Top 7 NFC Contenders' Kryptonite with Ollie Connolly

24:57And Patrick, you know, Claiborne and Jordan were like, oh, you don't have to always compare him. I was like, well, but you can. And that's what I think I would take Gibbs. I'm glad you agree. Or maybe you don't. I don't know. You have Bajan on the podium, too.

25:13Ollie Connolly:yeah i just on the lines just so i get this correct for the listeners my concern with them the offensive line rather than just the talent is they don't have any horizontal element in the offense anymore other than jamir being special in space that's like the the only like advantage addition they have is when just funnel the ball to jamir in space he'll figure out it's all the jet sweeps and the motions and things like that it's a little bit more gimmickified than traditional Lions Ben Johnson style offense and so now you have to play really vertically and that's where those guys are best in their pass sets too it's just like straight drop back vertical play action game they can't roll the puck with Jared Goff because he doesn't move he's not a scrambler so he just puts them in this siloed style of offense and they are not a bombs away outside the numbers offense so they probably should be with Jameson Williams and rolling Tayslar in there for a certain number of reps I was gonna say they could be couldn't they I mean Goff can make those throws.

26:06Maybe it's not what he majors in, but he certainly can make those throws. Get our guy to slaw in the mix? Like they could be. Do you think they could potentially adjust a little bit down the stretch?

26:15Ollie Connolly:I think they should do. It would come down to stuff we'd never know. Communication between Campbell and Goff of a willingness to say, we're good with you throwing four down there and then taking one away. We'll just live with that. If we give up a turnover, we give one up. You'd have to kind of reprogram yourself on the fly. But Goff has now made himself as the closest facsimile, not in production or overall talent, but style-wise to Tom Brady. Like that's what the game is modeled on. Hit the back foot, get the ball out. Brady was able to adjust. And the greatness of Brady was whatever playoff game demands, that is just what I will produce.

26:47Ollie Connolly:I'm not sure we can ever suggest that Jared Goff has that kind of internal antenna of exactly what a playoff game needs. And so I just think they are way more get-aftable than they have ever been during the Dan Campbell run. I'm not giving up on my Lions because I did have them in the Super Bowl this year. But and I do think they still will win the division. If I have to take one of those teams, I think they would be my team. But I just don't think they're as complete a team as the Seahawks or the Rams. And especially if they don't win the division, it's going to be a really tough path. But that's true for all these teams.

27:20It is deep. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back. We're going to do, you know, the one thing that could stop these contenders from making it all the way to the Super Bowl. and then we'll talk a little bit about the international series. Yes, it's the show for the sickos, episode one with Ali Connolly back in a minute.

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30:49Ollie Connolly:Nothing to hide, everything to love. Go to justfoodfordogs.com and get 50 % off your first order. Back on NFL Daily, our first Saturday show with Ollie Connelly. They called it the show for the sickos right before break. That could work. I feel like we need a name, Ollie. And so, you know, I know you've been a writer. You've been an editor. I'm going to put you on this task, but also put the listeners. If anyone listening out there has ideas, we need some sort of special Ollie Connelly Saturday Show branding. It's going to be ours forever. I'm not ready to pick one quite yet, Ollie, but if you got any, I'll take it.

31:31Ollie Connolly:Yeah, the listeners come up with unbelievable names. I'm slightly worried that it opens up the door for some ad hominem attacks on my possible smugness and or arrogance, which is somewhat concerning. book. Saturdays for the Sickos or something like that. You know, something positive would be nice. That's pretty good. No, I don't think they would do that. You've gotten a lot about the resemblance to Kirk Cunns over the years. I feel like you're growing out of that when you're not wearing the hat. I think you don't you don't see that the the hair is looking good here. And I thought you were going to say because I know when when you've dealt with people within the NFL, the first reaction is like, what, really?

32:08You know about the American football? As a British guy, like they cannot get over it. But we're going to put you to the test. All right, you are up. Let's talk Seahawks. This is one I was very curious to see where you went with.

32:21Ollie Connolly:One I had the hardest time with because I just think it's the most complete team in the league and save for like a Donald meltdown game. Is that just the floor that both he can play like the MVP of the league for seven, eight weeks, but then there's the full meltdown. And I guess more big picture, there is a slight concern of how adaptable enough are they offensively, given some of the issues with the run game. We haven't seen them play from a negative game script an awful lot this season beyond the Rams. And then things did snowball on Sam Donald. And although they throw out a lot of cool stuff, they have more personnel packages than any offense in the NFL.

