Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Tuesday Morning Left Guard: Signs of progress on the Vikings' offensive line

Episode Date: November 3, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles break down the Vikings' very strong offensive line performance against the Green Bay Packers and what it means for the future. Should Ezra Cleveland stay at guard for the long term? Are the Vikings now compeititve or still mediocre? And another game of love to see it, hate to see it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hopefully we get to play some more football here on Saturday for the Huskers. Wisconsin has to not play again. I don't know if you saw that. They're out. Game against Purdue canceled. Sucks for them. Don't feel terrible for them, really. But it's a good time here in Lincoln.

Vikings win, so that's a huge plus. That's something we can be excited about, finally. I think that this was actually a game that I broke down and didn't just want to smash multiple things. So we're doing well. Yeah, I know. And I was just watching the tape back myself. I know you were.

And something that is just amazing about the NFL is against Atlanta, how many things were just unbelievably wrong, especially on the offensive side. And then two weeks later, here you go against Green Bay and so many things. Very, very right. It wasn't just that Delvin Cook was good at football and they got Delvin back and he just made a bunch of unbelievable plays. I thought the game against Houston earlier this year was all Delvin, but this one, you don't have to look at the Winnebago. The offensive line, Jeremiah, was legit. And here's where I want to start. The very first drive of the game, this stuck way out to me. You got Kenny Clark lined up over Ezra cleveland and it's a double team block between

cleveland and brian o'neill and they move kenny clark out of the way for a 12 yard run like great blocking by the offensive line as weird as it felt and move him yards down the field for delvin cook to easily run for 12 yards and it popped into my mind tell me if you think this is a crazy thought that having those two next to each other whether it's the right or left side might not be a bad thing as we go forward into the future for this Vikings offensive line yeah the combination blocks between Ezra Cleveland and Brian O'Neill were outstanding the whole game they were fantastic they had great fits they weren't pushing against each other I mean the one thing that I think that could have been a little bit better is Ezra's firing off the ball. I think at times he got stomped his feet in the ground. But I mean,

for a majority of the time, they're firing off, they're moving guys. And I think that you need to, again, we've talked about it every week, leave him somewhere that he can develop into that. I wouldn't be surprised if they just moved that one over to the left and put Dozier on the bench, who didn't play bad by any means. I thought he had probably, honestly, I think all five guys had their best game to date this year, this past game, which I think is a fair thing to say, because also Garrett Bradbury, I thought, played his balls off, and he really had some incredible moments in this game. Okay, well, tell me about that. Because I agree that it was by far their best game, not even close, runaway. I mean, this might have been one of the best offensive line played games of the last five years for them.

Especially with the way that Cleveland played. I saw our friend Will Raggetts, who covers the Vikings as well, he tweeted out that Cleveland's PFF grade was in the five highest since 2015 or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So for guards, I mean. So, you know, kind of a stunning development considering how things have gone so far.

But I want to talk about Bradbury because the way that he played with Drew Samia to his right I think both of us looked at that and said this is unfair to Garrett Bradbury to have someone who is so lost and struggling so much to his right and I think that the linemen all impact each other the guy next to you makes a difference for how you perform and I just thought we saw a different Garrett Bradbury with Ezra Cleveland next to him playing well yeah I mean so he did some really cool things not just physically but mentally one thing that I think he did awesome was there were some blitz pickups in there that I mean looked like all pro type stuff I mean he sees it he identifies the look he's sliding one way he

sees his guy bail and he slides back the other way and bumps Dozier off in a big pickup on the third down. Or there was one where he was setting and his guy dropped and he actually kicked back behind the guard to pick up a linebacker coming between the right guard and the right tackle. I mean, he was firing on all cylinders this game. And that's really cool to see from your center because that's what you need from your center. You got to have a guy that you can trust to get the offensive line identified picked up in the right spots have the mic points put in the right spots and then just continue to roll with it so I think again he's not having to help too much to his right and he's able to just do his job and as a young player that's really all you can really focus on is your job you can't be worried about his job my job our

jobs whose jobs and and oh, shoot, hot, like that type of thing. So I think the fact that he was able to do that, and then really he handled Kenny Clark as a nose guard pretty much the whole game, where we mean how many times in the last few years we've seen Kenny walk him back into the quarterback or throw him on the ground. I thought that his balance, and I think the biggest thing is Garrett wasn't trying to just come off the ball and just destroy him every play. He was really like, okay, I'm going to control you. Where you want to go, okay, I'm going to keep myself in good position, keep myself in good balance, good hand placement, drive you this way, let Dalvin make the cut.

