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Speaker 1: Welcome into the Minnesota Vikings Podcast and Happy Thanksgiving to

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Speaker 1: our Vikings fans. I'm your host, Tatum Everett, and I

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Speaker 1: hope you're enjoying this weekend full of football. The Vikings

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Speaker 1: are back in action on Sunday when they travel a

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Speaker 1: Seattle to face the eight and three Seahawks. We're battling

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Speaker 1: to win the NFC West. Minnesota is looking to get

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Speaker 1: back on track and snap a three game losing streak.

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Speaker 1: The biggest news this week, though, out of Twin City's

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Speaker 1: Orthopedics Performance Center, quarterback JJ McCarthy entered concussion protocol on Monday,

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Speaker 1: putting a status for Sunday's game in question. If McCarthy

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Speaker 1: doesn't start, former Golden Gopher and rookie QB Max Brosmer

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Speaker 1: will get the nod. Head coach Kevin O'Connell spoke on

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Speaker 1: Wednesday with this update.

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Speaker 2: He's in the protocol and kind of as it as

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Speaker 2: that goes and as the medical kind of process plays out,

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Speaker 2: but you do want to take into account what has

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Speaker 2: his preparation been like, what is what has the practice

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Speaker 2: week been like with what he's able to do, while

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Speaker 2: also knowing that you know, ultimately this is this is

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Speaker 2: not talking about a you know, a hand or an

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Speaker 2: ankle or anything like that. We're talking about his head,

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Speaker 2: and it's obviously something that as a former player and

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Speaker 2: just kind of thinking about it from that context, we

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Speaker 2: want to for sure make sure we defer to the

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Speaker 2: medical team. But then also you know what we what

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Speaker 2: we feel is best, and we're still not in a

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Speaker 2: place to declare anything yet, just kind of listening to

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Speaker 2: where it's at, We're obviously gonna gonna be smart both

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Speaker 2: for you know, what's best for our team and what's

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Speaker 2: best most importantly for JJ. Well you get any team

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Speaker 2: reps today, We're he's not cleared to officially do that yet.

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Speaker 2: He can take take part in an individual You'll see

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Speaker 2: him throwing, You'll see him kind of working through the

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Speaker 2: individual phase, and then you know, as the week goes on,

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Speaker 2: you know, we'll be able to update you guys on

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Speaker 2: what he's able to do. The team's preparation is a

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Speaker 2: is you know, whether it's the plays, the you know

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Speaker 2: what we think it's going to take to win the game.

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Speaker 2: You know, Max will take all the all the first

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Speaker 2: team reps and and John will take the scout team reps,

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Speaker 2: and and that's kind of the plan for today and

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Speaker 2: and take it a day by day approach from there.

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Speaker 2: But as far as like the plan and being in

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Speaker 2: meetings and hearing the plan and all those things and

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Speaker 2: then being able to do individual is obviously critical for

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Speaker 2: you know, the continued belief that we're you know, stacking

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Speaker 2: a lot of hours and time on fundamentals and techniques,

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Speaker 2: so getting to do those things while also knowing we're

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Speaker 2: kind of as far as schematics go, we're kind of

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Speaker 2: in a place in the season where if you're doing

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Speaker 2: new things, there's really not a lot of those things.

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Speaker 2: There's more tweaks and one off changes to plays that

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Speaker 2: maybe he's gotten some time on task on. So uh,

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Speaker 2: as far as the team goes, I think our preparation

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Speaker 2: is important and it's absolutely a huge part of hopefully

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Speaker 2: what Lee just to play well this Sunday, but I

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Speaker 2: don't think it changes at all.

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Speaker 1: Now, let's welcome in our guest on today's podcast, Vikings

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Speaker 1: Radio analyst Pete Bersich. Thank you, sir. I know you've

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Speaker 1: been here almost all week now in Minnesota for Thanksgiving

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Speaker 1: and so appreciate you joining the podcast.

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Speaker 3: Glad to be here.

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Speaker 1: Lots to talk about lots to talk about. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to do a quick thing like a state of the school.

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Speaker 1: This team has been on a three game losing skid.

