December 16, 2025 • 49 mins
Wolves Head Coach Chris Finch joins the show to talk about the NBA Cup. Then Pete Berchich joins to talk about his YouTube channel The Eye In The Sky.
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Speaker 1 (00:57):
Lordo, you've got some kind of instrumental acoustic opening bed
in you that won't get iHeartRadio audio media sued.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, you know I.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Don't have free balling in me today with the with
with the quarterback parody, but with the team and the
coach that's coming up shortly here, we can do a
little move on up.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Gotta move on up.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
This is This is nine to now a cappella styling.
Very well done.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Curtis Mayfield, Good morning, Welcome to nine to noon. Welcome
to the TCO Radio Studio. It is our weekly stop
at Twin City's Orthopedics Performance Center, and Kevin O'Connell, head
coach of the Minnesota Viking.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
He joins us a little later.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
We have a coach as covenant today and we will
begin it with Chris Finch, head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves,
courtesy of Second Harvest Heartland and two Harvest dot Org.
Chris Finch, It's Paul Allen. What's going on my mamy?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Pa all good here, Thanks for the call, my brother.
Are you gonna watch the NBA Cup Final tonight between
the Knicks and the Spurs?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
You know, I was actually thinking about going the Wild
Dame tonight. But I haven't decided what my knight's gonna
look like tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
What what can you tell us from an analytical standpoint
about New Blue Liner Quinn Hughes, a player for whom
they traded from Vancouver and people are calling it Quinnesota.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
I can tell you nothing. I just I haven't been
out to see them play yet. I usually like to
get out a couple of times a year, and tonight
the night I can do it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's fantastic, you know, with with that NBA that NBA
Cup Final tonight, when when San Antonio beat Oklahoma City
Saturday night, at one point in that game, Man Wemby
had played seven minutes and was plus twenty Are you
kidding me with that?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Seven minutes plus twenty?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
And it's crazy. I mean, you know, we sometimes, you know,
it feels like we're all well on a little bit
of borrowed time with with with Wemby, you know, he
just keeps getting better and better and better. You know,
at some point, not to distant futures, he will be
by far and away the best player in the league
with his impact on both sides of the ball. And
(03:15):
you can see him. You can see his game maturing,
and I think the thing that gives him such a
great foundation is he's always been a mature individual and
now you can see his game maturing alongside of his development.
So yeah, just he's an incredible athlete and it's amazing
to watch him play.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
When when you go to the wild game tonight, perchance,
are you doing let's play hockey?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
No, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna try
to sneak in, watch the mocky and sneak out.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Have you ever done that where you get up there
on that perch and it's time to drop the puck,
let's play hockey?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Have you ever done that?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
No, I've never done it. Never done it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, well we we we put it out there now.
So if any constituents with the Wilder listening, uh I
ear Aaron Framan gets a text within the next twelve
or thirteen minutes, then apologies from yours truly. But with
the with the with the with the NBA Cup, Chris
minus the what I deem to be the ugly flowers
the courts and what they do with them?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is the NBA Cup of success in your estimation?
Speaker 4 (04:27):
I think so I think it's been a success. I
believe that it's created a bit of early season urgency
for sure. Uh. You know, I would say a lot
of fans still don't understand the format, but once they
get once they get on, you know, around their head
(04:49):
around these winner go home style games, which we don't
often see in the n b A. You know, I
think the intensity and the purpose of the uh of
the games takes on a heightened meaning. You know, I
like that, And you know, it's just I wish they
(05:10):
would realign it along divisions that would make sense to me.
And you know, I understand why they don't. They won't.
They don't want these imbalance of good, you know, good
and not so good teams. But you know, like our
division would be super tough with Denver, Oklahoma City, ourselves.
But it is what it is. You know, every year
it's gonna be a little bit different. But I think
it gives some geographical meaning. I think it makes sense
(05:33):
for travel. That's the one thing. One of the downsides
about the Cup is what it does to your schedule.
It creates a bit of an accordion in your schedule.
You have these gaps where you don't play and then
you'll play a bunch of games in a short period
of time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But then but the.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Real problem is, like you have to zigzag all over
the country to try to play your Cup games. And
I do think if we did it geographically, it would
make a little bit more sense for us from a
travel point of view.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, I'm glad you're going to the wild game tonight.
And now we you know, we go back to the
second question about our first question. You're going to watch
that thing tonight between the Nicks and the Spurs. I
would imagine as a head coach of an NBA team
with a game tomorrow night, you're you're probably the last
one to get with like be like, hey, Micah, hey Pablo,
(06:19):
guys want to come over to my place and have
some appetizers and a couple of drinks and watch an
NBA game?
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, I mean I I uh, well, first of all,
we have a great staff. I know they'll be all
over the games preparing. We have these two teams coming
up here in the near future. I think with the
NIXT next week in fact, Oh yeah, and uh, you know, generally,
of course I'm going to lock in on our opponent
and our preparation is always on point, and we go
(06:48):
through it, you know, step by step, and I'll get
my eyes on those guys right before we play them.
But you know, my job is primarily worry about us,
you know, I worry about what's going on inside the
tim rules and how I tried to inwardly focus while
the rest of our staff might outwardly focus.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Hey, off the beaten path for a second, and you
do get the NIXT next week. When when you were
in Toronto, did you have o g Ananobi?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I did? Yeah, one of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, what a I mean, it's you know, I'm not
going to put you in a spot, you know, to
be like he's the best at like two way player,
but man, holy cow, with that length and size and stuff.
Now that they have him back, he's he's a wonderful
defensive player, isn't he?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Oh my god? Yeah, he can guard one through five
legitimately at a super high level. When we were there,
the one night he would guard uh, Damian Lillard. The
next night he would guard Giannis. Yeah, it was. It
was pretty incredible to watch his versatility. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Do you do you remember much of when Kevin Garnett,
you know, played early kind of in the early stages
of his career here.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I don't remember him much as an earlier, younger player,
to be quite honest with Yeah, I was in Europe
a lot during that time, so but but yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, The reason I brought it up is is you
just reminded me with the Lillard and Giannis comparison. Is
like when the Wolves went to the playoffs with was
spree Well and Cassel and they had a really good
team with KG and and they would play the Dallas Mavericks.
I mean, he would shut down Dirk Novitsky. Then then
the Wisconsin Badger Michael Finley would get hot, and then
(08:29):
and then flip god rest his soul would put KG
on Finley and he'd handle him on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It was terrific.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah, yeah, we have a little bit of that luxury
with Jayden. You know, Jayden can guard a lot of
different guys. You know, some of the some of the
super strong and DC guys might might give him a
little bit more trouble, but he's he's, you know, a
weapon defensively, when you have a guy who can can
go guard multiple positions with great length and then you know,
(09:01):
be able to kind of just move them around in
a game as you need to.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Uh. This is Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
They have Memphis here tomorrow night. Quite the long home
stand for Chris's team started with a victory over Sacramento
Memphis tomorrow night, and it's about it's about a nine
day homestand which is really cool. And Chris is on
the board of Second Harvest Heartland, so support if you
are so inclined at to Harvest dot org. With Memphis
(09:28):
here tomorrow night, John Morant is back. What are you
expecting from your guys and that one against Memphis?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, yeah, well I think we Unfortunately Joe rolled his
ankle a little bit last night, so don't I don't
know what his status will be. We'll find out today,
but he is back. Edie is out for them. They've
had a tough season. They've had some injuries in and
out of the lineups to start this season, which is,
you know, kind of hurt their ability to catch a rhythm.
(09:57):
But they've been playing better of late. You know, we
know it's gonna be a lot of Jaron Jackson Junior.
He's gonna you know, he he's really come on in
the last couple of years as just a like kind
of their number one guy, their go to guy if
you will, you know, hard team to hard team to play.
They spread you out really well. You know, they played
(10:18):
with great pace, Uh, do a lot of things that
you know, you see a lot of teams doing in
this league. They they kind of retooled their offense a
little bit. So Jaron Jackson Junior is a little bit
more at the heart of it.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
How how is Edward's foot and do you expect to
have him like tomorrow or soon?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yeah, it's it's definitely improving. You know, he's still day
to day and we'll you know, we have practice here
this morning and uh, we'll see what what he looks
like coming in. But he was able to to move
around get up some shots yesterday, so we're headed in
the right direction. But I'm not sure of exact return
(11:00):
and return time just yet.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And and Chris with Rudy Gobert obviously not searching for details,
but is everything okay?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And do you expect him back tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, everything's okay, Uh, right with Rudy. So
he'll be back today and in the lineup tomorrow. And
you know, he's been having a phenomenal season for US
so far, and it's been fun to watch him play
with the energy and activity that he has been playing with.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Do you do you ever fatigue of constant questions about say,
Clark Dillingham and or Shannon Junior and other minutes?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Now now, I mean, listen, I understand. Uh, you know,
I understand, but you know why people are asking. Uh,
And you know, I give a pretty good long answer
about it the other day after the games. I don't
think I need to go through it all again. It's
just to say that, you know, this is part of
the you know, the the dual track of trying to
(12:00):
win every single night with the team that's you know,
I wouldn't even say we're you know, kind of we're
certainly not in our prime. Like we have a bunch
of our young core is still twenty four to twenty
five years old, which is, you know, still a couple
of years before they're quote unquote prime. And then we
got a couple of vets to round out the rest
(12:23):
of it. But uh, and then we got a bunch
of young guys in the second basically in their second year,
and you know, trying to We're trying to accomplish all things,
and it's a it's a delicate balance. We're trying to
thread this needle and we know there's gonna be inconsistencies
from that part of the roster and we just can't
give them. We just can't gift them, you know, twenty
(12:44):
five minutes a night. We don't a have that in
our Like if you map out all the roles in
the minutes for everyone, those minus would have to come
at the expense of somebody else. And it's not like
somebody's playing forty minutes a night. So you know, it's
it's it's you know, the role, the role is what
it is. It's it's small, and but it's their job
(13:04):
to to really kind of nail that role right now
and and then we'll grow.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It from there.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Well, off, one thing you did say the other night,
and and I got the quote from Johnny Athletic Story
Krasinski at the Athletic and the Athletic Dot Com with
with the second year guys, when you say with three games,
like a three game sample, uh, you hope to get
one good game, one not so good one stinker.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What what plays into that?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yeah, that's just that's just the nature of a PA.
