November 11, 2025 • 51 mins
92Noon! Bears - VB - NFCN
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why don't you give me half the money you were
gonna bend? But we'll go out. Then I'll kick you
the nuts and we'll call it a day. Can you
repeat the part of the stuff where you said all
about things?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
This show is naughty and might make you a party mouse.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Your cash doesn't give you a superior to tear down
people's dreams.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Oh oh, that pisses me off.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That pisses me right off.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Well you have a gambling problem.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hey, Happy Tuesday morning to you, and welcome to the
nine to noon radio show from the vast and ever
expanding and plush TCO Radio Studio as part of the
second to none Vikings Entertainment Network at Twin Cities Orthopedics
Performance Center. It's a Tco Tuesday for nine to noon,
and I'm Paul Allen Nordo produces Brett Blake Moore Guide's
(01:23):
The Great Ship Loft Covenant from FM one hundred point
three KFAM. And we begin with a question, how are
the Chicago Bears plus fourteen? And the take give the
turnover differential? Well that's number one in the NFL. So
you know, each week each game can can be defined
(01:43):
as snowflakes, where they're all the same but they're different.
And you start to learn about the adversary early in
the week and you come across some things initially where
you're like whoa, hey, whoa, and this one just just
bow me over. Yesterday after nine to noon, chatting with
Nordo in the side studio about the TCO Tuesday and
(02:07):
Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, joining at
eleven am today, and he hits me with the Bears
have twenty takeaways. I'm like, what the Bears have twenty
takes which would include thirteen interceptions? All right, well, they
probably have given it away a lot, right, Well, no,
that's not the case either. Well what's their take give
(02:27):
It's plus fourteen. It's tops in the NFL. So then
you push five more keys and you're like, all right,
they're leading sack guy Montes sweat as five and a
half sacks. They got this Jervon Dexter senior, good player,
was better at Florida, but he's doing quite well in
the NFL. He has four sacks. Those are their top
two sackers. Kind of sounds like the Minnesota Vikings, you know,
(02:50):
with guys with four four and a half sacks stuff
like that, So they're not sacking the quarterback in voluminous nature,
which means that you think, rush to cover, rush and cover.
Holy cal Look at all the picks the Vikings had
last year to match all of the sacks they had. Well,
that's not the case either with the Chicago Bears. How
(03:12):
in the heck are they number one in the NFL
and turnover differential and good morning, good.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Morning, it's insane.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And you mentioned the sacks and Gervon Dexter Senior and
Montese sweat.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How about CJ.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Gardner Johnson being on the team for like two games,
he has three sacks. So just kind of just how
things have gone for this team and when they are
doing it. So, for instance, in their three losses, the Bears,
shocking to some and head scratching to most, are six
and three. In their three losses, they have one takeaway
(03:45):
on defense. Oh wow, in their six victories, nineteen freaking takeaways.
They're averaging more than three for their defense every single
time they go out to win. How they're doing it
with the injured second their front As you were talking
about with those sac numbers, it's a lot of meat
and potatoes, and this is a team statistically we can
(04:07):
get more into where we can have our day around
the gym with heavy yardage against the Bears defense. But
right now not historic, but certainly the most opportunistic team
combined with such a more disciplined offense starting with the
passer in Caleb Williams. So the plus fourteen jumps off
(04:29):
the freaking page, maybe above all other statistics as we
look at Sunday's game, and I don't have the Bear
schedule in front of me, but I got it if
you want it. Since the buye, since the off week,
Chicago is four and one, and there's been that there
has been an offensive common thread that has transpired against
(04:50):
mostly substandard teams. But nevertheless, I think that that plays
into the turnover differential two off the way.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Nordo just laid it out. They're four and one sent
since the bye week. Their only loss was to Baltimore
and they lost by two touchdowns, not to Lamar Jackson
but to Tyler Huntley. It was the final game before
Lamar returned. But during that time, as we unfurl a
(05:16):
sneak peek at next week, a sneak peek at the
fresh meat, because it's time to move on from us
certain facets of that Baltimore debacle. Over the weekend, the
Chicago Bears over the last five games are averaging one
hundred and eighty five rushing yards per game, one eighty
five per game. Now beloved beja their coach Ben Johnson.
(05:37):
Let's think. Let's think of where he previously executed his toil.
It was as offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. What
do they like to do to set up the play action?
Run Jamiir Gibbs run, David Montgomery run, Jamison Williams and
things like that, Okay, DeAndre Swift, Kyle Mnungui and Roshawn Johnson,
(05:59):
DJ Moore. They It's taken a while for Ben to
get where he wants to get with this phase of
the offense. It's we're going to run first. We're going
to make them respect it. And as we continue to
raise this quarterback who never ran play action, being under center,
(06:19):
taking the steps, taking the handoff, turning the back to
the defense, getting safeties and the linebackers to think about
it a little bit. He never did that in college,
and he didn't do it basically his entire rookie year.
So that's still a work in progress with their quarterback
Caleb Williams. But a major step has been taken by
the Chicago Bears, and that's establishing the ability to run
(06:42):
for nearly two hundred yards a game.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Now, it took him two months to art to generate
one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Right well, and and and the one to eighty five
a game. I mean, it's it's a big number. So
but the question would be when it comes to one
of the best statistically, like when coaches or players say
stats are for losers. I don't necessarily agree with all
of that because their yards per attempt, turnover differentials, there
(07:11):
are things that matter greatly to the outcomes of games.
But it also the context of the one eighty five.
It needs to be part of the conversation against whom
are they getting that one eighty five? What's the score
of the game? Are they leading and trying to kill
the clock? The bottom line is they're getting it done.
So I don't care if it's against the zero or
one win New Orleans Saints at that time, if it's
(07:33):
against Geno Smith winning a one point game against a
really bad Raiders team. They're getting that facet of this
new coach's philosophy done now. The second point that the
hump that they've gotten over is whether it's against Cincinnati,
a downtrodden bunch, or the Giants without your guys scataboo,
(07:54):
and I mean the Giants were so squared away they
lost a game and fired their coach. So that's their
most win. But A they won, and B they've shown
each other and their coaching staff and subsequently their fan
base that they can win dramatic close games. That's a
galvanizing factor. They didn't everly in the season. They're gaining
(08:18):
it now. The trust and ability in each other to recognize,
if we follow what the plan is here, even though
it's loud and it's hot, and mistakes have been made
and maybe there shouldn't be eighty some odd combined points
scored in this game. Nothing we can do about that.
Now all we can do is win it, and they're
winning them. So there are two steps that have been
(08:38):
taken with the Chicago Bears that I'm just I'm very
impressed with at this stage of the season. Compared to
the team. We saw week number one where the Vikings
ran more running plays than passing plays, but they only
ran like forty seven forty nine plays during the game.
It was a strange game. It was a bastard game,
but the outcome went the right way. But the the
(09:00):
attention to detail with the running game for the Bears
and the fact that somehow they're taking it in non
obvious situations the football and learning how to win these
hotly contested, tight games that matters. That's not lost on
nine to noon.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
No, no, it's not. And the biggest part that has
been built is the belief, as you've been.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Talking about here, because I think in some ways, I
mean think about the quality of the schedule and me
is a rube, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna come in
here and I'm just gonna you know the Okay, So
the teams they've beat their six victories, Bengals, Raiders, Cowboy, Saints, Giants, Commanders,
those teams are combined fifteen forty one to one. Okay, Well,
(09:45):
Caleb Williams isn't looking at that, you know what I mean?
Where there's an element of this where yes, they have played,
they've played downtrodden, you know, competition. In fact, by the way,
just going back to this Giants victory Jackson dark goes
out injured, Russ will is a complete l The punter
has like a twenty yard punt, sets them up at
midfield to get ultimately what was that go ahead score?
(10:10):
Otherwise the Bears probably aren't in that one without a
couple of circumstances. However, the circumstances count and you had
to close on it, and the Bears have been closing
on it, so that the belief angle of this whether
we can sit here, I mean, and it's a loser's lament,
right like, we're four and five. We're freaking fourth in
the North right now. We know in the division, but
(10:30):
four and five and we're staring up at the freaking
Bears right now. The fact of the matter is regardless
of how awful the competition, I think the eight topic
you hit on is the new coach not only through
success with the run game, like Ben Johnson can sit
in the meeting room and go see see what I've
been telling you in practice. Now the players believe the
(10:51):
respect has been built, the foundation has been built, and
it's turning over into clutch moments where they're not fumbling
the ball away.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I think.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I think it was an awful interception by Caleb Williams
at Baltimore their last loss. But other than that, they're
four and one and Caleb is showing up for the
most part in the right spots on the back of
just an insane running attack. Right now, the belief is
kind of propelling them forward, which regardless of schedule, regardless
of roster, here's our guys, here's there, guys, who's better?
(11:23):
The belief makes them dangerous.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Marathoning out of the gate Courtesy of Steve's Appliances and
Steve's Appliances dot Com, the seven thousand square foot showroom
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and there's money to be saved by mentioning nine to noon.
When you're looking for appliances from Steve's Appliances and Steve's
Appliances dot Com, go now place hyperbolic or hyper accurate. Well,
(11:48):
let me set it up like this. Somebody asked me
this morning what I expect from the Vikings in their
next game against the Chicago Bears, and, until proven otherwise,
off the past performance, we've seen this season, and yesterday
Nora Do and I on the metaphorical therapeutic Davenport of Love.
You know, we teased and we cracked wise and we
(12:10):
opened to veins, and we talked about a lot of
things yesterday, but part of it was win lost, win lost,
win lost, win lost, good bad, good bad good bad
good bad to Finding traction with consistency has been an
a topic for the Minnesota Vikings this year in that
it's been nonexistent. So off what we have seen, What
(12:33):
should the expectation be Sunday, if only for yours truly?
All right, let's go back to the Falcons game. The
kid quarterback steals the show on the fourth quarter at
Soldier Field and wins the game in his home state
sky You mom, here we go home opener, You don't
(12:54):
score a touchdown and you lose to the Atlanta Falcons.
Not a great team. Okay, what's the response? You kill
Cincinnati and you take the fight to the next team.
