Breaking Down the Minnesota Vikings 2024 Schedule | The Minnesota Football Party

welcome to the party I'm Sam extrom of lockdown Sports Minnesota what is the Vikings equivalent of what the Minnesota Timberwolves just did last night hey this is Arif Assan with the widel substack I was unsuccessful in ending Luke's honeymoon early I'm Luke Braun of locked on Vikings I lived hey Luke Bron is back locked on Sports Minnesota podcast it's endless Minnesota Vikings talk with the diverse voices of your local experts it's time for the Minnesota football [Music] party welcome in on a Monday a new week here at lockon sports Minnesota and the Minnesota football party so glad you're joining us today I'm Sam xtram you met Arie Assan you met Luke Brun it's Vikings talk for the next hour or so we're going to break down the schedule which we have not done on this show yet we did not have a show on Thursday we're back after a week off we'll also get into Robert tunan te1 question mark and of course the obligatory wolves topic is there an equivalent to what the vik or to what they just did for the Minesota Vikings a game seven win against a defending champion in come from behind fashion yes we'll talk a little bit of basketball on today's Minnesota football party which is brought to you by some basketball experts here truly I've watched a full basketball game pro basketball game in the last two years I at least a half at least a half um it's brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that's 150 bucks with any winning $5 bet visit fanduel.com lockon to get started Luke Braun gets the first word today he's back from his honeymoon in exotic Parts um of the world what I don't think you really had to deal with any shocking breaking news that that came up while you were gone I think you basically were able to fly under the radar without uh waking up to anything bizarre am I correct in that yeah no I I saw a lot of people talking about uh Jared goff's contract I think that was probably the biggest thing NFL wide that broke while I was gone but otherwise it was like Robert tan and then some like deep roster shuffling in the schedule James Lynch is back James Lynch is back that's kind of nuts I definitely thought he was Gonzo uh no relation to any athletes named Braun uh the only athletes in my family are now well into their 60s I think I think it's pronounced Christian Brown right oh well he's wrong then nuggets Ben I agree also very annoying glad he's gone we've got some serious Nas Reed momentum in the comments this is definely going to devolve Timberwolves show I a knowledge that um uh but we're going to get into this Viking schedule as well now Luke Brun this is your favorite thing to break down so I want you to I want you to give your we we we got the schedule last Wednesday and it is a little bit of a strange one because there are two stretches where the Vikings go a month without playing a home game I'm not counting the London game as a home game that is a neutral sight game um anything stand out to you first and foremost Luke Brun just in in the way of the games are ordered ordered because I know that this means a lot to you uh thinking about it in the context of like when does JJ McCarthy play doesn't it kind of feel like they designated A Moment Like doesn't it feel like they they stacked all the toughest games up front and then there's a stretch in like November where it's like okay JJ McCarthy can come in here and he gets like all these non-playoff teams he gets like the Cardinals and Falcons like and you know hey Chicago might be good who's who's to say right you get you get them you know late yeah it'd be before that it'd be like it's like Indie Jacksonville CH they they go like six games in a row without playing a playoff team or a Tennessee obviously Jacksonville but then you've got like Chicago and then Atlanta again and then then obviously the division games come late so you're gonna have to have Detroit late in the season just the way it works out but yeah all the toughest games are at the the beginning I think if you take a look at like you know Vegas win uh totals Vikings have like the fifth most difficult schedule although I saw not comparable to like the top three are clustered together and then there's a pretty big gap so it's not really comparable to the most difficult ones the most interesting thing to me and I very much dislike giving credit to Warren sharp but um really fantastic work on the schedule release which I didn't this is like his thing like yeah killed it um what so one of the things that he did was he did net rest days so if you're uh you know if you're not coming off of a bye and you're taking on a team coming off of a bye they have seven or more net rest days against you uh if you're coming off a Thursday night game you have 10 rest days coming against a team that is seven so you have plus three um that that's pretty cool right the Vikings are tied for second in in positive net rest days they're not taking on any teams coming off of a buy the whole season at least according to the way I'm interpreting this grid um they are you know coming off of a buy against a team that is not coming off of a buy uh and so they have plus 12 net rest days the Ravens are number one at plus 16 which is quite the edge um but yeah I mean the Vikings are tied with the Patriots and the Eagles in in plus 12 net rest days which is nice terms of total travel miles the Vikings I think are in the middle in terms of total travel time zone in the middle and obviously a lot of that is localized to their game uh in uh England which uh that a neutral