Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - AP's Dave Campbell gives us some perspective on Vikings-Cardinals + a Cards-centric view on the game

Episode Date: September 18, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom talk big picture with the Associated Press's Dave Campbell going into a pivotal game in Arizona. Dave talks about how the Vikings remind him of the Twins when they signed Joe Mauer to a big contract and breaks down how fans felt about the early 2000s Vikings in comparison to now. Plus Alex Clancy of Locked On Cards joins to talk about the excitement over a hot start in Arizona and fears that Kliff Kingsbury is going to derail them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collard here. Got two interviews here on the preview show for Vikings and Arizona Cardinals. First is the AP's Dave Campbell who talks with me and Sam Ekstrom. And then Alex Clancy from the Lockdown Cardinals podcast.

We're going to discuss this game later on in the show. But first, let's get into just the injury report and a big surprise, I guess, when we got to TCO Performance Center. Number one, there was no power at the facility, so they had to get out the old chalkboard and whiteboards. And the Vikings are going to make an adjustment by having some meetings tomorrow once the power is back on before they fly out to Arizona. So no big deal, but a typical sort of bizarro Vikings thing to happen.

Speaking of which, Everson Griffin not playing in this game. He is out with a concussion. Mike Zimmer said today that he had a car accident that resulted in getting a concussion in which he swerved to avoid a deer. And yes, I have seen all of your replies to the tweets where I sent this out and the comments of speculation about what might have happened, but at least for the time being, we'll just take it at its word that Everson Griffin had an unfortunate accident, which is really problematic for the Vikings because in week one, they were able to rotate their defensive lineman really effectively

against the Cincinnati Bengals. And they were using a lot of different combinations. Everson Griffin looked like he had explosiveness and that was very helpful I think in getting after Joe Burrow in the first week and now they will not have that as they try to track down Kyler Murray and unfortunate for Everson Griffin considering that it's also his hometown that he was going to be able to go back and play but he will be out for this game also Eric Hendricks is questionable which is a good sign for the Vikings for Sunday because Mike Zimmer seemed pretty optimistic about it. He called it a tweak, jokingly, as a reference to the Daniil Hunter tweak comment from last year. And I don't think he means it's a

tweak that's going to be hugely problematic. So maybe kind of missed the mark a little bit on the joke, but questionable and practiced on Friday. Seemed like he was moving around okay in the warmup portion that we get to see as reporters out there. So I would at least lean in the direction and we'll see how warmups go on game day, but lean in the direction that Kendricks will play. That is a huge deal for the Vikings to have him in the lineup if he indeed can play.

But right now, trending toward that direction. If he had missed practice today, then there would not have been a chance of him playing. And the other notable thing was that Harrison Hand is out and he is a special teamer, backup nickel. So that very likely bumps Cam Dantzler back into the lineup after being inactive in the first week okay let's get to our conversation with dave campbell first then later in the show alex clancy from the associated press sitting in a target parking lot is dave campbell what is up dave how are you this morning i'm doing just fine uh so Dave, you know, of course,

by the time we get to the Friday round table, we have discussed a lot of things from last week's game. But I was having this thought last night and I wrote about it on our website about how this is sort of the perfect situation to pretend week one did not happen because everyone in the NFC North lost. So it's like clean slate for everybody. And the Cardinals have a lot of similarities to the Bengals where you don't think that they're like this huge threat to win the Superbowl, but they've got enough things that you're concerned could be problematic for your team. Tell me kind of as we go into the weekend here leading into the game,

just your overarching feeling about this particular football game. Yeah, that's a great point about clean slate and almost like week one didn't happen, especially since this is a 17-game season, right? So basically it starts. Now we'll see whether they go 8-9-7 from this point forward. It's going to be so weird to add up all the records at the end and see the 17-game records in the standings

after being conditioned for so many decades to see what they turn out as. But I think we talked about this a little bit casually earlier in the week. This is exactly the kind of game that Zimmer's Vikings teams show up and play really well and you know looking at the week one results you would sort of think oof you know a guy you have to try to block a guy with who had five sacks and a team that went on the road beat a defending division champion by like three touchdowns it's funny it actually it reminds me a little bit um of a game

that would fit in that category under Zimmer in 2015 it was late in the season a Thursday night game in December you know the Vikings ended up winning the division that year but they were still kind of I would say characterize them as still finding their way a little bit and there was a this the short week turnaround for this thursday game um they just got blown out too at home i think by seattle and um there were like four defensive starters injured and out including harrison smith and i think anderson dayho so they had no safeties they had to move terence new Newman to safety for that game. I think Barr and Linval Joseph were also out.

And they very well, and this was an Arizona team that went to the NFC Championship game. They were really good then. Anyway, I believe the score was 23-20. They didn't win, but it was really close. In fact, it was, you know, still in doubt into the final minute he does i think zimmer does a pretty good job of preparing his teams you know when i guess the pressure is on the most well maybe the nfc championship game in 2017 aside he can do a pretty good job of preparing a defense and a game plan for a dangerous offense and you know obviously the week one results i think probably

have everyone's attention in that building not just the way that they lost to a team they should probably beat in cincinnati but the way arizona probably looked there's probably no team in the nfl that looked better in week one than arizona so it's one of those crazy league things right like you think wow there's no way they go win this one, but they could very well bounce back pretty well by the law of averages alone. They're not going to have 12 penalties for 116 yards again. Arizona is probably not going to have six sacks and, you know, Kyler Murray four or five touchdowns again.

Just the way it works out, even though those players are very dangerous to account for. Yeah, it's kind of a nice apples-to-apples comparison to last year, Dave, where the Vikings were also 0-1. They had a road game coming up against Indianapolis, and they just laid down. And I think that told us kind of a lot about where last season was going. It would be so devastating for this particular team to start 0-2 after all the alleged improvements they made if they can't win this game

and they wind up right back where they were last year. I think that probably sparks some legitimate panic with this fan base and probably with some members of this organization. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I would. I think you kind of sense a little bit of the urgency or tension there yesterday, probably after they've had a couple of days to watch the Cardinals on film from week one. You can almost argue, though, that the panic or whatever has been there for a couple years

or at least since the beginning of training camp. But, you know, to your point once now that you're actually playing the games and now instead of everything being zero, zero and projection, and here's how it could go.

