Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - An ugly win over the Bears doesn't inspire much hope that the Vikings can make a run

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom podcast from Chicago, where a 17-9 win at Soldier Field keeps the Vikings alive, but a flat performance from the offense raises questions about whether they can get it together against the Rams or Packers. Plus, is the defense's resurgence sustainable, and what was the deal with the horrific officiating? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello from Chicago and welcome to the post what in the world did we just watch with our eyeballs that will never be clean again after witnessing the vikings 17 to yeah nine happened if you shut the tv off before the end uh chicago did score another touchdown so 17 to 9 win that keeps the minnesota vikings season alive more or less guarantees that mike zimmer is the coach to the very end of the season and also will haunt you for the rest of your being uh sam uh matthew collar sam actually if you didn't figure this out in chicago hi uh what what did we watch here i mean just looking over this box score if you had told me that kirkins went out on the first play of the game and Sean Mannion played this and this was his box score 12 for 24 with 87 yards and the Vikings won 17 to 9 I'd say

oh okay well yeah that makes sense right they should be able to beat the Bears with a backup quarterback and that's what they you know would have to do is just run the ball get a couple of turnovers oh no no against four players in the bears secondary that were new because their entire secondary was out on the covet list the vikings produced 87 passing yards but actually it was far less than that because they also got sacked four times so if we work that out 28 dropbacks 87 yards and even say it was five yards a sack 26 yards and for sacks okay 26 yards for sacks uh we're looking at the vikings producing is that 61 61 yards yards on 28 dropbacks dropbacks um not great bob just uh begin there with what happened to the minnesota offense, which had looked shaky in recent weeks, but was a complete wreck in this victory over the Chicago Bears.

Yeah, that was an atrocity. That was a dumpster fire. And it's another result where you walk away feeling sort of the opposite of the way the result would indicate because you don't feel good about this game if you're a Vikings fan. Kirk Cousins was practically melancholy after the game and I understand why when you have a career low in passing yards and the same thing happens against the Bears where the interior abuses Mason Cole and Garrett Bradbury. And they had Kirk skittish from the word go tonight. He got sacked by Quinn and Hicks both in the first half. And at that point, Mike Zimmer just packed it in. He just said, we're throwing too much.

We've got to run the ball more. We've got to run at three yards a carry with Dalvin Cook. And I think that's another subtle mistake in this game. Kanae Wongwu gets one series where he rattles off two first downs in a row and you chose to just hammer an injured Dalvin Cook into the line over and over and over again. I question that as well. But is it really that easy to scheme this Vikings offense out of the game by just playing two high safeties? Do you just play a shell and neutralize them? Is that all it takes? Because I keep hearing it. I keep hearing that that's all that's required, even if you're playing with probably AAF players. I'm not sure

who those guys were, but they stopped the Vikings and Minnesota wasn't able to adjust against a ratty Bears defense. And all I can really say about them is they sure tried hard. They sure had a lot of energy tonight. They were also very undisciplined and yet somehow they were able to make this Vikings offense look absolutely paltry. It feels like much more the Chicago Bears gave this game away than the Vikings took it and ran with it the way that they should have in a game in which you're talking about the other team wants to fire their coach and they are as low as you can get. I mean, if we're naming worst franchises in the NFL right now, most lost and clueless teams, the Chicago Bears really showed why they're there tonight.

But what happened is the same thing that has happened so many times, and that's why I've joked that we live in this simulation as just different versions of the same thing. This game we have seen many times against Chicago and especially in this city. But usually the Vikings lose because the Bears have enough on offense and don't, I don't know, fumble it all the time. I mean, this was like from the very start, Justin Fields starts moving the ball, they get a couple of good runs, and whoop, fumble.

