September 18, 2024 • 47 mins
We start the show expanding on some comments made from Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell, then some Vikes Bites on how a 2-0 team can get even better, before Florio makes his weekly pit-stop!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Nine to noon. Just listen, Just listen, porsttle plow, hippy.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Get.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hold on. I gotta turn this down by.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Come, Oh well.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Shall we begin? Oh thank you?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Minneapolis one, two three, and this is nine to noon.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Twins got the money last night.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Castro loves to right field and deep back, it goes
and gone.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Willie Castro comes up with a huge September swing, two out,
two run Homer and the Twins take a four to
one lead.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
Corey provis play by play voice on television for the
Minnesota Twin Agmatics describing part of a victory over the Guardians.
And Jensen lewis, a former Cleveland pitcher and frequent contributor
to the Cabinet.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
He'll be on the radio show today.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
It's a coming up relatively soon to discuss his baseball
team lose into a baseball team that needed a victory
like it needed to breathe. And of course the Tigers won,
because the Tigers never lose. With Nordo's Guy's torkl Sin,
McKinstry and Parker Meadow Meadows. So jaylu joining nine to noon.
(02:15):
That's going to take place after Florio and PFT. You
know we Mike Florio about thirty five minutes from now.
And by the way, our lovely Links won a grinder
at Connecticut last evening after beating the Liberty the game before.
And I don't really see why AWNBA title is not
in the plans for Miss Reeves team. What a wonderful squad.
(02:38):
Lindsey Whalen his Links immortality and she joins Nine to
Noon tomorrow, Away tomorrow. Where there's a win, there's a
way and weekly through the WNBA playoffs. Sure it truly
happens to be quite excited about that because she has
a Minnesota Vikings bent to her and is kind of
like Queen of Rube Nation. She's all wound up over
(02:58):
these undefeated Vikings right now. And of course her former team,
the Minnesota Links. That's super sweet and super cool, just
like our sit down each and every Tuesday with Minnesota
Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell. Super sweet and super cool
and super kind of ko to stop by the TCO
(03:20):
studios to sit down for an elongated segment and to
chat about our favorite football team.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Nordo produces Nine to Noon.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
The producer was bit by some clips he feels require analysis,
and here they are Yeah, good morning.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And of course exes no's with head coach Kevin O'Connell
will air this evening where you're going to get a
longer form version of that conversation with the head coach
and the vox from yesterday six thirty pm. Every Wednesday,
x's No's with head Coach Kevin O'Connell. But if you're
looking at clips and favorite parts of conversations, the reason
that I mean, first of all, the team winning game
(03:58):
certainly does not hurt it, but you can feel a
warming process that is taking place with the head coach
being in studio. And one of my favorite aspects, say
I picked two of them, is him breaking down play
so that us Rubes us Layman can actually understand, yep,
the cause and effect of why certain things happen that
lead to other things that in this case lead to
(04:19):
wide open touchdowns by guys like Jalen Naylor. And here's
KO with you yesterday talking about just that that particular
play that he did score on. He just did an
unbelievable job.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
So we're really trying to sequence up and make that
look and really feel like a running play, you know,
even how he short motioned down in there almost was
the feeling you get sometimes of that gray area for
a receiver shorting down to block that safety wasn't really
a pre rotated defense. He kind of had to bait
(04:52):
that safety into coming down, and when he did, then
he continued his motion on in between the tight end
and Brian O'Neill right there, which then now they're in
man covers. They're trying to figure out, okay, we lock
in this thing. The second they decided to lock it,
that put really word as the sea gap sea gap
defender right there, which we had run enough duos in
(05:13):
different runs where we're bouncing the ball out on that
corner putting him in a total conflict. So I knew
the next time we got in that area to run
that play, I knew that was going to be coming up.
I did not know it would come off of Josh Mattelis,
you know, with a fantastic interception right there. So it
was really really well executed, love the protection, great sell
(05:33):
by Sam on the fake, and you know, made it
look probably a lot easier to everybody watching the game
than it actually has.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
A lot of detail goes into that stuff.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Example nine twenty five football is complicated. Yeah, example nine
twenty five with the short motion. Now the corner is
in the sea gap where you think of beef eaters
and gaps. Crumb's being laid during the course of a
game to set up the motion inside the tight end
to get a corner in the sea gap to bite
(06:05):
on a fake run, which eventually is gonna be an okie,
del gotcha.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Football can be quite complicated. In good morning and.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Good morning and I and I told you find your
favorite clips, Nordo. That's how we're gonna open it up.
We're gonna talk about x'es and o's, we're gonna we're
gonna talk about the ko and it's. And you know
that from the game in our conversations. That was one
of my two favorite offensive plays from the weekend. Now
the other one is quite obvious and just what goes
into the anatomy of a game call. And here's the
(06:36):
head coach with you yesterday talking about while he's breaking
down that ninety seven yard.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It's kind of that risk reward. Yeah, if they send
the backer, I know it's.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Going to be open, but I also know both Bosa
is gonna be singled up because if they don't send
the backer. Ed Ingram's gonna help on Bosa. You know,
fans should go back and take a look at that play.
Really two other performances on that play. Aaron Jones really
helping ed Ingram, you know, kind of got a quick
inside move from the d tackle, and Aaron, you know,
all one hundred and eighty pounds of them, kind of
(07:05):
fits up that d tackle and keeps him penetrating, allowing
Sam to step up. And then Garrett Bradbury, you know,
ends up running his you know, Fred Warner come, you know,
blitzing that a gap. He ends up running him past
Sam so Sam could step up. There was an unbelievable
effort on you know, we're ready for the corner to
potentially add in off the backside. That's one of those
(07:26):
plays that goes down where you can stand up in
front of the team like I did yesterday and say,
this does not happen without all eleven guys on the
field doing their job, knowing exactly what to do in
a critical moment of the game.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
And that's how you beat a team like the San
Francisco forty nine ers. You're going to have to make
some plays just like that to.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Be able to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So you get the break down there and then we did,
you know, through the conversation with with Pete Bursich afterwards,
PA just kind of trying to get an idea of
how I don't know if it's chaotic. I don't know
if it if it's parsed out. Of course, different people
with different responsibilities, but so many people going into that
(08:06):
play and he had mentioned that, you know, I kind
of got the play out just in case maybe more
conservative opinions down the line of the headsets that you know,
we get this thing in, we get it moving, and
I just want to be positive and go full force
with it. Burst its then later kind of you know,
understanding in those moments, Okay, once that play call is made,
(08:26):
whether it's Keenan McCardell who was navigating traffic with receivers
at specific spots during that long field goal drive to
effectively ice the game about that all of the conversations,
opinions and minds that have to be in lockstep have
to be coordinated and orchestrated that in that moment at
the three yard line. And you'll hear later on in
(08:48):
the show, Pa, I got some clips and bits from
the from the coordinators who spoke to the media yesterday,
and you'll hear from from West Phillips not only on
this play, but but kind of talking about you know,
didn't know what was going to come at the three
yard line, but it was something that we all really
were confident in. Tweaked the play from years past that
(09:08):
gave him a similar but completely different outset. Look, yep,
it was just it was fun to watch him and
you know, again it's it's whether you're winning games or
in this case it results in a ninety seven yard TD.
You could feel the the glee of the coach being
able to say, yeah, this is what went into it,
and it freaking worked and as you heard him say,
(09:29):
all eleven guys made that thing a reality.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
All Right.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
A couple of things here on this with O'Connell yesterday
on that ninety seven yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson, you
know he said, he said running it and getting to
a certain point was key. Okay, well they did it,
box checked. But then now you get into the probability game,
(09:53):
to the percentage game, to the personnel game, where okay,
the forty nine ers have a base personnel on the field,
which means four down linemen and three linebackers, so they
are expecting most likely another run, which means if you
play action off set expectation, you will get certain players
(10:15):
to do certain things. And then if everybody blocks it
up the right way and the quarterback is able to
step up in the pocket from the end zone, we
firmly believe Justin Jefferson will be covered by a safety
or safeties and he's going to run by them. So
now the final point of the equation is we need
(10:36):
the quarterback to heave it what would be fifty some
odd yards on time to eighteen so he doesn't have
to wait for it because they that could be an interception,
be a knockdown pass or a pass defense or see,
it'll just slow the whole roll of eighteen running with
them jets. All all of that worked, and the second
(11:01):
part of this equation is Kevin Seaffert of ESPN and
espn dot com. He tweeted yesterday or today he listened
to the Kevin O'Connell conversation and was bit with fascination
by the A AT, B, C, D, E, F, and
G that all had to go into the man JJ
(11:23):
getting to the end zone and via his Twitter feed,
which would be at Seafert ESPN. As Kevin O'Connell noted
during the spot with a PA on the mic, so
much had to happen just for Darnold to get the
ball off on his ninety seven yard TD to Justin Jefferson.
Watch Brian O'Neill versus Nick Bosa, Garrett Bradberry versus Fred Warner,
(11:48):
Aaron Jones, all one hundred and eighty pounds of him,
as Kevin O'Connell said, versus bfeed er nose tackle Mollie Collins,
and he provided Kevin provided the end zone angle of this.
It's a wonderful tweet and just wonderfully laid out from
the end zone where you can just see Brad Barry, Warner, Jones, Collins,
(12:10):
Darnold step up off the play action and O'Neill Bosa
saves the day. You hit Jefferson in stride, he has
to stop, then he circumnavigates and gets into the end zone.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
That's a I mean, that is.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
O'Connell's breakdown of it was fascinating, so much so it
bit the scribe, the espnscribe to get into the head
on the end zone view and like analyze it from
that standpoint, this play is super cool.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, it was sweet, and you can match the video
with the explanation and now we are elite football.
Speaker 8 (12:40):
Mind.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I got a couple more for you and again x'es
and o's here the entire conversation tonight at six thirty pm,
right here on the fan. But I'm glad that he
took time out to talk about Ty Chanler. Glad you
asked about Ty.