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Speaker 1: It has been rough sailing. But I think you keep

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Speaker 1: saying one thing that's been very interesting to hear around

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Speaker 1: the facility this week about there are so many panic

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Speaker 1: buttons being alerted right now, but you're not panicking as much.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's very hyperbolic out there, and I think

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Speaker 3: the reminder of all of all this is just, you know,

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Speaker 3: you get one guy to tackle Duvernet on a kickoff

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Speaker 3: return against the Bear and and then things look different

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Speaker 3: and people aren't as over the top or on you know,

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Speaker 3: over the edge as they are. And that's that's the

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Speaker 3: game you live in, right It's a game that you're playing,

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Speaker 3: and the coaches know it and the players know it,

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Speaker 3: and it's it's that razor thin of a margin. That's

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Speaker 3: how competitive this league is and how balanced the talent is,

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Speaker 3: weak in and week out, and that's why you always

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Speaker 3: hear coach O'Connell and other coaches talking about doing little

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Speaker 3: things right and uh, making the play when you need

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Speaker 3: to make it, and because that does come down to

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Speaker 3: a handful of things every other each and every week,

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Speaker 3: and we're so you you just you have to be

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Speaker 3: careful whenever you use blanket statements. And by by being careful,

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Speaker 3: I mean not like you're gonna get in trouble. It's

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Speaker 3: it's just a matter of are they accurate and you

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Speaker 3: know this guy can't do this or this team you know,

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Speaker 3: it's like you cast a wide net. You just have

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Speaker 3: to be careful. Because this team did go into Detroit

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Speaker 3: and beat the Lions. We all saw it, and since

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Speaker 3: then you haven't had those results. But at the same time,

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Speaker 3: they still went in and did that, So that was

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Speaker 3: that that just wasn't a fluke. They went in there

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Speaker 3: and won that football game. So there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: good foot there's there's talent and the expect you know,

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Speaker 3: the expectation levels are still for me, they're still very high.

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Speaker 1: Right Well, six games remained in the season and Kevin

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Speaker 1: O'Connell recently said in one of his pressers that their

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Speaker 1: margin of error is razor thin. What exactly does that

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Speaker 1: mean coming from a coach's mind, Well, I.

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Speaker 3: Think when you have you have a young quarterback that

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Speaker 3: you're that you're trying to develop, it just it just

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Speaker 3: means that it's a lot harder to overcome mistakes, right

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Speaker 3: you just you turnovers have been the big thing, right,

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Speaker 3: I mean was it my You think we had twenty

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Speaker 3: one gives this year?

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Speaker 1: Yes, last of the NFL. Twenty one gives and just

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Speaker 1: one better than the New York Jets and turnover margin

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Speaker 1: at minus twelve.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so those are that's you can't be doing that, right,

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Speaker 3: I mean you in the back of the look at

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Speaker 3: a year ago, you could turn the ball. If you

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Speaker 3: turn the ball over a couple times, you might get

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Speaker 3: them back defensively. This year not the case. Offenses are

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Speaker 3: being a lot more conservative. They're playing more of a patient,

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Speaker 3: long game with us than we saw a year ago.

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Speaker 3: Meaning you know, offenses are going to stay conservatives, take

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Speaker 3: what they can, take what they can get, and if

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Speaker 3: they have to punt, that's fine. They'll play the field

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Speaker 3: position game and they don't have to worry about They're

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Speaker 3: not as worried about the explosive plays, right the sixty

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Speaker 3: some yard, the forty yards, the quick scores, and then

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Speaker 3: next thing you know, you look up and you're down

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Speaker 3: by ten or fourteen. We haven't played with the lead

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Speaker 3: a lot this year. And part of it's the AFC

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Speaker 3: nors and they run the ball and that's what they do.

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Speaker 3: But this defense saw more passes last year than the

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Speaker 3: entertainment the league sixty two percent of the time teams

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Speaker 3: threw the ball against us. That number is completely flipped, okay,

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Speaker 3: And we're seeing teams run the ball on us a

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Speaker 3: lot and they have patience, right, and then when you

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Speaker 3: run you have the play action game, which is usually

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Speaker 3: pretty safe. And you're not seeing a lot of third

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Speaker 3: and tens and third and fifteen's. So I know, defensively,

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Speaker 3: these guys are are struggling because they want them. They're frustrated.

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Speaker 3: I shouldn't they struggle and they're frustrated because they want

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Speaker 3: to make big plays. But the opportunities just aren't there.

