December 9, 2025 • 35 mins
92Noon! Goessling - NDN
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
If you want to shime on what's happening to your
favorite kfan shows, you can make your voice heard on
the bratch On Bryant Kfan text line. So let's note
you say by texting your message a six four six
eighty six at six four six eight six standard text
message in NATO spot.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
The analyst Pete Versage, analyst in Booth analysts for the
Vikings Radio Audio Media Network. He just stopped in the
studio for that break between Anthony Barr and the scribe
Ben Gestling at Ben Guestling via x and this is
courtesy of Standard Heating and Air Standard Heating dot Com.
I mean like four and a half minutes with Versage.
(00:39):
I just sat back and just watched you guys go
with smash route this what's another word for simplify that? Yep,
George Pickens this, Jake Ferguson that that was a lot
in four and a half minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah, it was a lively breaking here he asked what
the state of my six packer?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Like thereof so we covered a lot of ground. Yeah,
it was a body body weight check with you. You
were leaning back and he's like, oh ye boy, you
put on a lot of weight. I'm like, yeah, your
body fats up to seven percent.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
And he even gave you a potential question you could
ask the coach later this week fly on the wall
and to learn a lot here in the last five minutes.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I mean, it's the analyst came in as I was
refreshing the coffee and he's like, all right, when KO
comes in, here's a question for you.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
If I see that on social media or somebody says
it to me, I'm just going to back up for
a second, you know, just to make sure I can
properly absorb it. It's kind of like, it's not like
all my questions are the greatest in the world, but
as you know, there's so much more that goes into
formulating questions a certain way than really anybody would know.
And yes, nobody needs to know, because quite honestly, it's boring.
(01:48):
But then when he was then when he wanted me
to compare wide receiver and tight end room tight ends rooms,
I walked out and I said, I'm gonna let the
scribe handle that one at the way State presser with.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Kay, oh yeah, yeah maybe, and we may we may
burn that one on float today of trying to cover
this group, and we can kind of get at it
that way maybe, but yeah, it's right, it's a deep group.
I mean, it's a big challenge for them this week.
So yes, the idea of comparing, you know, it's it's
good on good there. The receivers will face each other, obviously,
but if you're comparing the two groups, they're both quite impressive.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But what's interesting actually with what he said is if
you go Pickens or let's go Lamb, Pickens, Cavante, Turpin, yep,
and then you go Jefferson, Addison, Naylor, Turpin, speed Guy, Naylor,
speed Guy, Ceede, Lamb and Jefferson, same draft. You know,
(02:44):
I'm not gonna say mercurial, but nevertheless, four for fifteen
the last couple of games. You know, Jefferson wants more
than that, but he's been cool CD, Lamb's been through things.
He's mostly been cool with things. And then you get
the enigmatic portion of the equation. It actually is analogous.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, there's a lot there, I mean, and Pickens has
had a great year and Addison has had quite a
few moments as well. But yes, with both of those guys, Yeah,
there's a little bit of stuff that you kind of
have to be aware of what dum. What was the
read on the Sunday shutout in good morning? Good morning, Yeah,
it was. I spent a lot of time yesterday kind
of looking back through what they did offensively. Man. We
(03:22):
talked a lot about this idea of don't call it simplifying,
streamlining the game plan for the quarterback as we went
through it, and you did see.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Or have O'Connell in here in forty five minutes. I'm
being serious here is not using that word a thing.
Well yesterday he said it's not simplifying. Okay, yeah, because and.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
He's brought it up a couple of times, but I
think he thinks of simplifying as a pejorative of like
this means this is more elementary, it's more.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
We dumbed it down. Yeah, kid, Yes, another rout.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
I think what he's trying to say is, let's go
back to things that there's maybe there's still complexity, but
there's a little less diversity in it. I mean West Phillips,
I asked West Phillips about this last week and he
actually talked about it in quite a bit of detail.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, I mean it's fewer different formations, and some of
this is for McCarthy, some of this is for everybody else,
because his point was when you have all of these
different formations and all of these different little nuances to it,
there is a higher percentage chance that one of the
other ten is going to mess it up, especially when
you've had offensive linemen that haven't played in the same spots.
(04:30):
You've had people kind of shifting back and forth. Blake
Brandell's played a couple different places. It's Brandell, Blake Brandle. Yeah,
there was a brand doll in the pronunciations. Yeah, and
then it got changed. Okay, and I missed it. I
didn't know the guy for six years. Them be say
his name wrong all the time. Well, here's the genesis.
We're in Seattle, it's nine thirty in the evening. I'm
in the lobby ready to team hotel, but are ready
(04:51):
to shut it down. I think it was his wife,
but either his wife or a member of his family
very respectfully came up to me and said, show game
calls West.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We listened a lot. You guys are always saying Brandell. Ye,
Blake's not going to approach you and say it's Brandle. Okay,
But it's Brandal good, so it's Brandle.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Good to know. So we're Brandle Brandle Brandle perfect.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I will I will file that away as a guy
that gets gostling all the time, in fact, being on
this show, when people come up to me in public
and say my name correctly without me having to change it,
it's like you guys must listen to k Fan, So
thank you. But there's no chance that anybody ever gets
guessling right the first time. So but see, you just
file it away.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
See a brandal you said, yeah, Brando, Brandel Brandle, you
said that simplification, pejorative streamlining, Yeah, okay, well management with
our radio station for decades, for two and a half decades,
kfan is two pedestrian, it's KFAM Yeah, okay, so you
need a better streamline that KFAM. Okay, okay, Well, even
(05:54):
though ninety nine point two percent of the population says
nobody says, hey, pa, you work for kfa in Yeah, No,
they say you work for k fans fan yep.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah. Anyway, just just don't be pejorative, Okay, got it?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I yes, On the on the simplification or not the
streamlining of the offense, A lot of it I think was, yeah,
just trying to make it so there are more formations,
more concepts that hey, we've run this a couple of
times and you get a few more reps at it.
I compared it last week to I think my editor said,
this is basically season four of The Bear, which I
haven't watched. But you go from like a restaurant that's
(06:29):
called all sorts of seasonal shift driven dishes that change
all the time to saying, hey, we're going to make
a really good burger that everybody knows how to make
really well. It's not going to be anything terribly fancy.
It maybe yeah, not exotic, it may have nice ingredients,
but we're going to do this really well and people
are going to come back.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
For it because.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know if you've been there, absolutely
you've been there right Norwich. Yes, the Lions tap like
four or five things on the menu, but they do
them really well for changes and they're drift and people
don't mind.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
They keep coming back. That place is full all the time.
So yeah, I think it was a little bit of
that approach of let's major in the things that we
know we can do really well and worry about the
rest of it later.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Is there and how did we do we know it all?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
How they got to this point and Bursuch was talking,
you know, part of the issue with with with McCarthy's
development has been the fact that he just hasn't been
on the field enough, right, I mean that's whether it
was the ankle and then we got the concussion. More recently,
just the process of reps in rhythm to his own schedule.
Does that play into where in some respects almost a
(07:34):
delay of this, of this moment of coming to terms
with the idea of this streamlining slash simplification where not
slash you just you get to a point in the
season where it's like, all right, everything that we've been
trying him in and out as he is, it just
hasn't worked.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Now let's do this. Yeah, I think there's that. I
think it's learning how a guy approaches things. I think
there's always art to this.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I remember talking with Kevin O'Connell quite a bit
about this with Kirk Cousins, where it's you learn about
how a guy receives information, how he receives a certain message,
and then you say, okay, if this is how he
hears me, that means I have to approach him this way.
If he hears me say hey, I really want you
to do this, and then he kind of does it
to the nth degree and almost kind of overdoes it,
(08:21):
it's like, well, we have to message that differently to
that player so he receives it in a way that
is more productive. I think when you're talking about a
twenty two year old quarterback who's coming in and you
didn't have last year to see him on the field,
you didn't have last year to say, let's make corrections,
let's go through game planning in the way that you
would do it as a starting quarterback, there's going to
be a learning curve for the coaches as well of
(08:44):
how do we manage this guy, how do we coach him?
