Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Picking the rest of the Vikings' schedule

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Manny Hill picks every game from here until the end of the season and let's just say he is flying high on the Vikings' chances at the playoffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

well i guess we're going to find out if Manny Hill expected these returns to be as good as they are. Manny, we've got tons of great questions and comments from people already. Welcome in this evening and what an evening it is. I want you to say before I jump back into the comments about answering our question, are the Vikings this good? How'd you feel yesterday? How'd you feel yesterday? How'd you feel watching that? It was a pretty entertaining day for everybody. It really was.

Like, it was just a fun, I thought, well-played football game. I think, you know, I think we saw a lot of really good things from both teams. You know, it felt like the Vikings' defense played really well, but at the same time, you could see throughout the entire game why san francisco is as good as they are like they're as good as advertised and we saw the vikings really go toe-to-toe with them for 60 minutes and it was just uh it was just a fun game it was good to see the Vikings defense play. Well, it was good to see Sam Darnold play well. And even though Aaron Jones didn't really have a super productive day, Ty Chandler was able to step in and really kind of pick up some of that slack in the running game too. So yeah, overall,

it was just a lot of fun and it was I was thoroughly entertained and, you know, the fan side of me was really happy to see the Vikings come away with a win. You know, I think that what was really interesting about the game is that it was a lot of players who are not necessarily the players that we expect who are making plays. And, I mean, Jefferson with a 97-yard touchdown is, of course, that guy. But Ty Chandler, you mentioned, had a a great game and he came through numerous times and Jalen Naylor probably had the biggest catch of the entire day, uh, other than the 97 yard touchdown, but his spinning grab from Sam Darnold, who just threw an absolute laser beam to him, but those aren't superstars.

And, you know, even Garrett Bradbury bounced back and on the defensive side it was Cashman but it's also Patrick Jones and that's where you don't want to go down the 2017 road because that's just not right to go there yet until we really see it in fact we didn't even know 2017 was going to be 2017 until maybe like week 10 where we could really say all right okay this is going somewhere. But we couldn't really even say it until Case Keenum got hot in the middle of that season. But it does remind me of that way when there was a game where Everson Griffin got hurt, and B-Rob came off the bench and played extremely well. And there were, you know, Delvin Cook gets hurt, and then there's the running back duo of Latavius Murray and

Jarek McKinnon like this. It doesn't have to be the same guy every single week. And I got that feeling yesterday where I went, you know, a lot of different people contributed to this thing. It wasn't just, well, if Jefferson doesn't do it, then nobody's going to do it. I have a question for you because you mentioned, and I'm glad you brought up the 2017 team, because I don't think that this is quite that, but could this be 2015? And you mean as a team that we didn't really expect to take the big step yet that we thought was maybe a year away. And then they were kind of surprising i think you know maybe the difference there is that 2015 had more young players that they were relying

on and those young players suddenly were good uh stefan diggs started to emerge in that season eric kendricks of course daniel hunter starts to step in and do his thing where on this team i mean the 2017 comparison and and again, not quite fair, really comes down to how many veterans there were at that point in 2017. It was a team of all experienced players. And that's what we're seeing here. And I think when we look at how this roster is really constructed to talk about them as a team on the rise for the future. Isn't quite right. That that's one position that's quarterback is there on the rise for the future. That's also Rob Brzezinski and his salary cap space is on the rise for the future. Uh, but I mean, you have

Hockinson's going to come back. That's a veteran. It's, it's almost hard to go across the roster and find someone that we don't have a sample size on. I mean, Ivan Pace is still growing as a veteran. It's almost hard to go across the roster and find someone that we don't have a sample size on. I mean, Ivan Pace is still growing as a player. He's a young guy. And then who? I mean, Ty Chandler is unproven, but he's also like 25 years old. I mean, it's not someone who's super, super young. So this is a team that has proven players across the entire roster.

And that's what makes me think that when we say, are they this good? It's yes. Only if of course, Sam Darnold does his thing and is the faithful says stats lie a lot. The Vikings were Fred Warner away from absolutely dominating the Niners. I agree with that, Manny. That was one of the best games I've ever seen from a linebacker,

but outside of Fred Warner, they did decidedly outplay the San Francisco 49ers they really did and I tweeted out you know after the Aaron Jones fumble I just basically said Fred Warner almost single-handedly took two touchdowns away from the Vikings in that game with the interception and then the the punching of the football out from from Jones. I mean, the Vikings were in positions to score. I mean, Aaron Jones was on his way into the end zone, literally on that play. And then even on the interception, you know, the Vikings were in scoring position to really get on the board.

So, I mean, that guy is a monster, man. And, you know, and I think that's what made the win yesterday even more impressive, is that we know San Francisco is good, but we also saw a lot of their key players make big plays in the game, and the Vikings were able to withstand that. You know what I mean? Fred Werner, as we just mentioned, was just a monster. We saw Nick Bosa make plays and be kind of troublesome on the defensive front.

Hargrave made some plays. Even Mason in the running game was still really productive for them. And even Brock Purdy, even though the Vikings were getting to him and making him uncomfortable at times, he still made some throws and made some things happen. And I, and I think all of those things sort of happening for the 49ers and the Vikings able to kind of withstand that in a way that I don't think we've seen them do in the past. You know what I mean? You know, 2022, they, they were in a lot of close games and they found ways to win those games.

But when you see things like the interception happen, like Aaron Jones having the ball punched out and he's two feet from the end zone, for a long time, particularly in the Kirk Cousins era, those type of things would happen and they wouldn't, it would be very hard for them to kind of overcome those things. And for them to do that, for the 49ers to keep throwing haymakers at them and the Vikings to hang in there and hang on and win, that was really impressive. And it was just,

it was really exciting to watch. The key word to me is fluky. It was not fluky. And when you're figuring out and you go around the league and you start to ask hey well this team's 2-0 or this team you know got a surprise win is that real is that a fluke did they just get lucky and I did an article about the 2022 team where I tried to identify which one score games were really one score games that and which ones were the Vikings were leading and it ended up as a one score game. And that's, that's yesterday. The Vikings are outplaying them.

They get a field goal at the end that makes it a one score game, but they outplayed them to the point where it was probably more than that. And I used this method with win percentage. Like what was the win percentage in the fourth quarter? If the Vikings had a 90% win percentage in the fourth quarter, that means they'd outplay the other team for three quarters. Remember the Miami game against Teddy? They were the better team for almost all of that game. It gets a little close at the end. Mike Kosicki tried to do the gritty, but that game, the Vikings were the better team. So you're trying to really identify that. And that's where I don't feel anything that's

happened in these two weeks has been fluky. I feel like they have been so decidedly the better team that we could start to say, yes, they may be actually this good. I shot you 99. I'm noticing a trend in these two games. The quarterback from the opposing team holding onto the ball too long is something I've heard over the last two games is the secondary better than we thought. You know what? I think that is a Brian Flores stat or anecdotes from people saying that the guy is holding onto the ball too long.

That's what I think, Manny, is that when I went back and looked at the tape today, I saw a lot of Brock Purdy not being able to quickly get the football out of his hands, not quickly being able to identify where it was supposed to go. And now you can't even throw a bubble screen because Andrew Van Ginkle might turn into an interception. He was this close at the end zone when they threw one from tipping it up in the air and grabbing it.

And then at the end of the game, he almost did it again. So he had two of those yesterday. But there was another one where they tried to run kind of a little screen thing and van ginkle rather than going after the passer he identified that and went wide and that was the one where he got the sack because purdy looked over there like oh it's not there because van giggles in my way and then tried to run and he ends up getting taken down but i think that the coverage it's not so much the secondary players, although they

are better for sure, but I think it's the combination of the players and all the different looks that they're able to give teams like the 49ers. And that's why even with CJ Stroud coming in here, I think over since really 2020, any opposing quarterback that was even halfway decent, I would have been saying they better have a great game on offense. And I'm sure somewhere Kirk was watching that game going yeah really really that's the defense you uh that's the defense you're giving sam darnold huh that's that's what but that that's my that's my theory on that man it's it it felt and this is this is gonna sound maybe a little crazy but it felt like a i mean it looked like a brian flores defense this is going to sound maybe a little crazy, but it felt like a, I mean, it looked like a Brian Flores defense.

This is what he's been doing. It's what he did when he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. You know, we saw some of that type of stuff when he was on the staff of the New England Patriots, when they were going to Super Bowls and winning Super Bowls, where, you know, you sort, where you have a game plan and you go out and you execute it, and it becomes a situation where quarterbacks have to really read what they're seeing. And Flores is so good at designing and creating confusion for a quarterback

where he can't just go off that first read and make that throw. He's got to hang in there in the pocket for a long time and hope that something goes wrong in the coverage. And then he can kind of expose it. And I mean, that's just a testament to Brian floor is being able to dial up things on the defensive side where you,

you, you don't know if a blitz is coming you don't know what kind of coverage you're going to see in the secondary um and and then to your point about just having veteran players that understand how to play this game defensively um guys just know where they have to be they know what they have to do it's kind of like a it's it's the what year was that with the Bill Belichick, you know, do your job, where every guy on the defense has their job. They know exactly what they're supposed to do.

They don't try to do anything more than that. And it feels like you're starting to see that characteristic happen in this defense too. I've always felt also, Manny, that from a coaching perspective, we always want coaches to just make whatever they have for talent, the best. Just take whatever you've got and make it great because you're a coach and you're the genius and you can turn anything into anything. But I think with someone like Brian Flores, he's already really great his job and he can make a little bit better of a defense than it was talent wise last year and deserve credit for that but with this

year the more you give brian flores the more he can do and think think about it this way you can't run the triangle offense and win championships without jordan and kobe uh you phil jackson's running that with the Charlotte Bobcats, then he's probably not getting the same results, right? But for that team, those teams, those offenses, it's brilliant and it's perfect and it maximizes everything they can do. You can only get these results.