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Speaker 3: Why aren't the opportunities there? Well, because you know, offenses

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Speaker 3: are just going to hand. They'll hand the ball off

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Speaker 3: and third and three throw quick out and if it

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Speaker 3: doesn't go, then final will punt the ball and uh

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Speaker 3: not be afraid of when we get the ball back,

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Speaker 3: we're going to be down another touchdown, you know what

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Speaker 3: I'm saying. Yeah, And again, it's not a huge paradigm shift.

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Speaker 3: This is just a slight shift in mentality because things

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Speaker 3: are so it's so competitive, and how much of.

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Speaker 1: That is the AFC North scheme being okay, it's definitely

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Speaker 1: more run heavy, or teams are looking at the tape

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Speaker 1: and being like, okay, so this works, so we'll do

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Speaker 1: it like this.

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Speaker 3: It's a copycat lee. We've seen more extra offensive lineman

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Speaker 3: in the game games this year than ever, right, I

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Speaker 3: mean Pittsburgh give Washington the big tight end who's basically

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Speaker 3: six foot eight three, you know, almost three hundred fives.

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Speaker 3: He's basically an extra offensive lineman period. But it's a

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Speaker 3: copycat league, right, So you're watching film and you're seeing, okay,

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Speaker 3: well this is one way to handle those athletic, big,

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Speaker 3: physical outside linebackers, just putting an extra offensive lineman in.

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Speaker 3: And then we saw a lot of that, and then

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Speaker 3: we get the Philadelphia and then Philadelphia puts the extra

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Speaker 3: on linement in. But then they use they use those

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Speaker 3: they use those plays to throw the football, you know,

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Speaker 3: and take a shot deep. So that's the that's the

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Speaker 3: evolution of the NFL. You see down film and offenses

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Speaker 3: borrow it. They feel better about it. And so if

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Speaker 3: you the the old saying is is if you get

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Speaker 3: beat on a play, you're going to see it the

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Speaker 3: next three weeks. Yeah, you have to stop it for

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Speaker 3: three weeks and then it might go away. Yeah, but

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Speaker 3: if you're having trouble with a route concept or a

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Speaker 3: specific run, you're gonna see it again over and over.

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Speaker 3: And some teams can do it because they have better

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Speaker 3: players or you know, than than others in certain areas,

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Speaker 3: so they can't like, you know, back, well we stuff

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Speaker 3: with Randy Moss. You know it's like, well, you're not

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Speaker 3: gonna see Randy Moss every week, right, so you know

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Speaker 3: you don't have to, you can, you can work around that.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, it's it's it's a it's a long season.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it always is, and even longer now than when

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Speaker 1: you were playing. In coaching, Pete, Yeah, actually they got

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Speaker 1: the extra week. They got the extra week. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to pick your coaching ran a little bit more too,

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Speaker 1: because I'm sure that you have coached teams in similar

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Speaker 1: positions as the current one. How do locker rooms and

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Speaker 1: coaches handle situations like this where you're on a using

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Speaker 1: streak and you're just trying to get right back on

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Speaker 1: track because you know you have the talent and you

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Speaker 1: know you have you've almost put it together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to be very clear in what makes you,

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Speaker 3: what cast you know, what makes you win, and what

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Speaker 3: makes you lose. You have to be very clear about

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Speaker 3: that and then give them and then outline what we

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Speaker 3: need to do to fix it. Uh, And it can't

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Speaker 3: be a laundry list of things, right, And that's kind

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Speaker 3: of I think the number one challenge of coaching is

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Speaker 3: being able to look at the entire team and have

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Speaker 3: the one or two things that the entire team has

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Speaker 3: to do, the one or two things the offense needs

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Speaker 3: to improve on, and then the same thing for the defense,

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Speaker 3: and then each and every player should really know the

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Speaker 3: one or two things that they really have to work

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Speaker 3: on and take their game to the next level. And

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Speaker 3: it's going to be different for every group, for every player,

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Speaker 3: but that's that's what you have to focus on because

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Speaker 3: it's a it's a it's an accountability thing. And you

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Speaker 3: hear Oach O'Connell talk about it, and maybe back in

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Speaker 3: the day you didn't hear coaches, but nowadays they'll say, well,

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Speaker 3: I made a mistake and I need to do better.

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Speaker 3: I need to take a harder look at how I'm

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Speaker 3: doing this, because it's accountability.

