(11:50):
what you think you can do. And we all agreed,
I think right once the team was mathematically eliminated. Once
the team was mathematically eliminated, the only thing that mattered
the rest of the way was to continue to throw
him out there and see what he might have, or
if not that, to just give him a chance to
gain some confidence, make some plays, and you do the
(12:12):
brick by brick thing right, you start trying to build
more of a quarterback foundation, and if you're fortunate, you
see enough promise that you say we're still on course.
It may be delayed a little bit, but this guy's
got the stuff. It's in him. Again, whether you believe
that or not, it's irrelevant if he cannot stay out
(12:34):
there on the field. So threading this needle aint going
to be easy, because it's easy to say, well, get
a quarterback who's good enough to compete and good enough
to play as almost a quasi starter, but don't give
up the farm for him. Those quarterbacks don't grow on trees, right,
There's not that many of them out there. Who's the
right one who fits that classification? None of that is easy,
(12:56):
but I think absolutely it has to be part of
the conversation for the Vikings going forward. Four injuries in
this short of a period of time two years, that's
just not going to work. Brat Sewan Brian kfan text
line is six four six eight six six four six
eight six. A lot of texts are coming in about
(13:19):
the drop passes. I have very strong opinions, a very
strong opinion that not all drop passes are equal. And
we're going to get to that when we come back,
as I said, talking points, and Johnny Athletic will weigh
in on what he saw yesterday. We'll get some wolf
stuff from him as well, and who knows what else.
(13:39):
Let's take our first pause back in a minute here
in the fan. Now, we're gonna try something here. This
is on the fly. This is like what we in
(14:01):
the business call seat of the pants radio to attempt to,
as we say in the business, cold call Carl Gerschmidt, Hello, Hello,
May you speak to Caleb Williams please. I don't think
(14:25):
we got through. We must have a phone system problem here.
Not good. Hmmm, well we'll try again later. The the
request was made by several people to contact Gerby for
all the obvious reasons, but that didn't that time. It
did not work out all that well, we may try
again a little bit later. Let me give you an
(14:47):
example of what we're dealing with here regarding the quarterback play.
Let me see if I can find the text in
question strip sick injury. No, that's not the one. Where
did it go? Would you bring in as a quarterback
and bring it as a backup for competition with jj O?
Here is here's the one I was looking for. You
(15:09):
are funny saying I know about the drops. I know
about the drops. Then in the same sentence, say he
got bailed out from an all sides calling what would
have been what would have been a pick six? That
ball bounced off of Naylor's hands. That ball was a
terribly thrown pass. It's an example of the lack of
touch that he has yet to develop. Now it can
(15:30):
be developed. We've seen quarterbacks figure that out over time.
But if you watched that play and the only conclusion
you draw is Eric Naylor again off his hands, I
don't know what to tell you, man that that throw
was on a string. That was not a good throw.
(15:53):
And he still has I'll even argue the one that
ended up holding up as an interception, but that pass
was behind was not really thrown all that well either.
The one I'll give him was what should have been
a touchdown on the first drive under pressure. That was
(16:14):
a hell of a good throw. That was a drop.
And we're going to get to all those via Vikings
talking points. But I just I don't understand how. I mean,
if you watch football for longer than fifteen minutes, you
can't see sometimes that the trajectory of the ball, the
(16:34):
speed with which the ball is coming in, often have
something to do with the difficulties that a receiver has.
There's quarterbacks who throw good balls, and there's quarterbacks who
throw bad ones. He throws a lot of bad balls,
tough to catch. Throws that again, in a perfect world,
(16:56):
the receivers are paid a lot of money and you
can go in and get you go ahead and you
make the play. But they're not as easy as they
should be. They're not as effortless as they should be.
And I think also you're kind of missing the point.
The point isn't it's almost a different subject. The subject
(17:16):
today is China syndrome. To be honest, It's more, even
if you love him, are you starting to get concerned
that he has been unable for now four different reasons
to stay on the field. At some point do you go, well,
that's a little on the disconcerting side. I guess you
(17:39):
could say a little bit on the difficult side. And
that's the part that I think has to be the
event part of the evaluation process for your favorite football team,
and maybe they'll decide not. We still see enough. We
just think he's been unlucky. Been other players earlier in
(18:01):
their careers who have been rather unlucky. Vikings have had
some of them, including Robert Smith. But if we all
agree that he needs playing time more than anything else,
he needs reps more than anything else, then you have
to be a bit concerned at the inability to stay
(18:24):
on the field for any extended period of time. Two
seasons in which he's missed most of both of them,
and even this season it's been up, it's been down.
I'm still not convinced it made any sense that he
missed as much time as he did with the original
injury this year as well. That's what this was when
they were in Europe. So a lot of good texts
(18:46):
are coming in via the Bradshawn Brian Caffean text line,
and we're gonna get I'm gonna review some of them.
As I said, talking points we've got Johnny Athletic is
coming up at probably four h two, and then Libra
will do this be with us in the four o'clock hour. Man,
(19:06):
it was I thought that was one of the first
times this season I said to myself, that's a chore
to watch that ball game. And part of that, a
lot of that had to do with the Giants, who
you know. You know me, I'm the guy who wants
to run the ball. But even I was offended by
how little the Giants seemed interested or capable of throwing
(19:29):
the ball at all. What did it take was did
they run? It was at fifteen straight times. It was embarrassing.
I mean, that look didn't even strike me as being
a professional operation, speaking of trying to find out what
your team has. You know, there was some comments a
couple of weeks ago that Russell Wilson was bitter, like
he didn't really know why he got benched. Russell Wilson's
(19:53):
been his own worst enemy. But after watching what the
Giants did at the quarterback position yesterday and the way
they use it quarterback, I don't blame Russell Wilson at
all for going what I got bench for that. What's
exactly the point about of the hour break? Maybe we
take one more shot at Gerby if we can pull
this thing off. It's technologically very very difficult to get
him on the phone. We're gonna try it and then
(20:14):
we'll prepare for other controversies as well. Don't go away,
all right, bring that music down just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It's a great day at the Wisconsin Department Transportation. Happy
holidays to Hill.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I help you, sir. I'm trying to make a reservation
at the Interactive Ice Bowl Bed and Breakfast and launch
forge mid January.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I don't now well supposed to do this. What's your name?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
The last name is Williams w I L L I
A M. S. The first name is Caleb. Hello, okay,
I know it's happening all right, man?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Why are you doing this for? Not today?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
People are why do you need to do? People are
worried about you? This is this is like could consider
this an intervention? Or maybe they do. They call it
like what wait, what are you?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
What are you intervening for?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
What? Well? I think when I was a little.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Kid, there's a pond. You're the fun and we would
go down and feed the ducks. I would feed them
out of the duck and the duck links and we
were feeding the ducks and one day it does snapping
turtle grab one the duck's a little duck things and
sucked the money one and the duck was going peep peep, peep,
(22:04):
peep peep in your mother was We couldn't do anything
about it. He didn't care under it. You're doing right now?
