December 3, 2025 • 52 mins
Wolves coach Chris Finch opens the show after a win in NOLA, a couple Vikes Bites get sandwiched in before Florio makes his weekly stop!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amen. M what you just said? Welcome back to the show.
What's that ball doing?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
No, I don't know football?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I mean pick your poison with that deepend nine too news.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Go like that?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Now?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
What what what did I do wrong? Just listen, just listen,
time for two more. What in the hand fat is
going on with you guys?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
The backing?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Do you think it's puny? M Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Oh thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh I haven't seen for a second. Oh well, wow,
what's that fun? Cash CD?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Fake radio? Let go everyone?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Lets Jonson for me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I know we're gonna beat them Crown. Thank you, Minneapolis?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Is that something? What is that good?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I'm here to serve you. This is your smooth Jazz
Leader FM one hundred point three k f a M.
(02:43):
Where it's soft and warm. It's the Quiet Storm. It's
k f AN. Had a pleasant good morning to you.
I am Paul Allen with Nordu by my side. We
are awaiting the arrival of Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris
Finch by Finchy Faith. We commence this Wednesday nine to
(03:06):
noon and by four checking Faith. We finished nine to
noon today at about eleven thirty five with Minnesota wild
head coach John Hines, a couple of victorious coaches yesterday,
and indeed we begin with Chris Finch courtesy of Second
Harvest Heartland and two Harvest dot Org. Second Harvest Heartland
(03:27):
and two Harvest dot Org coach Finch is on the
board for said dot org and joins us now from Nolins. Chris,
good morning, And I mean you had that three win
operation every step of the way, didn't you. Last night.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You think, oh yeah, we made it harder than it
had to be. And unfortunately that's in our DNA right now.
We gotta get, we gotta get, gotta shake.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
That one out off.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I thought, I like the way we started completely
lost focus in and tensity in the second quarter, and
you know, let a team get rolling on you, and
that's that's how it goes and doesn't matter irrespective of
anyone's record. And you know this from you know, football
in any other sporties. You know, these these guys are
(04:16):
good players and if you let them get get to
do their thing easily, then it's it gets tough.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So without with an eighty two game season and you know,
playing into overtime without you know, legitimately, specifically when Zion
Williamson doesn't play one of the uh one of the
worst teams in the NBA record wise, is it? Is it?
Like you mentioned the NFL combating analyzing or looking at
(04:46):
games from a fan or media perspective, UH, game after
game after game in November December, stuff like that, Like
the NFL, which is a weekly enterprise where of course
you want to win, and if you had lost last night,
this conversation would be dramatically more depressing, but not just
taking things into perspective recognizing the eighty two games can
(05:10):
be such a grind that there will be games.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Like this, right, Oh for sure, no doubt about it.
You know that's always going to be the case. Yeah,
And that's that's that's no, that's you know, that's very
well said. But you know, sometimes you do things to
yourselves and sometimes you just don't have it, you know.
I thought last night was a little bit of the former. Again.
(05:33):
I like how we started and then we just kind
of lost focused, and then I felt very confident at
halftime that we were going to win the game. But
it's not a habit you want to fall into where
you have to dig yourself out.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Of a hole on the road and rely on, you.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Know, over time to get it done. You know, there's
a difference between a good win and a good performance,
and you'd always rather have the good win. But but
but long term success is built on good performance, and
that's what you have to try to mimic every night
as coaches. I think, you know, I believe in what
(06:10):
I can see and what we can repeat and that's it.
You know, I'm not big into hope. You know, I'm
not big into into just you know, hoping it all
comes together. Like I try to root ourselves and what
we can repeat every single night. And when you're have inconsistencies,
you got to got to get those out of your game.
(06:31):
And that's what defines the different levels of performance in
the league, whether it's the Okay Seas of the world
or a championship level or you know, the lesser teams
like you're just trying to get to that next level.
It's all about finding that consistency in your game.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I love how you put that because antithetical to what
I just said, habits can be developed where you know,
like last year there was a point where things were
in and out, you guys end up going to the
Western Conference Final and had one of the best four
teams in the NBA. But there were times we would
chat about, is is this kind of a put do
these guys think it's a push button operation? And like
(07:10):
you can get down ten points to like re win
teams push a button and you're just going to get
back to the Western Conference finals. And you know, habits
like that, bad habits can be developed, and you just
hope they don't rear their head at the wrong time, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Mean, you know there there is some fear of that
at the moment, for sure, no doubt about it. And
you know we've got to try to, you know, raise
our standards. Last year's team and last year's struggles were
completely different, right you know our record was you know,
I think we were eight and ten after eighteen games.
(07:46):
I can't remember what we were after that. You know,
this year we were ten and eight, So we would
flip that record on itself, but we probably could have
been a little bit better at that point in time.
Long season. We'll make up ground as we go along,
provided we find that consistency that we were talking about.
But but the reality is last year's team, like we
had a vision for what last year's team was going
(08:06):
to be and we and we worked towards it, and
we stay focused on it, and it eventually it came
together through struggles, through the transition of the trade and
all the things we've talked about numerous times this year's
teams that we have. We have to have a different vision.
You know, we know what our team should look like
and and we have to be more consistent to that approach.
(08:29):
And then we got to find and you know, bring
these young guys along in that and see who can
help us when it matters and when we're going to
really need them and what our team does need to
get over that hurdle. And we can't just expect it
to happen. And to your point, like we we you know,
we don't want to pick up bad habits along the way.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I have have crowds there always been so poor. I mean,
like even when you coach there and you had good
players like Julius Randall and Anthony Davis or you know,
even back like when Chris Paul was there. I mean,
is it a good basketball market or is it all
Saints all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Uh, you know, it's a fickle market. When you're when
you're good here. They'll definitely come out. There's a lot
of things going on down here on a you know,
on a day to day basis when it comes to
your spending your entertainment dollar, right obviously, Uh, you know
it's a big Saints down you know, you know how
passionate they are about their football here LSU. You know,
(09:29):
all of LSU sports gets a ton of support, right.
But yeah, I mean it's when we were here and
we were winning games, you know, they were coming out
and it was great support.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
How how did you get Julius Randall on that rookie
guard fierce with a minute to go in ot It's
it's clear, at least from the outside they failed to
double for some reason, and that was the old ball game.
But I mean that, I mean, you got Randall on,
just a marketly smaller guy. How'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, they were either trapping or switching the ball screens
with Anthony, and we wanted to try to get Julius
going in the overtime period. We felt that, you know,
he was going to have a mismatch against the switch
or if they doubled, one of our best playmakers had
the ball in the middle of the floor, so he
(10:22):
did a good job, took his time and put the
ball in the basket.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Anthony with thirty four in the second half and ot
and forty four overall, played the entire second half in OTAM.
What are some keys to getting around those constant aggressive
double teams he gets basically every time on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, Well, first, you know, the first thing that you
have to do when you're being double teams is you
got to get off the ball right away. You know,
you got to when they're putting two on you. That
means there's only three left to cover four, right and
the quicker you make the decision to get off it,
you know, then remove the ball and we're gonna get
a ton of open shots. And we did a pretty
(11:06):
good job of that at times last night. Made a
bunch of three, especially when we were down to tighten
the game up, hit Rudy in the pocket, and you
just got to keep doing that. If they're determined to
put two on you and not let you play quote unquote,
then you've got to keep making the right play, keep
trusting your teammates, keep trusting the past, and then figure
(11:26):
out other ways that you can attack, whether it be
in transition before they set you know, cut against the pressure,
you know, play off ball a little bit more and
see if they're going to trap you, you know in
the off ball actions, which generally they don't. So it's
just you know a combination of things. But when they're
putting two on you, and that's what all the great
(11:46):
ones do. You know, you watch, you watch Luca play,
You watch hard and play. It's effortless. They just get
off it right away and then it builds such trust
in their teammates and everybody makes the right play after that.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So that's fantastic. So obviously there are designs and schemes
and plays and you'll go over them with ed words
about hey, this is going to happen and do this,
this and this, but eventually it or or yeah, eventually
it's incumbent upon the player to recognize where it's coming from,
who it is and make that quick decision.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Right, yeah, absolutely, And you know, to be fair to
to the situation, you know, sometimes they'll still trap them
before the screen, at the screen, maybe after the screen
with a late double, they'll trap them at ice. So
last night they were just going to get in the
soon he came up over half court, so you know,
it's the rhythm of it was a little different. Where
(12:42):
it came from was sometimes different, but just has to
you know, keep reading that and it's like, you know,
it's like a quarterback going going through his progressions. But
you gotta be you got to be early, and you
got to anticipate that it's coming and then whoever gets
the ball out of that trap and got to move
it quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Do you keep making football references because my favorite teams
lost four in a row and your favorite team just
lost to the Bears at home?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
No, I keep think forever. I love to make references
across different sports just because I think it resonates. You know,
it's again just to carry on. Like if you're being
double teams as a wide receiver, you're not going to
stop running routes, are you. You got to keep doing
your part to make the rest of the offense function,
(13:29):
to open up opportunities for your teammates. And it's the
highest form of flattery is when somebody is gonna put
two players on you to not let you play the
game you want to play, you have to embrace it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolls victorious last night
over the Nolans Pelicans, and those two squads meet again
tomorrow down New Orleans. Way, what happened in the second
quarter when they found forty three and led by ten
at halftime.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, transition defense fell apart. They got behind us in transition,
you know, way too many easy baskets and transition. Uh.
