Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - JJ McCarthy practices in full, Jefferson talks 'F it' mode

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

Matthew Coller talks about JJ McCarthy fully practicing as he gets ready for the Bears. Justin Jefferson talked about a social media post about 2022 and Manny Hill picks the schedule. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, sorry about that. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here. And thank you all for checking in. The show is always presented by Fanduel. In just a moment, Manny Hill is going to drop in and we will do our typical pick the schedule. But wanted to start out with the update from TCO Performance Center today, which is Number one, J.J. McCarthy practiced in full, and nobody panic. He did have a thing on his hand because it hit a helmet, but he was out there throwing,

well, we were watching, and he is going to play football against the Chicago Bears, never fear. Jonathan Granard, though, maybe not. Grinard did not practice today. And, I mean, when you look at the injury, it's a shoulder type of injury that I don't think you want him dealing with for the rest of the entire season. If he practices tomorrow, then maybe there's a chance for a veteran player like that that he could maybe get into action, but it feels like missing these first two practices is going to be pretty tough for Jonathan Grenard to play against Chicago, which then would put the onus naturally on Dallas Turner, but we'll have to wait and see

how that turns out. And on Chicago's side, there were a few interesting names that did not practice for the second time this week, Jaquan Brisker, who is a great player for them, T.J. Edwards, they're a key linebacker. Those two guys did not practice, but D.J. Moore was asked today, this is via Courtney Cronin. When he was asked if he is going to play against the Vikings, he said, duh. So I guess that means the answer is yes, that DJ Moore will be playing against the Vikings. But Brisker and Edwards, those are two of their key players. So some things to watch on the injury report. Before we get to Manny, want to bring you Justin Jefferson in his conversation with us

today at TCO Performance Center because he had a lot of interesting things to say. And the day for Jefferson started with him seeing a video of himself in 2022, making the Justin Jefferson catch against the Buffalo Bills. And then he posted on Instagram that he needs to get. back to 2020-22 Jets, which, of course, he's had a lot of great football since 22. But he explained a lot more about why he had said that. So here's a couple of things that Justin Jefferson had to say. Yeah.

I mean, I feel like it definitely wasn't, you know, one of my best games. But I would say I want to win. It's not really, I'm not really mad at the, the, that I'm in. I'm not mad at, you know, the players that we have or the plays that's being called. Of course, I'm mad after interception. You know, that's, you want me to be happy and go chase them down. It's not really something that, you know, that's not really something that I want to happen. And of course, the outcome of the game is us losing. So, and I was the one that's getting thrown that ball and, you know, it's getting picked off. So a lot of emotion goes

towards that but at the end of the day I want to win and I'm an ultra competitor and a lot of people that don't play this game and don't play sports don't understand the competitive side of it so yeah I want to win and emotionally things things get heated sometimes you know so and things weren't going our way at that at that moment so just wanting a better outcome and of course the offense that we have I feel like we should be playing better than what we are so there's Jefferson talking about his game against the Ravens, which stood out as something that we do not see from Justin Jefferson that often. And when he said, you want me to go, you know, chase him down, not enthusiastically, but probably, yes, we do usually expect him to go try to make a play

on something like that. But he also said, and probably the quote that you'll see the most, was he was saying he needs to get back to playing the game and being happy and go into eff it mode is kind of what he said now i don't exactly know how to put a finger on what effit mode is um but he was asked about why it isn't the same for him and why it hasn't been the same in terms of his mode if you will why do you think you haven't been in that mode if you haven't um life um you know just different things going on in my life and uh just wanting to get back to that that kid phase of loving, I still love football, but overly loving football and overly loving just being out there on Sundays and making the big plays and just being a part of this great

organization. So I just wanted to get back mentally into that, into that mode. When did you come to that realization? When did you come to that realization that you want to get back to that? I mean, honestly, seeing the post, seeing the post and seeing the, seeing the plays and, you know, just having flashbacks of being in that moment. You know, with football, everything flies by so fast, and you kind of, you know, miss the moments that you kind of have during that time and during that moment. So just, you know, looking back on it and, of course,

thinking about all the success that we had during that season, the success personally that I had, you know, the player of the year, play of the year, just all of that stuff going on during that season. So Justin Jefferson, now get it. reflective about 2022 and his time with Kirk Cousins. And all I could say about this entire discussion

with Jefferson today is that losing for somebody like him is halacious and having come off a 14 win season last year, having a 13 win season in his past, offensive player of the year and to have it not working, I think it makes every player who's a competitor at his level go a little bit

bonkers, right? that he is looking at himself and saying, I need to go into a different mode. I need to be different. I need to change something. I mean, I think that there was some plays to be made out there for Jefferson. And he didn't play with his usual intensity last week, which is not what we expect to see from him. But at the same time, the frustrations do mount when you're a below 500 team. And then somebody who has not had the playoff win, who has not had the past success, you know,

now he's waxing poetic about the time that they were winning and an exciting team and having great moments like that because there just hasn't been many to speak of this year, which is kind of funny because he's still a top 10 wide receiver in the NFL by yardage. But that's not where he expects to be. Well, he expects to be at the top. And he's also not going to come out and say, hey, it's because I couldn't get an accurate pass last week. And if you watch the film, and I know JTO Sully,

is posted that, you know, he's doing a film breakdown on what happened against the Ravens, but there are a lot of opportunities there for an accurate pass for Jefferson, but he's never going to go there. And I think that that is very important for him to never go there when it comes to McCarthy and his development and all those things. And when he was asked about J.J. McCarthy, here's what he said. What have your conversations with JJ or if they've been like this week? Say it again.

What have your conversation with JJ have been like this week? The same conversations we've been having before. Continue to be yourself. Continue to have that confidence and don't really overthink things, even though things are not going the greatest for us. And we're still figuring out some things. Don't let that kind of hinder your player getting the way of you making the right reads or making the proper plays.

because he's a great player, he's a great quarterback, he's a great kid. So at the end of the day, it's just all about going out there and just relying on everybody to do their jobs and just going out there and just doing it. And, you know, of course, you know, people get involved with the media and, you know, hear so much different negativity, you know, out in the world. So I'm always going to be that person for JJ to always lean on and talk to about any of that type of stuff. And I'm always going to be that person to motivate him to always continue to be better regardless if he's my quarterback or not.

I like JJ. I love JJ as a person and as a player. So I will continue to, you know, strive for that. And I want the best, you know, outcome for him. All right. Let's bring in Manny Hill as we do every Thursday night. Mani, Justin Jefferson, talking very openly today, just about how he has been, of course, frustrated by this team not winning.