32:56Ollie Connolly:They're not all as effective as one another. And I do just wonder if they're not quite as adaptable as some of the best offenses in the league. Having said that, that's a concern I've had for them for like five, six weeks. Then they went and got Rashid Shahid and they were like, we're going to be pretty more adaptable now because we've got another absolute zoomer on the outside. Yeah, it was interesting that, you know, they had him in the backfield a little bit. What did you see? I know he hasn't gotten a ton of usage for them with how you think they will use Shahid to make them maybe a little more adaptable.

33:27Ollie Connolly:Yeah, I think before they just didn't have any three level receiving threats that wasn't JSN, someone who could attack short, intermediate, deep. And now with Shahid, I think it's just a way more nuanced all around receiver than he's been given credit for, which is just like he's a burner. I think there's way more to his game than that. And so opening that up, particularly, I think, in the run game, just having someone who can stretch the field and he has that kind of OS factor for safety was like, oh, no, that's real speed. We got to back up and make sure we're capping someone to that side. And maybe you can draw two bodies like the gravitational pull of speed is a real thing and clear people out to try and free up the run game.

34:00Ollie Connolly:the main thing in the his first game was just not understanding what was happening in the offense a lot of the time it really submarined that two-minute drill Greg Olson was excellent on it on the call being like they are burning seconds having to remind him where he is in the formation and it's kind of strange because he did work with Kubiak last season um so hopefully he can get up to speed pretty quickly yeah the darn old can you survive like it's a stretch maybe maybe it's the consistency in the run game and Mike McDonald indicated this week that they might go to Kenneth Walker more like percentage wise.

34:30He said that before, but the fact that he said it right now at this point in the season after that performance, I thought was telling maybe they're not quite consistent enough. And then, you know, Darnold and Kubiak, especially offensively, doesn't mean they just because they haven't done it before that they can't do it. We've seen a ton of Super Bowl teams do it that way, but it's going to be very tough for them, especially if they don't win the division and now you know they have to get that rams game coming back uh to to make this defensive gauntlet too can those two guys like can kubiak put enough good game plans together and can darnold avoid the meltdown through let's say like a three game nfc gauntlet would be pretty tough

35:11Ollie Connolly:he also is making some of the most absurd throws you'll ever see the highest degree difficulty not open he had the the best um the most absurd rate you've ever seen of tight window throws while under pressure and they're all complete 15 plus yards down the field it's that just doesn't happen um you don't complete those throws to think that will sustain throughout a playoff run against the best the best i think is you're asking for kind of an eli on the giants level flacco uh with the ravens level of hot streak through a postseason when the degree of difficulty is really high and we've seen one game when the degree of difficulty cranks up slightly and his brain just kind of falls apart i'm the the president of the don't allow eli manny into the hall of fame committee.

35:53And yeah, I will always point out to people, if you watch his run towards the end of the 11 season, it was like, it was so incredible, not just in the playoffs. He kind of started it at the end of the regular season. The Flacco comparison is good. He kind of did the Flacco playoff thing, but for about seven or eight weeks, just hitting some low percentage, incredibly difficult throws that were just all him for a couple of months. So Eli's got that. All right, I will finish with the Bucs. And it is Baker. It is stringing those four games together. I think that is the right answer because he's 31st in success rate this year when having a clean pocket.

36:35It's crazy. The only people ahead of, behind him, are Dylan Gabriel, Cam Ward, and J.J. McCarthy among the people with 50 throws. And it's just chaotic. And I was curious for your take, because I don't feel like I've heard it, of how he's played lately. He does fit the profile of a guy like an Eli or a Flacco that could get hot because he is a streaky quarterback. But right now I'm seeing a guy that's just not necessarily seen the field well, or he's not willing to take the positive plays that are there, and he's either hunting for big plays or he's just holding on. That's at least my impression.

37:16And I'm curious what you think he's looked like on film.