And that was really kind of the story of the
second half and.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
The second Speaking of defense, Uh, I mean just perfect
defense in my estimation, it may not grade out perfectly,
but perfect defense by go bear right on on Derek
Queen and end of regulation forcing over time that that
was just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, he did a good job of making him finish
up over top of him, stayed in front of him
on the dribble. The young rookie, he guys got a
ton of game. He's he reminds me of a young
Stengoon from Houston. He's got a lot of skill, passing ability,
you know, post moves.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Counter moves.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
He'll have a developing jumper, no doubt about it. And
they should be excited about him here. He's gonna be
a really good player.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, if they if they can get Zion, who handles
it well and Queen together for a bunch of games
in a row, and Jeremiah Fears looked like looks like
he has a little bit of a chance to Obviously
they'd be a lot better than three and fourteen. But
but it's I mean, I can see what they're doing
that doing down there, know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, they got some good talent. I mean, we know
how much of a handful of Ion is. Thankfully, you know,
we didn't have to face him for us. Unfortunately for
him another injury. You know, gutted by that because he's
just he's just such a you know, I just really
enjoyed my season with them, really rooted for him. Yeah,
such a unique player, such a special player. And you
(15:32):
know that's two two really gifted frontcourt guys that can
cause you a lot of problems.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Hey, Chris, back back to that thing you said about
Edwards and the double teams. So like you know, when
you say the best of the best, like Luka Doncic
and James Harden and how they just get off it
quickly and make the right decision. Will will you show
film or tape or clips of other players to Anthony,
you know, current players to be like, hey, consider this.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Once in a while, we might we might take some
things from some other situations irrespective of who the specific
player is. Uh, you know, we don't Anthony is Anthony.
He's not Luca. We don't want him to play like Luca.
We don't want him to play like Harden. We want
him to play like himself. He's a great, great player.
He's you know, still on the rise, still learning a
(16:24):
lot and getting better every single day, you know. And
these guys, they don't want to be compared to the contemporaries.
There's there's superstars in their own right, and they should
be treated as such.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Pretty cool to get a win then a day off
in New Orleans, Holy count I mean he's such a
cool city, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, great, I mean I really thoroughly enjoyed my time
down here.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Ever you ever stay at Hotel Monte Leone.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I've never stayed there, but I have been there.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, they got that the one time I stayed there
a few years ago. Because I love New Orleans. It
is one of my two favorite cities in the country
because of the culture, like the antique shops and things
like that. Just a lot of things to do, Like
you said, but they got they got this really cool
hotel bar at Hotel monte Leone, and it's like that.
There was this this six foot lady singing that girl
(17:13):
from Ipanema song when I rolled in there and I
was just it was enchanting. I was just infatuated. And
a lot of enchanting things in New Orleans, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
No doubt about it. Carousel Bar is what you're talking about. Yeah,
you know the bar actually spins around super slow.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yep, but it is.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You know, this is an amazing place. It's a very
American city with a ton of historical influence that you
can feel every single day.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
You, you and my Canori. Perchance it's going to have
a celebratory hurricane at the Carousel Bar sometime today.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
That sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh that'd be so much about all right, just a
few more here for coach bench Chris Finch, Thank you,
Second Harvest Heartland to Harvest dot org. Take a pig
of that website if you're so inclined. And something that's
very important to Timberwolf's head coach Chris Finch. They last
night size wise mostly, but they had no chance against Rudy.
He finished with twenty six on nine of ten shooting
(18:12):
with thirteen boards, and he hit eighty percent of his
free throws. I mean, with Gobert, just bottle that one
up last night, right, I hope?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So yeah, But again, these are the things that happened.
You probably won't remember. It might not remember, but you know,
game five in the Lakers playoffs series, Rudy had been
offensively kind of quiet the entire playoffs. Lakers make an adjustment.
They decided to put two on Anthony in Game five,
(18:43):
and Rudy has a massive night. And this is this
is what happens. You know, when teams double team, like
they're taking the bet that you're not gonna get off
of it, make the right play so your teammates benefit
from it. You know, they're trying to take a specific
guy out of the game, and it always opens up
ours for other people. So you know, last night, Rudy
(19:04):
was the beneficiary of all that trapping and he made
him pay. And that's exactly what you need to do.
And that's the chain reaction of the decisions that you
have to make.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Kind of reminded me of Bear's backup running back Kyle
Manung guy up the middle, against a team that wears green,
just like Powerhousing, you know what I mean? Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I don't remember that time for two more. But hey,
seriously here though, can it be tricky deciding between Julius,
naz Jaden and say Rudy down the stretch? Like Nas
had some good offensive moments last night, but was the
one on the bench late and in overtime.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, for sure, you know these are tough decisions, no
doubt about it. But yeah, I thought Nos played great
all throughout the game, and then you know, he had
played a really long shift and had missed a couple
of shots. I thought, maybe he's getting a little tired.
We got him out, we put we you know, we
(20:03):
put Julius in. Then we with two and a half
to go, we put Nas back in UH to try
to finish the game. Then in overtime, I just thought
to myself, like, we got to get Julius in this
game somehow. You know, we need him. We're gonna need
him over this last five minutes. So it came out
of UH the time out and the overtime and in
(20:24):
the ball right away will I missed that shot like
he you know he did, he did make enough, made
a couple of them and you know, kind of just
played it well at the right time. So we don't
always get it right. You know, you were spoiled for choice.
That the good, good problem to have. But you know,
the game before you we we didn't finish with Rudy
(20:44):
and this is how it's going to be. And we
have to have an understanding of maturity that that's that's
how we're built and we got to play to that
advantage to get do what the game needs.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Lastly, this uh, this is our first chat since last week.
For for what it's worth, a thought you guys played
OKA see quite well. They ended up especially late, they
ended up getting the money. They won again last night.
So did you like get back to the hotel room
and watch OKC Golden State or was that not part
of the bit?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, I didn't watch any of that game. I followed
it along on the score, but I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Really dial in right they yeah, they're they're just it's
a tremendous machine. I mean, that's not the only way
to put it right. And and by the way, NBA
on NBC is phenomenal. I mean, the halftime show. The
whole thing is just so high end. But I mean,
it isn't the New York market a market that you
want to capture? And that sucker began at eleven o
(21:42):
five East Coast time last night.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, well that's their coast to coast product, right, So
they have the the two games on one on Peacock
one on NBC. But I agree with you, it's great
having them back in the fold.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
They just bring such class to the game, and you know,
it just kind of stretched a chord with all of
us who grew up in that NBC era watching basketball.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
All right, enjoy the above ground cemeteries today and bury
the Pelicans tomorrow. Good chatting with your prinz Chris. Thanks GA,
take care see about Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, said,
how has won three consecutive games, and they hooked up
with a pretty ratty team last night without his best players.
Ion Williamson gave up forty three in the second quarter,
(22:29):
but had him every step of the way, including at
the end of regulation when that that's soon to be
stud in the NBA. The Maryland rookie Derek Queen got
a little got a little goofy against Rudy with those
nice big man handling skills and tried to win the game,
but Rudy stifled him, and then Julius Attall got hot
(22:51):
in overtime and those two teams meet tomorrow. Back at
it tomorrow from Nollins. Thank you timber Tech, Thank you
timber tech dot com. What's on deck nine to noon
includes heinze Our Minnesota Wild the beloved Christmas Colors in
the holiday season ten oh and two in the last
twelve games. And Edmonton with mcdizzele and with Dryseidel and
(23:14):
with Bouchard and Zach Hymen and all the right guys.
They got shut out for the first time this season
last night. Yes, per Volstad, Covin and Clapp and four
shutouts this season, which leads the NHL, and his four
shutouts are in the last six games. It just took
one goal and it wasn't the prettiest thing in the
(23:35):
world by Jonas Brodein. But I'm really excited in a
couple of hours from now to chat with Heinsey Brodine's
defense on McDavid mostly and dry Sidle when he wasn't
on mcdazzle, Holy col I mean, that was an indefatigable
effort by Jonas brodein in the Minnesota Wild. That's eleven
(23:57):
thirty five with Heinsey Florio joins the mix about fifteen
twenty minutes from now, how.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Does this this bed has a freaking dead spot in
the middle of it and then a complete tone change.
Sorry about that bad production problems on my own.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
There's no need to apologize because from the first note
of these terrible songs, apologies would be required. So it's
just part of the Bit's not about the music. It's
about those talking into the microphones. That's what we hear.
But man, it's it's cool right now with what's happening
with the Timberwolves and the while. We got some vikings
(24:31):
talkers in the middle of the middle of the equation
and we have bikes bites around the corner here via
nine to noon. It is FM one hundred point three.
We go okay, fa and good morning. What up? It's
(24:52):
Vikes Bites.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Vikes Bites always presented by Thousand Hills, Lifetime Grazed, grass
Fed Eric Queen and you can shop online, Box and
Meat shows up to your doorstep, local Coburn's and Kowalski's locations,
local co ops. They're proud Gopher sponsors and their Clearwater,
Minnesota's finest Thousand Hills Matt and everybody love you guys,
(25:14):
and I love the opportunity. Am I the only guy
left PA. That just I'm kind of excited to see
JJ McCarthy play again. I know everything's down the way
that we're talking about the four win team, Well, I.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Just got some news coming up a little later today. Well,
I just I'm just kidding.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
The way I was going to start was just please
be a full participant today, JJ. That was the modus
operande that I'm looking. That's where I'm moving toward is
I'm just excited to see him play again. I know
the team has four wins, I know everything's negative. We're
gonna do bits that bite at ten am. There is
another side to this particular purple colored coin. I just
(25:48):
want to see McCarthy on the field again. We got
five games left, let's find things to celebrate. I'm open
Number nine is good to go against those commanders.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Actually, and sadly, there's only one side to that purple
colored coin right now, and it's the tarnish side. It's
the one where like if it's a quarter, you can't
see George Washington's head, it's a little beat up, it's
a little dirty. Yeah. So I mean that's heavily scored.