But when he was asked about J.J. McCartner, as everyone heard there, you know, he's saying, look, this is my quarterback and that he's going to support him and he's a young player and he's got his back and that they're going to have to work through this together by just doing their jobs. And I think that he struck all the right notes of somebody who is a captain and a franchise player today when he was talking about this. But it's very important, man, very important that one week doesn't turn into two weeks that doesn't turn into three weeks that doesn't turn into the rest of the season of this battle with Justin Jefferson because I think you kind of get one of these a year from Jefferson.

I can actually pinpoint when they happened every single year. And I don't mean meltdowns or him being a crybaby or anything like that. I just mean where it feels like some sort of existential crisis that he hasn't gotten the ball in a couple weeks. I mean, I remember it happened last year after the Chicago game where Addison went off and Hawkinson went off, and it was still a little bit like, you know, Justin needs his targets. And there was a time in 2021 where they were going to play the Chargers. And Mike Zimmer went up to him and said, Justin, give me a hard week of practice. I will make sure you are getting the football.

Everybody knows that this is the ticket to having a successful offense is running it through Justin Jefferson. but if it extends past, because usually every time this happens the following week, like by Justin Jefferson stock on Fanduel, for example, that's how it usually goes. I feel like this is the right week to be having this because the Chicago Bears defense is not great. Their secondary is banged up. They need one of those games between J.J. McCarthy and Justin Jefferson to get this thing going. Well, if Justin Jefferson wants to get back to 2020 version of Justin Jefferson, I mean, that's that's fine.

Now, barely according to DeQuan Brisker a couple of weeks ago, he made Justin Jefferson cry during that season, which was absolutely ridiculous because that didn't happen. And Justin Jefferson lit up the bear's defense that year. So if he wants to get, if JJ wants to get back to that season and that mode, sign me up. We'll take that. If that shows up on Sunday against the show. Chicago Bears. That's good. But, but yeah, you're right. I mean, I think that's going to be the thing to really watch for come Sunday is, you know, how involved Justin Jefferson is in the game plan. We know that this team wants to get him the football as often as possible because that's,

that's the way to win. That's the best course of action to be able to be, you know, productive on offense for this team. So I would imagine that he's going to have a big game. The opportunity, like you said, is going to be there. I think the question is going to be if he doesn't, this is going to be suddenly uncharted territory because, like you said, this isn't something that lingers. Typically, when there's sort of a little stretch where Jefferson is off

or where he's not getting the kind of targets that he usually gets, that situation is usually rectified right away, and you can tell. The first couple of possessions, I think, are going to be really interesting because if he's not getting the targets, if he's not getting the throws, if he's not being productive, then you're starting to wonder,

okay, how is J.J. McCarthy going to handle this now? Is he going to start tightening up? Because then, now you're going to be wondering, is J.J. McCarthy going to start forcing the ball to Justin Jefferson, and that's where you can get into trouble. That's where something can really extend throughout the entire game. And that happens, and the Vikings could be in real trouble on Sunday. And I did feel like at times in the game against the Ravens that he was kind of forcing it his way. But then I also thought it was open. I mean, he was open. And, you know, if they connect, everything is so crazy.

about how football works. Everything looks different if Jefferson catches that ball in the end zone, I think with the entire way the game played out, number one, but also this feeling about those two, they have connected on some nice plays. I mean, Jefferson catches the touchdown, one-handed in the end zone against Detroit. The last time they played Chicago, Jefferson's flying across the field and makes a great sliding catch for a big touchdown from J.J. McCarthy there. I think it just looked so bad at times that it became a crisis for a lot of people. I mean, for those watching at home, for Justin Jefferson, maybe for KOC, although, you know, he's kind of playing it cool about the play calling and all that sort of stuff.

But anybody watching, I'm sure, was going, hey, what is going on here? Because we've very rarely ever seen a quarterback struggle to get the football to Justin Jefferson, even with the couple of interceptions and the lack of success between these two, his career quarterback rating when anyone targets him is 106. It's borderline MVP level if you just throw the ball to Justin Jefferson, as Nick Mullins found out in a couple of games. But one thing about the retelling of 2022 that, you know, I would never try to be like, hey, Justin, here's the reason why you caught all those passes.

They were losing a lot in that season. They were throwing to come back in games. the Buffalo game where he makes that catch, dude, it's fourth and 17 or whatever because you have to go for it. You're down in the game. You know, that's one of the reasons that the statistics stacked up. It's probably better in some ways if you're not stacking a million numbers because that probably means you're playing for ahead. You're being a little safer with the football and that kind of stuff. And that's where the game got away from them last week against the Ravens. You get down to touchdowns and then you're flailing at everything. And I just don't think that's

the best situation for J.J. McCarthy to succeed. I do think that failure helps people develop and that's something we need to not, you know, freak out about. Also, I've got a great statistic for you just to throw it out there before we, you know, talk a little more Jefferson and sort of move forward into this week. Joe Burrow, as a rookie quarterback, went two, seven and one and averaged 40.4 passes per game. So the idea that K.O.S. should not be throwing the football with J.J. McCarthy, which seems to be the new, the new big brain thought from everybody is like, what if you actually never pass with McCarthy? I know, I know. I'm misstating that, but like you all get the point, right? Like, oh,

yeah, lean into McCarthy and trial by fire and everything else when it looks good. And then when it doesn't look good, then it's no, no, eight passes per game. Like, I, look, we can't have it always, right? Young quarterbacks have to work through it. I looked up Josh Allen's final five games of his rookie year because he I think he got hurt in the middle and then he came back final five games averaged 32 passes per game like a lot of times with young quarterbacks you have to push through it and they might have to here as well so it doesn't bother me to have the young quarterback throwing passes but I do think Manny circling back to Jefferson with this is nowhere near existential crisis with Jefferson

it, what it did for me was it created a ping in my brain with the whole thing. I had never thought at any point of like, oh, well, you know, Jefferson could get unhappy. And then who knows where that goes because we've seen that with receivers here before. And that was never there before until this game, that's when it pinged. But I don't think that we are anywhere close to that type of conversation at this moment of, is Jefferson going to demand a trade? And I think if you're doing that sort of stuff, you're just probably desperate for attention.

At this moment, if there are eight more weeks like this, and he ends up with 72 catches or something, that puts a lot of pressure. They're not getting rid of him, but that does put a lot of pressure on everybody if they can't get this connection figured out. No question about it.