How do we help him be at his best? And
I think that's taken time, especially as he's had those
injuries that you mentioned, where it's you're not going through
it week to week. You're not getting the level of
repetitiveness and the level of consistency to say, Okay, we
tried this two weeks ago, this didn't work, and now
we can kind of learn from it and go I
(09:05):
think that's taken a while, and the fact that he
admitted last week too he overthinks, he thinks about a
lot of these things a lot, and then probably takes
a little too much onto the field with him sometimes.
So I think they were learning that about him and saying,
all right, this, at least for this point in his development,
is what it's going to take.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well with Kevin. And I don't think I'm throwing caution
into the wind here.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
For me.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
The a topic with McCarthy, and I certainly can be wrong,
is all right, the release time or you know, he
didn't hold the ball as long as his fast as
of the year stepped up in the pocket, you know,
specifically on the addison to the left side.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Yeah, twenty one when the pocket banned out, I mean, yeah, okay,
Jefferson points him in collapse right away. There we go.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well at Jefferson early in the game, you know, when
it was on one I think the first third down
on that not nineteen and ninety eight. Yep, McCarthy runs
up the middle, dives and Jefferson was pointing at him there. Yeah,
you know, so he clearly was in power him.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
During the game. That's cool.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
But so there are tangible things in baby step like
fashion that we're taking this weekend. For me, it was
McCarthy's calm and being on the sideline two hours two
fifteen before the game to do Vikings Football Sunday and
see him come out and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
I'm just saying he was different.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
You know, he was a marketly different could just in
more calculated fashion. There was intent, he was more calm,
and he was more calm during the game, and he
was more calm after the game.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Now, the part I won't bring up with.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Kevin is I believe JJ deeply regrets that alter ego thing.
That I just think that because I mean, he's twenty
two years old. Man, he's on social media more than
all of us combined. It even if they say they're
not well, I mean, it's gonna bite you for a
little while. The good thing for him is that in
this day and age, it'll go away quickly because of
(10:55):
you know, attention spans.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Yes that are of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
But you know, I think he wants to aren't laying
the groundwork because when Order brought it up to me,
you know, right after the Lions game, I'm like, the
nine bit sucks, Okay.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's not who I know this kid is, and that's
what happened, and it sucks, and I don't think great
things are gonna come out of it. Well, so you
can just tell with intent he's establishing who he truly is,
win or loss. I think that's the a topic.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, I think you need to have a quarterback do that,
especially in a situation where you are the youngest starter
in the NFL playing with one of the more veteran
teams in the NFL. I think just saying I'm going
to show up and do my job at a high
enough level that we can win games, that's the best
way to kind of lay a foundation because all of
(11:48):
the other stuff that can come later if you want
it to. I don't know that it even needs to,
but I think the easiest way to get people around
you to say, Okay, we can ride with this kid
is to show up every week and the results on
Sundays are consistent enough to say yes, we can. Everybody
can relax a little bit because we see enough of
(12:10):
a body of work to suggest that we can trust
it and see he's going to develop and his.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Teammates and we'll never hear this, and I'm not going
to ask about things like this, but like say Jamar
Chase or somebody's texting with Justin Jefferson dog four for
fifteen over the last two what's up with nine?
Speaker 5 (12:30):
And by the way, what's up with your guy?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Having played X amount of games and now all of
a sudden he gets to do this alter ego thing.
So like they talk about more things, and if it
compounds with teammates and they start to get frustrated, I
mean that just takes things and makes it worse.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
The way you were talking that you hit on something
that was kind of my thought out of Sunday's game
is that Kevin O'Connell is learning through this experience too. So,
whether it was Kirk Cousins in twenty two, twenty two,
Darnold last year, the common theme there is Kevin O'Connell's
like a professor teaching a four hundred class and he
didn't necessarily and he talked about we're challenging JJ, We're
(13:13):
we are putting a ton on his plate to watch
him handle it or how he handles it, and so,
but the kid couldn't handle the four hundred class, and
so over the course of this year, the head coach,
and it's frustrating for many of us as fans.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
It's like it's a five win team.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
I'm sure it's even more frustrating inside that locker Roomah.
But the coach being able to learn and evolve through
this process just as much as we would expect that
the kid does it.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
That's just fascinating.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
That environment and that experience that they're all going on
right now.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
No doubt.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I mean, it is one of those things that I've
heard a lot of people say, well, why did it
take them this long to get to this point? I
think some of it is you haven't had those repetitive
weeks of okay, he did this four weeks ago, because
it's just been these fits and starts with how much
he's playing because of the injuries. But there's also I
think an element for the co coach of and you
hear a lot of play callers, whether it's Kevin O'Connell,
(14:03):
Sean McVay, Kyle shanahan, talk about how the plays have
answers in them, that there's a belief in the offensive
structure here and in this general tree of offenses that
if you run things the way they're supposed to be run.
The plays are well enough designed that you will have
opportunities to make plays even if defenses are throwing things
(14:24):
at you. It's not as complex as you would think
because you're not being asked to read coverages on the fly.
It's throw to open grass, find all these places to go,
and you can make this accessible to young quarterbacks. I
think on a classroom level, McCarthy has handled all those
extremely well. I think there's also the component where you
go on the field, and when it's not a classroom
(14:45):
in the sense that where you take the test in
the classroom, you take the test on the field, and
that's where I think things like just being a little
too fired up sometimes may come to play overthinking the
just I need to keep myself at kind of a
a base level of emotion, of energy or adrenaline. All
that kind of stuff plays into it. So even if
(15:06):
in a classroom he's saying, yeah, I got this. If
this happens, I go here, the biomechanics of I need
to throw a ball accurately and on time. That is
another component of this. And I think you're just seeing
if there are things we know because we've seen it
enough now that he throws corner routes really well, or
you know, things off of certain concepts really well. We
(15:28):
can go back to that and say, let's just live
in this world for now and kind of come back
to all this other stuff later and.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Does this then potential, I mean, he's got to go out.
The next step for McCarthy, of course, is to do
what he did on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah right, and play with that call and play with
that poise.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
And would this be kind of the simplification, oh excuse me,
the streamlining, That would be kind of what we should
expect over the final four more of the same most
likely to create We need to create a higher floor
for the kid to understand exactly into twenty twenty six.
This impacts decision made on multiple levels in terms of
what you expect from nine to next season, and so
(16:05):
creating that higher floor part of that a time.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I think so, I mean, I think you saw it
on Sunday. I mean they ran the ball on a
higher percentage of plays. Now, some of this's courses. They
had the lead the entire game, but they ran more
than they ever have under Kevin O'Connell in terms of
percentage of the time it was like fifty five percent.
It's only like the eighth or ninth time in sixty
four games that they've been over fifty. So it was runs,
(16:29):
it was heavy personnel, it was concepts that he has
shown he likes. It was things that got the ball
out of his hand relatively quickly. I would imagine that
that's kind of the base of your menu, and they'll
probably add a little bit as they feel comfortable with it.
But yes, I would imagine the focus now is let's
get the floor, Let's get a repeatable standard of this,
and then you go from there.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Subscribe Ben Gesling sharing a football information and second to
none fashion and we then standard Heating and air Standard
Heating dot Com for the year sponsorship at ben Gestlin
via Twitter if you would like to follow him, and
when we return, a defensive related conversation will emerge involving
Brian Flores and his work that he's done this year.
(17:13):
You're listening to nine to noon at FN one hundred
point three KFA N.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
The Friday Football Feasts head Wes to Buffalo Wildwings Plymouth
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Showdown with the Cowboys, plus great food, your shot at
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Speaker 5 (17:46):
Hey with Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
We do a talk back weekly free iHeart audio app
and have thirty seconds to opine. We play them back
for the head coach every week unless we're at Shields
for Toys for Tots, then we have a three tots
ask him questions, but fire away with some talkbacks and
maybe maybe a defensive bent this week would would be
really cool in that I'm going to I'm gonna frame
(18:08):
it up now for the scribe. Ben Gesling, Brian Flores worked.