This inconsistency of young players. I think that you know
to be to be a young player, and you know,
when things start to take root for you, it's it's
the consistency of your play. Knowing every single night you
can repeat what you're able to do, uh to to
some sort of level of success where it becomes reliable.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And that's that's what drives.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Confidence, Like you know, I know, confidence that has to
be given to the players for them to go out
and play well. That confidence is expressed by us, the
coaching staff, by playing them every night, irrespective of maybe
how they played the night before. But the real confidence
comes from being able to repeat things and getting confidence
(14:19):
that you can repeat thing and and that's you know,
that's the NBA is a tough proving grounds for for
young players at times, especially when you're on a team
such as ours, who's you know, the stakes are higher
and and you're surrounded by guys who you know who
who you're You're out there at the expense of maybe
they're minutes, and they're very accomplished and they're very consistent.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well with with with with the three we mentioned, the
the one thing that perplexing would be too strong. But
like something that surprises me is like Karen Shannon Jr.
I mean, he tears up Oklahoma City, maybe the best
of all team in the NBA. I mean, he tears
them up every time he plays them. But but then
(15:04):
isn't consistent in the other games? Is Is that what
you're saying here?
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah, I mean like one hundred percent what I'm saying,
But it doesn't. It doesn't. I kind of remove the
opponent a little bit. I mean, I think there are
reasons why that he plays better against the Okay See
than some of the other teams. But but yeah, just
it doesn't. It shouldn't matter who you're playing. Yeah, you
should be able to kind of have that level of performance.
(15:32):
You know. No, TJ's inconsistency is often driven by his
fouling on defense, Like he's often in foul trouble or
you know, has issues at that end of the word. He's
got got to learn to play so that works through us.
Be there's no no different than what we see in
the NFL with young quarterbacks. Like what's the consistency of
(15:52):
a young quarterback in the NFL? Once it becomes you know,
once you rely on what you're me get. You can
game fan around that, you know, whether what you have
to do to help him further or protect him.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, that was a good answer. I appreciate you on that.
Just two more here for Chris Finch, the thunder here
Friday night. Is it too early in the season to
say this is a big one, like this is a
big game coming up Friday night?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I mean they're you know is they're an outstanding team.
We know them well, and you know we gotta we
gotta get some signature winds for the season. That would
be a great one.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Lastly, do do you Christmas shop exclusively online? Or do
you get out to the stores occasionally?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I'm ninety online, I would say, so.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
We're not going to see you walking around the second
floor all of America like after a practice.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Today, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Well, tear it up against Memphis and enjoy the wild
game tonight. I appreciate the conversation and I'll call you.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Next week, right, I I appreciate you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Likewise, see you. But that's Chris Finch, head coach of
the Minnesota Timberwolves. Weekly nine to noon Courtesy of Second
Harvest Heartland and two Harvest dot Org given this as
a TCO PC Tuesday with nine to noon at Twin
Cities Orthopedics Performance Center for Kevin O'Connell at eleven o'clock,
we are in search of a talkback for the head coach.
(17:24):
If you would like to leave a talk pack talkback
at the free iHeart audio app. You got thirty seconds
and you can share something with the head coach of
the Minnesota Vikings. Nordo the producer will he will parse
his way through them and we will play one back
at about somewhere between eleven and eleven twenty eleven twenty
five for Kevin O'Connell, who joins at eleven o'clock. That's
(17:46):
part of the Timber Tech What's on Deck setlist, which
also includes the analyst Pete Bursich courtesy of Sue Cup
Manufacturing and Sue Cup dot Com. And the analyst joins
us next from Egan at the Minnesota Vikings Practice Facility,
Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. We are in the ve
Ns TCO Radio studio. A Devin Ward is guiding the
(18:09):
Great Ship Left Covenant. Nordo produces on site and I'm
Paul Allen. This is nine to noon. Here comes the analyst,
(18:34):
Pete Bursich, analyst for the Minnesota Vikings Radio and Audio Network.
At Pete Bursich via x if you would like to
follow for hardcore football conversation. Also via YouTube. He as
a YouTube channel and he puts out videos quite frequently.
I in the Sky is what it's titled. You can
(18:54):
just put Pete Bursage five to six in the search
bar and learn more about I in the Sky. Suecup
Manufacturing and Suecup dot Com thank you for season long sponsorship.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Make sure to hit that bell and subscribe, right Pete,
that's what you gotta do. Hit that bell for notifications
and subscribe.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It helps.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
All that stuff helps, you know, different, that's talking about
a different world.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
To make sure you hit this button with this up
button at Sue Cup Manufacturing and Sue Cup dot Com.
All right, well let's start there. Why does it take
eight hours to post a twenty three minute video on YouTube?
You know when you told me that, I mean, we
had just a wonderful thirty forty five minutes sitting in
(19:38):
where we stayed in Dallas. It's just it was a fantastic, pleasant, resort.
It was kind of a resort, and we had about
a cool forty five minute, you know, a little sit
down with Pete and I Quacy stop by and kind
of gave us a microcosm of his life right now,
trying to keep every sliver of a playoff hope alive,
(19:58):
talking about the Cleveland rounds and Chicago and then you know,
things that he's going to be watching for the draft
next year. And it was kind of a what's happening
now and what's coming up kind of a microcosm.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I thought that was super cool.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
But you know when I asked you about I in
the Sky and you told me it took eight hours,
eight hours to post a twenty three minute Dallas Turner
video on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, why how why?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Well, it's all and this is all I do, every
I do every bit of it myself. So the part
that I had to learn was all the just the flow,
the workflow. And I'm kind of familiar with it with
it because of how we do things here and with
you and Christian, Yeah, with Christian and the ven excuse me.
So you know, it's just you have to figure it out.
(20:45):
You have the you have to find the plays right
you have to watch all this football, find all the plays,
and you have to put him in order, which sounds
easy to do, but it's not. You get him in order,
and then you have to put them in a in
a rip file or a certain file. Then that file
has to be produced. Did you know what a rip
file was before I in the sky?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Just well, I mean I knew what I learned what
what we referred to as a rip file because of
these guys here at the ven.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Because like, I don't know what a substack is. She
you kids talk about substacks. Yeah, it's just a blog
it is, yeah, okay, yeah, sub reddit blog with a
rip file on the fat exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
And then and then learning different like I had learned Canovia.
I had to learn obs studio, how to set the
camera up, the audio blah blah blah blah, you know,
and then you have to put it all together, and
then you record it, and then you have to put
that back into Da Vinci and then edit it and
splice it and put it back together, and then you
have to get that all done, and then that.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Gets uploaded to YouTube.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
And then once you upload it to YouTube, you have
to add all the different information that goes into that
as well, and that whole process.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, it's it's a it's a day. Would you then
entire day?
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Would you say that it's I mean, is there because
you can build some efficiencies just by doing more of
these things, right, So would you say that it's more
comfortable than the first one?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Oh? My god? Yeah, you just you just know.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
So it used to take longer than eight hours to
do a twenty three minute bit.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Well it took two months up love the third video.
It depends you said it.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Hey, really, I'm sorry, but everybody, hold on, everybody was
in Ireland for a week.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Hit that sub button and tell friends and family members
to hit that sub button and don't forget the bell
for the notifications and like it and repost it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
But hit that sub But as has been sitting on
that one for a two months.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Since the sprague Absolutely oh yeah, yeah, no, we've told
about it with you away.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Yeah, I mean, and that's that was kind of the
preseason thing I did. I did a number of them
in the beginning and then and then didn't because I
that was me learning the process.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
It's good. I wasn't. I wasn't just go with it.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
I wasn't gonna use the first ones as just hey,
this is how it's going to be done. And then
after that was over, it made a bunch of changes
and then kind of ran out of stuff to talk
about going into the regular season.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Do you think, you know, maybe maybe the most popular
podcast slash YouTube bit with shorts and all that would
be the Joe Rogan what is the Joe Rogan Experience
whatever it's called. Do you think Joe Rogan spends eight
hours putting up a twenty three minute video when he's
interviewing somebody, well.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
His Yeah, I mean, once you get that big, you
you hire people to do all the all that, and
he spends I'm sure all his time just learning about
his guests and all that. I mean, yeah, I could,
could you outsource some of the stuff? I get YEA,
Eventually that would be nice to be able to do.
But for now, I'm doing this. But I'm doing this
because I love doing film right and I want to
(23:38):
and just the ability to do it on my own
the way I want to do it. Uh that that's
compelling enough for me. So and it's you know, every
once in a while, you just got to do something
that you're not comfortable with and just do it. And
I've learned a ton and it's been I've learned a
lot about YouTube the business and you know how you
know thumbnails and how they're you know how people think
(23:59):
they should look a thumbnail just when you're scrolling on YouTube.
It's just that initial picture that you get, right, And
there's I mean you could you could.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Do photoshop and special thumbnails for those.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah, well I just use can Canva, right, But you
have to find all these programs, right, You have to
be able to find a program man, you got to
download it. You can watch an MP four and be
able to draw on comfortably, right. And it's a lot
of It's a lot of Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
That's the thing that is when you watch the videos
though you're supernatural in the film. Yeah, the information I'm
getting is awesome. The presentation is terrific. I am the
people don't realize like the back end button is uh
is We're learning a lot about different things.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
There's there's zero production value in it because I'm the
one producing it, so I I'm I'm not going to
sit there. I'm not going to sit there for a
day and figure out how to do something in da
Vinci right right where it's a sound effect and the
solution and the the screen does this, and then you
have this graphic coming in number two. My computer, I
mean these this that stuff eats up computer power like
(25:06):
you can't believe. So I'm not gonna sit there and
do all that. I mean maybe this offseason, but I'm
not gonna. I'm not gonna spend two days now doing
all that.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
One.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
It's not my fortepe. But yeah, if I have some
free time, I'm monkey with it. And you may have
a few cool things here and there.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Let's let's do this nine to noon. Let's be a
love covenant. Go to YouTube and then just in the
search bar Pete versus five six, you'll get the eye
in the sky that then hit the hit the logo
and it'll take you to the page where you get
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you'll the last one you'll see is from the flip
card which Pete put together in front of the Vikings
(25:43):
Cowboys game. But let's subscribe to Peach Channel A to
support the analyst because he's the bomb and he's working
hard at it. But secondly, the they're really good. It's
really the film breakdowns and the flip card stuff that
he does is really really good. So I know where
we are now. At nine to thirty in the morning Tuesday,
(26:04):
we have a couple of segments with the analyst and
let's let's see where the love Coveny can take this.
