We're nerding out over a recent segment on Good Morning Football.

Science teacher Brandon Hoth of Stewartville Middle School in Minnesota hopped on a video call Wednesday with hosts of the über-popular morning show – Jamie Erdahl, Kyle Brandt, Manti Te'o and Isaiah Stanback, as well as guest Seth Rollins – to break down the application of energy in "angry runs."

Angry runs, you ask? The buttery feet-churning, stiff-arming, tackle-breaking plays that make ear-splitting noise across the NFL and vie for the Angry Runs Scepter awarded weekly to one player.

Amazingly, Hoth may be more of an expert on the subject than the uniquely performative and knowledgeable Brandt, who has thrilled viewers with hilarious angry run analysis for a handful of years.

"Mr. Hoth is the best teacher ever – that was incredible!" Brandt exclaimed in reaction to the educator and 9^th grade head football coach detailing the interconnectedness of leg drive and the laws of physics.

"I'm an English major and I was just fascinated by what you were saying and watching the optics," Brandt added.

In a succinct lecture, the same kind that grabs and holds attention, and informs students in Hoth's classroom, he explained "every time [a player] plants his foot on the ground and pushes on the ground, Newton's Third Law states that the ground is actually pushing him back. So as you see all the time in an NFL game, if he were to stop his feet, he would be taking away any force he could add from the earth."

On the play being analyzed, Chargers first-round rookie Omarion Hampton (whom the Vikings will face in Week 8) takes a handoff from Justin Herbert, sidesteps to his right, lowers his shoulder pads to brace for contact with a defender and begins to pump his thighs like pistons. The force he generated enabled him to shake off one Giants tackle attempt, then a second, and carry a third defender for a giant 18-yard gain.

It was the epitome of an angry run, and definitively scientific in nature.

The one term Hoth wanted the GMFB hosts to absorb is "force pairs" aka action-reaction pairs.

You might recall, buried somewhere … for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In addition to reminding us that what we learned in school has real-word purpose, Hoth shared what attracted him to Angry Runs (the energy Brandt brings) and why he decided to implement it as a teacher.

"I've been watching for a very long time, and [that energy is] something that I've always wanted to emulate for my students," Hoth said. "There's a little bit of confusion [from them]. They're thinking this guy on the screen is nuts. They're thinking I'm nuts. But at the beginning of the school year it is so important to set the tone right and just know that, especially in science class, there's so many cool things that you can see. So whatever we're gonna do, it's always [the type of] energy that we want to bring."

Former Vikings running back Adrian Peterson earned a living off impressive, tackle-breaking runs, and newcomer Jordan Mason is a potential candidate based on his running style.

Check out Hoth's appearance on GMFB this week here.

Tale of the tenure

What's the perfect elixir in a highly imperfect game of attrition?

It's takeaways, Mark Craig of the Minnesota Star Tribune determined Wednesday.

In his analysis of the Vikings and their 2-2 start, Craig wrote takeaways trump sloppy moments and injuries.

He identified Jacksonville as a great current example. The Jaguars have been flagged 50 times in four games, five more than the second-most penalized team and seven more than Minnesota. The Jags are one of two clubs with more than 300 yards of penalties against and average a flag about every 12 plays.

Yet they're 3-1, one victory shy of tying their 2024 win total.

What? Why? How?

Largely because Jacksonville leads the NFL with 13 takeaways (they had nine in 17 games last season).

Craig noted the Vikings are 32-4 in games winning the turnover battle under Head Coach Kevin O'Connell, and 4-17 (0-2 this year) when they don't.

"As Vikings fans can attest," Craig wrote, "takeaways can turn a smile (five against Cincinnati) upside down (zero against Pittsburgh) in a week's time."

Here's an excerpt from Craig's story:

Years ago, one of my then-grade-school daughters looked at the Vikings schedule, saw 16 games and asked, "Dad, if the Vikings only play 16 games, what do you do the rest of the year?"

Um, ah … good question.

We media folks tell stories, hopefully interesting ones. We also spend an awful lot of time analyzing, discussing, over-analyzing and blathering on about what we think could, should and will happen in the upcoming game.

Then the opening kickoff comes …

And …

We watch as the bouncing ball oftentimes literally determines the outcome of the game — not all the things we discussed, analyzed, over-analyzed and blathered on about for six days prior.

Furthermore, the numbers don't tell the complete story. Expanding on Craig's point for a moment – forcing a turnover, aka creating a takeaway, can pull momentum out of thin air. Usually, getting the defense off the field saves players' legs, and supplies offensive teammates with a confidence surge.

Minnesota knows this well. It's why Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores and Special Teams Coordinator Matt Daniels often discuss takeaway techniques with the media and drill takeaway circuits in practices.

Of course, creating a takeaway – and multiple for that matter – is a goal easier set than achieved.

A year ago, the Vikings didn't lose the turnover battle until Week 9. They have seven takeaways so far this season, granted five occurred in Week 3. Craig thinks increasing that figure would distract from the slew of injuries and penalties that has put Minnesota in adverse situations through its first four games.

Read his full analysis on the topic here.

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