Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are the Packers as good as the Vikings right now?

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Matthew Coller chats with Vikings fans about the injury report, which includes Jordan Addison as a limited participant. Also Jordan Love was limited for the Packers. And answering fan questions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, back with just days to go before the Minnesota Vikings travel to Lambeau Field to face off with the Green Bay Packers. And oh, what a time it is to be alive in Viking land. We got Aaron Jones talking today. We've got a very interesting injury report. And I'm sure we've also got a lot of stuff on your footballing mind so as you guys know the

Wednesday night show is your show here in the chat so I need your questions your comments your thoughts your emotions your feelings and also if you could toss in a fantasy question for the underdog fantasy read that would be helpful if someone could do that as well. But what is on your minds? Vikings and Packers, the biggest Vikings Packers game in quite some time. And it has been a week also of hype, of buy-in, the national media, who a lot of you think, why don't they ever pay attention to the Vikings? Well, they're here and they have been paying a lot of attention to the Vikings this week, which sometimes also scares you guys when you get a lot of attention to the Vikings this week, which sometimes also scares you guys when you get a lot of attention for what this team is doing at three and O and

we've kind of gone up and down the roster of, there's been a lot of things that have gone right for this team so far. So you can also toss in if you have concerns about Vikings and Packers. And also I did have a good discussion with Drew McGarry about your feelings about the Green Bay Packers, because I think a lot of fans look at the Packers as the team that you would like to be as they had Favre and Rodgers for all those years. And they were competing each year, year in and year out for a championship. And then some of you just deeply, deeply despise the green Bay Packers. So what is it about them that, uh, that, that makes you have that, that, that feeling of despising them? And I know of course it's that they're your rival, but there's more to it,

right? Detroit's your rival, Chicago's their rival. And yet it's not the same type of feeling about the green Bay Packers. So that, and whatever questions are on your mind, feel free to toss them my way. And we'll have a good discussion, uh, probably, uh, you know, go a couple hours here. And then I am off to see the Minnesota links this evening play in their playoff game, which is why we're starting a little bit on the earlier side here because of that. But before I get into it, let me go through the injury report, which this week is quite relevant for the Minnesota Vikings. So today they didn't have a full practice. They had more of a walkthrough type of practice, which means that the report is more of an estimation. And some guys, if you didn't do anything, even in the walkthrough, then that's not particularly great if that was the

case, but I'll go through it on both sides because it does matter quite a bit to this game. So the most notable name on this, of course, is Jordan Addison, who was limited today in the walkthrough. And it's important that he was limited because Kevin O'Connell has talked pretty positively about the potential of Jordan Addison coming back somewhat soon. And if he's able to get back on the field for this game in particular, and maybe it does help that it is a grass when you're talking about an ankle injury, it's not maybe quite as hard on the feet and ankles as something like playing even at US Bank Stadium. But if Addison can come back, when you think about where they have been for the wide receiver position, it has been an excellent start to the season for everybody in the wide receiver room where Jalen Naylor has risen to the challenge.

We've also seen Justin Jefferson, of course, have one of the best starts of the season of anybody in the NFL. And I think he's what fifth in receiving and we're talking about fantasy stats. He's one of the top five or six wide receivers, but the fact that Naylor has risen to the challenge, Brandon Powell has come up with a couple of big plays. Even Trent Shurfield had a 17-yard catch two weeks ago mixed in. It's been a group effort to be able to make up for having Jordan Addison out of the lineup, but make no mistake, it's much better to have Jordan Addison in the lineup because of the different things that you can do with Addison.

Contested catches. You could take more risks in throwing it toward Jordan Addison in the lineup because of the different things that you can do with Addison contested catches. You could take more risks in throwing it toward Jordan Addison. Also just look at the first game of the year where a couple of his outbreaking routes, the New York giants have no chance against Jordan Addison with as quick as he is, which also does make you think if he can make sure he's as close to a% as he can get because the feet and ankles are a pretty big deal for getting out of those breaks but he is special when it comes to separation and route running getting open making plays on the football Naylor is still coming along as a weapon but having him as a third weapon as opposed to the number two wide receiver that he's held down pretty well would be a big advantage going into a game like this, where I don't think the Vikings defense is

just going to make a mockery of the Green Bay Packers the way they have the last two weeks. I think this will be more of a shootout type of game. Not that the Vikings defense will melt on the road, but it's just a tougher environment than they've had with U.S. Bank Stadium behind them over the last couple of weeks. And I have a ton of respect for Matt LaFleur, who has outfoxed Vikings defensive coordinators many times over the last few years. And we usually just gave it all the credit to Aaron Rodgers for doing it. But then last year, the adjustments that LaFleur made when he came to US Bank Stadium and Jordan Love played pretty well. I think that there is a

ton of very much deserved respect for LaFleur. And I don't think this is going to be a game where you just show up and the defense goes 2000 Ravens on them and the Vikings have to score six points to win the game or something. I think that they could really use Jordan Addison. Going through the rest of the report, where it does concern me a bit is Garrett Bradbury with an ankle injury. He was also on the injury report a couple of weeks ago with a knee injury, and I think I pointed out that he was down at one point on the ground and then picked himself back up, continued to grind through the game, didn't have a great PFF grade and pass protection. And I thought maybe some of

that, and I know you can kind of get your jokes off there, but some of that may have been that he's been just battling leg injuries through the start of this season. And I think that he brings a lot more value to this team than maybe he's given credit for because of all the things that he has to do at the line of scrimmage. And he was really excellent in the screen game and in the run game against the Texans. And they're going to need those things against the Green Bay Packers who have a nasty, nasty front, but his health, this is not what you want to see when he's going up against the single player who has dominated him more than anybody else. Akeem Hicks is out of the league now. Kenny Clark, even last

year, I think Bradbury had something like a 10 PFF grade when he went up against Kenny Clark. And I remember looking at this the whole rest of the season, Bradbury had had his best year in pass protection, except for when he was facing Kenny Clark, who is also on the injury report, but I don't think it's serious. He was limited in practice, but I think that should be fine for him. Ivan Pace did not practice with an ankle injury. That is concerning because he was out last weekend, as well as Kamu Grugier-Hill did. You would prefer to have Ivan Pace Jr. in there. Grugier-Hill is an experienced player. You can trust him, but when Pace is at his best, he does everything. He's good

in coverage. He makes plays on the run. He is a violent tackler. He's quick, and if he can't play this week, it is much tougher to stop the run because what we saw them do last week was there were all these passing situations and Flores was able to put Josh Metellus on the field at a linebacker position. I went back and looked at the tape as I always do and do the film breakdowns over at the newsletter, which you could sign up for a purple insider.com. If you want to see the film breakdown from the game. But what I noticed in just watching back the film was how often Josh Metellus was just playing linebacker. And you could do that when the other team is in a situation where they're

down 21 points in the second half and they have to pass every time. I don't expect that that's going to be the case for the Packers. So the health of Ivan Pace is relevant here as we go into Thursday and Friday, because I don't think Grugier Hill is as good as Pace when it comes to playing against the run. And you don't want Josh Metellus to have to play a linebacker position for an entire game against the team that has run so effectively as the Green Bay Packers. Jay Ward was also a DNP today. Everybody else on the limited side, including Grugier Hill, Josh Oliver, Dallas Turner, and good news that he was on the limited side as well.

And Turner had said last week, and of course, I don't think he was supposed to say this the way that Kevin O'Connell reacted, but Turner said that last week that it should be a one week injury for him. So getting Dallas Turner back, just adding more versatility to that pass rush and the best for last, a full participant, Sam Darnold with the knee. And he was asked, of course, about that today and said the knee feels solid and he had a sleeve over it. But it doesn't appear that there is going to be any sort of issue with Sam Darnold and the sleeve. So there's your injury report on

the Viking side. The only DMP for the Packers for the injury report was just their offensive lineman, Jordan Morgan. He was the only one there. So it looks like this will be healthy teams and Jordan Love. That's the big question. Is it going to be Malik Willis? Is it going to be Jordan love? And from their perspective, there's a case to be made either way, because you could look at this and say, we've won two games with Malik Willis. Let's run the ball against this team that has not been tested this year in terms of

the running game. Or you could say, anytime you could get Jordan Love back, if he's good to go, then that's the guy that you have to have in the game. And that would be understandable if they decided to do it that way. And they're of course not going to tell the Vikings who is going to play quarterback because it's two different offenses. And this again, kind of get your jokes off about Josh Dobbs last year. But if you were a person that critiqued KOC for not turning Josh Dobbs into more of a running quarterback and a running offense last year, there is one fine detail that matters there, which is the Packers have Josh Jacobs and they can actually run the ball. Whereas last year, the Vikings were not running effectively with Alexander Madison.

