Steelers-Vikings Recap - 2021's Best Comedy?

frimout incomplete, Viking's winning. It was the greatest comedy released in one and makes sense because it is awards season now. December is when they start rolling out the prestige pictures and comedies don't usually get that pop that the dramas do. But this was high comedy because if you thought that the Minnesota Vikings up twenty nine does zilch in the

third quarter, we're just gonna coast a victory. And if you thought this version of the Steelers, the Steelers who are basically a zombie that doesn't know it's dead, Like no one's done the head shot yet, so it's still wanders around it stumbles through the darkness. It eats some people, but ultimately it's still dead. It just needs to be

told that, and it hasn't learned yet. They're going to keep coming and keep coming late in games, and that's what they did, but they could not finish off what would have been one of the craziest comebacks in primetime NFL history. I will go that for final score thirty six to Vikings hold off the Steelers. Mike Zimmer maybe alive, maybe not alive at the time of this taping. I don't think he had blinked in about an hour and a half. Um, so we'll check in on his status

later on this weekend. I am Dan Hansas. Joining me now is Mark Sessler. We're gonna to hand this one buddy, Mike and the mad Dog's style. And I know you were really enjoying yourself for about two and a half quarters, Mark, because no one dislikes the Steelers more than Mark Sessler. And then things changed. Were you surprised even by the standards that these teams have set the season? Well, no, I shouldn't be. I mean, if you've been, you know,

observing what we've you know, witnessed throughout the season. No, I think it's funny just that like star performances get buried by a game like this, like Dalvin Cook basically you know, totally injured carrying the team on his back for two hundred and five yards at seven point six yards per carry. It gets lost in the folly of this and I found myself, as to your point, um,

enjoying this game. At one point I tweeted that Big Ben's final move is Terry Bradshaw's money, that there's nothing left for him him to achieve at this point in his career. Um, it was absolutely what we'd expect. I think that I, well know, the biggest you know, you talk about like someone that has been been eaten by

a zombie. At this point, it was my own, my own self because how did I fall for this again, thinking that the Vikings would storm out as they are wont to do to a very clear and uh you know define herble huge start and then totally crumble. I mean, we got the worst Kirk Cousins game of the season at one point in late in the fourth quarter. In three completions in the second half, two interceptions. None of it should be a surprise to us. At all right.

I mean, it just seems exactly almost what we thought would happen. Yet in the moment, I fell for it like a giant rube. Well take me through it, because I'm curious at sessler manner um. As the game gets tight, if it go as it goes, and then the big touchdown from Kirk Cousins to kJ Osborne sixty two yards, Okay, it seems under control at that point, it's thirty six. And then they get off the field the Vikings defense,

and then the Steelers force an interception. Kirk Cousins throws an interception in that spot, and that's when I thought Zimmer's head was going to explode. Because we know Zimmer does not like his quarterback. It doesn't matter that Kirk Cousins is on pace for four thousand yards and thirty six touchdowns and seven interceptions this year. He guy drives them crazy because that interception changes the game there again, and the Steelers, of course, then go right back down

the field. This time they get the two point aversion. They make it a one score game, and the Vikings have one last chance to ice the game. I thought Cousins did it. I thought Cousins stepped up when they had third and twenty one, I believe it was, and he dug him out with two big completions. But then they go three and out. Steelers get the ball back and they take it all the way down the field. So where are you mark? As that all is the last let's say two minutes of game time? What's going

on at Sessler? Man? Are you throwing things? Are you is anyone around you? You in the garage? Is a door lock? Take me through it? Largely dead inside? Um. I started the game in the garage, and you know, when things are going well, um, very systematic, had a nice my laptop set up on a folding table, very organized. Um. When things got really comfortable and I was tweeting out, um, you know anti Steelers, uh Bizarro tweets that you know, I thought I could never be failed on. I moved

into our bedroom alone and just curled up. It's a it's a cold, dark, rainy, slash windy night in Los Angeles. The other one just curled up under blankets, and I thought, I've got this. I finally felt confident that maybe the Vikings were gonna hand us what we thought. Um. But but to your point, is the game just got uglier and uglier. UM, I started to peel the blankets off me. I'm sitting up. I'm starting to get flustered and annoyed.