It is worse than that. Oh, you're doing now? It
is cool?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Well, I mean, will you admit that you have to
do this? Will you admit that you were awfully cock
sure of yourself through much of that game? And it
looked like, I mean, you were mocking Bear the Bears.
You didn't. You don't have any problems mocking other people
when their feelings are hurt, especially Bears fans.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Hurt. You had to push the ball out of bounce.
Oh you have to do if you can't catch, just push.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
How did your guy not know that?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Is that the worst loss you've had in the last
twenty five years? Yeah, it is like Seattle. You're right
about that. Is this gonna ruin your Christmas week? Is
this gonna ruin your Christmas week?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You think we're not gonna have a good Christmas?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, first of all, a Texter is reminding me, isn't
it true?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
We're not gonna have a good Christmas. Oh no, I
hope you can have a great Christmas. We're not gonna
have one.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You could still win the division, you know what I mean?
Do I have to tell you that you're the guy
who says you got to stay with your team. Sounds
like you've given up on your team.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
My team. This is we lost to a rival in Minnesota,
or did try it? We lost to a rival.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Understand, you need to get a hold of yourself. Man,
you're a grown man. You you're eh, well, there it is.
That's good. That's about. That's actually more than I thought
we'd get out of him. I had. You never know,
like we got Rapper gurby Friday. Today, we got the
blubb the most the the the the blubbery or blubbering
(24:17):
version of Gurby the last time I remember him blubbering
quite like that. I think it was the Michael Vick
game when he was like in the parking lot. It
was like three in the morning. You could hear the beat,
beat beat of the garbage trucks basically trying to get
him out of the way so they could clear the garbage,
(24:37):
and he wouldn't leave the parking lot. It was like
three in the morning, that after that playoff game where
Michael Vick just kicked the Packers ass. That's the one.
That's that's the first time I've heard him quite that
forlorn since that that's a long time ago. I was
gonna say, I remember, I remember listening to the show
back then. Yeah, I do remember exactly what you're referring to.
Oh my god, poor guy. Yeah, well, it's his effort
(25:01):
to elicit sympathy, and I'm not gonna give it to him, because,
like I said, he's he's he doesn't have it. On
the other side, he cackles when fans are devast Vikings
fans are devastated, or Bears fans are devastated, And let's
be honest, he's had so many highs the Green Bay Packers.
How is anyone possibly gonna feel sorry for Gerby? But
(25:24):
I'm glad we got him at least a little at
least a little bit We've got we expect Johnny athletic.
At the top of the hour, let me get to
some texts, because there's a bunch that are indeed coming
in on Vikings giants in the quarterback situation. Hold on
a second, let me well Actually, here's a couple relating, uh,
(25:44):
reacting to Gerby. First, let's go to the top. Does
Gerby know that feeding Duckling's bread actually can kill them?
So the turtle is actually providing a mercy to his cruelty.
Wow tail Gerby will give them a good Christmas and
(26:04):
beat Detroit for him. Maybe, I don't know. Well, maybe
Detroit if about down and the Dumps say maybe they're
done after the Steelers knock them off, cheer up. Carl
uw falls to go to the D three National Championship
after winning forty eight forty one over JOHNS Hopkins on Saturday.
(26:28):
I'm not sure that's going to be enough. Gerby is
not enough of a college fan, I think to be
consoled by that kind of information or that kind of development.
I think the better similar of The China Syndrome with
aj Quarterback is that of the nineteen seventy nine movie
The China Syndrome starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemon, not to
(26:50):
mention Michael Douglas. The movie's plot is that of a
cover up of a nuclear power plant leak threatening to
melt through the Earth's core. I eat all the Way
to China, China syndrome. I think the Vikings are similarly frightened,
too frightened to admit their mistake. That's second level thinking,
(27:11):
right there. Dan. Don't you think the Giants were strategically tanking.
They barely had dart throw at all. It felt that
way at times. There's no question about that, agree Dan.
When you have seventeen different quarterbacks throwing to these receivers,
they don't get a chance to understand that, Hey, maybe
JJ ball comes a little hotter, a little higher than
say Cousins or Darnel. So if you can't be in
the field to develop the tendency of the ball from
(27:32):
JJ or how he throws it, of course there are drops.
I hear the argument, well, they make a lot of money,
so they should make those catches. But I'm using a
case koc favorite time on a favorite time on task
is important. Nobody loves him. Referencing our young quarterback, Dan
(27:56):
writes Leon Muskat, there's a portion of us, granted, a
small percent. You recognize that you need to let JJ develop,
call the game of his capabilities in mind, and not
proclaim the kid a bust after four or five games. Yes,
the injuries are concerning, but you have to be patient
with a young quarterback. No one's disagreeing with that. I'm
telling you. For me, if I'm running the Vikings, I'm not.
(28:19):
I haven't seen enough and I have not seen him
on the field enough to where I'm just handing him
the ball, which is essentially what they did coming into
training camp this year. I'm not doing it. That's not
me saying he can't develop. That's me saying I got
to have a decent insurance policy. Man. Until he can
prove that whatever grievance he has with the injury, gods,
(28:42):
they're gonna, you know, let up on them in the
seasons coming forward. That's the issue. We didn't have a
number one quarterback in twenty twenty four. I think we
had the best quarterback that was available to time SOCCA.
We had a number one pick and passed on Caleb
Williams for JJ McCarthy. Well, they could have had Nicks.
I wasn't one of the group saying they should have
taken them. And Denver obviously at their best, the defense
(29:05):
largely carries that team. But he has stayed out there,
he's played a lot of games, and he's been much
better than I thought that he would be looking on
the bright side. How about Max Brozmer came in and
performed well seven for nine pass including one great one
to Jefferson. No turnover has led the game when he's
driving all that on very little prep. We'll get to
that via talking points as well. Hall of famer Mark
(29:29):
Rosen postca it was like watching a preseason game in August.
And that's the problem. It wasn't August, it's December. It
was a bad, bad football it's and that's why I'm sorry.