And I think that's something that each of these offensive line were starting to realize. When you have 33 back there, you don't always have to move him 12 yards off the line of scrimmage now when you do it's great but if you can just cover him up and not just allow color in the hole you've got a freaking stallion back there that can make anything happen at any time and I think the offensive line we're starting to get in that rhythm of understanding that and Dalvin's understanding that too that just a little bit of patience a little bit of push little seam and he can take it the distance so if Bradbury is turning a corner here and it's just one game but I think that throughout this year he has shown at different points things like this like his signs of improvement throughout the season and you have Cleveland I'm not saying that he's an all-pro yet

either but a good game from Ezra Cleveland where this was the thing with Drew Samia. It was like, it was so far below what it needs to be that it probably won't ever get there. Even from the very start, like even though he's a young player, like you should see signs early on pretty quick if someone's going to be

good. And I, I thought that that was Ezra Cleveland's game here. It's like, okay, you see all the reasons he was drafted as a second-round pick, and then, of course, we know how good O'Neal is, and Riley Reif's situation is we don't know at this moment.

As we're recording this, we don't know if they're going to do something. But he's solid. He's just a solid offensive lineman. Like, he just gets the job done. He doesn't really have glaring defects. Like, he's not flashy. He's not going to's not gonna freaking really like mikhail beckman or whatever it is and lift frank clark up off the ground five feet and slam him

into the turf but he doesn't get beat very often and he just he can move people to run game he's just a solid player and a solid player that um and i don't know if by the time everyone's listening to this he'll be traded or not but the ra Ravens could really use now. But anyway, that's beside the point because I'm looking through everything still. Until they prove otherwise and get into the actual playoff race, everything still is what does it mean for the future. So let's assume that Riley Reif is not here, even though an extension wouldn't be insane the way that he's played. But let's just assume.

So do we want to see Ezra Cleveland play left tackle? Do we want to see Ezra Cleveland stay at guard and grow? Do we want to see Brian O'Neal stay on the right side? And do we finally feel like they have something here to build a good offensive line on after years and years of struggles up front? Well, you know what I'm going to say. We're going to draft a left tackle from Oregon. We're going to put him over there.

We're going to leave Ezra Cleveland where he's at, and then we're just going to go from there. I don't want to see Ezra Cleveland move if he plays the rest of this year at guard, which, I mean, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't based off the last couple of games, especially if we're trying to build for the future here. There's no reason to allow him to play the rest of this year at guard, have a good year, develop, grow, and then, again, full position change, switch out to the hardest position on the offensive line

and go play left tackle after, especially if you have a good year and people's expectations are high for you. I mean, he comes off a really solid year this year. He finishes strong. He looks consistent. He's looking like he's figuring it all out, and then he moved positions. He's going to come into 2021, and people are going to think he's got to pick up right where he left off.

And that won't be the case if you move to left tackle in the NFL. It just never is. And I think the same can be said about Brian O'Neill. You move him over there, someone who, I mean, is a pro bowl caliber at times, right tackle is going to struggle with the switch to the left. Not many guys can do that. And so I think that in my perfect world, you either extend Riley Reif or you go find a left tackle that can play left tackle. And then you reassess the guard position as well on the left side.

What do you want to do with that? Do you want to move Ezra over there? Do you extend F line? What do you in that line that's that's a whole different thing but I'm on I'm full aboard the train of let this guy develop and grow in one position and sure it can be left or right whatever but guard or tackle like don't let him go one way or another because I just it'll hamper his development and I think he's shown what we didn't see, kind of like you said, of Drew Samia is he improved from last week to this week. There was improvement.

There was things that he did last week that he watched and he didn't do this week. Now, can he keep stacking those improvements? That's when you see a good player become a great player, a young player become a good player, is they improve each and every week by not making some mistakes. Was there some mistakes? Yeah.

He was on the ground a lot. He definitely was out of control at times. He didn't fire off the ball. But those are all coachable mistakes. Like the effort was there. He was the one that sprung the first touchdown. I mean, he watched the nose tackle down, and that was just pure physicality. Put your hat in the right place and drive him.