This year has been It's just been mostly terrific. If
you think about all the circumstances and the time of
possession and.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Things like that. And you know Eric Wilson.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Somebody had Anthony Barr on the radio show about forty
five minutes ago and he played with Eric Wilson herks
first four years. Yeah, and here's Eric with fifteen tackles
for loss, leading the team in TFLs, playing himself into
crazily the biggest deal of his career is going to
come at this stage of his career. So Eric Wilson
(18:43):
could be a talker or anything defensive related ideas Nordo Well, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Know, hey, and talkbacks are so easy. Hit that microphone.
PA mentioned the thirty second limit, but it's like, hey,
this is this is Eric in Chaska. How important was
the complimentary aspect of the team on Sunday getting those
turnovers on the defense or you know, hitman in his
thirty eighth career interception feels like he's almost as old
as you are, coach, and he's still making plays out there.
(19:11):
That's actually kind of almost true exactly, So to that end,
just kind of you know, again, hey, this is coach,
your name and where you're from, and maybe just something
that you saw in the game that you really appreciate
and want some insight on from the coach into Sunday
night a little defensive bent that like the way PA
was taking that and.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Oh, go ahead, Harrison Smith I think will be the
last player Well unless yeah, at all likely that Harrison
Smith will be the last player Kevin O'Connell coaches who
was born in the same decade as him. Wow, okay, yes,
In the eighties. And I say that as somebody who
was also born in said decade.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Right. Well, like I said to Ben ben Gaslin at
Ben Gaslin Vax, follow if you're so inclined, we have
access vikings the podcast Andrew Emily and end up Ben
do after games and during the week we got a
newsletter doing a really good job over there.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Start Tribune, Start tribune dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Flores worked this year, you know when, like some I
was chatting with somebody last week after the Seahawks game
and they were trying to get after somebody. They were
trying to get after players for miss tackles in the
fourth quarter, and I'm like, I understand that they're not preferred,
but holy cow. I mean, when every single game is
two thirds lopsided with the time of possession, people get
tired and sure, hey, better is required. Okay, better is
(20:23):
probably required with you too and these areas, but you're tired,
you know, metaphorically speaking, right, I think Flores worked this year,
not having Van Ginkoll, not having cash men x amount
of games.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I think it's masterful. Yeah, they have not. I mean
if you compare last year to this year, I mean
the numbers certainly were better last year, but they were
also playing in situations where it's a lot more favorable,
and you see it on Sunday. It is a lot
easier to play, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
especially as a pass rusher, when you are playing with
a lead, and they have done that almost none this year.
(20:58):
I mean they had had a lead I think in
the Bengals game, and then it was the Lions game,
and then Sunday, I mean, you know, absence a couple
hey it's three nothing kind of things early in the game.
They have played from behind or with the score even
for most of the year, so having opportunities to do
what they did on Sunday and pin their ears back
have not been there. It's been a lot of hey,
(21:19):
we've been on the field. Now there was a turnover.
We got to go out and get another stop. Like
a defense that's had it's back against the wall quite
a bit, or has been asked to do a lot,
has been required to do more. To put a different
spin on that phrase, they have done quite a bit
this year to say we're going to keep this team
in games because of the way we can get stops
(21:41):
and play. And that's with I think that's injuries. I
think in the in the core with vankinkol and and
certainly Grenard's had a couple of things here. It's been
you know, some some things in the secondary. Jeff Okuda
has been hurt, and some of the corners probably haven't
played quite to the level that they want, but they
have with the Han and they've been dealt. I think
(22:01):
done quite a bit of exemplary work.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I think Fabian Moreau has played better than Jeff Okuda
played at any step. And I mean we can play
this hashmark game. This no indictment on Okuda, but it's like,
you know, he had a rough year with Houston last year.
So then you start asking some of the background questions
about you know, when he's at his best, like what's
happening as short side of the field, you know where
(22:24):
you limit the big side of the field, whereas to
a lot of running and stuff super physical. We remember
him knocking Jefferson off his spot with the Lions a
couple of years ago. Well, I mean that didn't really develop.
Fabyan Moreau, the former member of the Washington team for
I think he had six of his seven interceptions in
(22:44):
his four years with Washington, Faby and Moreau. We're not
trying to make him sound like Darryl Green re incarnate,
but he stepped into a spot. He I mean, I
can't remember him being on the wrong side of something
just terrible where it repeatedly happens. So fabym Moreau sneaky
fashion has done good work.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Yeah, he has.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I mean they've needed somebody to step in there because
the corner depth was a question at the beginning of
the season. Then when Akudo goes down, it's okay, we
need somebody to come in here. And Moreau had been
here on the practice squad last year, it didn't really
have this big of a role. But yeah, whether it's
him or we mentioned Eric Wilson, I mean Eric Wilson
has been terrific. So yes, the way that they have
gotten meaningful contributions out of players that not a lot
(23:24):
of people would have thought, we're going to be big
contributors on a defense with a lot of high end players,
it has mattered and they've needed it.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
And yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Been an impressive work by this coaching staff to get
that kind of contribution and for those players for buying
into it too, I think that's certainly been a bright
spot for this defense.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
With Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. Just paint with a broad
brush through. What are we looking at now thirteen through
thirteen of them? What have you thought of their seasons? Well,
I mean Hargrave makes the play on Sunday. I think
that was the type of play, the type of impact
I thought he would have more during training camp, I thought, boy,
(24:04):
this guy is He's violent, he's explosive. You're going to
see the impact he makes a lot on this team,
and that hasn't really played out quite to that degree.
So I mean, Jalen Redman another guy that stepped into
a bigger role and I think has changed the calculus
a little bit of how they use those guys.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
But given what they spent.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
On Allen and Hargrave, and given the cap space that
they allocated to those two players, I think they would
have expected a little bit more. And I'm wondering where
that will go because they have cap questions and those
two players, especially Hargrave, are going to be I think
decisions for them in the offseason.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Lastly, and Nordo brought this up to me before the show,
and it triggered me to write it down for you.
Do you see greatness with anybody in the NFL? I mean,
you got the Eagles losing to Dick or the kicker
last night. And Philadelphia personifies as much as I've ever
seen a team, more so than Kansas City because I
think there's a out of enigma to Philadelphia that was
(25:02):
not there with Kansas City. We're gonna push, don't let
us in. We're gonna push this button. And when everybody
tries ten of ten, nobody can beat us.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
Right, maybe they'll be right.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Sa Quan's been in and out emphasis on out a
majority of the season, and I say performance wise, So
you got that with Philly, Green Bay. You know they
all have their limitation. Yes, do you see greatness anywhere?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I mean the team that I would look at in
the NFC is the Rams, probably because Matthew Stafford's done it.
I mean, if he's healthy. Obviously that's always a question
with him, and he's been healthy to this point. But
the way they renovated that defense after you know, they
had the run obviously where they win the Super Bowl
with O'Connell as THEOC there and list sneed it, traded
all the picks and they had to reset that whole roster.
(25:50):
They've done it on defense. I mean they've they with
whether it's Jared Verus, Kobe Turner. I mean, they have
a lot of pieces that will affect things, as the
Viking saw in the playoffs last year between them and
Stafford throwing to DeVante Adams, Puka Nakua. That's a team
that's got a lot of weapons. That would be the
team i'd look at in the NFC. I don't know
that there's like like a dominator. Yeah, I don't know
that it's like a lock solid contender, but that would
(26:13):
be the team i'd look at the top of the conference.
I don't think it's quite as determined as it's been
a passing than the AFC. Certainly is much more wide
open than it's been.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Well, we'll leave you with this because there it's not
a great chance, but it's not an awful chance that
this could happen. Seahawks are ten and three Rams are
ten and three Rams beat them. Donald in the most
pressure field game he had he's had as a member
of the Seahawks through four picks. Then a next kind
of pressure field game because he's going against his former team.