I can't attach the meaning to this game that koc
tries because they released another one of those postgame tapes
(29:51):
of his, you know, his speech after the fact, like
you know, we just we just successfully defended pork Chop Hill,
and I just it just doesn't do anything for me.
It really doesn't, because I don't really think anything was
proven yesterday at all, Or maybe I should better say,
(30:11):
I don't think you should have to prove that you're
not going to quit during a season coming off a
fourteen and three season. Maybe if you're the Giants and
you're bad every year, maybe there's no choice but to quit.
But I'm not going to celebrate that. There was great
grip attached with doing what the Vikings did. And I
know we had more injuries. The New York Giants offensive
(30:33):
line was gutted. It might not have mattered, but everybody's
everybody's got a series of injuries right now. So to
act like there was any kind of meaningful threshold crossed
to me is silly. I'm never going to rip a
team for winning at this point that you just have
to play the season out and you have to try
(30:53):
to figure some things out. But to attach any sort
of big significance to any of these games, I think
is just because you want to, because you're frustrated that
the team is not in contention, and you want to
attach greater meaning to stuff that just doesn't have that
much meaning, especially when you factor in, as I said,
who the opponent was and the approach that they took.
(31:13):
It just it just it does not. None of it
adds up to me. And the number of penalties was ridiculous.
We can argue about the couple of the face mask
or should say the personal foul calls as well, but
I mean the Vikings started that game with what record
of was it six and eight? Double check? What's our
(31:37):
current record now? Are we seven and eight now? I
think that's correct, that's correct. And the Giants started the
game with a record at two and twelve. Now they're
two and thirteen. And I tweeted this during the game.
Somebody asked, well, you know, what are your thoughts. My
thoughts are, I'm looking at a game matching a six
and eight team that's a mathematically eliminated at two and
twelve team. Isn't that what it really looked like? So
(32:00):
then on the other hand, it's to pretend that there's
a great meaning because we made this play and we
didn't quit. We kept fighting and we hung in there.
I just think if that's what you have to do
as a head coach to keep your team on your side,
then that doesn't say much for the group I I
just it doesn't. It just does not. This is the
(32:22):
part of the season you just tolerate to get through
it to the other side, to find out where you
need help, what you need to do going forward. That's
all it should be, not anything about really what necessarily
happened within the game. It was eye opening that really
opened the door to how much this team was interested
(32:44):
in performing. And again I thought McCarthy was very mixed
before he got hurt, I thought he had some nice throws.
I didn't think he was as consistent as he had been,
even as recently as the week before. I'm bemoaning the
(33:04):
fact that the Vikings couldn't figure out what he draft.
Drake May. Who's with me? Well, you know we've talked
about that many times over the years. The Vikings clearly
coveted Drake Moore, Drake May, I should say, and by
all accounts they did. They made a significant offer. It
just wasn't significant enough to move up. They may like
(33:25):
JJ McCarthy, but they I think they may not admit
this now. They loved Drake May, and May seems to
be indicating exactly why so many teams coveted him to
the degree that that they did. There's not one single
person who celebrated that game. I don't know who you're
(33:46):
arguing against when you make this point. Did you see
the postgame speech from KOC I mean serious, I mean
read some of the stuff that's been written about this game.
The idea that we you know, we we summoned something
up under adverse circumstances. Open your eyes a little bit.
(34:10):
I'm not making this stuff up if I didn't start
today thinking that I was going to go down this
road at all, but I've kind of been forced to
on the basis of what I've seen and in some
cases what I've read. There's plenty of celebration going on
in this game or after this game. We may not
be looking for it if you don't want to, but
there has been quite a bit of it as well.
(34:36):
We've got a couple more texts in and as I said,
we do. We got Johnny at the top of the
hour and a bunch of good vikings talking points to
get to Dan. This is Stephen Miami. I think there's
a lot of similarities with I bet you they have
a few higher a few more degrees than we do
right now, even though it's relatively balming here. Hey, I'm
going to guess eighty sounds about right. I think there's
(34:57):
a lot of similarities with JJ McCarthy and Rob Dillingham
for different reasons. Course, JJ can't give us enough time
to evaluate him. I think Rob's just undersize. If you
can't thrive in the regular season survive, he's got no
chance in the playoffs. But now we found Bones Highland,
who is the Vikings Bones Highland. That's all we need
to find. Maybe it's broke, Maybe there's still there's probably
some Brose or Brownstone fans out there still think that
(35:17):
he showed enough yesterday that he should get a second
shot at this thing. I don't know it comes off
as me saying I'm done with JJ and that he's awful.
It's not what I'm saying today in any way, shape
or form. But I can tell you reading even the
tweets from there was a tweet yesterday from Tommy Kramer,
(35:41):
the former Vikings quarterback. What I sense is frustration sets
in even among players who might be rooting for McCarthy
if he just can't stay on the field. And I
don't think at any point they're casting aspersions on his manhood,
on his toughness. But it's all about evaluating players and
(36:08):
bouncing off what players do when they are out there,
and nothing can happen if they're not available, nothing, no
matter what promise they show. That's the dilemma we're in
here now. Maybe we'll find out whatever the injury was
that's sidelined him for the second half is not as
serious as we thought, and maybe he'll end up playing
the next two games, because if he isn't healthy enough
(36:30):
to play, he should. I'm certainly in that group that
says you play him as much as you can, you
give him as many reps as you can, but it's
hard not to wonder whether they're just going to be
depending again on what the injuries are, just going to
decide to be a little bit more cautious as well.
(36:50):
I thought JJ played pretty well. He's a gamer. A
few dropped passes, yes, a fumble interception on his fault.
With the injury situation, you definitely have to bring some
kind of capable that it could possibly be a journeyman
starter if needed. I have a couple ideas on names
I'm gonna give a little bit later that might be
gettable and more realistic, because the dilemma is obviously you're
(37:13):
not gonna be able to bring somebody in who's making
a ton of money. That's probably not gonna be realistic.
And he would you even want a quarterback who might
be available as making a ton of money. Not If
his name for me is Kyler Murray, I have no
interest in pursuing him at all. Zero. In fact, if
my choices are Kyler Murray or JJ. I might just
(37:35):
say let's just keep going, let's keep our head down
and hope that again that the injury God's got whatever
they hold against him out of their system, and that
from this point forward he's gonna be one of the
healthiest quarterbacks in football. Interesting allegation here. McCarthy reminds me
of the fifth grade in house kid that fakes an
(37:56):
injury after a bad play. Every time McCarthy makes a
bad play, gets injured. Maybe it's an injury, but is
it really as bad as it seems. He milks it well.