If Stephon Gilmore is all over their best wide receivers, I thought he had a terrific game yesterday. And if Harrison Smith is in throwing lanes because he's identifying stuff that the 49ers are trying to do, there were several times where I saw, and there's no stat for this, Brock Purdy, look, oh, Harrison Smith is there.

I got to look somewhere else. And Jonathan Grenard on third downs, getting at his feet, getting those pressures, Andrew Van Ginkle and not knowing where he's going to be on every play. But that you can't just make DJ Wanham into Andrew Van Ginkle, right? You had to play DJ Wanham into his capabilities. So last year, what he was trying to do was just, all right, we've got a couple, four, three defensive ends.

Let's sort of keep them in their positions and work everybody else with the blitzes. But now you don't have to keep one of your four, three, cause it's a three, four outside linebacker. You don't have to keep Van Ginkle there. You can put him wherever you want. And now Patrick Jones can kind of just do his thing over there, as opposed to Patrick Jones, trying to do everything as he was last year after Wanham got hurt. So I think it's kind of the two things playing off each other. Also, the front office working well with the coaching staff to put together the roster to be able to do that. I mean, getting the groceries that they need to cook their meal is very important.

The Pollock 34 says, I don't know how good we are record wise. It's a long season, but the team is scrappy and tough i the mentality this team manny maybe it's just two and oh i don't know is it two and oh brain am i two and oh pill the way kevin o'connell and flores lead this team with the players who have done this before they have sample sizes of being these guys before i think what he's saying about the team being tough is very very real and it showed against with the players who have done this before. They have sample sizes of being these guys before. I think what he's saying about the team being tough is very, very real, and it showed against the 49ers. Yeah, I mean, how many times just in the... It sounds like I'm picking on the former quarterback here,

but how many times did we see in the previous six years something go wrong? I kind of hinted at this earlier. Something go wrong or the team gets off to a bad start and they just can't. It's just a sign of what kind of day it's going to be. You know, I don't know if that's Kirk Cousins throwing that interception to Fred Warner.

I don't know how the Vikings recover from that in years past. You know what I mean? But even Sam Darnold himself, you know, it was a great play by Warner, but it was also kind of a bad play by Darnold as well. And it just didn't really faze him. He just came back out, and, you know, he still continued to play well after that. And I think that goes into the toughness side of things and i mean scrappy the funny the funny thing is is i usually associate scrappy

teams with teams that are kind of like lesser in talent and they just kind of they overachieve a little bit you know maybe like the minnesota wild in 2003 getting to the conference finals you know with guys like you know and over the hill cliff running and, and some other guys that they, you know, Richard park and some of these other guys, but this is a team, this, this is also a team that has the best wide receiver in the NFL, two of the best tackles, offensive tackles in the league and really, really,

really good football players on the defensive side as well. So they're, they're, they're scrappy from the standpoint of they can kind of hang in there when things go wrong. But this is also, I think, maybe just like the national media and sort of the cynicism amongst the Vikings fan base. You just maybe underestimated how good a football team that this can actually be. Well, and you know, I think that you and I were in a very similar space coming into the season and we're going to find out in just a minute when you pick the schedule, whether you are in a different mind space. Now I want to get to a few more of these comments, but you're going to go through every game. But neither one of us were super down on this. The wild card was just always the

quarterback. And when you talk about the resilience and I mean, scrappiness is not how I initially thought of a Kevin O'Connell team because Ed Donatello was his defensive coordinator. Now I do because Brian Flores is his defensive coordinator. And boy, I mean, you talk about scrappy, like Blake Cashman and Jonathan Grenard. These guys are scrappy. Like they brought in dudes who are like that. And Josh Metellus is someone who Flores identified

as being a great talent. And we just sort of last year went like, oh, wow, this is, I guess this is happening. But now it's, oh, this is really him. He's a really significant playmaker who was on the bench on special teams in years past. And now he's here because they identified him as that scrappy type of player. Mattel is probably, if we're picking all scrappy players, I think he's the scrappiest because he's not that big and they put him at linebacker all the time.

And he just has to fight with guys up front uh for these gardens tight ends he got thrown down by trent williams on a play when he tried to blitz and trench went boom and he got back up and kept going but i also think manny when you talk about those years past 2020 2021 a lot of close games at the end that they just let melt away it It's just been different under Kevin O'Connell. That doesn't mean that Nick Mullins was going to win all the one score games or Josh Dobbs was going to win all the one score games. But I think that the coaches vibe and the coaches approach and this never say die. We had the biggest comeback in NFL history, the largest point total comeback in NFL history against Indianapolis a couple of years ago.

I mean, when we've got a sample of this happening, it's kind of like how you remember, and this is, you mentioned Cliff Ronning. So I'll just go tit for tat with you here. Do you remember when the chiefs under Marty Schottenheimer would never turn the ball over? They were at the top three or four every single year and not turning the ball over with Marty Schottenheimer. And eventually, okay. Turnovers can be random, but eventually you go, all right, coaching has something to do with this.

And 2022 was very random in a lot of ways, but also Kirk Cousins confidence in those big situations was different. Sam Darnold. I asked Kevin O'Connell this question today. But also, Kirk Cousins' confidence in those big situations was different. Sam Darnold, I asked Kevin O'Connell this question today. He was not playing along with it. But I asked him anyway, because I think this. Throwing a 97-yard pass from the goal line, going forward on fourth down, that drive where they go 14 plays and they kill the clock and they get a field goal that puts the game away,

and it's third down, and Sam Darnold's dropping straight back and firing a bullet to a number three wide receiver. I mean, these are things that the coach is showing real belief in his quarterback. He is not running the football and punting Mike Zimmer and, uh,ousins in 2019. That has to matter, man. It does. It 100% matters. And it's, you know, when teams make coaching changes, we've certainly seen this over the years with the Vikings, where they typically will go with the opposite of what the previous head coach was.

And, you know, Kevin O'Connell came in two years ago, two and a half years ago, with just a complete different mentality, a completely different approach from what this team had been, you know, I don't want to say just dealing with, because they did have some success under Mike Zimmer. But for eight years, it was Mike Zimmer was it, you know, there was this sort of tough, hard nose, tough love type of approach. And, you know, I,

I think just over time that can kind of wear thin on guys and, you know, when you're not having success because you don't have the same kind of talent that you had in 2017 to have the best defense in the league you're just not going to win that many games and then that sort of you know what did eric what did eric kendrick say the fear based you know type of mentality it just wears thin on. And so when you bring in a guy that's a little bit more upbeat, a little bit more positive, a little bit more uplifting, it can have a huge difference. And I think, you know, some of the things that we saw,

certainly in 2022, and even last year when, like, Josh Dobbs first came on and they were just finding ways to win those games and he had the one game against the Saints where he played really really well like I don't if that was Mike Zimmer coach of that team in that particular circumstance where Cousins goes down with the injury I just don't think that even that even that Saints game with Dobbs playing really well I don't know if they win that game if it's Mike Zimmer. I think that really speaks to what Kevin O'Connell has done. And these first two games, it just really feels like now,

even in year three with Kevin O'Connell, this team is starting to really take on the identity of their head coach to really starting to represent what their head coach is all about. And when you have that, you're just more likely to have some success. Yeah, I think that Zimmer's approach affected certain people. It affected Kirk Cousins for one. And he had in 2019, he did have his best statistical year, but they really pared things down for him.

And that was Stefanski and Kubiak really cooking. But there were games. And I remember Kansas City was won against Matt Moore, the Matt Moore game where he's got a chance to potentially go win that game. And he checks it down to CJ Hammond third down or something. And you just went, I don't think this guy believes that he can go put the dagger in a team. And then he was doing that more often, not to say he completely changed as a quarterback, but you felt that confidence to do that, to put it on his shoulders, to throw 40 passes in a game and go win it for them under Kevin O'Connell. And I also think that Zimmer

affected younger players significantly in those bigger moments who were terrified to make a mistake. And there's not a lot of younger players on this roster right now, which helps Kevin O'Connell, but the ones that they have relied upon, I don't know that they have had that same fear like Jalen Naylor making that play. I mean, that is a huge, huge catch. And Naylor played so confidently yesterday. And that's been Kevin O'Connell time

and time and time again saying, I believe in this guy. He could do it. All he's got to do is get his body right and be healthy and get out there. And I know it, I know it, I know it. And eventually I do think, and I don't need every coach to just tell everybody, everybody that everything is beautiful and rainbows and whatever. But when you have a player who could go one way or the other, they're good enough to do it, but they need somebody to just say, you can do it. O'Connell is always there to be that guy.

And that might be the case for Sam Darnold, but this whole conversation will be moot. If Sam Darnold falls apart from what he's done over these first couple of weeks, John says, as a Vikings fans, I'm predisposed to fearing falling in love with the team. I need the first quarter of the season before I can believe.

Totally fair. Totally fair. They've got two more difficult games to go, but even if they lose them just in the first quarter-ish, I guess it's the first four games and about 26 minutes into the Jets game, when you'll know, through the first quarter of the season, now that there's 17 games. 17- math jokes, anybody know? Okay. Uh, trochan says, uh, play it, uh, potential playoff team need a few more games to justify playoff contender. They always outplay the 49ers

for some reason in Minnesota. It is a weird thing, Manny, uh, that they, and the 49ers to their credit had played, I believe, on Monday Night Football. Is that right? And so they had the short week. They had to go on the road. Those were definitely factors in this game, I think, for the Vikings. But you don't have to apologize for outplaying one of the best teams in the league and at your home building.

