Speaker 1: Hey, Vikings fans, Ben Lever here, I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: be a new Lifetime member, and so are my kids.
Speaker 1: They love the tennis, the pickaball, the basketball, and of
Speaker 1: course the yummy cafe. Check them out at Lifetime dot
Speaker 1: life to find a club nearest you.
Speaker 2: Welcome to School Stories, presented by three M, the official
Speaker 2: science partner of the Minnesota Vikings. Tonight, we're joined by
Speaker 2: former Vikings head coach Mike Tye.
Speaker 3: Thanks again for tuning into another episode of School Stories.
Speaker 3: Tonight's guest was a key Viking both on the field
Speaker 3: and in the locker room. As a larger than much
Speaker 3: larger than life, trust me personality and clutch performer, he
Speaker 3: was a Viking through and through. Please enjoy tonight's conversation
Speaker 3: with former Vikings tight end and head coach Mike Tye.
Speaker 2: Well, Mike, welcome to the show. It's great to hear
Speaker 2: from you. It was great to literally bump into you
Speaker 2: at the US Bank Stadium in the course of the
Speaker 2: Vikings win over Atlanta last Sunday. Give the fans a
Speaker 2: chance to catch up with what you're up to these days,
Speaker 2: and where you're living and how you're occupying your life.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you Mark, it's good to hear your voice.
Speaker 4: And it was great to see you and Pete yesterday or
Speaker 4: this week of the game. And I retired from coaching
Speaker 4: after the seventeenth season. I was with the Raiders and
Speaker 4: moved up to our home in Seattle that we've had
Speaker 4: for almost thirty years. And then Mama decided the kids
Speaker 4: got pregnant, and Mama decided we're going to go move
Speaker 4: to where the kids are. So we sold our house
Speaker 4: and we moved to Saint Louis and we moved to
Speaker 4: Las Vegas, if you can believe that, and not a
Speaker 4: real good spot if you're a pony player to beous. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And we run a foundation. Diane and I and our
Speaker 4: family run a foundation. We have no paid employees. We
Speaker 4: give out the last two years over one hundred and
Speaker 4: sixty thousand dollars to charities in five states. And in fact,
Speaker 4: I'm in Minneapolis right now at the new Horizon Academy
Speaker 4: down on North penn and we're going to give out
Speaker 4: a hundred Winter Coach in a couple of minutes here,
Speaker 4: and we're pretty excited about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not giving out many of those out in Vegas
Speaker 3: are you.
Speaker 4: No, No, you need sunscreen.
Speaker 5: We get out.
Speaker 3: He's speaking, you know, speaking of speaking of the kids,
Speaker 3: and I wanted to talk to you about this quickly.
Speaker 3: Was I got a chance to see Nate at training
Speaker 3: camp this year. Uh, he's still involved, and I think
Speaker 3: he's involved in a great way on the media side.
Speaker 3: But he does a lot of great stuff on the
Speaker 3: internet with watching film and I think he just talks
Speaker 3: about the game in a different way. And you have
Speaker 3: to be very proud of him and kind of just
Speaker 3: let the fans know where they can find him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Nate's do a great job. We're really excited, Diane
Speaker 4: and I are excited that he got out of coaching
Speaker 4: and started this media career. He works for Yahoo Sports now.
Speaker 4: He worked a couple of years and did a podcast
Speaker 4: for The Athletic, which of course is owned by the
Speaker 4: New York Times. Now and last year he actually hired
Speaker 4: Nate Barrelson's agent, and he got out of that contract
Speaker 4: and he moved over to the Yahoo Sports. He also
Speaker 4: signed a deal. He's been on the NFL network in
Speaker 4: the morning Good Morning Football a couple of times, and
Speaker 4: I'm really excited. I'm excited for him because he got
Speaker 4: out of coaching. But he's worn all the hats, you know,
Speaker 4: he's been a scout, he's been a great assistant, he's
Speaker 4: been a quarterback coach for the Raiders, and then he
Speaker 4: went and opened up a state farm agency and I
Speaker 4: just was dian. I were praying he didn't get into coaching.
Speaker 5: Again, because you know, all that moving you do, and.