I think right now it's way too early to hit the, panic button or to speculate on whether or not Justin Jefferson wants to play with JJ McCarthy. All of that stuff is just ridiculous at this point. But to your point you have a lot of games

left. I think this will be a really good sort of litmus test to kind of see how this connection between McCarthy and Jefferson sort of evolves and grows and develops over the course of the season. You're going to have

some opportunities against some really bad defenses over the coming weeks. You know, Green Bay would be a tough one. You know, Seattle could be kind of a tough matchup, but, you know, you're going to have an opportunity this Sunday. You're going to have an opportunity against Washington in a few weeks. Against Dallas the week after that. Against the Giants, you might have some opportunities. Giants front is pretty good, but their secondary is questionable.

You know, and maybe even Detroit, when you get the lions at home, you might have some opportunities there as well. there's going to be some chances for this connection to really grow and develop, but you have to see it. If we continue to see performances like Baltimore, where Jefferson is open and he's being overthrown by 10 yards, situations where the timing might be a little bit off, where Jefferson's not able to make a catch in the end zone,

whatever the case may be. If we continue to see that, especially against like lesser defenses, and this is also a Ravens defense that has been getting torched this year as well. Now, they had some injuries, but this was a defense that teams have been able to move the ball on, and you struggled to do that against them at home in your own backyard. So if this is something that continues, then, oh, yeah, it's definitely something to be concerned about. But I think Jefferson's track record and KOC's sort of development of this,

offense with Justin Jefferson, I think deserves a little bit more of the benefit of the doubt to that they can kind of write the ship and get things, get things going in the right direction. We know there's going to be some tough spots because you're dealing with a 22 year old developing quarterback. But what we've been saying all along is just progress, development, growth, improvement. That's what we're going to be looking for with J.J. McCarthy over the last, last half of the season. I think this game, though, is, and I, I, struggle between making NFL games into this is the biggest game in the history of the United States of America because if we didn't do that, I mean, what would football be, right?

I mean, my favorite thing, and I'm sure it was for you, Monday night football, 1994 or whatever, you know, the big buildup and the helmet smash against each other and Al is in there. And it could be two teams that were five and seven. and they would be like, this game means everything for this player, this team, whatever. They were so good at that. And that has been an inspiration forever for me when we talk about, you know, previewing games and the big storylines and everything else and what the clash means. And I was just recording my Friday podcast with Andrew Kramer today where we're talking about who has more pressure in this one. Is it the Vikings?

Is it the bears? Like, what would football be if we didn't do that? So I want to take it in a bigger global picture of this game doesn't determine J.J. McCarthy's career or what is going to be for Justin Jefferson or how, you know, KOC continues to work with McCarthy. I also think it's fair to call this a litmus test, though. I was just looking at this. The Chicago Bears defense by PFF grade, and if they don't have brisker, this is even worse, is 25th in coverage and 20. second in pass rush. They are bad, folks. And last week, they tried to dial it up for blitzes.

Jackson Dart ripped them up every time they tried to blitz. He used his legs. He scrambled. He found plays. And I know Darts played more football than J.J. McCarthy. But when you watch the two, you could kind of like, oh, I can kind of see it. Like McCarthy's arm is stronger and DART is more refined. But they have like a little bit of a swash buckling nature to them and a, you know,

their hardworking, bawling, scrambling quarterbacks and tough, you know, that kind of thing, sometimes in Darts case, a little too tough, but McCarthy too, like run themselves into hits sometimes. And that guy with a much worse team, much worse, their coach got fired. Their number one receiver is out. Their number one running back is out. It's not even close to as good as what the Vikings are bringing to the table. And that dude was fine.

In fact, he was kind of awesome against this terrible deep. defense. So if they can't get a big day out of JJ to JJ, then I think I'm going to be more willing to be like, okay, what the hell is going on here now? Because the Ravens is so much easier to look at that game and see what happened and go, you know what? I know why that played out the way it did. And the Ravens stats aren't that great defensively, but they're a different team. They acquired a safety. Kyle Hamilton's playing up in the box. They got Roquan Smith back. Like there's a reason, you know, that they've, that they've improved. But I can't say that about the Chicago Bears.

No, and when you look at what the bears have done, okay, fine, they're in first place. They're tied with the Lions for first place in the north. They're six and three. But if you look at who they've beaten, I mentioned this on Monday with, with you and Murph. They haven't beaten anybody and they've been squeaking by against the bad teams that they've been beating. So this is, this is, this is, this is an opportunity here for the Vikings to really kind of get things right and, and really, I think, show everybody that has like the legitimate concerns and people that are wanting to write off J.J. McCarthy already. So this, this is your chance. You're going to have an opportunity here. This, this is a Bears team that is better than they were last year. They're better coach than they were last year with Ben Johnson instead of Matt Eber.

flus, but this is a very, very flawed team. You can move the ball on them. They haven't beaten anybody. The bears are kind of like that group of five team in college football that's winning like a weak conference right now and they haven't really beaten anybody. And you're like, okay, they're really good or the record is really good, but how good are they really? Who have they beaten?

And if you're the Vikings, you're still, they're game below 500, but you're still in the conversation. If you can win this game and then, you know, get yourself to six and six. That's what you've been talking about a lot over the last couple of weeks. Get yourself to six and six. This has to be one of those six wins that you have a couple of weeks from now because this is this is as good opportunity to get a win as you're going to find just considering the matchup and who you're going up against. Manny, I want to get to something with you a little later in the show, but I didn't prep you on it. So I'm going to prep you on it right now. Do you have your phone or a pen and paper if they still have those in America these days to write

this down. Here's what I, here's what I want you to think about in the back of your mind as we're going forward with this. You're going to pick the schedule very soon is a comp for J.J. McCarthy if the things that have not worked for him come together. Like so if the throwing motion improves, the touch on the football improves, the timing of the offense improves because now we have four games to work with and anytime I can get you to be making comparisons and looking back into history and stuff like that, I want to do that

because somebody asked me in the newsletter today, like, hey, like, are these things fixable or not? And my answer is, well, not tomorrow. Like, I mean, it's certainly not against the Chicago Bears. All of a sudden he comes out and looks like Kurt Warner with the beautiful throwing motion. Like, I think that there's still going to be a lot of times. where we are frustrated by overthrows, what you're looking for is progress, and that maybe goes up against Detroit, goes down, and then back up,

and that's how it's going to be. So put that in the back of your noggin. And here's what I want to know from you. Let's talk about super specific stuff. Like, let's pick a couple super, almost ridiculously specific things that we need to see from the Vikings against the bears for them to get this season back on track to the point where we'd be saying,

oh, hey, that Ravens game was just a bad day at the office. Like, now they're back. I will start with this. It's too obvious to say, get rid of the false starts. If they don't, I would just walk out of the stadium.