Now we go to that La Chargers game. Well, that
was a debacle, unto its own right, one of the
worst performances for the Minnesota Vikings, if not the worst
(13:15):
overall performance we've seen. Since Kevin O'Connell took over in
twenty twenty two. Okay, that happened. What's the response. You
beat the Detroit Lions at Ford Field as nine point underdogs. Wonderful, physical, professional,
squared away efficient response. The Baltimore game was winnable, you
(13:38):
got the eight fall starts, and you have some things
that weren't preferred at key moments of the game. What's
the response. You beat the Chicago Bears. So I'm not
convinced the Vikings are going to win this weekend, but
that's how the past performances have gone this year. Why
would they change into this game when I know the
(13:59):
Bears are better than the Lions, and the Lions proved
that earlier in the season when they scored fifty two
on Dennis Allen's defense, and you got that and in
the Cincinnati game, And if you want to play this game,
which I don't, the Vikings killed the Bengals and the
Bears went down to the wire with them. But nevertheless,
(14:20):
two different scenarios. Whatever, the response this weekend should be
that of ferocity, should be that of professionalism, and should
be something that leads the Vikings to a victory.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, I agree and if for anything else, And still
I was going to bring it up during Vike spits,
but just hearing the coach yesterday talking about cadence and
the false starts he does what a lot of coaches do.
He put it on himself, I need to coach better.
I think he's almost a direct quote. And then you
heard the quarterback after the game. I'm responsible for everything
that happens on the field, appreciate all that still leaves
(14:52):
me wondering, however, how it all happened me too, And
I just when you talk about a professional effort, I
think there's enough, there's enough professional pride in this building,
in this group where it's like, yeah, that was actually embarrassing. Yeah,
that was actually a fairly unprecedented thing anytime we're on
the wrong side of the last time this happened was
(15:13):
sixteen years ago. I think, just from a professional pride standpoint,
regardless of the fact that I still don't understand how
the hell it happened, I think that those types of
things are better. But over the course of this season,
now with a nine game sample size, there have been
various elements of a lack of discipline popping up in
(15:34):
various games. So I don't think that this team's going
to go out on Sunday and it's just going to
be perfect.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I don't believe that for a second.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I think we are going to have moments in a
division collision where it's like, are you serious with this one?
How did this happen? We saw this three weeks ago.
This is such a simple bit. We're going to have
a weird special teams penalty. There's just going to be
some annoying bits that go as part of that. But
I think the kid into his fifth start the professional
pride of this group that it is the response. Now,
(16:05):
how long throughout a season, pa, can you continue to
go good times, bad times, good times, bad times, good times,
bad times before you start looking at the standings and
you start looking at your playoff percentage and you start
kind of peeking into maybe we don't have it? Like
how how does our favorite team keep their belief? I
do believe that they will this weekend, and I feel
(16:26):
like the Vikings are in a fantastic spot to be
five and five by the time I hit fan line
with Ron Johnson. I'm just the combination of professional pride.
I do wonder how much belief. The kid QB certainly
wants to be better than he was a week ago.
I think the highlight wide receiver is going to get
his twelve targets again, and I think he's going to
get more than four receptions this time around. I believe
(16:47):
in all of those things as a response. But man,
the good times, bad times, and the roller coaster of
this season, the way that it plays on us, I
imagine that it plays on those guys in that locker
room as well.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I'm sadly I can't I mean, I can't answer that
because because we've seen now more than half the season.
So when they hit halftime of the Ravens game, that
was the midway point of the season. We're in the
second half of the season and it's four and five.
Like I said yesterday, into the season. Without going through
everything I went through yesterday, I'll just lay it out
(17:18):
like this. To whom much is given, much is expected.
And the money that was spent on free agency the
years for JJ McCarthy, Dallas Turner, people who are a
year more experienced, the expectation is they will improve. So
my mantra into the year was, unless you experience debilitating
(17:41):
awful season long injuries that legitimately most, if not everybody
can look at and say, well, I'll just just think
the Lions last year. Okay, the Lions won the division
and they lost three quarters of their defense for three
quarters of the year, and we're talking Aiden Hutchinson and
Alien mcneilal and some of their best players. Well, they
(18:02):
scratched and clawed and survived. Then the Vikings beat themselves
Week eighteen as much as the Lions beat them. But
that was it for the Motor City kiddies. The proverbial
elasticity of what they were holding on to snapped and
it broke and there was carnage and Jaden Daniels came
in and rolled them because it had just been too
(18:23):
much for too long. The Vikings with those seventeen offensive
line combinations and key defensive players and Aaron Jones missing
five games, I mean Addison didn't play for three those
all of those, well they're all done. And you've had
your preferred players back now for two games, and you
won the first game and you beat one of the
(18:45):
best teams in the NFL. Then you lost the next
one against a team that can go to the Super Bowl.
The Baltimore Ravens with what they've done to their defense
the last month, MVP guy at quarterback, and the way
they're executing things. Yes, they are despite being a four
and five team, as what I think will be one
of the better teams in the NFL in January.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It should be favored to win the North for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Tough beat, they're a tough beat. They're a tricky beat.
They're a tough beat. When they got all their dogs
and they had all their dogs, but so did we
and we didn't win the game. So now you move
forward to the next one. And my expectation, as I
said yesterday, is if you keep if you keep the
likes of darisov Van Ginkel Grenard, it sounds like he'll
(19:29):
be okay for this weekend at least off the press
conference yesterday, or should be close to okay then Jefferson,
just all the right players. You keep all those guys
together for the final run of the season late November, December,
early January. Yes, I expect the Vikings to make the playoffs,
and if they don't make the playoffs, it'll be a
buzzkill because to whom much is given, much is expected,
(19:51):
and that includes working through problems like the Lions did
last year, and finding a way to have your full
tilt to on display weekly with what you have and
moving forward. That's absolutely the expectation from yours, truly, whether
it's been good times, bad times, win loss, LWLWLW, that
(20:12):
has to stop. I don't know how it stops, because
we're not compensated to figure out how it stops. We're
doing radio shows just chatting about what are realistic expectations
in two seasons and during seasons, which leads us to
hyperbolic or hyper accurate. Minnesota will make the playoffs and
(20:33):
win a game. Why you got to hit me with
that so early? Ko is going to be in here
in ninety minutes.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
That's hyperbolic, although the childlike Reubin the absolutely is rooting
for that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know. The one thing that kind of popped in
my head the way that.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Like God, that one fast, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It's well, it's I mean to say at this stage
that they will make the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And win a game. I mean, yeah, that was an
easy one right there.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
The one thing I'm thinking about the way that I
or the fan base, the way that we want to
see incremental growth of the quarterback over the course of
this season, and you know, it is about having the
right guys on the field, and for now we have
the right guys.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
On the field, which is sweet. Let's go beat the Bears.
I think we will.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
How much do you think if I'm Jonathan Grenard, if
I'm Javon Hargrave, if I'm Jonathan Allen, how much do
they need to see incremental because part of this good times,
bad times again the way that the Chicago Bears are
dangerous via belief and measurable success good times, bad times,
(21:37):
ups and downs of this Viking season. I'm just curious,
you know, in terms of that elasticity hanging tight and
taut and then eventually busting if it does, how much
some of these guys in the locker room, even if
they love JJ, everyone's saying the right thing. I don't
think this is a fractured locker room. I think this
is a mentally strong group and that is led by
a coach who I believe helps keep a lot of
(21:59):
that together. But I'm just curious how much they need
to see incremental growth from the QB on a weekly basis.
And it's not you know, there's so much going on
in the game that if I'm on defense, I gotta
be I'm trying to focus on how to stop King Henry.
I can't be even maybe watching the field. I got
my Microsoft surface in front of me. But in the
same sense, it's like, ooh, the eight fall starts, ooh,
(22:22):
man that pick. I know Jefferson fell down, but ooh,
if you throw that outside on the first one, then
Malachi Starks is really never in the equation Ooh, Jefferson
was wide open and it was ten feet over his head.
I just wonder over the course of a long season
how much other people on the team internally, whether they
get loud about it or not. Most of them probably
(22:42):
won't say anything other than the right thing, But it's like,
how much do they need to see incremental growth from
JJ to keep this thing together, to get this team
to the player.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There are six words that you've heard me say a lot,
and it's pertinent here. Human nature gets to win two.
So how do you play off that within the confines
of Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. At least to my
(23:10):
experience three and a half years working pretty closely with
the squad. One of the things that leads me, leads
me to share, like I enjoy calling Minnesota Vikings games
on the radio now more than I ever have in
my life. All Right, So why is that? Well, that's
because what Nordo just said no longer audibly, vociferously and
(23:35):
loudly happens where it's I know, you've got a radio show.
But how in the f am I supposed to win
when I got this guy here? How in the f
is this supposed to happen when this draft happened here? Well,
that just never happens. It may happen behind the scenes,
but I'm not privy to it, and I'm here a lot,
so I really like that. It plays into an enjoyment
(23:57):
to be here and to do the job. There's not
a lot of backtalk. There's not a lot of backstabbing. Now.
When I say, human nature gets to win too. If
you keep losing games and your topsy turvy, and there
are situations that are not conducive to positive consistency and
winning a lot of games. The human nature gets to
win too is when they leave what they say to
(24:18):
their family members, their friends, teammates outside of here. A,
I don't care, but B it's yeah, I mean when
people talk about things, things like that probably are going
to come up. If I happen to be the proverbial
fly on the wall outside of the facility hearing that,
my first response would be look in the mirror, man.
(24:39):
I mean, before you start pointing fingers at those with
the eight fall starts, how about the fact that this
hasn't happened with you in a month and a half
and you were paid this to do this, and now
we ain't getting this.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Oh yea.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So it's divisive. It generally leaks in to the worst
covenants in the NFL. That's not the case here. When
they preach culture in this building, and I've said this before,
that's such an overused trite term in sports and in life.
Quite honestly, it's not here because I've I've seen them
(25:11):
work through problems behind the scenes. I've seen them handle
prosperity without being arrogant. That's established culture. So what Nordo
just said is a very very fair assessment. But as
it goes in this building, it's been a complete non player,
at least in my experience, for three and a half
(25:31):
years with these guys. And that's a good thing. And
you know, like like, take, for instance, Philadelphia and Green
Bay last night. All right, green Bay loses to Philadelphia,
Elton Jenkins heard his ankle didn't return to the game.
Very physical game. Now, Now, when it comes to culture
and when it comes to how to handle things that
there's there's a writer named Matt Schneidman who covers the
(25:53):
Packers for the Athletic and he posted after the game.