Speaker 4: It's hard to make a great life. I was just
Speaker 4: blessed to be in Minnesota for thirteen years. You know,
Speaker 4: not a lot of people can say that. So yeah,
Speaker 4: so yeah, we're proud of them, and we're proud of
Speaker 4: my daughter. And I have two grandkids now I have
Speaker 4: another one on the way. Man.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, Mike, I, first of all, number one, I appreciate
Speaker 2: you letting me use your parking space at Bunnies all
Speaker 2: these time other time, because it's really been a pleasure
Speaker 2: to be there. But you know, all kidding aside, you
Speaker 2: talk about all the stops you've made as a coach,
Speaker 2: what is it about the Twin City area, Minneapolis, what
Speaker 2: you're doing today that kind of keeps you drawn back
Speaker 2: to this the Twin City area as a coach of
Speaker 2: a player and everything else that you've done well.
Speaker 4: It's just like you know, being able to tease Pete
Speaker 4: in the booth yesterday and see you.
Speaker 5: It's the people of people.
Speaker 4: It's the people at Minneapolis, and you know they don't
Speaker 4: say Minnesota nice for no reason. There's a reason behind it.
Speaker 4: Because the people in this community is the reason why, Diane,
Speaker 4: I have so many friends here, so many deer friends here,
Speaker 4: and it makes you keep coming back. I wish, you know,
Speaker 4: we probably should come back more. But it's been a
Speaker 4: couple of years of transition after retiring, and I think
Speaker 4: we've carved our niche now, so we've kind of got
Speaker 4: to figure it out.
Speaker 3: I think, hey, Mike, talk about the talk about the
Speaker 3: game today, and I've thought about you. I don't know
Speaker 3: how many just over the last couple of years, with
Speaker 3: mainly with offensive line, because I think I still believe
Speaker 3: you're one of, not the best offensive line coaches I've
Speaker 3: ever been around. And thank you for all those long
Speaker 3: staff meetings where I learned just a ton about football.
Speaker 3: And Mike made this a point where yeah, you made
Speaker 3: us you made the offense it through the defense and
Speaker 3: vice versa. But you were absolutely correct when you said
Speaker 3: this is you know, This is how you learn the game.
Speaker 3: This is uh, you know, learning what the offense is
Speaker 3: looking at and went the defenses and and I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be able to do what I do now if it
Speaker 3: wasn't for coaching, and definitely for being with you in
Speaker 3: the in what you demanded out of all of us,
Speaker 3: and that's to know everything, right is to learn as
Speaker 3: much as you can. And I'm just saying thank you,
Speaker 3: and I appreciate that very much.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Pete, You know, Pete, I loved having
Speaker 4: you around and it was it was really a pleasure
Speaker 4: for me to be able to develop some young former
Speaker 4: players into great coaches and uh and you you know
Speaker 4: you could have had a career in coaching them. Thankful
Speaker 4: that you didn't, because you don't want to keep moving.
Speaker 4: You don't want to keep you don't want to keep moving,
Speaker 4: believe me. And so you know, I just I've always
Speaker 4: learned you need to be a student of the game.
Speaker 4: And no matter what you do, no matter what you're
Speaker 4: gonna you want to do with your life, you've got
Speaker 4: to be a student game. You got to learn as
Speaker 4: much about what your job is as you can. And
Speaker 4: and that's why I was probably a little more demanding
Speaker 4: than than other coaches. We we we did meet a lot.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, we had all good coaches and a lot
Speaker 4: of our coaches could wear multiple hats, which was nice.
Speaker 3: I remember Ron Rivera talking to him after the last
Speaker 3: game of the year in two thousand and five and
Speaker 3: him telling telling me before the game that we've we
Speaker 3: did more with less than anybody in the league, and
Speaker 3: we have a winning record. Uh to finish the season
Speaker 3: with them with a winning record, and but still the
Speaker 3: ability to be with guys like Greg Beekert and and
Speaker 3: some of those other some of the other uh, you
Speaker 3: know linebackers that we bet Chris Claiborne, and yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean we we had We had a lot of fun though,
Speaker 3: didn't we.
Speaker 4: It was my god, yeah, yeah, so you know it
Speaker 4: was it was just a let's laud ourselves a little
Speaker 4: bit here. We went into Green Bay and won a
Speaker 4: playoff game in Green Bay. I don't think any other
Speaker 4: head coach.