So it's harder to do some of that stuff. And also the one time they tried to have Dobbs play running back, he got destroyed by Kareem Jackson and there wasn't a flag that was thrown and never really seemed to be quite the same after that. But an incredible job by the Packers adjusting with Malik Willis. So do they want to go back to Jordan Love and push him as far as they can to get him back earlier than maybe expected for this injury? Or do they want to just have him out there and have the best possible quarterback and run their entire offense, which does have a lot

of weapons. And I think what we've seen from Jaden Reed is him become one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He's really emerged this year as their true top guy, but they have multiple weapons. So they can go either way with Malik Willis or Jordan Love, but I'm leaning toward Jordan Love playing this week. And last year he picked apart the Vikings defense. Can they put more pressure on him this time? Can they confuse him a little more this time? Last year, he was able to sit back there and make plays. They didn't create as much pressure as they have these first few weeks.

This Packers offensive line has done a really good job blocking for the first few weeks. This is one of those where every single matchup you're looking at, you go, there is a lot going on here with these two teams. So exciting times, Vikings and Packers, two of the best teams in the NFL. Let's get to all of your questions. Ask whatever's on your mind and we'll chat for a while here.

I mean, you could tell I'm pretty jacked up about this football game and excited to go down to Lambeau field, be covering it from there. Myself and Dane Mizutani, as always, we'll be doing our post-game podcast from Lambeau field. And I'm every time I kind of think back about all the different post-game podcasts that I've done in that Lambeau field press conference, the one in 2021, after Mike Zimmer said that he didn't want to get a look at Mond and you know, that we pretty much knew after that, that there were going to be major changes last year after Kirk gets hurt. I mean, there's just been a long history now at this point

of those types of things. How about after the tie? I remember the post-game podcast with myself and Judd Zellgatt after the tie and trying to figure out,game podcast with myself and Judd Zogat after the tie and trying to figure out, wait, should we praise them for this tie because they were losing or should we criticize them and do they cut the kicker and all that? A lot of memories there in the Lambeau press box. So who knows what's going to happen this time? Let's jump into I Shot You 99.

It says, how well do you think the defense will play on a grass field? I've always felt the Vikings play much slower and poorly on grass. There's the, my first inclination would be to sort of say, I don't know, right? I mean, good defenses can play on grass. It doesn't make sense that it would be a franchise thing that the Vikings couldn't play as well on grass. I would say that, but I remember researching this a little while back about the home field advantage of U.S. Bank Stadium. And what I found was that the Vikings defense, when it was really good under Zimmer from 20, let's say 2015. No, I'm sorry. US Bank Stadium opened in 2016. So 2016 to 2019, they were really, really excellent as an overall defense. And at US Bank Stadium,

they got way more sacks. They were still good when they went on the road, but they got way more sacks when they were at home. And if we're talking about pressure for Jordan Love and he comes back, but his knees not a hundred percent, we have two wounded quarterbacks here, but Jordan Love likes to move and escape and get out of the pocket. How much can you pressure him? It may be a factor that you're going on the road. Now, is that the grass or is that the fans? Because at US Bank Stadium last week, there was no question how much the fans impacted that game, the checks and changes and all those things at the line of scrimmage that CJ Stroud was trying to do. The offensive linemen were not getting the message.

The cadence was not right with something with that offensive line. They kept false starting over and over. They couldn't get their motions correct. They were a mess at US Bank Stadium. Well, you know, whoever's playing quarterback for the Packers is not going to be a mess at Lambeau Field, even if there is a halfway decent amount of purple in the stands. It will be a factor. It is a good test for this defense. They did a good job in New York. This is not New York. This is not Daniel Jones. This is a good test for this defense. They did a good job in New York. This is not New York. This is not Daniel Jones.

This is a much more dangerous team on the road. And I will be interested in that test. But I think what you're talking about is a relevant factor that the getoff, so to speak, of some of the pass rushers is different when you don't have the crowd noise and maybe a little bit on grass although some of the best pass rushers ever have played on grass i'm not sure if it's that uh exactly uh mike says depends on if the cheese heads accidentally over water the field again y'all that yeah that is always a thing that is always a thing for sure is just what the situation is with the grass. And I can absolutely guarantee you that you are not going to have any players make mistakes with the cleats that I remember how angry Kevin O'Connell was after that 2022 game that

some of the players had decided to just go with their own cleats and not the seven studs. And I don't remember any other controversy regarding cleats like ever, except for that game. But there was, and it's a factor, but it's a noon game and it's going to be, I don't know, 90 degrees or something, 85 degrees. I was looking at the weather and I was thinking, can I get, can I get nine holes in the morning there? It looks like it's going to be beautiful. Where, where's the closest golf course to a Lambeau field.

Maybe I'll bring the sticks down and play nine and then head over to the stadium in the morning because it's just going to be great weather. So that shouldn't be much of a factor when they played them in 2022, it was late in the year. The grass was slick. It was late in the year. The grass was slick. Everybody was sliding all over. So it should be okay. Rob says the Packers are frauds.

They have yet to beat a team with a single win yet this year. Who are their wins against? Was it Indianapolis? Indianapolis has a win against Chicago and then beating Tennessee, which is kind of a hot mess team yet still, still, you know, I think that Tennessee and Indianapolis are not very good teams,

but they've beaten the tar out of them. It's the same kind of logic as I had when the Vikings beat the giants. It wasn't just, well, okay, it's the giants who cares on to next week. It was, well,

hang on now it's the giants, but also you destroyed the giants. It wasn't just, well, okay. It's the giants who cares on to next week. It was, well, hang on now it's the giants, but also you destroyed the giants. And that is, I think, predictive toward the future, just like it. And yet they did it with a backup quarterback. So they, they whack these bad teams without even their starter. If they get their starter back, they're going to be in pretty good shape. I don't think that the Packers are frauds. And if I did, maybe I'd be less excited about the game because I do think they're good. The chemistry that Jordan Love built up with Matt LaFleur last year, Reed is a serious wide receiver. I mean, Watson, I'm kind of hot and cold on sometimes because he has spectacular speed, but he's not a consistent impact player, but Reed is the one to be terrified of. And when you have a coach that really understands the run game, the way that Matt LaFleur does,

it's, it's ingrained in this dude, how to run the football. He did it extremely well with Aaron Jones. So you could go, okay, well, it's Aaron Jones and he's doing it well here as well. But now, you know, even with Marshawn Lloyd out, they got two guys who can run the ball extremely well. That is, I think maybe the biggest test for this defense because San Francisco was always in a spot in their game where they couldn't really just run, run, run when they did with Jordan Mason. It was effective and he averaged five yards to carry and got a hundred yards, but they couldn't just keep doing it and doing it because they were losing and they needed to have Brock Purdy continue to drop back and throw.

If green Bay stays in the game or even gets ahead of the game, they will stick with that run. And that will be the toughest test that the Vikings have seen against the run so far. And it is also relevant that the linebacker health for the Vikings is not at a hundred percent. Grugier Hill is not a big guy. And through his career has not been an exceptional by his PFF grades has not been an acceptable run stuffer. And even though he had a great week last week, he did miss a tackle or two as well. That's, that's a factor.

It's an element. I think green Bay is good. I mean, this is a team that could win 10 or 11 games. They're probably looking at their start similar to the way the Vikings are looking at theirs, that if you can survive that injury from Jordan Love and win two games in a row, that you're in really good shape going forward. And honestly, they probably should have beaten

the Philadelphia Eagles in week one as well. Maybe you can hang on to that, that Jordan Love didn't look that great, but that was just week one. I think they're good. Brett says, if you were Green Bay, would you really want Jordan Love to get sacked four to five times? I personally think we will see Willis, which honestly almost scares me more. A wounded Jordan Love is probably still a very dangerous Jordan Love because of the arm talent. Don't forget the throw that he made last year against the Vikings. That off the back foot rip that went 50 yards and into the end zone against the Vikings. That was where, when we had the, well, is Jordan Love really all that good debates? I was like, okay, you know what?