You know, I shared yesterday and we'll pay off some
(26:17):
of it at ten o'clock today. I just after Seattle,
long travel, short sleep, broken buses, pros being lost, negativity
with sarcasm on Monday. I just you know, with the
kids and the tots there yesterday. Yeah, I just didn't
feel on. I feel like unfurling the verbal version of
(26:39):
saw two consecutive days. But now we're locked in a
loader for that ten today and this is basically going
to be a hey, if you keep losing, or you
keep doing this, or you don't take advantage of this,
here's what's going to happen. And do you really want
to be part of that? Yeah, So that's the Vike
(27:00):
bits that bite.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
At ten o'clock, I saw this digital beat reporter for
the Commanders.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
His name's David Harrison.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
His ex posts have been used and aggregated in recent
days and hours. The first post was Dan Quinn says
there are functional movements that Jaden Daniels needs to be
able to do to get back to playing. Did a
bit of that today as in Monday, and we'll continue
with that through the week to see if he can
play against the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
He then quoted himself quote posted.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Clarifying Jade and Daniels still hasn't been cleared for contact
and it's going to take all the way to Friday
before they can determine if he'll be able to go.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So it's a three win team.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
They're negative and Capital City, but Jaden Daniels is efforting
and is he wants to play.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I'd kind of like to see Jaden this weekend? Would
you couldn't care less? They could trot out the skeletal
remains a Billy Kilmer and I'd still call the game. Yes,
let me let me tease you for the ten, oh please? Well,
and here's the cheese for the ten, the Vike's bits,
the vipe. Yeah, where's the cheese for the ten for
the con Oh yeah, let's see historically bad numbers Pittsburgh
(28:09):
Pirates catch astray oh yeahs defensive ranks with yards per
game of the next five opponents. Okay, so we're looking
we're thinking Vikings offense. Yes, looking at adversarial defense. The
Washington Commanders thirty first, the Dallas Cowboys twenty ninth, the
(28:32):
New York Giants thirtieth, like that, the Kiddies fourteenth, Blakemore's
team fourth. So long story longer here, better make some
hay over the next three boys against Washington, Dallas and
the Giants thirty first, twenty ninth, and thirtieth giving up
the old yards.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I guess I might as well do a ten
amts because my focus one of them will be I
got a couple. We got three of the five games
left at us Bank Stadium.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
That's been great.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well that's historically for the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I just took.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I'm forty one, so I went from eighty four in
the less stecl season through where we are in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Curious to see how this works out because you may
be stealing my bed.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Oh well, just can we win in front of the fans, please?
That's the key. Can we get number nine? You know
you're going to probably talk about a particular quarterback finding
a win at home. Can we just get for the
sake of those sixty six thousand people sitting in those
seats with these three home games remaining. Can we show
them some success as we feel some success on the
(29:43):
freaking field. You show up, you buy the eleven dollars beer,
You sit shoulder to shoulder between Fred and Ralph on
either side of you. If you want to see a
touchdown and you want to see a victory dance, and
we have three more chances to do it, and if
we can get all three, well we'll finish four and
four at home in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Getting one at home the rest of the way one
is imperative. Let's get one. I mean, it's ain't no playoffs,
ain't no sunshine when anybody's gone. But we'll pay that
off at ten o'clock with Pikes bits that bite.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
So in the end, Aaron Jones in his shoulder, kind
of wondering about that his practice gets loose today, Jonathan
Allen against his former team.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Does he care?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Is that a storyline into the weekend? Just a couple
of Vikes bites to finish things up. Vikes bites always
presented by a thousand Hills lifetime grays to grass fed.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Be Eric Queen, He's a beef eater. Mike Florioprofootball Talk
dot Com he joined nine to noon around the Corner
at FM one hundred point three kfa in and a
good morning hardcore football nine to noon p ft alrighty,
(31:24):
now here we go. Mike Florioprofootball Talk dot Com, NBC's
Football Night in America. Also an author of several books,
including his recent Big Shield and Mike joins us now
Pro Football Talk Radio. What's the what's the best way
to give the book Big Shield as a gift this
Christmas season? And good morning, well, good morning Paul.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's great to talk to you. I've missed you in
the past couple of weeks. All you have to do
is go to Amazon dot com, type in the name
of the book big Shield, and my last name or
big Shield, Although if you just type big Shield, there
is a chance that literally the search will return a
Big Shield that you can buy. That does happen, so
it would be helpful to include my name big Shield.
(32:06):
Fourteen ninety nine for the print edition, ninety nine cents
for the ebook. So if you give somebody I guess
an Amazon gift card, they could buy the e book.
But it's fourteen ninety nine for the print edition. It
doesn't quite fit in a stocking. You have to roll
it up a little bit like a really thick newspaper.
Don't think that works. You have to go ahead and
put in a box or wrap it. And the other
offerings are available as well. Father of Mine's out of
(32:27):
Mind on Our Way Home, which is a Christmas slash
ghost story that rings very well this time of year.
I've gotten more positive feedback about that one than any
other because it's the kind of thing that just comes
at the right time of year. It gives people a
nudge to take a step back and maybe address some
relationships that have become frayed, if not fractured, in their
(32:50):
own lives, and it's a little nudge to do something
about it before it's too late. And if it is
too late, it's a way to help yourself come to
terms with the fact that you failed to fix that
broken relationship before it was too late to do it.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Amen, Now I'm not logged into Amazon here, so I
just went to Amazon and typed in Florio just to
make sure, like when you type in Florio, the Michael
left Florio or whatever it is with NFL dot com.
You know, just in case, like if he wrote a
book that we're not getting him all the shine or anything.
And even if you just put in Florio big Shields
right up there on our way home is the third submission.
(33:29):
Then we get down the son of mine. That's pretty cool, man, So.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yes, and I really you know, it's funny the guy
who works for NFL dot com who does fantasy football,
which I'm not a fan of, and that's fine. I've
gotten calls from people like, hey, hey, is your son
working for NFL networks? Like, no relation. And if that
guy wants to carry around a name that I have sullied,
(33:55):
more power to him.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah. What if a Nigerian prince calls you thinking you're
Michael left Florio and claims he has forty million dollars
for you, would you take that call?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, I've already taken calls like that, and my bank
account has been impacted accordingly.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Of course it has. Hey, you mentioned earlier newspapers. Do
you still actually read the physical newspaper? And the reason
I'm asking is yesterday we had a big toys for
tat show at a local store called Shields, where we're
raising money for underprivileged kids. And yeah, it was a
big Shields and I had a couple of a couple
(34:31):
of us scribes on our newspaper writers, Ben Gasoline, who
covers the team for the Star Tribune, Lavelle Neil, the
third columnist for the Star Tribune. And you know, we
were talking about the potential demise, I mean complete demise
of the physical newspaper, because everything is online. If there
weren't like newspapers or whatever to buy, would that impact you.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
There is a certain irony in this life I've stumbled
into and the impact of digital media on print media.
I delivered newspapers when I was a kid, and it
was an every day, seven day a week. Kind of
laid the foundation for the life I live now. There
were no days off. You delivered the newspapers every morning.
Sundays were gigantic, thick things that you had to make
(35:15):
several trips from your house with your bag on the
front of your bike, and the smell of the paper
when you'd you'd get the stack and you'd pop off
the plastic wrap and fold them up and do all
that stuff. So I've got a long and for the
most part, positive history with newspapers. But right now, you know,
it's funny. I used to as part of my daily routine.
(35:36):
I'd come down the stairs from the studio above our
garage for PFT Live, and I'd stop at the door
and get the newspaper. Not quite the full tony soprano
in the robe walking down the driveway, but I'd get
the newspaper and take it to my wife. She decided
within the past year or so, you know what, it's
a lot easier to just do the online thing. You
read the it's the exact newspaper, you just read it
(35:57):
on your laptop. And it's been at least a year
since we've gotten the print edition of the newspaper. And
that's the way the world's going. Like everybody now instead
of carrying around a newspaper, they get everything they need
off of their phone. It's taken thirty years to kind
of get here, but I'm surprised anybody has a print
edition of a newspaper. There's still something to be said
(36:18):
for having a newspaper, but that's for those of us
who grew up with it. For the kids who have
grown up with tablets and phones and screens, yeah, they
look at that newspaper. It's like they don't want to
get an ink on their hands and It's just a
different reality for them.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
P ft. What do you make of the Carolina Panthers
and these seven wins after beating the Rams?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Well, they beat the Rams, they beat the Packers, they
lost to the Saints, they lost to the Cardinals. Wow,
they're kind of all over the place. And they've got
to take what happened on Sunday against the Rams and
build on that and keep winning. And they've got an
opportunity to pick off the Buccaneers and win that division.
(37:03):
I don't know whether or not a wild card is
a possibility because you look at second third place teams
in the NFC North, second third place teams in the
NFC West, only three of those teams are gonna get
wildcard berth, it's gonna be hard for the Cowboys or
the Cardinals to invade that party. I think the easier
path for both the Cowboys and the Panthers, excuse me,
(37:24):
I misspoke, is to win the division. So you know,
they gotta keep it going. They gotta be consistent. They
got to win the games they're supposed to win. One
sign of a team that becomes a contender is win
the games you're supposed to win, and then win a
half or a third of the games you aren't supposed
to win. That stacks up to enough victories to maybe
(37:45):
make things interesting. And this year seems to be more
about laying the foundation for what they could do next year.
I don't view them as a serious, high level contender,
but their defense is good enough. And if they play
like they did on Sunday against the Rams, and if
they win the division, you get a team that has
to come to Charlotte in January when it could be
(38:06):
a cold, nasty weather factoring day, you know they could
end up in the final eight this year.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Hey what, Mike Florio, ProFootball talk dot com, What are
these teams have in common? Detroit, Green Bay, Chicago, Atlanta, Carolina,
the Giants Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, New England?
The Jets in Arizona? What do they all have in common?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Are you serious? You rattle off all those names and
you want me to try to find a thread that
goes through all of them. I have no idea they're
all in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
How about that Ding Ding Ding nailed it? Those actually
will be the teams the Vikings will play next year
with a last play schedule if the constituents the adversaries
are able to stay in last place where we're going
to finish in the NFC North, so old last play
schedule next year, Michael, what do you think about all that?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
The last place schedule currently impacts three out of your
seventeen games, that's it, and you have to play two
games against whoever finishes first in your division, while that
team gets to play two games against whoever finished the
last in the division. So the schedule isn't as smooth
now as it used to be. When they went with
the current structure, eight divisions, four teams each, they came
(39:20):
up with this rotation aimed at getting every team into
every stadium once every eight years. And you know, last year,
and we've talked about this before, the NFC North teams
benefited from this double rotation where you go through the
four divisions of the AFC and then you go through
the three other divisions of the NFC and it lined
(39:40):
up just right where the NFC North teams caught the
AFC South and the NFC West in kind of a
down year and it fattened up the record. You look
at the NFC West this year, they get the NFC
South and the AFC South, and they're fattening up their record.
That's eight out of seventeen games. That all flows from
this big picture idea that we want to give the
(40:04):
fans the greatest possible variety pack and get every team
playing every other team at least once every four years.
So I don't know how much it helps the Vikings
next year. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I don't know.
They got bigger problems I think than what their schedule
is going to be next year.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Well, so with the New England Patriots, you don't want.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
To talk about the bigger problems they have. You want
to just move right on.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Hit on it gone, what's on?