Speaker 7 (12:53):
You know, in a game that we saw a lot
of played ninety seven yard touchdown and Sam making some
big time plays. But what I liked the most about
Tis performance is he understands that we're going to really
try to feature Aaron Jones. He understands we're going to
try to feature different aspects of our offense. But Ty
has a huge role explosive power, He's got great vision.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I thought he had some great reads when to bounce,
when to.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
Hit it up inside, when to get north and south
running through tackles. Loved the wide zone we ran late
in the game, kind of down towards the end zone
where he ends up one on one with the corner
with about you know, three four yards to go to
get the first down and he ends up getting the
first down by about five yards and staying in bounds.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You want to talk about exaggerated analysis through two games.
Love that from Ko, But what I'm getting to is,
you know, two game sample size, seventeen game regular season, yep,
you know, just in a simple basis, the run game
has looked not only more explosive, you heard that word
from the head coach, it's looked more efficient and more
productive overall. Five point one a clip so far through
(13:58):
two versus the four yards of very last season.
Speaker 8 (14:00):
Again, small sample size, totally get it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
But this team super early are averaging less than two
more carries a game than they did a year ago.
But it's the extra yardage per play, and it's the
first downs moving the chains. PA they had a total
of seventy nine first downs via the run game last
season in totality. They're on pace for nearly double that
right now. And you get the rushing touchdown in the
opener game. Flow didn't really dictate that against the Niners
(14:27):
in terms of being inside the five and grinding one in,
but the rushing attack being able to move the chains
adding explosion. Both Jones and Chandler in moments have been
able to catch that edge and get extra yards, and
you heard him fighting for extra yards. In addition, I'm
really really bullish on what this team has finally, maybe
(14:49):
finally figured out with the run game.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Well, with that, with ty Chandler's calmness, poise and his
ability to take the ball and not have to go
one thousand miles per hour right out of the gate,
well that it's third year poise, that's supposed to happen.
And he had a jump cut in the backfield where
it was going to be a TfL minus five and
he was able to get away from the guy and
edge his way ahead for one or two. So just
(15:13):
little things like that with ty Chandler not only amplify
the running game, but it opens the menu. It takes
the voluminous nature of the menu with the play calls
and opens things because the more the play caller can
trust the players, the more the play caller can get
(15:34):
deep into the menu. And that's very important because I
don't believe that's always been the case.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Last one for you here, I just I found this interesting. Again,
just we're going to focus more on Sam, maybe not
only throughout the show, but specifically final hour as well
with some audio from the coordinators. But poise can be contagious,
or the lack thereof can be contagious as well.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
Here's what Ko was talking about.
Speaker 7 (15:59):
But then the part of it is when you have
that button on your belt where you can talk directly
to the quarterback, if you portray, if I, as the
play caller, portray any kind of franticness or stress or
that all travels through that headset to the quarterback. And
I just believe wholeheartedly my job in those moments, specifically
(16:19):
when we're on offense and I'm talking to Sam. He
needs to hear confidence, he needs to hear poise, He
needs to hear that the guy call him plays is
calling plays with the utmost amount of belief in him,
because that can be a really powerful thing. And I've
experienced it the other way. Maybe it was my playing
career when I'd hear a play call come into the
(16:41):
headset where I guess, we're just gonna try some go
balls here, Just go ahead and give it a shot.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We don't think you're gonna hit it, but yeah, yeah,
go ahead and call it.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
I want to make sure that a quarterback that plays
for me never feels like that.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So poise can be contagious. And that that was all
with Kevin O'Connell yesterday. That's the access that we get
with those week Tuesday TCO sit downs and then if
you missed any of it, podcast will free iHeartRadio app
but live six thirty tonight or I should say playing
or airing six thirty tonight, x'es and o's with head
coach Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Yeah, the Minnesota Vikings media relations staff as has just
been so accommodating and so wonderful to not only nine
to noon or KFAM, but from the idea to have hey,
let's have Jefferson miked up all third quarter of a
preseason game. That's all the show in the preseason. Then
from that you go to the hit man. From that,
(17:32):
you go to O'Connell, who, like every five seconds was pa,
all right, now look at this. We're going to screen here,
and you got to get this guy with this guy,
and I mean that was unbelievable. I just got a
bit for like days on that and the decision to
have him live nine to noon each and every Tuesday
from like eleven to eleven thirty and make that x'
as a os man just I'm very grateful for the
(17:55):
thoughtful nature of that group when it comes to yours truly,
this show, this radio station, and that football team.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Vikes Bites are around the corner.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Part of the Timber Tech What's on Deck set list,
which includes Mike Florio. Florio will come out to play
EA at about nine forty. We have some baseball in
the mix today at about ten o'clock. Jay lou Jensen Lewis.
He's a former Cleveland Indian Slash Guardians pitcher and he
analyzes baseball assumably for profit for Bally's in Cleveland. And
(18:26):
the Twins got the money against a said squad last evening.
A former Minnetonka High school football stud played for the
Badgers won a Super Bowl with the Eagles. Bo Allen,
he'll be on the radio show about an hour from now,
and Alas, we have much more for you today nine
to noon at FM one hundred point three KFA in
order producers and I'm Paul Allen.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Good morning you, Fikes, Bike.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Fikes Bytes, Vikes Bites nine to noon brought to you
by Thousand Hills Lifetime Grays grass Fed Beef Feeding Elite
Gopher Athletes and they're a Clearwater, Minnesota company. Find them
in local Coburn's local co ops and online Thousand Hills
Lifetime Grays dot com. You can buy online a box
(19:24):
of meat shows up at your doorstep. I love Matt
and everybody at Thousand Hills and the kind of the
frame up for this edition of Ikes Bites PA is
Teams two and zero loving it, but could it be
even better?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Averaging The answer is yes.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
I like the premise because there there are several things
not only off the O'Connell conversation, but several things that
we can hand pick that are good, don't really have
any eason to regress and if anything, only should get
better indeed.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And cutting room floor things that when you're two and
zero and you're feeling good about yourself. Well, we talked
about this yesterday, Pa Ben Gesling at TCO Studios. It's
you're working from a platform of winning, right. We saw
that a lot in twenty twenty two. This was an
awful aspect of XYZ game, but the team found a
(20:26):
way to win. And similarly, through two weeks, I have
one particular sticking point, and I'm sure it's similar to
everybody else, but something that needs to stop.
Speaker 8 (20:36):
And this two and OHO team can be even better.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Epty backfield on third and sixteen, Darnold from the end zone,
fire's right caught CJ Ham near side, Nolly dropped it
and the Giants have recovered it.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
At the twenty one. CJ Ham still on the field,
he lay prone on his stomach.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
He got blasted at the eighteen, and the Giants have
turned over the Minnesota Vikings deep and Vikings territory.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So among all the things that I want to see,
that can be even better. Whether it's the seventeenth overall selection,
he's only going to grow.
Speaker 8 (21:08):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
The offensive line, I think has stood up pretty tall
against a couple of big defensive fronts over the first
two weeks and they played pretty well, and that can
even be better. But the reason I picked out the
turnovers is a team that is two to zero has
four turnovers through two games. CJ Ham, you heard that
highlight there the opening possession. Then later in the game
(21:31):
it's twenty eight to six. Darnold with the pick around midfield,
hit it as he's throwing it, and it would be
hitman who keeps points off the board for the Giants
the ensuing possession. But then on Sunday you're at the
twenty one yard line Vikings fans fresh off at twenty.
Speaker 8 (21:45):
Five yard run from Ty Chandler.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
You heard how the coach is feeling about that tandem
of Jones and Chandler.
Speaker 8 (21:51):
But you get to aggressive.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You take points off the board where it could either
be thirteen oh or seventeen oh, and they score a
TD off of that. So suddenly, instead of a two
possession or potentially a three possession lead, you're now looking
at ten to seven. And then eight seconds left in
the third quarter you have the fumble by Aaron Jones
at the doorstep, and that's a game ender right there.
(22:13):
That's the knockout punch. It's twenty seven to seven Vikings
and the game is over. But instead it was Fred
Warner's haymaker punch yep that send the Niners the other
way on a ninety nine yard drive to make it
twenty to fourteen, and a sweaty fan base at the
bank on Sunday is perspiring even more so. There are
many things that are so good and can be even better,
(22:35):
but I just focused on this.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
Call me a nitpick.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
But a year ago it was one of the eight
topics in a season that ended with seven wins, and
it was opening possession turnovers. It was big spot turnovers,
points coming off the board. There's growth in this through
two games that they have persevered through these mistakes within games.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
But you take these turnovers out of the mix. We're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Two lopsided ass kicking performances by the Vikings at two
and zero versus again having to to look at that
clock and look at that scoreboard a bit more closely
than we would have liked to.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
The the turnovers are not working on O'Connell and or
the staff the way they did last year, which means
and I'm pretty sure I understand why, and and yes,
absolutely you would prefer turnover free football. But if you
think about four of them, if you think about the
(23:29):
the Maryland rookie Drew Phillips and the hit he put
on Ham and the fact that CJ bumbles so infrequently
that's of the aberration variety, and and and Phillips hit
the ball, and I mean it was a ten to
ten piece of perfection on on form tackling and hitting
(23:50):
to get the ball out. Fred Warner's punch was that
of Mike of Mike Tyson esque. Darnold's first pick was
tipped by Dexter Lawrence. The final pick was a bad pass.
So yeah, you prefer to not have them. But last year, man,
I mean they were just dropping it. It was like
(24:10):
it would just somebody would just touch the football or
touch the arm and the ball would come out. So yes,
a zero take give, Yeah, that's fine, it's it's zero.
I mean it's meddling atop the league. The Steelers, the
Pittsburgh Steelers. All of a sudden, they're plus five. Steelers
are plus five, Packers are plus four, Bills are plus three,
(24:34):
Saints or plus three.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Then he got a bunch of plus twos, including the Texans.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Do you think there's an element to this?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And you know the Steelers, by the way, the combination
of facing Nicks and then kind of a wobbly Falcons
operation week one.
Speaker 8 (24:46):
Good for them. I got some audio for you from
Mike Tomlin later, right, But.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Do you think there's an element when I hit you
with that audio about poise where I think this is
a test for the coach, given how many times he's
talked about ball secure, how frustrating it out at times
in twenty twenty three or the coach maybe not just
laying off of it, because as you lay out situationally, Yeah,
(25:10):
there are some there's a different type of conversation maybe
around what we've seen thus far, but the fact that, okay,
we're winning games. There are so many things that are
going well. I can't drop a load of bricks on
the like I need this to be fixed. But maybe
I have to look at it a bit differently than
I did a year ago.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
Well, the I've never seen a team in an offseason
work on holding onto the ball in non obvious fashion
as I did the vikings when I was at OTAs
or draining camp. And in practice they start practices with
some drills too for holding onto the ball. Now, don't
(25:47):
it doesn't. It does because turnovers are going to happen.