And so I'm excited for him in the future. I think that he can be a really, really important asset here. The question is, what are the Vikings going to do with him? Are they going to move him or not? Because if they do, I think it's a big mistake. I also look at the guard position these days as being closer to the tackle position in value than it has ever been. Because if you go through the schedule and look at who you play against, everybody wants their Aaron Donald or their Grady Jarrett, and you face these guys all the time who are incredible penetrators

in terms of the pass rush game, who can completely lock down the run game. And I feel like the per capita freak show defensive tackle has gone way up from even the last five or seven years because people are drafting these guys. And I also think that even if you used to be kind of defensive end size, you might be thinking, well, maybe I can move to the inside because the smaller guys have had a little more success, and that just means more interior pass rush. And we've seen it, that this team has been annihilated by interior pass rush.

So I wouldn't look at a second-round pick guard if that's what Cleveland ends up being long-term and say, well, why'd you draft in there in the second round? He only turned out to be a guard. But if he turns out to be a great guard, then there's a ton of value there. And the way that he played, I'm not going to put him in the Hall of Fame yet, of course,

but the way that he played suggests to me above-average guard in terms of his pure pure talent if he can do it week to week, and that would be a hit and a huge benefit to a team that has not been able to fill this position. His athletic ability absolutely puts him on the upper echelons of really good guard. Again, I won't annoy anyone, King, because I'm the old salty vet until you prove it to me you can do it week in and week out.

Still in the blue. He's still in the's still he's very much in the blue and I think and I gotta keep telling myself like do I think that he's that good because I'm used to watching the Winnebago or is he actually pretty good you know what I mean like I have to tell myself because we are so used to watching Drew Samia play that position who it was just bad ball and so anything would have been an improvement so I have to tell myself okay am I am I excited then like you won't see the PFF grades you re-watch the tape and like okay yeah this was a good game put together by this guy now can you do it again next week much like I said about Jefferson and that's how I always am with young players so I'm excited to see him continue to grow I think him and O'Neal will just continue

to get better to work together him and Bradbury will work better together the more reps they can get. And I also think this has a lot to do with the no preseason thing. I know I keep going back to that, but how much have we seen him grow through four preseason games that might have had him take over earlier than he actually did? Yeah, and that would be my question is, you know know why did they play drew samia was cleveland still so far behind but he might have been i mean he might have and that's just he might have needed those five weeks right the same thing with justin jefferson well why didn't you start him at outside

receiver in week one well because he wasn't ready to start an outside receiver in week one and you can't just throw a guy out there and say sorry man just figured out like um reminds me of a reporter question once to sam bradford a reporter when bradford was traded to the vikings a reporter said is there a little bit of just uh you know kind of run around playing backyard ball there and sam goes no this is the nfl what are you talking about, man? Like, what? No, we need to know every single detail of every play or you just get murdered. Now, how high are you in snorting the Packer victory, though, is a question. Because I think the Vikings are very high on it. And I think that Zimmer now believes, hey, look at this schedule. We could go on a run I don't look

at it that way there's no statistical evidence that suggests that they're still 23rd in scoring percentage per drive they're still dead last in allowing points they have cornerbacks out lots of cornerbacks out and they still even though they put pressure technically by the PFF numbers on Aaron Rodgers, when I watched it back, I think a lot of it was Aaron Rodgers. I mean, staring down Devontae Adams on every single play is probably a way to get yourself pressured. There was even one incident where the Vikings send a third down blitz, and someone's wide open on the side of the blitz, which usually is where the read goes, and he just throws it into double coverage to Devontae Adams anyway.

I mean, this is just sort of having no weapons and not trusting anyone, I guess. But I don't suddenly snap my fingers and say, hey, 9-7, here we come. I think that there's still going to be some bad losses along the way. I agree. I think that you can definitely build off this game as far as confidence level for your team. But as far as like pure talent level, I mean, I haven't seen, as I watched that tape, Aaron Rodgers get confused or missed blitz reads like that in a while. And I've seen that more and more in the NFL this year. I'm not sure why. I mean, I saw Tom Brady get, I mean,

Russell Wilson, when he played the Cardinals, was kind of all over the place. And so I don't know if the coordinators are throwing different looks. It doesn't look like – so it looks like the classic double-A mug linebacker look that Zimmer's ran since 1982. But I think that – I mean, they're doing a nice job of disguising things on the back end. And, again, yeah, Rodgers doesn't exactly have a stable of horses to throw out there too, right?