If they commit fours, I'm done Purple Insiders over. They can't even snap the ball. I'm going to go start Seahawks insider. I'll see you guys in the Pacific Northwest. If they can't get snap counts right. But here's what I would like to see from McCarthy that is super specific. And I think they'll work on all week.

When he gets a clean pocket to either stay where you're at, shuffle a little bit to your left or right based on where you're sensing, the pressure, but do not step way up in the pocket. Because that I think was a cause of numerous things, balls flying over people's heads. If you take two big steps up in the pocket, that could be, you know, a problem because then you're moving at whatever miles an hour and just making those throws even harder.

The other thing would be you get, you know, balls knocked down when you're doing that as well, getting closer to the offensive lineman. That is my super duper specific. You have to improve this. And it doesn't have to be about JJ, but just the offense, the entirety of this thing. Give me something super duper specific. Well, I think another easy answer would be get off to. a good start um but you know i mean they they had the lead early against the ravens too you know

so it's you kind of wonder if that really will make a difference but i do think getting up on this team the chicago bears yeah you know because the ravens are a little different the ravens are you know lamar jackson doesn't care if he falls down seven nothing or 10 to three or whatever in the first half he doesn't care this guy's a two-time league MVP all of that stuff you can't just like blitz him or something yeah yeah right Caleb williams on the other hand yeah yeah still young, still growing, super talented. But he has a little bit of a history of kind of when, when things are not going well, it tends to linger a little bit sometimes in the case of Caleb Williams.

So to me, it's like, can you jump up on this team like 17 to nothing in the first half? Like the opportunities will be there. We've talked about it with this defense. You're going to be able to move the ball on them. and specifically throw the ball on this defense. So can you just jump up 17-0-0 and kind of just dead this thing right away? Because I'm not sure. Now, the Bears were down, I think, by 10 at halftime or something to the Giants last week,

but that's a bad Giants team. So you kind of expect them to fall apart there. But I feel like this would be a chance if you get off to a really good start, get a double-digit lead early, kind of like what you did against Cincinnati. I think this is a chance for you to really kind of win this thing running away. But again, you have to get off to a good start. You got to, you know, take that first possession, go down, score a touchdown.

If the bears go three and out, take that second possession, go down, get a field goal, go up. And now you're up 10-0 with, you know, I don't know, five minutes left in the first quarter, something like that. So I think that's specifically what I would like to see. but that's going to come with, you know, consistency from the passing game, consistency with the quarterback and showed improvement from, you know, the mess that we saw last week. By the way, Fanduil Question the Day, did not give that out yet, I don't think. The Vikings are three-point favorites in this game.

Are you confident? Are they winning? That's simple. Are they winning and covering? How about that? For the Fandul question of the day, again, three-point favorites and the most interesting play there is Justin Jefferson at 71.5 yards because I think that that isn't over to click, but I'm going to get us very specific with Justin Jefferson. And this is almost just to the point

of being almost a little ridiculous. Here's what I want to see from Jefferson and J.J. McCarthy. I want to see routes into the flat. I want to see, and they tried putting him in the backfield last week and he got drilled by a linebacker or something on one play. I think it was, it might have been the interception where maybe that was supposed to be an option. It got taken out. But is the concern if you line them up at the backfield is that, you know, anybody who watched the Patriots Rams Super Bowl will remember that the Patriots part of their strategy

was every time that Marshall Falk went to run a route. They just drilled them in the backfield. And it seemed like the Ravens were ready to do that too. I'm sure they were thinking of the, uh, was it, 2001 Super Bowl when they did it, but anyway, I want to see, I'm going to give you a very specific route. Let's see if it happens. If it happens, people will be like, whoa, what a call. I want to see him run a couple of those routes where it looks like it's going to be a slant. You kind of slam on the brakes, turn toward the sideline, and the ball gets to you like five yards down the field. Just a

couple of those, those to me are the easiest completions in the sport. And when a team has a good tight end. They'll do this all the time if that's one of the centers of their offense. It's just a little just a little in and then break out to the sideline type of route. Take the snap, zero step drop or whatever it is, three step, three step, let it go. To me, that's the ultimate, like get two guys on the same type of page route, which I would like to see. And let me give you one more and then you could give me one more. So I looked up the get back on track game for Sam Darnold last year. Like what what was it that got him back going after that Jacksonville game where people wanted Ryan Tannahill to be acquired or something, if I recall.

And right. And then he threw 18 touchdowns and two picks the rest of the way. But anyhow, he targeted 10 different receivers in the next game. I want to see no less than eight, eight receivers targeted by J.J. McCarthy. That's when we will know that he is on track because the failure. year of the Jacksonville game, Darnold and McCarthy, or I'm sorry,

Darnold and KOC sat down and they went through everything. And the big takeaway for Darnold was, I need to stop trying so freaking hard to push the ball to certain people or to play hero. Because remember, they were in the high red zone. He kept trying to throw it to the end zone.

It was like, stop trying to play hero. Which I know for Kevin O'Connell is like handing matches and gas to someone and say, don't start a fire because that's the offense. But it's like, if you don't. play hero and you throw to, and I know he's not on the team, but I'm going to say him anyway,

Trent Sherfield, get, get, get, get, get, get Ben Sims, who is on the team who I mean, I guess, you know, Naylor's a key part of this. They don't use any other receivers. Maybe that's a feeling point or a C.J. Ham pass or last year was acres caught one. It's like that means you're going where you're supposed to go with it. Get Ben Sims a freaking catch and then I'll think that you've done it right. I like it. I like it. I like it. Um, for me, another thing I would love to see specifically, well, it's kind of two things with the same guy. I want to see sort of an inversion of the use of Jordan Mason in specific situations, meaning shortyarded situations. I want to see Jordan Mason get the ball a little bit more, not every time, obviously, because we,

You know, KOC likes to take the deep shot sometimes on third and one. I was going to say, is that KOC at your door not to come to explain to you why you don't give it to Jordan Mason? Because I'm just kidding. Go on. It's just a joke. But so I want to see more of that. And also, I would like to see less Jordan Mason in obvious passing situations because his past protection is not good. like not good at all and you know i think jordan mason is a very good player he's a very good running

back he has a specific skill set he runs with intensity he's very good in short guarded situations and he's not good in past protection i don't want to see him out there in past protection anymore obviously you know on in third down situations when he's not out there you know if you if you sort of follow this in third down situations when he's not out there yet it's very likely you're going to pass but this is coc he's probably going to pass anyway so you know um so yeah i i those are two things specifically that i would like to see with jordan mason short yarded situations particularly deep in the red zone you get in the red zone let's get him the football a little bit more give him some opportunities there um and also less pass protection from jordan mason just because

it's not good and most of the time play kind of blows up all right before you pick the schedule i want to make a statement i'm drinking my arby's cup here because the wife went to arby's because i needed something to eat before the show i will not apologize for that i will not apologize for the quality sandwiches of arby's this is not sponsored but it sure as hell can be arby's and nike i don't know why you have jordan and not me but anytime anytime you want to drop in and anytime the folks that died, Dr. Pepper, want to step in.