He's probably referring again to the viral scene where the
trainer is grabbing it whatever it's on his hand or
finger and he winces as if I mean he jumped
like he was ready to faint. I'm here, I'm not
(38:19):
here to say that I think he is making up injury.
That's a pretty serious allegation to make, and you have
to have a little bit more proof for that. I'm
willing to just go right now with can't stay on
the field, And if you can't stay on the field,
the team can't wait forever for that. They have to
give themselves, as I said, viable options by the way,
(38:44):
I've not heard anybody here locally offer up any commentary
regarding maybe the secret weapon for the monsters Midway. The
Chicago Bears a former Visus quarterback named case Keenum, maybe
the case Keenum magic. Even though he's not playing, he's
their third quarterback. I saw him celebrating after Caleb threw
(39:09):
the overtime touchdown pass. Do not underestimate the case Keenum
factor in Chicago, Illinois. If also you're wondering, are we
gonna have a ballplayer, I mean a Viking? Remember the
Vikings on today? The answer is no. Short week. This
of course is Christmas Week coming up, and the Vikings
play on Christmas Day. And it is amazing to think
(39:34):
how once upon a time when we were when whatever
the schedule got reversed I should say released, and we
went down it game by game, a lot of people thinking, man,
that could be that should be a great matchup on
Christmas Day? Are you kidding me? Division game? Lots at
(39:56):
stake and in this case not so much. Vikings eliminated
and Detroit Lyons in danger great danger of being eliminated
as well after they lost to guess who Aaron Rodgers
playing well yesterday and the Pittsburgh see you as I
try to tell you should have taken the plunge on
(40:18):
a Roger telling you, I think we would be in
a very different position today if we did. Don't text me,
I know what you're gonna text with the oral offensive, Loyd,
You'd already be dead. Some quarterbacks do a better job
of getting rid of the ball quicker than others. Let's
make this the top of the hour pause. And as
I mentioned, Johnny Athletic on the Purple, on the quarterback
(40:41):
situation on the Timberwolves, dare we ask him any more
hockey questions that tends to annoy Kevin Falness, that might
be a good reason to indeed do it. And in
the background we have let me give you an update
on something called the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The Famous
Idaho Potato Bowl looks like early fourth quarter. Washington State
(41:07):
twenty seven, Utah State seven. This is on the Blue Field,
twenty seven to seven in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
The Gopher's Meaningless Bowl is coming up later in the week.
All the action right here in the fat
This is You're the China Syndrome Leader fan Fan Radio
Network and k fa N dot com. Two minutes one
second past the hour of three o'clock Central Standard time,
Welcome back to the a Monday edition of the Bumper
(00:21):
to Bumpert program on Almost ball Me weekday afternoon here
in the Twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. My
name is Dan Barrera. I'm the occasional host of the
program about to be taking some good solid holiday time
off Guardzy Is I think has already landed Arizona Way.
He is tracking the Golden Gophers who are involved in
(00:42):
yet another an endless series of meaningless bowl games. And
that means our good friend Sam Byrd is kind enough
to join us. Nice to see it, yeahs having me
I make a mission unlike common I like brightness in here,
but the downside of brightness is because of the reflection,
I can barely see you in that. I think I
get an outline of you, I'm pretty sure. But we
(01:04):
appreciate you helping us out on a busy day because
obviously schedules are tough. Right now, Oh that's much better,
But that's that might be too bright for you. It's okay,
I can you can handle that, You'll be okay? All right? Well, welcome,
good to have you, and we're looking forward to a
very good broadcast between now and I think we're going
the distance today till six thirty. In any case, we do.
(01:27):
We are not going to get a Minnesota Viking player
this week. Obviously it was Adam THELN for most of
the season. Then he asked to be cut and was
and went to Carolina, probably not regretting that move given
Carolina is now in position to win a division. In addition,
(01:48):
there was hope. We've had a couple of other players
since Thelm Feeling bailed, but we're not going to get
a player this week. What they're calling a short week
at TCO Performance Center. So no Vikings player today. Johnny
Athletic is confirmed for four h two today, so in
about one hour. In addition, Ben Lieber, Monday regular, will
join at four forty seven. We have several Vikings talking
(02:11):
points that we will make part of the broadcast, as
is customary the day after Vikings games, and a number
of you have asked for well, a cold call conversation
with Gerby in the wake of what happened to his
Green Bay Packers in Chicago, Illinois, Saturday night. Stay tuned.
We are making some effort to try to pull that off.
(02:33):
That's complicated. We got to find out, try to find
out where he is about him knowing it. But we'll
see if we can get gerby going today. There's a
lot of Vikings fans who reminded me yesterday on sermons
that the schadenfreud a level is very high for Vikings
fans when the Green Bay Packers lose. So we'll try
(02:54):
to include that into the discussion as well. I don't
know how many excuse me I said Carolina. He had
been Carolina previously. He's a Steeler now. He probably doesn't
feel bad about that either, come to think of it,
given the fact that the Pittsburgh Steelers had a very
nice game yesterday, although I don't know if he was
(03:15):
much of a factor in yesterday's ball game. How quickly
we forget, yes, Carolina before the Vikings now a rage
and the Steelers after the fact. How many of you
in the audience if I use the term China syndrome,
or in this case, technically I kind of cheated, it's
(03:38):
China doll syndrome. How many of you in the audience
are old enough to understand the reference as it pertains
to Minnesota Vikings football. I'm guessing I don't think it's
much higher than that, but I might be wrong. I've
(04:01):
been wrong before, and it's on my mind that expression
that goes back, I believe, all the way till to
two thousand and seven in Vikings history, so almost twenty
years ago. And if those of you who do recall,
(04:21):
might note that it was Brad Childress, the Vikings head
coach at the time, was attempting to discuss and mull
over the health and or durability of a Vikings quarterback
named Tavaris Jackson. And at the time, this is what
(04:48):
Childress said. You ask yourself, is this just one particularly
bad year? Is it the fact he is a China doll?
And at the time it became kind of, I don't know,
the talking point regarding that player. We discussed constantly, obviously
(05:09):
the durability of players, certainly football players and quarterbacks at
the top of that list, and it was kind of
a new way, a new term that I don't think
most of us at her associated with the position. Once again,
I think it's relevant and now we ask the same
question of JJ McCarthy. Is he a China Dog. It's
(05:34):
an important question, a crucial question that the Vikings are
going to have to try to answer as they make
a number of decisions this offseason on what they're going
to do moving forward at the quarterback position. Because he's
out again, I don't know that there's been anything official
(05:54):
or that there will be anything official today about his
status or about how long he might be out. It's
possible he's done for the season. There's only two games left.