(26:44):
He takes four sacks, thirty eight percent of the amount
he had into the game. So and then we got
Week eighteen last year. I think you understand where I'm
going here. There is a chance that's Donald and Seattle
will be playing Week eighteen at San Francisco for the
one seed. Yeah, there's a chance. I mean that would
be as a scribe. Well that's elite drop right.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Oh yeah, I mean there's a lot of there's a
lot of angles in the NFC West, a little bit
like the NFC North last year, where there's just all
I mean, it's a lot of teams competing for things.
But yes, whether Darnold's had the games he's had against
the Rams, which is getting to be a number of
them now, and then playing his former team San Francisco,
which was kind of the place that he the Vikings
(27:26):
looked at and said, okay, he's been in a similar offense.
They coached him better than he'd had. Yeah, he owes
probably some things to the forty nine ers as well. So, yeah,
there are a lot of good storylines in a couple
of divisions. Because the NFC West NFC North are are
all quite heated competitions.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
The West is going to have three double digit win
teams likely. I mean you talk about the Rams or
the Seahawks, and but the Niners. The Niners are hosting
the Titans, They're at the Colts potentially sacking Philip Rivers
around people, right, and then they host the Bears before
that Seahawks game. I mean they're looking potentially at being
a twelve win team into that mix. No, the AFC
(28:05):
West is just stacked in an otherwise super muddy conference.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Ma'am you're the very best, great great seeing you today
and I have a wonderful day. Okay, you too, Ben
Gasoline Standard Heating and Air Standard Heating dot Com, thank
you very much. News Donord around the corner then, Ko
Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings for x's
and o's fifteen minutes from now.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Welcome back nine to noon.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
It is time for news Donord, which is brought to
you by the casino at Canterbury Park Canterbury Park dot com.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
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Speaker 5 (29:03):
Apparently the storms come in and.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
It's apocalyptically bad and then we're all going to be
snowed in forever. Who knows, but Canterbury park dot com
best place in shockopy check out Canterbury Park dot com.
To the Minnesota Timberwolves, at some point, you're going to
be able to podcast PA's chat with coach Chris Finch
during the first hour open the show with him. Wolves
lose one eight, one five last night, and it's just
(29:27):
the inconsistency of this team, albeit fifteen to nine at
one point we're talking they lose to all the teams
over five hundred, kind of like they did last night,
beat all the bad teams. Cool dig all that, But
Anthony Edwards, when he has himself by his standards of
pedestrian evening, that's when you see, oh, wow, look at
(29:49):
das Reid. Wow, look at Jaden McDaniels in that offense,
and he's having career averages per thirty six, et cetera.
All of those things great, but then when Anthony has
a night like last night where he probably could have
gone for sixty, then you get Jaden McDaniels one to seven,
Dante DiVincenzo one to seven, Mike Conley all of five
(30:10):
from the floor last night, and nas Reed two to twelve.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Somewhere in that neighborhood. I'm just going to add that
math up on the fly.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
It's like four for thirty one combined something like that.
That is just absolutely hideous and really inexplicable for this team.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
I know, the lacking the point guard.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
You saw Bones Highland, kind of getting Dillingham's minutes last night,
which is just continuing to be concerning, kind of starting
to feel like maybe Dillingham's not going to be a
thing in the long term. And Mike Conley's just frankly,
I mean, you get fifteen minutes out of him last night,
and that's probably three or four too many.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
He's just showing his age at this stage of his career.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
So frustrating loss, a bookerless bunch in the Suns. You
got to win those games, and that just kind of
goes down to again, muddy Western Conference. We're all steering
up at OKC. But you got to have those w's,
wins like last night in a game at Target Center,
and I believe the Dubs are up next for the
Tea Wolves. The Dubs, I believe on the twelfth. Is
(31:08):
that a Friday affair? Yeah, that's a Friday out the bay. Yeah,
STEP's not playing right now. Probably we'll come back soon.
Minnesota Wild won four to one last night over the Kraken,
and it was Jule ERICSONEK with a goal and two assists,
kind of leading the way, Caprice off with an empty netter,
and then later just to kind of put the bow
on it, Tarasenko. Hey, there was a Vlaid Tarasenko empty
(31:31):
net goal in the mix, I think his third total
tally since joining the Minnesota Wild. But they needed that
kind of stemming the tide. Losing three of four at
one point, we're looking at that Western Canada swing. It's like, oh,
this is a terrific opportunity to rally up the points. Well,
they struggled, and so now coming home, they've been playing
(31:52):
better against our division rivals. It's Dallas on Thursday, so
let's get two at home. It was Gus Buss I
believe twenty three saves and the one goal allowed in net.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Maybe it's yesper on Thursday. We shall see.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
But it sounds like we're gonna have the head coach,
I believe at some point tomorrow night to noon, and
he can give us more intel on that as well.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And with the with the let's just say, I mean
from a division standpoint, yes, but but like the totality
of the western side of the equation, the victory they
had earlier this season over over Vegas, I believe it
was an overtime. So you got Vegas. You snapped that
stupid long losing streak against Winnipeg. Uh, you did the
(32:33):
day after Thanksgiving to Colorado, they run a ten game vendor.
You beat them in overtime and and Volstat shuts down
mccarr and McKinnon to win the game in the shootout.
And Dallas is next, you know where you're just thinking
about these teams that beat you, some dramatically more than
you beat them. Yeah, Dallas is next in the lineup.
(32:53):
Dallas is next. So Tomorrow night's gonna be make that.
Thursday night's gonna be cool.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Well, And and part of what makes it, what makes
it cool on Sunday night is what happened with the
Eagles last night, And you know, we've talked about it,
push Button, We've chatted with mister Gesling about it. But
in the end, that that l for the Eagles last
night only further propels and motivates this bunch with Schottenheimer
and ever Fluse and everybody knowing they're just a game
(33:19):
and a half back their route to the playoffs. As
we were talking last segment, with so many double digit
win teams, specifically out of the NFC West, they need
to win the East to get into the playoffs, and
an opportunity for Dallas and Jerry's world Sunday night lights,
and they like to show up in primetime. Jerry just
wouldn't have it any other way than a standalone game
(33:41):
with his team and a chance to go to seven
to six and one.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Okaya, I just wanted the flex. I wanted the flex.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
It's super selfish that I wanted the flex because then,
fybody did fan line's gonna end at like twelve thirty
at night versus you know, just a little just a neat,
tidy three pm game and everyone goes home happy and
gets a little sleep. But the motivating factor for the Cowboys,
is that the East is very much in reach after
(34:10):
and I think there was a miskick last night to
four picks by Jalen Hurts and they lose at the
at the Chargers out West in overtime twenty two to nineteen.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Take it a step farther with Dallas.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
What the Philly loss, but all of the social media
related terrorism George Pickens faced, Yeah, you think he's gonna
be ready to go Sunday night, absolutely nationally televised game.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
We shall see well, I.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
And I just I wonder as we as we put
a rap on news to Nord here momentarily just kind
of the idea with when social media funnels you into clips,
When they funnel you into viral videos versus actually watching
every single route and every single moment of that game,
the negativity that can be pulled out of it again
(34:53):
funneled into those clips can maybe present a bad perception
of you know, George Pickens whatever, I don't. I mean,
by all accounts, I don't think he's a problem off
the field. When he's on the field and he's engaged,
he's incredibly good. Is the question when he's engaged, is
that even as much of a question as.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
We're making it out to be here, who knows?
Speaker 4 (35:13):
But that wraps up news Denord again, brought to you
by Canterbury Park Canterbury Park dot com. Canterbury down in Shockape,
you're feeling the felt all year, you're buying Christmas trees,
you're shaking down Johnny the Mouse Michelson for a bobber
hat and you're calling it today Canterbury Park dot com.
When we returned, the eleven o'clock hour kicks off with
the head coach Kevin O'Connell will be here as part
(35:34):
of the weekly x's and o's conversation. It's all part
of nine to noon right here on the fan
If you want to shime on what's happening to your
favorite kfan shows, you can make your voice heard on
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Speaker 2 (00:18):
The analyst Pete Versage, analyst in Booth analysts for the
Vikings Radio Audio Media Network. He just stopped in the
studio for that break between Anthony Barr and the scribe
Ben Gestling at Ben Guestling via x and this is
courtesy of Standard Heating and Air Standard Heating dot Com.