And that was the entire night for the Chicago offense that at any point I felt like Chicago can move the ball. They averaged 7.3 yards per pass attempt for Justin Fields. He made some throws. He had some runs. He ran for 35 yards on the ground, had a 23 yard run, but they fumbled three times, lost two of them. There were maybe there was another actually fumble from the wide receiver maybe i didn't see that one but oh the muff punt yeah okay that was it that's what that was it so they muff a punt they fumble several times uh they missed the field goal somehow short from 49 yards like what um there were so many things that happened in this game that were just flat out bizarre, but you came away much more feeling like, wow, the Chicago bears are a humongous disaster

that gave this thing away in Epic proportions. And the Vikings would not take it. And even in the fourth quarter with six minutes left to go, there's a chance that the bears could pull an epic comeback. I mean, they got a couple of times in the red zone. There's a throw where the receiver catches the ball and goes just out of bounds on fourth down. If his toes are in or his knee is in, and it almost was, then we are talking, oh my

gosh, they did it again. They melted down and look what happened. So I guess my question for you is way for me survive in advance you still exist you're in the playoff race and we'll see if we can google the odds and what they are what they say right now uh that versus what in the world happened and where where did the explosive offense go four attempts to just attempts to Justin Jefferson or four completions on 10 attempts. I mean, you just were mind-blown by how little they were able to do on offense. So weigh those two things.

Yeah, so I think we can safely say that this was a trash heap offensive performance and football game in general i don't think i'm being too strong worded in that assessment um it was also a funky really bizarre disjointed official in like ref influenced game yeah um that had very little rhythm it was super chippy i mean i i told you during the game i thought they were gonna buy the bottles were gonna be thrown from the soldier field crowd because it was intense there in the third quarter when um the teams were shoving back and forth all the calls were going against chicago it felt like there was going to be a mutiny in the stands. And it was just a weird night. And it is a tough place to play. It was cold. And Kirk struggling in these conditions

is a problem for later in the season. But I think I've seen enough Jekyll Hyde from this team to fully believe that they can look like that today and six days from now against LA, it might be completely different. So in that sense, I am willing to say the win is ultimately most important. You've had games where you played a lot better and lost. You've had games where you played kind of about that badly and also lost a close one. So you did, you did not melt down in the fourth quarter. That's the most you can say about tonight in a positive sense is that this defense did come up with big plays in the red zone. They were opportunistic. They seem to kind of rally around each other when it looked like

they might be bending. I think that's all good. We've somehow flip-flopped the offense, which was carrying this team for a while with all the defensive injuries. Now it's kind of reversed, and the defense is the one dictating things. That was the case in the Pittsburgh game as well until that fourth quarter. So I think you can still go into that Rams game believing that maybe the old offense will show up. And if you're a Vikings fan, you get to put your head on the pillow if you're listening to this tonight for some reason. And you can say, hey.

You'll go to sleep tomorrow too. Or a playoff team. Well, they might not be a playoff team if Washington wins. But for one night, they are at least a playoff team. Right. One sleep, they get to be a playoff team. Maybe. Washington's in a pretty bad spot.

So we'll see what ends up happening there. And of course, we'll break it down. But, you know, I think that at this point, you're you. This is where you should stand. I'm sure a lot of people felt throughout this game like, you know what? Just blow it. So this is over. Right. I mean, I get that all the time. i'm sure that there are other people who think that those are bad fans that they want their team to blow it just so this whole thing can be exploded to smithereens and they'll miss the playoffs and everything else also maybe there's people who just can't take anymore like playoffs i can't do this um because of the stress each week that this team somehow finds a way to cause you. So I would,

I totally get that feeling, but now that we've sort of passed go and you're not getting a coach firing, it will very, very likely come down to the final day, because even if you go, oh, and two, you're still going to have the scenarios of you need to win. And then you need this. And then you need that and the other thing and that's how you get in so we're still going to have that somebody ran it for me on on twitter i haven't run it yet uh myself looking at the results but um i think it's basically a coin flip if you win one of these next two games uh to be able to get in and if you go two and two you really need a ton of help oh and two uh yeah oh sorry yeah that's

what i mean uh oh and two in the next two games then you need all sorts of help but you're still going to be alive going into week 18 so in that case there's no firing everybody and and blowing the thing up and just the season's over and so forth so it stays alive from here, which always in the NFL today leaves the opportunity for something really crazy to happen. I mean, look at the results around the league from this last game, this last slate of games. We saw the Tampa Bay Bucs with the number one offense in the NFL get shut out by the New Orleans Saints who are playing Taysom Hill at quarterback. They found a way to win. There's weird results all over. Nick Mullins almost won a game that we were watching

leading in to this one. We thought the Steelers were left for dead in Minnesota. They found a way to beat the Titans. All sorts of odd results. That doesn't even mention the Lions getting another win have happened. Now, this is the nature of the NFL, but it feels like this year, the better teams are maybe not as far ahead of the worst teams as they have been at other times throughout the NFL's history. And from that perspective, you just never know. It's the Minnesota Vikings. I don't know. And there will still be, I'm sure a large contingent that just does not want that playoff run that keeps everybody alive. That does not want to go to Tampa, get a win and then go to Arizona and lose the next week or however that would play out or Green