The X rays allegedly were negative on whatever was going
on on his hand. He looked like when trainer Guy
touched the sensitive area, he acted as if trainer Guy
(06:20):
had lopped off a finger. The video has made the rounds,
has become quite viral, but let's be honest. The game
itself is relatively meaningless. We can pretend it means a lot.
We can pretend that we're supposed to celebrate the fact
that the team isn't quitting. And I come from a
(06:40):
belief system that says we should not applaud, that we
should expect that from professional athletes, from professional players, in
this case representing the Minnesota Vikings. This is what they
should do, the fact that we've got to swoon. They
could they could have mailed it in. They could have
(07:03):
They didn't have to play. Aaron Jones didn't have to
keep going out there. I mean, come on, seriously, you
wouldn't want to go back out there against the New
York bleeping Giants. It's one of the worst operations I've
seen in recent memory. They're awful. So let's be careful
about what kind of conclusions we want to draw over
winning our third game in a row in garbage time
(07:27):
of the season against probably the worst team in football,
certainly one of the very worst teams in football. But
we are evaluating actively the QB. I thought he, despite
what we're hearing from Koc, took a significant step back yesterday.
Don't text me about the drop passes. I know about
the drop passes. I'm well aware of the drop passes.
(07:48):
We'll get to that too as part of the Vikings
talking points. But in all honesty, I didn't think he
was as good as he had been the previous two weeks.
He got bailed out on a very questionable sides call,
then what would have been a pick six. He did
a terrible job getting rid of the ball at the
end of the half. That's the cardinal sin you're trying.
(08:09):
You're basically trying to run out the clock, or maybe
we're going to take one shot at it to just
see if we can get a chunk play and then
think about a field goal because we have the greatest
field goal kicker ever. And you not only can't hold
onto the ball, can't read what's happening, You get stripsacked,
ball gets picked up by a former goalfer I believe
score a touchdown. So I don't think he was there
(08:35):
was anything to write a home about his performance yesterday.
Do you have other plays that were nice? Yes? Was
the scramble into the end zone? They run good? Were
there a couple other very nice throws? Yes? But the
question I think today on JJ is China syndrome related
the larger question, regardless of what you think he is
(08:58):
doing to improve to start, since he hit that stretch
where he played as dreadfully as he did, so now
to me, the question is not just evaluating him, but
saying can he stay healthy in the National Football League?
Is he a China doll? And if he is or
(09:21):
he can't, how many games has he played. Is it
eight and a half now? I think it's eight and
a half games out of Let's see what the totals
I have here somewhere. Let's just say this. Put it
this way. He has missed a lot more games than
he has played so far in the National Football League.
(09:42):
He has had now what is it, four different injuries
thus far. And I'm not saying any of the injuries
were not legit. They could well have been legit. But
the fact of the matter is he has well. As
Bud Grant says, the greatest ability is availability. He has
(10:04):
not been available enough. You could argue, he argues, has
not been available enough to evaluate fairly. There's something to that.
But there are players who forever, for whatever reason, can't
stay on the field, and that's troubling, and that's concerning.
So you can put me firmly in the camp that
(10:24):
is growing. I think in belief that even if you
think he's got a chance still to be a franchise quarterback,
you cannot afford to bring him back and hand him
the job again without if not meaningful competition, a meaningful
(10:45):
backup quarterback who when you sign him, you tell him
there's a good chance you're going to play half the season,
or you have to be prepared to play half the season,
because we're not sure. As much as we like what
JJ McCarthy offers, what we think he can offer, we're
not sure he may just be one of those unlucky
guys who cannot stay on the field. So that is
(11:09):
what I come out of that game with that injury with,
even if it ends up being a relatively minor injury.
He's had too many in too many to just say
it's full speed ahead, we're going to hand him the job,
and we're in total agreement. We have full confidence that
if he just gets more games under his belt, he's
(11:30):
going to be fine. Too much China doll in him
right now, too breakable right now, too fragile right now.
That's not me saying he's soft. It's not me saying
again that he's not tough enough. It's me saying that
if you can't stee on the field, it's almost irrelevant
(11:50):
what you think you can do. And we all agreed,
I think right once the team was mathematically eliminated. Once
the team was mathematically eliminated, the only thing that mattered
the rest of the way was to continue to throw
him out there and see what he might have, or
if not that, to just give him a chance to
gain some confidence, make some plays, and you do the
(12:12):
brick by brick thing right, you start trying to build
more of a quarterback foundation, and if you're fortunate, you
see enough promise that you say we're still on course.
It may be delayed a little bit, but this guy's
got the stuff. It's in him. Again, whether you believe
that or not, it's irrelevant if he cannot stay out
(12:34):
there on the field. So threading this needle aint going
to be easy, because it's easy to say, well, get
a quarterback who's good enough to compete and good enough
to play as almost a quasi starter, but don't give
up the farm for him. Those quarterbacks don't grow on trees, right,
There's not that many of them out there. Who's the
right one who fits that classification? None of that is easy,
(12:56):
but I think absolutely it has to be part of
the conversation for the Vikings going forward. Four injuries in
this short of a period of time two years, that's
just not going to work. Brat Sewan Brian kfan text
line is six four six eight six six four six
eight six. A lot of texts are coming in about
(13:19):
the drop passes. I have very strong opinions, a very
strong opinion that not all drop passes are equal. And
we're going to get to that when we come back,
as I said, talking points, and Johnny Athletic will weigh
in on what he saw yesterday. We'll get some wolf
stuff from him as well, and who knows what else.
(13:39):
Let's take our first pause back in a minute here
in the fan. Now, we're gonna try something here. This
is on the fly. This is like what we in
(14:01):
the business call seat of the pants radio to attempt to,
as we say in the business, cold call Carl Gerschmidt, Hello, Hello,
May you speak to Caleb Williams please. I don't think
(14:25):
we got through. We must have a phone system problem here.
Not good. Hmmm, well we'll try again later. The the
request was made by several people to contact Gerby for
all the obvious reasons, but that didn't that time. It
did not work out all that well, we may try
again a little bit later. Let me give you an
(14:47):
example of what we're dealing with here regarding the quarterback play.
Let me see if I can find the text in
question strip sick injury. No, that's not the one. Where
did it go? Would you bring in as a quarterback
and bring it as a backup for competition with jj O?