I mean, he's going to keep going back to his guy because if you look at what the Vikings have done against number one-ride receivers all year, it's not been stellar. I mean, Julio Jones goes off. Devontae Adams goes off. I mean, you name it, they're all going off. And so I think that this is definitely something as far as an offense, there's a lot to grow. But defensively, I mean, one thing I saw is they for sure were getting us

into sub-personnel and running the football at us in the two linebacker set. And if Eric Kendricks doesn't make all pro strictly off of this past game, I don't know what will. I think he made every tackle on the first drive of the game. I'm not kidding. I went back and rewatched it. I was like, this dude is in on every single play. I mean, that dude is just an unbelievable talent. And so you look at him and you start thinking, okay, can we start getting some other guys to step up around him? Yeah, there's definitely a ceiling that they can reach. But until we start getting pressure on the quarterback with just four, just four, no blitzing, it's still going to be hard sledding for all of us to do. Go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods.

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of DJ Wanham was lining up over the guard, and you have Hercules Mata'afa bumped up off the practice squad, now playing defensive end, and Jalen Holmes going from outside. I mean, Zimmer is clearly trying everything that he can think of. And in terms of tying this back into the are you actually good now, I mean, there were throws that Aaron Rodgers made that just were over a guy who was wide open. There's a flag that gets picked up that i'm not sure should have been

picked up and yeah probably should not have because anthony harris's arm was around the guy and he turned him um so there were a lot of things that just kind of fell your way and you still had the ball in roger's hands with a chance to go beat you even though you played as best as you could possibly play and how many times is your running back going to score four touchdowns? How many times are you going to run over a team like that? And I also think of that from the offensive line performance as well. How many pure, straight drop-back passes were there from Cousins? I mean, three?

Like the whole game? I mean, so that puts offensive linemen in a very favorable situation. So I'm not ready to snap my fingers and say, oh, they're going to pressure the quarterback now. They're going to play great offensive line from here on out. Cousins won't turn the ball over ever again, and Delvin's going to score four touchdowns a game. And by the way, all that happened, you won by six. I mean, so, you know, I look at it and say you have the same problems as lots of other teams that you're going to face. You're not better than Detroit.

You're probably the same as Detroit. You're not better than Detroit. You're probably the same as Detroit. You're not better than Carolina. You're probably the same as Carolina. And I don't think that they should alter their plans based on this. But I also think that if we're looking for things that are interesting or encouraging, there's some stuff there. Like DJ wanted me to play at the end of the game. You know, I mean, things like that is basically what you want to see.

Absolutely. And, yeah, I think that you're very spot on on the tier of which. I've always said, like, there's tiers to the NFL, right? There's the elites. There's the average, below average, and just plain bad. I think we went from just plain bad to below average in this game. Now can we stay there or can we even not just go back down? I think it's kind of the more question of like, is it easier to,

I think it's much easier to stay to the below average. And we're still looking at, I mean, I'm still looking at six, seven wins this season, probably being the ceiling for this team. Now, I hope I'm wrong. I hope that come December, they all get on A, choose someone to left guard, you're an idiot. Cool, whatever.

But I still think six, seven wins, based off of what I've seen through these first half of the season, is that average thing, because of what you just said, you can have all your things clicking and everything firing on all cylinders, but this is the NFL. It's almost impossible to do week in and week out. I mean, look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just last night, right? Everyone thought they were going to roll in there

and just steamroll the New York Giants 30 points. That's not how it works in the NFL. Like, it's not college. Like, every team has incredible talent. Every team. So, yeah, you hope you fire on all cylinders. But, I mean, we're going to run into some teams that they're having their best day and we're not having our best day. And the problem is we don't have enough talent to make up for when we're not on our best day, if that makes sense.

Like, if you're playing against a team that's fine in all cylinders and you're like the Packers, who are a good football team, I still think the Packers are a good football team. They were almost able to make up what we were playing off because of how good they are. We don't have that yet. We're not there yet as a Vikings football team. We have to be on all cylinders, P's and Q's, dotted I's, T's crossed in order to compete against those teams.