Bay and lose the next week. But you won't feel that way when it happens. I can guarantee you if it does, if they if they were hey remember that crazy game where kirk threw for 87 yards and they found a way to beat chicago and that was the turning point for them winning in the playoffs like it is 1987 would be an example for the old school fans of like this same kind of thing happened at the end of the year everyone thought oh this team it's a wreck they They finished so badly. Ended up a pass away from going to the Super Bowl that year. And that's the only thing I can say at this point now is, look, you're not going to get the results that you were thinking about if you're all about the future for this team

until the end of the season, maybe. So now it's just these next two games are huge. You're in the middle of the race and we'll see what happens. Should you have any confidence that they could beat these next two teams? I would say no. I mean, yes, they've shown, oh, they could play with anyone or lose to anyone. But I think they're in worse shape now than they even were facing Green Bay a few weeks ago because of Adam Thielen status.

When he tried to warm up tonight, it looked extremely bad. He doesn't look anywhere close to coming back and making a difference. And I think that that is a huge part of why they pass the ball so poorly tonight is that at one point they throw a touchdown to Amir Smith, Marseille, and there's three guys on Justin Jefferson. Like teams can figure out some ways to slow down one receiver. If you only have one receiver and for LA and for green Bay, these games are huge. They're going to put a ton of attention on Jefferson, hard to see feeling coming back soon. I just don't trust them that much. And here's the other thing, Aaron Donald, Aaron Donald, if Akeem Hicks can do this to them tonight, Aaron Donald will do this to them

on Sunday. And I don't know, I don't have any solution for that because Hicks just took this team apart, wrecked their entire game. And there's just not a lot of confidence. So I think it's much heavier of like, Hey, just ride this train wherever it takes you, man. If it takes you to the playoffs, then whatever that's at this point, you're past the If it takes you to the playoffs, then whatever. At this point, you're past the everyone's going to get fired, so you should root against them. But at the same time, I don't trust that they can beat these next two teams. Yeah, a lot to dissect there. So, Kirk Cousins, without feeling the last two weeks, 26 of 55.

I mean, this is a 70% career passer. He's sub 50% tonight, 12 of 24. Brutal stuff and really perplexing as to why they've regressed in that way. I'd like to get your thoughts eventually here on whether you think this little defensive renaissance is legit or whether they've just run into a decrepit big ben and a thoroughly overmatched justin fields hold that thought um i i still though can't find it in myself to rule out anything with this team i do agree that at this point you should probably just like if you don don't want to get in the ride, just like hold on for dear life and just see where it takes you. Because now this is our fifth consecutive little like peak or valley in this roller coaster of the season where they've now won two, lost two, won two, lost two, won two. And after every two, we have this same conversation. This is the third time in a row where we've said, is this real?

And twice along the way, we've had the conversation two weeks later, and we've said, nope, wasn't real. And now we're back in the same place. We are in a simulation. It's a loop. We are in a loop. And we've said this now for two seasons. Is this the time when they can get over 500? If they beat the Rams, it's probably their best win of the year. I mean, it's probably

even a hair better than the Packers win with as much as on the line, with as well as the Rams are playing right now, as good as they looked in the last two games, they're going to test you on both sides of the ball with that defensive line against your porous front five in the offensive line, with their wide receivers against your secondary. We'll see what their COVID situation is. Now, that could throw a wrench into the whole thing. Oh, yeah, for sure.

