Ever wondered why a dark ale called Widowmaker can make you fall in love with it? Let's take you on a thrilling journey to the Keweenaw Brewing Company in Michigan, a place that started as the passion project of two immigrant oil field workers. We'll show you around their magnificent taproom, introducing you to the spectacular view of Copper Island from their outdoor patio and, of course, their beloved Widowmaker brew, a surprisingly light-bodied dark ale with a delightful depth of malt that keeps you coming back for more!
Switching gears, we'll also share a hilarious look into the gender differences when it comes to road trip preparations. Why is it that a man can jump into a car with just his keys, while a woman needs an array of beverages and snacks? We'll recount an amusing tale of a recent road trip that'll surely have you chuckling.
Finally, for all you sports enthusiasts out there, we're breaking down the recent performance of the Minnesota Vikings and forecasting the dynamics of the NFC South. We'll analyze Kirk Cousins' struggle against the Tampa Bay defense and debate why the Vikings couldn't capitalize on those three turnovers. Additionally, we discuss Nebraska Cornhuskers football and their head coach, Matt Rule, shedding light on the recent changes in their team and what's in store for them. So grab your headphones and a pint of your favorite brew. We promise you a good laugh, some interesting beer insights, and an engaging sports discussion.
Ever wondered why a dark ale called Widowmaker can make you fall in love with it? Let's take you on a thrilling journey to the Keweenaw Brewing Company in Michigan, a place that started as the passion project of two immigrant oil field workers. We'll show you around their magnificent taproom, introducing you to the spectacular view of Copper Island from their outdoor patio and, of course, their beloved Widowmaker brew, a surprisingly light-bodied dark ale with a delightful depth of malt that keeps you coming back for more!
Switching gears, we'll also share a hilarious look into the gender differences when it comes to road trip preparations. Why is it that a man can jump into a car with just his keys, while a woman needs an array of beverages and snacks? We'll recount an amusing tale of a recent road trip that'll surely have you chuckling.
Finally, for all you sports enthusiasts out there, we're breaking down the recent performance of the Minnesota Vikings and forecasting the dynamics of the NFC South. We'll analyze Kirk Cousins' struggle against the Tampa Bay defense and debate why the Vikings couldn't capitalize on those three turnovers. Additionally, we discuss Nebraska Cornhuskers football and their head coach, Matt Rule, shedding light on the recent changes in their team and what's in store for them. So grab your headphones and a pint of your favorite brew. We promise you a good laugh, some interesting beer insights, and an engaging sports discussion.
Alright, and there we go. Now once again kicked off with another episode and two guys in a beer and the best part of the program. There we go. I think I got a little bit over on the mouse pad. That's fine.
Speaker 2:That's for effect.
Speaker 1:Exactly. It really ingrains the laptop into the program is really what it does Once again. Andy Bextrom, sean Field, here with you, two guys in a beer podcast, today's beer Keweenaw Brewing out of Michigan, and Sean recently went there. Have you seen the reel or anything that we had going on there? A lot of fun to be able to go on site to a certain extent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we went up there this past weekend just to try the beer for the podcast. We've tried it before. Actually, Andy, you're the one that brought this beer onto all of us many years ago in this Tri-Con area.
Speaker 1:here You're welcome.
Speaker 2:I thought, man, what a great beer to try pay homage to Andy because he did such a good thing by bringing this beer to us. I talked to the wife. I'm like, hey, what are we doing this weekend? Let's go up to the brewery, take a video to show people, check it out, see what's going on up there. That is what we did.
Speaker 1:I'm a little bit jealous. I know that you had asked if I could go up and have some stuff going on or whatever, but I'm a little bit jealous that I wasn't able to go with and be able to check it out.
Speaker 2:That's a pretty cool brewery. They actually have a production facility in South Range, michigan. It's maybe about 10 miles south of Houghton. Then Houghton, michigan, is where they have the tap room. The tap room is about 3,200 square feet 3,400 square feet. There's two bars in there, a huge outdoor patio that overlooks the waterway that it's on. I don't recall what the waterway it is, but I think it's like Copper Island across the waterway. It's an really old building. It looks really cool. It's like industrial looking inside, along with like a wild wild West theme just old bricks and wood and lanterns. It's pretty cool in there.
Speaker 1:Kind of a fun sounding building for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was right next to Michigan Tech. When the wife and I got there about seven, about an hour and a half later all the college kids started filtering in.
Speaker 1:It's a little interesting though that a lot of kids going in there to a brewery usually college kids are looking for the party or the bars or something like that, but to go to a brewery that might just be the thing that's available, I guess.
Speaker 2:But that's what I was thinking. We were young, we didn't go to a brewery. Of course they were hard to come by, but they're in there drinking craft beer and not like Schmidt or whatever cheap stuff they get there, they don't have a bottle of boxer.
Speaker 2:Whatever they could get their hands on. While I was there, I found out this KBC for short was established. In 2003 is when it started. It started by a couple guys named Paul and Richard that immigrated here from Colorado. According to the bartender there I forget that gentleman's name they both lost their jobs. If I remember right, they said they did something in the oil field out there. I don't know how they ended up in Michigan, but they ended up in Michigan.