Now there's actually a, a one loss record by their name, you know, definitely with the schedule that, you know, looms for them in October, November, Owen too, would be, would be pretty much a death knell for this team's fate.

And that raises bigger questions about the future of several key leaders in the front office, coaching staff, and in the starting lineup too. Yeah, Dave, you wrote about Patrick Peterson. I saw your story on him, kind of one of the key new additions of this defense. And I've thought about this a few times, that it's kind of a mercenary defense. Like they brought in a lot of hired guns from other teams, one-year deals. And I've been kind of contemplating, well, what if they lose all of them in the offseason? You know, like they're kind of selling themselves to these pending free agents.

And I think it's necessary for them to retain some of them if they want to have success beyond this year. And, you know, if Xavier Woods and Bashad Breeland and Mackenzie Alexander and Patrick Peterson all move on, Nick Vigil, like if they lose everybody, then they're left with this bare cupboard again, and it's 2020 all over again. So this is sort of a probationary year. Like they need to prove to these guys that they would like to return. And I don't know if the impression early on is all that positive for that group, and maybe I'm wrong, but obviously there's a lot of drama um around this organization so far and if the results don't come then that defense could be raided once again when

free agency comes around so they that's extra incentive for them to be competitive this year so they don't completely gut that defense once teams are starting to spend money in March. Yeah, that's a great point. And one that is probably too easily overlooked by, you know, the fan base or even nationally, all the predictably, all the attentions on Spielman Zimmer being on the hot seat and, and cousins with his gigantic cap hit and having drafted mond and not looking like his future is going to be much longer certainly not past next year with the vikings but yeah like that is it's an easily um you know lost sight of aspect of having almost your entire starting

defense that you know with exception of i guess kendrickson harris the smith who are locked up long term and i guess they just signed uh you know pierce and thomason have a few more years but yeah a lot of key guys on your deals and and and not obvious replacements you know looming you see what happened to cam dantzler this year and his trajectory um i think that's another reason that to to think that even if it gets really ugly mid you know mid-season it as far as the standings go like you you don't see them necessarily blowing this all up like what what would be the point i think they're kind of they're definitely all in for this year and not necessarily a plan for next year.

It sort of reminds me of that Seinfeld episode, right? Where Kramer's driving around and with his buddy from the repair shop and they're running out of gas and he's about to take the exit. And he just like gets back on the highway. It's like, there is no plan. We're just driving this until we possibly can. Yeah. And you know, Dave,

you bring up a really good point because that's a classic episode for one, but also because, you know, as they've gone along here past 2017, it has very much been chips to the middle of the table, chips to the middle of the table. We got to win the super bowl or got to get back to the middle of the table. We got to win the Super Bowl or got to get back to the NFC Championship.

We've got all these talented players, so we got to do it. We got to do it. And there has not been at any point a big picture approach even last year. And the smoking gun there is trading a second round pick for Yannick Ngakwe. And then this year,

this is not even remotely a long-term approach to sign all these defensive players who are veterans. It is a, we absolutely have to win this year for us to keep our jobs. And I guess you've covered so many football teams, but also the other teams in town as well. I just wonder if this is ever worked. I mean, ever. That's what I mean. Like we've seen this so much though. We've seen it from wolves.

We've seen it for wild. We've seen it from twins where people are saying, ah, we have to sign Josh Donaldson because he's going to put us over the top. And we have to like, I mean, if this, if this doesn't go well on Sunday,

I think we all look at this and go, well, yeah, I mean, because you guys didn't take any sort of long-term approach to this. You weren't a team with a process. You weren't a team with a plan. You were a team scrambling to just grab stuff that you saw and throw it on a roster. And, you know, this could be a totally different conversation on Monday if they kick the hell out

of Arizona and I'm picking them to win the game in Arizona because of what you said earlier. But I just think that we always quickly get to a point of let's let's take a look at these moves and see if we can figure out kind of where this team is supposed to be at from a big perspective. And they're at really nowhere aside from you better win this year. Yeah, I think it's probably easy for them, for the judgment to be clouded by it. They still have an exceptional amount of star players. I mean, the amount of elite players at multiple positions they have

can probably match most teams in the league. It's just that it falls off so hard, and there's just – the depth is so questionable at so many spots. That's where the rest of the pack of actual contenders gets separated. You're right. I think about some of the other teams I cover. I think it's so easy to analyze and have, you know, 2020 vision after the fact. But you see some of these moves that are made, not even necessarily out of desperation,

but it's sort of like you can almost sense the public pressure on the Vikings to like sign Cousins or double down on and sign him again. Or I think about the Twins with the gigantic Joe Maurer contract. It's not fair to compare baseball and football because of the salary cap differences and such, but just to take a second to use that twins example. So he blew up in 2009 after he had this back injury and he already had some back injury troubles the the twins basically did the absolute worst thing by signing him to the extension after the most amazing year of not only his career but like any catcher in major league history with a ops well

over a thousand they they should have either signed him to the extension while Maurer was hurt in 2009 before he blew up, thinking that they could get a better deal, or waited him out until he became a free agent after the 2010 season and then see where he was at. But they were scared to death of getting in a so-called bidding war with the Yankees and Red Sox that they had to do it. The sports decisions are so much different than like other businesses.

