Welcome to Skoloholics, your home for Minnesota Vikings Discussion! Every day you can join us for the latest Minnesota Vikings news, lots of Minnesota Vikings talk, also NFL news and updates, and most anything else you may have on your mind. At Skoloholics, the real action is in the comments, so if you haven’t checked out the comments section yet, sign up and join the conversation.
Vikings Discussion & Random Thoughts
We’re expecting our first big snow storm of the year, it should be on the ground by the time you read this. They were expecting quite a bit, but it sounds like it’ll only be six inches or so (TWSS).
I made prime rib on the smoker last night.
I don’t know why the country of Turkey isn’t a more popular destination for a Thanksgiving vacation.
Vikings and NFL News
CBS Sports reports that J.J. McCarthy is in concussion protocol and will miss the Seahawks game.
Chip Scoggins at the Star-Tribune looks at how the Vikings got into the position they currently find themselves in.
From Vikings.com, HC Kevin O’Connell talks about the Packers game/meltdown and the upcoming Seahawks game.
With all the NFL week 12 games in the books, here are all the highlights and stats from NFL.com.
Media Selection
Great conversation with Jordan Peterson on the Diary of a CEO podcast. Enjoy!
Thread Guidelines
- Keep politics to a minimum. We are adults, news happens, and we can talk about it. What we don’t want is to go down rabbit holes and turn a productive conversation into name calling and personal attacks.
- Be respectful and civil. You don’t need to agree with everyone, you also don’t need to make it personal. Attack the argument, not the poster.
- Keep the NSFW language/pictures to a minimum. We don’t want anyone getting in trouble at work for hanging out here.
- To summarize, behave like adults. Treat each other with respect, and things will be fine. Mods will take out content they feel is pushing the boundary. If you want to reach out about something, please do. We want to have robust discussions, that’s why we’re here, just be civil.
- Twitter sized version: Be cool to one another.
PFF says Kelly had a good game in his return….so there is that.
Best offensive gradesRB Jordan Mason 86.7
C Ryan Kelly 84.4
OT Brian O’Neill 77.1
JJ checked in with a 47.3, must have received credit for not fumbling any handoffs.
What do they do if Brosmer looks “decent to good” on Sunday?
I do not believe that will happen but we will see.
‘What do they do if Brosmer looks “decent to good” on Sunday’
Try to win the game??
Whether he has the capability to look good or not is up for debate. What I am sure of, is that KOC will call the dumbest plays possible to make sure he doesn’t do well. Whether that is on purpose or not, is the question.
Since 2000, the only QB with a worse than JJ in the “Efficiency per Drop Back” metric is Jamarcus Russell.
No news here, we all understand that JJ is historically bad.
Yeah.. he is off to a very rough start. Right now I’m getting worried he isn’t going to be able to do it. Not giving up on him yet though. He just has a really long way to go.
Update on Smoke Alarm drama from this morning.
Went to Lowe’s and picked up a 10′ ladder, considered 12 ft but that was just overkill.
Loaded it into the Taco Ma, came home, unloaded, drug it into the house, set it up, replaced the battery and found a place to store the new ladder. All this before The Teacher could finish her shower so she ‘could help’.
I feel ready to change a car battery now. #grin
Strong work!
Nice! Way to go SoCal!
I have been so busy at work I forgot it was Kirk-Tuesday!!!
Falcons just reinforced their faith in Kirk Cousins with under-the-radar signing
Kirko’s agent realizes that there will be a market for Kirk next season…
I forget, is Kirk the best qb in the world or the worst in the world? I get conflicting signals on here.
Yes.
Cousins is solid. Fast brain, accurate arm.
Nice to see KJ get a job again.
I agree. KJ is better than he gets credit for. He catches the ball well, runs good routes, and fights for additional yards after the catch. Quality guy in my opinion.
This officially sucks…
‘Mama said that there would days like that!’
The picture of the prime rib makes me think of this
I thought it was a slice of chocolate cake at first……
i can see that, being set up vertically just makes it look different
This play is sort of a microcosm of what we see from McCarthy. He never sees the defense, or Addison. He sees a bunch of green jerseys in coverage and immediately works the ball to Hock.
I agree – I don’t think he ever saw Addison.
Correct. He works Jefferson who is covered well first, and immediately goes to Hock. He’s not working progressions and reads.
What do you mean, he had all day by NFL standards. Who’s the guy running deep down the middle of the field completely open to the inside. There’s was no need to dump this, at that time.
This friggin coaching I think.