Speaker 1:Well, instead of going and applying somewhere here next door to the neighboring town, we're still just in Michigan.
Speaker 2:Michigan started a brewery. They are the largest brewer up in the UP. For a craft brewery, they're the sixth largest in Michigan. They produced 11,800 barrels of beer in 2021. Oh wow.
Speaker 1:I think I drank probably two of them.
Speaker 2:Well, if you're drinking widowmaker, it's pretty easy to do. For those of you who don't know, this would be the beer factor of the day. Barrels of beer come in many different sizes, but the average size barrel of beer is 31 US gallons. If you feel like doing some arithmetic, you can figure out how many 12-oz cans of beer, or in one barrel of beer, is 31 gallons in there. In 2018, they did sign a deal with Comerica Park.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:Detroit Tigers play to distribute their beer there. The widowmaker beer is sold in or from this KBC brewery sold in Michigan. Wisconsin and Minnesota are the three states that it sold, and that's it.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, it's a fantastic beer. The widowmaker. It's a dark ale black ale as they say.
Speaker 2:It is very good. What's interesting about it too is if you crack it open, you pour it in a cup. It looks like a Guinness, it's dark like a Guinness, it has like a frothy top, you know. But you know, when you drink a Guinness it feels kind of bloated. You can only drink one or two. You get full.
Speaker 1:but it's still a good beer. Yeah, it's got some heaviness to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this does not. This drinks like a lager but tastes like a dark beer. It's extremely good and, of course, if you read the can right on the can, it gives you the perfect description of how it tastes Easy on the hops, easy on the palate, light-bodied ale with hints of smoky molasses and a surprising depth of malt flavors. And that part of smoky molasses that is definitely the aftertaste of this beer.
Speaker 1:Oh, 100%, definitely for sure, oh, absolutely, and that's in the way that you describe it, or the way that the can, I guess, describes it too is that it's easy on the palate, you know, light-bodied. It's one of those that, like you said, you pour it in a glass, you get it on tap or you get it in a can and it has that look, that really deep, heavy look to it. But it wouldn't be anything to have four or five, six of them. It's still very light with flavor. So it's a, yeah, it's a. It's actually one of my favorite beers really. I know, I think I say that probably every week.
Speaker 2:Now it is a real good beer and yeah, it drinks like a light beer, but the flavor's so good it's almost a beer where you just want to go there and have a couple and just savor the taste. You know, I don't know if you'd want to drink this after mowing the yard and slam six in a row, Correct.
Speaker 1:It's a different. That's the moose head, that's it Right.
Speaker 2:I mean you could, but this is more of a. You want to relax, maybe light up a cigar and drink a beer like this? As a widowmaker, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, yeah, for those that may or may not know, you know I have a. I still own the property. Unfortunately, people always ask me that question all the time. But 2012, 2013,. I had a sports bar. It was open field health sports bar and grill. Like you know, I was very proud of it at the time. You know did pretty decent, but not enough to keep it going at that time. But during that time I was kind of on the forefront, at least in the area that we were in, as far as wanting to bring more craft beer to the table, like a lot of bars at that time. You know this is, you know, 2012,. There was a lot of craft that was out there. You could get some like at liquor stores, but you were still like one or two doors worth of craft beer. There wasn't a lot of craft beer out there, but I really enjoyed it and I had done some home brewing a little bit myself, not a lot, just a little bit. I pulled that hole in the hole.
Speaker 2:We talked about that last time.
Speaker 1:So I had talked to my vendor about some different things and you know the real heavy craft like shock top or blue moon not exactly the most craft that's out there, but did have some like clown shoes or some other stuff, but this was one of them that the vendor suggested it to me. So they're kind of a little known, a little bit smaller brewery. But you should try the black ale. I mean I'll probably like it, but I don't know if other people will like it and so I put it on like sure I'll get it. It's a little barrel, it's just.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was like 15, 15 gallons or something like that, not the full keg. And you know I tried it and I'm like this is amazing. I got to recommend this to absolutely everybody that came in and I did and it became, especially in that community was a really big following of it which blew my mind. You know I was like I want to recommend it to everybody but you put a big, deep, heavy glass like that to a bunch of people that drink bushlight, right, and it was like well, the production's not exactly.
Speaker 1:What is this exactly? But yeah, a lot of people like really latched onto it and really enjoyed it and for a while it was actually the and I'd have to go back and look at the exact numbers but it was like one of the top two or three selling beer. I had 12 taps. It was one of the top two or three Nick, golden, blue, everybody away. It was the number one by twice as much as everything. But depending on the month, we would sell almost more of that than Coors Light or Bushlight or anything like that.
Speaker 1:That's unreal to me.
Speaker 2:That's just crazy and that's awesome. So it was a distributor that recommended this. That's how you found out about it, yep.