All right, it's YouTube search bar Pete versus five six
and subscribe to his YouTube channel. And we think we
think you're already E leite football mind You wouldn't be.
You wouldn't listen to nine to noon if you weren't.
But it'll be capital all caps E L I T
(26:26):
E Football minds The Eye in the Sky YouTube dot com.
Hit this button please uh. And lastly, on on the
YouTube bit, have you thought about maybe in the off
season doing a series called Postseason Peat? And the reason
I dubbed it that is because and I'm just gonna
mention four here, but you've been involved, whether calling the
(26:49):
games or playing in the games, and really even coaching them.
I guess some really really good playoff games, some really
interesting playoff games involving the Minnesota Vikings. The first one
I would start with if I were you, with Postseason Pete,
the Eye in the Sky YouTube would be the ninety
seven wild card playoff game at the Meadowlands against the
(27:10):
New York Giants. Yeah, yeah, that was crazy. Well, that
thing was in December, I mean first and foremost. When
I went researching this, I'm like, damn, the wild card
round was right around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Now, now everything's in January. Super Bowl in February, late
February sometimes. But that that was you guys were down
sixteen zero at halftime, made a thrilling comeback postseason, Pete,
that was.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
Yeah, we had an on site s kick that I
think Chris Walsh recovered. I thought you'd want me to
start with the ninety four loss to the Chicago Bears
in the Metro Dome nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And never mind, what would be intriguing about that? Nothing?
But did you get run through by paid?
Speaker 5 (27:47):
No, he wasn't in the league yet, I don't ninety four? Yeah, well,
I know I never played against Peyton. He was gone
before I got Oh, okay, but no.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
There, Yeah, that's was that your rookie season?
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Then?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Okay, that Sweetness on you didn't he I wish well
you grew up watching Sweetness and then played against him and.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I remember speaking that.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
I remember going on the field when I was coaching
and I saw Dick buckis right and he's standing there.
He's just a monster. I walk up to him and
I'm like, hey, you don't know me. I'm just a fan,
blah blah blah. You I'm coaching, and he just like
basically gave me the finger and turnront and walked away.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
And I'm like, yeah, that's the coolest thing. That never
flipped me off.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
But wow, Yeah, he's like seriously, he he's wild, man,
because I've I've kind of bumped into him here and
there and he's all smiles. But he walks on the field.
It didn't matter if it was a game or if
he was out there. He was just a kid looking
for an auto here. He was his first game of
the season this year.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Man, speaking to the Bears, I think I mentioned this
to you on the radio before. But at halftime of
that Vikings victory at Soldier Field, the one McCarthy scored
three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, they honored the eighty five Bears.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And I mean, I can't because I don't want to
mention names because I might miss one and the guy
miss might be dead and then I got to deal
with that on social media. But I mean, they they
when they were in Now you know, Wilbur Marshall, Mike Singletary,
you know you. You and I generally chill in the
back of the box box and like recalibrate for the
second half or you go get some food or whatever,
(29:21):
but you were you were all eyes and ears that night.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That was special for it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
I got to meet Otis Wilson and Wilbrim Marshall by
the TV trucks hunder the stadium one time. That was Yeah,
that was fantastic. But as far as topics for the
for videos and stuff go, I'm working. I've been in
conversation with the NFL eight about getting old coaches film
that would be from the ninety eight MC Championship game.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
There's some other things I'd love to do.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
A history on Tampa to the coverage, and just because
I know it started with Tony Dungeye and what it
is and how it's evolved and all that, just real
real geeky football type stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Feels like the league would lock that stuff up kind
of tightly. Uh yeah, they're gonna control it pretty basically.
Your alumni.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
Yeah, that and that's that's the one reason they even
sat down and listen. They said, Okay, you go do
your thing for a while. We'll see how it goes.
And I'm good. You know, eventually, at the seasons over
I go back to them. I'm sure they're going to
look at what I've been doing and blah blah blah,
you know that kind of thing. And then and then
maybe they'll, uh, you know, maybe they'll decide to It's
(30:25):
just it depends on who you are as a as
an alumni.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Le's face.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
It's some guys obviously who are future Hall of Famers,
and guys like that can call up and get whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
You know, they're a lot more eager to help them.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
But hopefully fingers crossed the the what I've done is
compelling enough that they'll say, yeah, let's uh yeah, you just.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Let us know what you need.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
Or I can fly to New York or LA wherever
the wherever all the databases are and just bring a
gigantic hard drive and just download.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Some of the classic film Oh my God, and.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Then your ability like where where I would love it
is matching the old with the new. Yeah, you were
sawing in the nineties because you know, pure progression and
some of the conversations we're having about defenses and then
raising QBS. I got postseason Pete breaking down. Well, here's
what a rookie in ninety eight was, bearing down the barrel.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
There's a whole every time you're every time you run
across a guy who you know, played back a decade
ago or twenty years ago. For one of the things
you always ask him is you know you like the
game now? How do you like you know, how do
you like football these days? And that's it's just comparing
the Is the game better today than it used to be?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
It's different, right, yeah? Is it? Is it better or worse?
Speaker 5 (31:40):
And I think it's it's kind of a cool question,
open ended. Everybody's going to have an opinion. You know,
there's a whole there's a whole, a whole line of that.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I think this needs to be recorded. Yeah right.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
I'm not saying a billion people are going to watch it.
I'm just saying it's compelling and it's something that if
it's out there, it would be I think good just
for just for you know, history's sake.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I guess uh, we're we're up one hundredscribers subscribers at
the Eye in the Sky.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Everybody appreciate that. So far, way done?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Okay, YouTube dot com search more deep sage five six.
Support the analyst so he can go to n F
so he can go to the NFL, or NFL films
in in what is it East Orange or.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Well there's one.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
There's a studio in la it's right by the stadium,
and there's.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
One in Manhattan. I think too that.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Uh, but I don't know where they store all quote
unquote store all the films. Yeah, probably down in Texas. Yeah, yeah,
this is middle I can't Yeah, this is the only
mountain Nevada.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
This is only going to lead to uh better and
more or excuse me, more slash better videos at pete
ursage five six on YouTube at pepe ursage five six
on YouTube. It's the Eye in the Sky. Please subscribe
and support our brother. Here the the options that that
I would put out one of them. You know it
(33:03):
is not a good memory, but to have you dissect
and break down the the ninety eight NFC title game
and you played in the game percent that one the
uh the October is an October seventh, ninety eight game
when we went into went in the Lambeau and they
had what a thirty five game winning streak at home? Yeah,
the Monday night, drizzly rain and we.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Beat the snot and that was probably that was one
of my favorite games of all time.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
They sat Brett fav in the fourth quarter. Do you
know who replaced him?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
No, Doug e P. Doug Peterson.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Doug Peterson, Yeah, no kid, Yeah, Doug Peterson, super Bowl
winning coach.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Two thousand, the two thousand game. Yeah. But if it's
posted like Frishman, what's that? Which one? Which one was
that was? I think?
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Ninety nine bounced off his back, the immaculate deflection. Uh,
the the O nine NFC title game at New Orleans.
That'd be one just to break down what the I
think it was Bobby Cray and not Aching Adell. It
was one of the Adel's and the hot the designed
cheating high lows on Brett BarreR. You know, just like
(34:10):
you could literally break down what I like, find a
story and this may take six hours, find a story,
screenshot it, show the story about the high low.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And then show us what a high low is. I'm
sure the league would love me doing that. Goodness, I
know we're six and eight.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Here do we have to live in misery?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Minneapolis Miracle absolutely seventeen oh at halftime. Uh, and then
we have a replacement long snapper who blows it. They
block a punt and then they're in business.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Here's the deal. Like I would love to do that.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Just just the last series in that that play that
Digs caught for the touchdown, they ran it almost like
the third time in that drive that they ran it,
at least the second or third, because it was that's
about all they had.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
And that was the reason.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
I can't remember to get the kid's name, but that's
why he got there so early and then had to
make it Marcus William whether that I'm going to run
into Digs and get a penalty or you know what
it's it's he he'd seen it three times and say okay,
I'm here and then said I'm too early and then wow,
missed them ball catch gone.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
And and there never would have been a Minneapolis Miracle
moment if like either the series before or maybe two
before that for Peyton and the Saints, they they tried
a running back pass I think with Kamara to Willie
Snead and and Snead's wide open for a first down.
If they get that first down, we're in deep water, man.
(35:43):
But they didn't close on it. All those things, it
just shows you the things like the the three game
at Arizona with Josh McCown and Nathan Poole all of
the and Pete was a linebackers coach for the Vikings
at that time. Everything that had to connect. They had
to get a two point conversion from a tight end
who had one catch all year, and they got it.
(36:05):
Klein Saucer has to have an on side kick go
through his hands and they have.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
To recover it. Then they got to get like the
fourth and twenty six. I mean, you can do.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
Far the fire to Greg Lewis thing. I mean there's
you know, I would love to break down every run
that Adrian had against.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
The Chargers m that game the two ninety six ninety six,
I mean that was get this going. I mean you
go up to the third floor and mister Miller's office
and say, look, boss, we can do this the easy
way or the hardware.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I'm sure that would get us off. That would definitely
get us out of this building. Maybe get a little.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Seed money from the from the squad and suddenly you
got to produce.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeaheah, hey, look look at them come in here at
Pete Versuge five six the sky on YouTube.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Let's go tell Nordo's living in a gig economy.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
All right, that's Pete Versage analysts for the Vikings Radio Network.
We have some bikes bikes around the corner. Also, what
what are we on too with a JJ McCarthy. We
need to get that in the mix for the analyst
and much more. When we return to the TCO Radio
Studio Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. You're listening to the
nine to noon presentation. Comes some Bikes Bites at nine
(37:29):
nine led by Eric Nordquist. Bikes Bites are sponsored by.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed Grass Fed Bee and you can
shop online. Box and meat shows up at your doorstep.
You can go to your local Kowalski's and Coburns. They're
proud sponsors of Gopher's Athletics good stuff. Yes it is Clearwater,
Minnesota's finest. Thousand Hills Pete news news coming out yesterday.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Jonathan Grenard his season is going to be over.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
He's going to have shoulder surgery, and this is clearly
something that he fought through.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
And my first Vike bite's kind of simple.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
You know, you see a guy that goes from double
digit sacks to just two or three I think it's three.