But let me circle back now because like Mike Zimmer said, oh, and I did want to add too, how do you stop Aaron Donald? I mean, Mike Zimmer said tonight, I think he said it to the radio guys afterward that they might start bringing in more people to block. That was his solution to why this stuff was getting blown up. We'll see what happens this week. But I'll circle back to you now. Is the defense that we saw against Pittsburgh for three quarters,

tonight for four quarters, does that translate against a legitimate team in your opinion? Absolutely not. No, I really truly do not think so. Are they better than the team that faced the Lions? Of course, because Delvin Tomlinson and michael pierce are good football players in fact michael pierce was a great football player tonight i i thought and this is the whole i'll look back at the film but like really i thought it was very clear that he was blowing up every run up the middle and hey

matt nagy maybe don't run up the middle then when the edges have been the place that the Vikings have been killed in recent weeks with rushing. I mean, even at the beginning of the game, they're running to the outsides to Sheldon Richardson and DJ Wanham and getting whatever they want. And then in big spots, they get a first down with Justin Fields passing the ball where he hits three throws in a row or something like that. Three out of four and runs and fields is all of a sudden got it and you're like oh no this is bad for the viking like all

he's having is sam darnold moments where he just finds it and then they hand off on first down it gets no yards right into the arms of the two fattest guys in the league and you're like what no wonder everyone wants you out are you just like closing your eyes and picking things off that play card uh so anyway but credit to delvin tomlinson and michael pierce especially pierce was completely dominant tonight just at one point he threw a dude and had a tackle for loss that killed the drive and it just he was fantastic he will continue to be good i don't think that's changing the thing is the receivers for chicago aren't good the quarterback was not good and there were times that the corners were allowing open wide receivers and the throws weren't there there

were two touchdowns left on the board by justin fields by inaccurate throws where two corners got roasted and he just did not put the ball there. Now, Matt Stafford, I have said in the past, I do not believe in Matt Stafford. I think that he's like a majorly up and down quarterback. We've seen that this year. He's a walking injury, just all these things. He is so much better than the guys we've seen the last three weeks. So much better than what's left of Ben Roethlisberger. So much better than a rookie

who's just trying to figure out how to play football. Matt Stafford has gotten it together the last few weeks and their wide receivers. Beckham is starting to get like comfortable and Cooper Cup explained to me who is stopping Cooper Cup. He's one of the best receivers in the league. I mean, they have a mastermind on offense compared to, I don't know what Matt Nagy is doing. And no one in Chicago does either. Like we had Lawrence Holmes on the show. So I think we're talking about a completely different universe.

And then it's Rodgers. And it's Rodgers with something to play for at lambeau if it looks like this outside it's supposed to be national tv i'm sure it will be at this point because it's going to have playoff implications outside national tv kenny clark aaron rogers there's not there's just not a whole lot of belief there that the defense is going to somehow carry them if their offense is playing like it has been. And this stretch for Cousins, it's now gone on for a while. Like the whole thing where, oh, well, he's playing at an MVP level.

I mean, he was, and you didn't take advantage enough of it because now where he hits the dip, I mean, yeah, you won tonight and you won against Pittsburgh, but when he hits the dip and you have to play good teams and win big games, you got to hope he comes out of it. And with cousins, you just don't know. But I, I think that your, your only shot to beat those teams is still shootouts after watching this tonight. I don't have a lot of confidence in that, but I'm also not going to say, oh, DJ Wanham got three sacks against a running quarterback who seemed to step behind all night long. I don't think that's happening against Stafford and Rodgers.

Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong. Were any of those sacks a result of Wanham mauling a guy or using a move to beat a guy? I think all of them were broken plays where Fields doesn't know how to use his mobility yet. Totally. He's mobile, but he's not elusive whatsoever. He doesn't know where to go with the ball when he gets out of the pocket.

He just held it and allowed himself to get enveloped. It was bizarre. I've never seen a quarterback that athletically gifted so catchable in the backfield. That's why his sack rate is like a million percent, easily the highest in the league. So I think you lay it out well that it is hard to see this translating. I think that I continue to be impressed with their ability to get home to quarterbacks. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I think we all know that the pressure rate is bad, but the sack rate is good.

And I don't know what to make of that because they don't really get a lot with their front four. But they are finding ways to fluster quarterbacks. They are some turnovers some takeaways which are which are huge but teams like the Rams and Packers aren't going to give the ball away that easily you're probably going to have to beat the Rams this Sunday the Packers game seems absolutely daunting to me yeah the way that that Green Bay looked against Chicago. I mean, that, that, that has to inform you of how far apart these teams truly are. Right. I mean, if you think that Rogers is going to overthrow wide open receivers in the end zone, you're wrong. It's just not. Okay. But let me get back to the game just a little bit here because yeah, I don't think there's just no world where anyone could watch this football game and feel