Uh my wife was nice enough to bring me, uh, I get avocado toast, which I just threw to the side at one point. I mean, it's just that I should have known this was what this is exactly what's gonna happen. I honestly did think that the Steelers were gonna pull this out when that interception happened. Though, the

Witherspoon interception, it seemed like the ideal set up for this. UM. I think that, like we've watched enough football where like when you get up the way that the Vikings did, that k j Osborne connection, that touchdown seemed like it just they just needed to make one big play. And Kirk Cousins, yes, it might have been like his least successful game of the year, that was the one play that needed to be made and it put him over the top. But these Steelers, man, I mean, you gotta

give him some credit. They they fought to the very end. I mean, at this point they are six six and one. UM, the eight eight and one dream is totally alive. In my book, That's the one of the last few things I have to cling onto in this season. And the Vikings. You're on the fringes of the NFC wild card race and you're the weirdest team I've ever watched, I know, aren't they? And that I mean, that's why I've kind of loved them all season, because, you know, Troy Aikman

said it. Now, naturally everyone is kind of on the same page, like they are box office. You know, you sit down for four hours to watch one NFL game and if you want one, that's gonna be close, that's gonna have highs and lows and a lot of action.

It is the Vikings. Every game has come down to the final score from Minnesota, even the game when they were winning twenty nine nothing in the third quarter against a old quarterback who looks like he is ready to join Terry Bradshaw, and I yes, Ben Roethlisberger said, old quarterback deserves a lot of credit. There's something about Roethlisberger

and and a lot of this. It's hard to believe this comeback happened after t J. Watt went out, But when you looked at the first half when the Pittsburgh off offensive line was so bad and non competitive that the game had turned into a farce, and it all changed it all, just like it flipped the switch. And I don't know if you if that's Tomlin and the coaching staff making big time adjustments or if it's the Vikings uh, just failing to keep the momentum and keep

the pedal to the metal. But I think there's some d NA and play and I think that's why we got to where we got tonight with this game between these two teams. The Vikings inability to close games and they're seeming inability to avoid these calamitous collapses. That's part of who they are, Like it's in their heads. You saw it. As soon as that second touchdown scored. Everybody tightened up on that sideline, on that field, the coach, everybody, uh.

And on the flip side, the Steelers are this like flawed, imperfect team, but like the zombie that doesn't know it's dead, it still has this muscle memory to be able to fight back in games. They don't quit. They never quit on their coach, and they fought back and took advantage of the Vikings tightening up and that's like championship DNA, even if the Steelers haven't won a title in a while, so it's almost inevitable it got where it ended up.

But still like twenty nine nothing, Mark, it's unbelievable. Came down to the last play of the game and yeah, that's that's two NFL. Well, I think you nailed it right there. I think that both teams are emblematic of this particular season, not that we haven't seen game games

like this before, but it doesn't even feel especially rare. Um. You know, at one point I thought the Steelers had been impregnated with the baby of Satan at one point, that it was over for them, but but it wasn't, because that's the Steelers and that's the Vikings, and it it's um, it's disturbing what we watched tonight on some level, because like, when you're up twenty nine nothing, you should

just lay into it. And especially when they were running the ball the way they were, and the Steelers had been terrible against the run the past couple of games, the formula was there for the Vikings to go on and win this to twelve and you and I are doing this recording twenty five minutes ago. Instead it turns into a an anti drama of the highest nature. Um. But but you know what I I at this point one thing I've learned because I have essentially failed at

my job this season. I am not counting out either one of these teams on any level. I'm done tweeting about anyone. I'm done tweeting like anything can happen. At this point. The Steelers probably will become a wild card team and take that wild card game down to the final minutes too. So here that's your preview of the wild card weekend. Obligatory had break here because shocker alert, we talked too long. I mean the Steelers. See, I'm more confident in the Vikings finding way to the playoffs

just looking at the Steelers. Maybe home Titans at Chiefs home Mark? What oh Mark, it's prime time too. We got Steelers hosting Browns in week seventeen. Well, that way, you know that will turn into something very ugly. You you have to go full of any TESTI Verdi's dad on that one. You've got a VCR tape. That sucker. Is that Monday night or Thursday. I'm not on assignment. I hope on that evening January three. I believe it is ESPN, so it must be Monday Night Football, the

last Monday Night game, and Margie, I don't know. I will, I literally, I'll take a one way flight to Mexico for that game. And for those that don't know the reference, because we do bring it up from time to time.