Speaker 5: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: Mike, talking about offensive line play in the league, what
Speaker 3: do you think the status is of offensive line play?
Speaker 3: I mean, and you mentioned something and you were talking
Speaker 3: about your brother John, who you know. I hope he's
Speaker 3: doing well too. But John always had guys that played
Speaker 3: really well, but none of them were high draft picks.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm looking back at our offensive line, like
Speaker 3: Chris Lewinsky, Mike Rosenthal, Corey Withrow. I mean, you turned
Speaker 3: a lot of late round draft picks into very very
Speaker 3: good starters. Can you mold these guys like this anymore?
Speaker 3: Do you have enough time? Is there not enough practice
Speaker 3: with pads anymore? I mean, what do you think of
Speaker 3: all this?
Speaker 4: And I think that's a great question, Pete. I think
Speaker 4: that tribute to that for the ability to develop these
Speaker 4: young players was because of Denny Green. Because Denny Green
Speaker 4: always told me we're not going to give you the
Speaker 4: high pick, because you know, we had a couple of
Speaker 4: high picks before I got there, Corey Stringer gotta bless him,
Speaker 4: and Todd Stucey, and of course Randall was a teammates
Speaker 4: with Randall, But because we had other voids defensively and
Speaker 4: at other positions, we never drafted a high offensive lineman.
Speaker 4: So what he said, I'm going to give you a
Speaker 4: seven of un pick. I'll give you any round pick.
Speaker 4: I'll give you a sixth round pick. And then he
Speaker 4: sent me on the road. And go try to find
Speaker 4: what chuck, here's another chuck nuts to go find a ruby,
Speaker 4: you know, dust it off, polish it up, and turned
Speaker 4: that little piece of stone into a ruby. And so
Speaker 4: we because of Danny Green allowed me the time to develop,
Speaker 4: and he would give me three years on a guy,
Speaker 4: and so if the guy wasn't starting in three years,
Speaker 4: he had run him out the door. And so we
Speaker 4: didn't run a lot of guys out the door. We
Speaker 4: developed guys and we were able to play back. I
Speaker 4: think one of my greatest coaching jobs was Matt Burke.
Speaker 4: You know, the guy we drafted from Harvard in the
Speaker 4: sixth round, left tackle at Harvard, and Frankie Gilliam pointed
Speaker 4: him out. God bless Frankie. Two is He pointed him
Speaker 4: out to me on film and he said, listen, this
Speaker 4: kid played in the East West shrink game. You should go.
Speaker 4: You should go work this kid out. But he's not
Speaker 4: a left tackle. And we brought him in and he
Speaker 4: was so smart. He swung at a lot of positions.
Speaker 4: And then his third year, Denny said, let's let's get
Speaker 4: rid of this center and let's move Matt to center.
Speaker 4: And we're over scrimmage and remember we used to scrimmage
Speaker 4: over the Chiefs over and Wisconsin, and and Denny turned
Speaker 4: to me and said, let's do it right now and
Speaker 4: one on ones. And so we did it one on ones.
Speaker 4: He locked down every single guy he blocked, and we
Speaker 4: looked at each other and kind of smiled Denny and
Speaker 4: I and it's like, Okay, there's our new future center.
Speaker 4: Of course, Matt Burke made a couple of Pro Bowls
Speaker 4: and had a great career.
Speaker 2: One other, I guess you want to Yeah, absolutely. Brian
Speaker 2: McKinney was on our school Stories and he talked very
Speaker 2: highly of the work that you did with him, and
Speaker 2: what your recollections of working with Brian McKinney all those years.
Speaker 4: Well, he was the highest pick we drafted an Olne.
Speaker 4: When I was the head coach, there was a lot
Speaker 4: of conversation about him. I always took advice from Scott
Speaker 4: Studwell in the draft room because Scott, you know, had
Speaker 4: a great feel for talent. So what what we were
Speaker 4: torn between a couple of players in that draft, We've
Speaker 4: got We got McKinney, and about a really good relationship
Speaker 4: with his mom. So at any time that he would
Speaker 4: annoy me, I told him. I was calling his mom
Speaker 4: and he shaped up, so asked him about that next
Speaker 4: thing the best.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we saw that with Aaron Jones and his mom.