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I mean, obviously, I mean this is Look, this is
nineteen sixty eight. The Vikings have had a handful, a
five fingered handful of disastrous seasons, and this is one
of them. Most years, the Vikings are competitive, and they
stay competitive through the last few weeks of the regular season.
And I say all the time that the true goal
(40:51):
for any NFL team, It doesn't sound as good as
saying we want to win the Super Bowl every year.
What every NFL team should want to do is be relevant.
After Thanksgiving. You want to be alive in December. You
want people coming to your home games late in the
year when they otherwise have other holiday related things they
can do. You want the kids to put on their
Christmas list for Santa that they want the jersey of
(41:16):
the local football team favorite player or whatever other football
team related merch as opposed to the hockey team, the
basketball team, or the baseball team. You want to be
relevant in December, and the Vikings far more often than not,
are relevant in December, and it doesn't happen very often
that the Vikings are just kind of playing out the string.
(41:38):
And they've got some issues on both sides of the ball,
mainly on the offensive side of the ball between the
offensive line. The experiment this year didn't work. And I
know injuries are an issue. At some point, you got
to take a step back and take a hard look
at training and conditioning and rehab everything. Why is it
that all these injuries are happening. Is it a fluke
or is it a trend? You better figure it out.
(41:59):
And then obviously we could go for your full show
talking about the quarterback position. But next year they didn't
do it. This year they should have done it this year,
and I suspect that folks within the organization would admit
that they made a huge mistake by not having a
viable veteran quarterback there to compete with, or at a minimum,
push JJ McCarthy job number one for next year. Find
(42:22):
a veteran who can come in and have an open
cult style Anthony Richardson Daniel Jones competition to determine the
starting quarterback. And it's either going to get more out
of JJ McCarthy or you're gonna have a guy who
can come in and pick up the Kevin O'Connell offense
and be the thing that the Vikings are lacking most
this year, above everything else, quarterback play has been not
(42:45):
nearly good enough. And that's the biggest reason why they're foreign.
What is it four and eight on their way to
four and nine or maybe five and eight, but it's
just it's uncharacteristic. I think it hurts Vikings fans to
see this happen because it happens so infrequently, no.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Doubt, And we feel that here nine to noon with
talkbacks and emails and correspondents and things like that, and
you know the I respectfully with what you said about
the veteran I would make that the one A okay
but still very high. The one as we finished the
final five games is to get as close to you
can in determining what you have with JJ McCarthy, And
(43:24):
you know, if you lose them all, if you win
them all, or somewhere in between, figuring out what you
have heading into the off season, then the one A
is doing what you said with a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
Well, and there are just bigger questions about how they
landed on JJ McCarthy because they could have had bon Nicks.
They had the choice of either one, right, and of
course Sean Payton says, bon Nix is the guy he
would have taken first overall, and certain amount of that
is predictable. Who knows what he would have done if
he would have had the first overall pick. But you
(43:57):
know you got one guy who threw the ball. I
think it was like I had the numbers last week.
He threw the ball two hundred, two hundred and twenty
times last in his last year of college, and Knicks
threw it like, I don't know, another one hundred and
fifty times or more than that, like just raw passing
reps at the college level, and the mechanical issues. The
(44:18):
one pitch arsenal the fastball fastball, fastball with no you
know touch. It takes away a lot of the intermediate stuff.
There's no layering of the ball. When it's fastball. You
can't throw it over a defender and you can't throw
it through a defender. So you just have to wait
until the guy's wide open and fire the fastball. Like
what did they miss in the evaluation process? And is
(44:41):
this fixable? Are the act I mean, look, I've been
watching football for fifty years and good quarterback play. We
take it for granted because the guys open and what happens, Paul.
The ball is delivered, yep. And the only question is
does the guy drop it like it's delivered in the
vicinity of the catch radius. And we've had two many
of these throws this year where the ball has no
(45:02):
chance of being caught on a guy who's wide open,
and there have been some drops on top of that.
But you know, between the accuracy and the fastball fastball fastball,
I don't know that that's fixable. And maybe it is,
and maybe you spend the rest of the year seeing
if the light comes on. I know he said a
few weeks ago that he analogizes the situation to a
(45:24):
quirk about to come out of the bottle. I mean,
I don't know. I mean I think the bottle might
break before the quirk, ever, wiggles its way.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Out, and depending what's in said bottle, we've all been
left punk drunk by by what we're seeing and listening to. Well,
bon Nix is terrific, okay, and maybe there's not much
separating bon Knicks and or Drake May. I think Drake
May is going to be the league's MVP at some point.
And the Patriots definitely are capitalizing off the last Last
(45:54):
play schedule, but there's more into it for them with
winning all these games. But I mean, the hindsight twenty
twenty bit, it's if you loved Drake May, whatever it took,
three first rounders, fourth, whatever it took to get Drake May,
that seems to have been the right answer.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Oh absolutely. And nobody gave the Patriots the kind of
offer that would have been necessary to make that move.
And you know, if they had known what they have,
they would have hung up the phone like the Bengals
did when the Dolphins were trying desperately in twenty twenty
to move up to get Joe Burrow. So it's worked
out well for the Patriots. And once you have that guy,
once you have that guy that you know is going
(46:35):
to be ten to fifteen years, that guarantees that in December,
your stadium is going to be full, you're going to
be mathematically alive. You're going to be playing for division
titles and wild card berths and laying the foundation. And
what really impressed me the most about the Patriots on
Monday Night and whatever it was, whether it was you know,
they were a little complacent against the Bengals and maybe
(46:56):
could have blown that game, or it's Thanksgiving week and
they're distractions and you have to kind of prod the
guys to stay focused, or it's just the idea, we
have a chance to be the one seed and we're
going for it. And the way that they were hitting,
just the raw violence, the football violence, the legitimate legal football,
(47:19):
impose your will on the other human being. It was impressive.
And this is a team that senses it has a
shot to be the number one seed and capitalize on
the two home games that will lead you to Santa
Clara for the Super Bowl, and they aren't getting you know,
they're not like, oh my god, where we're so high
up on the ladder, we might fall off. They're sprinting
to the top of it.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Hey, what did you make of Lane Kiffen vaulting from
Ole Miss to LSU.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Well, I think that it's not a disease symptom of
a deeper issue in college football, where it's open season
whenever you want to try to go hire someone else's coach.
In the NFL, none of this stuff happens until the
season ends. Now there's always back channel stuff. And that's
what amazes me about this because that weird, clunky pr
(48:09):
fight that emerged was Lane Kiffen wanting to stay and
finish the job at Mississippi after he'd taken the LSU job.
Why didn't they just have a wink nod for him
to go to LSU as soon as Old Miss is
done and then just do it that way, Like, why
did they have to sign the contract, Why did they
have to put it in writing? Why did they have
(48:30):
to do it if LSU was already content to let
Lane Kiffin stay in Oxford and finish the playoff runt
why not just do it that way. I mean, Alabama
waited for Miami season to end nineteen years ago for
the hiring of Nick Saban. If you remember that, Nick Saban,
I'm not going to be the Alabama coach. As soon
as the season ends, boom, he's gone. But in the
(48:52):
NFL you don't have that kind of chaos where a
team can swoop in. And I made this point, think
of how ridiculous it would sound if once the Bears
clinch their playoff berth, and you know, there's a game
or two left in the regular season, all of a sudden, Hey,
the Giants may hire Ben Johnson before the playoffs start,
and then Ben Johnson's just gone and he's coaching the
(49:13):
Giants and somebody else has to take over the Bears
for the playoff runt. That is the apples to apples comparison.
So it's chaos in college football. And we hear all
the time about college football's in crisis. That is a
load of crap. Look at what they're paying Brian Kelly
to go away fifty four million, ninety one million dollar
base deal for Lane Kivin. That's one hundred and forty
five million tied up in two coaches, one who's coaching
(49:34):
the team and one who isn't. Wow, there is no
crisis in college football. That is all political spin. It's
all bs, and it's all aimed at trying to spin
the clock back to the days when the players aren't
getting what they're getting now because the people who run
college football don't like it that the rabbit has the
gun and plane and simple.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Lastly, with a college football bent at dion with Colorado,
I mean he makes a ton of cash and Colorado
had some disaster to a this sh year. He wants
to stay and he also does make a ton of
money should he remain the coach at Colorado with no
shador Travis Hunter at Tall no longer part of the program.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
See, this is part of the problem. These teams get
a coach that may be desirable elsewhere and they throw
a bunch of money at the coach and then if
it doesn't work, what do we do. They're operating at
a twenty seven million dollar deficit this year in the
Colorado athletics department, fueled by the nil expenses for players
(50:33):
who aren't good enough and a coaching contract with Dean
Sanders that runs through twenty twenty nine. That was fueled
by what he did in his second season on the
job with Travis Hunter and Shader Sanders. I mean, North
Carolina's in the same boat. I believe if they could
walk away from Bill Belichick without a thirty million dollar buyout,
they would. Now part of it is admitting, hey, we
(50:55):
rolled the dice on one of the greatest NFL coaches
of all time and it doesn't work. You know why
it doesn't work because it's about players. It's not about coaches.
At the college level. You got to have the right players,
and they have a whifted on getting the right players.
And that falls on Belichick directly, but also on GM
Mike Lombardi, who was the guy out there finding the players.
They didn't find good enough players. I think they'd get
(51:16):
out of that in a heartbeat if they could. So
this and I go back to the Lane Kiffen conundrum.
Teams feel like they got to throw all this money
at coaches who are showing anything that looks positive because
they don't want to lose him to somebody who's going
to swoop in and pluck him away during a season.
The whole thing is a mess. It's a it's a
chaotic reality that the NCAA has allowed, and they want
(51:39):
someone else to fix it for them. And I just
I enjoy college football less and less because I believe
that the people in charge of it either are inherently corrupt,
or they don't know what they're doing, or a combination
of both.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
You know what it is, it's a boondoggle. And on
that note, I'll call you next week, Seopaul, Mike Glorio.
That was fantastic, Myclorioprofootball Talk dot Com ten o'clock nine
to noon continues after the
Amen. M what you just said? Welcome back to the show.