you know the the Jets will have like two time zone Advantage I or one time zone Advantage I suppose um it's not going to be that big a deal when you're traveling that far um I find it kind of interesting um for example the Packers have more travel miles but fewer travel time zones because they're giant travel is South right they're only traveling two time zones for the Brazil game um so I think the you know isolating to both miles and time zones is kind of interesting but yeah from a schedule release standpoint independent of the fact that we already know who the opponents are are uh the Vikings ended up uh pretty positive here it seems let's break this down in a multitude of ways um biwe record predict the bye-week record that's five games Giants 49ers Texans Packers Jets this is not the easiest pre-bi schedule of all time and as you mentioned this is one of those McCarthy onramps if the record is is one and four at the buy and it's been largely because of Sam darnold that's probably your first entry point for the rookie uh what do you guys make of the bye yeah I don't I don't like that scenario I could see it going down that way but that doesn't like that's not starting him because he's ready that's starting him because your season's going down the drain which is not a maybe that's the Nick Rin entry point maybe honestly yeah like yeah if you're gonna bench Sam darnold to bench Sam darnold don't put in the rookie just because he's there if he's not like ready to go but obviously I think a lot of people feel weird huh right M uh that would be very weird Jaren Hall get in there come on champ uh yeah but like I could see them doing that I just hate it when that happens with rookies when it's like they're clearly that happened with Justin fields and Andy Dalton too um that but yeah that like I I see I could see one and four honestly like the Vikings are like a bottom five team in like Vegas odds for like a reason they're major holes on the roster Sam darnold is probably weak one starting quarterback like this is not going to be that serious of a team right now and that's okay they're nurturing a rookie quarterback this is part of the process but we're gonna have to kind of grit our teeth and and endure a fairly rough September I think the uh the Vikings on FanDuel are actually favored against the Giants this is a change I think they began as underdogs money is swung Vikes are minus one against the Giants also remembered it they randomly have the London game line on FanDuel as well you want to guess that one sure uh Jets minus three and a half Jets minus four and a half AR Reef nailed it three and a half oh nice nice I'm not super confident in in rogers's return I suppose to me this is probably a two and three start which is not enough to go the rookie in there also remember this is a team that you know in 20 22 started off like one and four or something like that and they're like nah don't worry about it and they were right and so um this kind of like you know I'm not going to say manufactured resiliency but like history of resiliency is probably going to inform the way that they make these choices which will allow them to be a little bit more patient with rookie development and stuff like that and also allow them to be patient when it comes to injuries they were relatively patient when it came to quarterback um injuries like Nick Mullen for example and Jefferson and they did a lot better than you'd expect given those situations um this team to me just strikes me as one that's just probably not going to rush JJ McCarthy out there I do find it interesting that they do have the bye after the London game so I my understanding is that every team has an option to take the bye following London and in 2022 the Vikings declined that option as did a couple of other teams because they wanted that by week to happen later in the season um now that was a I think it was a week four London game for a week five by week which is why they declined it and it is slightly different if it's week five to week six um but yeah I'm really curious if they I don't know if they they regret that decision or if it being a week later help them or having quarterback because they one coming back yeah yeah well it's just I mean they they changed their decision which is why I'm you know curious about it yeah um but um yeah I mean like or or they they wanted it later in the end NFL was like yeah scheduling wise we can't I mean that's obviously a possibility but my understanding is you know if they don't want it they're not going to they're not going to get it um so I don't know I'm just kind of curious about that and I wonder if like having a rookie quarterback changed their approach on that one or not um but yeah uh having that early bye as opposed to having one later on which is what based off of what Kevin McConnell was talked about in terms of bye scheduling is kind of what he prefers is interesting and and maybe having that rookie quarterback played a role in in the Viking potential I don't know if they actually did potential decision to opt out or opt into um that that post London bye and and regrettably they don't get like the half buy with the Thursday game much later it's two weeks after the buy so those are congested in the front half of the schedule the second half of the season's going to have basically no breaks um I think two and three is the correct answer on pre-bi record but I also could see a scenario where you get off to like an unsustainable 3-0 start because you're dealing with the Giants nobody trusts Daniel Jones he's off a long long layoff um you've got super off