37:19Ollie Connolly:No, I agree with you. And one of the worst things I think that could have happened to Bake was getting any kind of MVP buzz or being put in Patrick Claiborne's conversation. Because now he's just going pure hero ball at a time when it's completely unnecessary. There's wide open targets. He's like, I'm just going to take off and do my own thing. And those late game comebacks bailed him out almost narratively from the fact he was playing really poorly for 25 snaps a game during those games. and he had all the issues with the offensive line and receivers going down. He deserves credit for overcoming that.

37:48Ollie Connolly:But you just read off the numbers when pressured. Even when he's being blitzed this year, Baker's always roasted the blitz. It's always been one of his biggest strengths dating back to college. He has had such a stark decline this season against the blitz and he's just missing wide open targets, misreading the field consistently. And the difference with him, I think, to someone like Aflaco or Manning or those guys who get hot during the postseason, is Baker's streaky in-game. You don't know what you're getting drive-to-drive with Baker. He's not a guy that's like, oh, the three weeks have been absolutely electric, then the next two weeks are a bit of a struggle.

38:17Ollie Connolly:That is kind of the general view sometimes and true. But even within those electric games, there's two or three drives. It's just like he buries the offense on his own with bad decisions and trying to do too much. So I just really struggle unless they get all the guys back together. And Grazard has like a magical series of game plans for the postseason, which you just don't get from first year OCs. That's always a mess throughout the first season. It's kind of wild, the run they've been on, to think you could go three times in a row with just a great game plan and go see is really difficult to do.

38:49Ollie Connolly:I just, I can't see Baker holding up without giving people plenty of opportunities to get some takeaways in the playoffs. Yeah, I think the offensive line has a chance to be really good and they're getting healthier. And their defense, I think overall, even though they've given up a lot of big plays, it hasn't been great lately, I think is better than the last couple versions. And that's what's a little disappointing about this Bucs team is, I thought, I think a lot of people thought, maybe this is the year that they escape out of that. Well, we're winning the NFC South almost by default, and actually we're pretty talented and playing maybe our best towards the late in the season, but we're clearly like a step below the real deal team.

39:26It felt like they've had enough continuity coming into the season, and the injuries have hurt on both sides of the ball, to be fair. But it doesn't feel like they're escaping that. In fact, they could be in second place by the end of the weekend And if they lose that game to the Rams, like, do you see them a tick below some of these teams we've already talked about in terms of the Eagles, the Seahawks, the Rams, maybe even the Lions?

39:50Ollie Connolly:Yeah, I think I put them right by the Eagles because I don't think they're as fundamentally flawed as the Eagles. I think the Rams and Seahawks are just in a completely different tier of their own to everyone in the league in terms of all around completeness. One of them does happen to have Sam Donald. The other one can't play one of the three elements of the sport, which is they can't play special teams. So that's a little bit of a ding on those two teams. But I just think they are in a different stratosphere. The Bucs, to me, if they were healthy, that is the best offensive line in the league.

40:16Ollie Connolly:It's them and the Broncos. Those are so clearly superior to everyone else. And it puts so much on the menu for them, as we saw in the Bills game last week, how they're able to completely re-choreograph the run game in one week in a way they have not done all season is only available because of the talent, the offensive line. So if they were healthy, particularly with Hassan Reddick defensively, I think that they are as loaded as any team in the league with playmakers. and then have a ton of stability in the secondary and the O-line. So they get the playmaking explosiveness and the stability. It just so happens that the most important guy who touches the ball every play offensively is the most destabilized portion of the team.

40:50Right. And they basically are healthy on the offensive line. They don't have Bredesen right now who's at guard, but the other four spots are solid and Gedeke is back. Yeah, I'm not crossing the mouth by any means of making a run. I think they have the talent to possibly do it. last team we'll talk about at length here is the green Bay Packers. I believe it was your super bowl team before they made the Michael Parsons trade. And then certainly you were sticking with them afterwards. What, what do you think could get in their way?

41:21Ollie Connolly:Again, I think it's the offensive line. It may sound boring, but the interior of that offensive line has just been brutal. Some of the run game issues, the blurring protections. I, I just think they, they placed a bet on a style of football that has just completely busted out. and now they're trying to like work and back their way out of it. They got so big on the interior. And now you look at Banks, Sean Ryan, Jordan Morgan, that you just cannot go into a game in Philadelphia and think you're going to have any chance with that group unless you can completely reorient the style of offense. And unfortunately, to reorient the offense, you basically have to say we're trading off any sense of efficiency.