And it's just not realistic to think that's going to happen all the time. So you'd like to see it become more consistent. Maybe by the end of the year you're not having the mistakes, the 12 men on the field, that type of things. But I do think that we still have a ceiling put on this team. And the playoffs, in my opinion, is not that ceiling. I've got some random things to ask you about just from the game. One, after Jeff Gladney gives up a touchdown,

which Mike Zimmer explained in incredibly good detail to the media yesterday, which that's what you get when you're a rookie, is Zimmer will explain exactly what you did wrong. He will explain. Yes. If Harrison Smith does something wrong, he will not tell us about it. But if Jeff Gladney does, sorry, pal, you're going to have to prove that. But, you know, he explained really well that Gladney had leverage on his inside and so he still kind

of stood there flat-footed and let Adams make his move and he was saying like look this is Devante Adams you got to get tight on him you can't just you know think that you're going to make up the difference with a quarterback throwing the ball slow. Like this guy gets the ball out quick. But on the sideline, as Gladney was coming off, Zimmer was trying to say something to him aggressively, as Zimmer does at times. And Gladney kind of just like went right by him. And I guess from the reporter perspective, we looked at and go like, what's going on there, right?

Like why wouldn't you stop because even veterans if Zimmer was upset stop and hear what he has to say so is that a thing to make a deal out of or not to make a deal out of no I don't think that's something to make a deal I think that that's something as a young player getting really frustrated um I think that that's one of those things that he's not mad at anyone. He's just frustrated because he's probably not used to getting beat like that. I mean, you come from college. You're a high round. He was, what, third round pick, right? Gladden, he was the first round pick. First round pick, excuse me. Yeah, Dantzler's the third round pick. They're the same person, though. Right. So your first round pick

was dominating college, right? I mean, you were the best. You never got beat. You were beating the crap out of everyone. And so you come into the NFL, and you're now the worst of the best, right? You're still – and so I think that's more of a frustration thing for him, being a frustrated young player going against, I mean, an all-pro wide receiver with an all-world quarterback. I mean, you're going to get beat. And so I think that Zimmer's probably treating him like he treats the veterans on game day at times, but he's got to learn how to not let

that frustration boil over to the point of you can't be coachable. Because there is a fine line of being frustrated as a player. I mean, there's multiple times I've given up a sack and I've come off on the sideline and I'm super pissed off at myself and the coach is trying to coach you and you're just trying to like kind of get yourself put back together for the next drive or whatever it might be and so what they probably didn't show is when Zimmer or the DB coach went over there after everything kind of settled down and they had a punt return or a kickoff return and then they probably coached and talked it up but it is hard sometimes to when tempers are hot and frustrations are high to just have an actual like coaching conversation doesn't happen very often.

But I don't think it's a huge deal. Yeah, I don't think that they're going to trade him to the moon. I do think that you've got to stay within yourself, though. Like, you can't be doing things like that because you have to bounce back. And he didn't. Like, the very next drive, he made a very similar mistake. And it's like, well, maybe next time you learn from that and listen to the coaching point as opposed to not

and giving up a touchdown again to the same guy. Here was another random thing I wanted to ask is just what is it like to be on the same field as Delvin Cook? Because it was a good blocking performance. But, my God, I mean, he does things each week that are just insane. We can argue about running back value, all those things, but he's one of the best pure football players in the NFL. So tell me what it's like to be there with him.

I mean, you just, like I said, we knew from the day he got onto that football field as a rookie, like we have lightning in a bottle. Like this guy is freaking incredible just the way he reads it and the way his ability to make he's not a huge guy but like the ability to run through the arm tackles because I feel like he has this really unique ability to a lot of backs like Fournette's gonna lower his shoulder and just plow right in you right Dalvin has this weird sense of like he gets so close to you before he makes his move that,

like, you can't recover. So it kind of looks like he's bouncing off the guys. But really, it's just like at the last second, he's, like, waiting for them to make their final commitment, right? They're coming in, making the tackle, cut. And that's what I was talking about earlier when I was like, the O-linemen, I think, are starting to figure that out. And they're like, man, we don't need to give this guy a six foot hole to run through like he can get through six inches

and so I think once you're on the field with a guy like that you in your back of your mind is when you're blocking for him are going I can be the guy that springs him for a touchdown and when you have all 10 guys or nine guys, whoever blocking for a guy that all have that mentality, then it's just really good things that happen because everyone's thinking, be the guy, be the one, be the seal block, be the cut block,

be the cutoff on the backside, like, and don't take a break because Dalvin could pop out the backside or you could push out the front side. Like, and so I think you're seeing a lot more of the guys just sustaining blocks longer, which is,