Here is here's the one I was looking for. You
(15:09):
are funny saying I know about the drops. I know
about the drops. Then in the same sentence, say he
got bailed out from an all sides calling what would
have been what would have been a pick six? That
ball bounced off of Naylor's hands. That ball was a
terribly thrown pass. It's an example of the lack of
touch that he has yet to develop. Now it can
(15:30):
be developed. We've seen quarterbacks figure that out over time.
But if you watched that play and the only conclusion
you draw is Eric Naylor again off his hands, I
don't know what to tell you, man that that throw
was on a string. That was not a good throw.
(15:53):
And he still has I'll even argue the one that
ended up holding up as an interception, but that pass
was behind was not really thrown all that well either.
The one I'll give him was what should have been
a touchdown on the first drive under pressure. That was
(16:14):
a hell of a good throw. That was a drop.
And we're going to get to all those via Vikings
talking points. But I just I don't understand how. I mean,
if you watch football for longer than fifteen minutes, you
can't see sometimes that the trajectory of the ball, the
(16:34):
speed with which the ball is coming in, often have
something to do with the difficulties that a receiver has.
There's quarterbacks who throw good balls, and there's quarterbacks who
throw bad ones. He throws a lot of bad balls,
tough to catch. Throws that again, in a perfect world,
(16:56):
the receivers are paid a lot of money and you
can go in and get you go ahead and you
make the play. But they're not as easy as they
should be. They're not as effortless as they should be.
And I think also you're kind of missing the point.
The point isn't it's almost a different subject. The subject
(17:16):
today is China syndrome. To be honest, It's more, even
if you love him, are you starting to get concerned
that he has been unable for now four different reasons
to stay on the field. At some point do you go, well,
that's a little on the disconcerting side. I guess you
(17:39):
could say a little bit on the difficult side. And
that's the part that I think has to be the
event part of the evaluation process for your favorite football team,
and maybe they'll decide not. We still see enough. We
just think he's been unlucky. Been other players earlier in
(18:01):
their careers who have been rather unlucky. Vikings have had
some of them, including Robert Smith. But if we all
agree that he needs playing time more than anything else,
he needs reps more than anything else, then you have
to be a bit concerned at the inability to stay
(18:24):
on the field for any extended period of time. Two
seasons in which he's missed most of both of them,
and even this season it's been up, it's been down.
I'm still not convinced it made any sense that he
missed as much time as he did with the original
injury this year as well. That's what this was when
they were in Europe. So a lot of good texts
(18:46):
are coming in via the Bradshawn Brian Caffean text line,
and we're gonna get I'm gonna review some of them.
As I said, talking points we've got Johnny Athletic is
coming up at probably four h two, and then Libra
will do this be with us in the four o'clock hour. Man,
(19:06):
it was I thought that was one of the first
times this season I said to myself, that's a chore
to watch that ball game. And part of that, a
lot of that had to do with the Giants, who
you know. You know me, I'm the guy who wants
to run the ball. But even I was offended by
how little the Giants seemed interested or capable of throwing
(19:29):
the ball at all. What did it take was did
they run? It was at fifteen straight times. It was embarrassing.
I mean, that look didn't even strike me as being
a professional operation, speaking of trying to find out what
your team has. You know, there was some comments a
couple of weeks ago that Russell Wilson was bitter, like
he didn't really know why he got benched. Russell Wilson's
(19:53):
been his own worst enemy. But after watching what the
Giants did at the quarterback position yesterday and the way
they use it quarterback, I don't blame Russell Wilson at
all for going what I got bench for that. What's
exactly the point about of the hour break? Maybe we
take one more shot at Gerby if we can pull
this thing off. It's technologically very very difficult to get
him on the phone. We're gonna try it and then
(20:14):
we'll prepare for other controversies as well. Don't go away,
all right, bring that music down just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
It's a great day at the Wisconsin Department Transportation. Happy
holidays to Hill.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I help you, sir. I'm trying to make a reservation
at the Interactive Ice Bowl Bed and Breakfast and launch
forge mid January.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
I don't now well supposed to do this. What's your name?
Speaker 1 (21:02):
The last name is Williams w I L L I
A M. S. The first name is Caleb. Hello, okay,
I know it's happening all right, man?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Why are you doing this for? Not today?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
People are why do you need to do? People are
worried about you? This is this is like could consider
this an intervention? Or maybe they do. They call it
like what wait, what are you?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
What are you intervening for?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
What? Well? I think when I was a little.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Kid, there's a pond. You're the fun and we would
go down and feed the ducks. I would feed them
out of the duck and the duck links and we
were feeding the ducks and one day it does snapping
turtle grab one the duck's a little duck things and
sucked the money one and the duck was going peep peep, peep,
(22:04):
peep peep in your mother was We couldn't do anything
about it. He didn't care under it. You're doing right now?
It is worse than that. Oh, you're doing now? It
is cool?
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Well, I mean, will you admit that you have to
do this? Will you admit that you were awfully cock
sure of yourself through much of that game? And it
looked like, I mean, you were mocking Bear the Bears.
You didn't. You don't have any problems mocking other people
when their feelings are hurt, especially Bears fans.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Hurt. You had to push the ball out of bounce.
Oh you have to do if you can't catch, just push.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
How did your guy not know that?
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Is that the worst loss you've had in the last
twenty five years? Yeah, it is like Seattle. You're right
about that. Is this gonna ruin your Christmas week? Is
this gonna ruin your Christmas week?
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You think we're not gonna have a good Christmas?
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Well, first of all, a Texter is reminding me, isn't
it true?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
We're not gonna have a good Christmas. Oh no, I
hope you can have a great Christmas. We're not gonna
have one.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
You could still win the division, you know what I mean?
Do I have to tell you that you're the guy
who says you got to stay with your team. Sounds
like you've given up on your team.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
My team. This is we lost to a rival in Minnesota,
or did try it? We lost to a rival.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Understand, you need to get a hold of yourself. Man,
you're a grown man. You you're eh, well, there it is.
That's good. That's about. That's actually more than I thought
we'd get out of him. I had. You never know,
like we got Rapper gurby Friday. Today, we got the
blubb the most the the the the blubbery or blubbering
(24:17):
version of Gurby the last time I remember him blubbering
quite like that. I think it was the Michael Vick
game when he was like in the parking lot. It
was like three in the morning. You could hear the beat,
beat beat of the garbage trucks basically trying to get
him out of the way so they could clear the garbage,
(24:37):
and he wouldn't leave the parking lot. It was like
three in the morning, that after that playoff game where
Michael Vick just kicked the Packers ass. That's the one.
That's that's the first time I've heard him quite that
forlorn since that that's a long time ago. I was
gonna say, I remember, I remember listening to the show
back then. Yeah, I do remember exactly what you're referring to.