41:55Ollie Connolly:We cannot drive the field. Our guys aren't good enough. So now we've got to go hunt for big chunk plays. And that gets, you know, Jordan Love's eyes all big and excited. like oh we get to go hunt chunk plays let's go have some fun and you kind of lay slightly into some of his worst instincts where he goes chasing it on every single play wow this is as down as i've heard you with the packers because you know you're you're a lafleur believer and as as disappointing as some of these games have been they're still like in okay position you look at the overall efficiency in terms of dvoa for instance like they're one of the teams that is in the top 10 of both categories although it's like eight and nine they're not elite really at either like where where do you think this offense in particular that you're mentioning and this is coming up for all these offenses like where do you think they go in terms of like how they want to adjust down the stretch that is one i don't know and that's where i just love matt lafleur so much i have i'm just excited to see what he comes over he's one of those guys where the brain is so large i'm just like i can't wait to see how he figures it out i'm sure he'll get it right i'll be all excited that to figure out however is he id was the solution i don't think right now having on the opening drive of the game leaving dexter lawrence unblocked is like the way he wants to go with this stuff you would think that would be maybe in the keys to the game let's make sure we block the best player on the field so they just have so many breakdowns inside it's a problem i did think that was jordan love's maybe best game of the season just snap for snap how he was throwing decision making and so you kind of just need him to elevate to a level that is i offset all interior line concerns the tackles hold up well enough we've got enough playmaking we can at least go and get some chunks down the field and so he would just have to rise to a level of consistency we haven't quite seen throughout his career yeah maybe christian watson you know continues to improve jayden reed gets healthy like they can definitely get healthier we'll see I will say though, LaFleur himself, this has been a really rough season play calling wise for a guy who I think is the best in the business.

43:59Ollie Connolly:The situational play calling has been so off all season long that I just am concerned as a fan of his work that he's misidentified his own team and is now driving ahead with something philosophically like you see with the Falcons and Zach Robinson when it becomes like a coach's quest to prove his philosophy as opposed to looking at his personnel and going, what will actually help us get out of this situation. I can't believe the real whispers beyond just like fans being mad about like, could this be it for Matt LaFleur and Gudikunds depending on how this goes? And their schedule is tough. Like there is a path towards that happening and it would be a mistake and it would be great for content because there would be an absolute huge competition to get LaFleur and maybe Gutekinds.

44:53Maybe they're back in the season. I don't know what their relationship is like.

44:56Ollie Connolly:Doesn't that just feel like the part in the America's Game film at the end of the year where they're fleshing up all the tweets and then it ends with them holding the trophy? Yeah. That's what it feels like to me. It could still happen. Look, I love all the seasons. They're all beautiful children. But this one, especially in the NFC, it's why we started here. It is so fascinating because the stakes are so high and all these teams are so talented that they all have a legit shot to change their story around, except for the 49ers. Sorry, I feel bad about this because the more I thought about it, we decided the 49ers weren't going to be in our mix for contenders just because the defense, like, there's just no path with that pass rush and just the overall defensive talent.

45:35And yet, you know, the more I thought about it this week, and I was like, could they put up 40 a game? And Kyle, like, has his best season as a play caller the rest of the way, and it's just like the season you never saw coming from the 49ers. You never know. So we're not going to talk about you at length, 49ers fans, but don't be mad. You never know. They could put a 40 game or something crazy. Like it's not, like there is, it's a smaller path, I think, than the rest of these teams that we talked about, but it's a path.

46:01Ollie Connolly:I think there's definitely a path to win a playoff game and maybe win two. I think going all the way, they put a 40 game, but they get, you know, curbed over the head for 45 by the Rams or something. Right. You would have to have like the right matchups. I don't know what that would be. to escape like facing a great offense throughout the playoffs. But yeah, that defense just doesn't seem like it's going to be competitive enough. Before we wrap up, Ali, let's talk a little international. You know, you've been back in Manchester. How long now? Oh, God, 10 days. I think I had the Berlin flu for seven days.