good about anything um even just football in general you like wait is the nfl suddenly become the worst product on earth in sports like uh this week it was just every game was bad and who knows and so that always opens the door for someone else having a bad game against you. But just back to some of the details about this game, Eric Hendricks got ejected. And I just want to mention the broader, what the heck is going on with the referees in this football game? I mean, every, everyone had a complaint, but you saw, you know, people taking swings at each other. That's tough. There were tauntings that weren't called there were all sorts of things where they couldn't get control of like just even how the players were treating them Matt Nagy is losing his mind because there's a ridiculous call on a Vikings third down

that opens up the door for them and then you know the Vikings are on the wrong side of the Kendrick's decision which seemed like a makeup call There was an interception that Cousins threw that I still think is an interception if Justin Jefferson runs his route. But Justin Jefferson gets either tackled or tripped up. Hard to say. I would need to look at it again. But there was no interference there. There's no flag.

And the ball just flies into the secondary as if Cousins was doing it on purpose. There has long been an issue with the referees. It's part of the game that we end up getting to discuss after, but there are some games that stand out far above others in your mind for the refs had kind of command of the game in a lot of ways. And I think that if you're Chicago and you walk home, you go, okay, we blew opportunities and our play calling is bad. And our quarterback made mistakes and all these other things. But also there's some calls in that game that were such big swings against them that I don't even know what to do with.

And then the Kendrick's thing, my Twitter mentions were debating the Kendrick's thing the whole night. So I didn't even know you you do with. And then the Kendricks thing. My Twitter mentions were debating the Kendricks thing the whole night. So I didn't even know. You'll have to give me your opinion. I don't even know what to say about that. I think that's a penalty. I don't know why that's an ejection. Because I don't know the rules.

I don't know any of the rules. I don't know interference. I don't know taunting. I don't know ejections. I don't know when you can hit guys in the head and when you can't. Justin Fields went down to take a knee. And then you know James Lynch hits him which I guess is a penalty but also everyone else kept playing and it looked like it looked like Fields took a knee and then started to run it's like I was that I guess that's giving yourself up they couldn't

spot the ball they just like everything was wrong in this game with the referees. And it just added to the general ambiance of what the hell is going on here tonight. Yeah. It wasn't just that there were 16 flags. It was that it seemed like about half of them were of the personal foul variety where, I mean, you're, you're changing the game every time you make those calls. And you know, the more of those you throw, the more of those you throw, the more of those you are also hesitant to call because these referees are human. So when they call something like that, and then there's a clear taunting call, like Angelo Blackson knocks down Brian O'Neill, gets in his face away from the play, a clear taunt. You pointed it out right away. They're going to be more hesitant to call that.

And it piles up, and you feel the weight of it on the game. There were three 15-yard penalties on the Bears that extended failed third downs on scoring drives. That's 10 points right there. Matt Nagy was going Bobby Knight on the bit. He was bumping referees. He was covering his, it was like a baseball manager tantrum. Was it not? It was. I expected him to run out and steal a pylon, get run by Scott Novak and come out with like a fake mustache on

the sideline. I thought that was what was going to happen tonight. You mentioned the rules. So remember last year, Harrison Smith got ejected on a, it was a defenseless receiver call, right? Like, I don't understand what differentiates that from some of the other ones we've seen. Like, Xavier Woods had one a couple weeks ago. Tonight, Tyler Conklin was, you know, bore the brunt of one. Was it Deion Bush?

So what makes the Kendricks hit there worthy of ejection? Are they hearing that from up top? Are they judging that in real time? Because if it's real time, that's a slippery slope. That's a really slippery slope. I mean, I think you've got to have a two, you got to have a two strike rule, right? I mean, you can't eject a guy for one infraction at full speed when it's just really hard to calibrate, you know, if you're going into tackle a quarterback. So I disagreed with

the ejection. I did think the penalty was correct. The ejection is just such a harsh legislation of that rule. What else was there? There was a low block. Yeah, the low block. Now, it is a thing that they've been meaning to emphasize and so forth, but I haven't seen it almost at all this year, and you could make the case that the tackler was trying to get to Delvin Cook and tackle the running back and go around Brian O'Neill and that he made some contact with O'Neill's leg.