Please feel free. This show would be very welcome. Let's get into your, let's see, well, there was an answer to Fanduel question of the day. Aaron said, yeah, Vikings are winning 2316. I think that's a reasonable pick. Craig is saying the Vikings will win since no one is going to bet them.

The NFL, this is my thing. The NFL, this has become my theory that I have no idea if it's really, right or not, but I fully believe it, which is when a team has a big win, an emotional win, the next week they will probably let you down. The Buffalo Bills beat Kansas City. We're the Super Bowl champs mid-season, and then they go to Miami and they let you down. The Vikings go to Detroit, they get the huge win.

They go to Chicago. They get the huge win. The next week, they let you down. And I think the opposite also tends to work, too. Like, I would be betting for next week, the Green Bay Packers. everyone's hammering them and what usually happens is if a team gets beaten down with a sledgehammer for an entire week usually everybody locks in it's all everybody focused we need to save a season we need to save a job etc etc and i think this is not quite save a job but it is save a season and it also is

get some confidence i mean just in jefferson being like yeah i need to like get back to being myself from three years ago. He's like, bro, okay, what is going on? Like, I mean, and I, you're pretty good last year, too, dude. I know, I know. And look, he said, he said life stuff. I don't ever touch that when it comes to athletes. Like, they're all field stuff. And I also always acknowledge that when something is happening with a player on the field, you can't tell them to just totally tune out everything in life or whatever else. So I fully respect that. But also, like, you are down bad right now. If you're going back and hoping for, you know, a season that was kind of, you know, I mean, it was fun and he was great that year. But wow, what? So they need this really bad. And that's why I think that the confidence

level should be pretty high that most times, even in Jefferson's career, but even I would say this for KOC, most of the times that we felt like, boy, man, they really need one. They have gotten it. and coming out of that Jacksonville game, if they had lost the Titans or something, and they get an opponent that I think is a very beatable six and three, which takes us to Mr. Hill, time to pick the rest of the schedule. The Vikings are four and five.

Who knows where we had them being at this point? I doubt it was ever four and five at the beginning of the season, and then it might have been even worse a couple weeks ago. So let's begin there with the Vikings at home against the Chicago. Chicago Bears. Do they win this football game? Well, to your point about bouncing back, I mean, you could even look at the Lions game a couple of weeks ago about, you know, that they got that drubbing out in L.A. And then they come back and they go on the road and they beat the Lions. So, yeah, I think the Vikings do win this game. I just still not completely sold on the Bears yet. I think they're better than they were a year ago.

but they still just haven't beaten anybody and being a total like college football. This team isn't that they haven't beaten anybody. They shouldn't be ranked that high. So yeah, I think the Vikings win. It kind of feels like a 24 to 17, 2619 type of game. But I think the Vikings win the game and even things up at 5 and 5. Well, you got the same haircut as Booger McFarland. So it works.

But I think this is actually really true. true in this time because they have played really, it's not just they haven't beat anyone. They've played really close games. And this is what I've always talked about when it comes to analyzing the point differential and close games is if you beat good teams in close games, I am giving you a lot of credit for that. The whole one score game thing doesn't matter. It's like all of them, there are all sorts of different ways you can get to a one score.

And also, doesn't your opponent matter? If the Vikings play the Packers next week and they win 1714, I'm not going to be like, yeah, one score, who cares? But if they, you know, if they eke out a one point win 10 to 9 against the Bears, I might not be that impressed. But to your point, I mean, the Bears have just gotten away with it a lot here. And I don't think they're as great of a football team. I do like, let's see, Red Star who says Purple Insider has the meats.

Yeah, that way, hey, look, I'll start every. show with that if Arby's wants to pony up. The Panthers beating the Packers and then losing to the Saints. Perfect example. I mean, they're all over the NFL this year with examples like that of a team that gets a big emotional win. And I think it's just draining when that happens that you put so much into a game against Kansas City if you're Buffalo. And then the following week, it's harder to bring the juice. And a lot of times, too, those big wins will come on national TV. Now, that wasn't the case for the Packers or

the Vikings beating the Detroit, but it was the case in week one. It was a big national TV game, Monday night football, and then, hey, why don't you turn around, you know, and go do it the next week. So anyway, you have the Vikings beating the Bears to get to five and five, and then now going to Lambo and the Packers, who are suddenly downtrodden. So the Packers have gone from, let's see, they trade for Micah Parsons, they're a Super Bowl team, they beat the Lions, they have literally won the Super Bowl. Then they lose to the Cleveland Browns.

They then should fire their coach. Then they get back on the horse and they get a couple of big wins. Once again, they have won the Super Bowl. And Jordan Love is actually Brett Farv. And then now Tucker Kraft gets her and now they should fire their coach again. And Jordan Love is actually Matt Flynn. And he is not, he's Craig Knoll or Doug Peterson or Tim Boyle. But he is not Brett Farv.

Scott Tolzine. Yes. I love that. Just naming off random backup backup pack of quarterbacks. Maybe Dan Majowski, maybe, maybe the magic man at best. Um, okay, I'm picking this, picking the score. I was, I was trying to think of another backup backer's quarterbacks. Yeah, yeah, I really, really throw you off with that.

Oh, Seneca Wallace was a Packers backup for a while. Yeah, he and he and Tulzine both played in that, um, that tie in 2013. think it was between the Vikings and Packers at Lambeau. Oh, my God. Yes, they did. And, and wow, anyone who survived it, congratulations. I know you're supposed to be picking this game, but I have watched back that game, and I felt so bad about myself.