against the 49ers in Texans Minnesota would be on fire okay but but you're dealing you're dealing with the Super Bowl hangover Factor early in the season with San Francisco and you're dealing with the sophomore slump of CJ stoud like you've got all of the all the week is kind of late for you know Christian mcaffry will be hurt by then exactly um yeah I mean Shanahan's not as deep in his play calling bag in week two I think that this and you get the home opener Vibes I I actually think there's a chance the Vikings get off to one of those starts that so many half-cocked narrative reasons that they're gonna take one against Sam darnold's Revenge game he's gonna be juice he's a Revenge game yeah we get okay we get the Sam darnold 49ers Revenge game as like a little warm up appetizer before we go to London and get the real Sam donold Revenge game yeah it that' be the real and it'll be same Donald Revenge game and also like the Woody Johnson Memorial game because he used to be the ambassador to England um which I think that's great um but also I mean hey if we want to like cook up some narrative reasons that the 499ers are going to lose like what about the locker room trouble about trading their receivers like what's going on there oh yeah true maybe they'll still be uh how do we feel about losing what probably would have been Aaron rogers's last time in US Bank Stadium yeah that stinks oh yeah yeah that's too bad it was pretty nice in um 2022 when the Vikings had nine true home games and six true Road games right because the Saints London game was neutral but a road game so the schedule was actually super unbalanced in their favor and now with the Jets switching now it's been evened out to basically eight8 and one um which is a bummer yeah that stinks yeah but they they have the net rest days so you know all well that ends well um let's break this down in another uh facet toughest game on the schedule uh this is hard the I'm gonna say the road game against San Francisco week two I that's home it's a home game oh oh I'm reading this backwards uh the home game against San Francisco week two honestly there's not these Ro I mean I guess the week 18 against Detroit is a concern I'm a little yeah that was what I was going to say yeah I'm a little less uh concerned about Detroit uh versus most people but I mean they're still a good team so who cares Seattle week 16 but not that hard it's really there aren't a lot of games where I say oh they're done like they're toast um never and honestly half the time they win those games anyway like like at Buffalo two years ago we we all crossed that one off before the season and they ended up winning that's yeah that's Any Given Sunday that's the nature of the NFL yeah yeah um best home game I think it's Kirk's return Kirk's return fun yeah uh I think that'll be late enough in the season where like it won't like I I feel like we'll have been focused on other things for long enough where it'll just be like oh yeah Kurt Cousins like hey it won't it won't I don't think there'll be like the buildup you know like if it were a week one thing we would build up to it for months and we would like over dramatize it like WF forget to set like we'll forget to set out the glass tube full of rocks we'll forget to have the flameless Grill if you set out the tube he comes and he gives all the kids gifts I can already I can already see the the storyline heading in it's a battle for wild card position the Falcons are six and six the Vikings are five and seven it's the NFL on Fox I'm Chris Meyers oh God Chris Myers um yeah I mean like when you say best home game do you mean like the most difficult one no just best narrative best Vibes uh VI yeah I guess Vibes wise Atlanta's there because they should be they should have like a good offense right because they've got all these weapons that they've been unable to use because they've had like Desmond rard and Marcus Mariota quarterback um but yeah I don't know it's these home games are mostly a bad it's a bad home schedule I don't like it it's there's not a lot of comping I'm pretty excited for Houston especially if like tank Dell is not as hurt as it seems like he is uh I mean he like there was just a video of just him like sprinting like after he got shot which like good for him man um in which case the week three Houston I mean I love The Vibes to that Houston team right so right they should be explosive and fun so maybe it's that one if you want you can maybe get a uh functionally eliminated Vikings getting completely thrashed by the Packers week 17 as his annual tradition that's true yeah I mean yeah yeah I I'm writing a piece right now on like if Jordan love is actually good or if we've all just been tricked by you know late season stuff and I'm not I'm not really loving the direction the piece is going so he might be good um I just kind of thought about this in right now uh the golf contract that broke while Brun was gone that's kind of a big deal 53 million dollar per year guarantee obviously not that much but right that's a sizable commitment from Detroit for a guy that he was great last year but I also think he's got a floor that is not super high and we don't know how he's going to age and we don't know what's going to happen when that team gets a little more expensive and harder to to maintain I I don't know I I I love where the Vikings are right now I love it they've got a roster that is not there but close they're not starting from zero they're starting the clock on the rookie quarterback contract um Packers are gonna have to to figure out the love the love deal as well like the