That's one way you could interpret it. The other way is, hey, this is the rule. If you're a corner, you can't go low on offensive linemen. Sorry, you just have to get pummeled to death um which hey look i mean i actually agree with this rule i don't like that corners can go flying into 300 pound guys and just like slam into their knees it seems like it's kind of a cheat code not really fair uh and can get a lot of people injured so i could see why you would want you know that to be a thing and i think it's played a role in some teams run offenses and some of the success around the league and doing it is if you kind of target those lighter players and

send linemen at them um that's a good strategy that particular one there's a pretty good argument that the guy is going for the tackler uh or to make the tackle and then what are you supposed to do i'm supposed to make zero contact with a lineman coming at me when I'm trying to dive to tackle a running back. I don't know. But we see that not called all the time. The other one with Tyler Conklin, that's another one where it's the shoulder to him. He's not headhunting. It's at the very end where they're almost hitting the ground when that happens.

And these are calls that went against the Bears. So you could see why Matt Nagy would be so upset because the best offense for the Vikings this year was the Bears penalties. This this game, I mean, was the Bears penalties. And it just is. It plays such a big role in every game. There have been games this year where the Vikings were on the wrong side of this. Cleveland comes to mind where they give up a touchdown after getting a stop that gets negated by something that was very ticky tack. And all I want to understand because refs miss these things. I, I did baseball for high school teams for a summer, like a, you kind of summer league umpiring. It's really hard. Reffing anything is really hard, but I just want to know what the rules are. And then I want you to enforce them that way. And you're exactly right. Is why do we not have, unless we do, and no one has said anything, uh, someone upstairs who can instantly look at something like that and say, Oh no guys, that wasn't what you think it was

because it's lightning speed. We've been down on the sidelines for training camp. It's lightning speed that all this happens. And here's what I know from just sitting up top. There are some things sitting way upstairs that you see so clearly and you're like, wow. I mean, that was then, then you look at it on TV and you go, oh, well, I mean, it looks way different on TV than it actually was. And then you look at the all 22 and you go, Oh, well that looks way different than I thought it was upstairs. And then we'll see plays on in training camp where we think this happened. And then they tell us later, no, that that's not what happened. And so it's, it's so hard to see and interpret and know what's right that I just want to understand the rules.

And tonight was a classic example on both sides of, we don't know what the rules are. And I would love an explanation from the NFL on how you throw a guy out. Who's not known as a dirty player has done nothing dirty in this game before. And on a bang, bang play certainly violated the rules. But I mean, I always thought that it was supposed to be like malicious,

like Vontaze perfect, like head hunting, right? Yeah. Is that not part of it? No, no. I mean, I always thought that it was supposed to be like malicious, like Vontaze Perfect, like headhunting. Right. Yeah. Is that not part of it? No, no. I mean, certainly elbow to head, head to head. If you're going shoulder first, there should be more leeway for that. And Matthew, look at how that one call fuels everything else. That call creates Matt Nagy's frustration. That creates the bump of the official.

That got the crowd, and no one on TV saw this, between the first and second quarter, the crowd was whipped into a frenzy. It was like, again, the baseball analogy. Baseball crowds love a good argument. The crowd was in a frenzy. From that point on, that game was almost out of control. There was so much chippiness, so much pushing and shoving. That led to the unnecessary roughness call on the Bears. Because the Bears got a couple flags, again, I don't think James Lynch gets flagged for his

if they hadn't called so many before, but they feel like they need to make up for it. So it all feeds into that just because of one call, which leads to another, which leads to another. And suddenly you walk out of the game, there's six personal foul calls and just a mess of flags. And no wonder it was one of the ugliest games i've ever seen yeah robert quinn after the game said the nfl needs to check its refs i mean yeah he was he was very very serious about this and that and that's the thing is um there used to be a saying when i was doing umpiring where it was like well if both coaches aren't happy with you, you did your job. Disagree.

If both coaches aren't happy with you, it sounds like maybe you screwed up the whole game. And it was just a disservice to everyone watching and playing. That was what was frustrating about it. Like, I want to break down Akeem Hicks versus Mason Cole or why DJ Wanham had a big night, which I do think he's improving and they needed someone to step up in this situation with Hunter and Griffin out. And he did that tonight. So like, don't take away from all this stuff and spend so much time talking about all these botched calls. Uh, but when it was just, you're sitting there, not knowing when the next play is going to happen that the refs are

going to decide oh now is when we're going to step in even when they reviewed the non-touchdown that the guy caught i wasn't even sure like are they going to decide that his shin was down and now a shin counts like i don't know maybe they're just going to make this a touchdown because there was some other call that they got wrong. And you're totally right about like it's human nature to have makeup calls. And on a weekly basis, this is an extreme frustration for everyone that watches. So then I'll now stop talking about that because I feel like if I don't stop, I'll just keep going. And then I'll be Robert Quinn or something. But that it was it was a shame.