There's so much fueled by public perception, feelings, and sort of that chase of like the championship that gets, it's just clouded by like uh you know regular people and the way people uh root for sports follow sports it's not like um you know target uh deciding to you know get a new line of kids clothes that's going to be less popular but they see some potential that you know nobody's going to care in the same way so they don't they don't deal with that same kind of public pressure i think the vikings with uh the way they've constructed this team you can see

so many examples like even the harrison smith contract recently he's a great he's you know one of the top still probably one of the top safeties in the league, but they paid absolute top dollar market value for him at a point in the franchise's trajectory where it doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense. Yeah, Dave, I've got a big picture question for you, and we're going to tap into your vast knowledge of this team going back two decades. I don't want to date you too hard, but you have covered this team.

Oh, bring it on. All right. I want you to put yourself back in 2003-ish. The last time the Vikings had a long-term starting quarterback was Dante. Right. He lasted six years as the starter of this team. And he bought himself a lot of equity when he made the NFC championship in 2000. Right. So that sort of bought him time as they struggled in 01, struggled in 02.

But if you could, can you try to compare sort of where the zeitgeist was at, like with Dante heading into his fourth season with the team, obviously coming off a couple bad years, like where was the fan base at? Where was the team at with him at that time compared to Cousins now, who has sort of walked through these first three years, you know, basically a 500 quarterback. You know, how would you compare those two situations that's a really good really good question um okay what what's changed is the is the world and social media and and how basically just crazier everyone is with their opinions and overreactions and all that stuff that aside the hyper uh polarization or i don't know i guess just like people freaking out or being so incredibly disgusted by having cousins as the quarterback

here um is like exaggerated with the time so it's a little bit hard to compare to 20 years ago however i do think that like so right now you ask any of these Viking fans who, like, grumble about Cousins, you know, even setting aside the vaccination stuff or any of that, but just, like, and even setting aside the salary cap hit and how that sort of affected the roster creation around them. Just the pure, like 60 minute kickoff to end of game cousin stuff,

you know, just the complaints about throwing too safe on third down and not protecting the ball. And when he gets sacked and, you know, all the obvious limitations, you know, that go along with

his exceptional arm talent and other strengths so just taking that i i think you you survey any of these people these viking fans would say they would they would take 2003 dante culpepper over over 20 uh 21 kurt cousins but back then i mean that's a little bit of revisionist history there was plenty of angst around him uh at that time um it the 1998 team was still so fresh um in everyone's minds and seeing how dominant moss um in that passing game was with Cunningham. They still had Moss, so there's sort of just this expectation, like should be able to throw it up to him just about every play and score as many points as we want.

And the other interesting thing about the 2003 team, they led the league in rushing. Did you know that? I did not know that. Number one rushing team in the league with uh ontario smith stepping in for an injured michael bennett if i remember correctly but it didn't even matter like they had just a great scheme great offensive line and of course like the the attention moss drew down the field like just opened up a lot of stuff for the running game so but but culpepper he never quite had the whole fan base sold.

Like, honestly, I don't think he even approached Bridgewater's popularity. There was, I think people just gave Moss all the credit. The dings on Culpepper that fans complained about were turnovers. Quarterbacks just turned the ball over way more back then. You know, so his interception and fumble totals were pretty high, much higher than Cousins now. There's even, like, weird things like, oh, his hands are too small. That's why he fumbles.

That was, like, the big, like like kind of hilarious Viking fan complaint back then. I even remember in 2003, Culpepper was actually having a pretty good year. Like 04 was his year. That was his, he would have been the league MVP if, if it weren't for Peyton Manning. But in 03, he was, I think, starting to come around a little bit better. His interception total was still maybe a little high, but he had a lot of pretty strong games. Moss had 17 touchdowns that year, I believe. And I remember I was living in St. Paul at the time.

I was out for either a jog or a walk. Went by one of my favorite breakfast like breakfast places the grand view grill and there was a sign at the marquee like just this random like diner in the middle of saint paul said in gus we trust i'm thinking like what like so this you guys like you really think that Gus Farratt is a better option for this team than Dante Culpepper. But anyway, you know how everyone loves a backup quarterback. And there is an example. Culpepper, yeah, I think people now would appreciate Culpepper a lot more than they did in the moment so there is a lot of as far as just quarterback comparison that you asked Sam I think there's actually you know some some parallels there the the vast difference is how much better the star the cast of stars around cousins is than

than what call pepper had back in 03 besides Moss because, I mean, they had nobody on defense, nobody. And the running backs were kind of like, kind of churning through. They ran the ball quite well, but they didn't have Dalvin Cook. Well, and the other thing is that the high end of Dante Culpepper, which was truly shown in 2004,

is you can be an MVP level quarterback and dominate and have one of the best seasons at that point in NFL history. And that's just not something we've seen from Kirk Cousins. So you would feel like, and I know it's harder to take you to back then. I was just playing Madden and Sega Dreamcast at a friend's house playing 2K with Dante Culpepper. But from the times that I watched Culpepper growing up, I remember thinking, like, this guy is so talented that if it clicks, if he has a great season, they can win. And they had already gone to the NFC Championship, and he he already had an MVP level season by year six of his career. And when we look at the six years of Kirk Cousins, there aren't ups and downs. There's just a straight line year through year.

Now there's ups and downs, little blips in between. But, you know, when they lose against Cincinnati, I can understand the feeling from people who are like yep that looks about right because we've seen that movie before over and over again and so I've just gotten the sense from a lot of people who you know send me emails and dms and comment on the website and everything like that that there's just this feeling of kind of being locked into your fate and what I guess the challenge is for them this year is to like, if you've ever seen the meme where the guy says, change my mind, it's like the sign would say, we're going to go eight and nine or nine and eight, change my mind. And I, and that's, and that's sort of the challenge of this

week against Arizona. It's like, well, you know, change my mind that you're going to go. Oh, and two here and that you're going to, you know, end up at one in three or oh, and four. And then you get a couple of wins against Detroit and Carolina. And you say like, oh, we're back that you're going to you know end up at one and three or oh and four and then you get a couple of wins against Detroit and Carolina and you say like oh we're back we're still in the race the NFC North's not that strong and then we sort of go through the same thing that we've gone through the last couple of years with Culpepper at very least coming out of 04 and it didn't play out this way but coming out of 04 I mean there must have been a belief like this can go places with this quarterback. And I fully believe as the NFL changed in the subsequent years that Culpepper would have continued to be