Vikings suddenly that's true love love contract was pretty short that's coming up it's going to be really funny to watch the narratives on everybody shift now that quarterbacks have become more or less expensive it does kind of feel like the media just follows like well they're not paying a quarterback and that's going to like determine how for historically is like way overrated when you compare it to the narrative weight we give rookie contract quarterbacks right like did well I feel like we had a few Super Bowls in a row of like seconde guys or third year guys like there was always like someone on a rookie contract in the Super Bowl it's like Brock py and like Jaylen Herz and then Joe burrow a little bit ago and yeah and then Jared G was in the Super Bowl and then the Carson Wentz year the year before that and he was hurt but like there was there was still credit for like it just it was like a few years in a but what about let's not but let's not make it just about being in the Super Bowl how about giving your team a chance to be in the Super Bowl like the AFC was littered with I've been told that that's that's a loser mentality yeah but like I've been told that that doesn't count I'm sorry Sam but like a look at like oh my God the AFC had so many you know quarterbacks and rookie contracts make the playoffs and then suddenly those same quarterbacks signed big contracts and they contined to make the playoffs uh it turns out the the thing the reason the rookie contract quarterbacks are good yeah there's the obvious reason that they save you money but also the quarterbacks were good like that's a really important component of that uh so like Lamar Jackson and Joe burrow like you know brought them there because they're good and also they got to spend a little bit after Josh Allen signed his contract it turns out they continued to make the playoffs Patrick Mahomes signed his contract the Chiefs have done all right I believe since Patrick Mahomes has signed his contract um so okay uh I mean the Rams have the most topheavy team ever right you know they traded for Matthew Stafford and they they managed to ring so yeah it is an advantage I just think we tend to overstate the advantage of it um I don't know but yeah the the thing with Jared gof where where now we're testing the limits of like because if the whole point is it doesn't matter because you know the the quarterbacks we were talking about are actually just very good now you've got Jared G who you know I probably underrate if if I'm being 100% honest and introspective with myself but is not at top 10 quarterback and so if you're paying him like he is in that range now you really get to kind of stress test the rest of that the you know the quarterback contract theory you know if if he's not going to give you that Advantage it maybe you just have to keep drafting well but I mean I don't know that the Lions actually are drafting tremendously well I mean this year you know the consensus board loves what they did last year it didn't but you know you know they're they're running Victory laps when two of those picks worked out tremendously and and two of them did not at all um I don't know it we'll see but the Lions will have to keep drafting well which is a historically very difficult thing to sustain a team on this is a big hit for my guy hinden hooker crushing so crushing oh man pick what 68 it's Kell Mond man you're ex making the team by year three year four no um probably not is is Robert tanion a te1 that's the question I'm asking next on the Minnesota football party I'm also going to ask these guys about a FanDuel prop regarding JJ McCarthy no spoilers don't look it up because it's on FanDuel FanDuel has a lot of great options for betting on the future NFL season also the playoffs in the NBA and NHL bet the Wolves against the Mavs you got that line in game one coming up on Wednesday FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own if you're a new customer get 150 bucks in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that's a free 150 to spread around on money lines player props and so much more fanduel.com lockon to get started fanduel.com lockon make every playoff shot count or your NFL Futures FanDuel America's number one sports book okay before we talk tanion what does FanDuel know that we don't they have not posted a Sam darnold prop they have posted a JJ McCarthy passing yards prop guess the it is not that any longer you just made like a Blues Clues noise yeah I'm confused you can also guess uh total touchdown passes for JJ 12 I don't look I if it's not the full season touchdown total or the full season yardage total I'm I'm just throwing darts here that is part of the that is part of the process here I want you to talk through what you think a sports book would assume for I think the sports book assumes that that McCarthy takes over Midway through the season I don't think they pay as much attention to the bye as the rest of us do um and because they're playing with like wide confidence intervals and averages and stuff like that it's going to be tough so um I would expect them to rate McCarthy as a somewhat volumetric quarterback this year obviously he wasn't at Michigan but you know Kevin mconnell throws the ball a fair amount um and uh I would expect that to be maybe like a 4500 yard season for an average quality quarterback uh in in a high volume passing offense in an in a 17 Game season you take half of that that's like 2300 um and so I it's kind of why I got to 2500 um but yeah I 3200 is crazy to me um I think it's the same logic but they're going with like two thirs