Josh Oliver

And the bummer about that one is that tight end screen that he couldn't quite link up to, I forget who was going to be the ball carrier on it, but it was so well set up.

And he just couldn't get it to, I think it was Josh Oliver and he just couldn't get it.

Oh yeah.

It

If they're the athletes and you say, Hey, cave everything down in there.

And we have this hybrid offensive lineman and Josh Oliver that can also just widen the pocket and widen the run game.

Then let's run behind those guys and just stick with it because they're Even though, and I'll give KOC some credit here, he did stick with it.

Maybe it's because Carson Wentz was in, and maybe it's because of that, but he did stick with it.

And I think that that's so huge in this game is cleaning up those issues that they had with the run game, because if you can command the football game by controlling it, getting a lot of completions to players like Jawan Jennings, get him involved.

TJ Hawkinson had a couple of catches.

So did Josh Oliver.

But I think that that's good for Carson Wentz to have those guys and get a first down, get seven to 10 yards with those tight ends.

We're down 22-10 at a point, and things were not looking good.

It was just like, great, we're going to try and check our way down the field, whether it was the pass to Josh Oliver or TJ Hawkinson.

It didn't feel, at least there were points throughout the game where I was like, all right, let's just keep going.

How is Jordan Love going to get out of this blitz? How is he going to find this guy wide open, whether it was Jonu Smith or Watson or anybody? But I will say, like you guys mentioned, the indie game, there are times in the O'Connell era, unlike the Mike Zimmer era or the Leslie Frazier era, where if it's not a four-score game that somehow, someway we can absolutely claw our way back in, which I have been critical of KOC at times, but I do want to certainly praise the culture and the buy-in aspect of the players because it has truly been unlike any Vikings coach I've seen in my lifetime.

And early on, there was a bootleg keeper to the right side with Jordan Addison screaming wide open in the intermediate area of the field, and Carson Wentz just didn't see him at all, sailed a pass to the sideline.

There was obviously the string of three third down penalties on one of the craziest drives i've ever seen the third of which um mitigated what was a horrific interception um and so you know garrett i just asked you like you know as you're watching the carson wentz experience play out or you're thinking through if this guy has to play for let's just say a shorter amount of time you know how How do you think about what that looked like, what it was, what it allows this offense kind of in the short term?

Well, there's certainly parts of Carson Wentz's game that I think will be positive in the short term where simply moving the ball, getting short chunks here and there, I thought he did an okay job of just getting TJ Hawkinson and Josh Oliver the football across the middle.

There was one play in particular where Oliver – he saved what could have been a big play the other way.

If they're the athletes and you say, Hey, cave everything down in there.

And we have this hybrid offensive lineman and Josh Oliver that can also just widen the pocket and widen the run game.

Then let's run behind those guys and just stick with it because they're Even though, and I'll give KOC some credit here, he did stick with it.

Maybe it's because Carson Wentz was in, and maybe it's because of that, but he did stick with it.

Because if you can command the football game by controlling it, getting a lot of completions to players like Jawan Jennings, get him involved.

TJ Hawkinson had a couple of catches.

So did Josh Oliver.

But I think that that's good for Carson Wentz to have those guys and get a first down, get seven to 10 yards with those tight ends and then hit your shots to Justin Jefferson.

That was the predominantly only area they used him in was the red zone.

Josh Oliver was in a ton.

Josh Oliver, next in line of targets, had four.

He's got competition there.

Meanwhile, we didn't get a damn thing out of Aaron Jones in the passing game.

And in, uh, in KO's first year, the Vikings were among the league leaders in 11 personnel usage.

They have mixed in a lot more 12 with Josh Oliver having two tight ends on the field and two wide receivers.

So they're, they're not quite like Rams five years ago, where the Rams, I think the year the Rams won the Super Bowl or the year after, they were like 91% 11 per- They only just, the whole game, they just kept three wide receivers on the field.

The Vikings in week one, 60% of their offensive snaps were heavier personnel packages.

We should have just dumped him.

Josh Oliver can be t- just fine." I think he's still got a little so- little, little gas left in the tank.

I think he's still got a little bit of thunder down below, and that's T.J. Hockenson.

T.J. Hockenson, that tuddie, that was, that was sweet.

Mm-hmm

... with...

Let's start on the offensive side of the football here with Justin Jefferson, Josh Oliver, Christian Darrisaw, Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason all being graded, uh, in the, in the top five from what you saw in that game.

Uh, yeah.

Um, he's the best.

Like, he b- he is a sixth offensive lineman, and so is Josh Oliver.

I, I mean, those two together, um, they were smashing heads on Sunday and, uh, I'm really excited for Max.

And then he steps up in pass protection too, that we saw CJ do, um, in some of his later years, is kind of play almost halfback on third down and make some good protection pickups, and Max can do that.