one of the great quarterbacks league. And if they had had, you know, good ownership at the time, this is another thing that goes sort of underappreciated is I know some people say the Wilfs don't necessarily want to do everything to win a Superbowl, but I think they always do. I mean, to the point of their detriment, to the point of that, they're not savvy. They're just like writing checks for Spielman to sign top dollar contracts for everybody. I think that in comparison to what they used to have to deal with, this is way different and way better for the fans than it was. Yeah. That's, that's really i agree 100 really critical perspective yeah if dante culpepper had been 15 10 years younger and

been a viking you know in the wolf era where they actually acted like a professional organization and and the owner wasn't just pinching pennies because he wasn't getting public funds for his stadium. And there was a league where, you know, his ability to move around in the pocket and also just run over people. Like, man, he would have been, had he stayed healthy, you know, he would have been, I think stayed healthy, you know, he, he would have been, I think revered a lot, a lot better, like especially nationally, you know, when you're only the starter for five seasons and change and with several bad

teams in that short run that your luck runs out a little bit, but I do, I, it's a, that's a, that's a really good way to put it about the Wolves. I think they absolutely, chasing a Super Bowl, I mean, they're also chasing a well-run organization that is rooted in the community and, of course, can make money off a lot of their other ventures. I mean, that's just the way business works. But simultaneously, they are deaf but simultaneously they

are obsessed with winning the super bowl they they and even zimmer now i would put in this category they've ingratiated themselves long enough in this tortured sports community of minnesota and the surrounding you know area that they feel that they they want they think about that if you're in charge of the team that like controls their the organization that most controls people's happiness in a region of like say five million people like think about how badly you would want to be the person or persons that finally break through and, you know, get that trophy and championship parade. Like it would be just, it would just be bananas. So, yeah, but that's to their detriment.

I don't think they're not, I mean, what NFL owners really get, you know, NFL personnel moves? They don't. So the good team, the good ones are the ones that hire the right general managers. no moves they don't so the good team the good ones are the ones that hire the right general managers and uh so i think they they have certainly they probably have said yes way too much to certain um decisions that front office gives them but um in a salary cap league you know it's it's certainly not like the wrong approach it's just uh you after the fact we can see how they are a little bit too eager here a little bit too eager there and that

and that sometimes you need to take a step back like like say mid-season last year they needed to blow it up right it would be easy to say that would have been the time but here we are i've got two um very loosely tied nuggets to this conversation that i i found interesting number one um dante culpepper per his reference page cousins with kenny clark never knew that before yeah i remember that he was on the team you know for a few seasons it was basically i think as a favor to dante but yeah interesting and then secondly I saw something on Twitter that this Sunday's game against the Cardinals will be the first time first home game for Arizona without Larry Fitzgerald since the Nate Poole game and wow three how crazy is that and and also like related to Dante

I mean if not for that Nate Poole catch I feel like the 2003 team was good enough offensively that, I mean, there is a world where they make the playoffs and go on a run just because that offense was so good. Yes. Yes, for sure. Well, look at the year later. It was a similar type of regular season where they showed some stuff. It looked like they'd be really good. It was a similar type of regular season where they showed some stuff. It looked like they'd be really good. Then the defense collapses, and they have a long losing streak. But they actually squeaked into the playoffs the following year and then went to Lambeau Field and won and lost to the Eagles.

The Eagles go to the Super Bowl. So that definitely could have happened in 03. The Packers weren't that good then. The Eagles go to the Super Bowl. So that definitely could have happened in 2003. The Packers weren't that good then. That was the year Favre threw six interceptions in the playoffs in 2003. And I think the Super Bowl team that year was Carolina. So the NFC was, wide open then and easily. I mean,

that team, that 2003 team started six and O as, and if you guys ever want to do like a deep dive on something, go back to that 2003 team. Just some of the stuff that happened. It's just amazing. Like, how could you possibly lose to four different teams who were 4-12?

But they did that, including that last game. And how do you even just lose that last game? Was it 18-3 or 17-3? I don't remember. But, you know, it was like a minute left. Just incredible. Incredible. So, ultimately, a lot of wasted talent.

I mean, you lead the league in rushing. You have a Hall of Fame wide receiver who has 17 touchdown catches. Yeah, they should make the playoffs. If you go back and watch that particular game, what's crazy is how many times it's over that you think. They sack McCown, and you're like, okay, well, it's like third and twenty five or something. And then he converts that and then they they stop. They stuff them a couple of times at the goal line and then there's a penalty. And you're like, wow, Arizona. I mean, no wonder you're terrible. I know. And they still somehow pull it off to Nate Poole.

Last thing for you, Dave, I want to know how you think the season plays out if they win in Arizona and how you think the season plays out if they lose in Arizona. So it's tempting to think like this is hugely pivotal, but I go back to your meme, I guess. If they win, I'm going to say nine and eight and say lose eight nine because it's just yeah they're not gonna like there's still enough talent and and still enough of that kind of tease factor like even if they are on two you know they're still gonna have a a really strong stretch and you know based on all those one-year contracts that we talked about earlier they're not going to trade six guys at the deadline they wouldn't even do that last year

so um you know you know they've got some upsets of perceived better teams and uh strong you know miss kirk cousins mr october right um he'll he'll tear it up and then it'll be like, whoa. But if they win, people are going to be like, whoa, they just beat the team that might be one of the best in the league. And then we're also due for some lulls when they have some pass protection issues or maybe a key defensive starter is is injured and is they're exploited in a particular game down the road it's just it's just um yeah they're just one of those middle of the pack to slightly above middle of the pack teams and i honestly don't

that i don't see it the the game will have a major effect on the vibe in the building, probably, and definitely outside the building. But if you just think about how the NFL works and how, you know, it's not really, the outcomes are not based on everyone's overreactions. I think still a pretty good chance that they are going to be right around 500 no matter what so just real quick let me interject uh that i checked to see what vegas thinks is going on here and uh every sports book i could find has the vikings as favored to miss the playoffs by the way like that i just wanted to make that point because sometimes i will get some messages

that say well why why don't you guys think they'll be better and that sort of thing and i just wanted to make that point that vegas whose goal it is to make money uh across the board has them favored to miss the playoffs just throwing that out there okay so court Courtney Cronin showed me yesterday the odds on fired coaches and Mike Zimmer was second most likely to be fired first. Wow. Which I don't, I don't buy that. No. But I just found that interesting.