But the question is, or the facts would be, is
when do they happen, why do they happen, and how
do they impact the game. But just thinking back at
at the Jones fumble, it sucks, you're gonna blow somebody out.
But Fred Warner is two time first team All Pro.
(26:08):
He's not bad, so he gets to he gets to
do things like that occasionally, believe it or not.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And CJ.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Ham, I mean, you can't hit you can't hit somebody
and hit the ball any There's nothing CJ.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Ham could have done.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
You got pounded and Darnold on the first pick. As
I said earlier, there's nothing else to do. I mean,
Dexter Lawrence tipped the football.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So no, I'm not, I'm not. It can get better,
for sure.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
You can get that plus minus up to plus one
plus two, plus three plus four.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
But it's dramatically different compared to last year.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Bites, bites, Kevin O'Connell, one more, Ko cut pa. Something
that has caught our I through two games, something that
is good, but definitely could be better.
Speaker 6 (26:51):
I'm still trying to figure out what he's talking about
here with Grenard. Well here he is on Jonathan Grenard.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I've just seen it.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
I think Flow and his staff are doing tremendous job.
You saw Cash on a you know, a stunt away
from kind of where Grenard and all these other guys are.
We're sending cash and we're getting a pick stunt for
him to go get a sack. You know, obviously Ginkel
and Grenard's the guy that they keeps jumping out at
me because so many people focus on sacks. Wow, And
(27:18):
he's been affecting the quarterback basically every drive we've had
since you know, his tenure here started with the Vikings.
He's two games in a ton of quarterback pressures, unique moves, strain, finish,
and he hasn't quite gotten that you know, finish where
he gets a guy on the ground yet. But he's
probably contributed to about five six seven drives ending right
(27:40):
there just by his own personal performance forcing a throwaway
or an inaccurate throw because it's either too earlier off
the spot. So want to continue to see him do
those things and the results of sacks, which are important,
we'll start showing up for JG.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
But he's been phenomenal for us.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So in terms of Jonathan Grin, he had the I
believe he was credited with a sack and the opener.
You didn't see much from him statistically this last week,
but the head coach pa is all about him being
kind of maybe it's the catalyst, maybe it's the speed,
but that regardless of him not showing up on the
(28:18):
stat sheet, he apparently, according to the head coach, is
showing up all over the film in terms of what
makes mister Flores' defense go.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah, I see what Kevin is saying without a doubt.
I'm not one to second guess a head coach when
he says things like that. It's in.
Speaker 6 (28:34):
I've watched back probably twenty twenty three pass rush situations
involving Bernard. Now I haven't watched any run defense, and
I'm sure that that's pretty good too. I saw the
plays talking about with Cashman absolutely shared it fairly. But
just like the first four pass rushes against the forty
nine ers, on the first one he fell. On the
(28:57):
second one, he spun and almost got there, but he
did impact party and caused him to throw it early.
On his third rush, he slipped again after he after
he spun around mckivtt's the right tackle. If he doesn't slip,
he gets a sack. So that completely plays into what
(29:18):
Kevin is talking about. And and the he had another
fresh spin move coming from the the the left side
of the offense, right side of the defense. They were
picking on mckivitt's the right tackle with Grenard. So now
you take it to the next layer if you if
you care to, and and you look at Okay, you
(29:39):
got Trent Williams here and you got mckivtzs there. Well,
Trent Williams isn't as fast or nimble as he used
to be, and he's playing himself into shape, but he's
still Trent Williams. The other guy's not fast. Sixty eight
is not fast. Mcgivtts is powerful, but he's not fast.
He's the McGlinchey replacement that that they loved, and the
guy's good, but he couldn't handle Grenard's speed and or spin,
(30:01):
so they had to start putting Kittle over there. Now
that's good news, because that would mean George would chip
Jonathan and then head into the route, as opposed to
getting completely a free release. On his fourth pass rush,
Grenard his spin, his spin moves fresh. I mean seriously,
I've seen it in games, but now watching it back,
(30:23):
it's just fast and fresh and slippery and slithery. I
didn't know he had a spin move like that, and
on his fourth pass rush he perty had to throw
it earlier than he wanted. Stefan Gilmore almost had a
pick center of the field. I completely see what Kevin
O'Connell's talking about here. In the Giants game, Grenard almost
(30:46):
like was an inch from causing a forced fumble, a
strip sack fumble. So with Jonathan as I mentioned yesterday,
he hit twelve and a half sacks last year and
he got paid. In the previous three years he had
ten and a half sacks. So in time fashion, he
put it together at the right time. But what led
to that the drafting of Will Anderson Junior. So you
(31:07):
have Will Anderson Junior and then like this weekend, you're
going to see Will Anderson Junior the defensive rookie of
the year last year. Along with Daniel Hunter. They bookend
each other nicely, and Derek Barnette he's their third, and
then Jerry Hughes plays maybe fifteen plays a game.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
They have a nice rush.
Speaker 6 (31:25):
But Grenard was part of that last year with Will
Anderson Junior who started to get all the attention. Grenard
in the Giants game got a lot of attention. Didn't
get as much in the forty nine Ers game, but
that led to Purty having to throw the ball sooner
than he wanted. Football can be complicated, man, Football can
be so complicated.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
With the A to the B to the C to
the D to the E. Just to make a play work.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
So after O'Connell said that yesterday, I put some time
into it and I couldn't exactly see what he was
talking about. But now in watching strictly his pass rush,
I see what Kevin's talking about. With Jonathan Grenard, who's
part of an undefeated Minnesota Vikings team that lay atop
the NFC North in first place solo alone. By Florio
(32:09):
from Profootballtalk dot com. We'll chat about that and more
around the corner on kfam.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Fikes Bites Hardcore Football. Hey, Mike, good morning, is Paul Allen?
How are you?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Hi, Paul?
Speaker 9 (32:31):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Paul?
Speaker 8 (32:32):
Excellent?
Speaker 6 (32:33):
My brother Mike Florioprofootballtalk dot com, NBC's Football Night in America,
and woo. The Minnesota Vikings have gone surging up the
PFT power rankings.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
You can follow this.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
At Pro Footballtalk dot com, our preferred and favored National
Football League related website, Pro Footballtalk dot Com twenty fourth
to eleventh, Beat the Niners and earn the accolades, right,
Michael J.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
Florio, Well, Hey, that's how it works. NFC champions a
team that has been among the elite for the past
several years. The Vikings now two to zero over the
last couple of seasons, winning the games under somewhat different circumstances,
but with the common thread of a defense that the
Devils frustrates and confuses the San Francisco offense, and an
(33:21):
offensive game plan that is masterful. Kevin O'Connell one of
the best play designers and play callers in the NFL.
As long as there are players competent enough to properly execute.
They had that on Sunday. It should have been a blowout.
But for the Fred Warner jarring the ball loose off
Aaron Jones, that game would have been twenty seven to seven,
your one brock Purty mistake away from thirty four to
(33:42):
seven or thirty to seven. And I give the Vikings
credit because after it went to twenty to fourteen, and
that's when an offense under conditions like that could buckle
and give the ball back to the forty nine ers
and give them a chance to steal it. The Vikings
methodically drove down the field to get the three pointer
that made it a two score game and essentially ended
(34:05):
it at that point. And that that was I think
the most important drive of the game, because when you
start to feel it slipping away. Do you find a
way to stop the bleeding? And the offense did well that.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
I love how you lay that out, And that's kind
of been a common thread the last couple of days
nine to noon about Yeah, I mean, they blew out
the Giants.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
It could have been worse.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
They almost blew out the Niners, you know, outside of
that bumble and the Darnald pick early to Fred Warner.
But Perty Rock Perty is a Super Bowl quarterback you say, bedeviled, bedeviled,
befuddled or whatever by Brian Florez defense. And this team
with O'Connell man that they're so cock sure with the
quarterback and scheme. They ran risky play action from the
(34:49):
end zone and got a ninety seven yard touchdown out
of it, and they're five to zero lifetime against the
Texans and here comes Stefan Diggs.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
So what do you think of all that?
Speaker 7 (35:00):
Well?
Speaker 9 (35:00):
I saw that. Kevin O'Connell explained to you yesterday all
the things that had to go right to make that
play work. And what a gutsy move to let Sam
Darnold drop into his end zone in a three to
nothing game and deliver what became not the dagger, but
that was the moment. And a lot of these games,
you know, when the underdog is being feisty and the
underdog is standing up to the team that's favored, you
(35:21):
look for that moment where you say for the first time, Hey,
the team that's not supposed to win this game can
win this game. And that play is what put the
Vikings in play to win the game. So it was impressive.
And Stefan Diggs coming back, he's not the fact that
it would have been in past years, and I don't
know how much of a storyline that really is. The
Texans have a damn good team. I'd be more concerned
(35:43):
about Danil Hunter coming back than Stefan Diggs coming back, frankly,
but makes for a great game. A couple of two
and zero teams, there's only nine left after two weeks,
and two of them are facing off in Minneapolis. Two
others are facing off in Pittsburgh. So we're trimming it
down and this is the Vikings chance to do something
I never would have dreamed. I look at those first
five games before the bye. You got Packers after this,
(36:07):
Jets in London after that, and then a break four
and one that would be something. Even three and two
at this point would be regarded as a win going
into Week one. Now, I think three and two at
this point would be a disappointment because that means one
and two over the next three games. But that forty
nine Ers game look still fifteen to play. But that's
(36:27):
one of those that puts a team on track to
develop the confidence in itself that it can keep winning
and keep going, not by the skin of their teeth.
Not that it was overpowering, but that's the difference between
now and twenty twenty two. These aren't coin flips that
are going Minnesota's way. These are games that they are
(36:48):
going out and earning and leaving no doubt and making
key plays when they need to be made to avoid
having the game come down to the wire.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
P FT only Coalprofootballtalk dot com our guy my Man
is on Panthers owner David Tepper, I mean from quarterbacks
in the next draft, as a PFT suggests should refuse
to play for Tepper's team, the Carolina Panthers to the
Power Rankings, where PFT writs about the thirty second ranked Panthers,
(37:17):
David Tepper is just another former Steelers minority owner who
has no idea how to be a competent majority owner.