Oh my god, poor guy. Yeah, well, it's his effort
(25:01):
to elicit sympathy, and I'm not gonna give it to him, because,
like I said, he's he's he doesn't have it. On
the other side, he cackles when fans are devast Vikings
fans are devastated, or Bears fans are devastated, And let's
be honest, he's had so many highs the Green Bay Packers.
How is anyone possibly gonna feel sorry for Gerby? But
(25:24):
I'm glad we got him at least a little at
least a little bit We've got we expect Johnny athletic.
At the top of the hour, let me get to
some texts, because there's a bunch that are indeed coming
in on Vikings giants in the quarterback situation. Hold on
a second, let me well Actually, here's a couple relating, uh,
(25:44):
reacting to Gerby. First, let's go to the top. Does
Gerby know that feeding Duckling's bread actually can kill them?
So the turtle is actually providing a mercy to his cruelty.
Wow tail Gerby will give them a good Christmas and
(26:04):
beat Detroit for him. Maybe, I don't know. Well, maybe
Detroit if about down and the Dumps say maybe they're
done after the Steelers knock them off, cheer up. Carl
uw falls to go to the D three National Championship
after winning forty eight forty one over JOHNS Hopkins on Saturday.
(26:28):
I'm not sure that's going to be enough. Gerby is
not enough of a college fan, I think to be
consoled by that kind of information or that kind of development.
I think the better similar of The China Syndrome with
aj Quarterback is that of the nineteen seventy nine movie
The China Syndrome starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemon, not to
(26:50):
mention Michael Douglas. The movie's plot is that of a
cover up of a nuclear power plant leak threatening to
melt through the Earth's core. I eat all the Way
to China, China syndrome. I think the Vikings are similarly frightened,
too frightened to admit their mistake. That's second level thinking,
(27:11):
right there. Dan. Don't you think the Giants were strategically tanking.
They barely had dart throw at all. It felt that
way at times. There's no question about that, agree Dan.
When you have seventeen different quarterbacks throwing to these receivers,
they don't get a chance to understand that, Hey, maybe
JJ ball comes a little hotter, a little higher than
say Cousins or Darnel. So if you can't be in
the field to develop the tendency of the ball from
(27:32):
JJ or how he throws it, of course there are drops.
I hear the argument, well, they make a lot of money,
so they should make those catches. But I'm using a
case koc favorite time on a favorite time on task
is important. Nobody loves him. Referencing our young quarterback, Dan
(27:56):
writes Leon Muskat, there's a portion of us, granted, a
small percent. You recognize that you need to let JJ develop,
call the game of his capabilities in mind, and not
proclaim the kid a bust after four or five games. Yes,
the injuries are concerning, but you have to be patient
with a young quarterback. No one's disagreeing with that. I'm
telling you. For me, if I'm running the Vikings, I'm not.
(28:19):
I haven't seen enough and I have not seen him
on the field enough to where I'm just handing him
the ball, which is essentially what they did coming into
training camp this year. I'm not doing it. That's not
me saying he can't develop. That's me saying I got
to have a decent insurance policy. Man. Until he can
prove that whatever grievance he has with the injury, gods,
(28:42):
they're gonna, you know, let up on them in the
seasons coming forward. That's the issue. We didn't have a
number one quarterback in twenty twenty four. I think we
had the best quarterback that was available to time SOCCA.
We had a number one pick and passed on Caleb
Williams for JJ McCarthy. Well, they could have had Nicks.
I wasn't one of the group saying they should have
taken them. And Denver obviously at their best, the defense
(29:05):
largely carries that team. But he has stayed out there,
he's played a lot of games, and he's been much
better than I thought that he would be looking on
the bright side. How about Max Brozmer came in and
performed well seven for nine pass including one great one
to Jefferson. No turnover has led the game when he's
driving all that on very little prep. We'll get to
that via talking points as well. Hall of famer Mark
(29:29):
Rosen postca it was like watching a preseason game in August.
And that's the problem. It wasn't August, it's December. It
was a bad, bad football it's and that's why I'm sorry.
I can't attach the meaning to this game that koc
tries because they released another one of those postgame tapes
(29:51):
of his, you know, his speech after the fact, like
you know, we just we just successfully defended pork Chop Hill,
and I just it just doesn't do anything for me.
It really doesn't, because I don't really think anything was
proven yesterday at all, Or maybe I should better say,
(30:11):
I don't think you should have to prove that you're
not going to quit during a season coming off a
fourteen and three season. Maybe if you're the Giants and
you're bad every year, maybe there's no choice but to quit.
But I'm not going to celebrate that. There was great
grip attached with doing what the Vikings did. And I
know we had more injuries. The New York Giants offensive
(30:33):
line was gutted. It might not have mattered, but everybody's
everybody's got a series of injuries right now. So to
act like there was any kind of meaningful threshold crossed
to me is silly. I'm never going to rip a
team for winning at this point that you just have
to play the season out and you have to try
(30:53):
to figure some things out. But to attach any sort
of big significance to any of these games, I think
is just because you want to, because you're frustrated that
the team is not in contention, and you want to
attach greater meaning to stuff that just doesn't have that
much meaning, especially when you factor in, as I said,
who the opponent was and the approach that they took.
(31:13):
It just it just it does not. None of it
adds up to me. And the number of penalties was ridiculous.
We can argue about the couple of the face mask
or should say the personal foul calls as well, but
I mean the Vikings started that game with what record
of was it six and eight? Double check? What's our
(31:37):
current record now? Are we seven and eight now? I
think that's correct, that's correct. And the Giants started the
game with a record at two and twelve. Now they're
two and thirteen. And I tweeted this during the game.
Somebody asked, well, you know, what are your thoughts. My
thoughts are, I'm looking at a game matching a six
and eight team that's a mathematically eliminated at two and
twelve team. Isn't that what it really looked like? So
(32:00):
then on the other hand, it's to pretend that there's
a great meaning because we made this play and we
didn't quit. We kept fighting and we hung in there.
I just think if that's what you have to do
as a head coach to keep your team on your side,
then that doesn't say much for the group I I
just it doesn't. It just does not. This is the
(32:22):
part of the season you just tolerate to get through
it to the other side, to find out where you
need help, what you need to do going forward. That's
all it should be, not anything about really what necessarily
happened within the game. It was eye opening that really
opened the door to how much this team was interested
(32:44):
in performing. And again I thought McCarthy was very mixed
before he got hurt, I thought he had some nice throws.