But the other aspects in which he was impacting the game,
how do you parse through that to really kind of
just determine how good and how important Jonathan Grenard was
to the team this year.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Well, I've I've said it a couple of times. I
think he's the best defender on the field, one of
the best players. He's the best defensive player that we
have on the field, mainly because of his ability to
rush to pass or consistently.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
There was a play.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
And against Dallas where he was supposed to rush off
the edge and I think he saw the formation and
everything that was happening and then just basically stopped and
then you know, he was he was on his way,
stopped and then worked his way out to the flat
because he identified what was going on around him, and
it ended up being an incomplete pass. It's he's just
(38:56):
so smart, so good, works so hard. He should have
at least six or seven sacks this year if he
would just you know, make the tackle.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
He's like top five and pressures and maybe top five
in almost sacks exactly.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
I would if I had a chance to sit down
with them now or interview him, I'd say, this has
been like the most frustrating year for you.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
He'd be like why.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
I'm like, because you've been to the quarterback like six
times and just that's the hard part is getting there
right and then not not finishing the deal. But yeah,
shoulders are Shoulders are funky, and I'm glad to see
that he's getting it fixed because I know I had
one back in the day and just kind of went
with it and it's just never it's never the same again.
(39:37):
Shoulders are worse than knees in my opinion, as far
as just the whole, the whole bit. Anybody's had shoulder
surgery and had to sleep on an armchair knows exactly
what you're talking about, because.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
You can't lay down, you can't. It sucks.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
But Grenard is He's Yeah, what am I gonna say?
He's physical, plays the run so well, and I think
that that's been the part of Dallas Turner's game that's changed.
Where he's improved is his ability to play the run
because it's not like you just have a gap. Your
job is to literally, if you have a tight end blocking,
(40:13):
you destroy that tight end. Not just hold the edge,
but you've got to be able to come off and
make a play when that when that running back cuts
back inside because you're shorter guy in the box. It's
part of it's a it's a part of how we
do things, a big part of how we do things.
And and Gernard could do it, then Ginkle can obviously
do it. But you need special this defense. You think
(40:36):
about the names of the guys that we've that we've
brought in and you're like, huh, I mean you include
Isaiah Rodgers in that. Right, it's day two signing the agency.
Isaiah Rodgers. Everybody's like who And he's playing well. I mean,
Josh Mantelis. Remember when we resigned him. I remember when
we resigned him, And I came out here during a
mini camp and I'm seeing him out there in third downs.
(40:57):
I'm like, Josh Mantelis is out there in third downs.
But his ability to see talent and guys and know
exactly where to fit him in his scheme. Jay Ward
playing corner right, he may not be a corner, but
he's playing corner in certain coverages right, certain looks, and
he just knows how to do you know, he knows
how to do that. But that's the benefit. The part
(41:18):
is is this defense has to have two outside linebackers
that are ridiculous, ridiculously good.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Right.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
We can get through with the Jonathan Bullards of the
world at inside interior defensive tackle because you can rotate
those guys in and out and down a distance, but
those two outside linebackers have to be beasts, and Jonathan Garnard,
in my opinion, is one of them.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Whether you were a player or whether you were a coach,
this time of year is when some of this stuff
pops right right. Like Grenard was dealing with his shoulder injury.
He was on the Power Trip morning show earlier today
mentioned it kind of first happened in that Baltimore game,
and I think he was out the next week, but
he comes back.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Guys that we know a lot of guys are hurting
right now.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'm just curious do people notice that in that mean
something within the frame of the team and the locker
room understanding that this guy's fighting through his shoulders, say
that guy's got a calf or a quad, et cetera.
Speaker 5 (42:09):
As a player, this is the last three weeks of
the season. You started feeling better because you went through
training camp and then the opening of the season, and
then as the season goes on, Denny would would you know,
we practice in pads less and less and then by
this time of year, you would actually start to feel better.
Really you wouldn't. You know, you still have the nagging things,
(42:31):
but you wouldn't be as beat up on a day
to day basis. You should be able to practice now
fifteen fourteen games into it without having to you know,
the fundamentals should be there and all that. So we started,
we we actually started. I remember we played the Steelers
one time and I saw Jerome Bettis and Jerome ran
By and I you know, talked to him before the
game and you could smell the dmso on him, right,
(42:54):
you can just smell it on his breath, which sadante inflammatory,
and it's you know, you're like, these guys are.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Beat the you know, they're they're beat up badly.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Uh, And we were feeling great, and so yeah, you
got to fight through. You have to fight through a
lot of that. A lot more guys than I are
these days. Then. I think even when I played, we
didn't lose two three starters a year. You didn't have
short term r I and we didn't AXI squad. Yeah,
we only had six people seven people I think on
the practice squad six at the time. And the eligibility
(43:24):
was way different. You had to be a one rookie year,
first year player. He couldn't be a two, three, four,
you know. It's it's which I think is good. I
think that's good for the league that to do that
because guys can stick around longer. But yeah, the injuries,
it's a different game. It's more athletic, right, I mean
they don't they're not as physical as they used to be.
So fundamentals have suffered from back in the old you know,
(43:47):
back in the old days, you never you never saw
an offensive line changing. Back in the day, you had
the same five dudes out there every single week.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
That's how it was.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
In your ability to stay healthy through he's and is
what got you on the field. If teams teams would,
they'd love your athleticism. They'd have a guy that's unbelievable,
but they'd be like, hey, you know, he gets hurt
a lot. He misses two three weeks here in a
week there, And yeah, we're not gonna deal with it. Right,
We're not gonna deal with it. We're not going to
pay a guy that kind of money not be on
the field. Once you got paid in the league, you
played once, if you were if you if you got
(44:18):
a big contract, you're on the field, dude, the show.
I don't care if your wing is. You're out there
because we paid you. So in that regard, it's gotten
a lot better for the players, no question about it.
And yeah I don't I don't hesitate to remind.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Him to talk to them.
Speaker 5 (44:36):
You know, you give them the old I mean when
I got here, it was guys like lertsmah uh and
you know those guys might uh boom boom brown uh Studwell,
those are the guys that would want to the locker room,
and you know they tell you about the old days
and blah blah blah. We're like, yeah, you guys drank
beer all week and then played benied up and went
on the field and played right, no problem, Dave Casper,
(45:00):
and you know those guys, uh so yeah, and now
you know nowadays it's it's Uh, it's a lot different, man.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
They they take care of themselves, they eat better. I mean,
my god, it is a different universe. Yeah, it's completely
those guys have to feel good.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Where are we at with JJ McCarthy coming off the
you know, now two starts in a row where we've
seen some really positive increases to the productivity, some of
the accuracy, some of the inaccuracy is still there, but
decision making processing and kind of the high of a
cool prime time victory. And now it's just a nooneer
out at at MetLife. Just you know, over the final three,
(45:38):
just your your thoughts on the car.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
That's that's gonna be interesting too. It's a it's a
nunear out at Met Life right against the team that's
one lost what six seven in a row?
Speaker 2 (45:46):
I think they have.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Yeah, and so how are you gonna look on that.
You're going to take the week off, You're gonna have
the same you know, same intensity and and and and
work ethic like you did. You can be as prepared
as you were for National TV on Sunday night against
a team that might still have a playoff you know.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Uh, So that part of it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 5 (46:07):
I think the offense has changed in what's I think
what's interesting is you watched the Giants film and Jackson
Dart and you can identify here and their route concepts that.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
They like to do.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
They like to do r P O, they like to
do the you know, two receivers stacked and one guy
run right down the mill like a post kind of
like right down the middlefield. They'll run the dig in
behind it and then they'll uh, you know, there's certain concepts,
just a handful, and they're kind of scattered about, right,
But this isn't the offense that we that we were
(46:39):
running uh years ago last year when when you when
you could sit there and watch the game and see, okay,
there's this concept to beat this coverage and there he
had to simplify. And I think there's finally some synergy
there between what the quarterback can do and what we
want our offense to look like. We've seen justin Jefferson
(47:00):
run slants and a lot of them. He might run
one every once in a while to keep them honest.
But I think that you know you're seeing you saw
a couple lot of them on Sunday night, so you're like, okay,
the receivers are starting to you know what I mean,
just everything's it's a it's a whole new discovery process.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
But we were stretching the field on Sunday night versus
maybe working the tight ends kind of more of a priority.
In the previous game against the Commander and group, those
little graduation.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
We activated four tight ends for Sunday night. Why well,
that's kind of what we're more of what we're doing,
all right, We'll put the heavy people out there and
then spread everybody out, you know, which the Giants do
as well. So you're you're seeing kind of an evolution
in front between the coaches and the play. You know,
JJ's growing up every single week. And then the coaching
staff is trying to not reinventing the wheel.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I hate that. I hate that phrase.
Speaker 5 (47:49):
But they're trying to figure out what what the kid
can handle and what he's comfortable with and what's going
to work on Sunday. It's not it's easy, much easier
said than done. Yeah, right, Because as a team, you
have an identity. You want to be able to run
what you're good at doing, and that's your bread and butter.
When things are going badly, this is what we go
back to the counter like the power eye or uh,
you know, we're running the point, going to run the football.
(48:10):
We're a zone team, that's what we do. And then
the bootlegs off of it. And so finding that identity
is what I'm seeing on the field and uh, you know,
minus that, minus the tip ball, that's one that's that's
kind of like the off season. One of the off
season list of the talkers is why why so many
tip footballs?
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Is that? Is that something? Or you know what is that?
Is that a thing?
Speaker 5 (48:33):
I have no idea what what he could do to
help change that, but that's something that's been consistent all year.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Uh, you and my friend are fantastic. Thanks to everybody
for hitting that's button, that YouTube and uh, the the
Pep versage, I thank you for channel. It was quite
voluminous and the Love Love Covenant audience has clicked and
the Love Covenant audience has spoken.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Suecup Manufacturing and Sue Cup dot Com. See you in
New Jersey Saturday. Yeah, We'll see you there. Pete Versus
channalyst for the Vikings Radio Network via x at, Pete Bursich,
the scribe Ben Geslin, who covers the Minnesota Vikings for
the Star Tribune. He's a weekly component nine to noon
courtesy of Standard heating and Air, and the scribe joins
us from tco's radio studio after this
Lordo, you've got some kind of instrumental acoustic opening bed
in you that won't get iHeartRadio audio media sued.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, you know I.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Don't have free balling in me today with the with
with the quarterback parody, but with the team and the
coach that's coming up shortly here, we can do a
little move on up.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Gotta move on up.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
This is This is nine to now a cappella styling.