What's that ball doing?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
No, I don't know football?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I mean pick your poison with that deepend nine too news.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Go like that?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Now?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
What what what did I do wrong? Just listen, just listen,
time for two more. What in the hand fat is
going on with you guys?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
The backing?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Do you think it's puny? M Oh my god?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Oh thank you?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh I haven't seen for a second. Oh well, wow,
what's that fun? Cash CD?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Fake radio? Let go everyone?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Lets Jonson for me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I know we're gonna beat them Crown. Thank you, Minneapolis?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Is that something? What is that good?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
I'm here to serve you. This is your smooth Jazz
Leader FM one hundred point three k f a M.
(02:43):
Where it's soft and warm. It's the Quiet Storm. It's
k f AN. Had a pleasant good morning to you.
I am Paul Allen with Nordu by my side. We
are awaiting the arrival of Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris
Finch by Finchy Faith. We commence this Wednesday nine to
(03:06):
noon and by four checking Faith. We finished nine to
noon today at about eleven thirty five with Minnesota wild
head coach John Hines, a couple of victorious coaches yesterday,
and indeed we begin with Chris Finch courtesy of Second
Harvest Heartland and two Harvest dot Org. Second Harvest Heartland
(03:27):
and two Harvest dot Org coach Finch is on the
board for said dot org and joins us now from Nolins. Chris,
good morning, And I mean you had that three win
operation every step of the way, didn't you. Last night.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
You think, oh yeah, we made it harder than it
had to be. And unfortunately that's in our DNA right now.
We gotta get, we gotta get, gotta shake.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
That one out off.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
And I thought, I like the way we started completely
lost focus in and tensity in the second quarter, and
you know, let a team get rolling on you, and
that's that's how it goes and doesn't matter irrespective of
anyone's record. And you know this from you know, football
in any other sporties. You know, these these guys are
(04:16):
good players and if you let them get get to
do their thing easily, then it's it gets tough.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So without with an eighty two game season and you know,
playing into overtime without you know, legitimately, specifically when Zion
Williamson doesn't play one of the uh one of the
worst teams in the NBA record wise, is it? Is it?
Like you mentioned the NFL combating analyzing or looking at
(04:46):
games from a fan or media perspective, UH, game after
game after game in November December, stuff like that, Like
the NFL, which is a weekly enterprise where of course
you want to win, and if you had lost last night,
this conversation would be dramatically more depressing, but not just
taking things into perspective recognizing the eighty two games can
(05:10):
be such a grind that there will be games.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Like this, right, Oh for sure, no doubt about it.
You know that's always going to be the case. Yeah,
And that's that's that's no, that's you know, that's very
well said. But you know, sometimes you do things to
yourselves and sometimes you just don't have it, you know.
I thought last night was a little bit of the former. Again.
(05:33):
I like how we started and then we just kind
of lost focused, and then I felt very confident at
halftime that we were going to win the game. But
it's not a habit you want to fall into where
you have to dig yourself out.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Of a hole on the road and rely on, you.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Know, over time to get it done. You know, there's
a difference between a good win and a good performance,
and you'd always rather have the good win. But but
but long term success is built on good performance, and
that's what you have to try to mimic every night
as coaches. I think, you know, I believe in what
(06:10):
I can see and what we can repeat and that's it.
You know, I'm not big into hope. You know, I'm
not big into into just you know, hoping it all
comes together. Like I try to root ourselves and what
we can repeat every single night. And when you're have inconsistencies,
you got to got to get those out of your game.
(06:31):
And that's what defines the different levels of performance in
the league, whether it's the Okay Seas of the world
or a championship level or you know, the lesser teams
like you're just trying to get to that next level.
It's all about finding that consistency in your game.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I love how you put that because antithetical to what
I just said, habits can be developed where you know,
like last year there was a point where things were
in and out, you guys end up going to the
Western Conference Final and had one of the best four
teams in the NBA. But there were times we would
chat about, is is this kind of a put do
these guys think it's a push button operation? And like
(07:10):
you can get down ten points to like re win
teams push a button and you're just going to get
back to the Western Conference finals. And you know, habits
like that, bad habits can be developed, and you just
hope they don't rear their head at the wrong time, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Mean, you know there there is some fear of that
at the moment, for sure, no doubt about it. And
you know we've got to try to, you know, raise
our standards. Last year's team and last year's struggles were
completely different, right you know our record was you know,
I think we were eight and ten after eighteen games.
(07:46):
I can't remember what we were after that. You know,
this year we were ten and eight, So we would
flip that record on itself, but we probably could have
been a little bit better at that point in time.
Long season. We'll make up ground as we go along,
provided we find that consistency that we were talking about.
But but the reality is last year's team, like we
had a vision for what last year's team was going
(08:06):
to be and we and we worked towards it, and
we stay focused on it, and it eventually it came
together through struggles, through the transition of the trade and
all the things we've talked about numerous times this year's
teams that we have. We have to have a different vision.
You know, we know what our team should look like
and and we have to be more consistent to that approach.
(08:29):
And then we got to find and you know, bring
these young guys along in that and see who can
help us when it matters and when we're going to
really need them and what our team does need to
get over that hurdle. And we can't just expect it
to happen. And to your point, like we we you know,
we don't want to pick up bad habits along the way.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I have have crowds there always been so poor. I mean,
like even when you coach there and you had good
players like Julius Randall and Anthony Davis or you know,
even back like when Chris Paul was there. I mean,
is it a good basketball market or is it all
Saints all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Uh, you know, it's a fickle market. When you're when
you're good here. They'll definitely come out. There's a lot
of things going on down here on a you know,
on a day to day basis when it comes to
your spending your entertainment dollar, right obviously, Uh, you know
it's a big Saints down you know, you know how
passionate they are about their football here LSU. You know,
(09:29):
all of LSU sports gets a ton of support, right.
But yeah, I mean it's when we were here and
we were winning games, you know, they were coming out
and it was great support.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
How how did you get Julius Randall on that rookie
guard fierce with a minute to go in ot It's
it's clear, at least from the outside they failed to
double for some reason, and that was the old ball game.
But I mean that, I mean, you got Randall on,
just a marketly smaller guy. How'd you do that?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, they were either trapping or switching the ball screens
with Anthony, and we wanted to try to get Julius
going in the overtime period. We felt that, you know,
he was going to have a mismatch against the switch
or if they doubled, one of our best playmakers had
the ball in the middle of the floor, so he
(10:22):
did a good job, took his time and put the
ball in the basket.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Anthony with thirty four in the second half and ot
and forty four overall, played the entire second half in OTAM.
What are some keys to getting around those constant aggressive
double teams he gets basically every time on the perimeter.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, Well, first, you know, the first thing that you
have to do when you're being double teams is you
got to get off the ball right away. You know,
you got to when they're putting two on you. That
means there's only three left to cover four, right and
the quicker you make the decision to get off it,
you know, then remove the ball and we're gonna get
a ton of open shots. And we did a pretty
(11:06):
good job of that at times last night. Made a
bunch of three, especially when we were down to tighten
the game up, hit Rudy in the pocket, and you
just got to keep doing that. If they're determined to
put two on you and not let you play quote unquote,
then you've got to keep making the right play, keep
trusting your teammates, keep trusting the past, and then figure
(11:26):
out other ways that you can attack, whether it be
in transition before they set you know, cut against the pressure,
you know, play off ball a little bit more and
see if they're going to trap you, you know in
the off ball actions, which generally they don't. So it's
just you know a combination of things. But when they're
putting two on you, and that's what all the great
(11:46):
ones do. You know, you watch, you watch Luca play,
You watch hard and play. It's effortless. They just get
off it right away and then it builds such trust
in their teammates and everybody makes the right play after that.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So that's fantastic. So obviously there are designs and schemes
and plays and you'll go over them with ed words
about hey, this is going to happen and do this,
this and this, but eventually it or or yeah, eventually
it's incumbent upon the player to recognize where it's coming from,
who it is and make that quick decision.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Right, yeah, absolutely, And you know, to be fair to
to the situation, you know, sometimes they'll still trap them
before the screen, at the screen, maybe after the screen
with a late double, they'll trap them at ice. So
last night they were just going to get in the
soon he came up over half court, so you know,
it's the rhythm of it was a little different. Where
(12:42):
it came from was sometimes different, but just has to
you know, keep reading that and it's like, you know,
it's like a quarterback going going through his progressions. But
you gotta be you got to be early, and you
got to anticipate that it's coming and then whoever gets
the ball out of that trap and got to move
it quickly.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Do you keep making football references because my favorite teams
lost four in a row and your favorite team just
lost to the Bears at home?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
No, I keep think forever. I love to make references
across different sports just because I think it resonates. You know,
it's again just to carry on. Like if you're being
double teams as a wide receiver, you're not going to
stop running routes, are you. You got to keep doing
your part to make the rest of the offense function,
(13:29):
to open up opportunities for your teammates. And it's the
highest form of flattery is when somebody is gonna put
two players on you to not let you play the
game you want to play, you have to embrace it.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolls victorious last night
over the Nolans Pelicans, and those two squads meet again
tomorrow down New Orleans. Way, what happened in the second
quarter when they found forty three and led by ten
at halftime.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, transition defense fell apart. They got behind us in transition,
you know, way too many easy baskets and transition. Uh.
And that was really kind of the story of the
second half and.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
The second Speaking of defense, Uh, I mean just perfect
defense in my estimation, it may not grade out perfectly,
but perfect defense by go bear right on on Derek
Queen and end of regulation forcing over time that that
was just fantastic.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, he did a good job of making him finish
up over top of him, stayed in front of him
on the dribble. The young rookie, he guys got a
ton of game. He's he reminds me of a young
Stengoon from Houston. He's got a lot of skill, passing ability,
you know, post moves.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Counter moves.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
He'll have a developing jumper, no doubt about it. And
they should be excited about him here. He's gonna be
a really good player.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, if they if they can get Zion, who handles
it well and Queen together for a bunch of games
in a row, and Jeremiah Fears looked like looks like
he has a little bit of a chance to Obviously
they'd be a lot better than three and fourteen. But
but it's I mean, I can see what they're doing
that doing down there, know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, they got some good talent. I mean, we know
how much of a handful of Ion is. Thankfully, you know,
we didn't have to face him for us. Unfortunately for
him another injury. You know, gutted by that because he's
just he's just such a you know, I just really
enjoyed my season with them, really rooted for him. Yeah,
such a unique player, such a special player. And you
(15:32):
know that's two two really gifted frontcourt guys that can
cause you a lot of problems.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Hey, Chris, back back to that thing you said about
Edwards and the double teams. So like you know, when
you say the best of the best, like Luka Doncic
and James Harden and how they just get off it
quickly and make the right decision. Will will you show
film or tape or clips of other players to Anthony,
you know, current players to be like, hey, consider this.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Once in a while, we might we might take some
things from some other situations irrespective of who the specific
player is. Uh, you know, we don't Anthony is Anthony.