Speaker 1:It was. It was kind of a suggested one, but I gave them a real good idea of like I like some good craft beer, I like hoppy beers, I like something with a flavor to it, something that's going to be really good. You know, I didn't want to have like a Guinness on tap because I knew that at least that community wasn't going to. I had it in the bottle, but on tap I'm like that's going to be a waste of a keg, yeah that's such an niche type beer Guinness.
Speaker 2:And I either really like it or you really just know? Thanks.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, when you, you know like that was kind of I was looking for something kind of like that and so, yeah, when he suggested it, you know he's like you should try it out and I think he, I think he brought me like a six pack of it or something like that the week before I ordered it.
Speaker 1:But I think I called him as soon as he left and I was like next time you come here you better be with a keg. So I got that immediately and, yeah, I don't know it was. I guess to a certain extent the rest is history, because even the other bar in town started carrying and I think they actually still do from time to time via the pizza pub there in town. But I would see it even in, you know, in Cambridge or some other cities, you know, and whether it was pushed out there by the same distributor or I'm sure there's probably a sales tactic or whatever. But at the same time, like if you bring it somewhere and it sells hotcakes, you're going to tell all your other bar owners or whoever it is doing the ordering and, hey, I have this thing. You got to try.
Speaker 2:You got to give this a shot.
Speaker 1:It's selling like gangbusters over here. So, yeah, no, it was. It was quite fantastic. I learned later on that the fire department that I'm on there's a guy that I'm on the department with that he actually was up in that area at the time that they first opened.
Speaker 1:So he was like there during the grand opening, and he's, you know, like when I put it on tap here, he's like oh my God, when did you hear about that? This is amazing, he would get that all the time. And so you chat a little bit about that, but it's kind of a fun callback, in a way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is a really good beer and that would have been awesome to go up there to the grand opening up there, the tap room that's right on the water. It's real nice. You know, it's right on the water, it's just gorgeous place to go. The vibe was awesome. It is called Widowmaker. For those of you that don't know why it's called Widowmaker you know, up in the UP in Michigan they did a lot of copper mining up there back in the late 1800s, 1900s and we mined a lot for stuff. You know.
Speaker 1:Now we don't seem to do that as much, no, just mine Bitcoin.
Speaker 2:Whatever that means. That's pretty much mine that. Yeah. Well, it was named Widowmaker. In fact all their beers at the KBC are kind of named after different things of mining when you're up there. But at Widowmaker actually they named this after a drill that the miners. It was the first drill air hose drill that they used for mining down in the copper mines.
Speaker 1:What could go wrong?
Speaker 2:Right, I don't know. You're two miles underground, you're pounding away over there hammers. It seems safe to me, but they didn't have any dust masks or anything other face or anything to catch dust. So these miners, of course, would inhale this dust from hammering away and while it killed them. So that's why they called the drill the Widowmaker. You know, because any miner that was down there using the drill, they wouldn't live too long, so made a lot of widows. And then this KBC brewing company made a beer called an Amish to the Widowmaker drill, right.
Speaker 1:That probably you know like it does have the picture. Oh, I'm assuming that's the drill, that it does have the picture of it there on the can.
Speaker 2:Right on the can there, and of course their slogan for the beer is don't be afraid of the dark.
Speaker 1:That's a good slogan to have. It is for this one. I highly recommend it. If you haven't tried it, go and try to seek it out. Usually, a lot of times they don't have I guess. I don't know that. I've seen more often than not. Sometimes it'd be like a six pack or otherwise. You can get like a Q and a mixed pack with some of the other ones in it too. But I highly recommend this the Widowmaker Black Ale.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do too. I've just seen the six packs around me. But yeah, if you can get your hands on it, I would definitely do that. You're not going to be wasting your money on this, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:And some of the other stuff that they make is pretty good too. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but there's another kind of amber copper one, and the Widowmaker is one that I always come back to.
Speaker 2:What is it? Pickaxe ale. I think that sounds like a lighter one. And then the other one I brought that we're not really talking about today is called Red Ridge and that's like a blood orange type Tasting one there. We'll have to try that one another time no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this, but this, yeah, the Widowmaker Black Ale is I don't know, it's legit one of my favorite beers. I it's, I don't know. Like I said, every time, if I get it when I'm going out, if people haven't seen it, they're always like whoa, is that really what you're going to? You're going to drink that, like I thought we were going to have like a kind of a fun night on the town. Yeah, I'm like dude, just try it, give it a shot, try some of that. Let it roll around in your mouth a little. It's a fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let the taste buds take it all in the smoky flavor. You know the light smoky flavor. Everybody I've had try it too. Nobody's said no, they don't like it. They're like wow, this is definitely pretty good.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm also very big, like well, I don't really want to check. Like I'll tell you, I will order one if you don't like it.
Speaker 2:I will drink it. I will drink it. Yeah, trust me, I won't let this go to waste, yeah it's not just going to get dumped out, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:No, not at all. Yeah, so Kiwinna Brewery, definitely, you know, check that out. Like you said, you can get mixed packs or otherwise. You know, it's just the widowmaker highly recommended. But if you're up in the UP or even in the LP, do they call it the LP?