That was what you would do is completely outplay them if you're going to be a really good team so let's why don't we uh before we answer some more questions why don't you have you pick this schedule i got requests for this people were asking for it i want to hear what manny thinks the schedule is going to be and i said well tune in at 7 55 central time prime meridian you'll find out so why don't we do this manny the vikings start this conversation at two and freaking oh and they will face the houston texans at home september 22nd this sunday what do you think win or loss i will call that

boy this is hard. This is actually harder than it was last week. Last week, we just kind of picked all the obvious ones. Yeah, and the crazy thing is I had yesterday's game down as a loss when we did this last week, and despite that, I still had this team ending up at 10-7, I think, the last time I picked the schedule. So I will call this a. Manny, there's a lot more games you're going to have.

I know. You can't do this for every game. I know. I'll call it a win. I'll call it a win. Okay. I'll just do the ad reads in between your picks. It's a hard one to pick, three and oh you're thinking the minnesota

vikies start this season three and oh okay well now they're going to lambeau field where somehow malik willis runs air forces offense and is very dangerous are they four and out manny are you doing this are you gonna say they're gonna start the season four and oh i'll say they're four no oh my it wouldn't be it wouldn't be the first time we've seen it no my first year 2016 my first year they were five and oh and peter king wrote an article not to make fun of him he's the best uh every every football writer's hero is peter king but peter king wrote an article that sam bradford was the mvp of the league through the first five games and we we were just talking like, man, this team, Super Bowl contenders, everything else, and then the offensive line fell apart.

And we all know where the sadness train went after that. And Zimmer's eyeball fell apart and many other things. Norv watched the rest of that from home. So 4-0 headed to London againston against the jets are you gonna go five and oh manny to start this season this is where i think they stumble okay this is where i think they stumble the jets i'm still not even really sure like how good the jets are i mean because even yesterday against the titans it was just kind of, and again, I will get another Will Levis cheap shot in here at some point during this episode,

I'll find a way to mix it in. Cause I'm kind of, I've been kind of picking on Will, Will Levis all season, but yeah, I think this is where they stumble. It's, it's a London game,

kind of a weird start time. It's a team that is talented. So I'll call this a loss. Okay. So four and one, rather than completely losing your mind. The Lions come here. I'm not downplaying the Lions after they lost the game yesterday, not too concerned about that.

Still think it's a great team, but when you're a great team, every single loss is going to be treated like the end of the world. Do you feel differently, Manny? The Vikings come out of that bye. TJ Hawkinson, I am guessing, will be back on this team the world do you feel differently manny the vikings come out of that by tj hockinson i am guessing will be back on this team when they return from the buy at four and one so will they go to five and one i will call this a loss as well as well because i'm i'm on board with you as far as the lions i'm not panicking on on them after yesterday yesterday there it does kind of raise

some eyebrows a little bit but i still think the lions are the best team in the division right now and uh so i'll call this a loss oh it'll be close it'll be close four and two panic sets in and they need to get right going out to los angeles which i i didn't see that game yesterday, Manny. What the freak happened? What? Hey, I just want to say, I want to say one thing. I've been on Kyler's side. I've thought that Kyler was really badly coached previously. And I wanted to see what Jonathan Gannon, that offense there it's run by a guy who used to work for the Vikings, drew Petson. I interviewed him a handful of times, really sharp guy. I think he went to Harvard or something, but a really, really sharp guy. And I think that's going to work for them for Arizona.

But the Rams, though, what? Huh? The Rams can't be that bad. They might not be that bad, but I will call this a win because I think the Vikings will maybe bring enough fans out there to los angeles it did already when the rams are playing at sofi stadium it always seems like a road game for them oh yeah because the opposing team brings in a lot of fans so i'll call that a win i'll tell you at one point we would have been talking about if they get through

the first seven games at three and four what a victory that would be you have them at five and two manny this man did you bring is there a cup of purple anything next to you that you can drink right now a little soda a little kool-aid something purple a grape you can eat because uh you are on the train right now but a five and two start would be incredible as they go back home on november 3rd to face Anthony Richardson the Colts who I do not know what to make of they were good in the first week and very very bad against the Packers got to be concerned about that defense also it's I think going to be very up and down for Anthony Richardson is what we're going to see from him but at five and two coming home to play the Colts yeah I'm just thinking about Brian Flores just kind of licking his chops with

Anthony Richardson. And I'm still high on Anthony Richardson. I still think he has a chance to be really good. I think it's just probably going to take some time and some more development with him. He was pretty bad yesterday. Very bad. Yep. He was pretty damn bad yesterday. So I will call this a win for the vikings six and two minnesota vikings this is why we do this this is so much fun if they lose next week your record's gonna be totally different uh yeah jags whoa man jags trevor lawrence saying we suck right now uh doug peterson has to be on the hot seat so you're bringing the six and two vikings down to jacksonville where matt asiata

was stuffed at the goal line numerous times the last time they were down there but they still beat the jaguars in a very forgettable football game 2016 i don't think if if my memory serves me correctly i don't think the vikings have ever lost to the Jaguars. Like ever? Any game? Like ever. I don't think they've ever lost to the Jaguars. That's very possible.

I remember the season opener in 2012 because that was Adrian's first game back after the ACL. Yeah, I'll call that a win. Jacksonville just doesn't look they just doesn't they just don't look right and i'm not sure i thought doug peterson was going to be a good fit down there but it might just not not be happening for them uh yeah i don't know if it's a bad fit or if trevor lawrence is just overrated or what i mean we keep we keep making apologies for him but at some point you get past that and just say, I don't know. Uh, they drafted a receiver for him. They haven't done a whole lot, but this should be a game that we're looking at as a win moving the Vikings to

now seven and two. And now they're going to play will Levis, which I can imagine hysterical things happening between Brian Flores and will Levis. So are they going to demand? Did you have the Minnesota Vikings at 8-2? Well, my question is, and this is just me, this is me going into turtle snark mode with Will Levis. Will Will Levis even be playing by then? I know, I know. I mean, because Brian Callahan was absolutely pissed at him

after that dumbass play that he made yesterday. And the press conference afterwards was great because they asked him what he said, and he said, yeah, it was on camera. I think you guys saw it. Yeah, they're going to go to eight and two. I don't think the Titans are very good. I don't have the comment section far enough down to react.

Maybe you can see what people are saying. Are people saying you're insane? Because I think you've reached almost completely. think the titans are very good i don't have the comment section far enough down to react maybe you can see what people are saying are people saying you're insane because i think you've reached almost completely well it's it's it's crazy because well but here's the thing when we were picking when we picked the schedule before i had them losing to the niners i had them losing to the jets i think i had them beating houston but this was going to be a kind of a, you know, and I think I had them losing to green Bay too, but that was with the thought that Jordan love was going to be healthy. So, you know, and this,

now we're getting into the part of the schedule where I thought, Oh yeah, this is where they're going to start racking up some wins. So. I'm not criticizing you. I'm just saying if it goes this way, this is going to be, I was even, this is just how you have to operate because we don't have another game until next week. But I was even talking with the wife tonight about like, wait,

if Darnold does lead them to 12 wins, what would we do? Like what, like what the, what, how would we even approach that subject? How do we even talk about it? As like like should they

do a jeff george to culpepper thing should they give him a contract but then how are you going to keep other people i'm already there and here's you picking them now uh to start the season eight and two they go to the house of horrors in chicago but uh i also want to have after you pick this schedule a conversation about young quarterbacks in the NFL. Vikings at Bears at Soldier Field November 24th as they go as one of the best teams in the NFC. Well, this is where I'm going to put them down as a loss, even though Caleb Williams looks terrible right now. You kind of hinted at this about a week or so ago that like what is Caleb Williams going to look like by then I mean this is week 12 this is two and a half months from now so

um I'm going to call this a loss because it's Soldier Field and you know it's possible that Caleb Williams is playing better by then and I always think it's fair to just split the division games, even if other teams are bad. Like they have lost to the, what was it? Oh, 10 and one Detroit lions. Weird things happen in your division. So they're eight and three now playing the Cardinals at home on December 1st. I'll call this a loss as well. A surprise loss.

Maybe that Cardinals team might suddenly be good. That's, that's the, that's what has me thinking this is that you know maybe the cardinals are one of those teams that kind of pop up and end up winning 10 games this year and they're in contention for the playoffs you've got marvin harrison jr who's starting to emerge i'm with you on kyler murray i think he's you know i think some things have been kind of working against him with the injuries and you know just having cliff kingsbury's or head coach is just like not good at all i kind of like what the cardinals are doing and i could see this being a loss even albeit at home okay so once again back-to-back loss is hitting a little bit of uh is this team a fraud but then they face the falcons i don't have the game on.

How's that going? Do you have the game on? I saw a comment that I don't have the game on either. I saw a comment that Kirk threw a pick, though. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, I got a text that said, Kirk looks very bad. But I was trying to concentrate on this show.

It's 3-0 Falcons right now in the second quarter. So I guess it hasn't been going too terribly. But they're going to play the Falcons at home eight and four. I don't know if Kirk Cousins is playing quarterback at this point, but how do you think that one plays out? I think even if it's Michael Penix by then, I will put this down as a win because if it's Penix, I could see Brian Flores still making some things kind of challenging for him

and being a rookie. And it's at home as well, so I'll put that down as a win. Okay, 9-4 and then facing the Bears at home. I assume you're going to go with a win there for 10-4? Yep. We just talked about the Bears. So we can go to Seattle at Seattle at 10-4. I'll put this down as a loss.