46:35Ollie Connolly:Don't Google what the Berlin flu is. Too many fun nights in the greatest city on earth. Oh, wow. OK, well, let's start there then. How was the Berlin week? beyond just like why and how you got the flu. Berlin was incredible. It was the, I felt the first time, you know, every six months or something, Mr. Goodell goes out and floats and flirts with the idea of a London Superbowl and the Wall Street Journal or whoever will write about, could they do a game in London? You know, because all the owners read that journal. This was the first time it felt like a European Superbowl in Berlin. It was a really, really cool week where it like takes over a major European international city.

47:15Ollie Connolly:you've been to the London games. The London games are great and cool. The NFL doesn't quite take over the city because there is so much going on in an enormous international city. Just is impossible to have that degree of footprint. But in Berlin, it did. There was 11 teams who have the home market rights and they were all on the ground there. Then you have the league as well doing stuff. And it was just absolutely everywhere all over the week. So it was really, really fun to see that scale and have that kind of Super Bowl feel. what was the vibe like in the city like among like the nfl fan base there i guess you're not like an expert you're not you're not living there but like in terms of they're not you know we do hear from a lot of german listeners in general i know you were you were out and about i don't want to blow up your spot but you might have been like seeing some some teams out and about how do you think like that whole experience was out in the city yeah it was in the city it was incredible everyone's having a fine time wonderful time berlin as i said probably the greatest city in europe um so that was a lot of fun um the level of knowledge is just different to everywhere else i mean if you think at the end of nfl europe every team but one was a german team it's like the domestic built-in love for the sport is it like a granular feeler in your bones level as opposed to just the circus comes to town and it's kind of the razzmat as in the shiny helmets that kind of maybe gets someone interested initially there's like a real earthy feel and love for the sport.

48:39Ollie Connolly:So you're out there talking with guys at the bar about DVOA. People are talking special teams DVOA at the bar. You don't get that in many other international visits. And then you also get on the top of it, all kind of the big temp hole, the league doing all the different stuff they want to do. What player watching it live? So you were broadcasting the game for TalkSport with our friend, Will Gavin, who, by the way, I can break the news here, is coming back to NFL Daily next Friday. It's actually going to be the three of us. So in general, Ollie and I are going to do Saturdays until the end of the regular season.

49:12And we'll figure out what's the right day for us to do our shows. Once we get to the playoffs, we won't do it Saturdays because there's games obviously, but next week's a little weird with Thanksgiving. So you're going to join me and Will Gavin after the black Friday game to talk the Thanksgiving games and recap that. So we'll get the three of us together. What a player I'll put it this way or players maybe stood out to you the

49:35Ollie Connolly:most watching them live that just popped honestly it was jalen walker is my first time seeing him live and i think he's gonna be a super duper star of the the highest order yes i love it uh he's really improved to my eye this season like the first month he wasn't getting a ton of run he still is you know a part-time player but he's getting more run um seemed like he was trying to figure out what to do but you you can see the athleticism now popping at least on tape what did you see in person yeah i think the intelligence is what stands out with him whether it's in person on tape the understanding of what's happening i mean because they are such a package-based defense where it's like roll out different groups of people i think it just kind of limits how often he's on the field more than it being like there's like an issue in the in his game somewhere just bigger quicker stronger than everyone else in the field and sometimes you just see it in person it's like wow that guy even when you go by the numbers and the weight it's like why does he look so much bigger than bernard ryman that guy's a huge human being and he just looks thicker and stronger than that guy so he just completely jumped out and it's on a field with you know unbelievable athletes all over the place and the guy moving at a different speed was jalen walker i gotta study him more because that that's my type of guy i mean a totally different type a different type of player than Trevon Walker, but I do just like the guys that are bigger, faster, stronger, and you can see it because I never fell out of love with Genevieve Clowney.

51:00Oh, by the way, he's still getting it done at his age for the Cowboys. Okay, I'll go back to Dublin because it was a similar vibe to start the international series where it did feel like it took over the town in a way that I hadn't seen in London and everyone was so like thrilled that, that the game was in Dublin. And I just have to think that that has to be in the heavy rotation, especially the vibe of, I walked to the game and just the vibe of the entire city, almost walking together, leaving it now that I've now left the premier league game. It had a similar vibe where it was just like absolutely packed, getting out of the stadium.