I think he is after seeing that, that type of throw and the playmaking that he has. But to your point, what we were just talking about, this team is not really had anyone say, I dare you to stop our running game. And that's why it is always important, of course, to get ahead in the game and to cause turnovers like the Vikings did last week when they got the interception on the first drive. I thought if they convert this, I don't know how Houston's going to win this game. I had that thought because that's how good the defense is that if you give them a lead and another team feels like they're playing from behind, that's where Flores can do anything and

everything he wants. But if Willis is the quarterback, they're going to stick to the run and they're going to try to make his passing game fairly simplistic. So, I mean, you might have a point there. I don't know if we're giving Malik Willis too much credit, but he is a prolific runner. This is why some of the draft analysts thought he was going to be drafted really high was because he does have physical tools and he has a super strong arm, but he's really, really excellent in running the football. That's the one thing that I haven't seen yet. And I'm not sure how well the Vikings are going to be able to stop that. So to your point, I think because Jordan loves their franchise quarterback, they paid him. He is their star going forward that he'll come back as soon as he's ready to come back.

But the original diagnosis was what, four to five weeks. So this is kind of on the edge. This would be early for him to come back and if he can't protect himself and if he's not as mobile as he normally is that could be dangerous considering who's coming after him that's a good point i mean it has to be factored in but they got to be weighing this is a divisional game and now with the vikings being three and oh this is a divisional game against the team that's ahead of you in the standings. And it's against the team that is serious and might be actually quite good. Uh, at the end of the day, all these things have to be considered from Matt LaFleur that, you know, they, the Vikings might be good and you might be racing with them down to the last minute in the

playoff race. Do you really want to play Malik Willis, lose the game and then look back and go, man, that's the, that's the one where maybe we should have pushed a little harder on Jordan love. So I don't know. I,

I really don't know what's going to go into that decision. I think as soon as their doctors feel like love is good to go, that he probably will. Uh, let's see. Kerr plumpy. good to see you says something i don't see being discussed is how easy comparatively the packers schedule was vikings 3-0 against vastly more impressive competition than beating the colts and titans no no you're absolutely right uh i think that three weeks into the season though, that's kind of a hard thing to do. So if we are 10, 12 weeks

into the season and we can look back and go, uh, yeah, they haven't beaten any winning teams. Okay. Then, then I'll factor that in a little bit more. Uh, I think you can say it as being impressed by the Vikings, but not a demerit against the Packers. What were they supposed to do other than beat the hell out of those teams? Like that, that those were the teams on the schedule and they destroyed them. And the first game that they lost, they should have won. And they were playing in Brazil against, against the team that is serious in the Philadelphia Eagles and is very good. I mean, I think you can't really downplay going in and playing those teams with a backup

quarterback and then smashing them and playing as well defensively as they did, as running the football as well as they did. We can still take a lot out of that, even though they haven't had that level of competition. But that doesn't take away from the Vikings' wins, which have been incredibly impressive as well against two teams that are competing for the Superbowl. But it's when it's this early in the season, it's just difficult to say, well, you know, they haven't played anybody or whatever. I mean, I don't know when you play bad teams and you kill them. I give a lot of credit there. I kind of grade on a curve when we're doing the schedule thing and the same way that I did with the giantsants. But when we go top to bottom with the

Packers roster, this is the other thing about it. When we go top to bottom with the Packers roster, their running back is a star. Their offensive line knows how to run block. Their defensive line is incredibly nasty. They have player after player on their defensive line. Probably one of the better D lines or most talented overall D lines in the league. They've got first round picks there. They've got good linebackers. They've got several good receivers, but one really good receiver, not a fraudulent looking team. They have a great coach. Their defensive coach looks vastly improved from the Joe Barry experience. It's just not a fraudulent looking team to me at this moment. If they get some

injuries or something, or some guys fall off and don't play as well as they're expected, then maybe we're having a different discussion at the end of the season. But when we try to evaluate, well, how hard are the Packers really? My answer is pretty tough based on just who they have on their team and who their coaches. Let's see. I shot you 99 says the Packers like to act like they are a dynasty, like the Patriots or chiefs when they've only won one Superbowl with Aaron Rogers. And of course one with Brett Favre as well.

And several with Mr. Bart star way back in the day. So I am a neutral party with this, as you guys know, in my approach. But I'm also fascinated with your viewpoints on the Packers as Vikings fans. So why they drive you crazy. What is it about them? Other than just, hey, it's the rival. It's a big game.

It always matters. Because I enjoy their presence so much because it creates a lot of drama and it creates really important games. I mean, so many times I was talking about making that drive to Lambeau, doing the postgame press conference, going into that locker room that you're kind of jammed in there pretty good. And all the different things that have happened, and they're always so happened and they're always so

relevant and they're always so important uh the vikings in 2017 go there and i think that was to clinch a playoff berth or to clinch the division might have been to clinch the division in 2017 and they're playing in 10 below weather or something and it's 16 to five is the score whatever it was a gnarly game just every time it feels like it's a big deal when they're going to Lambeau Field and playing this team that is perpetually really good really well run but that's who you want your team going to beat and being relevant so I always have a great time leading up to the game, talking about it, breaking it down, looking at their matchups and everything because it matters so much. And that's great to have when you're a relevant franchise at three and oh, they're a relevant franchise with very high

expectations and they just paid their quarterback. It's good stuff to me. So that's why I like your perspective because it's going to be different than mine. But I will say that I have noticed, and I am going to get Aaron Nagler on the show tomorrow from Cheesehead TV. He's kind of the me of them, except for he's a huge fan and everything else that's a little bit different, but does his own thing. It's great. And I really like having Aaron on the show. But if there's one thing they're, they're, they're a little stuck up about being the Packers and title town and all the Superbowls and everything else, when you are very much correct that if you are say what, 15 years old right now, so you're almost old. Let's say that you just got your driver's license right now. Do you think of

the Packers as title town dynasty or the team that's had pretty good teams that has let you down repeatedly? It has been, you make a point. It has been some time since the Green Bay Packers have gotten there and they've had a lot of very close run-ins with it. I mean, they're a touchdown away from beating the Tampa Bay Bucks. Go to the Superbowl. They're maybe bad punt away from beating the San Francisco 49ers. So they've been very close and they've been

more relevant in the playoffs than the Vikings recently. But sometimes, you know, they're, they're acting like Bart Starr is going to walk through that door and win five championships or something sometime soon. So maybe, maybe it's that, maybe it's that. Let's see. Mike says, I think it's more of the roster situations or circumstances that is inevitable sometimes, but not anymore.

We are two. I'm sorry. I don't quite. Oh, top. Yeah. Oh, top to bottom.

Yeah. Okay. Now I got it. Sorry. There's the typos when I'm trying to Ron Burgundy here and read every word. Top to bottom, yes. Yeah, that's a good point that when you're talking about the Vikings, if it's maybe the defense you're discussing there

and how much they're impacted by going on the road, which I think is part of what you're talking about, the roster makes the biggest difference is always for how flawed you are and what your ceiling and what your floor is. I mean, when you have the players that they have, the floor is just higher than it has been in recent years, where I think the ceiling for the floor is defense last year was still that they could cause all sorts of havoc and problems. And yet when you're talking about the floor, it was really bad. The floor was the game against Philadelphia.

The floor was the game against the chargers. It was both games against the lions. So last year they had capabilities of being great or terrible on a weekly basis. And what came out in the wash was that they were, you know, they were pretty good. They were a middling defense. They were kind of average last year, which was a real accomplishment for Flores. But now I think that you've closed that gap where this defense, you don't have players that are going to be volatile, that one week they're going to be good. Another week, they're going to be volatile, that one week they're going to be good, another week they're going to be bad.

That was like a Caleb Evans, for example, a young player without a ton of experience who on a weekly basis could be pretty good and be an average corner or just get throttled and attacked over and over. Well, who's that guy now? Even Shaq Griffin's been pretty good. And Byron Murphy Jr. got roasted on that one play. It was a little bit of a good job by Houston though. Confusion on their motion where they put two receivers close together. They

kind of crossed. Murphy got behind. On TV, it often looks like, oh, that guy just got burned. He must have just be bad at coverage. But sometimes the offense finds a way to create the natural pick or something like that. That's what happened on that one. But if Byron Murphy Jr. is your weak link on the secondary, you are a pretty good team, right? And last year, the weak link was you can attack pretty much anyone after Byron Murphy went down. So the floor is higher now with multiple pass rushers, where last year, if Daniil Hunter was not the guy getting sacks, whom was it? I mean, it had to be Blitzes.