of the Season instead of half the season yeah I think requires 4500 which feels aggressive any anyway anyway yeah um yeah so AR you're pretty close 29 25.5 which is almost on the nose to assuming that McCarthy starts after the buy because you've got 12 games left in the season that's an average of 244 yards per game over 12 games which I think is about exactly what you would expect from a rookie quarterback Kirk averaged 263 for his career and he's above average I think 243 is right on the money uh which is interesting and that would also correlate with um in their opinion 18 and a half touchdowns I 12 I I did do the the halfway as opposed to the two3 so I guess that's actually consistent um I would hammer the under if I were yeah sounds like people have been because that is like 300 yards further is okay we have someone in chat which we have to verify because you can never trust chat saying there's a disclaimer that has to start all the games there's no way that's is that no way what kind of what kind of season long Pro first of all what kind of yeah what kind of like 2900 yard prop expects you to start all the game Nick Snider come on he's gonna start all the games but he's not going to pass over 3,000 yards that that feels like the kind of assumption of Sportsbook would make with like what AR was talking about like huge margins for error uh to answer the like what do they know part like they don't know any more than anybody knows the Vikings don't even know who's going to start after the bye like they haven't answered that question yet there's not secret information that's waiting to be revealed that the sports book secretly knows I feel like people do that with the sports books a lot they do that with the with the draft props like a lot yeah the sports books nothing with the draft props or free agency props it turns out yeah it's like they're they know who it's like everybody already knows how the draft is going and it's a secret and they're just like for someone to leak it oops the sports book leak no they didn't nobody knows what's going to happen so I'll say this about betting markets historically betting markets are quite good but that is contingent upon a high volume of tickets and a high volume of dollars and quite good is like 6040 which is fantastic but like that's statistically you have to get your mind into like it's still very probabilistic yes uh and so they're quite good at uh point spreads they're very bad at free agency I mean I have a piece over at wide left that like asks how good are they at you know figuring out free agency Landing spots and they're awful at it and often they contradict each other one sports book will have a player's favorite team being the one that he's on and another one will have it as a different team we had multiple Sports books with I think three different teams for Kurt Cousins in the same week as the favorite and so you can't just say hey they know something cuz it's like well which one which one knows something because they can't all be right um yeah I don't I don't think they have a secret knowledge it's really just about the amount of money coming in and the number of tickets you know being purchased and one thing I want to add is I wonder if the normalization of sports betting will increase or decrease the accuracy of sports books I genuinely don't know my guess is decrease probably not a ton but um as you reduce the number of Sharps that are in the market that are using sophisticated Botts and stuff like that an encouraging um relatively casual gambling especially with like um especially in these first couple of years where we've got deals like protected plays and stuff like that you're probably not getting a ton of people super invested in the decision they're making for the bet that they're taking so I'm guessing over the next couple of years they'll be a little bit less accurate uh before the market corrects again interesting yeah once you get well like once a line has been up for a while too it is um it it's pretty much wisdom of crowds like when the line first goes up and then like the sharps will hit it and and that will kind of set what you usually see if you see the line early but once it's been up for a few weeks it's more determined at least in the sports books that I've been able to like talk to people it's like more determined by what people like by the the actual betting Market pushing the lines up and down and stuff like that than it is like anybody's specific know colge Robert tunan signed with the Vikings while Braun was away my question to you guys could he be a tight end one he continues his NFC North tour after some very good years with Green Bay a bad year with Chicago now with Minnesota where he competes with $2 million player Johnny Mt blocking tight end Josh Oliver and something called I think Nick Muse is still around I think Nick Muse yeah the tan is 30 years old he is not a blocker but he has far more on his resume from an offensive production standpoint than an Oliver or a Mt you're not holding a roster let's not forget that Robert tanion did sign with the Detroit Lions uh as an undrafted fre agan so this is the tour yeah it's very actually pretty rare he's bringing all the divisional secrets to Minnesota but I I do not think it's outlandish at all to think that t tan could take over for Mt Mt the presumed I think tight end one or maybe 1 a 1B with Oliver I mean so I mean you're saying in terms of like in terms of targets right because I think Josh Oliver will dominate in terms of snaps I think for for tight end you have to say snap counts because blocking is important