The last time we picked a schedule'll put this down as a loss. The last time we picked the schedule, I had it as a loss. It's because Seattle is just a weird, weird place for the Vikings to play. There's been a lot more bad things happening there to the Vikings than good. And, you know, and I think Seattle's formidable. I don't think that they're not a great team,

but they've got some good players. And so I'll put that down as a loss. All right. So 10 and five with two games to go packers and lions what happens in these final two games as in your version the vikings are 10 and 5 battling for playoff position and supremacy in the nfc uh i will call this a win at home against uh green bay yes or no no no no no you're gonna go loss i'm gonna go loss here okay Win at home against Green Bay. Yes. Or no.

No, no, no, no, no. You're going to go loss. I'm going to go loss here. Okay. Because Jordan Love will be back. Okay. And I think he'll be playing better, and I'll put this down as a loss. So that puts them at 10-6 going to Detroit. And last time we picked the schedule, I had this as a win

because I had the Lions already having the division secured and playing for nothing. And I'll keep that because I think by then the Lions will have found their groove. And, you know, I still think the Lions have a chance to, you know, be one of the top two seeds in the conference. And so I think they'll be in position by then playing for not much. And the Vikings will, you know competing for a specific spot in the playoffs I think we'll come away with a win so I got him at 11 and 6 I would love feedback from people in the comment section I love this bit I love doing this every Monday going through and just seeing how much it changes I'm sorry what did you say there was a it was a loss

so 10 and 7 or are you saying a win 11 and 6 six? It's a win. Oh, it's a win. 11 and six. Okay. That's what I thought you said, but then my brain malfunctioned because I was thinking about the ad read that I haven't done yet. But 11 and six would be a very good situation

for a certain coach who needs a contract extension. Yep. And at that point, so I want to make a point about the schedule, but I really can't let go much farther without mentioning us cellular so we have to do that uh us cellular folks sponsor of the show very important to the show continuing to happen uh notice that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic we try to put our phones down for dinner but the menu is on a qr code that is

ironic we hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like, which is why U.S. Cellular created Us Mode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less. Ironically, a phone company wanting people to use their phones less is ironic. Let's find us again with Us Mode from U.S. Cellular. Visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started. And Underdog Fantasy, by the way, a big sponsor of the show. You want to use the promo code purple. And here's the cool thing about Underdog Fantasy.

They have different promotions happening every single day in September. So you go over to Underdog Fantasy. It is a new promotion every single day. You get free picks from NFL players. The CD lamb has given you his free pick of the week. You get the underdogs on Saturday, lots going on over at underdog fantasy. You want to go over there,

check them out. We love the pickups. We did them on Thursday. We're going to do them every week where you pick between two and eight stats of your favorite players go five for five and you can win 20 times your money so sign up with the promo code purple and claim your special pick and first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars bonus cash promo code purple use it uh must be 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit

ncpgambling.org let me make this point about the schedule Manny I'm gonna I'm gonna speed run this point okay the Texans are who we thought they were the Packers are probably still pretty good Jets might be okay Lions are probably fine Rams are probably okay when you get to the middle part of the season Colts are worse than we thought Jaguars are worse than we thought. Titans are just bad. Bears are probably worse than we thought. Cardinals are okay. Falcons are worse than we thought. Seattle is probably quite good. And then we're back to the division games. There's a lot of teams in there that aren't as good as we thought they were going to be. And I think that's a point when you pick the schedule that you sound like a lunatic,

but yet maybe not when you consider how many teams on that schedule, especially I think Chicago have not been what they expected to be. And Atlanta with, with Kirk at this point, because, and that's why I just fundamentally reject strength of schedule until we get into the season. Your strength of schedule at two games in is way different than you thought it was going to be even just two weeks ago. Yeah. I mean, and, and so many of these games too, especially like in the middle of the schedule, some of these games are just like swing games where you just don't really, you can kind of look at, you know, what you've recently seen from these teams and just think, okay, well, that's a, you know, I can look at that game at the Rams and see the Rams playing like garbage yesterday and think, oh yeah, that's, you know, it's a, it's, it's a road, road home game for the Rams.

Cause they don't, you know, nobody comes to their games and, you know, they took terrible yesterday. They're going to be a mess. But what if like Matthew Stafford and that offense get hot between now and then? And they're, you know, what if they're like four and three or five and two or something at that point? Then it's like, oh, OK, yeah, that might actually be a loss. So it's just one of those things where you do have to kind of let these games play out. I mean, picking a schedule, it's still fun. It's still just, you know, it's still exciting, but you just have to kind of let this season play

out before you really have an idea of not just with the Vikings, of how good really any of these teams are. And that's why it's just exciting to really kind of see all of these teams, get a look at them, and just see how things sort of materialize over the course of the season. I want to hear you talk about young

quarterbacks, Manny. I'm not even going to set this one up. I just want to get your reaction over what happened with Bryce Young, Caleb Williams, Bo Nix, and the struggles of teams around the league. Whereas Darnold Mayfield and Chino Smith are all playing really well. What do you think about that? I think it kind of shows that occasionally you will have a young quarterback step in as a rookie, like a CJ Stroud last year, like Matt Ryan did in 2008,

Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco in 2008. Occasionally you will get guys like that that come in right away as rookies and they play really well and they impress everybody but most of the time when you throw these kids out there what we've seen from those young quarterbacks that you just listed that that's going to be the norm because this game is so, it's so much of a step up from the college game that to ask these guys and to expect that these guys are going to just step in day one, week one, and just light the league on fire is just,

I mean, you're just asking way too much of these guys. And we talked about in the off season, like Caleb Williams, just, just from what we saw from him last year at USC, where he was just trying to do too much. I looked at him and thought, okay, the talent is there. He's going to be the first guy taken in the draft but does he need to be out there right away probably not and we're seeing now early on that that is kind of proving to be true now again like if he continues you know if he continues to play by week 12 when the Vikings go to Chicago he might be playing better and that might be a tougher game for the Vikings. But, you know, these guys, throwing them out there right now,

early on when they might not be ready, it's just, it's kind of proving the point that you don't have to throw these guys out there right away. And some of, we've seen some of the greatest quarterbacks to play this game. Many of them sat for a year. You know, Tom Brady, the greatest ever, sat for a year. He, you know, the way he came into his job was unconventional, obviously. It was because of an injury to the guy in front of him,

but he still sat for that first year. Patrick Mahomes sat for that first year in 2017, and then when he started in Week 17 in Denver, in a game that meant nothing for the Chiefs, he didn't really play very well. You know what I mean? Then he turned around his first year as a starter the next year and won the league MVP. And the rest is history. But a lot of these guys, man, they're just not ready to go right away.

And that's okay. It doesn't mean that they're all going to fail. But I think what we're seeing now is just, I think it's really helpful that if you're going to draft a young quarterback, you can bring in a veteran that can be ready to go week one to where you're not forced to put that young guy in. It's going to bode better for him. to shout out Gerard Mayo here for New England and everybody's saying, oh, well, Drake may outplayed Jacoby Brissett in training camp and he had a better preseason and Gerard Mayo even said, you know, you guys are right. People wrote that. And he said, yeah, you're right. Yep. He did. And I don't care. I'm starting Jacoby Brissett because if you even, I looked at a little bit of that game, just out of curiosity, the offensive line for the Patriots was horrible. And the offensive line for the bears is not good enough to help a quarterback who doesn't know where to go with the football yet. And what you

get, what I was concerned about with Caleb Williams was really his confidence because when he got beat up at USC, he didn't take it well. He did not, I think, handle it. And you saw, I was very concerned with this clip. If I'm in Chicago, I guess for you fans, you're very excited by this, but when they showed him on the sideline, they're losing the game, but it's not over. And he's on the sideline sitting on the bench. Like, uh, he did that at USC. Dude, you can't do that. This is the NFL. You always have a chance. And he had a chance at the end and completely blew it. Didn't look like he knew where to throw the ball at the end of the game. His receivers are looking back on bro. What are you? That's not the play. What are you talking about? This is a quintessential guy who shouldn't play the first year and the

supporting cast that he was supposed to have Roma Dunzey and Keenan Allen. They're not even playing and the offensive line is just getting destroyed. I think around the league, defensive lines and defenses are so far ahead of offensive lines, just in general, that a serviceable performance by the Vikings yesterday looks actually great. Like, yeah, Darnold wasn't getting killed all the time. I think over the last few years, there's been a lot of dudes who came into the league defensively who are very dangerous, including Will Anderson, but also, you know, even going back a couple of years where it's like, they don't leave the league and then more come in a cave on Thibodeau joins the New York giants. Like they've just, these players just keep showing up and there's more and more of them.

And then there's Brian Flores. Isn't the only one messing with quarterbacks. There's all sorts of dudes who are running stuff where it's not a traditional, you stand there in your four or three base. It's extra bodies on the field, like hybrid players. It's blitzes coming from all over the place. It's mixing coverages. It's pattern matching more than they've ever done before with cornerbacks. that was kind of brought over from some of the Nick Saban stuff. It,

this is so complicated. And when you throw these guys in there, when they can't have enough blocking, uh, then there's no system and there's no answer. And there's no way to, to let them diagnose that because if they make a mistake in seeing it, which is why Andy Dalton will probably go into Carolina and play fine because he'll get rid of the football. That's always his biggest thing. Caleb Williams isn't getting rid of the football. He's just getting killed. And you see with Bryce young there,

I saw a couple of clips where he's just not getting rid of the ball. And then, then what happens is the eyes go from downfield to down here, looking at the rush. Once that happens, it is over. And now the guy is destroyed because everybody's talking about him. ESPN, every debate show everywhere across social media, there is no patience. The draft industry is so enormous that every guy is dubbed generational talent. And you're just supposed to walk in here and be Andrew Luck. And it's just not possible. It's not realistic.