Speaker 2:I don't think they call it that I don't know what they call it the main, the lower.
Speaker 1:The rest of it, the main land, the mitten. But if you're headed that direction, you know, stop by the brewery, check it out. Tell them you heard it here.
Speaker 2:Yes, please do. Yeah, I'm going to tell you about a story about driving up there and you'll get a kick out of this, and this is more about women. I think you know, because I'm such an expert in women here.
Speaker 1:Right. So why is it we're going to see our demographics change on the?
Speaker 2:So why is it? Anytime a male, a human adult male, gets in a car for a road trip, we don't need anything. We can drive, tank to tank, we don't need to stop. We don't need to stop to pee, we don't need a drink of water, we don't need a pack of gum. But women, on their hand, are completely different. Now, this is. This is what happened on my road trip this last weekend.
Speaker 2:Okay, so, my wife I love her death, bless her heart. She goes to the bathroom before we get into the car and all that stuff. So we get in the car, we stop at the first gas station 20 miles down the road, just to get a water. You know, fill up and get some water. Okay, great. I get in the car, I'm waiting for her. She comes out with a water, a coffee and some sort of grapefruit drink and some Celsius can't. Okay, I'm like okay, great. So we're probably going to stop four more times now because she's going to need to pee. So she gets in the car, she puts her water in the cup holder in the door, gets in, elbows me in the head and, getting into the back seat, she pulls down the armrest in the middle of the back seat just to put her coffee in there. And then she sits with the Celsius drink, you know, in her lap and I'm looking at her like who needs all this stuff To drive five hours up here.
Speaker 2:So sure enough she always down the road she needs to pee. She's like, oh, I shouldn't have drank all that much on a road trip, I know better. But here we are, pull over waiting for her to pee. Let me get up there, of course. Fine, finally, after a couple stops Now on the way back here we go again like I feel this death stare coming at me from the passenger seat. You know, like Superman is like zeroing in with laser eyes. I look over here. She's got an empty water bottle in her hand. She's like crinkling it, like my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. I need something to drink.
Speaker 1:Not the coffee, not the Celsius. Okay, water's all gone.
Speaker 2:So of course we have to stop again. You have more water. I just said it's crazy, and that reminded me when I was just on the road trip a couple months ago with my daughter. Same shit, like is it just a woman thing? They have to have some sort of liquid next to them at all times. It's like you're not gonna Dehydrate the human body can go three to five days without a drop of water, like you'll be fine for five hours, but no, we need a water, we need a coffee, we need a grapefruit drink. We need some more water. You know she's like I like options.
Speaker 1:Well, I like to get there, right, yeah, I mean I like to have like a bottle of water, or sometimes I'll get two bottles of water, but I don't yeah, I don't generally. I mean I don't drink a lot of pop to begin with, so I guess that's part of it, and beer is frowned upon for road trips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't work out so well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I like to have like couple bottles of water that you know is available and sometimes I'll drink some of it, sometimes it'll just sit there. We're just totally fine, because I don't necessarily I mean I'll get a little obnoxious with it. Okay, we got to get like a bag of Fritos and like some other random your college kid in a dorm type of snacks or whatever, but just get some of that. But yeah, my plan is, unless I get super bored or like super sleepy when I got to get up and start Moving around, we're gonna go until we can't go, no more. I don't know that when we went to Chicago the one time or the couple of trips to Milwaukee, like we usually stop a whole lot on, you know, sometimes we'd stop, especially on the way back at like the Dells or something I mess around.
Speaker 2:But that was like a plan thing. No, I wasn't. Like I have to pee, I need some water. Yeah, you don't need it. Yeah, you'll want it. Exactly. And I feel the death stare. I'm not even looking at it, you know, like just those eyes, you know, penetrating your skull. Mm-hmm, I need water. Crinkle in the water, right.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like at a restaurant, if you like raising the glass and just like shaking the ice cubes.
Speaker 2:And I can't. My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. Well, not really cuz you're talking to me right now.
Speaker 1:That's true, that's it. It is a physiologically incorrect. It's good to be prepared, but you know, maybe it's just to. You just need to stop and walk around a little bit. Maybe that's all it is. I guess I don't. I don't know. I don't try to even come close to claiming to understand the other gender at all.
Speaker 2:Well, I certainly didn't come with an instruction manual, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:That's true. I will say, though, like it from that standpoint, though, like, generally speaking, a man is pretty good about not to we do a ton of like Super long road trips, but she's very much so like, no, we're gonna go. We got places to get to, like when we went to last year. We went to Kentucky, we did a Ragnar run in bourbon country, bourbon trail, oh yeah, so it was really cool.