And if I'll, I'll add on to your sort of proclamation, Dave, that they are going to make a season of it, even if they go 0-2. And I think that you can still hold out some optimism with this three-game homestand coming up. True. And I told Collar on our video yesterday, if you get to 2-2, somehow, some way, there's a path to 4-2. Because if you go 0-2, but you go home and win two tough games, and I think the Vikings can beat anybody at home. That's a home field advantage that is pretty meaningful.

Right. Then you've got Detroit and Carolina, you know, and you'll go into those games with momentum too if you just beat Seattle and Cleveland. So it's kind of like in a basketball playoff series, they say, you know, the series doesn't start until the home team loses. Well, until you start losing home games, I think you've still got a little bit of hope.

But, you know, it reduces your margin for error. You can't have a letdown game. You certainly can't go and like lose at Carolina. Now this Cincinnati game was a great chance to bank up a road win, which are hard to come by and they squandered it. Yeah. Dave, great to have you always enjoy getting together with you.

So go shopping or whatever you were planning on doing now. And we'll, we'll carry on and we'll do it. We'll do it again soon. But this was really fun, man. Thanks for your time. Always a pleasure to be invited.

Apologize for some of the crackling and uh anytime we can talk about teams from 18 years ago it's always extra fun well sometimes they make us do that dave so you are uh you are approaching you're only a few years away from being like the team historian that we all go to. You're not that much older than me, but I like to talk about that just because it makes me feel better. So thanks for your time, Dave. You got it, guys. Fans are going back to stadiums, so you have to be ready with the best Minnesota football gear.

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for Cleveland when they return to Minnesota and plenty more. Visit TickP pick.com slash insider today and use the promo code insider to save $10 on your first order for Minnesota football tickets. All right. Now we welcome into the show from the locked on AZ cards podcast. Second appearance here on the show, Alex Clancy, when you, you get asked back, Alex, that means it went well the last time. So how are you? I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. Thanks for having me back, man. I appreciate it. It's always fun to talk Vikings when they play the Cardinals for sure. So the last time we talked, I remember discussing Patrick Peterson and leaving Arizona. And just today we spoke with Patrick Peterson and he wanted nothing to do with talking about revenge games or what he had said previously about being disrespected and so forth.

What is with the iciness between Patrick Peterson and the Arizona Cardinals? Well, first of all, thank you. And I thank Patrick Peterson multiple times on our podcast for the content during the offseason. You know, it's much appreciated. Like, so first things first is this is not a direct reflection of him as a person this is a him is the businessman and employee of the former you know former arizona cardinals and now with minnesota he's great philanthropically great great charitably in arizona you know he was he was beloved in the city he then shifted into um delusions of grandeur for how important he was after the 2020 season

to the organization 2018 he request he requests a trade 2018 he says you know what i'm just kidding i want to be the next larry fitzgerald 2019 he gets popped for peds and leaves his team out to dry and he's never been the same so when he he said on the All Things Covered podcast with his cousin, Brian McFadden, that he felt like the Cardinals tolerated him and didn't appreciate him, would you appreciate somebody that had that litany of things that happened in succession? Probably not. Like, the crazy part about all of this, and that's where it stems.

You know, it's the jealous ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, just scorned looking at all the fun stuff that's happening in Phoenix now, and he's not a part of it because he didn't put the team in front of himself, and he took the cash, and that's where he is. Right. And, you know, so it made sense for him to leave at that time that he did, and it made sense for Arizona to part ways with him after the year that he had. Now he seems to be insistent that it was more of the Cardinals fault.

Now he hasn't said this directly. It was their fault. My numbers were bad, but he is suggested many times that being with Mike Zimmer will get him back to who he was and improve the longevity. Now in week one, the Bengals picked on Bashad Breeland, so they didn't have to worry about Patrick Peterson. In week two, I mean, there is no throw to one wide receiver for this team. Clearly, they spread the ball out a lot, and it feels like a time where we're going to see Patrick Peterson really get tested. Yeah, it's interesting.

And I talked with Luke Braun, who was the host of Locked on Vikings yesterday, and I didn't know this to be 100% true, but they don't switch sides in Minnesota. Is that right? Everybody's pretty stagnant. So this is what the Cardinals, what I would do if I'm Cliff Kingsbury and the Cardinals.

I'm putting Rondell Moore and Christian Kirk on Patrick Peters inside and saying, let's see if you can giddy up at all. Because what we saw, the Jamar Chase whirling dervish washing machine that he put Patrick Peterson, that's not necessarily fair. That was one play, and yes, made Patrick Peterson look really bad. But if you put two speedy receivers that could blow by guys, even if it's his own, if view to have Harrison Smith over the top,

that's how I would attack Patrick Peterson. Because the slower receivers like DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green, he may have a better shot even though those are two of the better receivers we've seen in the last 15 or 20 years. I'm putting speed on the side of Patrick Peterson. That's what I'm doing. I think that's exactly the right thing to do. And throughout training camp, he didn't face a pure, blazing fast receiver.