Speaker 3: His mom basically told him how they should have taken
Speaker 3: you out of the game for fumbling last week.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and what happened this week didn't fumble? How about that?
Speaker 4: Well? I heard I saw an interview with Lama Jacks's mother,
Speaker 4: Yell and from not running the ball to them.
Speaker 2: Watching watching Kevin O'Connell right now, what he's doing with
Speaker 2: this team and his relationship with his players at his
Speaker 2: young age. What are your thoughts about koc and developing
Speaker 2: a team that was only supposed to win six games
Speaker 2: this year?
Speaker 4: I love him. I'm a big fan. I text him
Speaker 4: every week good luck and congratulations and a lot of
Speaker 4: congratulations of you know, the last six weeks. And he's
Speaker 4: doing a great job. He's doing a tremendous job. He's
Speaker 4: put together an excellent staff. These kids believe in his message,
Speaker 4: and they're playing hard for him, and they're playing smart
Speaker 4: for him, and uh, you know, he's a fabulous job.
Speaker 4: I'm a big fan.
Speaker 3: And and how about Brian Flores? Do you know anything
Speaker 3: about him? It's I think he's doing a great job.
Speaker 3: A couple of years ago, I thought he should have
Speaker 3: been up for a head job. He got ahead job,
Speaker 3: it didn't work out, and I think his turn is
Speaker 3: going to come. So they're telling me to wrap up
Speaker 3: over here, and they give out some coats. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry boy, that's all right.
Speaker 4: We can do this. The kids come first. I love
Speaker 4: you guys, but the kids come fast. We can do this,
Speaker 4: we can. We can do this again though. If you
Speaker 4: want to.
Speaker 3: Sometime, absolutely well, well we'll make sure that West he's
Speaker 3: all over you. Yeah, your your guide, your your Yeah,
Speaker 3: your your game day guide.
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, listen, listen. I we appreciate the time you
Speaker 2: had for us today. It's great to catch up.
Speaker 4: Ye storry to cut your short, but I got kids
Speaker 4: waiting on these coats.
Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing your school stories. Stick around right
Speaker 2: here on school stories presented by three M from the
Speaker 2: field to the roof and everywhere in between. Three Official,
Speaker 2: It's partner of the Minnesota Vikings is here. Visit Vikings
Speaker 2: dot com slash school Science to learn more.
Speaker 3: Unreal is back with their limited edition Vikings Dropped. Head
Speaker 3: to U n r L dot com for more details.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks again to Mike Tys for joining the show today.
Speaker 2: We always loved catching up with the very colorful Mike Tyson.
Speaker 2: I do have that spot at Bunnies, all said all
Speaker 2: the time I come on beat me.
Speaker 5: Well, here's the thing is, I played with Mike too.
Speaker 3: I know you did, right. They brought him back. I
Speaker 3: mean when I was while I was playing and Denny
Speaker 3: would do that. Denny would always want to bring back
Speaker 3: a familiar face and stay of somebody that the locker
Speaker 3: room didn't know. So I got to play with Chris Dolman,
Speaker 3: Mike Tice, Steve Jordan, right, I mean there were some
Speaker 3: there's some guys whose flags are hanging up and that
Speaker 3: I had the chance to play with for a short time.
Speaker 2: Pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's one of my favorite stories. When I
Speaker 3: was on IR, Denny brought me up and said, you
Speaker 3: bring it bringing Chris Dolman back.
Speaker 5: I need your number home. I'm like, are you asking me?
Speaker 5: You're telling me? He's like, I'm telling you, all right,
Speaker 5: Coach sale Well.
Speaker 2: Recapping last week, as we know, the Vikings extended the
Speaker 2: winning streak to six forty two to twenty one thumping
Speaker 2: of the Atlanta Falcons. After Atlanta took the opening kickoff,
Speaker 2: went right down the field, made it look really easy.
Speaker 2: They're thinking, this is going to be another nail bier.
Speaker 2: We're so used to it, and the Vikings have been
Speaker 2: really good at it, winning those close games in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter. But for once they did not have to
Speaker 2: sweat it out as the game went on late in
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter. Pete, Now, huh, Yeah, that was refreshing.