Matt Lafleur, head coach of the asked Matt Lafleur if
he thinks he's coaching for his job now, really really
difficult question to hear after an emotional loss. But whatever,
I mean, people can ask whatever they want, Matt said, quote.
(26:13):
I'll leave that for everybody else to decide. I'll just
focus on the day to day and try to do
I feel like you're always coaching for everything in this league.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's my mindset. It's always been that way. You can't
ever exhale, You got to always be pushing. That's just
my mindset, and that will be my mindset till they
tell me not to coach anymore. End quote. That's a
stark culture related difference from the individual a week and
change ago who addressed a question from a member of
the media by saying, I don't I don't give a
(26:45):
ass about Halloween. I'm trying to win a football game.
So he was very tense there. He went at a
member of the media for asking a silly question about
Halloween costumes. So now we fast forward to last night,
there's contrition, there's it's up, it's down, it's it's it's
culture related, and and things will reveal themselves and open
(27:10):
up as we move forward. If they continue to go
good time, bad time, awful, great, Hey, eh, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I do know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
So from from a Kevin O'Connell standpoint, we'll get to
hear you know, more on this from him himself during
the eleven am hour. But I just think about, as
we were talking about the bears, the belief they have
is what makes them dangerous. The adversity that the Kevin
O'Connell world is going through right now is raising the
kid QB and maintaining belief within that building, which through
(27:43):
his tenure here, he's been very successful at YEW.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
That's from an overarching standpoint those you, if I were
to shape what I believe is the reality here, that
would be one in June. The a topic would be
improving JJ McCarthy, the second year quarterback, and making sure
things stay cohesive and tightly knit during the moderate chop.
(28:06):
This is not severe chop. This is moderate chop. There
are winnable games on the horizon. I can't remember the
last time Green Bay beat Minnesota. I love how the
Vikings match up against the Packers until proven otherwise. It
takes Jordan Love two and a half hours to figure
out what Brian Flores is doing. So until that changes,
then I feel good about that game. Yeah, I feel
good about the response coming up this weekend. And those
(28:29):
are division games. Those matter, so they matter. They all matter.
But these matter more than the run of the mill
game simply because of NFC placing and divisional rankings and
stuff like that at the end of the equation. So,
for instance, the Bears, well they're winless in the division,
so they're six and three. We're going for one to
(28:51):
eighty five on the ground a game. If I'm one
of their fans, I'm like, cool, that's great. Ben's doing
a great job. Caleb's handling the play action decently. How
about we win a division game. How about we beat Detroit,
Green Bay or Minnesota, because we've lost to two of them.
We've given up seventy nine points to the Vikings and
the Lions. Then we did that to start the season,
(29:12):
by the way, fifty two against the Lions. Then we
beat Dallas by seventeen Okay, cool, that counts. Then we
beat Vegas by a point, then we beat New Orleans.
They beat Vegas, New Orleans, Sincy and the Giants, all
non playoff teams by a combined twenty two points. So
this still is a work in progress. But they just
won two right at the wire and in two different
(29:37):
ways that I believe is galvanizing. This team should be
a hum dinger This Sunday at noon on KFAM courtesy
of timber Tech and timber tech dot com. What's on
Deck nine to noon includes Ben Gesling of the Star Tribune.
At ten o'clock, he covers the Vikings assumably for profit
for the Star Tribune. A Star Tribune dot com that'll
take place at ten. Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the
(29:58):
Minnesota Vikings this year ninety minute. It's from now in
order to producers, and I'm Paul Allen. Here is double
B with the Cash thing and good morning and.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Good morning to fan and two minute a Junkschuck want
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(30:28):
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Speaker 1 (30:34):
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, weekdays nine to noon.
Right around this time, we offer up a little ditty
called bikes Bites provided by.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed grass fed Beef, Travis Jones, Clearwater,
Minnesota's finest Thousand Hills nutrient dense beef, egg regenerative agriculture.
That's the the a topic for them any vitam at
Coober and co Ops in Kowalski's locations. They're proud sponsors
of Gophers athletics. So I was listening to Kevin O'Connell's
(31:06):
press conference yesterday and maybe you don't have to share
the entire toll. Soy, maybe this is part of the
conversation later this morning as well, is he was asked
a question I think it was kind of framed up,
is like what happened to the easy ones coach in
particular to get TJ Hawkinson involved? And even Kevin O'Connell says, hey,
I got we.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Got to get TJ involved more.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And so just how easy is it to say that
versus actually executing on it, because I was looking at
some numbers yesterday. Now, JJ McCarthy good times, bad times
is a story in itself with the young QB he has.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Among all qbs.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Forget about Anthony Richardson or Josh Dobbs or Joe Milton.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Forget them.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
The reason I say that JJ McCarthy the highest average
depth of target in the NFL, well that means that
he's trying to make deeper throw deeper connections than every
other quarterback in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Second.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
By the way, in this scenario again, forget about the Milton's, Dobbs,
Richardson's oh my gotcha second in the NFL is actually
Sam Darnold. But JJ kind of getting it back to
so the idea, if there is some validity to it,
would be, you know, if we shorten things up Bonnicks,
for instance, two yards shorter.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Average depth of target.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Now, if you look at how Sean Payton has deployed
bon Nix, a lot of short stuff, a lot of
the easiest possible completions. Let's get athletes in space and
let them run around a little bit. How easy is
it to say I need to get TJ more involved
versus actually executing it on the field, because you feel
like number eight seven should be a factor, whether it's
(32:46):
in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Again, the easy ones quote.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Unquote, very very quiet season for mister Hawkinson, who I
thought would be pretty good buddies with JJ McCarthy by
this stage of the season.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
In Hawk's last twenty one regular season games, he has
two touchdowns. Okay, So whose fault is it Sam Darnold's,
JJ McCarthy's, or Carson Wentz's or Kevin O'Connell's.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Or or is it the tight ends?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I don't know. When I'm watching these things back, you know,
and generally on Tuesday mornings, I'll come in and I'll
show you something or I'll say to you, Hey, do
you like Addison on this play, Hey, what happened here?
You know? And we'll see and again this is with
all due respect. And then the Tom Brady, fran Tarkenton,
and Joe Montana missed the receivers every single game. Every
(33:39):
single game they played, there were guys running open for
good things, and they probably missed them. That's the nature
of the real lifetime of the most difficult job in
all of pro sports, playing quarterback in the National Football League.
So when I watch these things back, I just, you know,
(33:59):
maybe I need to look more closely, but I don't
look at like a post stroke streaking down the field,
center of the field. Somebody's wide open. Somebody just fails
to look at him. Like last night with the replays
you know that they were showing on Monday Night football,
Well there were no fewer than three or four times
love for whatever the reason, seemed to be looking right
(34:22):
at a wide open Romeo Dobbs. I mean, Dobbs's route
running has gotten so good. He had one that's a
touchdown if he hits him, Yeah, the one to the right, yes, yeah,
by the sideline right. But he didn't. He either didn't
get it there after looking or just didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah, he went off him real quick.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Whatever whatever happened, it happened. So like with Hockinson, I
just maybe there's a lot of that there. I just
don't see a lot of it. To your point, when
the coach is like, yes, we need to activate this, right,
I mean it's it's worth three weeks removed from x's
and o's with Kevin O'Connell, where I'm like, you know,
let's just say for circumstances out of his control. I
(35:03):
think Jalen Naylor is having an unbelievably good season, and
he agreed and pointed out some things well without implicating,
you know, exact situations for time purposes. I think Naylor
has been missed on at least four touchdowns this year.
I know Jefferson's been missed on some very vi that
they all get missed everywhere. But Hawkinson, if he's part
(35:26):
of that bit, he's compensated to be a field stretching
tight end to move the chains and to score touchdowns,
and none of that is really happening. So the question
would be why I can't exactly answer it.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Mikes bikes part of that press or yesterday some positive
news PA so first and foremost when when he hit
the turf, Jonathan Grenard writhing in pain at us Bank
Stadium on Sunday. I mean, I'm thinking, are we looking
at you know, what was it AC joint terrorism?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Are we looking at clavical? What are we looking at
with JG? Well, yesterday the.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Head coach really started off his press conference early talking
about he thinks we escaped serious injury with Jonathan Grenard
and we want to see if he can get on
the field and how much practice work that he could
be to potentially even be available this weekend. But maybe
worst case scenario, maybe just has to chill a week
and we'll have him back at Lambeau. But from him,
(36:22):
I don't really want that. No, we don't want that.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
But I mean mean, according to everybody, the head coach
is a barbarian for the way he treated Carson Wentz.
So just be a barbarian and cut off the shoulder. Yeah,
just tell him to play, Yeah, just tell him to play.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Drag him, drag him onto the field against his will
like you did with Carson Wentz.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, for sure, that's what barbarians do. So drag him
on the field. Don't care about his countenance, which is
that of pain. If he dies, he dies, and force
him to do something he doesn't want to do.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Ryan Kelly.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Ryan Kelly doing a little more work this week as well.
It sounds with gren Yes, when it happened in front
of the Baltimore bench. I have my binoculars on him,
So I'm not going to pretend to be like a
fake doctor David whatever and be like I can analyze
it from a mile away. On what I can analyze
is eight and a half to nine out of ten
(37:13):
times when players go down and you see them banging
on the turf, it's bad. Okay, they know this ain't
this is bad. And Grenard did that, I'm like, damn man,
so it you know, he obviously thought it was worse
than it was when he got to the Blue ten.