He's not Luca. We don't want him to play like Luca.
We don't want him to play like Harden. We want
him to play like himself. He's a great, great player.
He's you know, still on the rise, still learning a
(16:24):
lot and getting better every single day, you know. And
these guys, they don't want to be compared to the contemporaries.
There's there's superstars in their own right, and they should
be treated as such.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Pretty cool to get a win then a day off
in New Orleans, Holy count I mean he's such a
cool city, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Yeah, great, I mean I really thoroughly enjoyed my time
down here.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Ever you ever stay at Hotel Monte Leone.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I've never stayed there, but I have been there.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, they got that the one time I stayed there
a few years ago. Because I love New Orleans. It
is one of my two favorite cities in the country
because of the culture, like the antique shops and things
like that. Just a lot of things to do, Like
you said, but they got they got this really cool
hotel bar at Hotel monte Leone, and it's like that.
There was this this six foot lady singing that girl
(17:13):
from Ipanema song when I rolled in there and I
was just it was enchanting. I was just infatuated. And
a lot of enchanting things in New Orleans, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
No doubt about it. Carousel Bar is what you're talking about. Yeah,
you know the bar actually spins around super slow.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yep, but it is.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You know, this is an amazing place. It's a very
American city with a ton of historical influence that you
can feel every single day.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
You, you and my Canori. Perchance it's going to have
a celebratory hurricane at the Carousel Bar sometime today.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
That sounds like a great idea.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh that'd be so much about all right, just a
few more here for coach bench Chris Finch, Thank you,
Second Harvest Heartland to Harvest dot org. Take a pig
of that website if you're so inclined. And something that's
very important to Timberwolf's head coach Chris Finch. They last
night size wise mostly, but they had no chance against Rudy.
He finished with twenty six on nine of ten shooting
(18:12):
with thirteen boards, and he hit eighty percent of his
free throws. I mean, with Gobert, just bottle that one
up last night, right, I hope?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
So yeah, But again, these are the things that happened.
You probably won't remember. It might not remember, but you know,
game five in the Lakers playoffs series, Rudy had been
offensively kind of quiet the entire playoffs. Lakers make an adjustment.
They decided to put two on Anthony in Game five,
(18:43):
and Rudy has a massive night. And this is this
is what happens. You know, when teams double team, like
they're taking the bet that you're not gonna get off
of it, make the right play so your teammates benefit
from it. You know, they're trying to take a specific
guy out of the game, and it always opens up
ours for other people. So you know, last night, Rudy
(19:04):
was the beneficiary of all that trapping and he made
him pay. And that's exactly what you need to do.
And that's the chain reaction of the decisions that you
have to make.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Kind of reminded me of Bear's backup running back Kyle
Manung guy up the middle, against a team that wears green,
just like Powerhousing, you know what I mean? Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I don't remember that time for two more. But hey,
seriously here though, can it be tricky deciding between Julius,
naz Jaden and say Rudy down the stretch? Like Nas
had some good offensive moments last night, but was the
one on the bench late and in overtime.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, for sure, you know these are tough decisions, no
doubt about it. But yeah, I thought Nos played great
all throughout the game, and then you know, he had
played a really long shift and had missed a couple
of shots. I thought, maybe he's getting a little tired.
We got him out, we put we you know, we
(20:03):
put Julius in. Then we with two and a half
to go, we put Nas back in UH to try
to finish the game. Then in overtime, I just thought
to myself, like, we got to get Julius in this
game somehow. You know, we need him. We're gonna need
him over this last five minutes. So it came out
of UH the time out and the overtime and in
(20:24):
the ball right away will I missed that shot like
he you know he did, he did make enough, made
a couple of them and you know, kind of just
played it well at the right time. So we don't
always get it right. You know, you were spoiled for choice.
That the good, good problem to have. But you know,
the game before you we we didn't finish with Rudy
(20:44):
and this is how it's going to be. And we
have to have an understanding of maturity that that's that's
how we're built and we got to play to that
advantage to get do what the game needs.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Lastly, this uh, this is our first chat since last week.
For for what it's worth, a thought you guys played
OKA see quite well. They ended up especially late, they
ended up getting the money. They won again last night.
So did you like get back to the hotel room
and watch OKC Golden State or was that not part
of the bit?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, I didn't watch any of that game. I followed
it along on the score, but I didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Really dial in right they yeah, they're they're just it's
a tremendous machine. I mean, that's not the only way
to put it right. And and by the way, NBA
on NBC is phenomenal. I mean, the halftime show. The
whole thing is just so high end. But I mean,
it isn't the New York market a market that you
want to capture? And that sucker began at eleven o
(21:42):
five East Coast time last night.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, well that's their coast to coast product, right, So
they have the the two games on one on Peacock
one on NBC. But I agree with you, it's great
having them back in the fold.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
They just bring such class to the game, and you know,
it just kind of stretched a chord with all of
us who grew up in that NBC era watching basketball.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
All right, enjoy the above ground cemeteries today and bury
the Pelicans tomorrow. Good chatting with your prinz Chris. Thanks GA,
take care see about Chris Finch, coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, said,
how has won three consecutive games, and they hooked up
with a pretty ratty team last night without his best players.
Ion Williamson gave up forty three in the second quarter,
(22:29):
but had him every step of the way, including at
the end of regulation when that that's soon to be
stud in the NBA. The Maryland rookie Derek Queen got
a little got a little goofy against Rudy with those
nice big man handling skills and tried to win the game,
but Rudy stifled him, and then Julius Attall got hot
(22:51):
in overtime and those two teams meet tomorrow. Back at
it tomorrow from Nollins. Thank you timber Tech, Thank you
timber tech dot com. What's on deck nine to noon
includes heinze Our Minnesota Wild the beloved Christmas Colors in
the holiday season ten oh and two in the last
twelve games. And Edmonton with mcdizzele and with Dryseidel and
(23:14):
with Bouchard and Zach Hymen and all the right guys.
They got shut out for the first time this season
last night. Yes, per Volstad, Covin and Clapp and four
shutouts this season, which leads the NHL, and his four
shutouts are in the last six games. It just took
one goal and it wasn't the prettiest thing in the
(23:35):
world by Jonas Brodein. But I'm really excited in a
couple of hours from now to chat with Heinsey Brodine's
defense on McDavid mostly and dry Sidle when he wasn't
on mcdazzle, Holy col I mean, that was an indefatigable
effort by Jonas brodein in the Minnesota Wild. That's eleven
(23:57):
thirty five with Heinsey Florio joins the mix about fifteen
twenty minutes from now, how.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
Does this this bed has a freaking dead spot in
the middle of it and then a complete tone change.
Sorry about that bad production problems on my own.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
There's no need to apologize because from the first note
of these terrible songs, apologies would be required. So it's
just part of the Bit's not about the music. It's
about those talking into the microphones. That's what we hear.
But man, it's it's cool right now with what's happening
with the Timberwolves and the while. We got some vikings
(24:31):
talkers in the middle of the middle of the equation
and we have bikes bites around the corner here via
nine to noon. It is FM one hundred point three.
We go okay, fa and good morning. What up? It's
(24:52):
Vikes Bites.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
Vikes Bites always presented by Thousand Hills, Lifetime Grazed, grass
Fed Eric Queen and you can shop online, Box and
Meat shows up to your doorstep, local Coburn's and Kowalski's locations,
local co ops. They're proud Gopher sponsors and their Clearwater,
Minnesota's finest Thousand Hills Matt and everybody love you guys,
(25:14):
and I love the opportunity. Am I the only guy
left PA. That just I'm kind of excited to see
JJ McCarthy play again. I know everything's down the way
that we're talking about the four win team, Well, I.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Just got some news coming up a little later today. Well,
I just I'm just kidding.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
The way I was going to start was just please
be a full participant today, JJ. That was the modus
operande that I'm looking. That's where I'm moving toward is
I'm just excited to see him play again. I know
the team has four wins, I know everything's negative. We're
gonna do bits that bite at ten am. There is
another side to this particular purple colored coin. I just
(25:48):
want to see McCarthy on the field again. We got
five games left, let's find things to celebrate. I'm open
Number nine is good to go against those commanders.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Actually, and sadly, there's only one side to that purple
colored coin right now, and it's the tarnish side. It's
the one where like if it's a quarter, you can't
see George Washington's head, it's a little beat up, it's
a little dirty. Yeah. So I mean that's heavily scored.