I mean like four and a half minutes with Versage.
(00:39):
I just sat back and just watched you guys go
with smash route this what's another word for simplify that? Yep,
George Pickens this, Jake Ferguson that that was a lot
in four and a half minutes.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah, it was a lively breaking here he asked what
the state of my six packer?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Like thereof so we covered a lot of ground. Yeah,
it was a body body weight check with you. You
were leaning back and he's like, oh ye boy, you
put on a lot of weight. I'm like, yeah, your
body fats up to seven percent.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
And he even gave you a potential question you could
ask the coach later this week fly on the wall
and to learn a lot here in the last five minutes.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I mean, it's the analyst came in as I was
refreshing the coffee and he's like, all right, when KO
comes in, here's a question for you.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
If I see that on social media or somebody says
it to me, I'm just going to back up for
a second, you know, just to make sure I can
properly absorb it. It's kind of like, it's not like
all my questions are the greatest in the world, but
as you know, there's so much more that goes into
formulating questions a certain way than really anybody would know.
And yes, nobody needs to know, because quite honestly, it's boring.
(01:48):
But then when he was then when he wanted me
to compare wide receiver and tight end room tight ends rooms,
I walked out and I said, I'm gonna let the
scribe handle that one at the way State presser with.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Kay, oh yeah, yeah maybe, and we may we may
burn that one on float today of trying to cover
this group, and we can kind of get at it
that way maybe, but yeah, it's right, it's a deep group.
I mean, it's a big challenge for them this week.
So yes, the idea of comparing, you know, it's it's
good on good there. The receivers will face each other, obviously,
but if you're comparing the two groups, they're both quite impressive.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
But what's interesting actually with what he said is if
you go Pickens or let's go Lamb, Pickens, Cavante, Turpin, yep,
and then you go Jefferson, Addison, Naylor, Turpin, speed Guy, Naylor,
speed Guy, Ceede, Lamb and Jefferson, same draft. You know,
(02:44):
I'm not gonna say mercurial, but nevertheless, four for fifteen
the last couple of games. You know, Jefferson wants more
than that, but he's been cool CD, Lamb's been through things.
He's mostly been cool with things. And then you get
the enigmatic portion of the equation. It actually is analogous.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, there's a lot there, I mean, and Pickens has
had a great year and Addison has had quite a
few moments as well. But yes, with both of those guys, Yeah,
there's a little bit of stuff that you kind of
have to be aware of what dum. What was the
read on the Sunday shutout in good morning? Good morning, Yeah,
it was. I spent a lot of time yesterday kind
of looking back through what they did offensively. Man. We
(03:22):
talked a lot about this idea of don't call it simplifying,
streamlining the game plan for the quarterback as we went
through it, and you did see.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Or have O'Connell in here in forty five minutes. I'm
being serious here is not using that word a thing.
Well yesterday he said it's not simplifying. Okay, yeah, because and.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
He's brought it up a couple of times, but I
think he thinks of simplifying as a pejorative of like
this means this is more elementary, it's more.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
We dumbed it down. Yeah, kid, Yes, another rout.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
I think what he's trying to say is, let's go
back to things that there's maybe there's still complexity, but
there's a little less diversity in it. I mean West Phillips,
I asked West Phillips about this last week and he
actually talked about it in quite a bit of detail.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
Yeah, that was good.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, I mean it's fewer different formations, and some of
this is for McCarthy, some of this is for everybody else,
because his point was when you have all of these
different formations and all of these different little nuances to it,
there is a higher percentage chance that one of the
other ten is going to mess it up, especially when
you've had offensive linemen that haven't played in the same spots.
(04:30):
You've had people kind of shifting back and forth. Blake
Brandell's played a couple different places. It's Brandell, Blake Brandle. Yeah,
there was a brand doll in the pronunciations. Yeah, and
then it got changed. Okay, and I missed it. I
didn't know the guy for six years. Them be say
his name wrong all the time. Well, here's the genesis.
We're in Seattle, it's nine thirty in the evening. I'm
in the lobby ready to team hotel, but are ready
(04:51):
to shut it down. I think it was his wife,
but either his wife or a member of his family
very respectfully came up to me and said, show game
calls West.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We listened a lot. You guys are always saying Brandell. Ye,
Blake's not going to approach you and say it's Brandle. Okay,
But it's Brandal good, so it's Brandle.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Good to know. So we're Brandle Brandle Brandle perfect.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I will I will file that away as a guy
that gets gostling all the time, in fact, being on
this show, when people come up to me in public
and say my name correctly without me having to change it,
it's like you guys must listen to k Fan, So
thank you. But there's no chance that anybody ever gets
guessling right the first time. So but see, you just
file it away.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
See a brandal you said, yeah, Brando, Brandel Brandle, you
said that simplification, pejorative streamlining, Yeah, okay, well management with
our radio station for decades, for two and a half decades,
kfan is two pedestrian, it's KFAM Yeah, okay, so you
need a better streamline that KFAM. Okay, okay, Well, even
(05:54):
though ninety nine point two percent of the population says
nobody says, hey, pa, you work for kfa in Yeah, No,
they say you work for k fans fan yep.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
Yeah. Anyway, just just don't be pejorative, Okay, got it?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I yes, On the on the simplification or not the
streamlining of the offense, A lot of it I think was, yeah,
just trying to make it so there are more formations,
more concepts that hey, we've run this a couple of
times and you get a few more reps at it.
I compared it last week to I think my editor said,
this is basically season four of The Bear, which I
haven't watched. But you go from like a restaurant that's
(06:29):
called all sorts of seasonal shift driven dishes that change
all the time to saying, hey, we're going to make
a really good burger that everybody knows how to make
really well. It's not going to be anything terribly fancy.
It maybe yeah, not exotic, it may have nice ingredients,
but we're going to do this really well and people
are going to come back.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
For it because.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know if you've been there, absolutely
you've been there right Norwich. Yes, the Lions tap like
four or five things on the menu, but they do
them really well for changes and they're drift and people
don't mind.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
They keep coming back. That place is full all the time.
So yeah, I think it was a little bit of
that approach of let's major in the things that we
know we can do really well and worry about the
rest of it later.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
Is there and how did we do we know it all?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
How they got to this point and Bursuch was talking,
you know, part of the issue with with with McCarthy's
development has been the fact that he just hasn't been
on the field enough, right, I mean that's whether it
was the ankle and then we got the concussion. More recently,
just the process of reps in rhythm to his own schedule.
Does that play into where in some respects almost a
(07:34):
delay of this, of this moment of coming to terms
with the idea of this streamlining slash simplification where not
slash you just you get to a point in the
season where it's like, all right, everything that we've been
trying him in and out as he is, it just
hasn't worked.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Now let's do this. Yeah, I think there's that. I
think it's learning how a guy approaches things. I think
there's always art to this.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
And I remember talking with Kevin O'Connell quite a bit
about this with Kirk Cousins, where it's you learn about
how a guy receives information, how he receives a certain message,
and then you say, okay, if this is how he
hears me, that means I have to approach him this way.
If he hears me say hey, I really want you
to do this, and then he kind of does it
to the nth degree and almost kind of overdoes it,
(08:21):
it's like, well, we have to message that differently to
that player so he receives it in a way that
is more productive. I think when you're talking about a
twenty two year old quarterback who's coming in and you
didn't have last year to see him on the field,
you didn't have last year to say, let's make corrections,
let's go through game planning in the way that you
would do it as a starting quarterback, there's going to
be a learning curve for the coaches as well of
(08:44):
how do we manage this guy, how do we coach him?