Jonathan Grenard is one of the tougher players that I've
(37:37):
no matter the circumstances of who's in and who's out,
how much pain he's in, how much attention he's getting,
because he gets a lot, he never complains about it,
never ever, ever.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
He's a stalwart. He's salt of the earth. He's one
of the toughest players I've seen here. In a long time,
so for him to leave a game that was some
significant pain. If if he if the medical staff and
he can feel without you know, making it worse, can
play through it, then he'll play this weekend.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
How do you think we've gotten by without Josh Oliver
and what do you think Mike's bike style? The prospect
of him returning this weekend may improve things because we
saw even you know in the Kiddies game in particular,
you saw the backups, the EuroSec types. I think we
saw some Nick Vignette sightings at times. Getting getting cj
(38:29):
hamback healthy, by the way, that kind of helps stem
the tide on some bits as well. But in particular
surviving without the physicality of a Josh Oliver. He's going
to be doing more work and ramping up, and I
think the way Ko put it is kind of looking
forward to seeing him or having him for some snaps
this weekend.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
I think we might get Oliver back.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
I like that, But see that just plays into what
what why? For whatever the reason I decided to write
this Sunday night, and I'm not I'm not laying off
of it into the season. If you got your dogs,
okay to who much is given, much is expected, find
ways to win games, find ways to find positive consistency
because this is a roster full of illuminaries, and that
(39:12):
includes the quarterback who's only played four games experience required,
but with where you drafted him, there are facets of
JJ McCarthy's game that you know you can win with
right now. And that's fact. Why is it the reality
Because we've seen it twice and we've seen how it's happened,
(39:32):
so we know it's there. Oliver's part of that, Josh
Oliver is part of that from a physicality standpoint, a
pass rushing protection standpoint, like Oliver, say it plays this weekend,
keep him right in that game at lambeau Field with
Rashan Gary and Michael Parsons and Eder and Cooper. I
think you're going to need Oliver more that game. Then
(39:55):
you're going to need him against Montes sweat and some
of these rush that the Bears have and you're at home.
So I hope Oliver plays because it just takes what
you thought and felt would be good to very good
and amplifies it with having all your guys, and I
think it will help them. It'll help them find a
way to win Vikes.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Bites, thank you Thousand Hills. How much?
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And maybe maybe this was somewhat answered when we started
talking about this run game of the Bears.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
How much can you really take from week one?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
It Soldier Field, This is a Vikings team with the
good times bad times, finally seeing most of the right
names on the field. Meanwhile, I feel like the evolution
of the Bears has taken a course in which the
team we see Sunday may be very much unlike what
we saw opening night, creating some unknowns and maybe some
(40:48):
unscouted looks into Sunday's game and what they're able to
do on the ground. Is there a lot you can
take from week one within the frame of a singular season,
given how much things change.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
That's a wonderful question. Caleb the quarterback has to be
better than he was week one, and he wasn't bad
week one, but I'm excited with the rest of the
week developing to get into what is better with him
in unison with his coach right the running piece at
won eighty five per the last five, there's definitely something
(41:20):
to that. I don't exactly know what it is, but
there's something to that. And that was not the case
when they played the Vikings week number one.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
See this is where it gets annoying though, whether it's
you mentioned the teams that they played the fifteen forty
one and one record that the teams they've beaten this
year have so they beat bad teams on paper, it
appears Caleb was sacked sixty eight times last year. Only
sixty eight Yeah, only fourteen times in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
So then but then you play the game.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, is it because you're playing the complete ls of
the NFC and teams like the Bengals, who save for
Trey Hendrickson.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Aren't giving you a lot of push.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I don't think that's it.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Is that part of the growth in concert with the game,
So the play action and maybe the kid has a
right to get better.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
YEA, like a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You can throw these stats out there and try to
deep dive, but there can be you can kind of
just just like a lot of data, most data, you
can make it say whatever you want without necessarily knowing
accuracy along the way. I don't know how to look
at Caleb right now. Is completion percentage has gone down
a tick, but over a yard more per attempt he's
(42:25):
more efficient, and in the end, he is on track
to exceed four thousand yards this season. He may even
throw a few more picks than he did a year ago,
but it's kind of he's kind of getting down the
field a little bit better than.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
He did his rookie season.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
So how putting all of that together, I'm just I'm
kind of confused by all of it.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Courtney Cronan, the Great Courtney Cronan, who covers the team
for ESPNESPN dot com. She'll be on nine to noon
tomorrow or Thursday. Wonderful question for her because she would
know more about it than me. My assumption or ascertation
from the outside would be thinking about what I saw
with their quarterback, Caleb Williams up to week one, during
(43:07):
week one and right after week one and then hitting
nine to noon with Nordo and saying, this battle between
what Ben wants and Caleb Williams will this is going
to be fascinating because Caleb wants to do it a
certain way and Ben, he legitimately can be like, Okay,
well your way sucks. Your way got you sack sixty
(43:30):
eight times. Your way didn't pull people out of problems.
Here's what's proven. Whether you have Jamiir, David Laporta, williams
Amen Ross Saint Brown Golf or not, this is tried
and true. It's abundantly apparent to me the unison and
(43:51):
cohesion between the quarterback and the head coach is taking place.
And I'm going to respectfully roll the dice that it
was Willy's will to do it his way that had
to be broken. So I just think that that Caleb
has submitted to what is best for the team and
(44:12):
not best for him necessarily on paper. But it's tried
and true and proven. And now we've won six and
only lost three. So I just think I think Ben
has gotten through to that quarterback who is gifted. And
that's probably one of the if not the most different
things from week number one. Those are Vike Spies provided.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
By thousand Eels Lifetime Grays, grass fed Beef.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Grass fed Jervon Dexter Junior nine to noon continues from
Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center with Kevin O'Connell, head coach
of the Minnesota Vikings. An hour and ten minutes from now.
To leave.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
Those fans, it's at Simmerwolves Talkback Tuesday and We've got
your shot at tickets to this Saturdays Prince Inspired City
edition game chet the microphone on the kfan page, on
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of rules, kf an dot com keyword contests.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
What's going on over there? We got about four minutes.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, we were just talking about not just the Bears
and what are the warts that they have. Well, they
might be putting a little makeup on some of those
warts with that schedule, and just kind of how things
are laying out, but you know, feeling having all the
right names and the kid QB raising him on the
fly and having the right answers and not having a
(45:42):
false starts, et cetera. The idea that this team is
still very much a team that can find their way
into the playoffs. Now it's an eight game sprint, right,
Let's win divisional games, let's do those things. But just
kind of looking around the NFC and just trying to
figure out, you know, who's got warts. I mean, if
you look at if we're just looking, you know, just
cursory fashion at the standings, Cowboys, Cards, Falcons, Commanders, Saints, Giants.
(46:08):
Those are all teams that currently sit below the Minnesota
Vikings from a standing's perspective. Now we have to go
to Dallas at some point and get that w But
for the most I don't see the Cowboys jumping up
and finding their way into a playoff spot. And so
you got to play the numbers game. Seven playoff teams,
division winners.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Three wild cards.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
It still feels like, still very confidently that there will
either be three teams from the West or there will
be three teams from the North. And who are the
teams above us? Well, the Panthers, I mean they just
have a quarterback problem. We saw the Saints. Saints gave
up like two and change on the ground to man
young guy and mister Swift a few weeks ago. Rico
Dowdell is that thing hits midnight and turns back into
(46:49):
a pumpkin. They couldn't run. They lost after the thrilling victory. Thrilling,
I was doing a lot of heavy lifting there in
terms of the winning Lambeau. They lose at home to
the The QB's bad. The whole thing sucks. They're gonna
fade out. But then we start getting to these teams
in the West and specifically in the North, and I
know they got run up on by the Rams. The Rams,
(47:11):
by the way, if we're talking about who has warts,
I'm having a hard time finding warts with the Rams,
by the way, as they're doing typical McVeigh ramp up.
Having turned the boat ball over in three games. The
defense is super stout and getting better. Stafford hasn't looked better.
It seems like in a Rams uniform. Then he's flying
around right now. They just ran it up on the Niners,
(47:33):
who are six and three. Everybody's hurt. But the advantage
for the Niners here is we look ahead. Is a
schedule that features the Brissette led Cards, It features the Panthers,
it features the Browns, it features the Titans, It does
have the Colts on there gonna be a toughie. But
they're in a situation right now where Shanahan's group doesn't
(47:57):
require building belief. That is a strong group that should
believe at all times. But there are also beneficiaries of
a schedule that really back half light and works in
their favor. So a team that has Wartz, but a
team that seems very poised to secure a playoff spot.
And that just lends me now to what we watched
(48:20):
last night. Because Jordan Love, Jordan Love.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
In these Packers, we get to see him in a
couple of weeks when the run game, I mean not.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That it's ever necessarily truly explosive, but when you're not
getting five yards of carry, when you're not moving man,
and Jordan Love doesn't have that obvious answer, that obvious
and Tucker Kraft I feel like has had become that
obvious answer, that obvious solver done in the past game
when you don't have that, the kid felt un looked
(48:52):
felt and looked uncomfortable last night, and it was a
lot of getting off of a read quickly finding the
next one, looking for the most obvious and safe option,
and I think that put them in a ton of
bad spots. I'm not, you know, with the with the
Elton Jenkins injury, interesting to see how severe or how
long lasting that is. Elton's damn good and and this
(49:12):
O line has done a really good job in front
of Jordan this year, so I'm not even putting that
fumble on him per se. I mean, how about Edger
and Cooper punching that thing out of out of Jalen
hurts his hands early on as well.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
But they're when you're.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Talking about warts and a defense that you know the secondary.
If the defensive front isn't doing its thing, the secondary
can be had. And when you have a quarterback that
doesn't have an obvious answer and there's a lack of
comfort there if you take away any sort of uber
efficient running, I think the Packers are in trouble and
potentially a target at witch to shoot. Vikings got to
(49:46):
have their say in this with a couple of games
ahead with the with the Green and Gold.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
But that's a team that.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Has warts and is in a playoff spot. And if
you're a Vikings fan looking ahead, that's a team to
pay attention to our border.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Rivals when it comes to potential calamities within the conference
or warts as you wait it out. I don't care
how the Eagles won. The Eagles won, Yeah, and Jalen Phillips,
the former Dolphin, played with his hair on fire. I
mean you talk about a new lease on life. I
think you had both their fumble recoveries. You talk about
(50:18):
a new lease on life. You leave that awful situation
in Miami and you go to that team off a
Super Bowl victory and you get to play a lot.
I mean, Holy Colt, and I wonder he will looked
all pro last night. So they will grind away and
they will win more than they don't. Nor to mention
the Rams did. Just remember the have and the have
(50:41):
nots begin to separate themselves the Sunday or that week
after Thanksgiving, and what you do in front of it matters,
But the Sunday after Thanksgiving through December in early January,
that's where the calamities end for a lot of them.
And the Eagles and Rams the lines to a certain extent.
(51:02):
They're beginning to separate themselves a little bit. Seahawks might
be in that conversation. I just don't know enough about them.
Right now, it's ten o'clock. You're listening to Nine to Noon.