Speaker 1:But, you know, as we drove down there instead of flying down to Lexington or you know anything like Louisville or anything like that, which we could have, but it was, I don't know, price wise and time off and whatever it's like made more sense. So we drove down there, but it was God, did we make it all that? We left I think I Don't know if it was midday or after a work day or something like that, but we gave up and like got a hotel finally in Gary, indiana, like we drove all the way through to that before we stopped. I think we stopped for gas or something once, but otherwise it was no, we're gonna keep going and we're just gonna plug right along. We got a cell phone, we got like a crossword puzzle or something, who knows, and there's a nap over here, for me like.
Speaker 2:And that's usually what we do too, like I'm not trying to throw my wife under the bus, because she doesn't typically do that. This is kind of a hard and everything. Usually we drive straight through. Yeah, we've driven straight through from here to North Carolina and from here to Texas and and stuff. But I don't know. I was just like thinking like what on earth is going on?
Speaker 1:Well, after anybody else thing, definitely check in on the comments, give some feedback on it.
Speaker 2:Your experiences on that I just had a million dollar idea. You know, let me get a pen. Yes, yeah, their gender doesn't come with instruction manuals. I wonder if there's an app this is what to do that could be a million dollar idea we design an app, there we go. We can just put a bunch of weird random stuff in there.
Speaker 1:It doesn't even make sense there you go, it'd be a 50-50 guess, essentially 299 a month. Yeah, whatever you pick is gonna be wrong, so it's fine, something like that. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 2:app developers reach out like share, subscribe, you know drink little maker while you're developing the app, Because that'll probably happen to us after we develop the app. We won't be around much longer right.
Speaker 1:We'll have an accident in the house, Exactly yeah we were using the drill and you just stop breathing. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 2:He fell down the stairs.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure Anybody's listening right now and I've disappeared. Clear my browser history. So whilst you got Vikings, lost got, I didn't get smoked, but lost a winnable game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't watch it, I was just listening to it. So that's on my way back from right. I didn't sound that great with an interception, two fumbles, I don't know. The defense seemed to play out All right from what I heard on the radio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the way that they you know, I mean I don't think that they're jumping up into like the top 10, but I think we talked previously about even if they just make a Marginal into like the mid to upper 20s from 32 like just get out of the cellar and make it competitive. I thought that they played pretty good, but I thought that, I don't know, there was a couple of the interceptions. One of them was it's. It felt like it was forced. There wasn't pressure on them, you just tried to squeeze it into a window on the cage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I looked, it was throwing behind them. I saw the replay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look like it was throwing behind him and the fumble I mean edding room, like just what are you doing? They slap on the ball out of his hand like I don't you get a lot of Chris crossing, like you're gonna run into some stuff.
Speaker 2:Like that, or it's still offensive line that could spend that way for years. What are they gonna fix it?
Speaker 1:They thought that they had it fixed with it the high draft picks, but I don't know. I don't know, maybe Ingram will be Ultimately something, but yeah. I'm just about willing to. I mean, he's injured now so he didn't really play most of the game. But I'm almost willing to call Bradbury a bust at this point because he was drafted what first second round, something like that Like he was highly drafted.
Speaker 2:He was a high draft as a center.
Speaker 1:But I will admit. I mean, I didn't know if he was going to be a bust or not, but I remember watching that draft and I remember they picked him and all of the highlights that they showed were his hand playing baseball.
Speaker 1:That's a great sign right there, and I'm like guys, this might be an omen of things to cut. They're not showing highlights of football stuff. Like if you're drafting an offensive lineman highly, there should be multiple clips of you just I mean, it's going to be like a 300-pound lineman mowing over like a defensive back. That makes it look way worse than it is, because that's what highlights do. But you got to have something like that. You get to the second level and you took out a safety or something like that. But no, it was like look at the power he has when he's hitting home runs. Yeah, that'll do you well when you're snapping the ball. I don't think that that's going to help you a whole lot when you got 350 defensive linemen pouring down your neck.
Speaker 2:And he's an other side center at that Exactly, and he's what. Last year he played decent until he got hurt, but that was really only his good year in the NFL. I mean he played marginably OK his rookie year on and off, yeah, he's not been.
Speaker 1:He wasn't consistent. When you draft, especially a center, that highly interior defensive lineman I mean really any offensive lineman or anybody that highly. I guess, to a certain extent, if you're drafting the first round, you're looking for a person that's going to be competing for a pro bowl. You know I mean top two, three, especially interior defensive linemen. You're looking for kind of that same type of production. They shouldn't be you and so just to have somebody that you can't build around as a cornerstone. I mean I think that we got book and tackles that can be with anybody in the league, but you get anywhere inside there. Like Cleveland is good probably in past defense, but you're not past blocking, but he's just not hasn't well rounded out really well and Ingram is just such a flip of a coin. So I don't know, it's tough, I don't know what you do on that one, but yeah, our tackles, darcy and O'Neill they're really good.
Speaker 2:They're definitely top of the crop, if you will, for tackles in the NFL. You know they're above average and very serviceable. The interior line is just awful. Did you see that? What was that free agent from Denver that we interviewed this summer but then we never signed them? Oh, he just tweeted out at us again like hey, I'm still available. Like his past blocking grade was like 30 points better than both Cleveland and the other guy. I can't even think of his name right now.