Speaker 2: And obviously a lot of it had to do with
Speaker 2: the sling and Sammy Darnold with those five touchdown passes.
Speaker 3: It did, and I think another part of that whole
Speaker 3: another part of the game is we were plus three
Speaker 3: and didn't turn the ball over one time, right, so
Speaker 3: we had you know, the first interception by Mattellis. I
Speaker 3: don't think we netted any points out of that, but
Speaker 3: at the time, it was very heavily time of possession.
Speaker 3: Everything was very heavily favored with Atlanta. I thought Cousins
Speaker 3: did a very good job of knowing where to go
Speaker 3: with the football and just making good decisions. I think
Speaker 3: the interception to Mattelis is just he and the receiver
Speaker 3: not being on the same page he expected. I think
Speaker 3: Mattellis that was an unbelievable play, but he expected the
Speaker 3: receiver to break in instead of go out on the
Speaker 3: seven and so miscommunication. They weren't horrible interceptions, right, It
Speaker 3: wasn't as if he was booting out and there was
Speaker 3: a guy stayed in a flat that he never saw.
Speaker 3: So defensively, when you face a veteran quarterback, and it
Speaker 3: seems like the more he watched this defense, the veterans
Speaker 3: that know what to do with the ball are a
Speaker 3: tougher challenge for us, more so than an even athletic quarterback.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Donald looked fantastic, and it's just us not
Speaker 3: turning the football over and being smart with.
Speaker 5: It is the big help.
Speaker 3: That's why we were able to, you know, put up
Speaker 3: forty two and make that game, you know, that much
Speaker 3: of a lead at the end.
Speaker 2: To dissect Donald a little bit more. Where do you
Speaker 2: think he is appreciably made the biggest to impact and
Speaker 2: the biggest improvement since the beginning of the year of
Speaker 2: avoiding the rush, those sideline passes that he throws with
Speaker 2: great touch. I mean, there's a lot of things that
Speaker 2: we're watching that Sam Darnald, I don't think people realize
Speaker 2: his evasiveness.
Speaker 5: He doesn't.
Speaker 2: You don't have to be Patrick Mahomes to avoid a rush.
Speaker 2: But Sam Darnald has done a marvelous job of keeping
Speaker 2: his eyes downfield and doing the things that the great
Speaker 2: quarterbacks do.
Speaker 3: He's a great athlete, which is why he was chosen
Speaker 3: third overall. Right, he's a big guy. He's not a scrambling,
Speaker 3: let's say, quarterback, but he's a very good athlete, more
Speaker 3: like Herbert right, you know, just being able to keep
Speaker 3: plays alive. I think him protecting the football when he
Speaker 3: is scrambling. It's kind of like there are certain times
Speaker 3: when you get to know one to hold him and
Speaker 3: no one to fold the meaning sometimes you're going to
Speaker 3: get sacked and there's nothing you can do. Protect the
Speaker 3: football on your way down and then live to play,
Speaker 3: you know, not bail out and roll out and try
Speaker 3: to make something out of nothing, but choose your spots
Speaker 3: when you're going to use your legs. And when he
Speaker 3: did and was able to extend plays, it's like you
Speaker 3: got to You have to be able to feel the
Speaker 3: rush and know where it's coming from.
Speaker 5: You can't stare at it.
Speaker 3: You can't look at it because once you start looking
Speaker 3: at it you lose track of what's happening down the field.
Speaker 3: So there's no way he can He's not looking at
Speaker 3: the rush, he's just feeling it and he just instinctively
Speaker 3: knows where to avoid it in the meantime, protecting the
Speaker 3: football and then as he comes out of it, keeping
Speaker 3: his eyes down the field. And I think that's something
Speaker 3: that both he and the receivers have done a better
Speaker 3: job of. And I've seen Justin do it and over
Speaker 3: the last couple of weeks. Is when you have a
Speaker 3: clock in your head, right you as a receiver, this
Speaker 3: is the offenses are about timing. It's a seven step drop.
Speaker 3: I've got this. I'm gonna make my break. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: look and if the ball's not on its way, I'm
Speaker 3: not just gonna quit my route because Donald's doing his
Speaker 3: thing so that I'm just gonna bend it and go
Speaker 3: vertically or I'm gonna do, you know, do something different.