What's gotten under your skin so much with mister Tepper.
Speaker 9 (37:28):
Well, it's not a matter of what's gotten under my
skin because I don't care what the guy does, and
he's entitled to own the team, run the team however
he wants. But the reality is, and this is what
was articulated by Jed York, the owner of the forty
nine ers, in early twenty seventeen, after they had fired
three coaches in three seasons, from Jim Harbaugh to Jim
tom Sulla to Chip Kelly, and they were viewed as dysfunctional.
(37:51):
Jed York said, you don't fire the owner. And that's
the problem for a fan base of a team with
a bad owner. When you have a bad owner, a
true goes down and makes for a dysfunctional operation. David
Tepper too involved, David Tepper too impulsive, firing coaches left
and right. Did it with his football team, did it
with his soccer team, keeps doing it. Fired Frank Reich
(38:12):
last year, deliberately mispronounced his name on the way out.
And the ultimate active disrespect is if anyone ever referred
to him as frank Reich. At any point in the
forty years he's been involved in football, no one called
him frank Reich until that day. Throwing a drink on fans,
removing a guy's hat because he saw a sign outside
of a restaurant that made him upset, just the epitome
(38:32):
of bad owner. And with Bryce Young being benched after
only eighteen games in his NFL career, and presumably they're
done with Bryce Young, my hope is that the quarterback
that they draft in twenty twenty five says, I'm not
playing for you. And my broader hope is that the
full group of consensus first round quarterbacks next year come
(38:56):
together and collectively say, don't draft any of us, because
if you do, whoever it is you draft, we're not
coming to play for you. We'll sit out a year,
we'll live off of RNIL money, and we'll re enter
the draft in twenty twenty six. That's the only way
to push back against a bad owner. That's the only
recourse anyone has, because what are the fans gonna do.
(39:18):
You're gonna not go to games, You're gonna boycott the team,
You're not gonna follow the team. The thing that you
love the thing that you have family involvement with nostalgia,
you're just gonna turn your back on that and hope
that the owner eventually sells if enough people do it.
That's not realistic. This is a way that someone can
stand up to a bad organization, to a bad owner
(39:39):
and say I'm not gonna go have my career ruin.
Look at Sam Darnold prove positive Jets ruined him, Panthers
ruined him. Last year with San Francisco, he got back
on the right track, and now look at the story. Well,
he could have been that from his rookie year if
he landed in the right spot. So it's not just
an anti teper thing. It's a let's make sure quarterbacks
go to places where they have a good chance to thrive,
(40:01):
and let's give teams a reason to not be dysfunctional.
If there's real accountability for being dysfunctional, all of a sudden,
you know what's gonna happen. They're not going to be dysfunctional.
Speaker 6 (40:11):
Yeah, that's beautifully laid out. I didn't know about the
right the on the way out the Frank Reich, I
mean that is so disrespectful. I mean, what a clown
to do something like that. This is my Glorioprofootball Talk
dot Com. I really enjoyed Devin mccordy in the PFT
Mix Tuesdays with mccordy as part of the PFT Live
(40:32):
and Devon had myriad problems with the Eagles defense late
against Atlanta. For those who missed it, how did the
exchange shake out?
Speaker 9 (40:42):
I thought it was awesome and one of the things
that I love about Devon and the same thing applies
with Chris Simms. When you get the perspective of someone
who covers the sport and has done so for nearly
a quarter of a century with guys who played. When
you have an organic, natural conversation, things come up that
you wouldn't have otherwise thought to discuss. Some of the
things that we discussed included as simple as was the
(41:05):
Eagles defense ready to go back out on the field
and play or had they shut down? And when you
have the coordinator up in the booth, and when the
head coach is an offensive guy, who is it that
is prowling the sideline saying to the players keep your
heads in the game. Devin told the story of Super
Bowl fifty one when after the Patriots won the coin
(41:26):
toss for overtime. After erasing the twenty eight to three deficit,
the defensive players thought, we're just going to go down
the field, score a touchdown, and we're winning the Super Bowl.
And Matt Patricia's defensive coordinator at the time, went to
them and said, get your asses over here and get
ready because you may have to play. Was that happening
on the Philly sideline, Because when those players came out
to play defense against Kirko Chains and company, as mccordy said,
(41:48):
it looked like a scout team defense that was told
to go easy on the starting offense so they could
build their confidence and drive down the field for their
two minute operation. That's how easy it was. That's how
happless the Eagles defense was. Had they shut down and
had they found themselves in a position where they couldn't
start the engine again when it was time to go
out and play because they just assumed it was over
(42:10):
other things we talked about. We broke down that third
and three play, and that's not all that nuanced. It's
reality that they screwed up and they should have thrown
or they should have run the ball instead of throat
the other thing that we had fun talking about the
moment where CJ. Gardner Johnson stops B John Robinson on
fourth and one and takes his helmet off. And if
(42:31):
you're watching it, and it was just weird because yes,
he took his helmet off. But what the players did,
and this is a very subtle but real coaching point,
they gas lit the official into thinking that he didn't
take his helmet off. You had multiple eagles swarm the official,
including Gardner Johnson saying, I didn't take my helmet off.
It came off. And when you watch it, and it
(42:51):
also worked on the announcing crew, including their rules analysts.
To the ESPN Russell Yerke, he fell for it too. No,
he took his helmet off. You can see it. Yeah,
the chin strap comes off and it rattles a little bit,
but you see him put his two hands on the
helmet and remove it. And when you know, think about it,
when there's a loose ball and there's a pile up,
what do we watch. We watched to see how the
(43:11):
players around it are behaving. Are they acting confident that
they recovered the ball? And there's something to be said
for acting in a certain way when the officials have
to make decisions. You might just be able to convince
them that these are not the druids they're looking for.
And that's what the Eagles did, which avoided having that
drive that ended in the third and three. He'll advise
(43:33):
pass it started fifteen yards closer than it should have
because it should have been first down Eagles fifteen yards
back from the Atlanta thirty nine after the application of
that penalty for removing the helmet, plain and simple. So
that was just one of those things we have fun
talking about. And that's the kind of thing that you know,
a coach like Bill Belichick will possibly tell his guys
(43:54):
always act like whatever it is that happened didn't happen,
and act like it's our ball, Act like we didn't
do an anything wrong, Act like you should convince the
officials to find that things should go your way.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (44:10):
And lastly, the Cowboys Zim's defense caught more than a
few Alvin Kamara strays.
Speaker 9 (44:17):
Have we seen that before, haven't we?
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah? Six, Yeah, not nice you've caught in that interview. Well, right,
but I mean what.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
The Christmas Day production during the twenty twenty is Zim
had spent you know, because I did a weekly radio
show with him, you know, just talking about how deep
his relationship is with Sean Payton and like they babysat
each other's kids or something like that. And then Sean
goes out there and tries to get him fired on
national television. I mean, it's just unbelievable. But those strays
(44:44):
that he caught, Man, it wasn't.
Speaker 9 (44:45):
Artists in high school football.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
You got to stop him, I understand.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
It was you got to stop him.
Speaker 9 (44:49):
What do you mean what do you mean, Well, you
hand the ball to the guy and he runs from
you to go tackle him. It was this is big
boy football.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
It wasn't.
Speaker 9 (44:57):
This isn't this isn't a participation trove. Let's go have
a juice box football. What are you talking about? Why
would anybody be upset about that?
Speaker 6 (45:04):
It was an arsenal of punishment from the week over
the weekend that ruined Dallas's home opener.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
What do you think about all that?
Speaker 9 (45:13):
Well, I think that the Saints are maybe better than
we thought they were. And the Cowboys. You know, there's
all this focus, and I think one of the dangers
of being a team that is perceived as a failure
in the postseason. There's a tendency to gloss over the
(45:33):
regular season. Well, you're not going to get to the
postseason if you don't put in the work necessary in
the regular season. Look at the Baltimore Ravens. They got
to get past this narrative that they can't win in
the postseason. Well, if you don't get back to the postseason,
you won't have to worry about losing their The Cowboys
all the pressure and Jerry Jones said it this week,
(45:54):
the pressure for Mike McCarthy starts in the postseason. Dude,
you got to get there first. That team that you
try out there on Sunday doesn't look like a team
is going to get to the postseason. So I think
a lot of these teams that are so twisted up
by failures in the last postseason forget about the challenge
of going back to And I.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Love this term.
Speaker 9 (46:13):
It's the Dentis Green term, the valley of zero and zero.
And when you had a really special season that went
up and smoked quickly, like the Cowboys did last year,
like the Ravens did last year, how do you reset
to zero and zero and remember all the stuff you
had to do to get into position where you had
home playoff games, and it's a lot of work. I
(46:35):
remember the ninety nine Vikings the year after going fifteen
to one and losing to Atlanta on the miss Gary
Anderson thirty nine yard or you know, there was a
thirty nine yard field goal by the Vikings on Sunday.
And every time there's a thirty nine yard field goal
by the Vikings, I think, I like I just like I.
My heart sinks a little bit back to that miss
from Anderson that would have iced the game. But you
(46:55):
go back to zero and zero and the Vikings struggled
out of the gates. The next year they have actually
turned it around and got to the playoffs, but it
wasn't easy. And I think that that's what the Cowboys
are going to be dealing with this year. And maybe
they won't get back to the postseason. Maybe the Ravens
won't either. And oh, by the way, they play each
other this weekend.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
That's elite. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (47:12):
I'll call you next week. Seopault Mike Florio, Pro Football
Talk dot Com. It's a tough out there catching strays.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
I might punch him in the faith.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Like the Guardians caught last night from the twins in
a game they had to have. Let's chat about that
around the corner with Jensen Lewis, former Cleveland pitcher, elite
baseball mind.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
He's now
Nine to noon. Just listen, Just listen, porsttle plow, hippy.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Get.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hold on. I gotta turn this down by.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Come, Oh well.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Shall we begin? Oh thank you?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Minneapolis one, two three, and this is nine to noon.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Twins got the money last night.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Castro loves to right field and deep back, it goes
and gone.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Willie Castro comes up with a huge September swing, two out,
two run Homer and the Twins take a four to
one lead.