It’s processing. That’s Nailor running the deep middle and the only reason he ends up really having some separation is because the zone DB falls down. If you’re making reads and progressions, Addison is the second read. McCarthy doesn’t do that though. He isn’t confident trying to hit Jefferson, and decides to get the ball out to the receiver physically closest to him on the field.
Why, he is getting no pressure? There is no need to dump the ball that quickly. And you get people killed throwing passes like that.
The slot on the top that gets open down the middle looks pretty damn tall at least on the film here, and open.
As a QB you have to see this, it’s right in front of you. It doesn’t get much easier.
Well two things. First this clip shows how rapidly an NFL defense “morphs” from pre-snap to post snap. Pre-snap, the Packers are showing Cover 1 man, with 7 guys at the line of scrimmage. Post snap they drop three and convert to a cover three shell, with quarters under. that’s a lot for a QB to process in a second and a half.
Second, McCarthy just doesn’t want to do anything stupid with the ball. He can’t really see what the defense is doing and process Addison’s route, which is the correct read. That is beyond him at this point. He just sort of looks at Jefferson, and that’s it. He dumps the ball to Hock, and of course Hock gets lit up.
There is one more element here I think folks generally fail to recognize. The view the fans get of this play is not what a QB sees at field level. He has a lot of bodies moving in front of him and down the field. It’s a lot harder to see defensive changes post snap at field level with all that action going on. Getting to a point where you can sort through all the noise and process things quickly, takes a lot of work and reps.
Now I played a little QB, not near as much as you though.
Still, regardless of reads, the easiest place to see is the middle of the field right in front of you.
In this case, all the bodies are being moved to the outside. You have lots of time and a guy breaks open right in front of you – in your field of vision..
And it’s an easy throw, the defender is to the outside and behind. and you have two thirds of the field to throw the ball to. There’s no one there.
It’s not stupid to make that throw. It’s actually high percentage. The throw to Hock was stupid.
And in all honesty if they are coaching this kid to not make mistakes, they might as well not playing him.
Me personally, I’d rather see him throw 2 Td’s and 4 INT’s than what I saw last week.
At the pro level, this was bad QB play. No doubt. But I hope people can understand that the processing part is where QB’s separate themselves. Every QB in the NFL has a great arm.
GLAD I never played QB, no one looked open to me.
I love the all 22 views. It helps people see how plays and route concepts develop. On TV you get a limited view.
Reading some of the comments below.
KOC needs to get his act together and figure this offense out. And I put it all on KOC and I am a big fan of his.
I was wrong yesterday when. I said we had ZERO offense the second half; we actually had 12 feet of offense. Ridiculous, that’s worse than even the Browns or the Jets.
This is all on KOC and I am not putting it on the QBs. He knew what he had when the season started.
Fix the damn offense.
Keeping things simple on offense can be a double edged sword in the NFL. Yes it makes it easier for both the receivers and the QB, but it also makes it easier for the DB’s. One of the most QB friendly routes in the world, is the TE choice route. Nice little 7 yard throw, and the TE either hooks, breaks to the out, or breaks to the in. We don’t run that much for some reason. We don’t run slants much either. I’d like to see better use of the slant and the TE personally.
OK, I watched the all 22. Just kind of confirms what I saw on the game Sunday. McCarthy made bad throws, and he missed a lot of opportunities. He clearly does not see defensive structures. He is working a maximum of two routes on every pass play. He works Jefferson first a lot, but Jefferson is doubled and even tripled a lot, so McCarthy tends to throw the checkdown from there if he has it, and there’s time. He is slow on the draw too. Very unsure of what he’s seeing. He isn’t afraid to make “brave” throws into tight coverage though. He can throw the ball with great velocity, and he can stuff it in there. He makes a couple very impressive throws every game, but he is not at all a good QB. He’s below ordinary most of the time, bordering on really poor.
He has a very, very long way to go IMO.
Sitting enjoying coffee out in the beautiful montana land this morning.
Decided to beat the snow and drive the 11 hours yesterday and got in around 1am.
Mt Viking is screening my texts, ignoring me per usual.
Good morning, and that’s a long drive. Glad you made it safely, and are enjoying your morning brew.
All this “long drive” conversation, i thought we were talking golf!
Well, since someone brought up golf, i just finished what will will likely be my last round of the year. I had to par out the last 2 holes to break 80 (par is 70). On in regulation on 17, and had a 25 foot putt for birdie that i left a foot short. 18th hole i was on i regulation as well with about a 30 ft uphill putt. I put it 6 feet past and left the downhill par putt sitting on the rim. Oh well, my best round of the year, so go out instyle.
January i will play in Florida
Congratulations. 80 is still great golf. It’ll be warm in Florida and you will no doubt shoot better.