Very well done.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Curtis Mayfield, Good morning, Welcome to nine to noon. Welcome
to the TCO Radio Studio. It is our weekly stop
at Twin City's Orthopedics Performance Center, and Kevin O'Connell, head
coach of the Minnesota Viking.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
He joins us a little later.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
We have a coach as covenant today and we will
begin it with Chris Finch, head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves,
courtesy of Second Harvest Heartland and two Harvest dot Org.
Chris Finch, It's Paul Allen. What's going on my mamy?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Good morning?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Pa all good here, Thanks for the call, my brother.
Are you gonna watch the NBA Cup Final tonight between
the Knicks and the Spurs?
Speaker 4 (02:07):
You know, I was actually thinking about going the Wild
Dame tonight. But I haven't decided what my knight's gonna
look like tonight.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
What what can you tell us from an analytical standpoint
about New Blue Liner Quinn Hughes, a player for whom
they traded from Vancouver and people are calling it Quinnesota.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
I can tell you nothing. I just I haven't been
out to see them play yet. I usually like to
get out a couple of times a year, and tonight
the night I can do it.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's fantastic, you know, with with that NBA that NBA
Cup Final tonight, when when San Antonio beat Oklahoma City
Saturday night, at one point in that game, Man Wemby
had played seven minutes and was plus twenty Are you
kidding me with that?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Seven minutes plus twenty?
Speaker 4 (02:54):
And it's crazy. I mean, you know, we sometimes, you know,
it feels like we're all well on a little bit
of borrowed time with with with Wemby, you know, he
just keeps getting better and better and better. You know,
at some point, not to distant futures, he will be
by far and away the best player in the league
with his impact on both sides of the ball. And
(03:15):
you can see him. You can see his game maturing,
and I think the thing that gives him such a
great foundation is he's always been a mature individual and
now you can see his game maturing alongside of his development.
So yeah, just he's an incredible athlete and it's amazing
to watch him play.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
When when you go to the wild game tonight, perchance,
are you doing let's play hockey?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
No, no, no, no, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna try
to sneak in, watch the mocky and sneak out.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Have you ever done that where you get up there
on that perch and it's time to drop the puck,
let's play hockey?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Have you ever done that?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
No, I've never done it. Never done it.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, well we we we put it out there now.
So if any constituents with the Wilder listening, uh I
ear Aaron Framan gets a text within the next twelve
or thirteen minutes, then apologies from yours truly. But with
the with the with the with the NBA Cup, Chris
minus the what I deem to be the ugly flowers
the courts and what they do with them?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is the NBA Cup of success in your estimation?
Speaker 4 (04:27):
I think so I think it's been a success. I
believe that it's created a bit of early season urgency
for sure. Uh. You know, I would say a lot
of fans still don't understand the format, but once they
get once they get on, you know, around their head
(04:49):
around these winner go home style games, which we don't
often see in the n b A. You know, I
think the intensity and the purpose of the uh of
the games takes on a heightened meaning. You know, I
like that, And you know, it's just I wish they
(05:10):
would realign it along divisions that would make sense to me.
And you know, I understand why they don't. They won't.
They don't want these imbalance of good, you know, good
and not so good teams. But you know, like our
division would be super tough with Denver, Oklahoma City, ourselves.
But it is what it is. You know, every year
it's gonna be a little bit different. But I think
it gives some geographical meaning. I think it makes sense
(05:33):
for travel. That's the one thing. One of the downsides
about the Cup is what it does to your schedule.
It creates a bit of an accordion in your schedule.
You have these gaps where you don't play and then
you'll play a bunch of games in a short period
of time.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But then but the.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Real problem is, like you have to zigzag all over
the country to try to play your Cup games. And
I do think if we did it geographically, it would
make a little bit more sense for us from a
travel point of view.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, I'm glad you're going to the wild game tonight.
And now we you know, we go back to the
second question about our first question. You're going to watch
that thing tonight between the Nicks and the Spurs. I
would imagine as a head coach of an NBA team
with a game tomorrow night, you're you're probably the last
one to get with like be like, hey, Micah, hey Pablo,
(06:19):
guys want to come over to my place and have
some appetizers and a couple of drinks and watch an
NBA game?
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah, I mean I I uh, well, first of all,
we have a great staff. I know they'll be all
over the games preparing. We have these two teams coming
up here in the near future. I think with the
NIXT next week in fact, Oh yeah, and uh, you know, generally,
of course I'm going to lock in on our opponent
and our preparation is always on point, and we go
(06:48):
through it, you know, step by step, and I'll get
my eyes on those guys right before we play them.
But you know, my job is primarily worry about us,
you know, I worry about what's going on inside the
tim rules and how I tried to inwardly focus while
the rest of our staff might outwardly focus.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Hey, off the beaten path for a second, and you
do get the NIXT next week. When when you were
in Toronto, did you have o g Ananobi?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
I did? Yeah, one of my favorite.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, what a I mean, it's you know, I'm not
going to put you in a spot, you know, to
be like he's the best at like two way player,
but man, holy cow, with that length and size and stuff.
Now that they have him back, he's he's a wonderful
defensive player, isn't he?
Speaker 4 (07:32):
Oh my god? Yeah, he can guard one through five
legitimately at a super high level. When we were there,
the one night he would guard uh, Damian Lillard. The
next night he would guard Giannis. Yeah, it was. It
was pretty incredible to watch his versatility. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Do you do you remember much of when Kevin Garnett,
you know, played early kind of in the early stages
of his career here.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I don't remember him much as an earlier, younger player,
to be quite honest with Yeah, I was in Europe
a lot during that time, so but but yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, The reason I brought it up is is you
just reminded me with the Lillard and Giannis comparison. Is
like when the Wolves went to the playoffs with was
spree Well and Cassel and they had a really good
team with KG and and they would play the Dallas Mavericks.
I mean, he would shut down Dirk Novitsky. Then then
the Wisconsin Badger Michael Finley would get hot, and then
(08:29):
and then flip god rest his soul would put KG
on Finley and he'd handle him on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
It was terrific.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah, yeah, we have a little bit of that luxury
with Jayden. You know, Jayden can guard a lot of
different guys. You know, some of the some of the
super strong and DC guys might might give him a
little bit more trouble, but he's he's, you know, a
weapon defensively, when you have a guy who can can
go guard multiple positions with great length and then you know,
(09:01):
be able to kind of just move them around in
a game as you need to.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Uh. This is Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
They have Memphis here tomorrow night. Quite the long home
stand for Chris's team started with a victory over Sacramento
Memphis tomorrow night, and it's about it's about a nine
day homestand which is really cool. And Chris is on
the board of Second Harvest Heartland, so support if you
are so inclined at to Harvest dot org. With Memphis
(09:28):
here tomorrow night, John Morant is back. What are you
expecting from your guys and that one against Memphis?
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Well, yeah, well I think we Unfortunately Joe rolled his
ankle a little bit last night, so don't I don't
know what his status will be. We'll find out today,
but he is back. Edie is out for them. They've
had a tough season. They've had some injuries in and
out of the lineups to start this season, which is,
you know, kind of hurt their ability to catch a rhythm.
(09:57):
But they've been playing better of late. You know, we
know it's gonna be a lot of Jaron Jackson Junior.
He's gonna you know, he he's really come on in
the last couple of years as just a like kind
of their number one guy, their go to guy if
you will, you know, hard team to hard team to play.
They spread you out really well. You know, they played
(10:18):
with great pace, Uh, do a lot of things that
you know, you see a lot of teams doing in
this league. They they kind of retooled their offense a
little bit. So Jaron Jackson Junior is a little bit
more at the heart of it.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
How how is Edward's foot and do you expect to
have him like tomorrow or soon?
Speaker 4 (10:40):
Yeah, it's it's definitely improving. You know, he's still day
to day and we'll you know, we have practice here
this morning and uh, we'll see what what he looks
like coming in. But he was able to to move
around get up some shots yesterday, so we're headed in
the right direction. But I'm not sure of exact return
(11:00):
and return time just yet.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And and Chris with Rudy Gobert obviously not searching for details,
but is everything okay?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And do you expect him back tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, everything's okay, Uh, right with Rudy. So
he'll be back today and in the lineup tomorrow. And
you know, he's been having a phenomenal season for US
so far, and it's been fun to watch him play
with the energy and activity that he has been playing with.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Do you do you ever fatigue of constant questions about say,
Clark Dillingham and or Shannon Junior and other minutes?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
Now now, I mean, listen, I understand. Uh, you know,
I understand, but you know why people are asking. Uh,
And you know, I give a pretty good long answer
about it the other day after the games. I don't
think I need to go through it all again. It's
just to say that, you know, this is part of
the you know, the the dual track of trying to
(12:00):
win every single night with the team that's you know,
I wouldn't even say we're you know, kind of we're
certainly not in our prime. Like we have a bunch
of our young core is still twenty four to twenty
five years old, which is, you know, still a couple
of years before they're quote unquote prime. And then we
got a couple of vets to round out the rest
(12:23):
of it. But uh, and then we got a bunch
of young guys in the second basically in their second year,
and you know, trying to We're trying to accomplish all things,
and it's a it's a delicate balance. We're trying to
thread this needle and we know there's gonna be inconsistencies
from that part of the roster and we just can't
give them. We just can't gift them, you know, twenty
(12:44):
five minutes a night. We don't a have that in
our Like if you map out all the roles in
the minutes for everyone, those minus would have to come
at the expense of somebody else. And it's not like
somebody's playing forty minutes a night. So you know, it's
it's it's you know, the role, the role is what
it is. It's it's small, and but it's their job
(13:04):
to to really kind of nail that role right now
and and then we'll grow.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It from there.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Well, off, one thing you did say the other night,
and and I got the quote from Johnny Athletic Story
Krasinski at the Athletic and the Athletic Dot Com with
with the second year guys, when you say with three games,
like a three game sample, uh, you hope to get
one good game, one not so good one stinker.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What what plays into that?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Yeah, that's just that's just the nature of a PA.