Speaker 1:Ingram, hey, ingram, yeah, he's like hello.
Speaker 2:Mike Gaines. I'm here, I want to play with you.
Speaker 1:Oh, by the way.
Speaker 2:And we're just like ah, don't worry about it, Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, and I think part of it is they're probably locked into some contracts or some stuff like that. There's probably stuff behind the scenes. But at the same time, like I don't know, it just felt like on offense they felt almost disorganized in a way, like they would make a couple of really good plays but they would almost try to force the ball into certain areas. And Madison, I think, is still a good back and I think he's good out of the backfield but he runs into his own guys far too often for a running back. In my mind he ran into his own guy blocking probably four or five times throughout the course of the game and it's like I understand that if the block is moving, you're trying to get around it or you don't want to go on the inside and you're basically running to a tackle, but at the same time, like as a running back, isn't your job to avoid running into people?
Speaker 2:I think that's the idea Like don't stay away from contact but like avoid people. Unless you're lowering your head and going into a defender, then you hit them, but exactly you just seem bizarre, like.
Speaker 1:I don't know. It just felt like I don't know, and it's one game. So overreaction Monday, you know, like that's what's going to happen, but at the same time there's some areas of opportunity. I guess is that's. That's the way that I'll word it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, one thing so far this year about for me for football and it's took me most of my life to get to say is I'm just not emotionally invested in professional sports anymore. So when one of my teams I root for loses, it's just not a big deal to me anymore. But what, kurt? Three turnovers yesterday. I mean I guess you can't blame them all on him, but you could probably blame two of them on him At least, maybe. Yeah, the exchange and then the interception, and then that stat popped up on the radio. I don't know if people have watched it or heard it, but if you're a minus three in turnovers in the history of the NFL you have a 7% chance to get in the game 7%.
Speaker 2:It sounds right. We were in the game. We could have still won it, even with the turnovers. I didn't watch it. Like I said, I was listening to it on the radio. But what did Kirk look like to you? Did he look good? I mean, he threw for what 300 in some odd yards and he was what 32 for 41 or something like that.
Speaker 1:He looked decent, he looked good, but there was a couple of them that felt kind of forced. But really what almost stood out to me and I don't know if this was a game plan thing or the defense got into the backfield better than what it was anticipated or whatever it was, but there was probably five, six completions to like we're going to do like a little bubble screen with CJ Ham and he's tackled for a loss.
Speaker 1:I hate those plays and it's like if you know that that's going to happen. I don't know if he's trying to keep his completion percentage up for being in a contract here. This is where those conspiracies start to float out there. But at the same time it's like if you're going to throw this ball to TJ Hawkinson, you're going to lose four yards. Aren't you better off just throwing it at his feet and living to play another day at third and short, rather than third and nine?
Speaker 1:Well, logic would tell you that at least it just feels like. You know, like I get the idea of getting in space and making a playmaker, or allowing a playmaker to make a move and try to get him. I would take JJ on the outside, flip it to him like yard behind the line and just let him make something happen because he's athletic enough to do that. And I'm not trying to knock TJ Hawkinson, because I think he's a tremendous playmaker as well. But if he's catching the ball with his back to the defense as he's being tackled, that's not exactly giving him an opportunity to make a play or even lower his shoulder Like he. Just you can't do anything from there, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's not necessarily him. I mean maybe his route running, but he's still what. He's probably a top seven tight end in the end, offensive tight end in the end. If I mean he's blocking is a little suspect at times, but he can run routes and he can catch the wall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's some things that I thought that they did well, you know. I mean, I thought that they did a very good job trying to remove Jefferson from getting anything. You can't keep a guy like that down all night long. But Addison, I thought, had a couple of good catches, you know, played well. Osborn was able to get into the mix a little bit, but not a lot. It felt like they were kind of going to add some a little bit more, but that's who's open, you know. But yeah, Jefferson, he still got him opportunities, moving him around, getting him a matchup on a linebacker or something and then trying to throw a little seam route or something. But I don't know, It'll be interesting. I think that the Tampa Bay defense is still pretty good. I think people knocked the Tampa Bay team as a whole because Baker may feel there's their quarterback, but he's serviceable enough and if your defense is good, their defense is still a stout, solid defense.