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Speaker 1: And from the top down right right.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's accountability meaning what you're telling them is the truth.

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Speaker 3: It's not doesn't have to be pretty, but it's the truth.

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Speaker 3: Right If for example, let's say back in the day

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Speaker 3: when when we if we had problems with the cadence

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Speaker 3: and guys jumping off sides, Danny Green would just he

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Speaker 3: would be he would just say, well, we're not going

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Speaker 3: to go on a hard count. We're not going to

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Speaker 3: shift her motion anymore. Just let you guys line up

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Speaker 3: and be targets because apparently we can't handle it. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: so it's it's kind of not so. But the thing is,

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Speaker 3: so it's not like we're teaching it wrong or our

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Speaker 3: cadence is bad, or it's like, no, this is a

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Speaker 3: non negotiable. You guys just have to figure this out,

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Speaker 3: and if you don't, we just won't do it. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and no, and of course every as every every player

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Speaker 3: is like, no, we need that. It's a weapon, it's

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Speaker 3: it's something we can use, it's a tool. Then they

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Speaker 3: figure it out. But until we get this fixed, until

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Speaker 3: we get a fixed, we're not gonna do b We're

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Speaker 3: not gonna do c uh and laying it out in

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Speaker 3: that progression and then having the confidence as a coach

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Speaker 3: and knowing that what you're telling them is it meaning.

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Speaker 3: It's like, for example, if you're Kevin O'Connell, walk in

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Speaker 3: front of it, in front of a team and say,

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Speaker 3: if we come out of this game on the plus side.

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Speaker 1: Of the take GIF, we'll win, yeah, easily.

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Speaker 3: Right. It still may not happen, right, but you're gonna

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Speaker 3: have a better chance at winning. So it's just handing

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Speaker 3: it to them in that regard, right, saying, hey, we

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Speaker 3: we just got we got to this has to be fixed. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: And it's not just holding onto the ball. It's the interceptions,

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Speaker 3: it's the mistakes on special teams, it's all. It's all

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Speaker 3: those things. So we have to pay special attention to.

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Speaker 3: That's our number one job this week is to make

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Speaker 3: sure we have that wrapped up and then go to

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Speaker 3: number two and then number three. Then you know, you

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Speaker 3: go from there and you know you may correct two

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Speaker 3: or three things and then get closer to a win

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Speaker 3: and it's like, okay, well we've progress, right, we progressed.

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Speaker 3: Now we took care of A and B. Now we're

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Speaker 3: on the seat. That's why it's a week the week,

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Speaker 3: the week, and throughout a season.

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Speaker 1: Thing that makes sense. Well, Pete, I know that you've

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Speaker 1: been doing your homework, checking out film, getting us all

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Speaker 1: ready for this matchup. So we've got more to come

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Speaker 1: here on MVP. Pete's back for another segment and we're

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Speaker 1: going to dive into Sunday's Seattle matchup. Say hello to

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Speaker 1: yourself the luxury of Spolan Montage. Welcome back into the

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Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings Podcast. I'm your host Tatum Everett, and I've

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Speaker 1: got Vikings radio analysts and friend of the program Pete

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Speaker 1: Bersich alongside me today. Oh friend, yeah, friend, Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean I feel like we're friends, Pete. We're old friends

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Speaker 1: by now. It's been a few it's been a few seasons,

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Speaker 1: and I trust I trust your film watching abilities more

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Speaker 1: than most. Yeah, for sure. If you need to check

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Speaker 1: out anything that Pete does, where can they find I've.

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Speaker 3: Been doing We've been doing I think because of the

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Speaker 3: holiday week, we didn't do one this week, but we

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Speaker 3: do previews and then I have a YouTube channel that

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Speaker 3: I that I do call I in the Sky where

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Speaker 3: I do, you know, looking at the upcoming opponents. It's

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Speaker 3: breaking down film kind of just taking taking time and

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Speaker 3: explaining because a lot of people, so there are a

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Speaker 3: lot of people that are interested in football at that level, right, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and so there's a lot going on, and it's just

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Speaker 3: I think it's a much more enjoyable game when you

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Speaker 3: have a basic idea of concepts and then a certain

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Speaker 3: amount of knowledge going into the game.