Like, you guys think I should feel bad about eating Arbys. I love Arbys, but that kind of football game, that's where I felt bad about myself. Never forget the Vikings and Packers tied at Lambeau twice in the span of like a five-year period. I was there for one of them. And it's the strangest thing because you, well, that game was an amazing game, the 2018 one, but you walk down from the press box. You have to go outside, which is wonderful when they play in January. So you have to go outside and you walk over the fans. So the fans are leaving out of the concourse and you are in this like overhang or something where you're walking over them to go down into the locker room like the staircase and so you're walking over and there's

just dead silence like usually if the packers win it's like yeah go packers screw you purple losers and you'll hear people you know talking and cheer and everything else and then if the vikis win it'll be a handful of vikis fans being like skull skull ha ha ha nothing absolutely nothing i mean it was like going to a history museum walk it over there just people want walking through not knowing what to do with themselves do I am I happy mad sad upset hilarious yeah it was very funny so you're picking a tie for this game that's what you're saying I mean why not at this point I was almost 10th Deshawn Kaiser that's a good one Deshawn Kaiser that was the one I was thinking of thank you guard guy guard guy is in the comments

guard guy's been silent all year to be most silent because will fries and donovan jackson look great guards guys got nothing to do see he used to come in and say can this guy play Gar. Can Trent Sherfield play guard, but not any more guard guy. Good to see you, though. I do think that, I do think this is going to be a tough one. I know, I think last week I picked the Vikings to win this game. But that was with the thought that they were going to be playing better than what they have played last week. But I'm going to give the Packers a win here because I do think they are the better football team. They're certainly not without their own flaws.

But I think with the Packers being at home, Lambo's a tough place to play. The weather could be a little tricky. It could be a tough one for the Vikings. I think they'll keep it close because it doesn't seem like the Packers' offense is running away from anybody right now. Yep.

So I think the Vikings will keep this close, but I think Green Bay will have the edge being at home and come away with the win. A lot of really good quarterbacks have struggled against the screen bay defense and the Vikings offensive line is built for it, but there is no building for Micah Parsons. And they've played really well defensively. Last Samurai, but why male models? That's right. I will be Derek Zoolander for whatever, whoever wants to sponsor the show. Just putting that out there. Matt Hasselbeck, Brett Hundley, great names, Mark Brunel, Kurt Warner.

These guys were part of a crazy run. And this is a total aside. And I feel like I'm botching the bit here. by having all these talking about Arby's and such. But it was a thing that used to happen where a team would develop quarterbacks and then another team would be like, let's go get that quarterback that that good team developed. And the best example of this was San Francisco, whose quarterbacks always ended up in Kansas City. So it would be like Steve Bono, which I maybe wasn't developed there as much, but like an Elvis Gerback.

And that used to be a thing that happened all the things. time in the NFL where it'd be some backup and I think this is the the death of preseason has probably caused some of this the impatience like if you were a team now that traded for another team's backup that had barely played been like this is our quarterback I think everyone would think you were insane like think about like next year if max brosber's the backup and then some team just said we're going to give you a second round pick for max brosber and he's going to be our starter. You'd be like, are you on your mind? But teams used to do that all the time. Like, you know, the Jaguars and Brunel, he didn't start right away in Jacksonville, but he got there

eventually. We just don't see that much anymore. And that might have to be a strategy considering where some of these teams are at with their quarterback situations. Anyhow, so you've got the Vikings at five and six going out to Seattle to face a very tough defense and a quarterback who's, you know, playing some okay football these days. Yeah, he's pretty good, I think. He's still alright. Didn't need it, didn't really need him to do a lot on, on Sunday against the Cardinals, because they got off to such a big lead. I think he went like 10 for 12 passing or something like that.

Did not have to do much. That's the model for McCarthy. Why don't you just get like strip sack touchdowns and then have them throw 12 passes? That's what people want. Yeah. Well, I mean, it wouldn't be too far away from what was going on in college if we're being honest. Oh, well, I mean, no, it's not untrue.

seven for eight against against Penn State that was that was kind of 2019 Kirk too I mean I thought 2019 Kirk overall was phenomenal I think it was the best year of his career but there was some of that with him that year

early in the year yeah like he had I think a win with 10 passes against the Falcons yeah there was a Raiders game in there too I think where he went like nine for 12 or something like yeah it was the the Falcons one was the opener and I think he threw 10 passes and then they played the Raiders and he didn't have to do a

lot either. He had a great touchdown pass to Thielen. Remember that we're Thielen kind of broke halfway across the field and went the other way, which is, yeah, that's a classic Gary Kubiak type of thing, but didn't have to do a whole lot in a lot of the wins that season. And I agree for winning games. That is ideal. I'm making fun of this whole thing because it's just been beaten to death. It is ideal to have J.J. McCarthy throw 24 passes. It means that you played from ahead. It means that you ran effectively. It means that you got to use play action and everything that's in your book as opposed to just, hey, shotgun over and over and over again. I generally agree.

I also think having a game where you fail and throw the ball a lot is not devastating to the guy's career. So anyway, go ahead. So I think what will be interesting here with Seattle is, you know, Brian Flores got a good look at Sam Darnold for a year. Yep. In practice every day last year. I wonder if Brian Flores is going to have some things dialed up to try to,

and throw Sam Darnold off a little bit, put some pressure on and force him into some mistakes. It's certainly possible. The defensive tackles for the Vikings are playing a lot better in recent weeks, which is a good sign. So this is a tough one, man. This is a tough one. I'll give the Vikings a win here

because I want to think that the Vikings coming out of this tough stretch as you've talked about, are going to be still in the conversation. And I think it's going to, if they're going to lose the Green Bay, I think it's going to take a win at Seattle to keep themselves afloat in the playoff conversation. I can buy that. And I think that you have to win one of those two games. If you beat the Bears, you have to either beat the Packers or beat the Seahawks in

order to stay in this thing because then all of a sudden, the next run of three games, all very winnable, the commanders on December 7th at home. against the Vikings with presumably no Jane Daniels, although it sounds like he avoided the major injury that we all thought it was, but I don't think he's coming back anytime soon. Yeah, and even if he does, I mean, how effective is he really going to be? I mean, he's just been banged up all year and just hasn't really been able to find a good rhythm, consistent rhythm for that team.