I know what we talked about when I was blocking for him. It was like just sustain for a half second or a second longer than you think you have to because that might be the difference between a four-yard and a 40-yard run with this type of guy in your backfield. You know, it's interesting to me, from my perspective, from the minute that he came in, he showed maturity and also kind of a love for the whole process. Like this is, I think a similar thing that goes through like a line through every player

who becomes really good is that they just love the details. Justin Jefferson is like this with route running and Delvin Cook was talking about how he was communicating with Irv Smith about a certain type of run. And Irv Smith saying, hey, I can get there on that block, so cut it back and you're going to have a big hole. And how he was talking with the line about the screen pass. Like, just get your guy down and I'll do the rest. And I think when you hear him talk about the X's and O's, he's got kind of a joy about it. And that's a difference maker.

Like, I think we think of running backs as just give the guy the ball he'll just run all over the place like um but there's a lot more to it than that and I thought when he was able to work with Latavius Murray who's one of the smartest players I've covered um a unique guy for sure but really really bright um I think that that kind of facilitated that he was in the corner with corner with Terrence Newman and Teddy Bridgewater in his first rookie season. And I think it kind of takes a village to raise a great player, and they played a role in kind of encouraging that appreciation for the game.

Yeah, and I think the other thing, too, is he came in hungry for that information. It wasn't something that, like, he had to get hit over the head with. I mean, so many young guys, you kind of be like, no, you have to pay attention to these details or like, you can't just do this anymore. Like you have to switch your whole mindset versus I think the guys that have great success in the NFL are the ones that come in hungry for that information. They're not scared to go tap a shoulder on the vet and be like, hey, you watch film with me. Hey, why did you do that? Why did this happen?

Instead of just like, oh, yeah, we'll figure it out, right? I mean, you see those guys kind of weed themselves out over time, and then the guys that build that knowledge over time are just – it's an incredible thing. And one thing I think, too, and I don't know as if it's just me, but as I'm watching more of the NFL this year, even more in college, you're really starting to see the value of your best player being on the field. And I know that people are like, well, duh,

but I mean, it is such a team game. But in all reality, like, you have to have your best player to have your best success. I mean, I think so many people, including myself, like, oh, I mean, Alexander Madison's a good back, like, he should be able to kind of make up for what Dalvin Cook can and can't do. And then he goes out there, and it's just a totally different game, right? I mean, so – and then look at Clemson, right? You're like, ah, Trevor Lawrence is out this week. Clemson's the number one team in the country. They'll be fine.

And Boston College makes a run at them. And so I think the heightened awareness of making sure that you don't undervalue your best players is something that's going to be really important for Vikings fans, for all fans. As you watch, just be grateful that you have these guys. Because when you don't have them, bad things can happen. Even though sports took a break, your business didn't. You have to keep moving moving and that means hiring is more important than ever. Indeed is here to help. Indeed.com is the number one job site in the world

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That's right. Yeah, you can, yeah, you can tell I've been in a lot of press conferences with Pat Silver. Yep, he said that a bunch of different times. Let's wrap up with a love to see it, hate to see it. Love it. Now, I'm going to ironically say hate to see it. Hate to see the New York Giants have another draft pick just go terribly wrong under Dave Gettleman and Daniel Jones, who now has something like 40 turnovers in 20 NFL starts.

Yeah, just hate to see that blow up in their face. Drafting a third-round prospect quarterback with the sixth overall pick, you do hate to see it just blow up. I mean, that team actually has weapons. They've got some players, but their quarterback will stop throwing it to the other team. Absolutely. That game last night was just like, you're like, don't do it again. Don't always do it again. Right.

There's so many times where you're just like, just throw it out of bounds, man. Nope, you threw it to the other guy. Why'd you do that? I don't know why you did that. And also, you do actually hate to see when announcers call a white quarterback a sneaky athlete. Just stop doing that, man. He's a good athlete. He ran 23 miles an hour or whatever when he was breaking out for that 70-yard run a few weeks ago and fell down.

Like, a lot of these guys are good athletes, okay? I've got a lot of hate to see it today, so I'll start with the first one. You hate to see it is the Chargers blowing another 21 point lead to the denver broncos because now the denver broncos still think they're going to the super bowl right because they did it and justin herbert is as good as advertised and i just feel bad i mean you can see the defeat on those players faces after those games i mean you talk about wearing on you, try the emotions of up 21 and then getting beat like five times this year. Like you hate, you hate to see that for those guys. I feel bad for the Anthony Lynn. I mean, he probably is not sleeping.