Speaker 3: And then we've we've made some plays that way, like
Speaker 3: our off schedule plays. Is how is how the coaches
Speaker 3: talk about it. I think his ability to get to
Speaker 3: that point has improved quite a bit. Uh And we
Speaker 3: saw we saw him make a couple off schedule play
Speaker 3: because I mean, let's face it, between Addison and Hockinson
Speaker 3: and JJ, these three guys can get themselves open and
Speaker 3: if if you have a quarterback that can extend to play,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, these three guys are going to
Speaker 3: make things happen. But it's just getting everybody on the
Speaker 3: on the same page. And it's such a subtle, little difference,
Speaker 3: but it's huge. We have you know, we haven't seen
Speaker 3: Darnold just take a sack and fumble and you know
Speaker 3: what I mean, all those things he's managing better.
Speaker 2: It's really really difficult to excel at every level of
Speaker 2: the game. And right now the Vikings have shown some
Speaker 2: weakness in terms of defending the run. You know, maybe
Speaker 2: the missing Ivan paced, maybe it's a scheme, whatever it
Speaker 2: might be. It's a copycat league. You know that as
Speaker 2: we get into the throes of the rest of the
Speaker 2: schedule of the month of December, of the opponents that
Speaker 2: are that are coming up, they're all going to try
Speaker 2: to be doing the same thing. But are you noticing
Speaker 2: some things as a former linebacker yourself, that the Vikings
Speaker 2: need to improve on or is it just hey, listen,
Speaker 2: this is the way it is the ninety eight team
Speaker 2: as great as it was. Yeah, it didn't have the
Speaker 2: best defense in the world.
Speaker 5: They didn't have to. No, we did not.
Speaker 3: And that's uh if we actually talked that during the game,
Speaker 3: when when the backups got in there and I was
Speaker 3: I was talking with Paul and I'm like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: this is big for me because this is when I
Speaker 3: played right, when the when the when, This is when, when,
Speaker 3: as foage Fasio called us, the unteachables could get out
Speaker 3: there and play a little bit. Yeah, the run game,
Speaker 3: is it a concern? Yeah, you want to get better.
Speaker 3: I think it's it's the problem in the NFL. Sometimes
Speaker 3: it's not one thing. If it was just a guy
Speaker 3: that was a problem, you can get rid of the
Speaker 3: problem right and fix it. It's the defensive tackles giving
Speaker 3: up a little bit too much. It's the outside linebacker
Speaker 3: playing a little bit too wide and then combo that
Speaker 3: with the inside linebacker maybe not reading it perfectly or
Speaker 3: not being physical enough at the point of attack.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, you miss Ivan Pace, you miss a guy
Speaker 3: like that, you know, you go into the game with
Speaker 3: I think Harrison Phillips was questionable, so you know he's
Speaker 3: nicked up. We don't have a lot of depth at
Speaker 3: the interior defensive lineman because they're those guys are Bullard
Speaker 3: and artillery. Those guys are not on the field on
Speaker 3: third down, right, So you're you're putting in your jahad
Speaker 3: Wards and some of those other smaller guys gass rushing
Speaker 3: guys on the field and third down. So I think
Speaker 3: it's a combo platter, you know, of all that, don't
Speaker 3: John Robinson's a good running back. Damn This offensive line
Speaker 3: is very good.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: What they remind me of is the is the Denver
Speaker 3: Broncos back probably twenty years ago, and they just ran
Speaker 3: that zone play right and they would hold the living
Speaker 3: hell out of back when you could dive on the
Speaker 3: back of guy's legs and they would hurt. That offense
Speaker 3: is reminiscent of that. I think they got. What's unfortunate
Speaker 3: for them is they get the They got a crew
Speaker 3: referee crew that called more holding penalties than anybody in
Speaker 3: the league, and they they kind of, you know, they
Speaker 3: got them. So penalties killed them.
Speaker 2: So looking ahead, we know that the Vikings played the
Speaker 2: Bears was a few weeks ago. They had a disastrous
Speaker 2: game Sunday in San Francisco. I mean they went, they
Speaker 2: went eighteen steps backwards. So Monday night football, you know,
Speaker 2: you know the Caleb Williams is kind of shaking his head.