It had to be DJ Wanham. They couldn't just rush the passer. Now they can. Again, that raises the floor. So if you have a tough game on defense, well, you're still probably going to give your offense a chance to win. David says, Matt, yesterday KOC referenced Brian Brian Flores defense as running a quote check defense. Have you ever heard of this before? If so, explain. Yes, they were doing some of this last year and actually Mike Zimmer had elements of this. Now I've never heard it called necessarily

a check defense as like the whole scheme, but the idea of what they're doing, and I'm writing a little bit about this is you play this cat and mouse game. And this is why Aaron Rogers actually had a long answer to a question about Harrison Smith and how he and Harrison Smith would play cat and mouse with Mike Zimmer's defense and how much he loved and respected Harrison Smith. Because what happens is with the two teams, they go up to the line of scrimmage with several different ideas in mind. It's not any more my play call versus your defensive play call. It's my play call, but then I can check to another play call or make adjustments. And sometimes you'll see, you know, the guy put his hand up to his head or something like that on the road, you know, to make a check to a run or something like that. So Aaron Rogers goes up to the line of scrimmage, or in this case, it'll be Jordan Love goes up to the line of

scrimmage. And he's got a certain look to his offense, a formation, a personnel group, and the defense will see the formation and they'll make their adjustments and, and, and watch for this. It's actually really fun. What you'll see is the defensive linemen they'll move and the linebackers they'll move. So, okay, now everyone's in position and now here comes a motion. So they're going to have some answer for the motion, but if the quarterback changes the play of what he wants to do, because he thinks that it's not going to work against that defense, then Blake Cashman or Harrison Smith can make a change. Say they want, now they're going to move a certain receiver to the other side of the field

in a different formation. So Harrison Smith can say whatever word he's going to hold up his hands and say some word or give a hand signal, uh, you know, pull on the ball cap or down the arms, but no way that's baseball. Uh, but he's going to give some sort of signal and then they have fake signals as well. So the other team can't figure out which ones are on and which ones are off. This football is complicated. So he'll give a signal to, and I was even talking to Blake Cashman about this today, roll the coverage in a certain way, or to have a certain player blitz that maybe they weren't going to blitz. Because imagine if you're Harrison Smith and you see, okay, there's one player in the backfield. This happened the other

day. I don't know if it was a check, but I'll just give you an example. There was only Cam Akers in the backfield and nobody else looked like they were going to be blocking. I think that the tight end was off the line of scrimmage. So Cam Akers is on the quarterback's left and there's only the tackle out here. So out to the quarterback's right. So Harrison Smith comes up to the line of scrimmage. There's no one to block him. And what ends up happening is the Texans have to change their protection. And this is as the clock is winding down five, four, three, two, they have to change their protection to then have the guard try to stop Jonathan Grenard.

And you know how that went? Sack is how that went. And this is what they're doing constantly. Now, imagine how much preparation, imagine how much, uh, lead, you know, leadership you need out there from Cashman and from Harrison Smith to be making these changes all the time and reading offenses and seeing what they saw on tape and having all these answers. That's why it's gotta be a super high IQ defense to actually run it this way. But when you can, you can have the last laugh as the defense

because the clock is going down. They have a time where they can get their last change in as the offense. So you see Harrison Smith come down. All right, well, we got to shift the protection. But if you're the Vikings defense, you understand that they're shifting the protection into something that's disadvantageous. A guard versus Grenard is over. A tight end versus Grenard is over. And that was, it looked like a miss, uh,

a communication or something on the protection call. It's just havoc out there. And this is why with someone like the lions defense, I haven't always been very impressed because I see them running something that's a little more static. Now, maybe that'll change with their players this year. I haven't watched their defense yet, but defenses that are static, that kind of line it up and they stand there and they're like ready to go and they're going to play what they're going to play. It was Stefan Gilmore said to me the other day, I think I asked him about how this works or somebody asked him about how this works. And he said that there are some defenses where they're going to run the same thing all the time. They're going to run their plays and they're going to say, go beat it if you can. But eventually teams will figure out how to

beat it. Where with this, there's not a read that you can get on it when it's always shape-shifting. That's the brilliance of this, but you can't do it with just regular players. You need Cashman, you need Gilmore, you need Smith, you need Metellus. And that's why this thing is special. When you have the personnel come together with the coordinator and the coordinator can do everything. Imagine if you are a musician and you're trying to write some music. If they give you a Kleenex box and a couple of rubber bands to plunk away at and make a song. It's not going to sound very good. That's like the 2020 Vikings defense. But if they give you Prince on guitar and John Bonham or something, and you just build this super band, it's not quite that. Maybe that's the 2000 Ravens or 85 Bears. But if they give you good musicians in each spot,

you could play a lot of really dynamic music, right? And I think that's what they're able to do here because everybody can handle so much for the mental load. And the reason that answer was so long is because I'm writing about it. So I've just got this on the front of mind. Let's see. Mike says, fantasy question. Do you think the Vikings defense might struggle this weekend? Who is your starting fantasy defense? I don't think that they will struggle, but I also don't think that I would go with the Vikings necessarily because they're on the road. I mean, I think it's just so much easier to play defense when you're at home

and the Packers do have a good offense. Let me look. Let me look at the schedule for a potential fantasy defense. I'll pull it up. But any other fantasy questions are welcome. So I can get in, I'll get in the Amazon read in a second here at Amazon. Underdog read. Let's see.

Cowboys might be a good choice, but because they're going to be, Mike Zimmer is going to be throwing the kitchen sink at the giants, right? After two joke games on defense, or maybe Mike's just washed. I mean, I think that is possible. We're going to find out who else might be a good defense. The Rams against the Bears. You could see some turnovers there. That's a good one.

Oh, I, you know, I think Mike Tomlin against the Colts. The Colts have just not gotten it going on offense. I enjoy Anthony Richardson, but he's kind of been a mess at this moment. I might go with that. I might start there. Patriots, 49ers. Oh yeah. Okay. The 49ers are one and two and they're playing the Patriots. If you can, that's a fantasy defense to start. And a reminder, by the way, that if you want to play lots of different fantasy sports, you should use Underdog Fantasy, which is the easiest place to play fantasy sports.

And it is also the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry. The Pick'ems are the favorite of the show. We do them every Thursday with the Vikings. And we also do it on the Fantasy show with Mike Shope as well, which is up on YouTube. Now it is very easy to play pick between two and eight stats of your favorite players and choose whether they will go higher or lower. You can win up to 20 times your money and a reminder all the way through September. There are special deals every single day. So special promotions every single day. You sometimes you every single day. Sometimes you get free picks.

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Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. So thank you for the fantasy question. Let's see. Wildfires podcast says no Malik Willis disrespect allowed. I watched his whole college career firsthand. He is far better than what the Titans allowed him to be as a Vikings fan. Give me unproven Jordan Love off of an injury. Well, okay.

Well, let's not call him unproven Jordan Love. What he did last year matters a lot. It matters a lot. What he did last year would have been one of the what? Five greatest Vikings quarterback seasons ever. He was really impressive last year. And I know that everybody wants Jordan Love to not be good, but I don't think that it's that likely that he's just going to turn into

Carson Wentz or be a mess. He's very talented. And we say this about Sam Bradford. When you look at the arm talent, when you look at the physical tools, and then it matches up with great coaching and good weapons, this is what you get. So this is what the Vikings are going to have to deal with going forward. I am not a Malik Willis disrespector though. I, first of all, have always liked running quarterbacks and I never understood why there weren't more of them.