Why don't you give me half the money you were
gonna bend? But we'll go out. Then I'll kick you
the nuts and we'll call it a day. Can you
repeat the part of the stuff where you said all
about things?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
This show is naughty and might make you a party mouse.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Your cash doesn't give you a superior to tear down
people's dreams.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Oh oh, that pisses me off.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That pisses me right off.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Well you have a gambling problem.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hey, Happy Tuesday morning to you, and welcome to the
nine to noon radio show from the vast and ever
expanding and plush TCO Radio Studio as part of the
second to none Vikings Entertainment Network at Twin Cities Orthopedics
Performance Center. It's a Tco Tuesday for nine to noon,
and I'm Paul Allen Nordo produces Brett Blake Moore Guide's
(01:23):
The Great Ship Loft Covenant from FM one hundred point
three KFAM. And we begin with a question, how are
the Chicago Bears plus fourteen? And the take give the
turnover differential? Well that's number one in the NFL. So
you know, each week each game can can be defined
(01:43):
as snowflakes, where they're all the same but they're different.
And you start to learn about the adversary early in
the week and you come across some things initially where
you're like whoa, hey, whoa, and this one just just
bow me over. Yesterday after nine to noon, chatting with
Nordo in the side studio about the TCO Tuesday and
(02:07):
Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, joining at
eleven am today, and he hits me with the Bears
have twenty takeaways. I'm like, what the Bears have twenty
takes which would include thirteen interceptions? All right, well, they
probably have given it away a lot, right, Well, no,
that's not the case either. Well what's their take give
(02:27):
It's plus fourteen. It's tops in the NFL. So then
you push five more keys and you're like, all right,
they're leading sack guy Montes sweat as five and a
half sacks. They got this Jervon Dexter senior, good player,
was better at Florida, but he's doing quite well in
the NFL. He has four sacks. Those are their top
two sackers. Kind of sounds like the Minnesota Vikings, you know,
(02:50):
with guys with four four and a half sacks stuff
like that, So they're not sacking the quarterback in voluminous nature,
which means that you think, rush to cover, rush and cover.
Holy cal Look at all the picks the Vikings had
last year to match all of the sacks they had. Well,
that's not the case either with the Chicago Bears. How
(03:12):
in the heck are they number one in the NFL
and turnover differential and good morning, good.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Morning, it's insane.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
And you mentioned the sacks and Gervon Dexter Senior and
Montese sweat.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
How about CJ.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Gardner Johnson being on the team for like two games,
he has three sacks. So just kind of just how
things have gone for this team and when they are
doing it. So, for instance, in their three losses, the Bears,
shocking to some and head scratching to most, are six
and three. In their three losses, they have one takeaway
(03:45):
on defense. Oh wow, in their six victories, nineteen freaking takeaways.
They're averaging more than three for their defense every single
time they go out to win. How they're doing it
with the injured second their front As you were talking
about with those sac numbers, it's a lot of meat
and potatoes, and this is a team statistically we can
(04:07):
get more into where we can have our day around
the gym with heavy yardage against the Bears defense. But
right now not historic, but certainly the most opportunistic team
combined with such a more disciplined offense starting with the
passer in Caleb Williams. So the plus fourteen jumps off
(04:29):
the freaking page, maybe above all other statistics as we
look at Sunday's game, and I don't have the Bear
schedule in front of me, but I got it if
you want it. Since the buye, since the off week,
Chicago is four and one, and there's been that there
has been an offensive common thread that has transpired against
(04:50):
mostly substandard teams. But nevertheless, I think that that plays
into the turnover differential two off the way.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Nordo just laid it out. They're four and one sent
since the bye week. Their only loss was to Baltimore
and they lost by two touchdowns, not to Lamar Jackson
but to Tyler Huntley. It was the final game before
Lamar returned. But during that time, as we unfurl a
(05:16):
sneak peek at next week, a sneak peek at the
fresh meat, because it's time to move on from us
certain facets of that Baltimore debacle. Over the weekend, the
Chicago Bears over the last five games are averaging one
hundred and eighty five rushing yards per game, one eighty
five per game. Now beloved beja their coach Ben Johnson.
(05:37):
Let's think. Let's think of where he previously executed his toil.
It was as offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. What
do they like to do to set up the play action?
Run Jamiir Gibbs run, David Montgomery run, Jamison Williams and
things like that, Okay, DeAndre Swift, Kyle Mnungui and Roshawn Johnson,
(05:59):
DJ Moore. They It's taken a while for Ben to
get where he wants to get with this phase of
the offense. It's we're going to run first. We're going
to make them respect it. And as we continue to
raise this quarterback who never ran play action, being under center,
(06:19):
taking the steps, taking the handoff, turning the back to
the defense, getting safeties and the linebackers to think about
it a little bit. He never did that in college,
and he didn't do it basically his entire rookie year.
So that's still a work in progress with their quarterback
Caleb Williams. But a major step has been taken by
the Chicago Bears, and that's establishing the ability to run
(06:42):
for nearly two hundred yards a game.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Now, it took him two months to art to generate
one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Right well, and and and the one to eighty five
a game. I mean, it's it's a big number. So
but the question would be when it comes to one
of the best statistically, like when coaches or players say
stats are for losers. I don't necessarily agree with all
of that because their yards per attempt, turnover differentials, there
(07:11):
are things that matter greatly to the outcomes of games.
But it also the context of the one eighty five.
It needs to be part of the conversation against whom
are they getting that one eighty five? What's the score
of the game? Are they leading and trying to kill
the clock? The bottom line is they're getting it done.
So I don't care if it's against the zero or
one win New Orleans Saints at that time, if it's
(07:33):
against Geno Smith winning a one point game against a
really bad Raiders team. They're getting that facet of this
new coach's philosophy done now. The second point that the
hump that they've gotten over is whether it's against Cincinnati,
a downtrodden bunch, or the Giants without your guys scataboo,
(07:54):
and I mean the Giants were so squared away they
lost a game and fired their coach. So that's their
most win. But A they won, and B they've shown
each other and their coaching staff and subsequently their fan
base that they can win dramatic close games. That's a
galvanizing factor. They didn't everly in the season. They're gaining
(08:18):
it now. The trust and ability in each other to recognize,
if we follow what the plan is here, even though
it's loud and it's hot, and mistakes have been made
and maybe there shouldn't be eighty some odd combined points
scored in this game. Nothing we can do about that.
Now all we can do is win it, and they're
winning them. So there are two steps that have been
(08:38):
taken with the Chicago Bears that I'm just I'm very
impressed with at this stage of the season. Compared to
the team. We saw week number one where the Vikings
ran more running plays than passing plays, but they only
ran like forty seven forty nine plays during the game.
It was a strange game. It was a bastard game,
but the outcome went the right way. But the the
(09:00):
attention to detail with the running game for the Bears
and the fact that somehow they're taking it in non
obvious situations the football and learning how to win these
hotly contested, tight games that matters. That's not lost on
nine to noon.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
No, no, it's not. And the biggest part that has
been built is the belief, as you've been.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Talking about here, because I think in some ways, I
mean think about the quality of the schedule and me
is a rube, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna come in
here and I'm just gonna you know the Okay, So
the teams they've beat their six victories, Bengals, Raiders, Cowboy, Saints, Giants, Commanders,
those teams are combined fifteen forty one to one. Okay, Well,
(09:45):
Caleb Williams isn't looking at that, you know what I mean?
Where there's an element of this where yes, they have played,
they've played downtrodden, you know, competition. In fact, by the way,
just going back to this Giants victory Jackson dark goes
out injured, Russ will is a complete l The punter
has like a twenty yard punt, sets them up at
midfield to get ultimately what was that go ahead score?
(10:10):
Otherwise the Bears probably aren't in that one without a
couple of circumstances. However, the circumstances count and you had
to close on it, and the Bears have been closing
on it, so that the belief angle of this whether
we can sit here, I mean, and it's a loser's lament,
right like, we're four and five. We're freaking fourth in
the North right now. We know in the division, but
(10:30):
four and five and we're staring up at the freaking
Bears right now. The fact of the matter is regardless
of how awful the competition, I think the eight topic
you hit on is the new coach not only through
success with the run game, like Ben Johnson can sit
in the meeting room and go see see what I've
been telling you in practice. Now the players believe the
(10:51):
respect has been built, the foundation has been built, and
it's turning over into clutch moments where they're not fumbling
the ball away.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I think.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
I think it was an awful interception by Caleb Williams
at Baltimore their last loss. But other than that, they're
four and one and Caleb is showing up for the
most part in the right spots on the back of
just an insane running attack. Right now, the belief is
kind of propelling them forward, which regardless of schedule, regardless
of roster, here's our guys, here's there, guys, who's better?
(11:23):
The belief makes them dangerous.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Marathoning out of the gate Courtesy of Steve's Appliances and
Steve's Appliances dot Com, the seven thousand square foot showroom
in Mounds View is fantastic. The ownership is second to none,
and there's money to be saved by mentioning nine to noon.
When you're looking for appliances from Steve's Appliances and Steve's
Appliances dot Com, go now place hyperbolic or hyper accurate. Well,
(11:48):
let me set it up like this. Somebody asked me
this morning what I expect from the Vikings in their
next game against the Chicago Bears, and, until proven otherwise,
off the past performance, we've seen this season, and yesterday
Nora Do and I on the metaphorical therapeutic Davenport of Love.
You know, we teased and we cracked wise and we
(12:10):
opened to veins, and we talked about a lot of
things yesterday, but part of it was win lost, win lost,
win lost, win lost, good bad, good bad good bad
good bad to Finding traction with consistency has been an
a topic for the Minnesota Vikings this year in that
it's been nonexistent. So off what we have seen, What
(12:33):
should the expectation be Sunday, if only for yours truly?
All right, let's go back to the Falcons game. The
kid quarterback steals the show on the fourth quarter at
Soldier Field and wins the game in his home state
sky You mom, here we go home opener, You don't
(12:54):
score a touchdown and you lose to the Atlanta Falcons.
Not a great team. Okay, what's the response? You kill
Cincinnati and you take the fight to the next team.