And there would be horrible busts no matter what. The game is that hard. But I think what ends up happening is you have owners who are forcing draft picks. David Tepper, Carolina. No question about that. Then you're saying, why aren't you playing that guy? You drafted him. You have to play him.

So of course, okay. The coaches will try. We'll work with it. You have egomaniac coaches like Sean Payton, who thinks I better play the guy I drafted because I drafted him and he's got to go be a star. Even though I bet Jared Stidham would probably play better than Bo Nix. They don't have a running game. They don't have receivers.

They don't have anything in Denver. They're a terrible team. And so this is one thing with the Vikings where when you look forward, you go, assuming that Sam Darnold doesn't do what you just said and go 11 and six and win deep in the playoffs, assuming that he doesn't do that. And we'll get to that conversation. If we actually start going that way uh but assuming everything is going over to jj mccarthy next year he'll have a year where he didn't have to play and had no pressure and could just learn he will have two of the best offensive tackles two of the best wide receivers one of the best tight ends and a coach who's though who knows

what he's doing with offensive scheme and now even a a third wide receiver in Jalen Naylor. And a defense. Getting there. And a defense. And potentially a running game if they stick with Chandler going forward. This is a Dak Prescott into Dallas type of situation that the Vikings are going to give. Teams really need to build the rest of their franchise first. And you know what I'm curious about?

Will we see the return of their franchise first and you know what i'm curious about will we see the return of the journeyman quarterback the gus ferrat what teddy bridgewater started to be the andy dalton instead of being benched is the starting quarterback will owners figure this out will the football men just keeps it you can't keep doing this to us and destroying young lives here you've got to give us a chance to build up a full team around a journeyman quarterback before we You can't keep doing this to us and destroying young lives here. You've got to give us a chance to build up a full team around a journeyman quarterback before we could just go to this draft pick. Yeah, I mean, I just think, to me, I just feel like if you are a franchise and you are going to draft a young quarterback,

if you're going to trade up draft capital to move up 10 spots to take him in the top five somewhere, if you're really going to do all of this and invest into a young guy, you have to do everything in your power to invest into making sure that that guy is as successful as humanly possible. And in a lot of cases with these guys, that means not throwing them out there into the wolves on day one. And to your point about journeyman quarterbacks,

you know, you got to kind of wonder if a guy like Sam Darnold, if this is, you know, as he gets, you know, I mean, he's 20, what, 27 years old now, 26, 27, when he gets into his 30s after somebody, if he continues to play well, somebody will give him a nice contract and he'll probably play through that. But once he gets to be kind of in his 30s, you know, you kind of wonder, OK, is Sam Darnold going to be kind of a journeyman guy that plays for a couple of different teams to be just that, that bridge guy, kind of what he is right now for the Vikings, a bridge guy that steps in and doesn't, you know, takes a lot of pressure off of that young quarterback that gets drafted. I just, to me, unless you are for sure that you've got Andrew Luck or Matt Ryan or, you know, one of those guys that can step in right away and CJ Stroud. You if if you're going to put your quarterback in on day one like that, you better make sure you have one of those guys.

And the tough thing to collar is I don't know how you even really know for sure if you have that guy. Yep. You know, I mean, the, the Texans in a lot of ways, I mean, D'Amico Ryans in that front office, they look like geniuses because TJ Stroud came in right away as a rookie and played well, led him to the playoffs and won a playoff game. But that could have gone a completely different direction if he wasn't ready to go. And in a lot of cases, those guys are not ready to go.

And that could have been, that could have been a disaster for them last year by starting him week one like that. It worked out great for them, but that is not the norm. And I just wish that more teams would realize that that is not the norm. And I think we'll start seeing a lot more of these guys, I think have some success. We're still going to, to your point, we're still going to have some guys that just don't have it. Guys like Christian Ponder who just don't have it at all. But I just, as a fan of the sport, I just want to see a lot more of these teams really invest fully into the guys that they're using these high draft picks on and doing

whatever they can to make sure these guys are as successful as possible. And I think that there's a forest and trees issue when it comes to these teams and the rookie quarterback contract, because of course, yes, you have to take advantage of the rookie quarterback contract. But if you consider that you can extend the guy and keep relatively low salary cap hits for about six years, if you do it right with the cap and those, the fifth and sixth year can be pretty manageable. Then it explodes. Then it becomes a DAC situation, whatever.

But that's a, that's a much bigger window than, oh my gosh, he's got to get in there and start playing right away. If he's not ready to win, it doesn't do you any good and get you fired anyway. If Caleb Williams wins three games this year then maddie reflux is not coming back next year and they're gonna hire a coach and say no this is the guy just like bryce young this is the guy for dave canalis you're gonna save bryce young two games in he's benching him like okay i mean that that but their offensive line is still tough there. I think actually with Bryce Young, he might just be irredeemably bad. He's so small. And that's the other thing too,

it's not just all quarterbacks, it's are you physically ready? And someone like Josh Allen could just sort of figure it out when he came in in 2018, but even they didn't throw him in in the first week. Even he had a couple of weeks where they threw 40 interceptions with Nathan Peterman and then they, they put him in there. Uh, but okay. He's a physical freak. All right. He could go in CJ Stroud, I think is a mental freak. All right. He can go in and they did a lot to help him last year with a lot of play action stuff and everything else. Uh, but Bryce young is five foot 10. And the other part of of it too is, and I think this plays in, there's desperation for teams to draft quarterback,

and sometimes they reach on guys that aren't actually first-round picks. That might be Bo Nix's thing. I don't know. I'm not willing to declare after two weeks. That would be ridiculous with anybody, no matter even if they were an older quarterback. But I think there's also that. Kenny Pickett.

Kenny Pickett wasn't Pickett was a first round talent. At the same time, they gave him a bad offensive coordinator. He didn't have great offensive line. They didn't have a great running game. And then, you know, he fails. So I don't know, Manny, it's, it's, it's one of the hardest things to solve in sports, but I think the landscape has is the hardest that it's ever been for young quarterbacks. And that even means when you could rip the quarterback's head off and beat them with it and it wasn't a penalty. But I just, the complexity of what they're doing now, the data that they have to go up against the other teams and know their tendencies and everything else. And the lack of great offensive line play, I think I think, uh, is really played into this. There,

there's not 32 teams worth of good offensive linemen. Uh, let's, uh, let's answer one more question before you go. And I'm going to hang around for another half hour or so and answer your questions. Cause we've gotten behind in this.

I just love that conversation. And also just the, the bottom line is the Vikings did this, right. And the Vikings can spend $20 million on a right guard next year. Ooh, a right guard. Uh,

uh, Ty says, uh, we should curb our enthusiasm on one of my favorite shows on Darnold. Remember Josh Dobbs mania. Oh, we remember Manny Manny's. He's,

he loves Tennessee. He remembers, uh, Darna looks far more sustainable, but give, uh, coordinators a few weeks that said, I'm excited.

Um, I, I don't think that we should talk about the two guys as being connected at all. But the real question, you picked them to be 11-6. Yeah. Because you had a lot of fun watching football yesterday, and you were ready to pick them 11-6. How sustainable is Sam Dold man i i think it's fairly sustainable and the reason why and we've talked about this the reason why i think it's a little more sustainable is because of the physical talent the physical skills that are there i mean the 97 yard touchdown like i'm not even sure

kirk cousins could make that type of a throw, just to sort of kind of flip that ball up there like that and have it go 60 yards and land right into Justin Jefferson's breadbasket like that, that that's the type of stuff. And then, you know, you see the, the, the ability to kind of run right before halftime, he has that long scramble and it slides right before the field goal. There's just like little things that he can do, I think, that can kind of make a difference that we haven't seen

for the previous six seasons. And I think that's going to be kind of the difference. Now, I picked him to be 11-6 based off of mostly yesterday. Sam Darnold's going to have a clunker. He's going to have a game probably where he throws like three picks and he's awful, and then everybody's going to be like, oh, that's the Sam Darnold that we know. But I think just overall, the infrastructure that's in place,

the head coach that's here, and I think just, again, I don't think people are talking enough about the fact that he got to spend a year in San Francisco just kind of observing Brock Purdy on a team that, you know, went all the way to the Super Bowl. So it's not like it was a 7-10 team that was done by early January. They went deep all the way into February. And it was just, he was just around an environment that's competent and he seems like he's in around an environment that's competent now too and he's actually getting a chance to play so I think it's sustainable I listen nobody's nobody's putting him in the MVP conversation certainly um but I think that there's enough there enough on this team to where I think he can have a really successful season.

I think the thing about, well, first of all, he's got like 110 quarterback rating right now that would put him in MVP. So that's not that sustainable. Hitting 97 yard touchdown is not that sustainable. But I think what your point is, what's around him allows you to, when you're talking about curbing things, curbing how violent the bad turns can be. And, and I really thought that Kevin O'Connell helped her cousins with that because some of the Kirk cousins,

bad games from the Zimmer era were atrocities. And I didn't feel like there were many atrocities. There were bad games, but I didn't feel like there were games where you just went, what, what, huh? Huh? What, where were you today, buddy? The, the 2019 losing to chase Daniel game is just, okay, that was the worst game I've ever seen a quarterback play. And if you can curb the downs and you can win a game with the downs. The biggest thing for yesterday though, that I thought with Sam Darnold and his confidence and you want to keep it high is that he made some pretty bad mistakes to him.