And then now there are. So it's great. I mean, Steve McNair is like my favorite quarterback growing up. So I'm big on the impact that a running quarterback can make and have maybe mentioned it a few times on the show, how critical I was of the previous Vikings quarterback because he could not have that same impact. So I'm happy for Malik Willis. He seems like he's handled everything very professionally there with the Packers and with Tennessee that I think what Malik Willis makes you think about is

just that players need time and to trade Malik was that this is the weird thing for me to trade Malik Willis when Will Levis had done nothing is so bizarre it's just so bizarre I mean San Francisco I guess did this with Trey Lance but Brock Purdy had already had a sample of playing unbelievably well and then had crushed him in the preseason and the training camp to be San Francisco's starting quarterback. And they also had Darnold there as well. And there was clearly nothing really there with, with him, but for Malik Willis, it's, it's just not like Will Levis was crushing it. It was a great looking quarterback. And it's not like Willis has been around for very long either. I don't know why they wouldn't have developed them more often or longer, developed him longer

than they did when there is something there. And even him throwing the football, not a disaster. His processing was always slow for me. When I saw him play a couple of games for the Titans, he just couldn't get rid of the football. It was a problem at Liberty at times, but the physical talent is so real with the guy. I just don't understand. But when you say Tennessee Titans, I just don't understand, period, with Tennessee Titans. And so for those of you who are talking about

their win against Tennessee and how, like, yeah, that's not a very good team that they crushed. You're right. It most certainly isn't. It is not a competent franchise. I agree with you there. Uh, Joe says Kenny Clark versus Bradbury. Kenny has a bad toe. Bradbury has a bad ankle who wins. Kenny Clark's going to win. Uh, there's no doubt about that. Uh, Kenny Clark is going to win against the Minnesota Vikings until we are all 100 years old. Every single year, Kenny Clark at 76, Kenny Clark will trot out there, destroy the Vikings center, and we'll all go, man, that guy again.

That's how it seems. My entire career covering the Vikings, this man has annihilated the Vikings interior offensive line. How do you survive it? Because the last three weeks, two of the last three weeks, Sam Darnold was under pressure at times. In week one, Dexter Lawrence ruined the interior of the Vikings' offensive line, but they worked around it.

And last week, he was under pressure, I think, 46% of the time, according to PFF. That's too much. He's in the top 10 the time according to PFF that's too much he's in the top 10 in pressure rate right now that's too much but it's not just Kenny Clark and it's also Rashawn Gary it's also Van Ness who they drafted and is a role player that kind of intrigues me with his physical tools I mean they've got dudes left and right it's going to be a huge challenge for the Vikings offensive line. And that's why I think that Aaron Jones is so important in this game, because if Darnold ends up in these drop back situations too often, third and longs, it's, they don't even have to really blitz a whole

lot. They could just have Kenny Clark do what Kenny Clark does. And they have answers. That's the thing about Houston is that they have answers for a Will Anderson and a Daniil Hunter to not ruin the game. They don't have answers for a Dexter Lawrence and a Kenny Clark. How they deal with that problem will be a main factor in whether they win or lose this game. Zoomer Kev, good to see you, says this game at Lambeau will determine if this team is legit or not.

Past Vikings teams have shown who they are based on going to Green Bay. My expectations for the season get real if the Vikings win. I think, Zumer Kev, it's both fair and unfair. It's fair because it's the Packers. It's the division. It's a good team. It's a good coach. It's a hard place to play. It's all Packers. It's the division. It's a good team. It's a good coach. It's a hard place to play. It's all those things. And what truly good teams do is they keep doing it. They don't just

win an important game and then let you down the next week. And to your point, I felt the air come out of the balloon when the Vikings got crushed by the Dallas Cowboys in 2022, because we had spent an entire week talking about how legit they were after beating Buffalo and how they were a Superbowl contender. And then they just no show completely. And even though they won other games, the rest of the way, there was still the, the, the scar tissue of that. And the expectation after that, that they just couldn't put multiple games like that together. Now, the other side of that coin though, is if you're expecting the Vikings to just win every game, that's tough. Even the 1998 team had one stinker.

Was it against Tampa Bay where they didn't win that one and they went 15-1. And even the Vikings in 2017, as hot as they were down the stretch, they had that game against Carolina where Cam Newton ran for the big gain there. And I think Anderson Dayhole may have intercepted a pass and had a chance to score but didn't score. And they didn't get a touchdown and they just lost. It happens to the best of the best teams. Sometimes the team that wins the Super Bowl wins 11 or 10 games. So it's hard to just look at one game and say,

this is going to determine how I feel about this team going forward is just this one game. But the fact that it is Green Bay, that it is their toughest test yet, I think. I would say that with a question mark because San Francisco is pretty nasty. And the Texans did leave me with some questions about their whole roster because they've got injuries, their offensive line stinks. But Green Bay is a pretty complete team and it is one of the more challenging venues to go travel to so i think you know i think i would view it this way and i don't think this is spin i think it's trying to be like realistic

is if they win this game and go to 4-0 then oh man all aboard the train right all aboard the jack up the expectations from hey maybe they'll make the playoffs too. No, they got to compete in the NFC for real. If they go 4-0 in the first quarter-ish of the season. If they lose though, it might depend on how. I mean, if you lose on a last second field goal or something, well, we're not going to say you're a fraud to lose on the road to that team in the last second field goal. If they get beat handily, then it will be a step back. But I don't think we have to say,

oh man, like this is, they were, they were never that great to begin with because those other wins matter and they're going to have other home games that they're going to play. But I don't have the expectation that the Vikings just win every game because they went three and oh. So I think that you kind of can, you can go all in if they go to four and oh, but if they're three and oh. So I think that you kind of can, you can go all in if they go to four and oh, but if they're three and one, that's still a very much ideal start to their season. And they'll still be one of the best teams in the entire NFL, even if they lose that game. It's always the hard thing about football is because they don't play every day like baseball or hockey. It just means so much to how you feel about the team. And I think about this in 2016,

Zimmer had the eye patch against the Jaguars and they pulled off this grotesque win over the Jaguars. And the whole narrative around the Vikings was that they had rallied around Zimmer and they were able to survive this going through this eye thing and the injuries and everything else. Then the next week, I think it was the next week or two weeks later, they took on Indianapolis, totally no showed with a chance to go to the playoffs. Adrian Peterson came back epic disaster. And then it was, well, they gave up on Zimmer. It was just a two week, but but that's that's how it works and so I am prepared for that I am prepared for overreaction one way or the other but I don't

think you can overreact to four and out I do think you can overreact to three and one I like that for I'm I'm happy I'm pleased with that phrasing uh Nick says I like the Packers, but as someone who remembers the Bay of pigs games in the eighties, I flat load the Packer fan base, uh, that only knows post number four Packers. Yeah. Uh, I mean, if you go back far enough in history, it's a pretty, pretty bad there in the eighties for them. And, and, you know, you could say that for a lot of things though, when it comes to even like the Minnesota Vikings, for example, how many people got on board with the Minnesota Vikings because of Randy Moss. And if the Vikings were one in 15, instead of 15 and one with Randy Moss, there would be a lot fewer fans. I have heard some

people argue. I don't go back this far in Minnesota to this era, so I can't say this for sure, but I have heard some people argue that they thought if Moss never showed up here, that they might've been the Los Angeles Vikings, uh, that, uh, that the NFL might not have decided to keep them around that we might not have us bank stadium. I don't, that's, it seems maybe a little bit too far, but, uh, Randy Moss totally reshaped the Vikings fan base and built lifelong fans. There are so many people that I've asked, well, when did you become a Vikings fan?

And they say, Oh man, it's because of Randy Moss, because a lot of people listen to this show, uh show from outside of Minnesota. And there are some people who have never even been to Minnesota that are huge Vikings fans because of Randy Moss. It's hard for me to blame Packers fans, especially my college roommate was a Packers fan. And guess why? It wasn't because of Dorsey Levins or George Kuntz. Okay. It was because of number four. I can't blame anybody for that. You know, if you have a friend who's a Chicago bulls fan, I doubt it was because of Ron Harper. It's probably because of number 23. That's how it works. That's okay. Uh, I think more

than anything, this, the entitlement of the fans often act like, because they are the Packers that they are the chosen ones of the National Football League even if as you mentioned they have two Super Bowl victories since when right and so that I I get that part of it I get that you want to hold your nose because of that at the same time if the Vikings had several super bowl wins maybe you'd just be like whatever that's the that's part of the dynamic that's that's enjoyable to talk about uh matt and diana says in koc's presser someone asked uh one too many times about injuries and he showed a touch of his darker side check it out well i don't have to check it out i was there in the room so i saw it yep uh i

i don't know if it's darker side the whole dark the whole kevin o'connell dark side thing was it mentioned in the article the dark side article about the thing in cleveland because i was there and part of that um i look i think that kevin o'connell is a football guy and there isn't a competitive football guy on earth who doesn't get fired the F up sometimes. And even if his mentality is to be pro for his players and to have his players back and to be positive and have kind of a never ending positivity type of angle. It doesn't mean that he is not intense as a head coach. We've seen that many times. I feel like through his era here, it's just what Kevin O'Connell is not is a psycho bully. That's what he's not. You know, Matt Patricia was a psycho bully. Mike Zimmer at times was a cycle bully where they just create an atmosphere that's so uncomfortable for people because they seem so angry at everything all the time that they forget that this game is played by people and not employees. mind, but that doesn't mean that he's just going to twiddle his thumbs when his team isn't executing