Speaker 2:Well, when field junior was still, you know it was in ton of havoc. We didn't feel it was all over the place.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's hard to. I mean whether that I think they might be. Maybe they're the playoff team out of the NFC South, because the NFC South is all kind of bad. So what about the Saints? I'm going to need to see something out of them for I mean, chris, a lot of these dead wonders for my fantasy football team. But yeah, I don't know, I don't necessarily buy them. I don't know that I buy in Carolina with the new quarterback, I don't it just Falcons, maybe, I don't know, it's the entire South. It's just kind of as a toss it up in the air and who knows. But if you get a good defense like that, you're going to stay in games, you're going to at least give yourself a shot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be a slugfest in that NFC South, though for sure I don't think any any which one of them will really pull away. I think it's going to be a tight, tight down there all all season. Eight and eight, nine and nine tight records, you know this. Only two games above 500, you know maybe three games above 500. Yeah, but Baker Mayfield, he's beat the Vikings twice in his career. He's two and all against the Vikings. You know, I don't. I don't think he's a great quarterback, but I think he's a little surprising at times.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would. I would agree. I think that he's. He's better than what people give him credit for. He's still not a first round pick. I think he went number one overall. He's not that guy. But I think because of that level of expectations, people rag on him a lot more. He's not you're not building the franchise around him, but at the same time, like I would have been, you know, if they let Kirk walk next year, if he's available, like I'd be fine with him being kind of that bridge quarterback for a year you know what I mean Like we have enough weapons that he can just throw it around and let them make the place. You know, like so he's going to throw it away to your team, like that's the. That's the one of the things that he has against him. But he's not great, but he's serviceable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is serviceable. Yeah, he can get the job done.
Speaker 1:Well, we didn't get the job done, but oh and one, Philadelphia next.
Speaker 2:So that's going to be all into. Yeah, it's really. We're going to go into Philadelphia and win.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess, a tough poll on that one.
Speaker 2:Maybe they're the Vikings of the nineties, where we just lose to the games we should win and then we just practically beat those teams that you're like really.
Speaker 1:Start pulling out wins against teams.
Speaker 2:Steve Young and the 49ers like why, right, and you go in and play the Raiders with I don't even, can't even think of a nineties score like Jeff Hosteler, and we get blown out, right, oh, okay, perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, yeah, just destroyed. You can always count on the Vikings to be able to make somebody look really good. You know how many backup quarterbacks did we face last year?
Speaker 2:Too many. I can't even count that high. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Um, but there's always the next week and then eventually hockey season will be here, at least for me, that's.
Speaker 2:That's what I get excited for next week, then there's next month, then there's next year. Oh, we'll get it next year. Oh, we'll get it next year. Yeah.
Speaker 1:An hour 40.
Speaker 2:And we've gotten nowhere.
Speaker 1:It's true? Yeah, that's. That was one of the shirts that was at the estate fair that I seen all the time was like just once before I die just once yeah.
Speaker 2:What do you think of Deion, Sanders and Colorado Uh?
Speaker 1:I think, I don't know I'm. I think it's fantastic. I think it's amazing. I think that he's a good coach ultimately.
Speaker 2:Clearly he is. Look what he did at Jackson state, yep, and now he lost. What a couple of games in three years there, and now he's two and oh, and in the big 10,. Well, one game against the big 10, but Colorado is in the big 10.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, I think that it'll be interesting to see kind of how they react to losing maybe a couple of games in a row. I mean, who knows, maybe they won't, maybe they'll lose like one game all season long. They'll finish like nine and one or whatever it is. But uh, I don't know. I think that I think the thing that I shouldn't say bothers me, but it just becomes such a you have to have confidence yourself. If you don't have confidence in yourself, then you're going nowhere to begin with. But if you get to a post game press conference in a game that you likely should have won anyway, and you say you believe in me now and you just rant on that and then walk off, no, I still don't believe in you. Like that's, let's get you up against. Like, yes, matt rules still a good coach and whatever, and maybe Nebraska will turn into be a decent football team. But they're not right now, they're still not.
Speaker 2:They didn't exactly.
Speaker 1:Colorado got so many play they replaced like 90% of their roster through the portal. Nebraska didn't do that. They're basically the same Nebraska that they have been for the last handful of years. They've gotten some pieces Don't get me wrong and I think that they're still going to ultimately be, you know, maybe a little below 500, but decent and kind of building program. But if you have that type of expectation, put those numbers up against TCU in your first game. After watching what Nebraska did against Minnesota, I feel like, yeah, you should have won that game. That doesn't exist. That's not a statement win to me and I think that that's kind of where it's like, well, do you believe in us now? Like, well, no, maybe eventually. But like let's get you against somebody that's ranked that's what I thought 15 ish. You know, let's see what you do there. You know, let's get something going with that.
Speaker 2:But that's what I thought after there were one and only made that comment, and it's one game right Doesn't mean you're a good coach or a bad coach. I mean, clearly he's good, he's been done some good things, but I'm like wow, dude he's got some history in one game Like let's see how the season goes, and you play some real tough teams and, of course, tcu was one of the top teams in LA last year so it kind of is a statement win, but I don't know how many they graduated and how many returned.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, that's and that's, I don't know. It's crazy because, like, that's the game that I thought was a bigger game than the Nebraska game. You know, like, because I didn't think that, like, for whatever reason, the line was really close on that one, but I thought that Colorado was going to walk away with that one. I didn't see that one as much of a challenge, so I don't know what was going on with that, but it'd be, like I said, it'd be interesting really to see what they do when they face some adversity. Because they talked a little bit about they brought in this new offensive coordinator kind of you know, just like, do all of the offense, and he's what they've talked about, is Dion does kind of what a lot of coaches should do, but don't where they're more of the like overseer of everything. They're kind of CEO of the football team.