Now we go to that La Chargers game. Well, that
was a debacle, unto its own right, one of the
worst performances for the Minnesota Vikings, if not the worst
(13:15):
overall performance we've seen. Since Kevin O'Connell took over in
twenty twenty two. Okay, that happened. What's the response. You
beat the Detroit Lions at Ford Field as nine point underdogs. Wonderful, physical, professional,
squared away efficient response. The Baltimore game was winnable, you
(13:38):
got the eight fall starts, and you have some things
that weren't preferred at key moments of the game. What's
the response. You beat the Chicago Bears. So I'm not
convinced the Vikings are going to win this weekend, but
that's how the past performances have gone this year. Why
would they change into this game when I know the
(13:59):
Bears are better than the Lions, and the Lions proved
that earlier in the season when they scored fifty two
on Dennis Allen's defense, and you got that and in
the Cincinnati game, And if you want to play this game,
which I don't, the Vikings killed the Bengals and the
Bears went down to the wire with them. But nevertheless,
(14:20):
two different scenarios. Whatever, the response this weekend should be
that of ferocity, should be that of professionalism, and should
be something that leads the Vikings to a victory.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, I agree and if for anything else, And still
I was going to bring it up during Vike spits,
but just hearing the coach yesterday talking about cadence and
the false starts he does what a lot of coaches do.
He put it on himself, I need to coach better.
I think he's almost a direct quote. And then you
heard the quarterback after the game. I'm responsible for everything
that happens on the field, appreciate all that still leaves
(14:52):
me wondering, however, how it all happened me too, And
I just when you talk about a professional effort, I
think there's enough, there's enough professional pride in this building,
in this group where it's like, yeah, that was actually embarrassing. Yeah,
that was actually a fairly unprecedented thing anytime we're on
the wrong side of the last time this happened was
(15:13):
sixteen years ago. I think, just from a professional pride standpoint,
regardless of the fact that I still don't understand how
the hell it happened, I think that those types of
things are better. But over the course of this season,
now with a nine game sample size, there have been
various elements of a lack of discipline popping up in
(15:34):
various games. So I don't think that this team's going
to go out on Sunday and it's just going to
be perfect.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I don't believe that for a second.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I think we are going to have moments in a
division collision where it's like, are you serious with this one?
How did this happen? We saw this three weeks ago.
This is such a simple bit. We're going to have
a weird special teams penalty. There's just going to be
some annoying bits that go as part of that. But
I think the kid into his fifth start the professional
pride of this group that it is the response. Now,
(16:05):
how long throughout a season, pa, can you continue to
go good times, bad times, good times, bad times, good times,
bad times before you start looking at the standings and
you start looking at your playoff percentage and you start
kind of peeking into maybe we don't have it? Like
how how does our favorite team keep their belief? I
do believe that they will this weekend, and I feel
(16:26):
like the Vikings are in a fantastic spot to be
five and five by the time I hit fan line
with Ron Johnson. I'm just the combination of professional pride.
I do wonder how much belief. The kid QB certainly
wants to be better than he was a week ago.
I think the highlight wide receiver is going to get
his twelve targets again, and I think he's going to
get more than four receptions this time around. I believe
(16:47):
in all of those things as a response. But man,
the good times, bad times, and the roller coaster of
this season, the way that it plays on us, I
imagine that it plays on those guys in that locker
room as well.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I'm sadly I can't I mean, I can't answer that
because because we've seen now more than half the season.
So when they hit halftime of the Ravens game, that
was the midway point of the season. We're in the
second half of the season and it's four and five.
Like I said yesterday, into the season. Without going through
everything I went through yesterday, I'll just lay it out
(17:18):
like this. To whom much is given, much is expected.
And the money that was spent on free agency the
years for JJ McCarthy, Dallas Turner, people who are a
year more experienced, the expectation is they will improve. So
my mantra into the year was, unless you experience debilitating
(17:41):
awful season long injuries that legitimately most, if not everybody
can look at and say, well, I'll just just think
the Lions last year. Okay, the Lions won the division
and they lost three quarters of their defense for three
quarters of the year, and we're talking Aiden Hutchinson and
Alien mcneilal and some of their best players. Well, they
(18:02):
scratched and clawed and survived. Then the Vikings beat themselves
Week eighteen as much as the Lions beat them. But
that was it for the Motor City kiddies. The proverbial
elasticity of what they were holding on to snapped and
it broke and there was carnage and Jaden Daniels came
in and rolled them because it had just been too
(18:23):
much for too long. The Vikings with those seventeen offensive
line combinations and key defensive players and Aaron Jones missing
five games, I mean Addison didn't play for three those
all of those, well they're all done. And you've had
your preferred players back now for two games, and you
won the first game and you beat one of the
(18:45):
best teams in the NFL. Then you lost the next
one against a team that can go to the Super Bowl.
The Baltimore Ravens with what they've done to their defense
the last month, MVP guy at quarterback, and the way
they're executing things. Yes, they are despite being a four
and five team, as what I think will be one
of the better teams in the NFL in January.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
It should be favored to win the North for sure.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Tough beat, they're a tough beat. They're a tricky beat.
They're a tough beat. When they got all their dogs
and they had all their dogs, but so did we
and we didn't win the game. So now you move
forward to the next one. And my expectation, as I
said yesterday, is if you keep if you keep the
likes of darisov Van Ginkel Grenard, it sounds like he'll
(19:29):
be okay for this weekend at least off the press
conference yesterday, or should be close to okay then Jefferson,
just all the right players. You keep all those guys
together for the final run of the season late November, December,
early January. Yes, I expect the Vikings to make the playoffs,
and if they don't make the playoffs, it'll be a
buzzkill because to whom much is given, much is expected,
(19:51):
and that includes working through problems like the Lions did
last year, and finding a way to have your full
tilt to on display weekly with what you have and
moving forward. That's absolutely the expectation from yours, truly, whether
it's been good times, bad times, win loss, LWLWLW, that
(20:12):
has to stop. I don't know how it stops, because
we're not compensated to figure out how it stops. We're
doing radio shows just chatting about what are realistic expectations
in two seasons and during seasons, which leads us to
hyperbolic or hyper accurate. Minnesota will make the playoffs and
(20:33):
win a game. Why you got to hit me with
that so early? Ko is going to be in here
in ninety minutes.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
That's hyperbolic, although the childlike Reubin the absolutely is rooting
for that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
You know. The one thing that kind of popped in
my head the way that.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Like God, that one fast, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
It's well, it's I mean to say at this stage
that they will make the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And win a game. I mean, yeah, that was an
easy one right there.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
The one thing I'm thinking about the way that I
or the fan base, the way that we want to
see incremental growth of the quarterback over the course of
this season, and you know, it is about having the
right guys on the field, and for now we have
the right guys.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
On the field, which is sweet. Let's go beat the Bears.
I think we will.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
How much do you think if I'm Jonathan Grenard, if
I'm Javon Hargrave, if I'm Jonathan Allen, how much do
they need to see incremental because part of this good times,
bad times again the way that the Chicago Bears are
dangerous via belief and measurable success good times, bad times,
(21:37):
ups and downs of this Viking season. I'm just curious,
you know, in terms of that elasticity hanging tight and
taut and then eventually busting if it does, how much
some of these guys in the locker room, even if
they love JJ, everyone's saying the right thing. I don't
think this is a fractured locker room. I think this
is a mentally strong group and that is led by
a coach who I believe helps keep a lot of
(21:59):
that together. But I'm just curious how much they need
to see incremental growth from the QB on a weekly basis.
And it's not you know, there's so much going on
in the game that if I'm on defense, I gotta
be I'm trying to focus on how to stop King Henry.
I can't be even maybe watching the field. I got
my Microsoft surface in front of me. But in the
same sense, it's like, ooh, the eight fall starts, ooh,
(22:22):
man that pick. I know Jefferson fell down, but ooh,
if you throw that outside on the first one, then
Malachi Starks is really never in the equation Ooh, Jefferson
was wide open and it was ten feet over his head.
I just wonder over the course of a long season
how much other people on the team internally, whether they
get loud about it or not. Most of them probably
(22:42):
won't say anything other than the right thing, But it's like,
how much do they need to see incremental growth from
JJ to keep this thing together, to get this team
to the player.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There are six words that you've heard me say a lot,
and it's pertinent here. Human nature gets to win two.
So how do you play off that within the confines
of Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. At least to my
(23:10):
experience three and a half years working pretty closely with
the squad. One of the things that leads me, leads
me to share, like I enjoy calling Minnesota Vikings games
on the radio now more than I ever have in
my life. All Right, So why is that? Well, that's
because what Nordo just said no longer audibly, vociferously and
(23:35):
loudly happens where it's I know, you've got a radio show.
But how in the f am I supposed to win
when I got this guy here? How in the f
is this supposed to happen when this draft happened here? Well,
that just never happens. It may happen behind the scenes,
but I'm not privy to it, and I'm here a lot,
so I really like that. It plays into an enjoyment
(23:57):
to be here and to do the job. There's not
a lot of backtalk. There's not a lot of backstabbing. Now.
When I say, human nature gets to win too. If
you keep losing games and your topsy turvy, and there
are situations that are not conducive to positive consistency and
winning a lot of games. The human nature gets to
win too is when they leave what they say to
(24:18):
their family members, their friends, teammates outside of here. A,
I don't care, but B it's yeah, I mean when
people talk about things, things like that probably are going
to come up. If I happen to be the proverbial
fly on the wall outside of the facility hearing that,
my first response would be look in the mirror, man.
(24:39):
I mean, before you start pointing fingers at those with
the eight fall starts, how about the fact that this
hasn't happened with you in a month and a half
and you were paid this to do this, and now
we ain't getting this.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Oh yea.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
So it's divisive. It generally leaks in to the worst
covenants in the NFL. That's not the case here. When
they preach culture in this building, and I've said this before,
that's such an overused trite term in sports and in life.
Quite honestly, it's not here because I've I've seen them
(25:11):
work through problems behind the scenes. I've seen them handle
prosperity without being arrogant. That's established culture. So what Nordo
just said is a very very fair assessment. But as
it goes in this building, it's been a complete non player,
at least in my experience, for three and a half
(25:31):
years with these guys. And that's a good thing. And
you know, like like, take, for instance, Philadelphia and Green
Bay last night. All right, green Bay loses to Philadelphia,
Elton Jenkins heard his ankle didn't return to the game.
Very physical game. Now, Now, when it comes to culture
and when it comes to how to handle things that
there's there's a writer named Matt Schneidman who covers the
(25:53):
Packers for the Athletic and he posted after the game.