51:43And it's like elbow to elbow for streets on end, uh, leaving there. And it just, it just made a lot of sense there. And in terms of, you know, what stuck out, it was our guy speaking a bigger, stronger, faster, Darnell Washington. Um, to me now I'm, am I mixing up the Dublin and London games? Like Darnell Washington in person was just like a sight to behold. And you realize like this dude really is one of the best players in the NFL at what he does. And almost no one really does exactly what he does. As a longtime Mount Washington believer, I just want to give you the floor for a second to say how you've enjoyed this season.

52:23Ollie Connolly:Yeah, it's fun to see like the almost international breakout of Darnell Washington. And if he was, you know, on a team with anyone over than Arthur Smith, I think would be like this huge household name of doing the most absurd things in pro football. And I still do have slightly in the back of my mind, like if he just moved to tackle, I know that's out there quite consistently, like could go and make himself 50 million dollars a year jaylen moore as a backup with the niners got like what 12 50 million dollars a year it's gonna be a swing tackle for the chiefs i feel like he's only now what 23 pounds shy of being like tackle weight 311 might even be solid tackle weight for him and he can move so well he could consider that but i think there's so much potential him as a truly explosive play threat you see it with him kind of just throwing small dudes off him down the field people just bounce off him he's a truly a unique weapon where it's like marcedes lewis at the tail end of marcedes career but i think quicker down the field where you could do some really creative things with him if you had the kind of offensive mind to you know try to be creative yeah the breakout last week in terms of you know just running over a couple bangles but i almost like the play where he hurdled one of them earlier in the game like just as much and that was a great game to call because you're not sure exactly where to look every play or before the play there's so much to look at and I just found like if you just watch Darnell like first of all it's going to be fun but also like you'll figure out how that play is going to work he he really is a skeleton key and yeah I just Dublin shout out to Michael McQuaid and And as we kind of wrap up like the international series, I just I just I just think they made such a great first impression.

54:02And Croke Park is just like the perfect place to play those games. I'd be shocked if they're not doing an annual game. It just makes so much sense. How have you seen the London game experience evolve? And just sort of as someone who obviously grew up loving the NFL, like how that how you've seen that change with the people around you in England? yeah the evolution has been interesting i think that how to put this i don't know if it quite has

54:31Ollie Connolly:the same event feel as it once did where you know there would be packs of eight nine friends who would build their year round we're going to that game i actually think that part of the international expansion and i met a bunch of these people in berlin was like we chose to do the berlin game rather than do the london game it's fun for us to go on tour it is such a regular feature of the scheduling that to make it a bit different like we're going to go to Ireland this year we're going to go to Berlin this year next year there's going to be a game in Paris do we do a weekend in Paris or do we do a weekend in London when we've got multiple London options so I think that is a kind of interesting pivot point for the league in general is there any kind of not necessarily staleness and a lot of that is matchup based too but how do you kind of inject some more sizzle into London and make it have a really special feel.

55:18Yeah. I mean, the matchups didn't work out like, like they wanted or the games themselves. At least Broncos jets was, was close, but I, I was happy that, that you were handling that the next week or, or that that was happening the next week from that first game we watched together. What is there anyone in that Vikings game that, that stands out to you? Well,

55:40Ollie Connolly:I just want to see Brian Flores in person and just enjoy and admire all all the wizardry and madness up close and personal, which I was pleased to do. Yeah, and that was going up against a team that really wasn't ready for them in terms of the Browns. And watching Justin Jefferson in person is always a treat because it's just like so smooth. If you just focus on him every play, it just makes it look so effortless. And he is someone that absolutely moves different than other people. And it's fun to see. One thing I've noticed over the years, like going to London every year, is it does feel like the casual, there's either more casual fans or the casual fan of the NFL.

56:21They're just more aware of it in a way that I do compare it to how the Premier League is here, where I think the NFL in England is almost like where the Premier League is here maybe five, seven years ago, where now sort of everyone has a base knowledge where whenever people ask what I'm doing in town, if it's like the Uber drivers or whatever, they always know what I'm talking about, which is a nice surprise.