Getting on in regulation on the last two holes, needing to make par, is damn good. Congrats on putting yourself in position to par those holes. Good stuff! Hope you have a great time when you get down here to Florida!
My record is 27 hours straight, non stop. And that was after working the night shift.
Of course, I was 22 at the time, and just bought a 12 pack of Mt Dew. Only stopped for piss breaks and fuel. Mpls to Sarasota FL. Caffeine is a wonderful thing.
First thing I did in FL was hit a drive through liquor store, and head to the beach. People in Parkas, and I was sitting there in shorts, no shirt, drinking beer and thought I had found heaven. I think it was about 50 degrees.
MN was 15 below when I started the drive….
25 hrs is my record. Going from Houston after to my daughter’s wedding back to SoCal where my MIL had just passed away.
Would have made it in under 24 hrs if the I-10 had not been closed due to high winds and dust.
I assume we are talking about solo trips, at least a single driver??
Laughing. I can relate to long drives when I was young. At 70, I can still drive 9 to 10 hours straight and be OK, stopping for fuel and bathroom breaks. Definitely take in caffeine though. Those 5 hour energy things are helpful.
Doesn’t work for me. More coffee I drink just means more bathroom stops and never get anywhere fast.
I’m savaged again.
Breer with a genius take…
Duh?
Yeah…
Breer…
Yeah… these guys aren’t all that deep…
Part of me wants to watch the Paul Allen/KOC interview today, but a larger part of me is tired of the coach-speak.
Winning a few games would fix everything.
Better play by JJ would quiet a lot of the drama, even in a loss.
After I watched the all 22 from Sundays game, I am not very confident about McCarthy. I saw a lot of bad. He can run the plays, especially in the opening drives where the plays have been scripted and practiced all week, but not much else. He isn’t making significant reads and progressions at all.
One thing folks don’t usually understand about playing QB in the NFL is it takes a LOT of work to have answers on every play. What I mean by that is, a pass play is called in the huddle. The QB has to know before the snap every answer to every defense for that play’s route combinations. He has to know which routes are going to be available for everything from Cover 0 to Cover 6. He has to know where to look if it’s Cover 1, with a robber, and press man underneath. In a split second post snap, he has to compute the reads based on the defensive shifts and disguises. That takes years of study, reps, and mistakes to learn from, and it’s still an inexact science. That’s why young QB’s are limited to using their athletic ability mostly, and the play caller getting lucky with play calls where a receiver ends up being wide open. Mahomes and Kelce improvised almost every play in their first couple years together, because Mahomes couldn’t read defenses. Kelce just ran to open spaces. He didn’t run routes really. Kelce could see defenses, and knew where to go.
Thank you for your insight. I figured he was lost out there.
Winning games will trash our draft position. Please no.
Draft position means nothing if the team continually misses.
Although the gourd from last season seems ok so far.
The QB is really the only consistent miss, all other positions are fairly hit/miss.
We’ve won a helluva lot more games with retread vets than drafted rookies, so maybe they should revert to the retreads and strengthen around him.
as shitty as this season is going, I still say drafting a QB and building the team around a QB on a rookie contract is the way to go.
Although last season was fun until Sam started seeing ghosts again.
Team was not going to win it all this season. Looks like the Rams and then everyone else in the NFC
I just want to see JJ either progress and suck less, or GTFO and get a different QB.
Brosmer could end up being the starter. I think they will give McFragile the rest of this season and part of next season. If he still sucks, then they will move on.
I would still prefer that to having Daniel Jones or Sam Darnold here on longer term expensive deals where you cannot afford to bolster the rest of the roster.
I know nothing though
The beauty of JJ’s piss poor performance the last three games and in particular the second half of the GB game is he has set the bar spectacularly, and I mean spectacularly, low. If he shows a steady arc of improvement the next six game I will be content.
I’ll bet there are a lot more options on the draft board if you are in the top 10 than the bottom 10. We have less than 1% chance of making the playoffs now and I have serious doubts we can even climb out of the #4 spot in division so what is the point of winning a few games other than to put us right back in the same spot year after year.
Let’s give the new GM a nice draft position to fill the tool chest.
Too bad this isn’t 2026………..I’d sell My farm, Your farm, and His farm for Manning…..
Viking could be drafting early in 2027 as well…..
You know I think the Seahawks aren’t really that good. On the other hand, I thought we were pretty good not too long ago.
Darnold continues to have some pretty strong games though. Only 4 QB’s have more TD passes than him. That said, if any team knows what he can, and cannot do, it’s the Vikings.