Speaker 6 (01:36):
Corey provis play by play voice on television for the
Minnesota Twin Agmatics describing part of a victory over the Guardians.
And Jensen lewis, a former Cleveland pitcher and frequent contributor
to the Cabinet.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
He'll be on the radio show today.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
It's a coming up relatively soon to discuss his baseball
team lose into a baseball team that needed a victory
like it needed to breathe. And of course the Tigers won,
because the Tigers never lose. With Nordo's Guy's torkl Sin,
McKinstry and Parker Meadow Meadows. So jaylu joining nine to noon.
(02:15):
That's going to take place after Florio and PFT. You
know we Mike Florio about thirty five minutes from now.
And by the way, our lovely Links won a grinder
at Connecticut last evening after beating the Liberty the game before.
And I don't really see why AWNBA title is not
in the plans for Miss Reeves team. What a wonderful squad.
(02:38):
Lindsey Whalen his Links immortality and she joins Nine to
Noon tomorrow, Away tomorrow. Where there's a win, there's a
way and weekly through the WNBA playoffs. Sure it truly
happens to be quite excited about that because she has
a Minnesota Vikings bent to her and is kind of
like Queen of Rube Nation. She's all wound up over
(02:58):
these undefeated Vikings right now. And of course her former team,
the Minnesota Links. That's super sweet and super cool, just
like our sit down each and every Tuesday with Minnesota
Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell. Super sweet and super cool
and super kind of ko to stop by the TCO
(03:20):
studios to sit down for an elongated segment and to
chat about our favorite football team.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Nordo produces Nine to Noon.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
The producer was bit by some clips he feels require analysis,
and here they are Yeah, good morning.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And of course exes no's with head coach Kevin O'Connell
will air this evening where you're going to get a
longer form version of that conversation with the head coach
and the vox from yesterday six thirty pm. Every Wednesday,
x's No's with head Coach Kevin O'Connell. But if you're
looking at clips and favorite parts of conversations, the reason
that I mean, first of all, the team winning game
(03:58):
certainly does not hurt it, but you can feel a
warming process that is taking place with the head coach
being in studio. And one of my favorite aspects, say
I picked two of them, is him breaking down play
so that us Rubes us Layman can actually understand, yep,
the cause and effect of why certain things happen that
lead to other things that in this case lead to
(04:19):
wide open touchdowns by guys like Jalen Naylor. And here's
KO with you yesterday talking about just that that particular
play that he did score on. He just did an
unbelievable job.
Speaker 7 (04:31):
So we're really trying to sequence up and make that
look and really feel like a running play, you know,
even how he short motioned down in there almost was
the feeling you get sometimes of that gray area for
a receiver shorting down to block that safety wasn't really
a pre rotated defense. He kind of had to bait
(04:52):
that safety into coming down, and when he did, then
he continued his motion on in between the tight end
and Brian O'Neill right there, which then now they're in
man covers. They're trying to figure out, okay, we lock
in this thing. The second they decided to lock it,
that put really word as the sea gap sea gap
defender right there, which we had run enough duos in
(05:13):
different runs where we're bouncing the ball out on that
corner putting him in a total conflict. So I knew
the next time we got in that area to run
that play, I knew that was going to be coming up.
I did not know it would come off of Josh Mattelis,
you know, with a fantastic interception right there. So it
was really really well executed, love the protection, great sell
(05:33):
by Sam on the fake, and you know, made it
look probably a lot easier to everybody watching the game
than it actually has.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
A lot of detail goes into that stuff.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Example nine twenty five football is complicated. Yeah, example nine
twenty five with the short motion. Now the corner is
in the sea gap where you think of beef eaters
and gaps. Crumb's being laid during the course of a
game to set up the motion inside the tight end
to get a corner in the sea gap to bite
(06:05):
on a fake run, which eventually is gonna be an okie,
del gotcha.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Football can be quite complicated. In good morning and.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Good morning and I and I told you find your
favorite clips, Nordo. That's how we're gonna open it up.
We're gonna talk about x'es and o's, we're gonna we're
gonna talk about the ko and it's. And you know
that from the game in our conversations. That was one
of my two favorite offensive plays from the weekend. Now
the other one is quite obvious and just what goes
into the anatomy of a game call. And here's the
(06:36):
head coach with you yesterday talking about while he's breaking
down that ninety seven yard.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
It's kind of that risk reward. Yeah, if they send
the backer, I know it's.
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Going to be open, but I also know both Bosa
is gonna be singled up because if they don't send
the backer. Ed Ingram's gonna help on Bosa. You know,
fans should go back and take a look at that play.
Really two other performances on that play. Aaron Jones really
helping ed Ingram, you know, kind of got a quick
inside move from the d tackle, and Aaron, you know,
all one hundred and eighty pounds of them, kind of
(07:05):
fits up that d tackle and keeps him penetrating, allowing
Sam to step up. And then Garrett Bradbury, you know,
ends up running his you know, Fred Warner come, you know,
blitzing that a gap. He ends up running him past
Sam so Sam could step up. There was an unbelievable
effort on you know, we're ready for the corner to
potentially add in off the backside. That's one of those
(07:26):
plays that goes down where you can stand up in
front of the team like I did yesterday and say,
this does not happen without all eleven guys on the
field doing their job, knowing exactly what to do in
a critical moment of the game.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (07:39):
And that's how you beat a team like the San
Francisco forty nine ers. You're going to have to make
some plays just like that to.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Be able to do it.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So you get the break down there and then we did,
you know, through the conversation with with Pete Bursich afterwards,
PA just kind of trying to get an idea of
how I don't know if it's chaotic. I don't know
if it if it's parsed out. Of course, different people
with different responsibilities, but so many people going into that
(08:06):
play and he had mentioned that, you know, I kind
of got the play out just in case maybe more
conservative opinions down the line of the headsets that you know,
we get this thing in, we get it moving, and
I just want to be positive and go full force
with it. Burst its then later kind of you know,
understanding in those moments, Okay, once that play call is made,
(08:26):
whether it's Keenan McCardell who was navigating traffic with receivers
at specific spots during that long field goal drive to
effectively ice the game about that all of the conversations,
opinions and minds that have to be in lockstep have
to be coordinated and orchestrated that in that moment at
the three yard line. And you'll hear later on in
(08:48):
the show, Pa, I got some clips and bits from
the from the coordinators who spoke to the media yesterday,
and you'll hear from from West Phillips not only on
this play, but but kind of talking about you know,
didn't know what was going to come at the three
yard line, but it was something that we all really
were confident in. Tweaked the play from years past that
(09:08):
gave him a similar but completely different outset. Look, yep,
it was just it was fun to watch him and
you know, again it's it's whether you're winning games or
in this case it results in a ninety seven yard TD.
You could feel the the glee of the coach being
able to say, yeah, this is what went into it,
and it freaking worked and as you heard him say,
(09:29):
all eleven guys made that thing a reality.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
All Right.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
A couple of things here on this with O'Connell yesterday
on that ninety seven yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson, you
know he said, he said running it and getting to
a certain point was key. Okay, well they did it,
box checked. But then now you get into the probability game,
(09:53):
to the percentage game, to the personnel game, where okay,
the forty nine ers have a base personnel on the field,
which means four down linemen and three linebackers, so they
are expecting most likely another run, which means if you
play action off set expectation, you will get certain players
(10:15):
to do certain things. And then if everybody blocks it
up the right way and the quarterback is able to
step up in the pocket from the end zone, we
firmly believe Justin Jefferson will be covered by a safety
or safeties and he's going to run by them. So
now the final point of the equation is we need
(10:36):
the quarterback to heave it what would be fifty some
odd yards on time to eighteen so he doesn't have
to wait for it because they that could be an interception,
be a knockdown pass or a pass defense or see,
it'll just slow the whole roll of eighteen running with
them jets. All all of that worked, and the second
(11:01):
part of this equation is Kevin Seaffert of ESPN and
espn dot com. He tweeted yesterday or today he listened
to the Kevin O'Connell conversation and was bit with fascination
by the A AT, B, C, D, E, F, and
G that all had to go into the man JJ
(11:23):
getting to the end zone and via his Twitter feed,
which would be at Seafert ESPN. As Kevin O'Connell noted
during the spot with a PA on the mic, so
much had to happen just for Darnold to get the
ball off on his ninety seven yard TD to Justin Jefferson.
Watch Brian O'Neill versus Nick Bosa, Garrett Bradberry versus Fred Warner,
(11:48):
Aaron Jones, all one hundred and eighty pounds of him,
as Kevin O'Connell said, versus bfeed er nose tackle Mollie Collins,
and he provided Kevin provided the end zone angle of this.
It's a wonderful tweet and just wonderfully laid out from
the end zone where you can just see Brad Barry, Warner, Jones, Collins,
(12:10):
Darnold step up off the play action and O'Neill Bosa
saves the day. You hit Jefferson in stride, he has
to stop, then he circumnavigates and gets into the end zone.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
That's a I mean, that is.
Speaker 6 (12:23):
O'Connell's breakdown of it was fascinating, so much so it
bit the scribe, the espnscribe to get into the head
on the end zone view and like analyze it from
that standpoint, this play is super cool.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, it was sweet, and you can match the video
with the explanation and now we are elite football.
Speaker 8 (12:40):
Mind.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I got a couple more for you and again x'es
and o's here the entire conversation tonight at six thirty pm,
right here on the fan. But I'm glad that he
took time out to talk about Ty Chanler. Glad you
asked about Ty.
Speaker 7 (12:53):
You know, in a game that we saw a lot
of played ninety seven yard touchdown and Sam making some
big time plays. But what I liked the most about
Tis performance is he understands that we're going to really
try to feature Aaron Jones. He understands we're going to
try to feature different aspects of our offense. But Ty
has a huge role explosive power, He's got great vision.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I thought he had some great reads when to bounce,
when to.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
Hit it up inside, when to get north and south
running through tackles. Loved the wide zone we ran late
in the game, kind of down towards the end zone
where he ends up one on one with the corner
with about you know, three four yards to go to
get the first down and he ends up getting the
first down by about five yards and staying in bounds.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
You want to talk about exaggerated analysis through two games.