When the Jets had a great run in when they went twelve and four and went to the a f C title game, lost to Elway and the Broncos, Vinny Testa Already had a career season and it was like this big like story in the Tri State area because Vinny test Already's father was a huge fan obviously of his son and and followed his whole career. But he

had a bump ticker. You see. Mr Testa Already had a bump ticker, and it was such a bump ticker that it wouldn't be able to hold up watching a game, an NFL game with his son at the quarterback position. So what Mr test Already would do was he would tape the game. This is back in the days of

the VCR. Tape the game. Some wou would then alert him after the game whether the Jets had won or lost, whether Vinnie had been successful or the team had been unsuccessful, and then knowing the the outcome was already decided in his mind, he then could watch the game and his ticker would be safe. That's what we need to do for Mark in Week seventeen, Brown Steelers, because that feels

like a heart attack platter, just a minor footnote. I think that is the the dichotomy of our fan interest because all that it literally same exact series of anecdotes were pounded into my head over and over during Vinnie TESTAVERTI season with Bill Belichick's Browns. When they went to the playoffs. It's like, I don't know if this was maybe a highly um, a well run pr campaign because

it made it was like every pregame show ever. But you're right, um when that by the way they're playing on are you saying it's like a mandito his girlfriend's situation? Like there never was. That's what I'm saying, Let's get back on track. The Steelers lost t J. Watt to a groin injury. Uh, he was in street clothes in the second half. I don't know if that was for precautionary reasons because the game seemed over and if that's the case that was done by the Steelers or if

he's seriously injured and can mis extended time. But either way, Defensive Player of the Year once again wide open the Steelers. If they have any chance of making that run to eight eight and one or you know, nine eight what what? What's a winning record for them? Then they gotta go. There's a Karen three. Would they be nine seven in one nine set nine one? Yet my head? That hurts me. I don't like that. They need they need what on the field. As for the Vikings, it doesn't change how

I feel about them at all. It's the same stuff with Minnesota. They could beat anybody, they could lose anybody, doesn't matter how far they're ahead, because they'll always let the team back in. And I think that d NA, ultimately Mark is gonna get them killed and it's gonna break the hearts of the entire Vikings fan base. But I think the only salace to take out of that, it's kind of like a Mr. Testa already um parallel. They already know, like everyone knows, that this season is

going to end horrifically for Minnesota. So maybe that helps when and they do host the Bears in week eighteen, and it's winning in and they lose on a field goal as time expires after a hideous Kirk Cousins fumble like they know that's coming. They are, yeah that they I think Vikings fans all along have sort of been the John the Baptist. Um. You know, persona here telling us you can get into this experience. You can, you can flee it. But either way we know we're telling

you now what's going to occur. And I frankly the Steelers feel very similar to me too, where it's like they are as you said, they are zombiest, they're unkillable. Um. I mean, I think you're right that the Vikings pattern is not a super Bowl pattern. It's a January heartbreak, um low ed where it's like you're gonna have a lot of Vikings fans in Minnesota hitting the dive bar after that game very hard. It's going to be very ugly. Um uh, we will be far from it. Thank you

and all your tweets. I know it was bad because when I tweeted about it, people were like tweeting, Uh, your boy Mark's not feeling so cool anymore, and stuff like that like people, you must have really gotten some critical tweets from the insers. Do you want me to read you? Let me see if I can find you. Yeah,

I would love to some some negative tweets. While you look for that, I'll just let everyone know that the Vikings now six and seven, right in the thick of the NFC wildcard race, and they get the Bears in Chicago next week. So oh, by the way, we get the Bears on Sunday Night Football this week. We get them about Monday Night Football next week against the Vikings, but we know will be a close fund game because the Vikings are playing, so I guess there's the positive

catch twenty two. And then they get the Rams at home the day after Christmas. So this is gonna get very interesting because the Rams potentially could lose to the Cardinals this week and being a potential desperation situation. So the NFC is gonna be a lot of fun. All right, did you find any tweets? I'll read you to? Um? The first was I'm not sure Steelers fans can read this, but your team is incomplete, I mean suggesting that was your tweet and I liked it. Well, that's um. There.

It is largely a known fact that many Steelers fans have never read a book, So I'm I just put that out there is a that's that was the baseline comment there. Then I said, t n f aside Steelers fans equal golden encrusted newbies to what comes next Colon QB reboot. Then in all caps total mystical evil chaos. I mean totally feeling myself as if you know this was real. Then the final one, the Steelers are a filmic projection this evening, not with us in real life.

Oh you know what I mean, stopped doing this. I think they replies during the comeback that really stood out or oh of course, well because well here's what I do find annoying. It was the very sixth grade argument. Yeah, but the Browns really suck. It's like, but that's I'm not taught. I already with you that they are problematic. So the a f C North is big and sloppy,

and I enjoy it. You know, yes, we're not getting probably not getting a super Bowl team out of there, but they're gonna they're just gonna just fight to death. It's like games in that division, it's just like one team is gonna come out of it alive. The others will be dead, and the one that survives will never be the same. It will probably be the Bengals, which like nobody on Earth predicted. So that would be Okay, there you go. That is Thursday Night Football, and I'll

give it to Greg Rosenthal. He predicted all that. I guess it wasn't a tough thing to predict. Us Again, the Vikings have done this thirteen straight times this season. Close game, going down to the very end, he said, I think you guys are gonna have a lot to talk about. We did, and on the subject of Greg Rosenthal mark Um, he also said he listens to the t n F recaps, which both struck us as a little bit maybe a stretch of the truth, a little suspicious.