I mean, you hate to see that for those boys. The chargers will just forever do this though, right? They will never escape this fate, no matter how good they get. They got ridip rivers they're like oh we're gonna move on from it nope nope nope the curse is still there so what else you got i know i know one that you love to see i don't i didn't know if you're going to mention it or not the uh well the love the love to see it is the one-on-one football clinic on sunday night football of zach Zach Martin versus Fletcher Cox. But it also could be a hate to see it because it was really boring football, like the most boring football game I've ever seen in my entire life.

And they're just like, well, here we go again, another all-world guard going against an all-world. Look at them just run into each other. It was just so terrible. I loved it, but you could tell people were like, what are we watching? Here's what I would say. What are we watching? Appreciate Sean Hill because some guys who try to play in the NFL look like

Danucci. That's what happens when your neighborhood decent D2 quarterback tries to go play in the NFL. He looks terrified. Like Sean Hill had a dad bod at 38 years old and is still throwing dimes against the Titans. Like, these guys who make it, even as journeyman quarterback, are so much better than any person you've ever met at sports. It's insane.

I thought you were going to say love to see it, the Gophers trying to kick an extra point and missing it. Oh, that was what I was going to end it with. That was going to be my ender. I did not want to let you forget, go ahead oh you did my ender for for the love to see it is watching the pj flex and the minnesota gophers ship just kind of burned down at the last second against a team that got absolutely dirt stomped by northwestern in week one in Maryland and came out and looked like the Alabama Crimson Tide. It was just crazy.

Now, I think that Tulia Taleg-Vailoa is very, very good. I also hate that the ESPN reporters just refused to call him Tulia and they just have to refer to him as to his brother. Right, over and over and over. There were some bad moments in broadcasting this weekend is the fleck is the fleck charisma coming off in minnesota are people over it yet well the one thing that people are starting to ask is like hey you know a lot of these guys are all his recruits now you know they weren't last year like Antoine Winfield Jr., which, again, last night against the Giants.

He's good, everyone. We knew he was going to be good. Anyway, that should have been a first-round pick. But, yeah, I don't know. I think it's hard. I think that programs like the Gophers, they peak with a bunch of seniors, and then they fall off, and then they peak, and then they fall off. And it's kind of been the history, and I don't know if you could change that like you're not georgia you will

never be georgia and so you gotta kind of when you get your chance you gotta win and they didn't last year against wisconsin in that huge game and that's where you know you might say for a little while that could be the top of the mountain because bateman's gone after this. They have zero. You and I could have played better defense than they played the other night. So, yeah, not a great situation for the old Gophers this year, I think. No. All right, you've got to finish this with a good love to see it. You've got to have a couple of them. Yeah, the hate to see it's so much easier.

They're so much easier. Let's see. Vikings won. We're ending on a positive note this week. I know. What is it? They've taken the Winnebago. They put it out back and shot it.

It's gone. I don't have to look at it. And actually, my neighbor actually sold his, by the way. Oh, great. Good for you. Huge win all the way around. Okay, here's what I love to see. I love to see a good freaking rebuild and the miami dolphins

beating the tar out of the los angeles rams to go to four and three now i think they probably should have stuck with fitzpatrick because i love fitzpatrick and i'll never apologize for that but their defense their coach brian flores the talent that they've been able to put on the field after tearing their roster entirely apart has been really impressive and I think that them and Buffalo are now the teams and it's going to be really interesting to watch them for years to come here with a lot of young talented players and I don't know Tua didn't play very well at all but like I think he could yeah he didn't write he didn't have to do anything but I love what Brian Flores did defensively in that game it was incredible

Jared Goff looked like his head was spinning. And it's fun to see. It's fun to see a coach that you think last year, how the hell did he get five wins out of that team? And then, you know, take that next step the next year. So love to see that. Absolutely. Love to see another great episode of Tuesday Morning Left Guard.

And so maybe on the next one we'll be talking about all the players that they traded after we recorded this. We'll see. I'm not confident. I doubt it. I doubt it. Great stuff as always, and enjoy the rest of your week, Jeremiah. Absolutely, man.

We'll see you guys next week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.