And their defense is just really bad. So I think this is another opportunity for the Vikings offense to kind of cook a little bit. and hopefully McCarthy by then has kind of found his stride a little bit and is showing some significant improvement. So I'll give the Vikings a win here. And I think that puts them at seven and six. That would put them at seven and six indeed. And then they go to Dallas on December 14th. And I think the Dallas team is one of the harder teams in the lead to project because they have great wide receivers. They just traded for Quinn and Williams. I don't know how much of a factor. That will be, but they are Jekyll and Hyde on offense where there have been some

nights on offense. You're like, well, okay, what's going on with Dallas? So why can't they move the ball? And then there are other times like against Green Bay where they light them up and they're throwing all night long and deck looks fantastic. I mean, I don't know where they're going to be as a team at that point, but I do know their offense has the capability to be as good and as exciting as anybody in the NFL. So how do you think the Vikings match up there? I also want to make a point too. This is why we have to keep a global view as we go forward of McCarthy because at Green Bay and at Seattle, that's two of the best defenses in the league on the road. That's a nightmare. But then after that, it's horrible defense, horrible defense, coach has been fired. So like seven and six

going to play at Dallas. Yeah, I've been, I think I've been consistently every week that I've picked the schedule calling this a win mainly just because of the Cowboys defense just being so bad but you did mention their offense, they can move the ball a little bit, you know, when they're right

they're as lethal in offense as there is in the league. It's been hard to get that consistency with them over the course of the year but I will give I'm going to change it up a little bit. I'm going to give the Cowboys the win here, dropping the Vikings to 7 and 7

And mainly just because, collar, this league is just weird, you know, because somebody might look at that and say, well, how can you have them going to Seattle, a really good team and winning that game, but then losing to a very mediocre team in Dallas. That's this league. We just saw the Packers lose to the Panthers at home. It makes total sense, actually. Yeah. Right. And it actually makes total sense to go the opposite way and have them get to now seven and seven where they will go to New York and they'll go to Rock. Rockefeller Center, and they will celebrate and sing Christmas carols.

What a beautiful time in New York at Christmas, but how beautiful will it be? And, hey, no Brian Dable, who beat the Vikings in the playoffs once upon a time. I don't even know if, I mean, can they keep Jackson dart healthy or is, you know, is he going to be back by that point? Because after last week, I'm going to call it another concussion. I don't care how many times they cleared him. He's been hit in the Noggin too many times this year. so we'll see if he's healthy.

I actually love the idea of a Jackson Dart versus J.J. McCarthy matchup could be a lot of fun. But do the Vikings come home with a Christmas present under their tree? I am going to say the Vikings do find a way to win this game. I think even if it is Jackson Dart, I think if it's Jackson Dart, it'll be more entertaining because I think it has a chance to be a pretty competitive game. if it's James Winston, I think it has the chance to be also an entertaining game, but in a very different way.

Yes. Because I think Brian Flores will have a lot of fun with James Winston, because as we know, James Winston is typically a turnover machine. And so either way, though, I think I have the Vikings winning this game and improving to eight and seven. Eight and seven.

Now look, if this is the way that it goes, Manny, and they are going into the last two games with a chance to get to 10 and 7, still in the hunt, maybe they need some things to break their way or a team to fall apart or whatever, then I will say good job Minnesota Vikings. That's not where we expected them to be at the beginning of the year, but considering the things that have happened, having to play a backup for five games, having to develop a quarterback on the fly, the bumps, the ups and downs that have gone along with that, knowing that McCarthy

was farther behind in terms of his technique and throwing the ball and the offense than we thought he was going to be and then got the setback so that counts for all that maybe if he was playing against Cincinnati and playing against the chargers and all that stuff he would have been farther along by now but if they can get to eight and seven have a shot at it then i think that means mccarthy has played well and that there have been not that many days like against the baltimore ravens where they seem to come apart and they should be feeling fairly good about themselves. However, do they win against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium on Christmas Day? I pick the Vikings to win here. This will have meant that they swept the season

series with the Detroit Lions. I can't see that happening. I think the Lions are certainly not without their own flaws, particularly on the offensive line, and maybe in the secondary a little bit as well. But I think the lions are still too good to get swept by a divisional opponent. So I'm going to give Detroit the win here at US Bank Stadium. And the Vikings messing up the lions last week. You talk about sending a team's head spinning. This is actually what I'm talking about. Lions have this big bad loss. Everyone's crushing them. Oh, you know, you're not as good as we thought you were going to be. They come back and they just lay it to Washington because they made some changes, including giving Dan

and Campbell the keys to calling plays. That is very different than having John Morton, who I don't think was very good at it. They didn't make any adjustment whatsoever to the Vikings. And Flores was like, wait a minute, you're just going to let me keep doing this? I think I will. And then he just, then he did.

And that, you know, really messed them up. So they bounced back in that way. And I think that they'll have a better plan for the Vikings in this game. And I agree with you on a short week. where the Vikings are on the road and then have to come back. I think it's a Friday, right? They play the 21st, the 25th. Which team is Thursday?

Okay, which team is better prepared for this? It's going to be Detroit. They're probably also mad as heck of having to come to Minneapolis on Christmas day where it could be quite, uh, quite warm. Um, okay, Packers. So they're eight and eight at that point need to beat the Packers in the final week of the season to get above 500. Well, it mean a playoff spot.

We do not know. but can it happen? I think that they will win this game and finish the year at 9 and 8. I just, I think it's, you know, I think salvaging a split with Green Bay, I think makes a lot of sense in this situation. I kind of tend to think that it won't be for a playoff spot. The Vikings will be in the conversation in the,

in the weeks leading up to a week 15, 16, 17, but I feel like some sort of tiebreaker or something like that is probably going to come back to bite them. And this game will probably not mean a whole lot, but I think the Vikings will come out, want to finish the season strong, McCarthy will play well, and the Vikings will finish the season on a high note and finish nine and eight, just barely missing the playoffs. Here's a, I'll try my best to make a little, just a tiny bit of an argument. I don't think, I totally agree that nine probably doesn't do it. But let's take a look at the NFC and teams we can already eliminate from having a chance to make the playoffs. I think Dallas, Washington, and the Giants are already done. I would say that the Falcons and Saints are probably dusted to and the Cardinals.