Matt Lafleur, head coach of the asked Matt Lafleur if
he thinks he's coaching for his job now, really really
difficult question to hear after an emotional loss. But whatever,
I mean, people can ask whatever they want, Matt said, quote.
(26:13):
I'll leave that for everybody else to decide. I'll just
focus on the day to day and try to do
I feel like you're always coaching for everything in this league.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's my mindset. It's always been that way. You can't
ever exhale, You got to always be pushing. That's just
my mindset, and that will be my mindset till they
tell me not to coach anymore. End quote. That's a
stark culture related difference from the individual a week and
change ago who addressed a question from a member of
the media by saying, I don't I don't give a
(26:45):
ass about Halloween. I'm trying to win a football game.
So he was very tense there. He went at a
member of the media for asking a silly question about
Halloween costumes. So now we fast forward to last night,
there's contrition, there's it's up, it's down, it's it's it's
culture related, and and things will reveal themselves and open
(27:10):
up as we move forward. If they continue to go
good time, bad time, awful, great, Hey, eh, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I do know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
So from from a Kevin O'Connell standpoint, we'll get to
hear you know, more on this from him himself during
the eleven am hour. But I just think about, as
we were talking about the bears, the belief they have
is what makes them dangerous. The adversity that the Kevin
O'Connell world is going through right now is raising the
kid QB and maintaining belief within that building, which through
(27:43):
his tenure here, he's been very successful at YEW.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
That's from an overarching standpoint those you, if I were
to shape what I believe is the reality here, that
would be one in June. The a topic would be
improving JJ McCarthy, the second year quarterback, and making sure
things stay cohesive and tightly knit during the moderate chop.
(28:06):
This is not severe chop. This is moderate chop. There
are winnable games on the horizon. I can't remember the
last time Green Bay beat Minnesota. I love how the
Vikings match up against the Packers until proven otherwise. It
takes Jordan Love two and a half hours to figure
out what Brian Flores is doing. So until that changes,
then I feel good about that game. Yeah, I feel
good about the response coming up this weekend. And those
(28:29):
are division games. Those matter, so they matter. They all matter.
But these matter more than the run of the mill
game simply because of NFC placing and divisional rankings and
stuff like that at the end of the equation. So,
for instance, the Bears, well they're winless in the division,
so they're six and three. We're going for one to
(28:51):
eighty five on the ground a game. If I'm one
of their fans, I'm like, cool, that's great. Ben's doing
a great job. Caleb's handling the play action decently. How
about we win a division game. How about we beat Detroit,
Green Bay or Minnesota, because we've lost to two of them.
We've given up seventy nine points to the Vikings and
the Lions. Then we did that to start the season,
(29:12):
by the way, fifty two against the Lions. Then we
beat Dallas by seventeen Okay, cool, that counts. Then we
beat Vegas by a point, then we beat New Orleans.
They beat Vegas, New Orleans, Sincy and the Giants, all
non playoff teams by a combined twenty two points. So
this still is a work in progress. But they just
won two right at the wire and in two different
(29:37):
ways that I believe is galvanizing. This team should be
a hum dinger This Sunday at noon on KFAM courtesy
of timber Tech and timber tech dot com. What's on
Deck nine to noon includes Ben Gesling of the Star Tribune.
At ten o'clock, he covers the Vikings assumably for profit
for the Star Tribune. A Star Tribune dot com that'll
take place at ten. Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the
(29:58):
Minnesota Vikings this year ninety minute. It's from now in
order to producers, and I'm Paul Allen. Here is double
B with the Cash thing and good morning and.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
Good morning to fan and two minute a Junkschuck want
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Speaker 1 (30:34):
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, weekdays nine to noon.
Right around this time, we offer up a little ditty
called bikes Bites provided by.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed grass fed Beef, Travis Jones, Clearwater,
Minnesota's finest Thousand Hills nutrient dense beef, egg regenerative agriculture.
That's the the a topic for them any vitam at
Coober and co Ops in Kowalski's locations. They're proud sponsors
of Gophers athletics. So I was listening to Kevin O'Connell's
(31:06):
press conference yesterday and maybe you don't have to share
the entire toll. Soy, maybe this is part of the
conversation later this morning as well, is he was asked
a question I think it was kind of framed up,
is like what happened to the easy ones coach in
particular to get TJ Hawkinson involved? And even Kevin O'Connell says, hey,
I got we.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Got to get TJ involved more.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
And so just how easy is it to say that
versus actually executing on it, because I was looking at
some numbers yesterday. Now, JJ McCarthy good times, bad times
is a story in itself with the young QB he has.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Among all qbs.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Forget about Anthony Richardson or Josh Dobbs or Joe Milton.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Forget them.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
The reason I say that JJ McCarthy the highest average
depth of target in the NFL, well that means that
he's trying to make deeper throw deeper connections than every
other quarterback in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Second.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
By the way, in this scenario again, forget about the Milton's, Dobbs,
Richardson's oh my gotcha second in the NFL is actually
Sam Darnold. But JJ kind of getting it back to
so the idea, if there is some validity to it,
would be, you know, if we shorten things up Bonnicks,
for instance, two yards shorter.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Average depth of target.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Now, if you look at how Sean Payton has deployed
bon Nix, a lot of short stuff, a lot of
the easiest possible completions. Let's get athletes in space and
let them run around a little bit. How easy is
it to say I need to get TJ more involved
versus actually executing it on the field, because you feel
like number eight seven should be a factor, whether it's
(32:46):
in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
Again, the easy ones quote.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Unquote, very very quiet season for mister Hawkinson, who I
thought would be pretty good buddies with JJ McCarthy by
this stage of the season.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
In Hawk's last twenty one regular season games, he has
two touchdowns. Okay, So whose fault is it Sam Darnold's,
JJ McCarthy's, or Carson Wentz's or Kevin O'Connell's.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Or or is it the tight ends?
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I don't know. When I'm watching these things back, you know,
and generally on Tuesday mornings, I'll come in and I'll
show you something or I'll say to you, Hey, do
you like Addison on this play, Hey, what happened here?
You know? And we'll see and again this is with
all due respect. And then the Tom Brady, fran Tarkenton,
and Joe Montana missed the receivers every single game. Every
(33:39):
single game they played, there were guys running open for
good things, and they probably missed them. That's the nature
of the real lifetime of the most difficult job in
all of pro sports, playing quarterback in the National Football League.
So when I watch these things back, I just, you know,
(33:59):
maybe I need to look more closely, but I don't
look at like a post stroke streaking down the field,
center of the field. Somebody's wide open. Somebody just fails
to look at him. Like last night with the replays
you know that they were showing on Monday Night football,
Well there were no fewer than three or four times
love for whatever the reason, seemed to be looking right
(34:22):
at a wide open Romeo Dobbs. I mean, Dobbs's route
running has gotten so good. He had one that's a
touchdown if he hits him, Yeah, the one to the right, yes, yeah,
by the sideline right. But he didn't. He either didn't
get it there after looking or just didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah, he went off him real quick.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Whatever whatever happened, it happened. So like with Hockinson, I
just maybe there's a lot of that there. I just
don't see a lot of it. To your point, when
the coach is like, yes, we need to activate this, right,
I mean it's it's worth three weeks removed from x's
and o's with Kevin O'Connell, where I'm like, you know,
let's just say for circumstances out of his control. I
(35:03):
think Jalen Naylor is having an unbelievably good season, and
he agreed and pointed out some things well without implicating,
you know, exact situations for time purposes. I think Naylor
has been missed on at least four touchdowns this year.
I know Jefferson's been missed on some very vi that
they all get missed everywhere. But Hawkinson, if he's part
(35:26):
of that bit, he's compensated to be a field stretching
tight end to move the chains and to score touchdowns,
and none of that is really happening. So the question
would be why I can't exactly answer it.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Mikes bikes part of that press or yesterday some positive
news PA so first and foremost when when he hit
the turf, Jonathan Grenard writhing in pain at us Bank
Stadium on Sunday. I mean, I'm thinking, are we looking
at you know, what was it AC joint terrorism?
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Are we looking at clavical? What are we looking at
with JG? Well, yesterday the.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Head coach really started off his press conference early talking
about he thinks we escaped serious injury with Jonathan Grenard
and we want to see if he can get on
the field and how much practice work that he could
be to potentially even be available this weekend. But maybe
worst case scenario, maybe just has to chill a week
and we'll have him back at Lambeau. But from him,
(36:22):
I don't really want that. No, we don't want that.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
But I mean mean, according to everybody, the head coach
is a barbarian for the way he treated Carson Wentz.
So just be a barbarian and cut off the shoulder. Yeah,
just tell him to play, Yeah, just tell him to play.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Drag him, drag him onto the field against his will
like you did with Carson Wentz.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah, for sure, that's what barbarians do. So drag him
on the field. Don't care about his countenance, which is
that of pain. If he dies, he dies, and force
him to do something he doesn't want to do.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Ryan Kelly.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Ryan Kelly doing a little more work this week as well.
It sounds with gren Yes, when it happened in front
of the Baltimore bench. I have my binoculars on him,
So I'm not going to pretend to be like a
fake doctor David whatever and be like I can analyze
it from a mile away. On what I can analyze
is eight and a half to nine out of ten
(37:13):
times when players go down and you see them banging
on the turf, it's bad. Okay, they know this ain't
this is bad. And Grenard did that, I'm like, damn man,
so it you know, he obviously thought it was worse
than it was when he got to the Blue ten.