what they're supposed to do. And if they had a team that was filled with jokers who never had, you know, any histories or anything else like that in their careers, and they just fumbled the ball and acted like idiots all the time. Well, they did last year, fumble the ball and act like idiots at times, but you understand what I'm saying. If they didn't execute what they were supposed to do, then I would say I'm concerned about whether he's actually getting his message across by being on the friendlier side or on the more positive side. But that's not the team that we've seen outside of that fumbling thing, which I think was just random. That's how football works sometimes. But I also don't think that there's this evil, like he was being snarky in the press conference

a little bit about the injury report, as in just when you have a week like this against the Packers, coaches don't want to give all the information about the injuries. This is always in forever. There is no coach and reporter relationship where the coach is like, ask me more questions about injuries. I love those. In fact, when I was in Buffalo, it got so annoying to Doug Marone that the reporters

would ask about injuries all the time. He actually had his PR person come out, announce the injuries, and then walk off. And then he would do the press conference so he didn't have to answer questions about the injuries. What we saw today was far from a dark side. It was a little bit of classic coach doesn't want to be asked anymore about injury stuff. Samuel says, I would rather face Willis and Love together, both healthy in the game against this team, because that's not going to be enough. Okay.

Hey, you know, that might be a thing that they do, though. Eventually, they may use like a Taysom Hill type of thing with Malik Willis, and the Vikings are going to have to be prepared for that as well. This is the most preparation the Vikings are going to have to do for a game with two different quarterbacks, and that is absolutely a factor. Handcraft Film says, the defense will get six sacks, two interceptions, and two fumble recoveries.

It'll be a 14-point or more spread in the score, and Vikings will win big. Well, okay. You've got them completely walloping the Green Bay Packers. I do not. I don't think that against the team coached by that guy, that the Vikings have ever run them out of the building with Matt LaFleur. Am I wrong? Am I misremembering? Have the Vikings ever? So the Achilles game, they outplayed them for sure. But if Jaron Hall had, if they had taken advantage of a Jaron Hall interception, then it would have been a closer game, but they kind of, maybe last year was the only time where I felt like they're really beating the hell

out of Matt LaFleur's Packers. I don't remember too many other times. And that was Jordan Love still learning how to play quarterback. It's not often that you end up with that type of performance on the road, but I think this defense can handle what the Packers are doing. It's just, can they handle their running game? That is something that I really need to see to believe because last year against the Eagles, the Eagles just stuck with the run and they handed off and handed off and handed off and they were able to get push. This is where Jerry Tillery becomes important for them.

Jonathan Bullard, Harrison Phillips, because the edges and Van Ginkle is really good at stopping the run. Grenard is more of a just pure pass rusher and they won't have the linebackers at least at a hundred percent that they usually have. There is an advantage there. If I'm on the Packers side, I'm saying everything gets built off the run this week and they're going to try to make the Vikings deal with that. So when you talk about getting six sacks, I mean, I just, unless they get way behind, that's probably not going to happen because they are, they're good. Like they know what they're

doing. So nothing, nothing wrong with nothing wrong with giving them credit for, I mean, I know we're just talking about why you guys hate the Packers, but giving, giving credit where it's due to a team that will probably be pretty competitive against this defense. And also the fact is that they've seen it twice last year, and they understand at least some principles of it. Whereas the Houston Texans, for example, have never seen it before. And they certainly didn't see that version of it. Zumer Kev says, since LaFleur thinks it's bad to have a number one wide receiver, next time you see Jefferson, can you tell him to stop being so great? Well, the, that might be a little bit of a things that coaches say, but I've always

bought into that. Jaden Reed was really good because of the way he played against the Vikings last year. So I've probably mentioned that here or there about just Jaden Reed to me stands out above the rest of those receivers. And that's been the case for them so far. But if you're a coach and you're getting asked about number one, wide receivers, and you don't have Justin Jefferson, your stock answer is to say, Oh,

well, you know, we can distribute the ball to everybody. It's better. And that's what Matt LaFleur obviously has been saying. But as far as that team and their weapons, they have them. Uh, they have, I mean, I think Reed is, is pushing number one type of status. And then you have other guys who are at least capable and we'll see if, uh, what was his name? Bo Bo Melton, who the guy

that randomly showed up and caught passes for them last year. We'll see if there's some rando that emerges for them. Joe says, does Van Ginkle go bananas? Picks Love's pocket, takes it in, and does the Lambo leap while mooning the Packers? Are you guys excited for this game or what? The show has now turned into, instead of Q&A, it's turned into fan fiction. That's where we've gone right now.

But Van Ginkle has, I thought of this the other day, and I don't know if I said it out loud. So if I already said it to all of you, just listen again. You have no other choice. Van Ginkle is what the Vikings wanted Anthony Barr to be. Anthony Barr was a good player. I always defended Anthony Barr. I thought that he was better than his PFF grade, more valuable than that. The checks and changes stuff.

That was him. And when he wasn't there anymore, it was different. Uh, but Van Ginkle has that hair on fire flying around a hundred miles an hour all the time, violence to his game to go along with the other stuff, to go along with athleticism, to go along with football intelligence that I don't think Barr quite had. And every time Van Ginkle hits somebody, he just crushes them. It's like if he's stopping a running back, there's just a violent collision. If he's

sacking quarterback, it's a violent collision. I've just been so impressed by him and his nimbleness. He looks like he could be a tight end or a wide receiver if he had to. He has this bendiness to him. And then the football intelligence, the lineup all over the place, understand so many different things. He has been the biggest game changer. I think even though Gilmore was kind of the final piece, Ben Ginkle has been the biggest game changer. He's the one that I think opponents will get to the game and go, we got to know where that guy is at all times, or he is going to pick off a pass and do a Lambeau leap, or he is going to get a sack where you don't know where he was rushing from, which happened last week. CJ Stroud drops back. Andrew Van Ginkle starts on Stroud's

left as a wide edge rusher and then swings all the way back around into the middle and sacks him. Like, where did that guy even come from? There's so much of that from Andrew Van Ginkle. I've been incredibly impressed. I mean, that's just Flores knowing his guy and knowing how unique he is. Skullful Shaq says, I'd rather face Malik Willis. I'm confident Flores can make him crumble before the half. I mean, if you're being realistic, the only thing that you're concerned about,

because I know that some of you want Jordan Love and you're trying to speak it into existence that Jordan love is actually bad, but you'd rather face a backup quarterback. Anytime he's a backup for a reason. It's just that. Can you play that game? It is the only question that I have. Can you play that game with Malik Willis and with Jacobs and with Wilson as their other running back. Can you play that? We're going to run a bunch of confusing stuff and in the run game where there's motions and there's counters and there's all sorts of different stuff. And then Willis taking off where if you don't factor for the quarterback, then you're going to give up a 30 or 40 yard run

to him. Do you want to play that game? I mean, that's, that's why it's been so effective. Also, as some of you have pointed out, the teams that they've beaten are not very good. So maybe you do want to play that game. I would prefer that from the guy that they just paid $50 million. Yes. I'm on the same page as you, uh, as knowing what they're going to have to do with Malik Willis. And they've already put it all on tape. That's the other thing too. Throughout history, there are many situations where backup quarterbacks win a couple games. There's no tape on them. They come off the bench and he's no better example than last year with Josh Dobbs. But when it's limited, there's only so much you can do. The opponent then can easily prepare for you. And that might be a situation of Willis place.

I feel like Jordan loves going to play. He's been limited for the last two weeks now. And if he practices in full at all, he's going to play. They also might sandbag that you could call a guy limited if he misses like two reps. So they might sandbag that and try to keep it to a game time decision to make the Vikings try to think about it. But if he plays, I'll be really fascinated how they do it. Handcraft says, a handcraft film says the pack was not tested in the last two games.