How do we help him be at his best? And
I think that's taken time, especially as he's had those
injuries that you mentioned, where it's you're not going through
it week to week. You're not getting the level of
repetitiveness and the level of consistency to say, Okay, we
tried this two weeks ago, this didn't work, and now
we can kind of learn from it and go I
(09:05):
think that's taken a while, and the fact that he
admitted last week too he overthinks, he thinks about a
lot of these things a lot, and then probably takes
a little too much onto the field with him sometimes.
So I think they were learning that about him and saying,
all right, this, at least for this point in his development,
is what it's going to take.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well with Kevin. And I don't think I'm throwing caution
into the wind here.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
For me.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
The a topic with McCarthy, and I certainly can be wrong,
is all right, the release time or you know, he
didn't hold the ball as long as his fast as
of the year stepped up in the pocket, you know,
specifically on the addison to the left side.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Yeah, twenty one when the pocket banned out, I mean, yeah, okay,
Jefferson points him in collapse right away. There we go.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well at Jefferson early in the game, you know, when
it was on one I think the first third down
on that not nineteen and ninety eight. Yep, McCarthy runs
up the middle, dives and Jefferson was pointing at him there. Yeah,
you know, so he clearly was in power him.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
During the game. That's cool.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
But so there are tangible things in baby step like
fashion that we're taking this weekend. For me, it was
McCarthy's calm and being on the sideline two hours two
fifteen before the game to do Vikings Football Sunday and
see him come out and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (10:19):
I'm just saying he was different.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
You know, he was a marketly different could just in
more calculated fashion. There was intent, he was more calm,
and he was more calm during the game, and he
was more calm after the game.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Now, the part I won't bring up with.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Kevin is I believe JJ deeply regrets that alter ego thing.
That I just think that because I mean, he's twenty
two years old. Man, he's on social media more than
all of us combined. It even if they say they're
not well, I mean, it's gonna bite you for a
little while. The good thing for him is that in
this day and age, it'll go away quickly because of
(10:55):
you know, attention spans.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
Yes that are of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
But you know, I think he wants to aren't laying
the groundwork because when Order brought it up to me,
you know, right after the Lions game, I'm like, the
nine bit sucks, Okay.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
It's not who I know this kid is, and that's
what happened, and it sucks, and I don't think great
things are gonna come out of it. Well, so you
can just tell with intent he's establishing who he truly is,
win or loss. I think that's the a topic.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, I think you need to have a quarterback do that,
especially in a situation where you are the youngest starter
in the NFL playing with one of the more veteran
teams in the NFL. I think just saying I'm going
to show up and do my job at a high
enough level that we can win games, that's the best
way to kind of lay a foundation because all of
(11:48):
the other stuff that can come later if you want
it to. I don't know that it even needs to,
but I think the easiest way to get people around
you to say, Okay, we can ride with this kid
is to show up every week and the results on
Sundays are consistent enough to say yes, we can. Everybody
can relax a little bit because we see enough of
(12:10):
a body of work to suggest that we can trust
it and see he's going to develop and his.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Teammates and we'll never hear this, and I'm not going
to ask about things like this, but like say Jamar
Chase or somebody's texting with Justin Jefferson dog four for
fifteen over the last two what's up with nine?
Speaker 5 (12:30):
And by the way, what's up with your guy?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Having played X amount of games and now all of
a sudden he gets to do this alter ego thing.
So like they talk about more things, and if it
compounds with teammates and they start to get frustrated, I
mean that just takes things and makes it worse.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
The way you were talking that you hit on something
that was kind of my thought out of Sunday's game
is that Kevin O'Connell is learning through this experience too. So,
whether it was Kirk Cousins in twenty two, twenty two,
Darnold last year, the common theme there is Kevin O'Connell's
like a professor teaching a four hundred class and he
didn't necessarily and he talked about we're challenging JJ, We're
(13:13):
we are putting a ton on his plate to watch
him handle it or how he handles it, and so,
but the kid couldn't handle the four hundred class, and
so over the course of this year, the head coach,
and it's frustrating for many of us as fans.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
It's like it's a five win team.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
I'm sure it's even more frustrating inside that locker Roomah.
But the coach being able to learn and evolve through
this process just as much as we would expect that
the kid does it.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
That's just fascinating.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
That environment and that experience that they're all going on
right now.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
No doubt.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I mean, it is one of those things that I've
heard a lot of people say, well, why did it
take them this long to get to this point? I
think some of it is you haven't had those repetitive
weeks of okay, he did this four weeks ago, because
it's just been these fits and starts with how much
he's playing because of the injuries. But there's also I
think an element for the co coach of and you
hear a lot of play callers, whether it's Kevin O'Connell,
(14:03):
Sean McVay, Kyle shanahan, talk about how the plays have
answers in them, that there's a belief in the offensive
structure here and in this general tree of offenses that
if you run things the way they're supposed to be run.
The plays are well enough designed that you will have
opportunities to make plays even if defenses are throwing things
(14:24):
at you. It's not as complex as you would think
because you're not being asked to read coverages on the fly.
It's throw to open grass, find all these places to go,
and you can make this accessible to young quarterbacks. I
think on a classroom level, McCarthy has handled all those
extremely well. I think there's also the component where you
go on the field, and when it's not a classroom
(14:45):
in the sense that where you take the test in
the classroom, you take the test on the field, and
that's where I think things like just being a little
too fired up sometimes may come to play overthinking the
just I need to keep myself at kind of a
a base level of emotion, of energy or adrenaline. All
that kind of stuff plays into it. So even if
(15:06):
in a classroom he's saying, yeah, I got this. If
this happens, I go here, the biomechanics of I need
to throw a ball accurately and on time. That is
another component of this. And I think you're just seeing
if there are things we know because we've seen it
enough now that he throws corner routes really well, or
you know, things off of certain concepts really well. We
(15:28):
can go back to that and say, let's just live
in this world for now and kind of come back
to all this other stuff later and.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Does this then potential, I mean, he's got to go out.
The next step for McCarthy, of course, is to do
what he did on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
Yeah right, and play with that call and play with
that poise.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
And would this be kind of the simplification, oh excuse me,
the streamlining, That would be kind of what we should
expect over the final four more of the same most
likely to create We need to create a higher floor
for the kid to understand exactly into twenty twenty six.
This impacts decision made on multiple levels in terms of
what you expect from nine to next season, and so
(16:05):
creating that higher floor part of that a time.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I think so, I mean, I think you saw it
on Sunday. I mean they ran the ball on a
higher percentage of plays. Now, some of this's courses. They
had the lead the entire game, but they ran more
than they ever have under Kevin O'Connell in terms of
percentage of the time it was like fifty five percent.
It's only like the eighth or ninth time in sixty
four games that they've been over fifty. So it was runs,
(16:29):
it was heavy personnel, it was concepts that he has
shown he likes. It was things that got the ball
out of his hand relatively quickly. I would imagine that
that's kind of the base of your menu, and they'll
probably add a little bit as they feel comfortable with it.
But yes, I would imagine the focus now is let's
get the floor, Let's get a repeatable standard of this,
and then you go from there.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Subscribe Ben Gesling sharing a football information and second to
none fashion and we then standard Heating and air Standard
Heating dot Com for the year sponsorship at ben Gestlin
via Twitter if you would like to follow him, and
when we return, a defensive related conversation will emerge involving
Brian Flores and his work that he's done this year.
(17:13):
You're listening to nine to noon at FN one hundred
point three KFA N.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
The Friday Football Feasts head Wes to Buffalo Wildwings Plymouth
this week and you can join Pa Nordo Alex Lewis.
This Friday is to get you ready for Sunday night
Showdown with the Cowboys, plus great food, your shot at
prizes all morning long. Tours open at eight am. It
details kfa n dot com keyword calendar.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
Hey with Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
We do a talk back weekly free iHeart audio app
and have thirty seconds to opine. We play them back
for the head coach every week unless we're at Shields
for Toys for Tots, then we have a three tots
ask him questions, but fire away with some talkbacks and
maybe maybe a defensive bent this week would would be
really cool in that I'm going to I'm gonna frame
(18:08):
it up now for the scribe. Ben Gesling, Brian Flores worked.