Love that from Ko, But what I'm getting to is,
you know, two game sample size, seventeen game regular season, yep,
you know, just in a simple basis, the run game
has looked not only more explosive, you heard that word
from the head coach, it's looked more efficient and more
productive overall. Five point one a clip so far through
(13:58):
two versus the four yards of very last season.
Speaker 8 (14:00):
Again, small sample size, totally get it.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
But this team super early are averaging less than two
more carries a game than they did a year ago.
But it's the extra yardage per play, and it's the
first downs moving the chains. PA they had a total
of seventy nine first downs via the run game last
season in totality. They're on pace for nearly double that
right now. And you get the rushing touchdown in the
opener game. Flow didn't really dictate that against the Niners
(14:27):
in terms of being inside the five and grinding one in,
but the rushing attack being able to move the chains
adding explosion. Both Jones and Chandler in moments have been
able to catch that edge and get extra yards, and
you heard him fighting for extra yards. In addition, I'm
really really bullish on what this team has finally, maybe
(14:49):
finally figured out with the run game.
Speaker 6 (14:51):
Well, with that, with ty Chandler's calmness, poise and his
ability to take the ball and not have to go
one thousand miles per hour right out of the gate,
well that it's third year poise, that's supposed to happen.
And he had a jump cut in the backfield where
it was going to be a TfL minus five and
he was able to get away from the guy and
edge his way ahead for one or two. So just
(15:13):
little things like that with ty Chandler not only amplify
the running game, but it opens the menu. It takes
the voluminous nature of the menu with the play calls
and opens things because the more the play caller can
trust the players, the more the play caller can get
(15:34):
deep into the menu. And that's very important because I
don't believe that's always been the case.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Last one for you here, I just I found this interesting. Again,
just we're going to focus more on Sam, maybe not
only throughout the show, but specifically final hour as well
with some audio from the coordinators. But poise can be contagious,
or the lack thereof can be contagious as well.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
Here's what Ko was talking about.
Speaker 7 (15:59):
But then the part of it is when you have
that button on your belt where you can talk directly
to the quarterback, if you portray, if I, as the
play caller, portray any kind of franticness or stress or
that all travels through that headset to the quarterback. And
I just believe wholeheartedly my job in those moments, specifically
(16:19):
when we're on offense and I'm talking to Sam. He
needs to hear confidence, he needs to hear poise, He
needs to hear that the guy call him plays is
calling plays with the utmost amount of belief in him,
because that can be a really powerful thing. And I've
experienced it the other way. Maybe it was my playing
career when I'd hear a play call come into the
(16:41):
headset where I guess, we're just gonna try some go
balls here, Just go ahead and give it a shot.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
We don't think you're gonna hit it, but yeah, yeah,
go ahead and call it.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
I want to make sure that a quarterback that plays
for me never feels like that.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
So poise can be contagious. And that that was all
with Kevin O'Connell yesterday. That's the access that we get
with those week Tuesday TCO sit downs and then if
you missed any of it, podcast will free iHeartRadio app
but live six thirty tonight or I should say playing
or airing six thirty tonight, x'es and o's with head
coach Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Yeah, the Minnesota Vikings media relations staff as has just
been so accommodating and so wonderful to not only nine
to noon or KFAM, but from the idea to have hey,
let's have Jefferson miked up all third quarter of a
preseason game. That's all the show in the preseason. Then
from that you go to the hit man. From that,
(17:32):
you go to O'Connell, who, like every five seconds was pa,
all right, now look at this. We're going to screen here,
and you got to get this guy with this guy,
and I mean that was unbelievable. I just got a
bit for like days on that and the decision to
have him live nine to noon each and every Tuesday
from like eleven to eleven thirty and make that x'
as a os man just I'm very grateful for the
(17:55):
thoughtful nature of that group when it comes to yours truly,
this show, this radio station, and that football team.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Vikes Bites are around the corner.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Part of the Timber Tech What's on Deck set list,
which includes Mike Florio. Florio will come out to play
EA at about nine forty. We have some baseball in
the mix today at about ten o'clock. Jay lou Jensen Lewis.
He's a former Cleveland Indian Slash Guardians pitcher and he
analyzes baseball assumably for profit for Bally's in Cleveland. And
(18:26):
the Twins got the money against a said squad last evening.
A former Minnetonka High school football stud played for the
Badgers won a Super Bowl with the Eagles. Bo Allen,
he'll be on the radio show about an hour from now,
and Alas, we have much more for you today nine
to noon at FM one hundred point three KFA in
order producers and I'm Paul Allen.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Good morning you, Fikes, Bike.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Fikes Bytes, Vikes Bites nine to noon brought to you
by Thousand Hills Lifetime Grays grass Fed Beef Feeding Elite
Gopher Athletes and they're a Clearwater, Minnesota company. Find them
in local Coburn's local co ops and online Thousand Hills
Lifetime Grays dot com. You can buy online a box
(19:24):
of meat shows up at your doorstep. I love Matt
and everybody at Thousand Hills and the kind of the
frame up for this edition of Ikes Bites PA is
Teams two and zero loving it, but could it be
even better?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Averaging The answer is yes.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
I like the premise because there there are several things
not only off the O'Connell conversation, but several things that
we can hand pick that are good, don't really have
any eason to regress and if anything, only should get
better indeed.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And cutting room floor things that when you're two and
zero and you're feeling good about yourself. Well, we talked
about this yesterday, Pa Ben Gesling at TCO Studios. It's
you're working from a platform of winning, right. We saw
that a lot in twenty twenty two. This was an
awful aspect of XYZ game, but the team found a
(20:26):
way to win. And similarly, through two weeks, I have
one particular sticking point, and I'm sure it's similar to
everybody else, but something that needs to stop.
Speaker 8 (20:36):
And this two and OHO team can be even better.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Epty backfield on third and sixteen, Darnold from the end zone,
fire's right caught CJ Ham near side, Nolly dropped it
and the Giants have recovered it.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
At the twenty one. CJ Ham still on the field,
he lay prone on his stomach.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
He got blasted at the eighteen, and the Giants have
turned over the Minnesota Vikings deep and Vikings territory.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
So among all the things that I want to see,
that can be even better. Whether it's the seventeenth overall selection,
he's only going to grow.
Speaker 8 (21:08):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
The offensive line, I think has stood up pretty tall
against a couple of big defensive fronts over the first
two weeks and they played pretty well, and that can
even be better. But the reason I picked out the
turnovers is a team that is two to zero has
four turnovers through two games. CJ Ham, you heard that
highlight there the opening possession. Then later in the game
(21:31):
it's twenty eight to six. Darnold with the pick around midfield,
hit it as he's throwing it, and it would be
hitman who keeps points off the board for the Giants
the ensuing possession. But then on Sunday you're at the
twenty one yard line Vikings fans fresh off at twenty.
Speaker 8 (21:45):
Five yard run from Ty Chandler.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
You heard how the coach is feeling about that tandem
of Jones and Chandler.
Speaker 8 (21:51):
But you get to aggressive.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You take points off the board where it could either
be thirteen oh or seventeen oh, and they score a
TD off of that. So suddenly, instead of a two
possession or potentially a three possession lead, you're now looking
at ten to seven. And then eight seconds left in
the third quarter you have the fumble by Aaron Jones
at the doorstep, and that's a game ender right there.
(22:13):
That's the knockout punch. It's twenty seven to seven Vikings
and the game is over. But instead it was Fred
Warner's haymaker punch yep that send the Niners the other
way on a ninety nine yard drive to make it
twenty to fourteen, and a sweaty fan base at the
bank on Sunday is perspiring even more so. There are
many things that are so good and can be even better,
(22:35):
but I just focused on this.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
Call me a nitpick.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
But a year ago it was one of the eight
topics in a season that ended with seven wins, and
it was opening possession turnovers. It was big spot turnovers,
points coming off the board. There's growth in this through
two games that they have persevered through these mistakes within games.
Speaker 8 (22:54):
But you take these turnovers out of the mix. We're
talking about.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Two lopsided ass kicking performances by the Vikings at two
and zero versus again having to to look at that
clock and look at that scoreboard a bit more closely
than we would have liked to.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
The the turnovers are not working on O'Connell and or
the staff the way they did last year, which means
and I'm pretty sure I understand why, and and yes,
absolutely you would prefer turnover free football. But if you
think about four of them, if you think about the
(23:29):
the Maryland rookie Drew Phillips and the hit he put
on Ham and the fact that CJ bumbles so infrequently
that's of the aberration variety, and and and Phillips hit
the ball, and I mean it was a ten to
ten piece of perfection on on form tackling and hitting
(23:50):
to get the ball out. Fred Warner's punch was that
of Mike of Mike Tyson esque. Darnold's first pick was
tipped by Dexter Lawrence. The final pick was a bad pass.
So yeah, you prefer to not have them. But last year, man,
I mean they were just dropping it. It was like
(24:10):
it would just somebody would just touch the football or
touch the arm and the ball would come out. So yes,
a zero take give, Yeah, that's fine, it's it's zero.
I mean it's meddling atop the league. The Steelers, the
Pittsburgh Steelers. All of a sudden, they're plus five. Steelers
are plus five, Packers are plus four, Bills are plus three,
(24:34):
Saints or plus three.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Then he got a bunch of plus twos, including the Texans.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Do you think there's an element to this?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And you know the Steelers, by the way, the combination
of facing Nicks and then kind of a wobbly Falcons
operation week one.
Speaker 8 (24:46):
Good for them. I got some audio for you from
Mike Tomlin later, right, But.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Do you think there's an element when I hit you
with that audio about poise where I think this is
a test for the coach, given how many times he's
talked about ball secure, how frustrating it out at times
in twenty twenty three or the coach maybe not just
laying off of it, because as you lay out situationally, Yeah,
(25:10):
there are some there's a different type of conversation maybe
around what we've seen thus far, but the fact that, okay,
we're winning games. There are so many things that are
going well. I can't drop a load of bricks on
the like I need this to be fixed. But maybe
I have to look at it a bit differently than
I did a year ago.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
Well, the I've never seen a team in an offseason
work on holding onto the ball in non obvious fashion
as I did the vikings when I was at OTAs
or draining camp. And in practice they start practices with
some drills too for holding onto the ball. Now, don't
(25:47):
it doesn't. It does because turnovers are going to happen.