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Speaker 1: So the Vikings went fourteen and three last season with

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Speaker 1: Sam Darnold at quarterback. Kevin O'Connell really making his career

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Speaker 1: come back to life. Now he is doing really well

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Speaker 1: in Seattle. The Seahawks are competing for the top of

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Speaker 1: their division. What do you see in Seattle's top ten

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Speaker 1: offense right now?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think I think a lot of it's the

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Speaker 3: emergence of Jackson Smith and Jigbu. And I use the

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Speaker 3: word in the fray or the word emergence because he's

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Speaker 3: not just a slot receiver anymore. He doesn't just catch slants,

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Speaker 3: and some of it's he's doing everything. He's a very

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Speaker 3: very good route runner. And the thing with Donald that's

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Speaker 3: different is because of his own strength clearing route. You know,

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Speaker 3: when I talk about clearing route, you get two or

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Speaker 3: three receivers on one side, and one of the guys

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Speaker 3: runs a vertical, whether it's one of the three, will

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Speaker 3: run the vertical to clear out a corner or to

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Speaker 3: clear out a safety. The clear out routes just aren't

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Speaker 3: always clear out routes. Sometimes they end up being primary

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Speaker 3: all right, or they put a little twist on it.

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Speaker 3: And Jigba has gotten so good at you know, making

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Speaker 3: it look like it's a clear out type deep seven route,

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Speaker 3: and then he'll bend it back to the post and

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Speaker 3: and and then you have Donald who has the arm

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Speaker 3: strength to get it there. Uh, so that he's been

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Speaker 3: and he can. He's just so good on the timing

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Speaker 3: on slants all the way up to this, so he

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Speaker 3: his route tree has expanded. Donald does get it will

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Speaker 3: or can or has, especially against the Rams, got himself

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Speaker 3: in trouble trying to get the ball to him. I

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Speaker 3: think that he fixates on him a little bit. And

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Speaker 3: that's kind of the secret I think in getting this

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Speaker 3: Seattle offense in the past to make mistakes is to

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Speaker 3: get pressure on Donald. And when he's when he's uncomfortable

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Speaker 3: in the pocket, because they move him right. They play this.

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Speaker 3: They they have two full backs on their roster. I

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Speaker 3: can't remember the last time I saw an NFL team

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Speaker 3: with two fullbacks. So it's a lot of two back

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Speaker 3: you two back running game, two back passing game bootlegs.

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Speaker 3: They're there. They move Donald a lot. He doesn't sit,

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Speaker 3: he doesn't just sit in the pocket. They keep them

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Speaker 3: moving to keep them protected. But if you can get

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Speaker 3: pressure in his face, he'll fixate on a jigbut and

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Speaker 3: I think that's led to a couple of interceptions for

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Speaker 3: him so far. So offensive line, I mean Charlie Cross

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Speaker 3: there left tackle, and Gray's Abel who's a rookie left guard.

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Speaker 3: They're they're very, very solid. It's Alua, Timmy and Brad

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Speaker 3: and Bradford and then Lucas. The right side of their

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Speaker 3: offensive line can be a little leaky at times, so

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Speaker 3: that's where I think we can get. You get a

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Speaker 3: lot of pre sure from that side. But they also

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Speaker 3: have a couple of good running backs. And that's the

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Speaker 3: thing is we talked earlier about the mentality. If Seattle

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Speaker 3: doesn't feel like they have to score thirty points to

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Speaker 3: win this game, then they might get a little bit

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Speaker 3: more conservatives. You might see more of Charbonay and Kenneth Walker.

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Speaker 3: I think sharbon A is one of the is. Zach

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Speaker 3: Sarabine is a He's a really really good running back.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 3: He's I don't know what his numbers are this year overall.

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Speaker 3: I haven't gotten that far into it yet, but man,

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Speaker 3: I respect him. He's just so he's so fast, he's big,

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Speaker 3: he's fast. Been a problem for us before, and I

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Speaker 3: think I think they're gonna they're they'll lean on that

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Speaker 3: running game more against us than they would against the

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Speaker 3: Rams or or some of his other opponents or even Tennessee.