This year has been It's just been mostly terrific. If
you think about all the circumstances and the time of
possession and.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Things like that. And you know Eric Wilson.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Somebody had Anthony Barr on the radio show about forty
five minutes ago and he played with Eric Wilson herks
first four years. Yeah, and here's Eric with fifteen tackles
for loss, leading the team in TFLs, playing himself into
crazily the biggest deal of his career is going to
come at this stage of his career. So Eric Wilson
(18:43):
could be a talker or anything defensive related ideas Nordo Well, yeah, you.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
Know, hey, and talkbacks are so easy. Hit that microphone.
PA mentioned the thirty second limit, but it's like, hey,
this is this is Eric in Chaska. How important was
the complimentary aspect of the team on Sunday getting those
turnovers on the defense or you know, hitman in his
thirty eighth career interception feels like he's almost as old
as you are, coach, and he's still making plays out there.
(19:11):
That's actually kind of almost true exactly, So to that end,
just kind of you know, again, hey, this is coach,
your name and where you're from, and maybe just something
that you saw in the game that you really appreciate
and want some insight on from the coach into Sunday
night a little defensive bent that like the way PA
was taking that and.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Oh, go ahead, Harrison Smith I think will be the
last player Well unless yeah, at all likely that Harrison
Smith will be the last player Kevin O'Connell coaches who
was born in the same decade as him. Wow, okay, yes,
In the eighties. And I say that as somebody who
was also born in said decade.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Right. Well, like I said to Ben ben Gaslin at
Ben Gaslin Vax, follow if you're so inclined, we have
access vikings the podcast Andrew Emily and end up Ben
do after games and during the week we got a
newsletter doing a really good job over there.
Speaker 5 (19:58):
Start Tribune, Start tribune dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Flores worked this year, you know when, like some I
was chatting with somebody last week after the Seahawks game
and they were trying to get after somebody. They were
trying to get after players for miss tackles in the
fourth quarter, and I'm like, I understand that they're not preferred,
but holy cow. I mean, when every single game is
two thirds lopsided with the time of possession, people get
tired and sure, hey, better is required. Okay, better is
(20:23):
probably required with you too and these areas, but you're tired,
you know, metaphorically speaking, right, I think Flores worked this year,
not having Van Ginkoll, not having cash men x amount
of games.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I think it's masterful. Yeah, they have not. I mean
if you compare last year to this year, I mean
the numbers certainly were better last year, but they were
also playing in situations where it's a lot more favorable,
and you see it on Sunday. It is a lot
easier to play, especially on the defensive side of the ball,
especially as a pass rusher, when you are playing with
a lead, and they have done that almost none this year.
(20:58):
I mean they had had a lead I think in
the Bengals game, and then it was the Lions game,
and then Sunday, I mean, you know, absence a couple
hey it's three nothing kind of things early in the game.
They have played from behind or with the score even
for most of the year, so having opportunities to do
what they did on Sunday and pin their ears back
have not been there. It's been a lot of hey,
(21:19):
we've been on the field. Now there was a turnover.
We got to go out and get another stop. Like
a defense that's had it's back against the wall quite
a bit, or has been asked to do a lot,
has been required to do more. To put a different
spin on that phrase, they have done quite a bit
this year to say we're going to keep this team
in games because of the way we can get stops
(21:41):
and play. And that's with I think that's injuries. I
think in the in the core with vankinkol and and
certainly Grenard's had a couple of things here. It's been
you know, some some things in the secondary. Jeff Okuda
has been hurt, and some of the corners probably haven't
played quite to the level that they want, but they
have with the Han and they've been dealt. I think
(22:01):
done quite a bit of exemplary work.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I think Fabian Moreau has played better than Jeff Okuda
played at any step. And I mean we can play
this hashmark game. This no indictment on Okuda, but it's like,
you know, he had a rough year with Houston last year.
So then you start asking some of the background questions
about you know, when he's at his best, like what's
happening as short side of the field, you know where
(22:24):
you limit the big side of the field, whereas to
a lot of running and stuff super physical. We remember
him knocking Jefferson off his spot with the Lions a
couple of years ago. Well, I mean that didn't really develop.
Fabyan Moreau, the former member of the Washington team for
I think he had six of his seven interceptions in
(22:44):
his four years with Washington, Faby and Moreau. We're not
trying to make him sound like Darryl Green re incarnate,
but he stepped into a spot. He I mean, I
can't remember him being on the wrong side of something
just terrible where it repeatedly happens. So fabym Moreau sneaky
fashion has done good work.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
Yeah, he has.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I mean they've needed somebody to step in there because
the corner depth was a question at the beginning of
the season. Then when Akudo goes down, it's okay, we
need somebody to come in here. And Moreau had been
here on the practice squad last year, it didn't really
have this big of a role. But yeah, whether it's
him or we mentioned Eric Wilson, I mean Eric Wilson
has been terrific. So yes, the way that they have
gotten meaningful contributions out of players that not a lot
(23:24):
of people would have thought, we're going to be big
contributors on a defense with a lot of high end players,
it has mattered and they've needed it.
Speaker 5 (23:32):
And yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Been an impressive work by this coaching staff to get
that kind of contribution and for those players for buying
into it too, I think that's certainly been a bright
spot for this defense.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
With Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. Just paint with a broad
brush through. What are we looking at now thirteen through
thirteen of them? What have you thought of their seasons? Well,
I mean Hargrave makes the play on Sunday. I think
that was the type of play, the type of impact
I thought he would have more during training camp, I thought, boy,
(24:04):
this guy is He's violent, he's explosive. You're going to
see the impact he makes a lot on this team,
and that hasn't really played out quite to that degree.
So I mean, Jalen Redman another guy that stepped into
a bigger role and I think has changed the calculus
a little bit of how they use those guys.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
But given what they spent.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
On Allen and Hargrave, and given the cap space that
they allocated to those two players, I think they would
have expected a little bit more. And I'm wondering where
that will go because they have cap questions and those
two players, especially Hargrave, are going to be I think
decisions for them in the offseason.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Lastly, and Nordo brought this up to me before the show,
and it triggered me to write it down for you.
Do you see greatness with anybody in the NFL? I mean,
you got the Eagles losing to Dick or the kicker
last night. And Philadelphia personifies as much as I've ever
seen a team, more so than Kansas City because I
think there's a out of enigma to Philadelphia that was
(25:02):
not there with Kansas City. We're gonna push, don't let
us in. We're gonna push this button. And when everybody
tries ten of ten, nobody can beat us.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
Right, maybe they'll be right.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Sa Quan's been in and out emphasis on out a
majority of the season, and I say performance wise, So
you got that with Philly, Green Bay. You know they
all have their limitation. Yes, do you see greatness anywhere?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I mean the team that I would look at in
the NFC is the Rams, probably because Matthew Stafford's done it.
I mean, if he's healthy. Obviously that's always a question
with him, and he's been healthy to this point. But
the way they renovated that defense after you know, they
had the run obviously where they win the Super Bowl
with O'Connell as THEOC there and list sneed it, traded
all the picks and they had to reset that whole roster.
(25:50):
They've done it on defense. I mean they've they with
whether it's Jared Verus, Kobe Turner. I mean, they have
a lot of pieces that will affect things, as the
Viking saw in the playoffs last year between them and
Stafford throwing to DeVante Adams, Puka Nakua. That's a team
that's got a lot of weapons. That would be the
team i'd look at in the NFC. I don't know
that there's like like a dominator. Yeah, I don't know
that it's like a lock solid contender, but that would
(26:13):
be the team i'd look at the top of the conference.
I don't think it's quite as determined as it's been
a passing than the AFC. Certainly is much more wide
open than it's been.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Well, we'll leave you with this because there it's not
a great chance, but it's not an awful chance that
this could happen. Seahawks are ten and three Rams are
ten and three Rams beat them. Donald in the most
pressure field game he had he's had as a member
of the Seahawks through four picks. Then a next kind
of pressure field game because he's going against his former team.