But the question is, or the facts would be, is
when do they happen, why do they happen, and how
do they impact the game. But just thinking back at
at the Jones fumble, it sucks, you're gonna blow somebody out.
But Fred Warner is two time first team All Pro.
(26:08):
He's not bad, so he gets to he gets to
do things like that occasionally, believe it or not.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And CJ.
Speaker 6 (26:14):
Ham, I mean, you can't hit you can't hit somebody
and hit the ball any There's nothing CJ.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Ham could have done.
Speaker 6 (26:20):
You got pounded and Darnold on the first pick. As
I said earlier, there's nothing else to do. I mean,
Dexter Lawrence tipped the football.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
So no, I'm not, I'm not. It can get better,
for sure.
Speaker 6 (26:32):
You can get that plus minus up to plus one
plus two, plus three plus four.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
But it's dramatically different compared to last year.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Bites, bites, Kevin O'Connell, one more, Ko cut pa. Something
that has caught our I through two games, something that
is good, but definitely could be better.
Speaker 6 (26:51):
I'm still trying to figure out what he's talking about
here with Grenard. Well here he is on Jonathan Grenard.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I've just seen it.
Speaker 7 (26:57):
I think Flow and his staff are doing tremendous job.
You saw Cash on a you know, a stunt away
from kind of where Grenard and all these other guys are.
We're sending cash and we're getting a pick stunt for
him to go get a sack. You know, obviously Ginkel
and Grenard's the guy that they keeps jumping out at
me because so many people focus on sacks. Wow, And
(27:18):
he's been affecting the quarterback basically every drive we've had
since you know, his tenure here started with the Vikings.
He's two games in a ton of quarterback pressures, unique moves, strain, finish,
and he hasn't quite gotten that you know, finish where
he gets a guy on the ground yet. But he's
probably contributed to about five six seven drives ending right
(27:40):
there just by his own personal performance forcing a throwaway
or an inaccurate throw because it's either too earlier off
the spot. So want to continue to see him do
those things and the results of sacks, which are important,
we'll start showing up for JG.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
But he's been phenomenal for us.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So in terms of Jonathan Grin, he had the I
believe he was credited with a sack and the opener.
You didn't see much from him statistically this last week,
but the head coach pa is all about him being
kind of maybe it's the catalyst, maybe it's the speed,
but that regardless of him not showing up on the
(28:18):
stat sheet, he apparently, according to the head coach, is
showing up all over the film in terms of what
makes mister Flores' defense go.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah, I see what Kevin is saying without a doubt.
I'm not one to second guess a head coach when
he says things like that. It's in.
Speaker 6 (28:34):
I've watched back probably twenty twenty three pass rush situations
involving Bernard. Now I haven't watched any run defense, and
I'm sure that that's pretty good too. I saw the
plays talking about with Cashman absolutely shared it fairly. But
just like the first four pass rushes against the forty
nine ers, on the first one he fell. On the
(28:57):
second one, he spun and almost got there, but he
did impact party and caused him to throw it early.
On his third rush, he slipped again after he after
he spun around mckivtt's the right tackle. If he doesn't slip,
he gets a sack. So that completely plays into what
(29:18):
Kevin is talking about. And and the he had another
fresh spin move coming from the the the left side
of the offense, right side of the defense. They were
picking on mckivitt's the right tackle with Grenard. So now
you take it to the next layer if you if
you care to, and and you look at Okay, you
(29:39):
got Trent Williams here and you got mckivtzs there. Well,
Trent Williams isn't as fast or nimble as he used
to be, and he's playing himself into shape, but he's
still Trent Williams. The other guy's not fast. Sixty eight
is not fast. Mcgivtts is powerful, but he's not fast.
He's the McGlinchey replacement that that they loved, and the
guy's good, but he couldn't handle Grenard's speed and or spin,
(30:01):
so they had to start putting Kittle over there. Now
that's good news, because that would mean George would chip
Jonathan and then head into the route, as opposed to
getting completely a free release. On his fourth pass rush,
Grenard his spin, his spin moves fresh. I mean seriously,
I've seen it in games, but now watching it back,
(30:23):
it's just fast and fresh and slippery and slithery. I
didn't know he had a spin move like that, and
on his fourth pass rush he perty had to throw
it earlier than he wanted. Stefan Gilmore almost had a
pick center of the field. I completely see what Kevin
O'Connell's talking about here. In the Giants game, Grenard almost
(30:46):
like was an inch from causing a forced fumble, a
strip sack fumble. So with Jonathan as I mentioned yesterday,
he hit twelve and a half sacks last year and
he got paid. In the previous three years he had
ten and a half sacks. So in time fashion, he
put it together at the right time. But what led
to that the drafting of Will Anderson Junior. So you
(31:07):
have Will Anderson Junior and then like this weekend, you're
going to see Will Anderson Junior the defensive rookie of
the year last year. Along with Daniel Hunter. They bookend
each other nicely, and Derek Barnette he's their third, and
then Jerry Hughes plays maybe fifteen plays a game.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
They have a nice rush.
Speaker 6 (31:25):
But Grenard was part of that last year with Will
Anderson Junior who started to get all the attention. Grenard
in the Giants game got a lot of attention. Didn't
get as much in the forty nine Ers game, but
that led to Purty having to throw the ball sooner
than he wanted. Football can be complicated, man, Football can
be so complicated.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
With the A to the B to the C to
the D to the E. Just to make a play work.
Speaker 6 (31:49):
So after O'Connell said that yesterday, I put some time
into it and I couldn't exactly see what he was
talking about. But now in watching strictly his pass rush,
I see what Kevin's talking about. With Jonathan Grenard, who's
part of an undefeated Minnesota Vikings team that lay atop
the NFC North in first place solo alone. By Florio
(32:09):
from Profootballtalk dot com. We'll chat about that and more
around the corner on kfam.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Fikes Bites Hardcore Football. Hey, Mike, good morning, is Paul Allen?
How are you?
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Hi, Paul?
Speaker 9 (32:31):
How are you?
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Paul?
Speaker 8 (32:32):
Excellent?
Speaker 6 (32:33):
My brother Mike Florioprofootballtalk dot com, NBC's Football Night in America,
and woo. The Minnesota Vikings have gone surging up the
PFT power rankings.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
You can follow this.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
At Pro Footballtalk dot com, our preferred and favored National
Football League related website, Pro Footballtalk dot Com twenty fourth
to eleventh, Beat the Niners and earn the accolades, right,
Michael J.
Speaker 9 (32:57):
Florio, Well, Hey, that's how it works. NFC champions a
team that has been among the elite for the past
several years. The Vikings now two to zero over the
last couple of seasons, winning the games under somewhat different circumstances,
but with the common thread of a defense that the
Devils frustrates and confuses the San Francisco offense, and an
(33:21):
offensive game plan that is masterful. Kevin O'Connell one of
the best play designers and play callers in the NFL.
As long as there are players competent enough to properly execute.
They had that on Sunday. It should have been a blowout.
But for the Fred Warner jarring the ball loose off
Aaron Jones, that game would have been twenty seven to seven,
your one brock Purty mistake away from thirty four to
(33:42):
seven or thirty to seven. And I give the Vikings
credit because after it went to twenty to fourteen, and
that's when an offense under conditions like that could buckle
and give the ball back to the forty nine ers
and give them a chance to steal it. The Vikings
methodically drove down the field to get the three pointer
that made it a two score game and essentially ended
(34:05):
it at that point. And that that was I think
the most important drive of the game, because when you
start to feel it slipping away. Do you find a
way to stop the bleeding? And the offense did well that.
Speaker 6 (34:17):
I love how you lay that out, And that's kind
of been a common thread the last couple of days
nine to noon about Yeah, I mean, they blew out
the Giants.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
It could have been worse.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
They almost blew out the Niners, you know, outside of
that bumble and the Darnald pick early to Fred Warner.
But Perty Rock Perty is a Super Bowl quarterback you say, bedeviled, bedeviled,
befuddled or whatever by Brian Florez defense. And this team
with O'Connell man that they're so cock sure with the
quarterback and scheme. They ran risky play action from the
(34:49):
end zone and got a ninety seven yard touchdown out
of it, and they're five to zero lifetime against the
Texans and here comes Stefan Diggs.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
So what do you think of all that?
Speaker 7 (35:00):
Well?
Speaker 9 (35:00):
I saw that. Kevin O'Connell explained to you yesterday all
the things that had to go right to make that
play work. And what a gutsy move to let Sam
Darnold drop into his end zone in a three to
nothing game and deliver what became not the dagger, but
that was the moment. And a lot of these games,
you know, when the underdog is being feisty and the
underdog is standing up to the team that's favored, you
(35:21):
look for that moment where you say for the first time, Hey,
the team that's not supposed to win this game can
win this game. And that play is what put the
Vikings in play to win the game. So it was impressive.
And Stefan Diggs coming back, he's not the fact that
it would have been in past years, and I don't
know how much of a storyline that really is. The
Texans have a damn good team. I'd be more concerned
(35:43):
about Danil Hunter coming back than Stefan Diggs coming back, frankly,
but makes for a great game. A couple of two
and zero teams, there's only nine left after two weeks,
and two of them are facing off in Minneapolis. Two
others are facing off in Pittsburgh. So we're trimming it
down and this is the Vikings chance to do something
I never would have dreamed. I look at those first
five games before the bye. You got Packers after this,
(36:07):
Jets in London after that, and then a break four
and one that would be something. Even three and two
at this point would be regarded as a win going
into Week one. Now, I think three and two at
this point would be a disappointment because that means one
and two over the next three games. But that forty
nine Ers game look still fifteen to play. But that's
(36:27):
one of those that puts a team on track to
develop the confidence in itself that it can keep winning
and keep going, not by the skin of their teeth.