Well, how about this, too? One more, which is kind of another interesting talker. The refs miss a clear and obvious fumble that Sheldon Richardson causes. And then Richardson coaxes Mike Zimmer to throw the challenge flag. Yes. That was just, I mean, heads up play by Sheldon. How do you miss the fumble? I just, like, you're right there on the field.

And the guy clearly fumbles. I mean, it wasn't one ofeldon. How do you miss the fumble? I just, like, you're right there on the field, and the guy clearly fumbles. I mean, it wasn't one of those, oh, did he have his butt down or not? Like, it was out as soon as he was hit, and they just didn't even call it. And it's hilarious because they were so caught up calling an offensive off sides. Remember? Yeah. There was an offensive off sides on that play, which ESPN was was looking at that and Sheldon is like running down the field saying fumble fumble should could have been a scoop and score honestly yeah

maybe Sheldon's biggest contribution this year uh was that um but uh on on to the Zimmer point um before we kind of you know put a bow on this ridiculousness that happened this evening. Zimmer, I think every game that happens from here on out, if they win the next two, we'll get some praise for sure because that will be something he did that was really good in order to beat the Rams or to beat the Packers. They'll have needed something on defense that was spectacular. I think to beat either one of those two offenses that are, that are just dominant. And I don't think their corners have much of a chance against the receivers that LA and green Bay are going to bring to the table.

But aside from that, if this kind of goes how we think it's going to go, uh, there's going to be pretty much every game is kind of like the countdown to the end. And every decision will sort of be interesting because is it Zimmer pulling back the reins or pushing harder? Or is it randomly deciding to punt instead of a field goal in a situation they should have gone for it, which, you know, I wrote the story today about, you know, how Zimmer had actually been more aggressive since week eight and had been hitting the decisions more often in the second half of the season by the numbers. And instead they just do the most ridiculous thing possible, which is send out the field goal team when it's a bad decision to kick a field goal in this stadium from that far away, then send out the punt team and then have not enough men on the field. I think maybe call a timeout, just waste the timeout that you might need later. Oh my gosh. Um, and then you come out after the game and say, I wanted to run more, which is basically saying I didn't trust cousins. And then it's, we got to dink and dunk

when a couple of weeks ago was we got to push it downfield, but all of a sudden pushing it downfield isn't working. Uh, and I saw a stat today that it's almost doubled the amount that teams play two deep safeties in the NFL, which could be playing a role in quarterback stats going down, uh, in recent weeks and, and the Vikings here we are again saying no you know they had a couple deep safeties there's nothing we could do it's just like impenetrable how are you not oh in 14 then just like there there has to be something that you could do the only win you'd have is against Seattle because they just never figured out to play two deep safeties but I think that these three weeks, my whole point is that every game is going to be

really interesting to just watch him. He admits that this last week leading into this game, he just lit everyone on fire. He said, you guys would have hated to been in that meeting. And I was like, well, actually we would have, you know, and then he sort of came around like okay you guys would have loved but if i was yelling at you you wouldn't have loved it and you think about so zimmer sees this near meltdown against pittsburgh and his button to push is to lose his mind on his defense and cut a player and it works but then there's next week right it's like now you play somebody way better. And like, does that work again? And, you know, every, every button that's pushed, everything he mentions about cousins, all these things.

I just, I almost like want to point my lasers at it and just really think about it. Like, because these could be the final days of Zimmer or somehow not. I don't even know. But suddenly to me, everything that he does becomes hyper interesting because of the circumstance that this franchise is in with him. And now they're back to 500 with a chance to get a huge win and go over 500 for the first time in forever. Yeah. You know, I think he, it's pretty easy to juxtapose this team with last year's team. We've made the comparison many times.