for the tight ends well yeah then I think Josh Oliver's tight end one maybe okay yeah then let's think in production because Josh Oliver I don't think will lead in production in respon I don't I think Oliver would come out when it's not 12 Personnel right like he wouldn't be the 11 personnel tight end it would be the blocking tight end so I don't know if he actually would lead in like maybe I mean they they see they see Johnny Mt also as primarily a blocking tight end like the way they talk about him but what so when they were in 11 personnel last year with hackinson out Johnny Mt was the guy right right because they didn't they right because of the way that they had to practice in training camp right now they practice in training camp without Hawkinson yeah I think maybe I don't know um that's where I'm at like Oliver never exceeded 40 snaps last year just for like I I think they say Josh Oliver you're Josh Oliver you do the Josh Oliver thing you be the blocking tight end and for this more versatile role we need an 11 personnel we have a competition between Johnny Mt and Robert tanion and I guess Nick Muse can play too Nick Muse also is there yeah um yeah I I guess I I just anticipate just because of the way that they've talked about the perceived Talent differences between um Oliver and and other tight ends in general um that they'll probably have all of her out there a little bit more often they did talk about getting him more involved in the receiving game when they signed him obviously that didn't happen and obviously that's a fairly normal talking point for when you sign a blocking tit end and be like hey he's a better receiver than you all think and no he's not but but hey he had that really cool screen on the opening play in the wi out game against Detroit I think it was a check down he was just alone and he like scampered for like yeah no one covered it was like the CJ cover that guy but um but I do think they they want to get him more involved in the receiving game so I'm just gonna stick it out there and say I think Josh Oliver leads in in snaps in terms of receptions I think it's Jesus I mean ton is coming off such a bad year um obviously Cole KT took the priority in terms of TI yeah that was K related I think um but I I don't know was it like 17 catches or something like that I don't remember 17 targets 11 receptions I I'm washing it out come on the quarterback play was abysmal they had multiple guy who they had he lost his job to a guy and got cut he's two years removed from a 67 Target 500 yard season with correct he is two years removed from it so one year in between in a bad situation this is a great by low signing yeah it's a by let's see if he's still got any juice but like I think he's ex like just as as likely to like get real offensive contribution as he is to just straight up like get cut before the third preseason game yeah I yeah I think that's where you're at I think it's like the Kendall Wright it's like I I remember him he was pretty good for a little bit doesn't mean he's going to be good now doesn't mean that he's going to even make the team but if he does there's probably something exciting there I think it's very difficult to be like good and also have a 11 catches like I just that if you're a receiving tight end at least like I know that Cole kit was the primary tight end I know that that quarterback play was rough 11 catches I I feel like we're making way more excuses than we need to he I mean he came into the league kind of older um he was always kind of uh he he blew up as an older tight end um with the Packers I I don't know like I just feel like he's closer to wash I mean he's 30 already he's closer to wash than he is um going to take over the tight end targets and obviously the Vikings will will Target you know Jefferson and Addison more and you know we'll see what happens with the other receivers maybe Jaylen Naylor you know makes good on the camp excitement he had last year but um I I I don't see him like taking the tight end one rule I think there's a really good chance that Johnny manau competes him for um a receiving tight end role I guess uh and then the offense is going to look a lot better when hackinson returns I will agree with you on that I just don't think that tanion is competing with much of anything I certainly don't think they have enough loyalty to Nick Muse problem is is he like he is also not much of anything so it's just it's yeah it's it's like the defense of the Interior defensive line competition it's like a whole bunch of like Justus a guys that maybe wouldn't make other teams let's one of them good yeah this this team kind of lik does he make they love they love they don't love churning the depth they like keeping the depth in the building Kind of a Funny Trend that they've established sometimes I they had like a lot of roster spots open this year I don't know how true that is it's it depend like they like their guys they've got their Johnny MTS yeah yeah yeah sometimes they find a guy and they're like this guy but other that their brain imp Pals but like yeah this guy this guy buard they love Bullard yeah fair enough I bet I could think of one other yeah I'm sure I'm sure you could we're waiting um quinberry they brought back quinberry they did bring him back did they love questen berry or do they have quinberry I feel like there's like a difference oh they love quber let me tell you yeah uh quick pause and then we will ask the question what is the Vikings equivalent of what the Wolves did last night that's next Minnesota football party we spent a lot of time breaking down the