Speaker 2: They changed their head coaches. How do you make sure
Speaker 2: that you don't let down in this game? I guess
Speaker 2: you just look at the standings and realize they got
Speaker 2: to stay close to Detroit.
Speaker 3: You got to let them, you know, as quickly as possible.
Speaker 3: Tonight's not your night. Tonight's not the night you guys
Speaker 3: are going to rebound. Tonight's not to night that you're
Speaker 3: going to go home on that plane and feel good.
Speaker 3: Maybe next week, but not this week. So starting fast,
Speaker 3: I think is huge against the team like the Bears.
Speaker 3: They know us, we know them, so it's gonna be
Speaker 3: a little bit more difficult. These divisional games always are
Speaker 3: in that respect. But you can't go ahead and make
Speaker 3: mistakes and let them think or feel that they are
Speaker 3: in this game. If you hit them in the mouth
Speaker 3: right away and get them to just say, Okay, this
Speaker 3: is not the week, right. It's that mentality because what
Speaker 3: are they playing for? And usually what's so weird about
Speaker 3: this is usually when a head coach gets fired, you
Speaker 3: get a bump that next week, Right, everybody, everybody's sitting
Speaker 3: up in their seats a little bit straighter, and you know,
Speaker 3: you're worried about to because they because the players know, okay,
Speaker 3: they're going to fire the coach first and then we're next,
Speaker 3: so that's always in the back of their mind. But
Speaker 3: to put up and I'm very interested to watch the
Speaker 3: film and get more road on what happened. But the
Speaker 3: first half of that forty nine ers game. Something's missing there,
Speaker 3: and hopefully they won't find it. But it's National TV,
Speaker 3: right who wants to look bad at National TV on
Speaker 3: Monday night football, So they're going to be prepared. Don't
Speaker 3: expect the Bears team that shows up Monday to be
Speaker 3: the one that showed up the first half of the
Speaker 3: forty nine Ers game.
Speaker 5: They're going to be much better.
Speaker 2: Well, keep in mind too, that the Vikings have the
Speaker 2: benefit of playing Monday night and the Lions are hosting
Speaker 2: the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon. So I mean, we'll
Speaker 2: know where we sit right now with an opportunity potentially
Speaker 2: moving to a time for first place because we know
Speaker 2: what's the rest of the schedule hold. So it's a
Speaker 2: lot of fun to kind of just dissect that. Look
Speaker 2: at all the playoff possibilities. Who imagine that we would
Speaker 2: be in this situation.
Speaker 3: I think we're I think everybody. I think we kind
Speaker 3: of know who the players are going to be, right
Speaker 3: at least in the NFC side going into the playoffs.
Speaker 3: It's just who's going to go where. It's unbelievable, but
Speaker 3: that's what the NFL wants. That's why they schedule heavy division.
Speaker 3: You know, schedule your division heavy. At the end of
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, NFC North continues to dominate, no questions. I mentioned
Speaker 2: We're coming back to the US Bank Stadium for the
Speaker 2: Winter White Out game in primetime Monday Night football against
Speaker 2: I always want to do the Howard Cole Seale voice
Speaker 2: against the Chicago Bears. The TV coverage will be over
Speaker 2: on ESPN and ABC at seven o'clock Central here in
Speaker 2: the Twin Cities, so be sure to check your local
Speaker 2: listings for more details. Of course, you can also catch
Speaker 2: Paul Allen, Ben Leeber and the one and Milli Pete
Speaker 2: Versuch with the call right here all across the Vikings
Speaker 2: Radio network. The Vikings Football Sunday pregame show starts at
Speaker 2: five PM on KFN, so be sure to tune in
Speaker 2: with host Mike Mussman and the rest of the crew
Speaker 2: leading up to kickoff on Monday night. Thanks again to
Speaker 2: Mike Tice for joining the show, and thank you fans
Speaker 2: for tuning into another edition of Skulls Stories presented by
Speaker 2: three M, the official science partner of the Minnesota Vikings.
Speaker 2: For Pete Versus, I'm Mark Rosen. We'll see you again
Speaker 2: all next week.