We should make fun of him for throwing the ball backwards to Aaron Jones. Come on, buddy. What are we doing here? Just go down. But he made several really bad plays and him running backwards into Nick Bosa instead of away from Nick Bosa. Sam, there's 20 yards that way. Run that way. Don't run back that way. And yet the biggest moment comes in and he delivers the best pass of the day.

Probably. I mean, okay. 97 yard touchdowns. Best pass the day. Second best pass the day to Jaylen naylor in the biggest moment he converts to brandon powell in the biggest moment in a in a play that had to be very simple for him where he looked at his first read and he's nope it's not there i'm gonna go to brandon powell underneath first down game over right and stuff like that to come back from makes me think that he can keep doing it. Not that I think he's going to win the MVP, but he can keep winning. But I also kind of thought that about Josh Thompson. I didn't

think he would win. I thought that they would be in the playoff race a little bit more. I didn't think he was going to get benched right away and that maybe he could even, we probably went way too far and said, maybe he could be a bridge quarterback. So, you know, Ty, we should always, we should always not go too crazy on this but i mean this team has not been two and oh well they were 20 uh 22 no they weren't two and oh they lost uh week two didn't they to philly um yeah so they haven't been two and oh in a long time when's last time in fact i think yeah i think at the end of the broadcast, Kevin Harlan actually said, yeah, 2016 was the last time they started out two and oh. So embrace it.

This, the game is going to be great. I made a joke that they should flex it to primetime. And then people took it very literally and explained all the rules to me. And I was like, I know, I just think it's going to be a good game. So Manny, you and I will talk on Thursday night. We'll have our underdog fantasy pickups, promo code purple. We'll have our pickups. Then we'll look at what stat lines we think are going to work out for the Vikings.

And also, of course, we will hardcore preview that game. And this is quite a challenge for you. Favorite Texans is going to be, that's going to be interesting. I know you can do it. I know you can do it, Manny. So thanks for your time i'm gonna hang around answer some more questions here because i've neglected the chat uh and i appreciate everyone's patience also if you leave a message but have to leave the live

thing i'll probably get to it go back and check it out later on the replay so thanks manny i'll see you on thursday night appreciate it all right football football manny hill everybody uh i love Appreciate it. All right. Football. Football. Manny Hill, everybody. I love that conversation, though, about the young quarterbacks and the way that the Vikings are handling it. And to tell you the truth, Ty, to your question, we really don't know. And that's what makes this season so interesting, is just simply the fact that we really don't know. I think previously it's hard not to make things

about what we've already saw in the past. Previously, we had a pretty good sense of where the train was going. Outside of 2022, we usually knew this is where it's headed. But with Sam Darnold, I don't know. If you told me, if you said, I just went forward in time, just got back, and I discovered that Manny was right.

They went 11-6, and now they have this really hard decision with Darnold. I'd be like, oh, I can see that. And if you came back and said, actually, dude, the wheels came off, and Darnold was terrible in the second half, and they lost to the Jaguars. It was really bad. I'd be like, oh, well, you know. Because every range of outcome is still on the table.

And going into the season. That's what we said too, that there's so many ranges that there was a world where Sam Darnold looks like this. And then now that he does, like, what do we do with our hands? What do we make of this? Because the other side of it is if it was a more established quarterback and they did have this game, then we would be saying, all right, well, we need to talk about this team as a very serious contender. And we don't know if we can truly do that yet.

Uh, until we get to the point where we've got a big enough sample size and, you know, that's, that's quite, um, what, what makes this entertaining? I think it's what makes this entertaining. I think it's what makes this season so interesting. Pete says still found a way to win without Addison and Hawkinson. Really interesting to think about what it might be when they both are back. That is a really good point, Pete. And something that I've thought about too, is that they went into this shorthanded already against San Francisco and San Francisco didn't have McCaffrey, but their running back was phenomenal. So it's not like the reason that they lost was they didn't have Christian McCaffrey when Jordan Mason is an absolute beast. Anybody would want that guy on their team and being able to have other people step up Ty Chandler and Jalen Naylor specifically

just shows you how many weapons they have. Even a Johnny Mutt made a nice catch for six yards along the sideline. I mean, everybody got involved in that game. It wasn't just one person or leaning on the stars. And when they are completely healthy with Hawkinson, Addison and Jefferson all together, then that's right about the time, by the way, that the schedule starts to open up. This is something that I started thinking about yesterday and my brain was shooting all over the place and didn't really organize my thought. How valuable 2-0 is going forward? Because when Manny starts his pick the schedule at 2-0, then you could even do the rest of the way, a 500 record.

It's how crazy two wins impacts the rest of your year. Potentially, if you went 500, well, you can't go 500 because there's 17 games. So even if they went one game over 500, the rest of the way, they'll make me do math. You're still sitting at what the rest of the way, if they're one game, if they're two and oh, and there's how many games there's 15 games left and they went eight and seven. So you get to 10 wins. If you're one game over 500, you're the rest of the way, you're a 10 win team. They don't even have to play amazing. They don't have to be perfect. Uh, that, and the other side

of it is of course, if you lose the two games and then you have to be perfect the rest of the way, because then you have to play three games over 500 just to be an above average team. And that shows you how important the beginning of the season is. The other part of it with the coaching is how prepared they've seen for these games to start the season, more prepared than the Giants for sure. And then just as prepared for San Francisco, if not more, the coaching on both sides, the hiring of Brian Flores cannot be understated because it's allowed, I think, Kevin O'Connell to just do what he needs to do on the offensive side. Mike says, week to week, play to play league.

No doubt about that, Mike. Love the toughness they're showing on both sides. Health and growth are the key. You are 100% correct. Where the good coaches are truly tested. I believe in this a hundred percent. It's a great point you're making Mike is they are tested in the second half of the season when everyone's got all the tape and all the data and all the other coaches are prepared for what you're going to bring. Now we already know that Brian Flores

can do this because he's done it before in the past, but at the end of last year, the Detroit lions and the Cincinnati Bengals, they figured some things out against this team and injuries played a role, but they also got a lot of open wide receiver schemed against this. So that matters. How do teams adjust to Sam Darnold? Are there things that they're going to force Sam Darnold to do? And what I would be a little bit concerned about just the shade is the over the middle stuff with Sam Darnold some of the reads in the middle of the field you kind of hold your breath a little bit he nearly threw an interception early in the game going for the back of the end zone then he did throw an interception trying to target Jalen Naylor uh or no I'm sorry Trent Shurfield over the middle of the field.

Our team's going to try to force them into throwing into the middle of the field over and over and over again, because that's where maybe Darnold is willing to take his most risks. And even almost through, or had a ball batted down against the Giants that he threw a little bit late into the middle of the field. So to your point, growing as an offense and the one thing that travels from week to week is a run game. And that can't be understated for them beating the 49ers to be able to just hand it off to Ty Chandler and Aaron Jones was okay. I think it was 3.6 yards per carry, but especially Ty Chandler to be able to hand it off in the first two weeks and have that much success, then I mean,

then you can keep getting these performances from the quarterback because you're always in favorable situations where you're not asking him to do too much. And if he is going to scramble his way out of pass rush and out of confusion in the secondary, that's another thing that can be sustainable where, okay, he's confused or the pass rush is getting there, but he's still finding a way to get 15 yards anyway. That was impressive. Uh, Rick tick, uh, I like to see you do us versus Detroit,

compare each position group with ours. Uh, let me do that more quickly. Cause that would take a while. Uh, the quarterback position is so much better in Detroit as far as the record for a long period of time. Jared Goff's been to the Super Bowl. Jared Goff has led top five offenses, and he has the best offensive line in the entire league. That's the advantage that Detroit has. On defense, though, I'm only sort of buying their defense.

I'm still not 100% percent there. Um, but position by position, the Vikings probably have a better defense and defensive roster. They have Aiden Hutchinson though. Absolute freak better than any player on the Vikings. I think he's probably one of the top five players in the league. Uh, I said, I mean, those games should be now that we've seen it in the light of day should be close and they should be battles between a great offense and a great defense but i don't think now after two weeks anyone could say well detroit is wildly better than the vikings which is what they would have said two weeks ago uh ben to use a boxing metaphor the vikings ko the giants and then win by unanimous decision

against the niners they traded blows and came out a clear winner. I like that description. And traded blows is serious when you have a team as physical as that. That's for sure. But yeah, the fact that they could go toe-to-toe, to use another metaphor there, that matters because San Francisco is a team that can just beat you up and win that way. Marley, Texans have a ferocious D-line.

Hunter was a beast last night. Anderson, too. I think it's going to be more of a struggle than people think, but Houston's offensive line is bad. Need to contain Stroud. 2017 Bikes, you're already into the game prediction for next week. This is where we cannot understate the value of Brian O'Neill and Christian Derrissaw.

Brian O'Neill allowed one quarterback pressure yesterday and 19 snaps against Nick Bosa. That's just phenomenal. And, and Burns and Thibodeau were non-factors in week one. That's just phenomenal. If you want your quarterback to outperform anything they've ever done before, give them Christian Derrissaw and Brian O'Neill, really.