I didn't think he was as consistent as he had been,
even as recently as the week before. I'm bemoaning the
(33:04):
fact that the Vikings couldn't figure out what he draft.
Drake May. Who's with me? Well, you know we've talked
about that many times over the years. The Vikings clearly
coveted Drake Moore, Drake May, I should say, and by
all accounts they did. They made a significant offer. It
just wasn't significant enough to move up. They may like
(33:25):
JJ McCarthy, but they I think they may not admit
this now. They loved Drake May, and May seems to
be indicating exactly why so many teams coveted him to
the degree that that they did. There's not one single
person who celebrated that game. I don't know who you're
(33:46):
arguing against when you make this point. Did you see
the postgame speech from KOC I mean serious, I mean
read some of the stuff that's been written about this game.
The idea that we you know, we we summoned something
up under adverse circumstances. Open your eyes a little bit.
(34:10):
I'm not making this stuff up if I didn't start
today thinking that I was going to go down this
road at all, but I've kind of been forced to
on the basis of what I've seen and in some
cases what I've read. There's plenty of celebration going on
in this game or after this game. We may not
be looking for it if you don't want to, but
there has been quite a bit of it as well.
(34:36):
We've got a couple more texts in and as I said,
we do. We got Johnny at the top of the
hour and a bunch of good vikings talking points to
get to Dan. This is Stephen Miami. I think there's
a lot of similarities with I bet you they have
a few higher a few more degrees than we do
right now, even though it's relatively balming here. Hey, I'm
going to guess eighty sounds about right. I think there's
(34:57):
a lot of similarities with JJ McCarthy and Rob Dillingham
for different reasons. Course, JJ can't give us enough time
to evaluate him. I think Rob's just undersize. If you
can't thrive in the regular season survive, he's got no
chance in the playoffs. But now we found Bones Highland,
who is the Vikings Bones Highland. That's all we need
to find. Maybe it's broke, Maybe there's still there's probably
some Brose or Brownstone fans out there still think that
(35:17):
he showed enough yesterday that he should get a second
shot at this thing. I don't know it comes off
as me saying I'm done with JJ and that he's awful.
It's not what I'm saying today in any way, shape
or form. But I can tell you reading even the
tweets from there was a tweet yesterday from Tommy Kramer,
(35:41):
the former Vikings quarterback. What I sense is frustration sets
in even among players who might be rooting for McCarthy
if he just can't stay on the field. And I
don't think at any point they're casting aspersions on his manhood,
on his toughness. But it's all about evaluating players and
(36:08):
bouncing off what players do when they are out there,
and nothing can happen if they're not available, nothing, no
matter what promise they show. That's the dilemma we're in
here now. Maybe we'll find out whatever the injury was
that's sidelined him for the second half is not as
serious as we thought, and maybe he'll end up playing
the next two games, because if he isn't healthy enough
(36:30):
to play, he should. I'm certainly in that group that
says you play him as much as you can, you
give him as many reps as you can, but it's
hard not to wonder whether they're just going to be
depending again on what the injuries are, just going to
decide to be a little bit more cautious as well.
(36:50):
I thought JJ played pretty well. He's a gamer. A
few dropped passes, yes, a fumble interception on his fault.
With the injury situation, you definitely have to bring some
kind of capable that it could possibly be a journeyman
starter if needed. I have a couple ideas on names
I'm gonna give a little bit later that might be
gettable and more realistic, because the dilemma is obviously you're
(37:13):
not gonna be able to bring somebody in who's making
a ton of money. That's probably not gonna be realistic.
And he would you even want a quarterback who might
be available as making a ton of money. Not If
his name for me is Kyler Murray, I have no
interest in pursuing him at all. Zero. In fact, if
my choices are Kyler Murray or JJ. I might just
(37:35):
say let's just keep going, let's keep our head down
and hope that again that the injury God's got whatever
they hold against him out of their system, and that
from this point forward he's gonna be one of the
healthiest quarterbacks in football. Interesting allegation here. McCarthy reminds me
of the fifth grade in house kid that fakes an
(37:56):
injury after a bad play. Every time McCarthy makes a
bad play, gets injured. Maybe it's an injury, but is
it really as bad as it seems. He milks it well.
He's probably referring again to the viral scene where the
trainer is grabbing it whatever it's on his hand or
finger and he winces as if I mean he jumped
like he was ready to faint. I'm here, I'm not
(38:19):
here to say that I think he is making up injury.
That's a pretty serious allegation to make, and you have
to have a little bit more proof for that. I'm
willing to just go right now with can't stay on
the field, And if you can't stay on the field,
the team can't wait forever for that. They have to
give themselves, as I said, viable options by the way,
(38:44):
I've not heard anybody here locally offer up any commentary
regarding maybe the secret weapon for the monsters Midway. The
Chicago Bears a former Visus quarterback named case Keenum, maybe
the case Keenum magic. Even though he's not playing, he's
their third quarterback. I saw him celebrating after Caleb threw
(39:09):
the overtime touchdown pass. Do not underestimate the case Keenum
factor in Chicago, Illinois. If also you're wondering, are we
gonna have a ballplayer, I mean a Viking? Remember the
Vikings on today? The answer is no. Short week. This
of course is Christmas Week coming up, and the Vikings
play on Christmas Day. And it is amazing to think
(39:34):
how once upon a time when we were when whatever
the schedule got reversed I should say released, and we
went down it game by game, a lot of people thinking, man,
that could be that should be a great matchup on
Christmas Day? Are you kidding me? Division game? Lots at
(39:56):
stake and in this case not so much. Vikings eliminated
and Detroit Lyons in danger great danger of being eliminated
as well after they lost to guess who Aaron Rodgers
playing well yesterday and the Pittsburgh see you as I
try to tell you should have taken the plunge on
(40:18):
a Roger telling you, I think we would be in
a very different position today if we did. Don't text me,
I know what you're gonna text with the oral offensive, Loyd,
You'd already be dead. Some quarterbacks do a better job
of getting rid of the ball quicker than others. Let's
make this the top of the hour pause. And as
I mentioned, Johnny Athletic on the Purple, on the quarterback
(40:41):
situation on the Timberwolves, dare we ask him any more
hockey questions that tends to annoy Kevin Falness, that might
be a good reason to indeed do it. And in
the background we have let me give you an update
on something called the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. The Famous
Idaho Potato Bowl looks like early fourth quarter. Washington State
(41:07):
twenty seven, Utah State seven. This is on the Blue Field,
twenty seven to seven in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
The Gopher's Meaningless Bowl is coming up later in the week.
All the action right here in the fat
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