(26:44):
He takes four sacks, thirty eight percent of the amount
he had into the game. So and then we got
Week eighteen last year. I think you understand where I'm
going here. There is a chance that's Donald and Seattle
will be playing Week eighteen at San Francisco for the
one seed. Yeah, there's a chance. I mean that would
be as a scribe. Well that's elite drop right.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Oh yeah, I mean there's a lot of there's a
lot of angles in the NFC West, a little bit
like the NFC North last year, where there's just all
I mean, it's a lot of teams competing for things.
But yes, whether Darnold's had the games he's had against
the Rams, which is getting to be a number of
them now, and then playing his former team San Francisco,
which was kind of the place that he the Vikings
(27:26):
looked at and said, okay, he's been in a similar offense.
They coached him better than he'd had. Yeah, he owes
probably some things to the forty nine ers as well. So, yeah,
there are a lot of good storylines in a couple
of divisions. Because the NFC West NFC North are are
all quite heated competitions.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
The West is going to have three double digit win
teams likely. I mean you talk about the Rams or
the Seahawks, and but the Niners. The Niners are hosting
the Titans, They're at the Colts potentially sacking Philip Rivers
around people, right, and then they host the Bears before
that Seahawks game. I mean they're looking potentially at being
a twelve win team into that mix. No, the AFC
(28:05):
West is just stacked in an otherwise super muddy conference.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Ma'am you're the very best, great great seeing you today
and I have a wonderful day. Okay, you too, Ben
Gasoline Standard Heating and Air Standard Heating dot Com, thank
you very much. News Donord around the corner then, Ko
Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings for x's
and o's fifteen minutes from now.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Welcome back nine to noon.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
It is time for news Donord, which is brought to
you by the casino at Canterbury Park Canterbury Park dot com.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
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Speaker 5 (29:03):
Apparently the storms come in and.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
It's apocalyptically bad and then we're all going to be
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best place in shockopy check out Canterbury Park dot com.
To the Minnesota Timberwolves, at some point, you're going to
be able to podcast PA's chat with coach Chris Finch
during the first hour open the show with him. Wolves
lose one eight, one five last night, and it's just
(29:27):
the inconsistency of this team, albeit fifteen to nine at
one point we're talking they lose to all the teams
over five hundred, kind of like they did last night,
beat all the bad teams. Cool dig all that, But
Anthony Edwards, when he has himself by his standards of
pedestrian evening, that's when you see, oh, wow, look at
(29:49):
das Reid. Wow, look at Jaden McDaniels in that offense,
and he's having career averages per thirty six, et cetera.
All of those things great, but then when Anthony has
a night like last night where he probably could have
gone for sixty, then you get Jaden McDaniels one to seven,
Dante DiVincenzo one to seven, Mike Conley all of five
(30:10):
from the floor last night, and nas Reed two to twelve.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Somewhere in that neighborhood. I'm just going to add that
math up on the fly.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
It's like four for thirty one combined something like that.
That is just absolutely hideous and really inexplicable for this team.
Speaker 5 (30:24):
I know, the lacking the point guard.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
You saw Bones Highland, kind of getting Dillingham's minutes last night,
which is just continuing to be concerning, kind of starting
to feel like maybe Dillingham's not going to be a
thing in the long term. And Mike Conley's just frankly,
I mean, you get fifteen minutes out of him last night,
and that's probably three or four too many.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
He's just showing his age at this stage of his career.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
So frustrating loss, a bookerless bunch in the Suns. You
got to win those games, and that just kind of
goes down to again, muddy Western Conference. We're all steering
up at OKC. But you got to have those w's,
wins like last night in a game at Target Center,
and I believe the Dubs are up next for the
Tea Wolves. The Dubs, I believe on the twelfth. Is
(31:08):
that a Friday affair? Yeah, that's a Friday out the bay. Yeah,
STEP's not playing right now. Probably we'll come back soon.
Minnesota Wild won four to one last night over the Kraken,
and it was Jule ERICSONEK with a goal and two assists,
kind of leading the way, Caprice off with an empty netter,
and then later just to kind of put the bow
on it, Tarasenko. Hey, there was a Vlaid Tarasenko empty
(31:31):
net goal in the mix, I think his third total
tally since joining the Minnesota Wild. But they needed that
kind of stemming the tide. Losing three of four at
one point, we're looking at that Western Canada swing. It's like, oh,
this is a terrific opportunity to rally up the points. Well,
they struggled, and so now coming home, they've been playing
(31:52):
better against our division rivals. It's Dallas on Thursday, so
let's get two at home. It was Gus Buss I
believe twenty three saves and the one goal allowed in net.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Maybe it's yesper on Thursday. We shall see.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
But it sounds like we're gonna have the head coach,
I believe at some point tomorrow night to noon, and
he can give us more intel on that as well.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And with the with the let's just say, I mean
from a division standpoint, yes, but but like the totality
of the western side of the equation, the victory they
had earlier this season over over Vegas, I believe it
was an overtime. So you got Vegas. You snapped that
stupid long losing streak against Winnipeg. Uh, you did the
(32:33):
day after Thanksgiving to Colorado, they run a ten game vendor.
You beat them in overtime and and Volstat shuts down
mccarr and McKinnon to win the game in the shootout.
And Dallas is next, you know where you're just thinking
about these teams that beat you, some dramatically more than
you beat them. Yeah, Dallas is next in the lineup.
(32:53):
Dallas is next. So Tomorrow night's gonna be make that.
Thursday night's gonna be cool.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
Well, And and part of what makes it, what makes
it cool on Sunday night is what happened with the
Eagles last night, And you know, we've talked about it,
push Button, We've chatted with mister Gesling about it. But
in the end, that that l for the Eagles last
night only further propels and motivates this bunch with Schottenheimer
and ever Fluse and everybody knowing they're just a game
(33:19):
and a half back their route to the playoffs. As
we were talking last segment, with so many double digit
win teams, specifically out of the NFC West, they need
to win the East to get into the playoffs, and
an opportunity for Dallas and Jerry's world Sunday night lights,
and they like to show up in primetime. Jerry just
wouldn't have it any other way than a standalone game
(33:41):
with his team and a chance to go to seven
to six and one.
Speaker 5 (33:45):
Okaya, I just wanted the flex. I wanted the flex.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
It's super selfish that I wanted the flex because then,
fybody did fan line's gonna end at like twelve thirty
at night versus you know, just a little just a neat,
tidy three pm game and everyone goes home happy and
gets a little sleep. But the motivating factor for the Cowboys,
is that the East is very much in reach after
(34:10):
and I think there was a miskick last night to
four picks by Jalen Hurts and they lose at the
at the Chargers out West in overtime twenty two to nineteen.
Speaker 5 (34:19):
Take it a step farther with Dallas.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
What the Philly loss, but all of the social media
related terrorism George Pickens faced, Yeah, you think he's gonna
be ready to go Sunday night, absolutely nationally televised game.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
We shall see well, I.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
And I just I wonder as we as we put
a rap on news to Nord here momentarily just kind
of the idea with when social media funnels you into clips,
When they funnel you into viral videos versus actually watching
every single route and every single moment of that game,
the negativity that can be pulled out of it again
(34:53):
funneled into those clips can maybe present a bad perception
of you know, George Pickens whatever, I don't. I mean,
by all accounts, I don't think he's a problem off
the field. When he's on the field and he's engaged,
he's incredibly good. Is the question when he's engaged, is
that even as much of a question as.
Speaker 5 (35:11):
We're making it out to be here, who knows?
Speaker 4 (35:13):
But that wraps up news Denord again, brought to you
by Canterbury Park Canterbury Park dot com. Canterbury down in Shockape,
you're feeling the felt all year, you're buying Christmas trees,
you're shaking down Johnny the Mouse Michelson for a bobber
hat and you're calling it today Canterbury Park dot com.
When we returned, the eleven o'clock hour kicks off with
the head coach Kevin O'Connell will be here as part
(35:34):
of the weekly x's and o's conversation. It's all part
of nine to noon right here on the fan
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