There are very few who are as quick as Rondell Moore. I mean, he just has incredible explosiveness that I think has been evident right away in the NFL. But does the Vikings defense concern you? And here's why I ask. And we'll know by the time I publish this whether Eric Kendricks is playing or not. But Kendricks not practicing today is a major issue for the Vikings. So if they're without Kendricks, but they still have a lot of talent on this team, do Arizona Cardinals fans go into it saying, well, you know, this defense is pretty good.

We should be concerned. Or this isn't the Mike Zimmer defense of all. Probably a mixture of both, but also wrinkled in Cliff Kingsbury shooting himself in the foot with his play calling. You know, we saw in a vacuum what a perfect game looked like for the Cardinals on Sunday on both sides of the ball. It was perfect. I mean, Calum Marie threw a pick, but, I mean, it didn't matter.

A lot of times last year, the play calling was an issue. And sure you put some of that on the players, but a lot of it is a minute and a half drives three and outs and you're off the field. And it doesn't matter how potent your offense is. If that happens a lot, the defense, because they're human beings and not robots, like people think they'll get tired regardless of how good they are. Now that Minnesota's defense is definitely definitely stepped up from Tennessee's, especially from what we saw in week one.

But I think it's going to be the defense of the Cardinals that's going to be tested this week because you look at Tennessee's setup last week, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Derrick Henry. It's pretty similar. Adam Thielen, Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook. You have the three-headed monster. Kirk Cousins' floor is probably a little bit higher than Ryan Tannehill's, but the ceiling is definitely lower.

It's the same kind of thing, and I think it's going to be the defense that's going to be tested again because if they can replicate what they did last week, the Cardinals could win the flip in Super Bowl. I mean, and that's not going to happen. Like, that's not going to happen. You're not going to get five sacks from Chandler Jones, but I don't think the defense necessarily will scare the Cardinals even though it's a far, far better defense than what the Cardinals saw in week one.

Well, and explain to me what happened in terms of shutting down Derrick Henry. I have no idea what happened. I have no idea. So there's one thing that's true. You go up 10 points, you go up two scores, you make Derrick Henry somewhat obsolete with how they want to use him. They're up three points with 10 minutes in the fourth you make derrick henry somewhat obsolete which how that with how they want to use them they're up three points with 10 minutes in the fourth quarter he's going to get 20 touches but if you go up 10 like the cardinals did quick and you're up 24 to 6 at

halftime what the hell is he going to do right you know you're not you're not going to hand the ball up between the tackles and and have a chance to come back into the game i don't know what happened what i do know what happened is the Cardinals had six more carries in the first half than Derrick Henry had yards. They get nine carries for eight yards at halftime. And that was obviously the play. Like what we saw with Dallas against Tampa Bay on Thursday night in week one, they're like, you know what? Your front seven is not going to beat us. We're going to play outside. And that's what the Cardinals said about derrick henry ryan tannehill go nuts kid because derrick henry's not beating us and they just so happened to make taylor lawan look like a high school left tackle with chandler jones but yeah i have no idea what

happened again this it was just it was serendipitous that it all just worked and the stars were aligned we'll see how true either side of the football looks like moving forward well and that's what i was wondering about with this because the vik, I could see them going one way or the other. I could see them either saying last week we didn't establish the run. So we're going to run Delvin Cook all over the place or Arizona thinks we're going to try to establish the run. So we're going to go play action deep shots right off the bat. And I think it will be very interesting to see how Arizona reacts to that because loading people up in the box has been actually very helpful for, you know,

Kirk cousins because that allows for one-on-one matchups and he can, you know, throw accurate passes and Arizona, I think still on Derek Henry had 35% loading up the box with eight men or more from last week. So I guess I wonder how that strategy is going to work and what the cornerback situation is like now to face off with Thielen and Jefferson. Yeah, I mean, the reason why it worked last week was because of the pass rush.

It's been much maligned what Steve Keim has done or lacked thereof with the secondary this offseason. When you have Buda Baker, who's arguably a top three safety in the league, and you have Jalen Thompson, who's a great backup dancer to Buda Baker, but you're looking at Byron Murphy, who's a guy who really hasn't proven much, second-round pick out of Washington. You saw bulk up, and he's going to be the CB1, it seems, with Malcolm Butler retiring.

But you're looking at Robert Alford hasn't played in two years. Byron Murphy, who's never been a CB1, they were going to move him to nickel corner and not play him outside. And Marco Wilson, who was a fourth-round pick to throw a shoe against LSU. That's what they were rolling with. And we've interviewed Marco Wilson on the show. He's a great kid. Like, he has the mindset to be great.

But throwing a kid in right away and saying, you know what, we need you, isn't fair. But what we saw with the pass rush last week, I mean, if you're going to have a pass rush like that, you could have four marionettes at corner and it doesn't matter because the quarterback doesn't have any time and that completely wipes out delvin cook to begin with if you're if you're eating in the backfield you know a half a second after the snap so to answer your question i don't know because what uh minnesota's defense or offense scares the crap out of me. Any game, you can put up a 50-burger.

Any game, and we've seen it. And then the next game, Kirk Cousins throws 12 passes, and Dalvin Cook has 80 yards, and they win 7-6. It's just like it doesn't – the Vikings make no sense to me. And I'm sure it must be incredibly frustrating sometimes. And then you see, like, where was this for the last six weeks when they put up a 45-burger on great team so i don't know i would always say always say pass rush and stack as much as you can against dalvin cook and make adam feelin and justin jarvis and beat you and just

don't give it the big play i've already predicted kirk cousins month of october player of the month because it exactly works this way so uh eventually the randomness becomes predictable where when you see what happened last week, you go like, okay, I've seen that one. I've seen that version a bunch of times. If he comes out and like you said, throws for 400 yards or whatever, it wouldn't be shocking. Or if they run Delvin Cook all over the place and play great defense, it wouldn't be shocking. But the one thing that is consistent is how inconsistent they are with their efforts and especially against good

teams. And I guess that's what I wanted to ask you, kind of the broad question, because you seem quite skeptical that Arizona is a good team after one really good game. I mean, are you buying some of the things that were sold in the off season or are you just very much, hey, it's just week one? I mean, I'm not skeptical that they're like they look like they're gonna go 17 and 0 that's not gonna happen right okay that's all i'm saying i'm just getting eviscerated on twitter by fans like enjoy the win i am okay but you have to it's week one if that was week 16 and that clinched a playoff spot go nuts go nuts sure there'd be a bunch of babies named kyler nine months from now that's not but that's not where we're at week two what we saw from the

cardinals last year and i'm jumping around a bunch of different games because it's so similar to the to the path this year cardinals win week one in san francisco week two in washington at home and then they lose to detroit at home in carolina the road. And you could have started four and oh, and pretty much clinched a playoff spot right there. And they didn't. So this game is against a team that's much better than what we saw from Detroit last year, much better than what we saw from Washington last year.