Speaker 1:They're not like right now, Kevin O'Connell for the Vikings. He's the offensive. There's an offensive coordinator, but he's the offensive court, he's calling the plays. He's very actively involved in that side of the ball. Of course you got a guy like Brian Flores. You can kind of let him run with the other side and like, just you do your thing, you know whatever, and that not a lot of involvement, but really a true head coach has his kind of thumbprint on everything.
Speaker 1:But like, nope, you're coordinators, You're kind of in charge of this side of the ball. I kind of take care of everything overarching with whatever, and that's kind of what the thought was going into this season. But if they show some adversity and they start getting like not shut out but not moving the ball or things like that, or even on the defensive side, like giving up a ton of, does he start trying to take over some of that stuff or does he still allow? Like, does he stay in that cultural or does he become more of a nope that's, I'm taking that away from you and start? It'll be interesting to see, like when they face some adversity. Or if they do, I don't know, maybe it'll just be undefeated.
Speaker 2:I doubt it, but yeah, they very well could be. I guess it's kind of a wait and see and see what happens.
Speaker 1:But I don't know. I mean, you bring in that many players. You know you got to figure, you got some talent that showed up.
Speaker 2:Out of that, there's a dude on the quarterback. Yeah, yeah, I think it's fantastic.
Speaker 1:He looks really good, absolutely, and he's making good decisions. Like he's not just a he's throwing the ball, well, playing within the offense. Like he's not just like a Vince Young type of quarterback where it's oh, I'm just taking off. And or even like a Lamar Jackson where it's like that's all, it is Just running the ball.
Speaker 2:He looks like he could be a packet. A packet, a passer. Yep, that one. If anybody's ever heard of one of those, please let me know. That's the new million dollar idea. It's a half a little maker gets you just spitting out crazy words. Exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know, they should be pretty good but it'll be interesting to see. But I don't know. I like him as a coach and I do hope for some success. But just like that comment, I think that's probably what threw me off. It's just like, yeah, I mean he has to have that level of confidence. I totally get that part of the bit. But there's also a certain part of that. I'm like, okay, you got to believe that. Like, not everybody's just going to like fall in love with the darling because you beat somebody. You're supposed to come back to me Again, come back to me when you you get like a solid statement when I mean, granted, the one against TCO kind of was, but let's beat somebody, let's see what TCO does the rest of this.
Speaker 1:If they go around the table, then that clearly was a big win. That was a big win, yeah. But I'd like to see somebody that like whoever, I don't know what their schedule looks like, but if they face somebody that's like five and all down the road, all right, let's see that. What happens there? They get the win on that one, or at least play well. I shouldn't say I'm not going to put that type of print, but if they play well, you know what I mean Can make it competitive even if they lose, but it's close. Hey, now you've shown me something. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Then I start to, can change my mind a little bit, but I would almost want them to get their ass beat just because it was beyond Sanders attitude. So it's cocky motherfuckers. Piss me off, you know. But at the same time he's clearly good at what he does, you know, so you can't get too mad about it. It's just like holy cow, dude. I just relax a little bit, show a little professionalism. I feel like, if you can back it up I guess that's your personality I guess more power to you.
Speaker 1:I feel like we used to the two of us used to, once upon a time play basketball with a set of brothers that would talk a lot or whatever. Only one of them could really back it up, but I want the other one to text me and say that yeah, we sure did.
Speaker 2:The one was really good though. But yeah, and I don't think we ever beat them either.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:They were a fact a couple of years. They were the only team to beat us in at all. You know they would only beat us in the regular only team to beat us in the regular season, and they don't. They beat us in the playoffs. Nobody else would beat us. So what do you do? Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, day's gone by, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now we drink widowmaker Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yep, so well, I don't know if you got anything else. Otherwise I think we kind of covered the gamut of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's all we got for this time we hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker 1:The proverbial like, share and subscribe. You can find us on all the social media platforms. See if I can get all of them listed off this time here Facebook, instagram, twitter, youtube, rumble it's one that I always. I'm not real familiar with it. I got to get better at that. I'll self-admittedly have to reach out on that one a little more. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed the Q&A Widowmaker Black Ale episode. Go ahead and get some for sure.
Speaker 2:Agreed. You won't regret it.
Speaker 1:Fantastic beer, fantastic episode, and I hope you can join us for another one. As I mentioned, like share and subscribe, but mostly give us some feedback. Just click on and tell us what you think Good, bad. Otherwise Just give us some stuff. You don't want to put it there, just go ahead and send a direct message or something.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's an option, but hopefully yeah, they probably can on any of the social media. And we're also now on all the major podcast network. It took us for a little bit to get on Apple Podcasts. It takes a couple of weeks, but now we're on everything. So if you listen on any podcast platform, we're on all of them. So it's two guys the letter N beer.
Speaker 1:Perfect Two guys in a beer Love it. Fantastic evening here drinking some Widowmaker Black Ale, and I hope you can join us for a future episode.