Not that it was overpowering, but that's the difference between
now and twenty twenty two. These aren't coin flips that
are going Minnesota's way. These are games that they are
(36:48):
going out and earning and leaving no doubt and making
key plays when they need to be made to avoid
having the game come down to the wire.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
P FT only Coalprofootballtalk dot com our guy my Man
is on Panthers owner David Tepper, I mean from quarterbacks
in the next draft, as a PFT suggests should refuse
to play for Tepper's team, the Carolina Panthers to the
Power Rankings, where PFT writs about the thirty second ranked Panthers,
(37:17):
David Tepper is just another former Steelers minority owner who
has no idea how to be a competent majority owner.
What's gotten under your skin so much with mister Tepper.
Speaker 9 (37:28):
Well, it's not a matter of what's gotten under my
skin because I don't care what the guy does, and
he's entitled to own the team, run the team however
he wants. But the reality is, and this is what
was articulated by Jed York, the owner of the forty
nine ers, in early twenty seventeen, after they had fired
three coaches in three seasons, from Jim Harbaugh to Jim
tom Sulla to Chip Kelly, and they were viewed as dysfunctional.
(37:51):
Jed York said, you don't fire the owner. And that's
the problem for a fan base of a team with
a bad owner. When you have a bad owner, a
true goes down and makes for a dysfunctional operation. David
Tepper too involved, David Tepper too impulsive, firing coaches left
and right. Did it with his football team, did it
with his soccer team, keeps doing it. Fired Frank Reich
(38:12):
last year, deliberately mispronounced his name on the way out.
And the ultimate active disrespect is if anyone ever referred
to him as frank Reich. At any point in the
forty years he's been involved in football, no one called
him frank Reich until that day. Throwing a drink on fans,
removing a guy's hat because he saw a sign outside
of a restaurant that made him upset, just the epitome
(38:32):
of bad owner. And with Bryce Young being benched after
only eighteen games in his NFL career, and presumably they're
done with Bryce Young, my hope is that the quarterback
that they draft in twenty twenty five says, I'm not
playing for you. And my broader hope is that the
full group of consensus first round quarterbacks next year come
(38:56):
together and collectively say, don't draft any of us, because
if you do, whoever it is you draft, we're not
coming to play for you. We'll sit out a year,
we'll live off of RNIL money, and we'll re enter
the draft in twenty twenty six. That's the only way
to push back against a bad owner. That's the only
recourse anyone has, because what are the fans gonna do.
(39:18):
You're gonna not go to games, You're gonna boycott the team,
You're not gonna follow the team. The thing that you
love the thing that you have family involvement with nostalgia,
you're just gonna turn your back on that and hope
that the owner eventually sells if enough people do it.
That's not realistic. This is a way that someone can
stand up to a bad organization, to a bad owner
(39:39):
and say I'm not gonna go have my career ruin.
Look at Sam Darnold prove positive Jets ruined him, Panthers
ruined him. Last year with San Francisco, he got back
on the right track, and now look at the story. Well,
he could have been that from his rookie year if
he landed in the right spot. So it's not just
an anti teper thing. It's a let's make sure quarterbacks
go to places where they have a good chance to thrive,
(40:01):
and let's give teams a reason to not be dysfunctional.
If there's real accountability for being dysfunctional, all of a sudden,
you know what's gonna happen. They're not going to be dysfunctional.
Speaker 6 (40:11):
Yeah, that's beautifully laid out. I didn't know about the
right the on the way out the Frank Reich, I
mean that is so disrespectful. I mean, what a clown
to do something like that. This is my Glorioprofootball Talk
dot Com. I really enjoyed Devin mccordy in the PFT
Mix Tuesdays with mccordy as part of the PFT Live
(40:32):
and Devon had myriad problems with the Eagles defense late
against Atlanta. For those who missed it, how did the
exchange shake out?
Speaker 9 (40:42):
I thought it was awesome and one of the things
that I love about Devon and the same thing applies
with Chris Simms. When you get the perspective of someone
who covers the sport and has done so for nearly
a quarter of a century with guys who played. When
you have an organic, natural conversation, things come up that
you wouldn't have otherwise thought to discuss. Some of the
things that we discussed included as simple as was the
(41:05):
Eagles defense ready to go back out on the field
and play or had they shut down? And when you
have the coordinator up in the booth, and when the
head coach is an offensive guy, who is it that
is prowling the sideline saying to the players keep your
heads in the game. Devin told the story of Super
Bowl fifty one when after the Patriots won the coin
(41:26):
toss for overtime. After erasing the twenty eight to three deficit,
the defensive players thought, we're just going to go down
the field, score a touchdown, and we're winning the Super Bowl.
And Matt Patricia's defensive coordinator at the time, went to
them and said, get your asses over here and get
ready because you may have to play. Was that happening
on the Philly sideline, Because when those players came out
to play defense against Kirko Chains and company, as mccordy said,
(41:48):
it looked like a scout team defense that was told
to go easy on the starting offense so they could
build their confidence and drive down the field for their
two minute operation. That's how easy it was. That's how
happless the Eagles defense was. Had they shut down and
had they found themselves in a position where they couldn't
start the engine again when it was time to go
out and play because they just assumed it was over
(42:10):
other things we talked about. We broke down that third
and three play, and that's not all that nuanced. It's
reality that they screwed up and they should have thrown
or they should have run the ball instead of throat
the other thing that we had fun talking about the
moment where CJ. Gardner Johnson stops B John Robinson on
fourth and one and takes his helmet off. And if
(42:31):
you're watching it, and it was just weird because yes,
he took his helmet off. But what the players did,
and this is a very subtle but real coaching point,
they gas lit the official into thinking that he didn't
take his helmet off. You had multiple eagles swarm the official,
including Gardner Johnson saying, I didn't take my helmet off.
It came off. And when you watch it, and it
(42:51):
also worked on the announcing crew, including their rules analysts.
To the ESPN Russell Yerke, he fell for it too. No,
he took his helmet off. You can see it. Yeah,
the chin strap comes off and it rattles a little bit,
but you see him put his two hands on the
helmet and remove it. And when you know, think about it,
when there's a loose ball and there's a pile up,
what do we watch. We watched to see how the
(43:11):
players around it are behaving. Are they acting confident that
they recovered the ball? And there's something to be said
for acting in a certain way when the officials have
to make decisions. You might just be able to convince
them that these are not the druids they're looking for.
And that's what the Eagles did, which avoided having that
drive that ended in the third and three. He'll advise
(43:33):
pass it started fifteen yards closer than it should have
because it should have been first down Eagles fifteen yards
back from the Atlanta thirty nine after the application of
that penalty for removing the helmet, plain and simple. So
that was just one of those things we have fun
talking about. And that's the kind of thing that you know,
a coach like Bill Belichick will possibly tell his guys
(43:54):
always act like whatever it is that happened didn't happen,
and act like it's our ball, Act like we didn't
do an anything wrong, Act like you should convince the
officials to find that things should go your way.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (44:10):
And lastly, the Cowboys Zim's defense caught more than a
few Alvin Kamara strays.
Speaker 9 (44:17):
Have we seen that before, haven't we?
Speaker 1 (44:18):
Yeah? Six, Yeah, not nice you've caught in that interview. Well, right,
but I mean what.
Speaker 6 (44:23):
The Christmas Day production during the twenty twenty is Zim
had spent you know, because I did a weekly radio
show with him, you know, just talking about how deep
his relationship is with Sean Payton and like they babysat
each other's kids or something like that. And then Sean
goes out there and tries to get him fired on
national television. I mean, it's just unbelievable. But those strays
(44:44):
that he caught, Man, it wasn't.
Speaker 9 (44:45):
Artists in high school football.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
You got to stop him, I understand.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
It was you got to stop him.
Speaker 9 (44:49):
What do you mean what do you mean, Well, you
hand the ball to the guy and he runs from
you to go tackle him. It was this is big
boy football.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
It wasn't.
Speaker 9 (44:57):
This isn't this isn't a participation trove. Let's go have
a juice box football. What are you talking about? Why
would anybody be upset about that?
Speaker 6 (45:04):
It was an arsenal of punishment from the week over
the weekend that ruined Dallas's home opener.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
What do you think about all that?
Speaker 9 (45:13):
Well, I think that the Saints are maybe better than
we thought they were. And the Cowboys. You know, there's
all this focus, and I think one of the dangers
of being a team that is perceived as a failure
in the postseason. There's a tendency to gloss over the
(45:33):
regular season. Well, you're not going to get to the
postseason if you don't put in the work necessary in
the regular season. Look at the Baltimore Ravens. They got
to get past this narrative that they can't win in
the postseason. Well, if you don't get back to the postseason,
you won't have to worry about losing their The Cowboys
all the pressure and Jerry Jones said it this week,
(45:54):
the pressure for Mike McCarthy starts in the postseason. Dude,
you got to get there first. That team that you
try out there on Sunday doesn't look like a team
is going to get to the postseason. So I think
a lot of these teams that are so twisted up
by failures in the last postseason forget about the challenge
of going back to And I.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Love this term.
Speaker 9 (46:13):
It's the Dentis Green term, the valley of zero and zero.
And when you had a really special season that went
up and smoked quickly, like the Cowboys did last year,
like the Ravens did last year, how do you reset
to zero and zero and remember all the stuff you
had to do to get into position where you had
home playoff games, and it's a lot of work. I
(46:35):
remember the ninety nine Vikings the year after going fifteen
to one and losing to Atlanta on the miss Gary
Anderson thirty nine yard or you know, there was a
thirty nine yard field goal by the Vikings on Sunday.
And every time there's a thirty nine yard field goal
by the Vikings, I think, I like I just like I.
My heart sinks a little bit back to that miss
from Anderson that would have iced the game. But you
(46:55):
go back to zero and zero and the Vikings struggled
out of the gates. The next year they have actually
turned it around and got to the playoffs, but it
wasn't easy. And I think that that's what the Cowboys
are going to be dealing with this year. And maybe
they won't get back to the postseason. Maybe the Ravens
won't either. And oh, by the way, they play each
other this weekend.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
That's elite. Thank you.
Speaker 6 (47:12):
I'll call you next week. Seopault Mike Florio, Pro Football
Talk dot Com. It's a tough out there catching strays.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
I might punch him in the faith.
Speaker 6 (47:20):
Like the Guardians caught last night from the twins in
a game they had to have. Let's chat about that
around the corner with Jensen Lewis, former Cleveland pitcher, elite
baseball mind.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
He's now
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.