Vikings schedule and now that you know the dates you know the times you can get tickets you can go on game time with their killer deals all in prices views from your seat and you can get tickets to the home opener September 15th against San Franco Isco I'm going because I use game time uh you can also check out the Texans game you could go to the final home game against the Packers there are some great possibilities there are some great deals using the game time app with the lowest price guarantee game time credits you% of the difference if you find better seats uh with Zone deals you choose a section game time chooses the seats for great savings and with their priority last minute deals if you want to wait till the weekend of save up to 60% with last minute buying for sports as well as concerts comedy theater Etc take the guest workout of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code locked on NFL all on word for $20 off l c k d o nnfl download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right Hoops junkies will enjoy these final moments the Minnesota Timberwolves won game seven we have one of three basketball like dedicated basketball Watchers on this podcast I think I think AEF bleeds I think AEF is is more of a a fanboy than we give him credit for I know I'm an extremely fair weather fan I I want to make that so Braun you put out a poll yesterday about the game what was it again should okay so I'm not a basketball fan I I do not claim wolves fandom uh I grew up what like going to wolves games and stuff but I I just don't really care about basketball it's fine it's not it's nobody's fault uh but I I hey look man everybody's crazy going crazy for the Timberwolves should I watch or am I bad luck because I didn't want to like mess with anyone's Superstition and everyone and and everyone that yes won the poll yes do watch and they said if it's going bad turn it off at halftime and then I fell asleep and I woke up with like six minutes left in the game so I missed everything you missed the the pivotal portion where the Wolves turned it around so clearly your nap helped yeah so it's 5:30 local oh no you traveled right okay never mind yeah yeah I'm jet lagged and very messed up what's going on okay yeah uh I'm thinking of the Vikings equivalent of a come from behind game seven win against a nemesis a pass champion in this case on the road it is hard to think of Viking a Vikings moment like that the Minneapolis Miracle is is probably the most similar because of how shocking it was it got them to a Conference Final it was against kind of a Kryptonite team from their past there there's not a lot of moments that live up to what what happened last night un I can't think of anything so I looked up any games that the Vikings played in playoff or otherwise where at halftime they were down by two scores I feel like that's not as egregious as being down by 20 at the half in an NBA game but you know they do have runs so who's to say uh and there's only five games where that's happened and they won two of them of course occurred in 2022 but yeah and and the Broncos game in in 19 yeah another one and against Denver there you go Denver hey but like these are all relatively low stakes games like they should not have been down against the Colts like at all actually much less by two scores um whereas against you know the Nuggets like being down by 20 points that sucks but the Nuggets were supposed to be a better team they're the defending Champions they've got the MVP you understand where that's coming from so having a comeback against a team that good is fantastic having it in such a high stakes environment is fantastic having it occur with all of these fantastic and interesting and improbable storylines it would be as if like the Rudy gar turnaround right would be as if Josh Oliver caught you know a 40 yard pass deep down scene you're like okay yeah I there's nothing they can do now Josh Oliver's catching bombs they're done night didn't didn't somebody say when when he made that that's like oh we're winning yeah an oh yeah okay good it's like we got it now I don't think the Minneapolis Miracle is that bad of a com comparison it doesn't quite exactly line up cuz the deficit was different and like the Vikings were leading at halftime and then they gave up the deficit but it's like a swingy game it felt really over and then it wasn't over and now they can advance to the semi-final I I think it feels okay yeah I think that's the closest you can get is okay right so like the Bills game fine the Colts game fine but they just don't have the stakes or the expectation um the closest I could find outside of the miracle is probably they had a they had a week 15 game against the Eagles in 1978 where they came back from down like 13 or something like that um which put them you know into better playoff contention right they were going to make the playoffs either way so like yeah otherwise there's like a bunch of week three week four games there's a game against the Packers that you know they they got into overtime as a result of it um that was in 2005 but that was early in the season and the Packers were not particularly good that year so I don't know but uh it feels like this is a relatively singular moment and I think the miracle is as close as we're going to get has something that that kind of matches the the feeling the Euphoria cuz I think I think the euphor like I've I've watched a lot of Minnesota sports I think this is behind it like this is this is number two hard to beat a moment like the miracle I don't think it will be beaten um I think this is right