This inconsistency of young players. I think that you know
to be to be a young player, and you know,
when things start to take root for you, it's it's
the consistency of your play. Knowing every single night you
can repeat what you're able to do, uh to to
some sort of level of success where it becomes reliable.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And that's that's what drives.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Confidence, Like you know, I know, confidence that has to
be given to the players for them to go out
and play well. That confidence is expressed by us, the
coaching staff, by playing them every night, irrespective of maybe
how they played the night before. But the real confidence
comes from being able to repeat things and getting confidence
(14:19):
that you can repeat thing and and that's you know,
that's the NBA is a tough proving grounds for for
young players at times, especially when you're on a team
such as ours, who's you know, the stakes are higher
and and you're surrounded by guys who you know who
who you're You're out there at the expense of maybe
they're minutes, and they're very accomplished and they're very consistent.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Well with with with with the three we mentioned, the
the one thing that perplexing would be too strong. But
like something that surprises me is like Karen Shannon Jr.
I mean, he tears up Oklahoma City, maybe the best
of all team in the NBA. I mean, he tears
them up every time he plays them. But but then
(15:04):
isn't consistent in the other games? Is Is that what
you're saying here?
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah, I mean like one hundred percent what I'm saying,
But it doesn't. It doesn't. I kind of remove the
opponent a little bit. I mean, I think there are
reasons why that he plays better against the Okay See
than some of the other teams. But but yeah, just
it doesn't. It shouldn't matter who you're playing. Yeah, you
should be able to kind of have that level of performance.
(15:32):
You know. No, TJ's inconsistency is often driven by his
fouling on defense, Like he's often in foul trouble or
you know, has issues at that end of the word. He's
got got to learn to play so that works through us.
Be there's no no different than what we see in
the NFL with young quarterbacks. Like what's the consistency of
(15:52):
a young quarterback in the NFL? Once it becomes you know,
once you rely on what you're me get. You can
game fan around that, you know, whether what you have
to do to help him further or protect him.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, that was a good answer. I appreciate you on that.
Just two more here for Chris Finch, the thunder here
Friday night. Is it too early in the season to
say this is a big one, like this is a
big game coming up Friday night?
Speaker 2 (16:20):
No, not at all.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
I mean they're you know is they're an outstanding team.
We know them well, and you know we gotta we
gotta get some signature winds for the season. That would
be a great one.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Lastly, do do you Christmas shop exclusively online? Or do
you get out to the stores occasionally?
Speaker 4 (16:42):
I'm ninety online, I would say, so.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
We're not going to see you walking around the second
floor all of America like after a practice.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Today, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Well, tear it up against Memphis and enjoy the wild
game tonight. I appreciate the conversation and I'll call you.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Next week, right, I I appreciate you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Likewise, see you. But that's Chris Finch, head coach of
the Minnesota Timberwolves. Weekly nine to noon Courtesy of Second
Harvest Heartland and two Harvest dot Org given this as
a TCO PC Tuesday with nine to noon at Twin
Cities Orthopedics Performance Center for Kevin O'Connell at eleven o'clock,
we are in search of a talkback for the head coach.
(17:24):
If you would like to leave a talk pack talkback
at the free iHeart audio app. You got thirty seconds
and you can share something with the head coach of
the Minnesota Vikings. Nordo the producer will he will parse
his way through them and we will play one back
at about somewhere between eleven and eleven twenty eleven twenty
five for Kevin O'Connell, who joins at eleven o'clock. That's
(17:46):
part of the Timber Tech What's on Deck setlist, which
also includes the analyst Pete Bursich courtesy of Sue Cup
Manufacturing and Sue Cup dot Com. And the analyst joins
us next from Egan at the Minnesota Vikings Practice Facility,
Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. We are in the ve
Ns TCO Radio studio. A Devin Ward is guiding the
(18:09):
Great Ship Left Covenant. Nordo produces on site and I'm
Paul Allen. This is nine to noon. Here comes the analyst,
(18:34):
Pete Bursich, analyst for the Minnesota Vikings Radio and Audio Network.
At Pete Bursich via x if you would like to
follow for hardcore football conversation. Also via YouTube. He as
a YouTube channel and he puts out videos quite frequently.
I in the Sky is what it's titled. You can
(18:54):
just put Pete Bursage five to six in the search
bar and learn more about I in the Sky. Suecup
Manufacturing and Suecup dot Com thank you for season long sponsorship.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Make sure to hit that bell and subscribe, right Pete,
that's what you gotta do. Hit that bell for notifications
and subscribe.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
It helps.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
All that stuff helps, you know, different, that's talking about
a different world.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
To make sure you hit this button with this up
button at Sue Cup Manufacturing and Sue Cup dot Com.
All right, well let's start there. Why does it take
eight hours to post a twenty three minute video on YouTube?
You know when you told me that, I mean, we
had just a wonderful thirty forty five minutes sitting in
(19:38):
where we stayed in Dallas. It's just it was a fantastic, pleasant, resort.
It was kind of a resort, and we had about
a cool forty five minute, you know, a little sit
down with Pete and I Quacy stop by and kind
of gave us a microcosm of his life right now,
trying to keep every sliver of a playoff hope alive,
(19:58):
talking about the Cleveland rounds and Chicago and then you know,
things that he's going to be watching for the draft
next year. And it was kind of a what's happening
now and what's coming up kind of a microcosm.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I thought that was super cool.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
But you know when I asked you about I in
the Sky and you told me it took eight hours,
eight hours to post a twenty three minute Dallas Turner
video on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, why how why?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Well, it's all and this is all I do, every
I do every bit of it myself. So the part
that I had to learn was all the just the flow,
the workflow. And I'm kind of familiar with it with
it because of how we do things here and with
you and Christian, Yeah, with Christian and the ven excuse me.
So you know, it's just you have to figure it out.
(20:45):
You have the you have to find the plays right
you have to watch all this football, find all the plays,
and you have to put him in order, which sounds
easy to do, but it's not. You get him in order,
and then you have to put them in a in
a rip file or a certain file. Then that file
has to be produced. Did you know what a rip
file was before I in the sky?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Just well, I mean I knew what I learned what
what we referred to as a rip file because of
these guys here at the ven.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Because like, I don't know what a substack is. She
you kids talk about substacks. Yeah, it's just a blog
it is, yeah, okay, yeah, sub reddit blog with a
rip file on the fat exactly.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
And then and then learning different like I had learned Canovia.
I had to learn obs studio, how to set the
camera up, the audio blah blah blah blah, you know,
and then you have to put it all together, and
then you record it, and then you have to put
that back into Da Vinci and then edit it and
splice it and put it back together, and then you
have to get that all done, and then that.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Gets uploaded to YouTube.
Speaker 5 (21:39):
And then once you upload it to YouTube, you have
to add all the different information that goes into that
as well, and that whole process.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, it's it's a it's a day. Would you then
entire day?
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Would you say that it's I mean, is there because
you can build some efficiencies just by doing more of
these things, right, So would you say that it's more
comfortable than the first one?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Oh? My god? Yeah, you just you just know.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
So it used to take longer than eight hours to
do a twenty three minute bit.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Well it took two months up love the third video.
It depends you said it.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
Hey, really, I'm sorry, but everybody, hold on, everybody was
in Ireland for a week.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Hit that sub button and tell friends and family members
to hit that sub button and don't forget the bell
for the notifications and like it and repost it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
But hit that sub But as has been sitting on
that one for a two months.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Since the sprague Absolutely oh yeah, yeah, no, we've told
about it with you away.
Speaker 5 (22:37):
Yeah, I mean, and that's that was kind of the
preseason thing I did. I did a number of them
in the beginning and then and then didn't because I
that was me learning the process.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
It's good. I wasn't. I wasn't just go with it.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
I wasn't gonna use the first ones as just hey,
this is how it's going to be done. And then
after that was over, it made a bunch of changes
and then kind of ran out of stuff to talk
about going into the regular season.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Do you think, you know, maybe maybe the most popular
podcast slash YouTube bit with shorts and all that would
be the Joe Rogan what is the Joe Rogan Experience
whatever it's called. Do you think Joe Rogan spends eight
hours putting up a twenty three minute video when he's
interviewing somebody, well.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
His Yeah, I mean, once you get that big, you
you hire people to do all the all that, and
he spends I'm sure all his time just learning about
his guests and all that. I mean, yeah, I could,
could you outsource some of the stuff? I get YEA,
Eventually that would be nice to be able to do.
But for now, I'm doing this. But I'm doing this
because I love doing film right and I want to
(23:38):
and just the ability to do it on my own
the way I want to do it. Uh that that's
compelling enough for me. So and it's you know, every
once in a while, you just got to do something
that you're not comfortable with and just do it. And
I've learned a ton and it's been I've learned a
lot about YouTube the business and you know how you
know thumbnails and how they're you know how people think
(23:59):
they should look a thumbnail just when you're scrolling on YouTube.
It's just that initial picture that you get, right, And
there's I mean you could you could.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Do photoshop and special thumbnails for those.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
Yeah, well I just use can Canva, right, But you
have to find all these programs, right, You have to
be able to find a program man, you got to
download it. You can watch an MP four and be
able to draw on comfortably, right. And it's a lot
of It's a lot of Uh.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
That's the thing that is when you watch the videos
though you're supernatural in the film. Yeah, the information I'm
getting is awesome. The presentation is terrific. I am the
people don't realize like the back end button is uh
is We're learning a lot about different things.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
There's there's zero production value in it because I'm the
one producing it, so I I'm I'm not going to
sit there. I'm not going to sit there for a
day and figure out how to do something in da
Vinci right right where it's a sound effect and the
solution and the the screen does this, and then you
have this graphic coming in number two. My computer, I
mean these this that stuff eats up computer power like
(25:06):
you can't believe. So I'm not gonna sit there and
do all that. I mean maybe this offseason, but I'm
not gonna. I'm not gonna spend two days now doing
all that.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
One.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
It's not my fortepe. But yeah, if I have some
free time, I'm monkey with it. And you may have
a few cool things here and there.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Let's let's do this nine to noon. Let's be a
love covenant. Go to YouTube and then just in the
search bar Pete versus five six, you'll get the eye
in the sky that then hit the hit the logo
and it'll take you to the page where you get
the videos, playlist posts, uh the sub button community, and
you'll the last one you'll see is from the flip
card which Pete put together in front of the Vikings
(25:43):
Cowboys game. But let's subscribe to Peach Channel A to
support the analyst because he's the bomb and he's working
hard at it. But secondly, the they're really good. It's
really the film breakdowns and the flip card stuff that
he does is really really good. So I know where
we are now. At nine to thirty in the morning Tuesday,
(26:04):
we have a couple of segments with the analyst and
let's let's see where the love Coveny can take this.