I mean, just because I never would he's he said on on Friday morning as he's driving into work, he religiously listens to what others did with the TNF recap, but also claims to have never listened to any of our other podcasts. You you know, he's a former debate club guy in high school. Don't He's going to take that and use it against you by saying you're using overly flowery language. I don't think he said he listens religiously well you know, but he said. I think he

says he does. He's known when he can, he checks it out. So how about a test. What if, hey, Greg, if you're listening right now, if you would do indeed, listen to these podcasts on Thursday night that you're not on when I introduce you on Sunday Show the Flagship program, what the first thing you say, Strawberry truck. It's the perfect way to do it. I also, um, Greg, I don't know if you know this, damn, but he'll often I think he finds that I am a I'll listen

to him and his inner thoughts. I don't always respond. But he told me that he went ice skating alone tonight, Um,

just to enjoy the sensation of that. So if you wanted to tweet at him about that, if you're listening about you know, I think it's fine for a man to go by skating alone in Los Angeles on such a could call positive reinforcement, uh to Greg, because he was he let himself be vulnerable to his friend Mark sharing that he goes solo ice skating just to kind of clear his mind, and he said, you know, he said to me, he shot me a text a couple weeks ago. He said, Dan, it makes me feel graceful.

So that send him some positive tweets supporting his solo ice skating ventures. Let's lift him up, Ricky, do you have anything? Dad? Thank you guys. Really, now, I think he's just pissed because she had like a hot yoga class she was gonna try to go to early tomorrow. She thought that that game was gonna end quickly. Uh, and then the fact that it turned into like this epic barn burner is going to cost you a workout in the morning. Yeah, now I gotta Now, I gotta

go hard in the morning. I wanted to get it over with. So so now, now imagine being a Vikings fan. Uh, take that frustration and multiply it by roughly one trillion. Yeah, but at least they got the wins they got. I mean, it sucks that how they came back, And I get it, and I'd be furious too, because the Vikings do this every single game. And what did I think it was? You know, Troy and Joe were saying that, like in the two minute drill. The Vikings are like legitimately the

worst ever. And so it's like here we are in the two minute drill and like the Steelers marched down the field and I'm not doing you know, down in the last two minutes of half. Yeah. And unless you're a Vikers Vikings fan who is also a toddler, you know you know that a dark day is coming. I mean, I think that they're they're wise to uh final chapter. And just because I don't, I don't want this to

get lost to the sands of time. Chase Claypool, how about we like chill out on the knucklehead act that guys fantastically talented, but he does something stupid almost every week, uh, and posing and for the first down on a running clock with no time outs and the games on the line, and that led to an offensive line and scrambling over and like bro and then the ball falling on the ground that might have cost them one extra play down

with the goal line like that. That is not an exaggeration, like an extra ten nine ten seconds off the clock. That is something that Ricky would Ricky would absolutely pull the same exact stunt were she in the same position. And I think we're projecting. I think that I think I would team player. And when you got to know where you are at situational football, Mark, you gotta know I would be got water in the nerves. You gotta

clock it. You're not anything. Mark strikes me either if if well, first of all, I wouldn't make the catch. So let's I mean, that would be the first problem we know if we're if we're being generous, Mark would either be like a hard nosed white safety um or a super quirky kicker. Yeah, blanket ship type. Excuse me, you're talking to someone who played running back and um when they didn't know what's like like they didn't even have real helmets back then, right, like the real roots

of leather. Way, you know, at least a hundred years after that. But and and you're absolutely right, Mark Erica is a diva wide receiver and there's no other position that you could be playing. Yeah, well, that's piling up personal fouls and you know, off the field team penalties of finds and so you know what, the team can't get rid of me because the numbers prove it. Yeah, well, or your dad probably owns the team. It's okay, that's

all right. The show is now longer than the preview show. Um, alright, So again, Vikings fans, I hope you're okay. Deep breath, deep breath, you're still alive. I don't know if you're coaching. I hope you're okay. You know, the the zombie. There was always one memorable zom especially memorable zombie from the Michael Jackson Thriller video where he's walking down the street and his arm just straight falls off and he just

keeps walking. That's the Steelers. Now they only have one arm, but they still got two legs and and probably they're still searching for brains. So that's that. You're alive. You're under about the last. All right, let's go until Sunday. In the Flagship show, you needs the call Strawberry Truck