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Speaker 1: So how would you coach up the guys this week

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Speaker 1: in order to be, you know, as as tight as

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Speaker 1: they can be to be able to maybe disrupt seem

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Speaker 1: Darnold's rhythm stop the run game. Well, I mean you

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Speaker 1: think that'd be kind of the key.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think just saying just that, right is when

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Speaker 3: he has a clear pocket and when he's not under pressure,

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Speaker 3: he can take the top off, he can be you know,

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Speaker 3: he's good. Yeah, we all know that he's accurate, but

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Speaker 3: we also know if we can get pressure on him

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Speaker 3: and get somebody in his face not let him follow through,

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Speaker 3: then good things can happen. So that's kind of the necessity,

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Speaker 3: and I think it's going to be more of when

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Speaker 3: they do decide to do that, And if we don't

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Speaker 3: stop the run first and second down, you're not going

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Speaker 3: to see it because they'll just bootleg and roll out

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Speaker 3: and do those things in third and three, right, those

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Speaker 3: you need to get the third and sevens, third and tens,

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Speaker 3: third and fifteens, and you have to stop the run

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Speaker 3: on first and second down if you want to do that.

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Speaker 3: But they'll go to a quick passing game when they

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Speaker 3: want to just move the ball a little bit. But

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Speaker 3: he manages that very well. But they can put up

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Speaker 3: points very quickly within jigbud. How good he's been playing.

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Speaker 1: Is there any truth to the old saying or the

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Speaker 1: old adage that we talk about, like, oh, well, he

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Speaker 1: has been in our building. He knows what we do.

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Speaker 1: We know what his strengths are as in Sam Donald.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything that there actually matters when people say that.

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Speaker 3: I think there is, but I don't think it's as

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Speaker 3: prevalent as maybe people think because when Donald last year.

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Speaker 3: Once he gets here, he doesn't practice against our defense

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Speaker 3: because he's always going against the look defense. He doesn't

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Speaker 3: meet with our defense, he doesn't watch film with all

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Speaker 3: he knows is the offense. So he might know a

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Speaker 3: thing or two from watching the game, but I don't

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Speaker 3: think he's gonna have a ton of insight into what

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Speaker 3: schematically gives this defense problems because he's not meeting with

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Speaker 3: him every day. You know, he might know a little bit.

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Speaker 3: He's gonna be more familiar, He's gonna know a few things,

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Speaker 3: But I just don't see because you'll see that happen

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Speaker 3: a lot when a guy's somewhere and then he gets

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Speaker 3: cut and then you know we're playing like Seattle cuts

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Speaker 3: somebody this week and we pick him up and you're thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 3: this guy's gonna have all us in you know, well

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Speaker 3: not all the time. They may know, they may know

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Speaker 3: how to execute their there most there are a handful

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Speaker 3: of guys I think they can understand concepts and what

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Speaker 3: they want to do, but there's it'll it would be

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Speaker 3: it'd be a little bit of a help, but not

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Speaker 3: I don't think that much.

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Speaker 1: Well, help or not, it'll be a nice Reunioncye Sam,

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Speaker 1: he's a good guy. Hopefully the Vikings walk away with

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Speaker 1: a victory and uh improved to five and seven would

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Speaker 1: be great to see. You can hear the call for

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Speaker 1: the Seattle game with Paul Allen and Pete Persich as

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Speaker 1: well as the sideline analyst Ben Lieber on Sunday three

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Speaker 1: o'clock kick here in Minneapolis. But we get a one

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Speaker 1: o'clock game when we're over and.

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Speaker 3: What could be more Viking than to go into Seattle,

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Speaker 3: one of the toughest places to play and beat a

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Speaker 3: play a team that's in the playoff run, like we

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Speaker 3: just didn't.

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Speaker 1: Detroit the Detroit Way.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly, so uh we'll yeah, we'll see.

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Speaker 1: Let's see. All right, Thank you, Pete so much appreciated.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for the podcast this week. And don't forget I

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Speaker 1: just said. Kickoff is set for three o'clock. You can

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Speaker 1: hear it right here on Kfan or watch it on Fox.

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Speaker 1: We've got the same team we had last week, Joe Davis,

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Speaker 1: Greg Olsen, and Pam Oliver. And so we're looking forward

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Speaker 1: to this Thanksgiving week of football. It's going to be

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Speaker 1: an exciting weekend, capped off by your vikings on Sunday

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Speaker 1: against the Seattle Seahawks. Minnesota needed a go to source

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Speaker 1: for everything high school sports. That's why the Minnesota Star

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Speaker 1: Tribune created Strib Varsity. Sign up now at startribune dot

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Speaker 1: com slash Strib Varsity