None of those teams, I mean, unless they get insanely hot or not getting into this discussion. So the Eagles are going to win their division. Let's say the Lions are going to win their division and the Bucks and either the Seahawks or the Rams. So let's just call that the Rams. That means you're battling with the Seahawks 49ers for a seventh playoff spot and the Bears. And I guess the Panthers, but I just can't see that. I mean, that's not that many teams if you go nine and eight to get lucky with some sort of tiebreaker or something like that. Because if I'm already giving the wild card spots to the Packers and to the Seahawks, then it really does leave

just the 49ers, the Panthers, and the Bears, I think, right? And you would have, yeah, and you would have a tie. If you were in the Bears, both finish nine and eight, you'd have the tiebreaker because under my picking of the schedule, you will swept the bears. Yep. Right. So. And here's the crazy part about the NFL here is if the bears lose this game, they're six and four and the Vikings are five and five, by my astute math, that is a one game difference with eight to go, which is not. crazy when you have all you need to do is tie them to have a tie breaker the panthers are not going to get to 10 wins i don't think unless they get crazy hot and i don't think they're capable of

that it's that the 49ers are six and four but i think what does their schedule look like it's pretty easy the panther oh yeah they've got the cardinals panthers browns tight oh my gosh yeah and the bears schedule to the bear schedule by the way collar gets really tough after the Vikings game, too. Yeah, they're home against the Steelers, then they're at Philadelphia on a short week after the Steelers game. Then they're at the Packers,

home against the Browns. You can probably pencil that in as a win. But then they're home against the Packers. They're at the Niners, and then they finish up at home against Detroit. So it's going to be tough for the Bears down the stretch of the season too. I wouldn't be shocked.

If the Bears lose this one, if they don't get to nine with that schedule, or maybe maybe get to nine with that schedule. but this 49er schedule is insane. I mean, to have the Cardinals, Panthers, Browns, Titans in their next four games, they shouldn't lose any of those. So that might make it tough

when it comes to getting that last playoff spot. But we'll see. I mean, you never know how this is going to play out. But that to me, it becomes a win here becomes the Vikings and three other teams that are going to be fighting for it. And if you're fighting for it on the last day, then at least,

You made that happen, and it means McCarthy played pretty well, and you've got yourself a chance to go forward with McCarthy. And that's where, Manny, I keep asking people about setting the bar of, like, where do we need to set the bar with McCarthy? And my favorite way of doing it is the least analytical way, is that if none of us are really arguing over it, then it means really good things happened. If we all just kind of know, if you could walk into a downtown Minneapolis bar and ask, I don't know, a hundred Vikings fans on a Friday night after a game or something,

hey, is JJ the guy and 95 say yes and five are too drunk to answer your question, then you're probably, then you, then you've probably done it. Because I don't think that this is the hard thing about when, when everybody's going crazy yelling at each other on the internet after every game and all that, sometimes when it comes to something like this, it's like, I think it shouldn't be that hard. Like you shouldn't have to be working this hard. Like people were last week of,

KOC needs to not run here and not run this. And the system's too hard and this and this and this and this. It's like, that sounds like we're working really hard to make J.J. McCarthy not at all culpable for what happened. Which in that game to me, he very much was. Just like Atlanta, saying that doesn't mean that he sucks. Like I just, I don't know how to make that clear. I need something to flash on the screen. this particular criticism does not mean

J.J's a bust. Like it needs to, I think I might have to create that for the live stream. But if we get to the end and they're nine and eight and they beat the Packers on the last day of the season, I think all, you know, 95 out of 100 in that bar are going to be saying, oh yeah, yep, he's the guy and that's who we want to go forward with and on to next year. Because the difference with some of the other quarterbacks who have had these like, oh, it's, he played really well down the stretch kind of thing is, well, one, supporting cast, the coaching staff, the continuity, but also the physical skills. That's the one thing about Bryce, where he played well last year, Bryce Young, but man,

the guy's still 510. It's like you can have a run of games that wasn't bad, but you can't take that away. With McCarthy, it's certainly, it's too much physical skills at times. It's like, JJ, you are strong with the arm. You don't have to, you know, that kind of thing. So anyway, that's how I view this. in your scenario, it's as good as you could possibly hope for at this point, I think. Yeah.

And I think for me, picking all of these games the way I did is kind of anticipating that they're relatively healthy for the rest of the way, too. I mean, I think they've got to try to avoid the catastrophic injuries. They've been dealing with some injuries here and there, the first half of the year. I think if they can really now, obviously, Granard situation with the shoulder is going to be something to monitor over the next few weeks. But, you know, I think they've got to keep Andrew Van Ginkle on the field. You got to keep Blake Cashman on the field.

The two defensive tackles that you signed, you got to keep them healthy and fresh, because that's when they're going to be at their best. Your corners really need to stay healthy because if either one of those two guys get hurt, I mean, we've already seen them, both of them have kind of their ups and downs. And if one of them gets hurt, oh boy, you are in some deep. bleep. So, and obviously McCarthy staying healthy too, I think is the biggest, most critical thing of all of this as well, because he just has to play.

He has to have the reps, the in-game reps, the situational stuff. He's got to go through all of that. That's the only way he's going to truly develop and grow into what they hope he can be down the line. So staying healthy is going to be a big part of it. And if they can do that, then I think they can get things really turned around and finish the season strong. My prediction on this one is that the Vikings will win and they will not cover. So it's going to be by less than three. That's where the line is on Fanduel right now. Will

Reichert, 61-yard field goal from the logo to win the game against Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears. And boy, do they need it? And you know who else I feel like needs it is all of you. I think all of you really need them to win this game as well. Because I felt like just the the how stable people were last week, really teetered toward falling off the cliff and blowing up in like a Michael Bay movie level fashion. It was like, okay, I think, I think all of you just need a win against the Chicago Bears and we could start, you know, moving forward with the rest. And the biggest thing for me is if you are getting a win against the Bears and going to Lambo, then it's got juice. It's got energy. It's exciting. Even if you don't win the game in Lambo, it would still be,

like hey this one this matters so you're back at 500 like here you go you lose this one oh man that that trip down there if you're driving it not going to be a good time it's also pitch blackout by five fricking 30 these days it's awful anyway all right manny well we'll see what happens through thick or thin manny and i will be here and if uh you're rewatching phanduel question of the day are they going to win and why sometimes it's not complicated Thanks again, Manny. Thanks, everybody for watching tomorrow night. Two interviews that I had done today will be playing tomorrow.

If there's any breaking news, of course, I'll go live. If not, probably not, then Andrew Kramer and the Hardcore Breakdown. And then Mike Renner from CBS Sports, who, for my money, is the best person doing media at breaking down film. So he will be on talking about J.J. McCarthy's film. and where that needs to go. And a lot of details there. That's what's going to happen tomorrow night. So thanks everybody for watching slash listening.

And the next time I see you live, I guess we'll be after the game. And who knows where we're at emotionally after that. So thanks everybody. And we'll catch you all next time. Football. Okay, there we go. Football.