there this it was a Mount Rushmore Minnesota sports event um you see you see the Russell Dunlap uh comment I think that's a good one think the miracle is the series with the Nuggets rather than just Gam seven right up and that's very good yeah I like that that's a good one true um but yeah uh especially because like you know Case Keenum played such a critical role but yeah uh redar versus 49ers was nuts it sucks that was a great one right but that was so good for a regular season game yeah go ahead the the I think the fundamental element of all of the is belief right you don't have belief and now you do right like that's like the Vikings coming back against the Colts was great I feel like I got a little bit less out of the game than a lot of people because I didn't come out of that game having a strong faith that the Vikings were a team of Destiny I did come out of that Miracle game thinking that though right and and I think that that's the important thing is that they have to they have to give you every reason not to believe and then give you every reason to believe that's what the Wolves were doing right and what the miracle did and that's what the Favre game did um lot of these other games I don't think they do that it's interesting that that's the Favre game we always talk about and not the like playoff win yeah it right we love just it wasn't an interesting game it was over by halftime which is a much better result but it's not the one we history yeah but it's not iconic yeah let me tell you about addiction Luke Brun it's the it's the things that those moments do to our brain like there's such a visceral response that like that's why it's seared when there's when there isn't drama when you dispatch of a team so thoroughly like 34 to3 against the Cowboys or even the Monday night game against the Packers it doesn't hit the same way to get that sometimes sometimes it doesn't hit game six hit pretty hard that's the biggest playoff win in NBA history or something like that right what one of yeah one of them yep yeah and I was I was yeah that game I'm going to remember pretty well like some sometimes if it is a thorough undressing you can you can but it has to be like a unique style of like beat down it cannot be a methodical you know like the Wolves did it with style in game six um Wild game seven against Avalanche twice by the way they've done that yes very awesome that's I think that's also on the Mount Rushmore but I is it disconcerting at all that the Vikings may get beaten to this title among the uh why no I I I think I always and it wouldn't be disconcerting to me wrong word choice I think I always thought that the Vikings would be kind of the curse breaker in town and I know that the twins have won titles it's been 33 years now that's the least Vikings e thing you can be is a curse breaker the most curs team offers the biggest catharsis I and I get that there's this like ego to it but I for one there's so many overlap fans that are going to be really really happy like who cares uh but also I do think that what like that takes a little bit of pressure off the Vikings so if anything it's like it can be good for your head space be like oh look Minnesota sports team can it can be done yeah I um I would have preferred it if it were the Vikings of course for a number of reasons the first of which is that I'm primarily a football fan not a basketball fan and also I would personally profit from it I can't ignore that fact yeah um but like but also I think that there is something to be said about the pracy to which the Vikings take in the state like I you know people are much more Vikings fans than they are Timberwolves fans or they were before the season started anyway um and and I think that the the depth of attachment people have to the Vikings is greater in part because the timber wolves are a younger team and also because they just don't make the playoffs as often um as as cat pointed out uh right right after the game so great that was so funny how much do you want us to lose man but um I mean the Timberwolves have been a miserable team in the way that the Vikings weren't the Vikings have been a tantalizing team right and so they they always make you buy into their belief right it's like last time in team was this kid was like 2004 literally 20 years ago right so I don't know basketball Lions kind of yeah I mean the parallels are insane they were like the the forcades and now they made a run to the conference Championship like walking up the I don't want it to end the way it ended for the lions that would suck um that would be probably a three-oh lead and they got a slingshot past the Lions now use them pull yourself up slingshot pass but yeah I think that there's much more of a cultural significance attached to the Vikings so it feels like not an opportunity lost but it feels like something could have been done because there is as we wrap here there is a fun momentum of a playoff series that really gets the fans lathered up I think more than than a singular football game just because of how the NBA Playoffs is a two-month experience that brings you along and brings people on as it goes um easy to forget that yeah yeah I mean I I didn't know basketball could be played on May 20th and Beyond but that's uh that's our show today Minnesota football party lockdown Sports Minnesota we'll be back Thursday Luke Inman might make his return from his international travels we'll get the gang back together and schedule Luke Bron's Wing eating contest that's all coming up in the coming days on the Minnesota football party on lockdown Sports Minnesota see you