The Vikings were both teams smash their opponent. The Vikings were more impressive. Well, there's, there's no question, but it's not like, it's not like what we can do is have them like, okay, Packers now Texans, you play them too. And see, like, if we can't do that, all they can do is just kill

a bad team as they did against the Titans. But the way that they did it, it was impressive. This, it, it sounds a little bit like kind of talking yourself into it. Because I think from an objective standpoint, you look at the game against Philly, they should have had that one and it was in a weird circumstance. And then the way that they've done it the last two weeks with a backup quarterback, there's no way to look at that and say, Oh,

well, they just beat bad teams. It's the NFL though. I mean, all the teams have a ton of talent and, you know, Indianapolis won the following week and the Titans have a lot of good players. So beating them the way that they did by how much as they did without their starting quarterback, you're going to have to give them a little bit of props as being a good team. I also think this, that it's better. it's more fun anyway, to look at this as the Battle of Titans,

NFC North Titans, than it is to be like, oh, they're frauds, who cares? Like, ah, I think it's more, it builds it up better as a matchup. Remember Monday Night Football? I brought this up. Monday Night Football intros where they would just talk about the game

and it could be the two worst teams in the league. And yet you would think by the end of the intro that it was the biggest game in the world. And I actually believe this about the Packers, that they are a very talented team and they are good. And I am still on the fence about how to pick this game. Not that any of you were waiting with bated breath for the pick but it's you know i i'm not really sure somebody asked i was on green bay radio today and they asked me well who do you

think's gonna win this game i was like can i go tie that was my answer can i go 29 29 because that's that's kind of how i feel uh at this moment they do have a significant advantage by being at lambeau field as we have seen over the years, Rob says, would you rather see another blowout win for the Vikings or see us face adversity for the first time this season on a comeback win in Lambeau? Always better to blow somebody out. Yep.

Oh, I get kind of where you're going with that. Like, Hey, let's see what Sam Darnold looks like from playing from behind. And we went through that a little bit with the case Keenum thing where case Keenum, that whole season, the defense was so good. They played from ahead so much that it was not very often that you were ever asking case to come from behind and they have not had to ask Sam Darnold.

What has he had three minutes losing so far this season? It was when the giants kicked the first field goal and then the Vikings scored a touchdown on the next drive down and they haven't trailed since, uh, that's pretty good for quarterbacks. And when you look it up, uh, I have, when you look it up about how quarterbacks perform when they are either ahead or behind or whatever, um, obviously they're better when they're ahead, quarterbacks overall, unless you're talking about total garbage time statistics. And there was the Kirk Cousins playing from behind and racking up the stats. But on the whole, normally, quarterbacks are much worse when they're playing from behind

because they're taking risks. They're trying to go downfield. They're facing lots of blitzes and complicated third down defenses and things like that. But I always look at it as point differential is the stat that usually tells you the most truth about who a team is. Right now, the Vikings have a great point differential. And the more you beat teams by, the stronger I think you are. And I will be consistent on that. Some of you who have listened going back to 2022 may have gotten a little annoyed with me at times throughout that run of random things that happened because they had a negative

point differential. How could we say that if you can't even outscore your opponents for the entire season, that you're actually a great team? That was always the trouble. And that doesn't mean they weren't likable. And it doesn't mean there wasn't something to it with the confidence and the play calling in clutch situations and the way that Kirk played was absolutely fantastic. I would never take that away from him.

You can't take wins off the board. But as we try to do this ever evolving evaluation, how good are you really is always the question we go through. So what makes the football season so good, right? As is the challenge of answering that question, how much they beat people by is a big factor for me. Like I said, I'm giving the Packers credit for smashing teams that are bad. I give the Vikings credit for smashing a team that's bad. I didn't shrug it off as being just the Giants. I said that does matter when you beat them by that much. So if they beat a team this good by multiple scores, then whoa.

I mean, that would be something, right? I mean, if they were able to do that rather than to come back. Let's see. Oh gosh, says if they are a run-heavy team with a game manager quarterback, we just did that to San Francisco who had arguably a better defense. Not sure about their defensive strength yet. That's something that is going to play out because they have a new defensive coordinator. Definitely more competent than Joe Barry, running a better system than joe berry was so i always felt like kirk especially loved that you you want to play off and give the underneath

stuff to kirk oh my gosh you're going to get annihilated and he played really well against the packers it felt like almost every time he faced them, except for that 2022 no cleat game. But aside from that, he played well against that defense many times. This defense is different and they've got a lot of talent and they've put a lot of draft picks into it. So I don't know if they're a better defense than San Francisco yet. We're going to find that out over the weeks coming here because so far their defense has been pretty good. And as far as the game manager quarterback, I don't know if it's their game manager quarterback or if it's going to be

Jordan Love and then it's their dynamic quarterback. But, you know, oh gosh, says if we're calling the Packers tough, what were the Texans who we just rolled? If it worked that way, then what a easier world to figure out football it would be, right? But have you ever seen the thing where you can connect all the teams that beat each other in a circle? Like this team beat this team, beat this team, beat this team. And it goes all the way around until all 32 teams have beaten somebody that's beaten somebody else. There is a reason why they say it's a week toweek league because every matchup is different. And just because you beat the Texans, which, oh man, nobody's taken away from that one.

We ramped it up big time in terms of expectations and how impressive this team is 100% after the 3-0 win. So I'm not taking it away. It just doesn't work that way. Like if you beat the Texans, you don't just automatically beat every team that's less good than the Texans. So I think that the Packers and you're doing it at their place, which you have to really, I think, make a big factor. You have to do it at their place in Lambeau field, which is

never easy to do. But I think they can win the game. I do. I think that there's a very obvious path here to winning this game, which is being able to run and protecting Sam Darnold on the interior pressure or having an answer for the interior pressure. You know Jefferson down the field is going to increase your chances. And then if it's Jordan love, make him move around on the gimpy knee. And if it's Malik Willis, then they have to prove that they can shut down a team that's running the football effectively. But there's a, there's a

path, a clear path. I mean, this is a total coin flip type of game. That's what I'm saying. I mean, I think a lot of you want to say, because you beat the Texans that it should be a lot easier against the Packers. But I think you know that they're not a team ever who you could just say, oh yeah, all right, well, there's a W moving on to the next one. That's never the case. All the games at Lambeau that I've ever covered have, I mean, some of them have been blowouts, but almost every one of them have come down to last minutes, tough games, physical battles. It's always good.

It's always good football against them. Let's see. One before I die says, are the Vikings going to lose Flores this off season? I don't think so. More people will be talking about it. I would just be surprised if that was the case, which is really good for them. And Brian Flores has a good thing here. I don't see it. I mean, similar to Kansas City and Steve Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo got a chance once

upon a time to be a head coach. Didn't work out with the St. Louis Rams and has not gotten an opportunity again. And all he's done is win a couple of rings as the defensive coordinator of the Kansas city chiefs. And he has been able to build a system there that is consistent year over year. And I asked Flores the other day about the players and learning and how complicated it is. And that was one of the things that he said in his answer was that having players who have been here for multiple years, you can just do more things and you can add and you can build.

And he may want to do that. He seems like he's happy with his family here. It's a good place for him in the organization. He kind of has a co type of coach thing. I don't think anyone questions that Kevin O'Connell is the head coach of the team, but he gets to be the man in charge of that defense, right? So I think it's a good situation for Brian Flores. And I also think that the owners with offense going down, I don't think that that means the owners are going to look and say, well, who can we get on defense? I think they're going to look and go, well, the teams that win are the ones that solve the quarterback problem. And we're going to look

for those. Thaddeus says, Matt, this is the deal. The twin cities are near Wisconsin. Agreed. But Green Bay and Milwaukee are not close to Minnesota. Growing up, we had to go to school with their fans in our schools and neighbors. That's true. Yes. That is a good point that you make when it comes to Vikings fans, not liking the Packers. And my question of course, wasn't, do you not like the Packers? Because of course you don't, but it was why. And I think what you're saying there is that you have far more interactions with Packers fans who are telling you all about their teams and their quarterbacks and how great they are and how great their franchise is and title town and all that. Then you do the lions and what trash talk

would the lions have had for you until three days ago? And the same thing with even the Chicago bears where, uh, yeah, at soldier field, the Vikings have had their problems over the years, but it's not like they walk amongst you. There aren't bears fans everywhere, just wearing their stuff and telling you that you don't have a neighbor. Who's a bears fan. You don't have a neighbor. Who's Alliance fan. You definitely have a neighbor who's Packers fan. Uh, and that that's probably, and the other thing is too, that, um, you know, maybe, maybe some of you look at them as you didn't jump on the Viking bandwagon because you just wanted to try to ride the winner. So that's what you were really doing by being a Packers fan

