Luke Braun's Film Room: Zoey and Ziti, Luke's Pet Rabbits, Debate Nick Mullens Versus Jaren Hall

Uh... I guess Luke Braun decided to write this week's film room about Nick Mullens and Jaren Hall, which is normal. He pretended to be his rabbits, which is not.

On Thursday, Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell announced his intention to start Jaren Hall over Nick Mullens.

Was that the right call? The wise thing to do would be to wait until we see more from Jaren Hall to pass any judgment. It’s also the cowardly thing to do. I, a coward [Ed. Note: that’s true], am happy to wait. But my pet rabbits, Ziti and Zoey, are much more willing to live on the edge.

The following will be a Socratic exercise featuring these two rabbits. I often imagine the two of them engaging in overly academic conversations, as I’m sure any pet owner can relate to. It’s fun, but it’s also a useful framing device for genuinely difficult decisions like the one the Vikings faced at quarterback this week. For this, Zoey’s dialogue will be written in the code block. Ziti’s will be written in fake code font. Like so:

Zoey

Ziti

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Question 1: Was It Fair To Nick Mullens To Bench Him For His Week 16 Performance?

Of course it was fair. He threw four interceptions. If you throw four interceptions, it shouldn’t matter how well you played on the other downs - four interceptions is far too many. 

Shouldn’t it? Mullens dropped back 40 times. Why would we judge his game on just 10% of it?

Because those plays render all the other plays moot. Besides, were those good plays even that good?

I am so glad you asked. Look at some of these plays. Absolute seeds. 

Some of those aren’t even completions.

They’re great throws though. Can’t catch it for them. I’m not sure how you can look at a player doing this and decide to judge him by his worst plays. It seems reactionary to me.

Would you rather we not react to a four-interception game? You recall what happened last time a quarterback threw four interceptions?

You mean one month ago?

Yes. One month ago. 

No. I’m a rabbit; my span of memory only lasts a few days.

Let’s refresh then. Josh Dobbs threw four picks, they decided to stick with him, and it flamed out in three quarters. Why make the same mistake twice? If you get to rub my nose in his good plays, I’m going to rub your nose in some bad ones. Look at this first interception.