Jonathan Grenard is one of the tougher players that I've
(37:37):
no matter the circumstances of who's in and who's out,
how much pain he's in, how much attention he's getting,
because he gets a lot, he never complains about it,
never ever, ever.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
He's a stalwart. He's salt of the earth. He's one
of the toughest players I've seen here. In a long time,
so for him to leave a game that was some
significant pain. If if he if the medical staff and
he can feel without you know, making it worse, can
play through it, then he'll play this weekend.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
How do you think we've gotten by without Josh Oliver
and what do you think Mike's bike style? The prospect
of him returning this weekend may improve things because we
saw even you know in the Kiddies game in particular,
you saw the backups, the EuroSec types. I think we
saw some Nick Vignette sightings at times. Getting getting cj
(38:29):
hamback healthy, by the way, that kind of helps stem
the tide on some bits as well. But in particular
surviving without the physicality of a Josh Oliver. He's going
to be doing more work and ramping up, and I
think the way Ko put it is kind of looking
forward to seeing him or having him for some snaps
this weekend.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
I think we might get Oliver back.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
I like that, But see that just plays into what
what why? For whatever the reason I decided to write
this Sunday night, and I'm not I'm not laying off
of it into the season. If you got your dogs,
okay to who much is given, much is expected, find
ways to win games, find ways to find positive consistency
because this is a roster full of illuminaries, and that
(39:12):
includes the quarterback who's only played four games experience required,
but with where you drafted him, there are facets of
JJ McCarthy's game that you know you can win with
right now. And that's fact. Why is it the reality
Because we've seen it twice and we've seen how it's happened,
(39:32):
so we know it's there. Oliver's part of that, Josh
Oliver is part of that from a physicality standpoint, a
pass rushing protection standpoint, like Oliver, say it plays this weekend,
keep him right in that game at lambeau Field with
Rashan Gary and Michael Parsons and Eder and Cooper. I
think you're going to need Oliver more that game. Then
(39:55):
you're going to need him against Montes sweat and some
of these rush that the Bears have and you're at home.
So I hope Oliver plays because it just takes what
you thought and felt would be good to very good
and amplifies it with having all your guys, and I
think it will help them. It'll help them find a
way to win Vikes.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Bites, thank you Thousand Hills. How much?
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And maybe maybe this was somewhat answered when we started
talking about this run game of the Bears.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
How much can you really take from week one?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
It Soldier Field, This is a Vikings team with the
good times bad times, finally seeing most of the right
names on the field. Meanwhile, I feel like the evolution
of the Bears has taken a course in which the
team we see Sunday may be very much unlike what
we saw opening night, creating some unknowns and maybe some
(40:48):
unscouted looks into Sunday's game and what they're able to
do on the ground. Is there a lot you can
take from week one within the frame of a singular season,
given how much things change.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
That's a wonderful question. Caleb the quarterback has to be
better than he was week one, and he wasn't bad
week one, but I'm excited with the rest of the
week developing to get into what is better with him
in unison with his coach right the running piece at
won eighty five per the last five, there's definitely something
(41:20):
to that. I don't exactly know what it is, but
there's something to that. And that was not the case
when they played the Vikings week number one.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
See this is where it gets annoying though, whether it's
you mentioned the teams that they played the fifteen forty
one and one record that the teams they've beaten this
year have so they beat bad teams on paper, it
appears Caleb was sacked sixty eight times last year. Only
sixty eight Yeah, only fourteen times in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (41:46):
So then but then you play the game.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, is it because you're playing the complete ls of
the NFC and teams like the Bengals, who save for
Trey Hendrickson.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Aren't giving you a lot of push.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
I don't think that's it.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
Is that part of the growth in concert with the game,
So the play action and maybe the kid has a
right to get better.
Speaker 3 (42:03):
YEA, like a lot of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
You can throw these stats out there and try to
deep dive, but there can be you can kind of
just just like a lot of data, most data, you
can make it say whatever you want without necessarily knowing
accuracy along the way. I don't know how to look
at Caleb right now. Is completion percentage has gone down
a tick, but over a yard more per attempt he's
(42:25):
more efficient, and in the end, he is on track
to exceed four thousand yards this season. He may even
throw a few more picks than he did a year ago,
but it's kind of he's kind of getting down the
field a little bit better than.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
He did his rookie season.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
So how putting all of that together, I'm just I'm
kind of confused by all of it.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Courtney Cronan, the Great Courtney Cronan, who covers the team
for ESPNESPN dot com. She'll be on nine to noon
tomorrow or Thursday. Wonderful question for her because she would
know more about it than me. My assumption or ascertation
from the outside would be thinking about what I saw
with their quarterback, Caleb Williams up to week one, during
(43:07):
week one and right after week one and then hitting
nine to noon with Nordo and saying, this battle between
what Ben wants and Caleb Williams will this is going
to be fascinating because Caleb wants to do it a
certain way and Ben, he legitimately can be like, Okay,
well your way sucks. Your way got you sack sixty
(43:30):
eight times. Your way didn't pull people out of problems.
Here's what's proven. Whether you have Jamiir, David Laporta, williams
Amen Ross Saint Brown Golf or not, this is tried
and true. It's abundantly apparent to me the unison and
(43:51):
cohesion between the quarterback and the head coach is taking place.
And I'm going to respectfully roll the dice that it
was Willy's will to do it his way that had
to be broken. So I just think that that Caleb
has submitted to what is best for the team and
(44:12):
not best for him necessarily on paper. But it's tried
and true and proven. And now we've won six and
only lost three. So I just think I think Ben
has gotten through to that quarterback who is gifted. And
that's probably one of the if not the most different
things from week number one. Those are Vike Spies provided.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
By thousand Eels Lifetime Grays, grass fed Beef.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Grass fed Jervon Dexter Junior nine to noon continues from
Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center with Kevin O'Connell, head coach
of the Minnesota Vikings. An hour and ten minutes from now.
To leave.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
Those fans, it's at Simmerwolves Talkback Tuesday and We've got
your shot at tickets to this Saturdays Prince Inspired City
edition game chet the microphone on the kfan page, on
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Speaker 1 (45:19):
What's going on over there? We got about four minutes.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
Well, we were just talking about not just the Bears
and what are the warts that they have. Well, they
might be putting a little makeup on some of those
warts with that schedule, and just kind of how things
are laying out, but you know, feeling having all the
right names and the kid QB raising him on the
fly and having the right answers and not having a
(45:42):
false starts, et cetera. The idea that this team is
still very much a team that can find their way
into the playoffs. Now it's an eight game sprint, right,
Let's win divisional games, let's do those things. But just
kind of looking around the NFC and just trying to
figure out, you know, who's got warts. I mean, if
you look at if we're just looking, you know, just
cursory fashion at the standings, Cowboys, Cards, Falcons, Commanders, Saints, Giants.
(46:08):
Those are all teams that currently sit below the Minnesota
Vikings from a standing's perspective. Now we have to go
to Dallas at some point and get that w But
for the most I don't see the Cowboys jumping up
and finding their way into a playoff spot. And so
you got to play the numbers game. Seven playoff teams,
division winners.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
Three wild cards.
Speaker 2 (46:27):
It still feels like, still very confidently that there will
either be three teams from the West or there will
be three teams from the North. And who are the
teams above us? Well, the Panthers, I mean they just
have a quarterback problem. We saw the Saints. Saints gave
up like two and change on the ground to man
young guy and mister Swift a few weeks ago. Rico
Dowdell is that thing hits midnight and turns back into
(46:49):
a pumpkin. They couldn't run. They lost after the thrilling victory. Thrilling,
I was doing a lot of heavy lifting there in
terms of the winning Lambeau. They lose at home to
the The QB's bad. The whole thing sucks. They're gonna
fade out. But then we start getting to these teams
in the West and specifically in the North, and I
know they got run up on by the Rams. The Rams,
(47:11):
by the way, if we're talking about who has warts,
I'm having a hard time finding warts with the Rams,
by the way, as they're doing typical McVeigh ramp up.
Having turned the boat ball over in three games. The
defense is super stout and getting better. Stafford hasn't looked better.
It seems like in a Rams uniform. Then he's flying
around right now. They just ran it up on the Niners,
(47:33):
who are six and three. Everybody's hurt. But the advantage
for the Niners here is we look ahead. Is a
schedule that features the Brissette led Cards, It features the Panthers,
it features the Browns, it features the Titans, It does
have the Colts on there gonna be a toughie. But
they're in a situation right now where Shanahan's group doesn't
(47:57):
require building belief. That is a strong group that should
believe at all times. But there are also beneficiaries of
a schedule that really back half light and works in
their favor. So a team that has Wartz, but a
team that seems very poised to secure a playoff spot.
And that just lends me now to what we watched
(48:20):
last night. Because Jordan Love, Jordan Love.
Speaker 3 (48:25):
In these Packers, we get to see him in a
couple of weeks when the run game, I mean not.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
That it's ever necessarily truly explosive, but when you're not
getting five yards of carry, when you're not moving man,
and Jordan Love doesn't have that obvious answer, that obvious
and Tucker Kraft I feel like has had become that
obvious answer, that obvious solver done in the past game
when you don't have that, the kid felt un looked
(48:52):
felt and looked uncomfortable last night, and it was a
lot of getting off of a read quickly finding the
next one, looking for the most obvious and safe option,
and I think that put them in a ton of
bad spots. I'm not, you know, with the with the
Elton Jenkins injury, interesting to see how severe or how
long lasting that is. Elton's damn good and and this
(49:12):
O line has done a really good job in front
of Jordan this year, so I'm not even putting that
fumble on him per se. I mean, how about Edger
and Cooper punching that thing out of out of Jalen
hurts his hands early on as well.
Speaker 3 (49:23):
But they're when you're.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Talking about warts and a defense that you know the secondary.
If the defensive front isn't doing its thing, the secondary
can be had. And when you have a quarterback that
doesn't have an obvious answer and there's a lack of
comfort there if you take away any sort of uber
efficient running, I think the Packers are in trouble and
potentially a target at witch to shoot. Vikings got to
(49:46):
have their say in this with a couple of games
ahead with the with the Green and Gold.
Speaker 3 (49:50):
But that's a team that.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
Has warts and is in a playoff spot. And if
you're a Vikings fan looking ahead, that's a team to
pay attention to our border.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Rivals when it comes to potential calamities within the conference
or warts as you wait it out. I don't care
how the Eagles won. The Eagles won, Yeah, and Jalen Phillips,
the former Dolphin, played with his hair on fire. I
mean you talk about a new lease on life. I
think you had both their fumble recoveries. You talk about
(50:18):
a new lease on life. You leave that awful situation
in Miami and you go to that team off a
Super Bowl victory and you get to play a lot.
I mean, Holy Colt, and I wonder he will looked
all pro last night. So they will grind away and
they will win more than they don't. Nor to mention
the Rams did. Just remember the have and the have
(50:41):
nots begin to separate themselves the Sunday or that week
after Thanksgiving, and what you do in front of it matters,
But the Sunday after Thanksgiving through December in early January,
that's where the calamities end for a lot of them.
And the Eagles and Rams the lines to a certain extent.
(51:02):
They're beginning to separate themselves a little bit. Seahawks might
be in that conversation. I just don't know enough about them.
Right now, it's ten o'clock. You're listening to Nine to Noon.
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