You know, I shared yesterday and we'll pay off some
(26:17):
of it at ten o'clock today. I just after Seattle,
long travel, short sleep, broken buses, pros being lost, negativity
with sarcasm on Monday. I just you know, with the
kids and the tots there yesterday. Yeah, I just didn't
feel on. I feel like unfurling the verbal version of
(26:39):
saw two consecutive days. But now we're locked in a
loader for that ten today and this is basically going
to be a hey, if you keep losing, or you
keep doing this, or you don't take advantage of this,
here's what's going to happen. And do you really want
to be part of that? Yeah, So that's the Vike
(27:00):
bits that bite.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
At ten o'clock, I saw this digital beat reporter for
the Commanders.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
His name's David Harrison.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
His ex posts have been used and aggregated in recent
days and hours. The first post was Dan Quinn says
there are functional movements that Jaden Daniels needs to be
able to do to get back to playing. Did a
bit of that today as in Monday, and we'll continue
with that through the week to see if he can
play against the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
He then quoted himself quote posted.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Clarifying Jade and Daniels still hasn't been cleared for contact
and it's going to take all the way to Friday
before they can determine if he'll be able to go.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
So it's a three win team.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
They're negative and Capital City, but Jaden Daniels is efforting
and is he wants to play.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I'd kind of like to see Jaden this weekend? Would
you couldn't care less? They could trot out the skeletal
remains a Billy Kilmer and I'd still call the game. Yes,
let me let me tease you for the ten, oh please? Well,
and here's the cheese for the ten, the Vike's bits,
the vipe. Yeah, where's the cheese for the ten for
the con Oh yeah, let's see historically bad numbers Pittsburgh
(28:09):
Pirates catch astray oh yeahs defensive ranks with yards per
game of the next five opponents. Okay, so we're looking
we're thinking Vikings offense. Yes, looking at adversarial defense. The
Washington Commanders thirty first, the Dallas Cowboys twenty ninth, the
(28:32):
New York Giants thirtieth, like that, the Kiddies fourteenth, Blakemore's
team fourth. So long story longer here, better make some
hay over the next three boys against Washington, Dallas and
the Giants thirty first, twenty ninth, and thirtieth giving up
the old yards.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Well, I guess I might as well do a ten
amts because my focus one of them will be I
got a couple. We got three of the five games
left at us Bank Stadium.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
That's been great.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Well that's historically for the Vikings.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I just took.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
I'm forty one, so I went from eighty four in
the less stecl season through where we are in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Curious to see how this works out because you may
be stealing my bed.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Oh well, just can we win in front of the fans, please?
That's the key. Can we get number nine? You know
you're going to probably talk about a particular quarterback finding
a win at home. Can we just get for the
sake of those sixty six thousand people sitting in those
seats with these three home games remaining. Can we show
them some success as we feel some success on the
(29:43):
freaking field. You show up, you buy the eleven dollars beer,
You sit shoulder to shoulder between Fred and Ralph on
either side of you. If you want to see a
touchdown and you want to see a victory dance, and
we have three more chances to do it, and if
we can get all three, well we'll finish four and
four at home in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Getting one at home the rest of the way one
is imperative. Let's get one. I mean, it's ain't no playoffs,
ain't no sunshine when anybody's gone. But we'll pay that
off at ten o'clock with Pikes bits that bite.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
So in the end, Aaron Jones in his shoulder, kind
of wondering about that his practice gets loose today, Jonathan
Allen against his former team.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Does he care?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Is that?
Speaker 4 (30:27):
Is that a storyline into the weekend? Just a couple
of Vikes bites to finish things up. Vikes bites always
presented by a thousand Hills lifetime grays to grass fed.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Be Eric Queen, He's a beef eater. Mike Florioprofootball Talk
dot Com he joined nine to noon around the Corner
at FM one hundred point three kfa in and a
good morning hardcore football nine to noon p ft alrighty,
(31:24):
now here we go. Mike Florioprofootball Talk dot Com, NBC's
Football Night in America. Also an author of several books,
including his recent Big Shield and Mike joins us now
Pro Football Talk Radio. What's the what's the best way
to give the book Big Shield as a gift this
Christmas season? And good morning, well, good morning Paul.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's great to talk to you. I've missed you in
the past couple of weeks. All you have to do
is go to Amazon dot com, type in the name
of the book big Shield, and my last name or
big Shield, Although if you just type big Shield, there
is a chance that literally the search will return a
Big Shield that you can buy. That does happen, so
it would be helpful to include my name big Shield.
(32:06):
Fourteen ninety nine for the print edition, ninety nine cents
for the ebook. So if you give somebody I guess
an Amazon gift card, they could buy the e book.
But it's fourteen ninety nine for the print edition. It
doesn't quite fit in a stocking. You have to roll
it up a little bit like a really thick newspaper.
Don't think that works. You have to go ahead and
put in a box or wrap it. And the other
offerings are available as well. Father of Mine's out of
(32:27):
Mind on Our Way Home, which is a Christmas slash
ghost story that rings very well this time of year.
I've gotten more positive feedback about that one than any
other because it's the kind of thing that just comes
at the right time of year. It gives people a
nudge to take a step back and maybe address some
relationships that have become frayed, if not fractured, in their
(32:50):
own lives, and it's a little nudge to do something
about it before it's too late. And if it is
too late, it's a way to help yourself come to
terms with the fact that you failed to fix that
broken relationship before it was too late to do it.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Amen, Now I'm not logged into Amazon here, so I
just went to Amazon and typed in Florio just to
make sure, like when you type in Florio, the Michael
left Florio or whatever it is with NFL dot com.
You know, just in case, like if he wrote a
book that we're not getting him all the shine or anything.
And even if you just put in Florio big Shields
right up there on our way home is the third submission.
(33:29):
Then we get down the son of mine. That's pretty cool, man, So.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Yes, and I really you know, it's funny the guy
who works for NFL dot com who does fantasy football,
which I'm not a fan of, and that's fine. I've
gotten calls from people like, hey, hey, is your son
working for NFL networks? Like, no relation. And if that
guy wants to carry around a name that I have sullied,
(33:55):
more power to him.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Yeah. What if a Nigerian prince calls you thinking you're
Michael left Florio and claims he has forty million dollars
for you, would you take that call?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, I've already taken calls like that, and my bank
account has been impacted accordingly.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Of course it has. Hey, you mentioned earlier newspapers. Do
you still actually read the physical newspaper? And the reason
I'm asking is yesterday we had a big toys for
tat show at a local store called Shields, where we're
raising money for underprivileged kids. And yeah, it was a
big Shields and I had a couple of a couple
(34:31):
of us scribes on our newspaper writers, Ben Gasoline, who
covers the team for the Star Tribune, Lavelle Neil, the
third columnist for the Star Tribune. And you know, we
were talking about the potential demise, I mean complete demise
of the physical newspaper, because everything is online. If there
weren't like newspapers or whatever to buy, would that impact you.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
There is a certain irony in this life I've stumbled
into and the impact of digital media on print media.
I delivered newspapers when I was a kid, and it
was an every day, seven day a week. Kind of
laid the foundation for the life I live now. There
were no days off. You delivered the newspapers every morning.
Sundays were gigantic, thick things that you had to make
(35:15):
several trips from your house with your bag on the
front of your bike, and the smell of the paper
when you'd you'd get the stack and you'd pop off
the plastic wrap and fold them up and do all
that stuff. So I've got a long and for the
most part, positive history with newspapers. But right now, you know,
it's funny. I used to as part of my daily routine.
(35:36):
I'd come down the stairs from the studio above our
garage for PFT Live, and I'd stop at the door
and get the newspaper. Not quite the full tony soprano
in the robe walking down the driveway, but I'd get
the newspaper and take it to my wife. She decided
within the past year or so, you know what, it's
a lot easier to just do the online thing. You
read the it's the exact newspaper, you just read it
(35:57):
on your laptop. And it's been at least a year
since we've gotten the print edition of the newspaper. And
that's the way the world's going. Like everybody now instead
of carrying around a newspaper, they get everything they need
off of their phone. It's taken thirty years to kind
of get here, but I'm surprised anybody has a print
edition of a newspaper. There's still something to be said
(36:18):
for having a newspaper, but that's for those of us
who grew up with it. For the kids who have
grown up with tablets and phones and screens, yeah, they
look at that newspaper. It's like they don't want to
get an ink on their hands and It's just a
different reality for them.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
P ft. What do you make of the Carolina Panthers
and these seven wins after beating the Rams?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Well, they beat the Rams, they beat the Packers, they
lost to the Saints, they lost to the Cardinals. Wow,
they're kind of all over the place. And they've got
to take what happened on Sunday against the Rams and
build on that and keep winning. And they've got an
opportunity to pick off the Buccaneers and win that division.
(37:03):
I don't know whether or not a wild card is
a possibility because you look at second third place teams
in the NFC North, second third place teams in the
NFC West, only three of those teams are gonna get
wildcard berth, it's gonna be hard for the Cowboys or
the Cardinals to invade that party. I think the easier
path for both the Cowboys and the Panthers, excuse me,
(37:24):
I misspoke, is to win the division. So you know,
they gotta keep it going. They gotta be consistent. They
got to win the games they're supposed to win. One
sign of a team that becomes a contender is win
the games you're supposed to win, and then win a
half or a third of the games you aren't supposed
to win. That stacks up to enough victories to maybe
(37:45):
make things interesting. And this year seems to be more
about laying the foundation for what they could do next year.
I don't view them as a serious, high level contender,
but their defense is good enough. And if they play
like they did on Sunday against the Rams, and if
they win the division, you get a team that has
to come to Charlotte in January when it could be
(38:06):
a cold, nasty weather factoring day, you know they could
end up in the final eight this year.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Hey what, Mike Florio, ProFootball talk dot com, What are
these teams have in common? Detroit, Green Bay, Chicago, Atlanta, Carolina,
the Giants Tennessee, Buffalo, Miami, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, New England?
The Jets in Arizona? What do they all have in common?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Are you serious? You rattle off all those names and
you want me to try to find a thread that
goes through all of them. I have no idea they're
all in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
How about that Ding Ding Ding nailed it? Those actually
will be the teams the Vikings will play next year
with a last play schedule if the constituents the adversaries
are able to stay in last place where we're going
to finish in the NFC North, so old last play
schedule next year, Michael, what do you think about all that?
Speaker 3 (38:56):
The last place schedule currently impacts three out of your
seventeen games, that's it, and you have to play two
games against whoever finishes first in your division, while that
team gets to play two games against whoever finished the
last in the division. So the schedule isn't as smooth
now as it used to be. When they went with
the current structure, eight divisions, four teams each, they came
(39:20):
up with this rotation aimed at getting every team into
every stadium once every eight years. And you know, last year,
and we've talked about this before, the NFC North teams
benefited from this double rotation where you go through the
four divisions of the AFC and then you go through
the three other divisions of the NFC and it lined
(39:40):
up just right where the NFC North teams caught the
AFC South and the NFC West in kind of a
down year and it fattened up the record. You look
at the NFC West this year, they get the NFC
South and the AFC South, and they're fattening up their record.
That's eight out of seventeen games. That all flows from
this big picture idea that we want to give the
(40:04):
fans the greatest possible variety pack and get every team
playing every other team at least once every four years.
So I don't know how much it helps the Vikings
next year. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I don't know.