If they're going to have a chance, it's slowing down those guys. And they know Daniil Hunter really well, and there's no eliminating those players, but it's mitigating their impact. It's not letting them ruin the game, which they've done. And Dexter Lawrence got close to that in the interior, but they don't have an interior guy like that. Um, so they're playing into the strength of the Vikings a bit. Uh, Brett says Stroud is incredible, but he's never seen a defense like Flores. No one has it's a one of one study the film on them. All you want. He never does the

same thing twice. Yeah, I agree. I don't. That's another thing talking about understate. And when we all tying back into, are they really this good? Is Brian Flores really this good? Probably. Yeah. Yeah, I think he is. I think he is that that doesn't mean no one will ever beat them. And CJ Stroud is as high IQ as a quarterback as I've ever seen, but Houston's offensive

line looks suspect. And if now, if you have a suspect offensive line against the Vikings, uh, there's enough pass rush there. That's going to cause major problems. This is a, this is this game against San Francisco was great football. It was one of the most enjoyable start to finish football games. It was wild, but it had great play. Amazing play from Fred Warner, uh, some great plays from Brock Purdy, great plays from the Vikings and Justin Jefferson. I expect the same thing from Vikings and Texans where they got a bunch of stars. You got a bunch of stars and let's see what happens. But each team has kind of their

strengths and weaknesses. This will be the biggest test for the corners. I think Stefan Diggs, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, that's going to be a tough matchup. This will be how well is this cornerback group really put together? Uh, we're going to find that out. I shot you 99 says as per usual, the media said the 49ers had an off game and the Vikings got lucky. Well, there's a lot of media. So you, you're going to have to tell me who said that sort of like when you say that the, some, I heard this happen. You're like, you gotta say from where, um, but, uh, as far as, well, I think that if you're the bigger picture people, and if you're talking about the entire league, and if I was in that seat, if I was a TV talking head person in the, I've got to analyze

32 teams, think about how much time we spend here analyzing one team. How hard is it for those people to analyze 32 teams? But the rational take would be the 49ers are fine. They're going to be there. They're a great team and they made it close despite the fact that the Vikings outplayed them and they had a bunch of mistakes. It's not often that a guy goes back to throw the ball, just flies out of his hand. But that happened yesterday to the 49ers. So if I was in San Francisco and I was covering their team, I'd probably be saying, okay, that was bad on a lot of levels, but there's no reason to take them out of the NFC conversation for one loss at U.S. Bank Stadium.

So I understand where they're coming from for that it wasn't luck the reason the vikings won but i wouldn't say oh forget forget those 49ers they're toast no actually on this side you say that's a really impressive win because you know how good san francisco actually is but i i didn't think there might be some way to create, and I tried to do this in, in 2022, I tried to sort of formulate some sort of luck evaluation, uh, because, and I think that there was someone who did this about penalties and turnovers and fumble luck, something like that. I think it's kind of been done before, but I tried to pick it all apart. And if we look at just yesterday's game and try to say, well, how lucky were they yesterday? The answer is definitely some, you rarely block a pun. You rarely have a guy, have it fumbled right into your hands,

but it even now with Aaron Jones's fumble and with Sam Darnold's interception, that it wasn't just all the random things happening to one team. It was really on both sides. We look on a play to play basis. The Vikings were better. That's, that's where it matters the most that win rather than just saying it was fluky. Ben says when Chandler lowered his shoulder into that corner and got another five,

rubbing that dude over my eyes went wide. Yeah. Oh, running. I think you meant running that dude over. Yeah. Oh, running. I think you meant running that dude over. Yeah. The other phrasing, the, is that like talk to text? And that misread, maybe you use the word rubbing more often in your texting.

Running the dude over is what he did. Not safe for work. It's almost nine o'clock. This stuff always happens near nine o'clock. But to your point, Ty Chandler, this stood out to me last year. Ty Chandler is a physical runner. And with Kevin O'Connell, if he was going to go back in time, I promise he would have played Ty Chandler the whole year last year and just dealt with the issues with pass protection

because Chandler is a hell of a talent. And the question that I kept going back to was, all right, are they going to actually trust him? Are they going to, are they going to be willing to have him in there for full drives and go back to him over and over? He is special with the football and he has physical ability to run over someone. He can dodge tacklers. There was one time he got, I think it was a pitch.

And when he caught the pitch, the guy was right in his face and he kind of juked right and got yards from it. If this is a real duo, then yeah. I mean that, then that is a real running game. If this is a duo and with Chandler, we now are working on going back to the middle late part of last season at Denver was where he kind of broke out. We're working on a sample size of Chandler that says this is who he is. Bench 295 says watching the all 22 back a couple of times. Can't find watch the tape. Let's go. Can't find anything exploitable in the way of offense or defense. Well, and this, when we go even position by position and we go, all right, well, where's the biggest weakness right? Guard is clearly it.

And, uh, Brandel didn't grade well by PFF as a pass blocker, but he had a couple of penalties, which may have mattered to that grade because he didn't allow pressures. Um, so at least they were able to survive the guard play. That is going to be an issue. Garrett Bradbury had a great game coming back. But as far as exploitable, if they have the running back duo, the receiver depth that we didn't know, you really don't know until you get out of camp and start seeing it. The defensive tackles have played well. How injuries could impact the defense, we might have to see.

But there isn't a whole lot that I sit there and say in years past, we could go, man, the corners, 2020, the corners, you're trying to play Holton Hill out there. That's not great. You know, 2021, once again, Rashad Breeland was the weak link on that team and you could just attack them over and over again. There isn't that right now that anyone has discovered. And if they do, then we'll see. But as of this moment, that hasn't really been an issue. Dan says, did there seem to be a revitalized energy

in the stadium with the new look team? I think so. I think so. You know, week one, a game like that, yes, there was going to be that. But everyone who's followed this team for a long time has seen this motif of a quarterback that came from somewhere else that no one believed in and they made something happen. And there's a, there's a feeling of this and we it's, we're not ready to declare it yet

with Sam Darnold, but there's a certain feeling I've talked about before. Every time I talk to teams, reporters that have high expectations, I'm always asking them, Hey, what's it like to have those high expectations? You heard me last week talking to the 49ers, a reporter about that. And he was saying that, you know, if you lose a game like this, it is the end of the world in San Francisco, and the expectations are so high that every week becomes you better win. And really, all their seasons come down to just what happens in January is what it's like for those teams. But we agree that the best situation from a fan perspective, as you're asking about the stadium, is when something surprises you.

When you show up at the stadium, and there was a good amount of red in the stadium yesterday, when you show up at the stadium and there was a good amount of red in the stadium yesterday, when you show up in the stadium and you go, okay, well, you know, let's see what happens. And then all of a sudden you're taking the lead and you're making plays and you're getting a 97 yard touchdown. Then that energy just builds on itself. And if they can from week to week, start to, that's where momentum could be real inside the stadium.

I think week to week momentum, as we've seen from a lot of teams, is not a real thing. It's really matchup and situation-based. But as far as how the fans feel about the team and the energy they're bringing inside the stadium, I do think that there's very serious momentum there. Is the faithful, says, I get what you're saying. I'm sure the Niners are praying with all the strength.

They don't mean a Minnesota in Minnesota in the playoffs. Yeah, that's for sure. There's something about that. But I think coming from the West Coast early game, that's always an issue maybe. But these last two games against San Francisco, really, they didn't play here since 2018 and their team was not as strong then. And then last year it was Flores again against Brock Purdy, but San Francisco, that one was, that one was a really great game by Kirk Cousins. He kind of won that game. And then Flores is defense and Brock Purdy getting the concussion and playing

through it, throwing the interceptions. So it was a similar. The only reason it was different, because it was a similar performance by the Vikings, especially on their defense. The reason it's different is because the Vikings needed that to keep their season alive. And so you're saying, well, just pull off an upset to even talk about competing for the playoffs.

Now, that's not the vibe the vibe is two and oh and here we go with this win and that's who this team's going to be we'll see if it carries on but that's why there's a little bit of a different feeling but florist versus purdy seems to be uh maybe a mismatch uh jay garrett the ability to run on offense and ability to pressure the quarterback without blitzing are two most important improvements. 100%. Great observation. Yep. I totally agree with that. Jay Garrett left that observation like an hour ago. So I'm sorry if he doesn't get to hear how much I loved it because we've been a little slow with the comment section, but that's exactly right.

That this team is more complete last year. There were pieces, but it was still a team in transition. It was still being torn down and there were some parts left. So you're tearing down the house, but the sink still works. And this has been more rebuild than I felt like it was like, like it actually is built and closer to a finished product than maybe we thought it was. But you're right. When you have multiple guys who could pressure the quarterback and multiple guys who can run effectively and to have that run game, that, that was going to be a big test and it has to continue over the whole season. But that was going to be a huge test is can has to continue over the whole season, but that was going to be a huge test is can they actually continue to run over and over again? And they did that yesterday.