And I don't know if coddled is the right word, but I think last year Zimmer had an awareness that the team was not good. And I think he sort of handled them a little bit with kid gloves. He always took a more, except for the Saints game, which was an embarrassment to him and everybody, he generally took a pretty calm approach about handling last year's team, and they fizzled. So I think he's doing something different this year. He's doing the iron fist, and maybe it's something that he got from Parcells.

Maybe he believes that this is sort of the card that he has to play because this is his defense that's been exposed, right? I mean, bottom five unit in some categories, bottom 10 for sure overall. And if he thinks that that's the ticket to squeeze the most potential out of this team, he's really laying it all on the line. Like he's saying, okay, this is my last stand with this defense. And ironically now his offense is betraying him. Like they still can't get all the phases to work kind of in harmony together, which has been the bugaboo for them all year, but flawed team, inconsistent team that's bound to happen. But you know, we'll see how Mike Zimmer responds to the next loss because the next loss could be,

you know, the deciding loss. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, now, now I,

I, I think what he's probably doing knowing Zimmer is he's just taking every ounce of whatever is left in his soul and pouring it into how do I keep this job how do I win these games and maybe you know I've always thrown it out there like eventually the guy might get tired of doing this job I don't know he's 65 right but I don't know like he to me is the one where he's got to be uh you know completely incapable of coaching by the time he's actually going to walk away from the game. So we'll see, but it's, it's this also an interesting, just battle of where fans want to change and have grown exhausted of the seven and seven and the fight for 500

and the games like this that usually go against them, but tonight didn't. And it went for them, but it doesn't make you feel any differently about anything. And so there's those, there's those people who, and if you're the owners, you know, want so much change, new quarterback. Uh, we'll talk about it later this week, but PFF, uh, presented a trade that involved cousins, like a hypothetical trade cousins to the Steelers kind of thing. So this is, this is the universe that they're walking around in. And the noise from outside for the Wilfs to make decisions is a lot of people want a lot of things changed. And then here's a guy who's fighting with everything he has left to not have that happen and to stay here and to make the

playoffs and to win some games and and so these two things pulling against each other is just interesting i guess i don't know any other way i can describe it like how often does this happen that you have a a strong majority of the fan base who watches this and goes oh my gosh just have this not be something next year and then here's the team cousins Zimmer just trying to scrap and claw to get there and they need to beat a good team to do it because of the way the schedule has laid out and so here we are again with this drama at the end because this just will not ever well once we've gotten to the edge every time isn't that how it's gone every time we walk up to that if they lose to the lions he'll get fired oh they beat him just barely it's the um it's the holiday

season so i can reference this you know it It's a Wonderful Life? Have you seen that film? Yeah. You say that as if you didn't enjoy it. Not a huge fan, but it's fine. Oh, man. Best Christmas movie. Anyway, they're dancing on the gym floor, and the pool is opening up. Oh, yes. And they're backpedaling to the edge.

Yes. And then they dance away, and then they finally fall in. And everybody jumps with them. That's my analogy for Merry Christmas, everybody. Yeah. Merry Christmas. But they're trying to lasso the moon here. Get in the play. Oh, I love that. But I think it's a great analogy because they've just walked up to this edge of if they lose this game in L.A., that Zimmer's probably gone or if they lose to green Bay or, or even if they blow the

game against Pittsburgh, then you'd have a law loss against the lions and then Pittsburgh blowing a historic lead. And then it's just like, you know, throw TNT on the thing and pour gasoline on it and light it up and blow everything into smithereens. And yet they found a way and they found a way here in one of the most horrendous showings of the national football league that ever exists nfl films take the tapes throw them into the lake we are near the lake i can see it from here throw them in that lake after burning them that's my feeling on this game so where it goes from, we don't know. And I guess we'll see and we'll be there for you as always. So this was our very scatterbrained and energetic late night podcast in Chicago. So I hope you enjoyed the craziness.

At least you can appreciate. I think everyone can. How ridiculous all of this has been. And especially at the end when it becomes a one-score game. And they now have a streak. alive is alive of 11 straight. Yeah. Amazing. 13 to 14.

So we'll be back in Minneapolis. Murph Searles Searles was texting me throughout. He's very upset. Just about everything that happened. So we'll break down a key Hicks and how they're going to play Aaron Donald and all that. And we will go forth, um, with this season and, uh, I'm glad that everyone was able to come along for the ride with us and we will catch you next time on purple insider. Bye.