And you get too high after a game that was truly in a vacuum perfection. And it came out of nowhere. You know, I mean,essee was a three-point favorite it was like the cardinals were a 20-point favorite um but it's just i'm tempering expectations it's so exciting but i'm tempering expectations because i mean fool me a thousand times it's the arizona cardinals so until things really change if they win on sunday and then they win a week three against jacksonville handily then we can chat but i mean i i i don't know i'm not excited they're playing the vikings on sunday even though it's at home so this does sort of sort of lend us to the conversation about

kyler murray in year three with quarterbacks because that's sort of when it happens year two year three with these guys who become great we saw it with josh allen where there were a lot of ups and downs the first couple years and he took a historic jump forward but even like baker mayfield showed some signs then had a little dip and then he takes off and now is like a good quarterback in the nfl uh i don't think when it comes to repeating things that kyler murray can repeat some of the throws that he made but he also kind of can with the running ability and the escape ability like what is the feeling there i know after one game where he's that good it's like he's gonna go to the hall of fame but is this does that make sense

that he would take an extra step here yeah it's so much fun it's so much fun 2018 josh rose and sam bradford mike glennon were the quarterbacks and they won three games you know i mean this is really fun because you're watching a kid grow and like with him especially josh allen he was weird because he didn't even win he wasn't even on all the all conference team in the mountain valley conference before he got drafted number seven overall it's just or seven or five whenever the hell he got drafted, number seven overall, or seven or five, whenever the hell he got drafted. It's like, that doesn't happen. But you can compare Kyler Murray and Josh Rosen a lot,

because with their body types, they're not supposed to be able to do what they're doing. And even though Kyler could fit in Josh Allen's pocket, it's just a completely, it's the same dynamic, just on the polar opposite sides of the spectrum. But for both of them, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson screwed it up for them because it's just like, oh, it's got to happen right away.

Immediately it's got to happen. You have to be perfect. Patrick Mahomes sat for a year, and Lamar Jackson was a running back for the first year of his career. He was. That was the perfect offense to run. And now he's obviously gotten better at throwing the ball. Not great.

But I think that Kyler's got the ball. Not great, but I think that Kyler's got the tools. He has DeAndre Hopkins. You can throw the ball in the same ballpark and he'll catch it. You know, like the first touchdown pass, he broke his ankles to stay in bounds and he didn't break his ankles. He's going to touch it like a couple of the throws. That one is going to continue to happen.

The one to Rondell Moore where he ran a mile behind the line of scrimmage, maybe not so much. But then there was broken plays with Christian Kirk. He threw a perfect basket catch over the shoulder to Christian Kirk. Like, Kyler's really good, and he's continuing to prove it. And I said, and I'll continue to say, if he's not the leading rusher and they're winning games, they could really do something here. And he only rushed for 20 yards, I think.

And they put up a 40-burger. It's like, that's what you want. You want the option option but you don't want it to be relied upon like it was last year so there's a point sort of mixed in here about the vikings and what we were talking about with kirk cousins and sort of knowing who he is at this point is last year the vikings start one five and a lot of people are saying hey don't tank't tank, go beat Jacksonville, go beat Carolina. And you're like, look at this Arizona franchise that you just called fun, which the Vikings have not been fun in a while because you sort of know what you are and didn't accept where you were at last year and start moving pieces and everything else. I guess that's a different rant for a different show. Offensive lines, though, questionable, right? show um offensive lines though questionable right like i saw kelvin beacham is on the uh injury report and even though he's no all pro he's still better than whoever is next i'm sure

you've got daniel hunter coming to town we'll see on everson griffin status but either way you know uh the big guys in the middle like it didn't look super impressive what was going on in the offensive line arizona so it's gotten so, it's gotten so much better over the last three years. The trade for Rodney Hudson was perfect. I mean, the fact that he got cut, his contract got voided, and then he got traded was showed that there was actually some like Steve Kimesaw was like, you know what? We're not going to be able to outbid other teams. We have to give up a pick for him. And so they did.

And he's going to be old faithful in the middle. Kyler has his center for the next seven years, barring any sort of injury. I mean, because they can play all, you know, whatever, six years. They played until 38. DJ Humphries is one of the more undervalued guys on the left side. And then you're right with Kelvin Beecham. Kelvin Beecham was a late add two years ago,

and he was fantastic. he played all 16 games he was great on the right side of the line because the interior has been tough and last and he just he signed a one-year two million dollar deal to stay i mean i'm sure he could have got a lot more that was tough he's day-to-day you know it's you know we're recording this a couple days before so we don't really know what's going to happen he could be a big loss but can move josh jones out there third round pick from last year josh jones is going to happen. He could be a big loss, but can move Josh Jones out there, third-round pick from last year. Josh Jones is going to be kind of a Swiss Army knife on the line. He's working.