Nick says, what was the actual blitz rate yesterday? Media makes it sounds like every play was a crazy blitz. I don't think it was actually that high. Now I don't know what it was. I only watched the film back, but I don't think that the blitzing was actually that high now i don't know what it was i only watched the film back but i don't think that the blitzing was actually that high i think when you say scheme uh everyone just equates that to blitzing with florist because that's who he is but there was more of just confusion so you're putting everybody at the line of scrimmage and kind of daring them to run at some points and then dropping people out. I thought they did a lot of the stuff where they actually rushed three or only rushed four, but you didn't know which three it was going to be. Sometimes they lined up one guy on one side

and three guys on the other side and they rushed the three, but they didn't rush the one. So several offensive linemen were just standing there looking around like, wait, I don't have anybody to block. That's the way that Flores messes with people, and he did that effectively. So, yeah, I think it was more of just scheme was the thing that threw off Purdy, how the coverages presented themselves. When you can't identify before the play what the coverage is going to be, it's hard. But most defenses aren't able to have players who can just fly into those positions and

then quickly identify where all the route combinations are. Harrison Smith's been doing this his whole career. You can put Harrison Smith wherever you want, and then he will find his way to the coverage he needs to be in. But you can't do that for all players most of the time. But with this group, you have enough high IQ guys who can do it. It's a big advantage. Brent says Vikings are building a great team. The handpicked defensive additions by Flores, not only showing up, but his great coaching and scheme and seeing talent. That's, that's where it's tying together. It's that's where you can be, um, a good team into the future is when you tie together, somebody who's got a great scheme with the people who can actually execute it. Uh, steel horse travels. Are we seeing in Darnold what cousins couldn't do or wouldn't do sometimes?

Um, I, I also think we're also seeing some stuff that Darnold can't do that Cousins was good at. Cousins had a really good career in the NFL up to this point. I'm not watching the game. I don't know what's happening with the Falcons right now, but Kirk was very, very good at the intermediate areas of the field. So reading defenses and understanding where he was going to have guys throwing with anticipation, getting how many catches the Jefferson have that are 15 yards, like over and over and over again. And he could drop it in the bucket as well as anybody I've ever seen. So when you run that, that 20, 25 yard slant or not slot fade, and you got to throw it up over the guy. Kirk was really excellent at that and he could

push it down the field but he needed to get a lot of his body behind it but if he got his body behind he could throw it there what we're seeing from darnold is the mobility which obviously was not a part of cousins game and also sometimes when you need extra velo on the throws i think it's a it's way less it's way less, it's way less under code control sometimes with Darnold, where are you going? Oh, what's going on back there? Uh, but the velocity on the throws is just different. And so there are plays that he can make that Kirk can't on the ground and then with his arm, but there are also a lot of plays that Kirk was making over the years that you wouldn't

necessarily want to call for Sam Darnold. So I'm not there to be able to say, see, Darnold is better than Kirk Cousins. We're going to need a lot bigger sample than just two games to be able to say that. And Kirk's ability to bounce back emotionally, mentally from week to week from all the ups and downs. We haven't seen Darnold tested in that area yet, but that was something that for sure Cousins was great at over his career. Marley says Dallas Turner needs another few weeks to pick up the speed of the league. Once he clicks,

he will make the pass rush unstoppable. It's a pick your poison. Yeah. So far, I think Dallas Turner has been fine over the first two weeks. The fact that they have not needed Dallas Turner to be the guy over the first two weeks really speaks to the strength of the team and how much they are filled with veterans is that he can come in and play 20 snaps and that's okay.

The history of edge rushers in their first years is almost as bad as quarterback. It's still hard position to learn. And you mentioned this, the size, the speed, the technique and all that. He could just play his role that he's being asked to play and let

Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Van Ginkle handle the tough stuff as he develops. But it allows him not to be a big story each week too, because if Dallas Turner, well, he didn't get any pressures or whatever. If you're just playing the role and you're getting time to develop then there isn't that well oh this rookie's not showing up because he will have inconsistencies in his first year you can guarantee that uh JP says truth is we're two weeks into the season of

got to avoid overreactions for good and bad we can can be a 9-10 win team. Would love to see us running and having more screens. Yesterday, they did screen and run quite well. And those things, making life easy for your quarterback is something they've done in the first two weeks. Yep. Yep. Yep. Dan says on the radio, they made it sound like Brando was mauling guys yesterday. Any truth to him looking really good, uh, on the run game. Yeah. The run game. He was good. I think he was their highest graded run, uh, offensive lineman, him and Daris on that side.

They can keep running. They can on that left side, um, with Blake Brando. That's what they wanted him for. He is a massive human being. And when he gets his hands on somebody, he can really push them. So yeah, I do think that he was good. Uh, Drew says, are the Vikings really this good? Yes. I believe from the beginning is Caleb Williams this bad. No, he's not NFL ready. Uh, that was the other part of it is the headline is, is Caleb Williams this bad. And we kind of got into that with the young

quarterback stuff. Uh, I, I would have some concerns about Caleb Williams this bad. And we kind of got into that with the young quarterback stuff. Uh, I would have some concerns about Caleb Williams early on, but I don't think he's as bad as we saw yesterday. It's just, is he going to pull himself out of what you could call the Justin Fields rut, which is the guy just doesn't see the field and then holds onto the ball too long and get sacked all the time.

Um, is that, is that going to be something that he learns how to deal with or not? Uh, John says, I'm really excited that Nick Bosa backside chop on Darnold's arm. Didn't cause the fumble. That was incredible by Sam Darnold. So then slow motion was ready. Expect I, yeah, I did too.

I mean, that was one where you saw it develop and went, Oh, look out. Uh, but yes, you're right. That was something that Kirk Cousins fumbled a lot. And I mean, Darnold had a turnover yesterday, but he used the fumble a lot. It was something that wasn't talked about really enough. And I was interested to see Darnold and how much pressure would be his fault. Because historically, it surprised me when I looked up his numbers, when I did my article about whether he could really do this thing and take this big

step. And I was actually very surprised when I discovered that Sam Darnold's numbers, he did not bring an enormous amount of his own pressure. According to PFFs metrics, they keep track of which position was responsible. He didn't bring a lot of his pressure and I would have expected that he would have just based on his history. And I think it was really just playing behind really terrible offensive lines because I didn't feel like he caused a lot of his own pressure yesterday and he wasn't under pressure very much at all, but he doesn't seem to be somebody that just holds the ball, holds the ball, holds the ball forever. Janet says, I'm stoked about the Vikings defense.

Physical, smart, aggressive, selfless. I've never been this confident about the D in a very long time. Just such a great joy to watch. Well, I agree with you that we were sitting there yesterday talking exactly what you're saying about this defense and how many violent players they've put together. There's just so many guys that are proven and tough and who have histories of sacking people and all that. I mean, it's just who can handle anything that Brian Flores asked him to do. And you can almost go position by position and talk about the whole guy's

history and how it's played out. Blake Cashman. He's been in this league a long time. He developed and then last year steps forward. And now what a perfect fit, right? It's from top to bottom. It's, it is very impressive and filled

with veteran players. The only concern would be in the cornerback group. If anybody gets banged up, then you're talking about Fabian Morrow and you're talking about a Caleb Evans and guys like that, probably Evans since he's been the one who's been active. So they have to stay healthy on defense to continue to be this good because if Dallas Turner gets to stay in that role and if a caleb evans doesn't have to play for stefan gilmore or something but gilmore just looks great this guy off the couch and into playing 60 something snaps against the san francisco 49ers in week two amazing stuff um let's see uh mal kills says uh darnold driving the offense down the field in crunch time without Jefferson, Addison, and Hawkinson probably went a long way to further

filling Sam's bank account. That could be true. I think filling his confidence, filling his confidence is important. Sean says, love the shows, Matt, but if I have to say it's been awesome seeing Manny back on a regular basis, love his his takes man he's one of my favorite people of all time um we go to lynx games together he's a great friend he's a really smart guy and the biggest football nut next to me i've ever met in my life um so me too me too uh i don't manny has another job in radio and so i don't want to make him in the off season, be coming on and doing draft simulations or something. But once the season gets going, it's just so good to work with Manny.

Always loved working with him together when we were at 1500, love working with him now. I appreciate you saying that, Sean. Digits, offensive line, defensive line, the difference between high draft picks, playoff teams and Super Bowl winners usually by graduation. Scambling quarterbacks can mitigate this a bit, but not too much. I mean, what you're seeing right now is if, and I think this always goes for it, if you have a average offensive line, you can certainly survive and operate as an offense.

And if you have a average defensive line, you can certainly create enough pressure to cause problems and play your scheme. If you have great ones of either one, you have a chance to play for the super bowl because there are so few teams that, that can stop the pass rush very consistently. And I'm not ready to declare the Vikings as having a great

offensive line. Um, I'd like to see Dalton Reisner playing right guard in the near future, but if he comes in or Ed Ingram improves, I just, I'd rather see Reisner at this point, then they are going to have a pretty darn good offensive line. And the tackles are so important against these teams that they're playing. That's a, that is a big deal. Um, so anyway,

well, we've been going on for quite some time. I know a lot of you left, uh, more comments and, I have things to write, got to get ready for a tomorrow, big day tomorrow.

We got coordinators talking with us and Jeremiah Searles podcast. As always, Wednesday night will be the chat. More of a live chat Thursday night. Manny's back. Lots of guests popping in. Going to have a porch podcast with Will Raggetts. So, you know, lots, lots to go. But thanks everybody for hanging around,

having this really good conversation. Um, I'm just getting to scrolling down to the point where you guys are reacting to Manny calling for 11 and six. And, uh, that was a really fun time, but that's, I think that's how everybody's feeling right now is that this team has a lot of energy to it, but I mean, everybody knows that. Yeah, it's a long season and there's a long way to go and anything can happen. But as of right now, that was one of the most fun and entertaining, um, the seasons that, or I'm sorry, games that we've seen in a long time, and maybe it will be a seasons as well. So thanks so much for joining everybody. Really appreciate the big crowd here tonight.

It's always great to see when there's a lot of energy from you guys. Keep an eye out for tomorrow with Jeremiah Searles. And then on Wednesday, we'll do this all chat Wednesday, all your questions, nothing else on Wednesday night. So I look forward to that and I'll see you guys then. Thanks everybody.

And we'll catch you later. Football.