I think Seattle has a very good running game and a very good defense.
I expect bad things to happen to Brosmer if he starts. I expect worser things if JJ starts.
My Smoke Alarm woke me up this morning about 6 am. It is the one we didn’t change the battery out of last year. Why didn’t we change it out you ask? Good question, it is because the thing is about 20 up on the cathedral ceiling that’s why.
We will have to go rent a 18 foot ladder, set it up in a way to reach the damn thing and then do our best to change the batter (or just take the damn thing down) without killing ourselves. By ‘ourselves’ I mean me since I am the one that have to do the climbing and fixing.
Grrr, I guess it could have been worse, it could have happened on T-Day.
I had a similar experience once. And I wondered, why would anyone put a smoke alarm in the most impossible place to get to in the house.
And those damn things always go off in the middle of the night too!
Our neighbors with a similar floor plan have their alarm situated a few feet closer to the wall. Theirs you can reach if you stand on the arch/decrative ledge on that side. Ours not so much. I would have to climb up, stretch as far as possible with nothing to hold onto and try and reach it.
What could go wrong?
Sometimes you just need to call a handyman.
Something to consider.
C’mon man, for what you will pay a handyman you can buy a 22 foot extension ladder with a ton of additional uses.
You of all people should know that people end up with broken legs falling off tall ladders all the time.
Was considered but they are wired into the house. Not for power it seems since batteries are required.
FWIW we had electricians wire our addition instead of little ol me, and they are all wired together so if one goes off they all go off…but they have a battery backup and when the battery in one goes dead just that one chirps. Same thing at our place in Billings which had something like 20 smoke alarms. Our addition here only has four, plus the regular old 10 year battery ones I installed in the shouse.
2 issues with that.
1) a 22 ft ladder would be much overkill in the house.
2) the alarm is in the middle of the room so a stepladder or some type of scaffolding was needed.
Get a long stick with rubber prongs on the end to get it down and then just don’t put it back.
It is a good thing Minnesota is taking steps to combat their ‘Whiteness Pandemic’.
I was worried that it would spread all the way out here.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/university-minnesota-site-warns-whiteness-pandemic-urges-white-parents-re-educate
Minnesota has a Somali pandemic. That’s an actual issue.
Minnesota Tax Payers are a significant revenue stream for the County of Somalia and it’s terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minnesota-taxpayer-dollars-funneled-al-shabaab-terror-group-report-alleges
As a white parent I spent. most of my time trying to reverse all the crap my kids were learning in school. Washington and Jefferson were not really bad men and all that HS.
That’s why I’m choosing to be broke and sending my kids to a nice conservative private school.
Although fair warning, both of my kids became liberals through 4 years of college.
If they cant get them in the grade schools/high schools……they will get them in college…
Thats why im pushing for my kids to go to trade schools….fill their head with actual content vs liberal trash
Good plan. Your kids can help you change car batteries.
I went to college and survived. Just gotta make sure they go in with a good base and can be confident enough to be the student calling the teacher out.
Or go to an actual Christian college (not one that claims to be but isn’t).
I do wish I could put that tuition towards a nice place in the country some days, but especially with my wife working in one of the public schools now, it is worth it. My 3rd grader is literally smarter than the freshman at the public school.
Yes, I saw that….I would not have sent my son to the U of M even if he had been paid to go there….and he didn’t want to go to some woke DEI infested bullshit of a college either.
It is hard, but you can find good colleges that are not woke infested.
Watching the replay of the game last night. Man that first half was pretty bad. Purdy with three picks, fumbles, bad passes, etc. Sloppy football.
Like good teams, still found a way to win.
Yep, Panthers helped them with their own bad play. Young with two bad interceptions, team had some fumbles, and bad passes too.
I hope somehow the Vikings play some good football this weekend, but have to say my confidence level is a little low right now.
Gonna have football all day Thursday, a rare Friday afternoon game with the Bears playing the Eagles, and Sunday some good matchups of interest.
‘ Panthers helped them with their own bad play’
Don’t forget the ‘Punch in the Junk’
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/49ers-wide-receiver-punches-panthers-player-after-game-following-groin-shot
Yeah, that was a little crazy…
McFragile hurt again? JFC!
FTP!!
“They were expecting quite a bit, but it sounds like it’ll only be six inches or so “
Out here, everyone would panic.
Some would say six inches is more than sufficient.
GM!
FTP!
SKOL!
I am ready for a Brosmer Break vs Seattle. If nothing else, give JJ some games on the bench. May as well figure out if you got lucky with another undrafted free agent.
FTP Auto Rec.