He's playing right guard now. But, yeah, I mean, my saying is the best offensive line for the Arizona Cardinals will always be Kyler Murray's legs. So you don't have to do as much. You know, you don't have to. It's, oh, oh god blitz gone and then that's why pro football focus rated the cardinals the offensive line so high early on because he wasn't in the damn pocket so i mean it is that is a stark difference between the two

for sure but daniel hunter you know everett griffin if he's healthy you're gonna see some sort of pass rush the cardinals didn't see any pass rush in week one right uh let me ask you about cliff kingsbury because i read a lot of articles by a lot of smart people who went uh what what exactly is this offense cliff why won't you change anything or do anything modern uh how you feeling about that through one week so unfortunately for you you are smack dab in the middle of my one week moratorium on talking crap about Cliff Kingsbury. On Sunday, it was – I think I lost 20 followers on Sunday because of my take. I'm like, you know that none of this was Cliff, right?

None of this was Cliff. Did you watch the game? And they're like, well, you know, great quarterbacks always bail out their head coaches. Great coaches put their quarterbacks in a position to succeed and not have to run around like a chicken with his head caught up behind the line of scrimmage to get a long third down. The first touchdown, first and goal from the one,

they had to call a timeout, and they got a false start, and Kyler Murray bailed out everybody with that throw to DeAndre Hopkins in the back of the end zone. I think Cliff has good in him. I think he has good in him. I think he has good in him. And I say, you know, have you watched Entourage? I have not. Sorry.

Okay. So it doesn't matter. So Cliff Kingsbury can sell you a really good movie trailer, but the movie's not so great where you see greatness. You see greatness. Some play calls are incredible. The play action bootleg from, I don't know, whatever down it was, first and goal, and Kahneman was by himself on the other side of the field

bootlegging in for the end zone. That was Cliff. You know, like there are things where it's like, why can't you string these things together? And I don't know if it's because he's a glorified offensive coordinator as a head coach. I don't know if he's equipped to be an NFL signal caller whatsoever. I don't know if he's equipped to be an NFL signal caller whatsoever. I don't know.

But I do know that 27 other head coaches would yearn for the Cardinals roster. So if it doesn't work this, I thought he should have been fired at the end of last season, rip the Band-Aid off, go get Brian Dable or Eric Bien-Ami, and let's have a big boy football team. But it seems that he's getting better, and we'll see, because at this point you could potentially be wasting Kyler Murray's's rookie scale contract we don't know what the offense is we know that there's no tight end and there's four wide a lot that's what we know and deandre hopkins stays on one side of the field if you ever look at his route tree it it looks like a bush on one side of the field and it's never past the never past the sticks it's wild it's

wild and and that was very bizarre to look at why they don't move him around and do some of the things that modern offenses are doing and that's specifically one of them where you're taking top wide receivers and moving him to the slot more often the vikings do that with jefferson and thielen davante adams does that constantly you see it all over the place do that with Jefferson and Thielen. Devontae Adams does that constantly. You see it all over the place. My theory on this, and tell me if you think there's anything to it, is just that college coaches design an offensive system and then just run it. And they run it and run it and run it the whole every year, every week against every team.

And they'll probably play most teams that they're better than, and they'll beat with the system, and they don't have to change things. NFL coaches have to change every single week techniques details all those types of things and i just feel like this was a problem in carolina last year they started out they were kind of fooling people with joe brady and then by the end of the year they're fooling nobody and i think you see that with college coaches consistently for sure and because your college coach relies so much upon the quarterback to just make plays like so the first half last season kyle was running the ball a lot and people give cliff credit for that i don't i think they're a bunch of broken plays when you

when you when you call a run pass option that is no longer on the onus of the of the head coach to make the right decision so it's a cop-out You take your most talented players and you say, you know what? Read it because it's not my call. So you don't have to write that up. Cool. They only have six in the box. Run the repass option depending on where you are. And what happened with Kyler Murray for the first eight weeks,

it was working like gangbusters, as you mentioned. They catch up. The play calls aren't great. Kyler Murray can't get any running room, and that's where you are. They blamed it on Kyler's injury. He had a shoulder injury. You don't run with your shoulder. You know, like it's – so I think there's some sort of fraudulent credit

given to Cliff Kingsbury, but I also think he's getting better by the day. We just hope that the fraudulence doesn't catch up to his improvement, you know. And they have a great roster, and there's plenty of times where a somewhat inferior head coach has won a bunch of games, you know, and they have a great roster. And there's plenty of times where a somewhat inferior head coach has won a bunch of games, you know? So, I mean, you might be looking at one in Minnesota. You hope the fraudulence doesn't catch up. That's good. I like that.

So, tell me, Alex, who's winning this football contest? Who do you think? You know, this is, it's so, I mean, I have to pick the Cardinals because of what we saw from both teams last week. I know it's week one, but, man, you can't lose to Cincinnati even on the road. So I know Dalvin Cook fumbled, and he's got some fumble rooskies in him from time to time, but sometimes you just have to say, you know what, you take it because he's 80% of our offense a lot of the games.

I'll say 27-17. I think it's going to be kind of ugly. I mean, I might dip in a pick six there from Kirk Cousins. 27 points would be a lot of points to score on this defense. I do know that, especially if you're going to try and take the air out of the ball with Dalvin Cook, which is what I assume you do. I mean, time of possession is so important in the league. Yeah, 27-17 Cardinals.

So my initial pick was 27-24 Vikings, but the Eric Hendricks issue is pretty serious. I mean, that's going from an all-pro to, I don't know, somebody. Someone on the roster who has a jersey, but they're not like Eric Hendricks. I think I'm going to flip it. I think this will be a very close game, and I think Mike Zimmer is a better coach than Cliff Kingsbury, but Kyler Murray is a better quarterback than Kirk cousins.

And I think those two things, even themselves out to where it is a tight football contest. So Alex, you're the best man for coming on. I'm glad we could catch up. You are at Clancy's corner on Twitter, the lockdown AZ cards podcast. If you want to go check that out to get a little intel on the Cardinals before

the game. Thanks a lot for coming on, man. At some point, we'll do it again. Yeah, of course, man. Anytime.