All right, it's YouTube search bar Pete versus five six
and subscribe to his YouTube channel. And we think we
think you're already E leite football mind You wouldn't be.
You wouldn't listen to nine to noon if you weren't.
But it'll be capital all caps E L I T
(26:26):
E Football minds The Eye in the Sky YouTube dot com.
Hit this button please uh. And lastly, on on the
YouTube bit, have you thought about maybe in the off
season doing a series called Postseason Peat? And the reason
I dubbed it that is because and I'm just gonna
mention four here, but you've been involved, whether calling the
(26:49):
games or playing in the games, and really even coaching them.
I guess some really really good playoff games, some really
interesting playoff games involving the Minnesota Vikings. The first one
I would start with if I were you, with Postseason Pete,
the Eye in the Sky YouTube would be the ninety
seven wild card playoff game at the Meadowlands against the
(27:10):
New York Giants. Yeah, yeah, that was crazy. Well, that
thing was in December, I mean first and foremost. When
I went researching this, I'm like, damn, the wild card
round was right around Christmas.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Now, now everything's in January. Super Bowl in February, late
February sometimes. But that that was you guys were down
sixteen zero at halftime, made a thrilling comeback postseason, Pete,
that was.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
Yeah, we had an on site s kick that I
think Chris Walsh recovered. I thought you'd want me to
start with the ninety four loss to the Chicago Bears
in the Metro Dome nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And never mind, what would be intriguing about that? Nothing?
But did you get run through by paid?
Speaker 5 (27:47):
No, he wasn't in the league yet, I don't ninety four? Yeah, well,
I know I never played against Peyton. He was gone
before I got Oh, okay, but no.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
There, Yeah, that's was that your rookie season?
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Then?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Okay, that Sweetness on you didn't he I wish well
you grew up watching Sweetness and then played against him and.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
I remember speaking that.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
I remember going on the field when I was coaching
and I saw Dick buckis right and he's standing there.
He's just a monster. I walk up to him and
I'm like, hey, you don't know me. I'm just a fan,
blah blah blah. You I'm coaching, and he just like
basically gave me the finger and turnront and walked away.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
And I'm like, yeah, that's the coolest thing. That never
flipped me off.
Speaker 5 (28:28):
But wow, Yeah, he's like seriously, he he's wild, man,
because I've I've kind of bumped into him here and
there and he's all smiles. But he walks on the field.
It didn't matter if it was a game or if
he was out there. He was just a kid looking
for an auto here. He was his first game of
the season this year.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Man, speaking to the Bears, I think I mentioned this
to you on the radio before. But at halftime of
that Vikings victory at Soldier Field, the one McCarthy scored
three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, they honored the eighty five Bears.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And I mean, I can't because I don't want to
mention names because I might miss one and the guy
miss might be dead and then I got to deal
with that on social media. But I mean, they they
when they were in Now you know, Wilbur Marshall, Mike Singletary,
you know you. You and I generally chill in the
back of the box box and like recalibrate for the
second half or you go get some food or whatever,
(29:21):
but you were you were all eyes and ears that night.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
That was special for it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (29:26):
I got to meet Otis Wilson and Wilbrim Marshall by
the TV trucks hunder the stadium one time. That was Yeah,
that was fantastic. But as far as topics for the
for videos and stuff go, I'm working. I've been in
conversation with the NFL eight about getting old coaches film
that would be from the ninety eight MC Championship game.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
There's some other things I'd love to do.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
A history on Tampa to the coverage, and just because
I know it started with Tony Dungeye and what it
is and how it's evolved and all that, just real
real geeky football type stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Feels like the league would lock that stuff up kind
of tightly. Uh yeah, they're gonna control it pretty basically.
Your alumni.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
Yeah, that and that's that's the one reason they even
sat down and listen. They said, Okay, you go do
your thing for a while. We'll see how it goes.
And I'm good. You know, eventually, at the seasons over
I go back to them. I'm sure they're going to
look at what I've been doing and blah blah blah,
you know that kind of thing. And then and then
maybe they'll, uh, you know, maybe they'll decide to It's
(30:25):
just it depends on who you are as a as
an alumni.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Le's face.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
It's some guys obviously who are future Hall of Famers,
and guys like that can call up and get whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
You know, they're a lot more eager to help them.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
But hopefully fingers crossed the the what I've done is
compelling enough that they'll say, yeah, let's uh yeah, you just.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Let us know what you need.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
Or I can fly to New York or LA wherever
the wherever all the databases are and just bring a
gigantic hard drive and just download.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Some of the classic film Oh my God, and.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Then your ability like where where I would love it
is matching the old with the new. Yeah, you were
sawing in the nineties because you know, pure progression and
some of the conversations we're having about defenses and then
raising QBS. I got postseason Pete breaking down. Well, here's
what a rookie in ninety eight was, bearing down the barrel.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
There's a whole every time you're every time you run
across a guy who you know, played back a decade
ago or twenty years ago. For one of the things
you always ask him is you know you like the
game now? How do you like you know, how do
you like football these days? And that's it's just comparing
the Is the game better today than it used to be?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
It's different, right, yeah? Is it? Is it better or worse?
Speaker 5 (31:40):
And I think it's it's kind of a cool question,
open ended. Everybody's going to have an opinion. You know,
there's a whole there's a whole, a whole line of that.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
I think this needs to be recorded. Yeah right.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
I'm not saying a billion people are going to watch it.
I'm just saying it's compelling and it's something that if
it's out there, it would be I think good just
for just for you know, history's sake.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I guess uh, we're we're up one hundredscribers subscribers at
the Eye in the Sky.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Everybody appreciate that. So far, way done?
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Okay, YouTube dot com search more deep sage five six.
Support the analyst so he can go to n F
so he can go to the NFL, or NFL films
in in what is it East Orange or.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Well there's one.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
There's a studio in la it's right by the stadium,
and there's.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
One in Manhattan. I think too that.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Uh, but I don't know where they store all quote
unquote store all the films. Yeah, probably down in Texas. Yeah, yeah,
this is middle I can't Yeah, this is the only
mountain Nevada.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
This is only going to lead to uh better and
more or excuse me, more slash better videos at pete
ursage five six on YouTube at pepe ursage five six
on YouTube. It's the Eye in the Sky. Please subscribe
and support our brother. Here the the options that that
I would put out one of them. You know it
(33:03):
is not a good memory, but to have you dissect
and break down the the ninety eight NFC title game
and you played in the game percent that one the
uh the October is an October seventh, ninety eight game
when we went into went in the Lambeau and they
had what a thirty five game winning streak at home? Yeah,
the Monday night, drizzly rain and we.
Speaker 5 (33:23):
Beat the snot and that was probably that was one
of my favorite games of all time.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
They sat Brett fav in the fourth quarter. Do you
know who replaced him?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
No, Doug e P. Doug Peterson.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Doug Peterson, Yeah, no kid, Yeah, Doug Peterson, super Bowl
winning coach.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Two thousand, the two thousand game. Yeah. But if it's
posted like Frishman, what's that? Which one? Which one was
that was? I think?
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Ninety nine bounced off his back, the immaculate deflection. Uh,
the the O nine NFC title game at New Orleans.
That'd be one just to break down what the I
think it was Bobby Cray and not Aching Adell. It
was one of the Adel's and the hot the designed
cheating high lows on Brett BarreR. You know, just like
(34:10):
you could literally break down what I like, find a
story and this may take six hours, find a story,
screenshot it, show the story about the high low.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
And then show us what a high low is. I'm
sure the league would love me doing that. Goodness, I
know we're six and eight.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Here do we have to live in misery?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Minneapolis Miracle absolutely seventeen oh at halftime. Uh, and then
we have a replacement long snapper who blows it. They
block a punt and then they're in business.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Here's the deal. Like I would love to do that.
Speaker 5 (34:45):
Just just the last series in that that play that
Digs caught for the touchdown, they ran it almost like
the third time in that drive that they ran it,
at least the second or third, because it was that's
about all they had.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
And that was the reason.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
I can't remember to get the kid's name, but that's
why he got there so early and then had to
make it Marcus William whether that I'm going to run
into Digs and get a penalty or you know what
it's it's he he'd seen it three times and say okay,
I'm here and then said I'm too early and then wow,
missed them ball catch gone.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
And and there never would have been a Minneapolis Miracle
moment if like either the series before or maybe two
before that for Peyton and the Saints, they they tried
a running back pass I think with Kamara to Willie
Snead and and Snead's wide open for a first down.
If they get that first down, we're in deep water, man.
(35:43):
But they didn't close on it. All those things, it
just shows you the things like the the three game
at Arizona with Josh McCown and Nathan Poole all of
the and Pete was a linebackers coach for the Vikings
at that time. Everything that had to connect. They had
to get a two point conversion from a tight end
who had one catch all year, and they got it.
(36:05):
Klein Saucer has to have an on side kick go
through his hands and they have.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
To recover it. Then they got to get like the
fourth and twenty six. I mean, you can do.
Speaker 5 (36:14):
Far the fire to Greg Lewis thing. I mean there's
you know, I would love to break down every run
that Adrian had against.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
The Chargers m that game the two ninety six ninety six,
I mean that was get this going. I mean you
go up to the third floor and mister Miller's office
and say, look, boss, we can do this the easy
way or the hardware.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I'm sure that would get us off. That would definitely
get us out of this building. Maybe get a little.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Seed money from the from the squad and suddenly you
got to produce.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeaheah, hey, look look at them come in here at
Pete Versuge five six the sky on YouTube.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
Let's go tell Nordo's living in a gig economy.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
All right, that's Pete Versage analysts for the Vikings Radio Network.
We have some bikes bikes around the corner. Also, what
what are we on too with a JJ McCarthy. We
need to get that in the mix for the analyst
and much more. When we return to the TCO Radio
Studio Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center. You're listening to the
nine to noon presentation. Comes some Bikes Bites at nine
(37:29):
nine led by Eric Nordquist. Bikes Bites are sponsored by.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Thousand Hills Lifetime Grazed Grass Fed Bee and you can
shop online. Box and meat shows up at your doorstep.
You can go to your local Kowalski's and Coburns. They're
proud sponsors of Gopher's Athletics good stuff. Yes it is Clearwater,
Minnesota's finest. Thousand Hills Pete news news coming out yesterday.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Jonathan Grenard his season is going to be over.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
He's going to have shoulder surgery, and this is clearly
something that he fought through.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
And my first Vike bite's kind of simple.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
You know, you see a guy that goes from double
digit sacks to just two or three I think it's three.