56:45Ollie Connolly:Oh yeah, oh yeah. And all the old stuff in the stadium where they would tell you what the rules are and sometimes they flash that stuff up. But even the most casual, like I'm going with my friend has a general enough understanding where you don't need that stuff anymore. I will say my favorite memory from that besides calling the game with you and Will was Greg Newsome getting into it with Kevin O 'Connell and then Kevin O 'Connell dialing up plays specifically to attack Greg Newsome. And it's a great reminder for a film dog like me, like these people are human and real and sometimes you just want to stick it to the corner you're shouting at the head coach at the sideline and you get to call plays and it's like let me go and embarrass the corner the next two snaps I enjoyed that that's awesome and he put that on tape so I feel like other coaches have been copying the game plan to just pick on Greg Newsome ever since that was a an interesting moment in that season because you I remember calling at the time Carson Schwestinger just drilling Carson Wentz in the open field and I do think back to well what if what if he hadn't hurt that shoulder?

57:43And after these last couple of JJ McCarthy games, thinking like, would they be winning these games with Carson Wentz? The last one, I kind of think the answer would be yes. Like sometimes, you know, you don't know how good you had it when you had Carson Wentz.

57:57Ollie Connolly:I agree. Maybe you could even look at Brosman. Maybe we could do another soft injury benching. Well, that was one of the more exciting moments of the game where we saw Brosman warming up on the sideline. Okay. Last, last thing has absolutely nothing to do with international or the things that are going to get in the way of contenders. But where, where, what do you think? Do you think they should go to Rosmer? I would like to see it. I would like to have a quarterback who can throw to his left. If I'm playing in pro football and I have the best receiver in pro football would be helpful to be able to attack the full field.

58:31And you think it's like a specifically a left problem. I do know that on the past, on the spray chart from NGS. Yeah, it's not working out. Like, is that just random? Do you think this could be salvaged? Because there are positive plays. Vikings fans got mad when I said that performance was Tebow-like. And it wasn't saying he was at Tebow's level. It was more just like it was Drek until the fourth quarter and somehow they're going to manage to pull this out. Do you think there could be improvement here in the shorter term?

59:03Ollie Connolly:Well, that's one of those things with the Vikings fans. It's like when your brother says something to you and you know it's true deep down, so it hurts more. It's because they know that that's what that game was like. It's just production-wise, it was a Tebow-esque game, and he's had multiple Tebow-esque games where you can't complete wide-open passes, and then you kind of get hot in the two-minute drill. And that, for me, is the thing with O 'Connell. We've had this weird thing with them where they can't get lined up. The huddle is a mess. The whole operation is a disaster. And then every time they play in the two-minute, which happens with a lot of these young guys when they come into the league, everything looks, you know, it clicks and things look smoother and operate better.

59:34Ollie Connolly:why would you not just play out the no huddle more why would you not just clean things up more and maybe you're a little bit more restricted in what you want to do but the guy isn't the complex stuff you're doing isn't working anyway because the guy can't operate it so you may as well slim things down put some more tempo in the offense go and steal what cliff did with jayden daniels last season where it's no it's no huddle it's tempo all the time it's having a really small menu of plays it's packaging all the plays as one drive as an eight play package just a lot of what the commanders did with jayden daniels last week where you just rep that throughout the week that I already know what the next play is going to be three and four plays ahead that is a really clean way to help these guys out and then you can start getting into the discussions of what lower body mechanics like why is he struggling throwing to one side the field why does he fall off throws only going one way you can start getting into the nitty-gritty if you get kind of the big picture right and given where his games are I do think they failed him slightly on the big picture stuff Ooh, it is really fascinating.

1:00:30Different agendas, O 'Connell, and then you got Kwesi, you got J.J. McCarthy, and you got, obviously, their ex-quarterbacks doing well elsewhere. I'm looking forward to that Vikings-Packers game. I'm looking forward to doing this each and every week. I do not think the Vikings are going to raise their hand and be the team that goes overseas for two games again after the way this season has gone for them. They did get that win over the Browns with us there. Thank you to Ollie Connolly. Thank you for everyone checking out our first Saturday show. And yes, hit us up and give us some suggestions for what we should call this Saturday show.

1:01:05We will be back on NFL Daily Sunday night. No Jordan this week. We're going to wave to her as she goes to Rams Bucks across the street to cover that game. So it'll be me, Shook, and Patrick for the whole show. And yes, Ollie will be back next week on Black Friday. We will see you then.

1:01:51Ollie Connolly:We'll be right back. Same family. Your BET favorites are now on Paramount+. Subscribe now.

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