They got bigger problems I think than what their schedule
is going to be next year.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Well, so with the New England Patriots, you don't want.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
To talk about the bigger problems they have. You want
to just move right on.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Hit on it gone, what's on?
Speaker 3 (40:30):
I mean, obviously, I mean this is Look, this is
nineteen sixty eight. The Vikings have had a handful, a
five fingered handful of disastrous seasons, and this is one
of them. Most years, the Vikings are competitive, and they
stay competitive through the last few weeks of the regular season.
And I say all the time that the true goal
(40:51):
for any NFL team, It doesn't sound as good as
saying we want to win the Super Bowl every year.
What every NFL team should want to do is be relevant.
After Thanksgiving. You want to be alive in December. You
want people coming to your home games late in the
year when they otherwise have other holiday related things they
can do. You want the kids to put on their
Christmas list for Santa that they want the jersey of
(41:16):
the local football team favorite player or whatever other football
team related merch as opposed to the hockey team, the
basketball team, or the baseball team. You want to be
relevant in December, and the Vikings far more often than not,
are relevant in December, and it doesn't happen very often
that the Vikings are just kind of playing out the string.
(41:38):
And they've got some issues on both sides of the ball,
mainly on the offensive side of the ball between the
offensive line. The experiment this year didn't work. And I
know injuries are an issue. At some point, you got
to take a step back and take a hard look
at training and conditioning and rehab everything. Why is it
that all these injuries are happening. Is it a fluke
or is it a trend? You better figure it out.
(41:59):
And then obviously we could go for your full show
talking about the quarterback position. But next year they didn't
do it. This year they should have done it this year,
and I suspect that folks within the organization would admit
that they made a huge mistake by not having a
viable veteran quarterback there to compete with, or at a minimum,
push JJ McCarthy job number one for next year. Find
(42:22):
a veteran who can come in and have an open
cult style Anthony Richardson Daniel Jones competition to determine the
starting quarterback. And it's either going to get more out
of JJ McCarthy or you're gonna have a guy who
can come in and pick up the Kevin O'Connell offense
and be the thing that the Vikings are lacking most
this year, above everything else, quarterback play has been not
(42:45):
nearly good enough. And that's the biggest reason why they're foreign.
What is it four and eight on their way to
four and nine or maybe five and eight, but it's
just it's uncharacteristic. I think it hurts Vikings fans to
see this happen because it happens so infrequently, no.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Doubt, And we feel that here nine to noon with
talkbacks and emails and correspondents and things like that, and
you know the I respectfully with what you said about
the veteran I would make that the one A okay
but still very high. The one as we finished the
final five games is to get as close to you
can in determining what you have with JJ McCarthy, And
(43:24):
you know, if you lose them all, if you win
them all, or somewhere in between, figuring out what you
have heading into the off season, then the one A
is doing what you said with a veteran quarterback.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
Well, and there are just bigger questions about how they
landed on JJ McCarthy because they could have had bon Nicks.
They had the choice of either one, right, and of
course Sean Payton says, bon Nix is the guy he
would have taken first overall, and certain amount of that
is predictable. Who knows what he would have done if
he would have had the first overall pick. But you
(43:57):
know you got one guy who threw the ball. I
think it was like I had the numbers last week.
He threw the ball two hundred, two hundred and twenty
times last in his last year of college, and Knicks
threw it like, I don't know, another one hundred and
fifty times or more than that, like just raw passing
reps at the college level, and the mechanical issues. The
(44:18):
one pitch arsenal the fastball fastball, fastball with no you
know touch. It takes away a lot of the intermediate stuff.
There's no layering of the ball. When it's fastball. You
can't throw it over a defender and you can't throw
it through a defender. So you just have to wait
until the guy's wide open and fire the fastball. Like
what did they miss in the evaluation process? And is
(44:41):
this fixable? Are the act I mean, look, I've been
watching football for fifty years and good quarterback play. We
take it for granted because the guys open and what happens, Paul.
The ball is delivered, yep. And the only question is
does the guy drop it like it's delivered in the
vicinity of the catch radius. And we've had two many
of these throws this year where the ball has no
(45:02):
chance of being caught on a guy who's wide open,
and there have been some drops on top of that.
But you know, between the accuracy and the fastball fastball fastball,
I don't know that that's fixable. And maybe it is,
and maybe you spend the rest of the year seeing
if the light comes on. I know he said a
few weeks ago that he analogizes the situation to a
(45:24):
quirk about to come out of the bottle. I mean,
I don't know. I mean I think the bottle might
break before the quirk, ever, wiggles its way.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Out, and depending what's in said bottle, we've all been
left punk drunk by by what we're seeing and listening to. Well,
bon Nix is terrific, okay, and maybe there's not much
separating bon Knicks and or Drake May. I think Drake
May is going to be the league's MVP at some point.
And the Patriots definitely are capitalizing off the last Last
(45:54):
play schedule, but there's more into it for them with
winning all these games. But I mean, the hindsight twenty
twenty bit, it's if you loved Drake May, whatever it took,
three first rounders, fourth, whatever it took to get Drake May,
that seems to have been the right answer.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Oh absolutely. And nobody gave the Patriots the kind of
offer that would have been necessary to make that move.
And you know, if they had known what they have,
they would have hung up the phone like the Bengals
did when the Dolphins were trying desperately in twenty twenty
to move up to get Joe Burrow. So it's worked
out well for the Patriots. And once you have that guy,
once you have that guy that you know is going
(46:35):
to be ten to fifteen years, that guarantees that in December,
your stadium is going to be full, you're going to
be mathematically alive. You're going to be playing for division
titles and wild card berths and laying the foundation. And
what really impressed me the most about the Patriots on
Monday Night and whatever it was, whether it was you know,
they were a little complacent against the Bengals and maybe
(46:56):
could have blown that game, or it's Thanksgiving week and
they're distractions and you have to kind of prod the
guys to stay focused, or it's just the idea, we
have a chance to be the one seed and we're
going for it. And the way that they were hitting,
just the raw violence, the football violence, the legitimate legal football,
(47:19):
impose your will on the other human being. It was impressive.
And this is a team that senses it has a
shot to be the number one seed and capitalize on
the two home games that will lead you to Santa
Clara for the Super Bowl, and they aren't getting you know,
they're not like, oh my god, where we're so high
up on the ladder, we might fall off. They're sprinting
to the top of it.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Hey, what did you make of Lane Kiffen vaulting from
Ole Miss to LSU.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Well, I think that it's not a disease symptom of
a deeper issue in college football, where it's open season
whenever you want to try to go hire someone else's coach.
In the NFL, none of this stuff happens until the
season ends. Now there's always back channel stuff. And that's
what amazes me about this because that weird, clunky pr
(48:09):
fight that emerged was Lane Kiffen wanting to stay and
finish the job at Mississippi after he'd taken the LSU job.
Why didn't they just have a wink nod for him
to go to LSU as soon as Old Miss is
done and then just do it that way, Like, why
did they have to sign the contract, Why did they
have to put it in writing? Why did they have
(48:30):
to do it if LSU was already content to let
Lane Kiffin stay in Oxford and finish the playoff runt
why not just do it that way. I mean, Alabama
waited for Miami season to end nineteen years ago for
the hiring of Nick Saban. If you remember that, Nick Saban,
I'm not going to be the Alabama coach. As soon
as the season ends, boom, he's gone. But in the
(48:52):
NFL you don't have that kind of chaos where a
team can swoop in. And I made this point, think
of how ridiculous it would sound if once the Bears
clinch their playoff berth, and you know, there's a game
or two left in the regular season, all of a sudden, Hey,
the Giants may hire Ben Johnson before the playoffs start,
and then Ben Johnson's just gone and he's coaching the
(49:13):
Giants and somebody else has to take over the Bears
for the playoff runt. That is the apples to apples comparison.
So it's chaos in college football. And we hear all
the time about college football's in crisis. That is a
load of crap. Look at what they're paying Brian Kelly
to go away fifty four million, ninety one million dollar
base deal for Lane Kivin. That's one hundred and forty
five million tied up in two coaches, one who's coaching
(49:34):
the team and one who isn't. Wow, there is no
crisis in college football. That is all political spin. It's
all bs, and it's all aimed at trying to spin
the clock back to the days when the players aren't
getting what they're getting now because the people who run
college football don't like it that the rabbit has the
gun and plane and simple.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Lastly, with a college football bent at dion with Colorado,
I mean he makes a ton of cash and Colorado
had some disaster to a this sh year. He wants
to stay and he also does make a ton of
money should he remain the coach at Colorado with no
shador Travis Hunter at Tall no longer part of the program.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
See, this is part of the problem. These teams get
a coach that may be desirable elsewhere and they throw
a bunch of money at the coach and then if
it doesn't work, what do we do. They're operating at
a twenty seven million dollar deficit this year in the
Colorado athletics department, fueled by the nil expenses for players
(50:33):
who aren't good enough and a coaching contract with Dean
Sanders that runs through twenty twenty nine. That was fueled
by what he did in his second season on the
job with Travis Hunter and Shader Sanders. I mean, North
Carolina's in the same boat. I believe if they could
walk away from Bill Belichick without a thirty million dollar buyout,
they would. Now part of it is admitting, hey, we
(50:55):
rolled the dice on one of the greatest NFL coaches
of all time and it doesn't work. You know why
it doesn't work because it's about players. It's not about coaches.
At the college level. You got to have the right players,
and they have a whifted on getting the right players.
And that falls on Belichick directly, but also on GM
Mike Lombardi, who was the guy out there finding the players.
They didn't find good enough players. I think they'd get
(51:16):
out of that in a heartbeat if they could. So
this and I go back to the Lane Kiffen conundrum.
Teams feel like they got to throw all this money
at coaches who are showing anything that looks positive because
they don't want to lose him to somebody who's going
to swoop in and pluck him away during a season.
The whole thing is a mess. It's a it's a
chaotic reality that the NCAA has allowed, and they want
(51:39):
someone else to fix it for them. And I just
I enjoy college football less and less because I believe
that the people in charge of it either are inherently corrupt,
or they don't know what they're doing, or a combination
of both.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
You know what it is, it's a boondoggle. And on
that note, I'll call you next week, Seopaul, Mike Glorio.
That was fantastic, Myclorioprofootball Talk dot Com ten o'clock nine
to noon continues after the
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