But the other aspects in which he was impacting the game,
how do you parse through that to really kind of
just determine how good and how important Jonathan Grenard was
to the team this year.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
Well, I've I've said it a couple of times. I
think he's the best defender on the field, one of
the best players. He's the best defensive player that we
have on the field, mainly because of his ability to
rush to pass or consistently.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
There was a play.
Speaker 5 (38:36):
And against Dallas where he was supposed to rush off
the edge and I think he saw the formation and
everything that was happening and then just basically stopped and
then you know, he was he was on his way,
stopped and then worked his way out to the flat
because he identified what was going on around him, and
it ended up being an incomplete pass. It's he's just
(38:56):
so smart, so good, works so hard. He should have
at least six or seven sacks this year if he
would just you know, make the tackle.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
He's like top five and pressures and maybe top five
in almost sacks exactly.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
I would if I had a chance to sit down
with them now or interview him, I'd say, this has
been like the most frustrating year for you.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
He'd be like why.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
I'm like, because you've been to the quarterback like six
times and just that's the hard part is getting there
right and then not not finishing the deal. But yeah,
shoulders are Shoulders are funky, and I'm glad to see
that he's getting it fixed because I know I had
one back in the day and just kind of went
with it and it's just never it's never the same again.
(39:37):
Shoulders are worse than knees in my opinion, as far
as just the whole, the whole bit. Anybody's had shoulder
surgery and had to sleep on an armchair knows exactly
what you're talking about, because.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
You can't lay down, you can't. It sucks.
Speaker 5 (39:51):
But Grenard is He's Yeah, what am I gonna say?
He's physical, plays the run so well, and I think
that that's been the part of Dallas Turner's game that's changed.
Where he's improved is his ability to play the run
because it's not like you just have a gap. Your
job is to literally, if you have a tight end blocking,
(40:13):
you destroy that tight end. Not just hold the edge,
but you've got to be able to come off and
make a play when that when that running back cuts
back inside because you're shorter guy in the box. It's
part of it's a it's a part of how we
do things, a big part of how we do things.
And and Gernard could do it, then Ginkle can obviously
do it. But you need special this defense. You think
(40:36):
about the names of the guys that we've that we've
brought in and you're like, huh, I mean you include
Isaiah Rodgers in that. Right, it's day two signing the agency.
Isaiah Rodgers. Everybody's like who And he's playing well. I mean,
Josh Mantelis. Remember when we resigned him. I remember when
we resigned him, And I came out here during a
mini camp and I'm seeing him out there in third downs.
(40:57):
I'm like, Josh Mantelis is out there in third downs.
But his ability to see talent and guys and know
exactly where to fit him in his scheme. Jay Ward
playing corner right, he may not be a corner, but
he's playing corner in certain coverages right, certain looks, and
he just knows how to do you know, he knows
how to do that. But that's the benefit. The part
(41:18):
is is this defense has to have two outside linebackers
that are ridiculous, ridiculously good.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Right.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
We can get through with the Jonathan Bullards of the
world at inside interior defensive tackle because you can rotate
those guys in and out and down a distance, but
those two outside linebackers have to be beasts, and Jonathan Garnard,
in my opinion, is one of them.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Whether you were a player or whether you were a coach,
this time of year is when some of this stuff
pops right right. Like Grenard was dealing with his shoulder injury.
He was on the Power Trip morning show earlier today
mentioned it kind of first happened in that Baltimore game,
and I think he was out the next week, but
he comes back.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Guys that we know a lot of guys are hurting
right now.
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'm just curious do people notice that in that mean
something within the frame of the team and the locker
room understanding that this guy's fighting through his shoulders, say
that guy's got a calf or a quad, et cetera.
Speaker 5 (42:09):
As a player, this is the last three weeks of
the season. You started feeling better because you went through
training camp and then the opening of the season, and
then as the season goes on, Denny would would you know,
we practice in pads less and less and then by
this time of year, you would actually start to feel better.
Really you wouldn't. You know, you still have the nagging things,
(42:31):
but you wouldn't be as beat up on a day
to day basis. You should be able to practice now
fifteen fourteen games into it without having to you know,
the fundamentals should be there and all that. So we started,
we we actually started. I remember we played the Steelers
one time and I saw Jerome Bettis and Jerome ran
By and I you know, talked to him before the
game and you could smell the dmso on him, right,
(42:54):
you can just smell it on his breath, which sadante inflammatory,
and it's you know, you're like, these guys are.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Beat the you know, they're they're beat up badly.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Uh, And we were feeling great, and so yeah, you
got to fight through. You have to fight through a
lot of that. A lot more guys than I are
these days. Then. I think even when I played, we
didn't lose two three starters a year. You didn't have
short term r I and we didn't AXI squad. Yeah,
we only had six people seven people I think on
the practice squad six at the time. And the eligibility
(43:24):
was way different. You had to be a one rookie year,
first year player. He couldn't be a two, three, four,
you know. It's it's which I think is good. I
think that's good for the league that to do that
because guys can stick around longer. But yeah, the injuries,
it's a different game. It's more athletic, right, I mean
they don't they're not as physical as they used to be.
So fundamentals have suffered from back in the old you know,
(43:47):
back in the old days, you never you never saw
an offensive line changing. Back in the day, you had
the same five dudes out there every single week.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
That's how it was.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
In your ability to stay healthy through he's and is
what got you on the field. If teams teams would,
they'd love your athleticism. They'd have a guy that's unbelievable,
but they'd be like, hey, you know, he gets hurt
a lot. He misses two three weeks here in a
week there, And yeah, we're not gonna deal with it. Right,
We're not gonna deal with it. We're not going to
pay a guy that kind of money not be on
the field. Once you got paid in the league, you
played once, if you were if you if you got
(44:18):
a big contract, you're on the field, dude, the show.
I don't care if your wing is. You're out there
because we paid you. So in that regard, it's gotten
a lot better for the players, no question about it.
And yeah I don't I don't hesitate to remind.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Him to talk to them.
Speaker 5 (44:36):
You know, you give them the old I mean when
I got here, it was guys like lertsmah uh and
you know those guys might uh boom boom brown uh Studwell,
those are the guys that would want to the locker room,
and you know they tell you about the old days
and blah blah blah. We're like, yeah, you guys drank
beer all week and then played benied up and went
on the field and played right, no problem, Dave Casper,
(45:00):
and you know those guys, uh so yeah, and now
you know nowadays it's it's Uh, it's a lot different, man.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
They they take care of themselves, they eat better. I mean,
my god, it is a different universe. Yeah, it's completely
those guys have to feel good.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
Where are we at with JJ McCarthy coming off the
you know, now two starts in a row where we've
seen some really positive increases to the productivity, some of
the accuracy, some of the inaccuracy is still there, but
decision making processing and kind of the high of a
cool prime time victory. And now it's just a nooneer
out at at MetLife. Just you know, over the final three,
(45:38):
just your your thoughts on the car.
Speaker 5 (45:39):
That's that's gonna be interesting too. It's a it's a
nunear out at Met Life right against the team that's
one lost what six seven in a row?
Speaker 2 (45:46):
I think they have.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
Yeah, and so how are you gonna look on that.
You're going to take the week off, You're gonna have
the same you know, same intensity and and and and
work ethic like you did. You can be as prepared
as you were for National TV on Sunday night against
a team that might still have a playoff you know.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Uh, So that part of it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 5 (46:07):
I think the offense has changed in what's I think
what's interesting is you watched the Giants film and Jackson
Dart and you can identify here and their route concepts that.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
They like to do.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
They like to do r P O, they like to
do the you know, two receivers stacked and one guy
run right down the mill like a post kind of
like right down the middlefield. They'll run the dig in
behind it and then they'll uh, you know, there's certain concepts,
just a handful, and they're kind of scattered about, right,
But this isn't the offense that we that we were
(46:39):
running uh years ago last year when when you when
you could sit there and watch the game and see, okay,
there's this concept to beat this coverage and there he
had to simplify. And I think there's finally some synergy
there between what the quarterback can do and what we
want our offense to look like. We've seen justin Jefferson
(47:00):
run slants and a lot of them. He might run
one every once in a while to keep them honest.
But I think that you know you're seeing you saw
a couple lot of them on Sunday night, so you're like, okay,
the receivers are starting to you know what I mean,
just everything's it's a it's a whole new discovery process.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
But we were stretching the field on Sunday night versus
maybe working the tight ends kind of more of a priority.
In the previous game against the Commander and group, those
little graduation.
Speaker 5 (47:26):
We activated four tight ends for Sunday night. Why well,
that's kind of what we're more of what we're doing,
all right, We'll put the heavy people out there and
then spread everybody out, you know, which the Giants do
as well. So you're you're seeing kind of an evolution
in front between the coaches and the play. You know,
JJ's growing up every single week. And then the coaching
staff is trying to not reinventing the wheel.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
I hate that. I hate that phrase.
Speaker 5 (47:49):
But they're trying to figure out what what the kid
can handle and what he's comfortable with and what's going
to work on Sunday. It's not it's easy, much easier
said than done. Yeah, right, Because as a team, you
have an identity. You want to be able to run
what you're good at doing, and that's your bread and butter.
When things are going badly, this is what we go
back to the counter like the power eye or uh,
you know, we're running the point, going to run the football.
(48:10):
We're a zone team, that's what we do. And then
the bootlegs off of it. And so finding that identity
is what I'm seeing on the field and uh, you know,
minus that, minus the tip ball, that's one that's that's
kind of like the off season. One of the off
season list of the talkers is why why so many
tip footballs?
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Is that? Is that something? Or you know what is that?
Is that a thing?
Speaker 5 (48:33):
I have no idea what what he could do to
help change that, but that's something that's been consistent all year.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Uh, you and my friend are fantastic. Thanks to everybody
for hitting that's button, that YouTube and uh, the the
Pep versage, I thank you for channel. It was quite
voluminous and the Love Love Covenant audience has clicked and
the Love Covenant audience has spoken.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Suecup Manufacturing and Sue Cup dot Com. See you in
New Jersey Saturday. Yeah, We'll see you there. Pete Versus
channalyst for the Vikings Radio Network via x at, Pete Bursich,
the scribe Ben Geslin, who covers the Minnesota Vikings for
the Star Tribune. He's a weekly component nine to noon
courtesy of Standard heating and Air, and the scribe joins
us from tco's radio studio after this
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