instead of a Vikings fan, which, you know, there may be some, uh, some truth to that. Uh, Zoomer Kev says, uh, Aaron Rogers used to intentionally avoid Harrison Smith, like the plague he would throw wherever he wasn't. Uh, I know that, Hey, we're going to get to see that. We're going to get to see that battle again, uh, when it comes to, uh, next week and Rogers is playing really well right now. So that's going to be something to watch for sure. Uh, but you're right about that. I mean, Harrison Smith just causes all sorts of, uh, problems for the quarterback and they have now like five guys who do the same stuff. Metellus Van Ginkle,

who you just don't know where they're going to be or what they're going to be doing. And I really, really liked the way Blake Cashman has fit into this defense, super high IQ guy, violent pass rusher, really good at playing the football and coverage. I mean, that can't be downplayed that last year. And I have a massive amount of respect for Jordan Hicks. How many of us could have a leg injury where they have to cut open your leg and sew it back together. And then you go play football a couple of weeks later. Absolutely not. Uh, Jordan Hicks, great veteran player, any locker room would love him, but he was not as versatile at this point in his career as Blake Cashman. And then you add the intelligence part of that,

the leadership part of that. They just have so many guys who could cause the same problems for quarterbacks as Harrison Smith. Uh. Mike says Zimmer struggled with managing outside noise after big wins. When the national media gave them attention, they tended to regress the next game under KO2 after Buffalo. He addressed this today. He did. He did. He talked quite a bit about this and his answer was, I thought it was interesting because you could tell that he thought about a lot. His answer was that he, before the season, set the expectation for the team that it was higher than just overachieving. That he believed that the team could be good. And I can tell you that not every team in a training camp believes it when they say we can be really good this year, but you know what

the signal was to me a little bit. It was actually Harrison Smith coming back because I know how much he loves football and he's a lunatic and all that. And it's hard. It's going to be hard for him to ever walk away from football because he loves it so much, but he came back when he didn't have to. I mean, he's got the money from the contracts that he signed over the years and he's got other interests in the world. And right. I mean, Harrison Smith, he's a a bright guy he can do a lot of different things with the rest of his life if he wanted to and he honestly could have told the vikings that he wanted to go somewhere else they probably would have respected that hey i want to go play for the chiefs or something they probably would have said okay but he came back and then he said i

can't remember when but he said i think we're better than the world thinks we are. And Harrison doesn't just randomly say stuff like that. Like he is a little more intentional with his words than that. And so I was kind of inclined to believe him and here we are. So I think that what Kevin O'Connell and the guys inside the locker room were saying is we're better than they think we are in the outside. And even Kwezi Adafo-Mensa, when it was brought up, the Vegas win-loss total, and he said something about a number of things have to happen for us to outperform that. And so far, those things have happened. Mainly the quarterback has to play better than Vegas thinks the quarterback is going to play, which has certainly happened at this moment.

But that was his way of doing it is Kevin O'Connell basically telling the team, I think we're, I don't know what he said exactly. I think we're a contender. I think we're a playoff team. That's how good we are. That's our standard. Our standard isn't just, Hey, let's go out there and see if we can kind of compete. And when you've been telling the team that for the entire off season,

then you get to this point and it's, I told you so. So why, so why should we be surprised when we're getting attention? Of course, we're getting attention. This is where we thought we'd be. Even if they didn't think that's it's an interesting bit of psychology. Honestly, you're right about that. That Dallas game. The thing about the Dallas game was

the Buffalo game. And I've always had this belief. If you play 80 snaps in a game, you're probably losing the next week. It just is so much physically on the players that it's hard to come back from. They're used to playing about 60 to 65 snaps. You go into a four and a half hour game where I think the clock was running out on overtime. That Buffalo game went so long. I almost missed my flight that that game went so long. And then you have to come back and face one of the best teams in the NFL that I'm not saying they didn't know show in that game. Of course they did my gosh, but then Darisaw got hurt right away. It was, it was one of those definitely a letdown. Um, and this could be that game. I don't really believe in trap games so much as I think you're probably right. That letdown games could be potentially

real. Uh, reconnected said KOC has received a lot of credit for the ascension of Sam Darnold. How much involvement has Josh McCown had in his success? I think it's been a complete effort for them because it's not just, okay, so O'Connell's the play caller. That's going to be the biggest thing, right? Being in the headset, getting the call in. He's the one that has to decide what's my quarterback going to do. That's the biggest thing, that connection between those two. But on a daily basis, there is a lot of teaching that goes on and implementation of the offense and communication toward what makes sense to you. Does this work for you? And everybody works on the game plan. It's not, it is not KOC sitting at his computer in his office, just being like,

um, let's see, let's go with a screen. You know, this is a whole effort. This is the quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator, the wide receiver coach. They work on all these different parts of the game plan and so one coach is working on the run plan another coach is working on third downs and and they get together and then they go through it and then kevin o'connell is picking out what parts of that game plan he wants to focus on that's kind of how that's my understanding anyway of how it works so with someone like mccown i also think it's like, so I saw this story. It was very precious. It was about a dog and a cheetah. Okay. And the dog, it was at a zoo,

was the cheetah's friend because the cheetah would get anxious. So they gave him a friend and it was a dog and it was someone that was there for the cheetah. I mean, if you could find this, it's unbelievable. So nice. But it made me think about how we all have this. We all have something like this in life. You know, you have, whether it's your wife or your, your husband, or whether it's your, your dog, your actual dog, or if it's one of your friends or something, somebody who, when they're there is always good for you from a mental perspective. And for him to know McCown as well as he did and trust McCown as well as he did.

I've got to think that that's, that's something for him. He's not here in Minnesota alone with nobody knows he's got his guy from the, from the beginning to work with and to trust and all those things. I think that that's been important for him beyond. And the other thing is too, that McCown has thrown every pass against every defense that any human being on earth could ever throw, which also helps you, uh, from an experience perspective. But again, if you, if you, if you Google that thing with the dog and the cheetah, I mean,

if you like cute animals, it's really something. It's really something. It's really something. It's great stuff. Mike says, and I'm looking at the numbers, didn't just plummet with me talking about cute animals and how Sam Darnold and Josh McCown. But I think that this is a real thing with position coaches. The other person I want to give credit to is Keenan McArdle

because Jalen Naylor, Brandon Powell, these guys who we don't think of as stars who have done really well. That's what I mean. It's a, it's a group effort to make a quarterback good. And more and more, we, we were just in such a space of, well, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady just do it all and they win all the games. And if you don't have them, then good luck to you. And I think what we're really kind of pulling the curtain back on recently is maybe that's true for Josh Allen. But what we're pulling the curtain back on recently is just how many things have to go right if the quarterback is not at that level. And for Sam Darnold,

you're seeing those things. And it does make you wonder how many quarterbacks along the way could have been what Sam Darnold is right now if they had the right infrastructure and they had their dog and cheetah situation. Maybe we'll edit this out later. Mike says, great challenge this week, but I think you could say that about most weeks, KOC is building the mindset of a championship team, very evident by his speeches and demeanor.

You know, I think that with his demeanor, that hasn't really changed a whole lot at any point throughout this time. We haven't seen a roller coaster Kevin O'Connell. Maybe that's him being a former player, just knowing that things go this way. But I don't think I've ever felt that he was a different person from week to week from press conference, the press conference that if they were winning, if they were losing that, you know, suddenly he was going to highlight everybody who is a part of it because it takes everybody to win. It's everybody. It's the special teams that he was pointing out that they were good with the punting and the gunning and whatever you, you just,

you just don't win in the NFL with so much talent and so much great coaching by just having a few good players. You need everybody. And he seems to have really made a point of trying to highlight everybody to keep everybody pulling in the same direction and to be encouraging to everybody. And also tell them repeatedly, this, this is real guys. And there's, there's value in that. I there's value in that. If you've ever had anybody in your life who said, you know what, you're good at this for anything that boost it matters.

And so this coaching style, I know if I was playing football, I would have, uh, maybe gotten injured immediately. But if, if I was playing football, I would have maybe gotten injured immediately. But if I was playing anything that having somebody who is constantly telling you, you can do it, you can do it. It's always going to be better than somebody saying you're not good enough. You're not good enough. So I appreciate that approach from him. Mike says, I'd love to see Green Bay play both quarterbacks on Sunday. So if the Vikings beat the breaks off, then they have no excuses. Well, I wouldn't worry about that. I'm not worried about if the Packers have excuses or not. They just need a win. That's what they need. They just need a win. The aftermath is like, you don't have to give it back. That's always a big thing. If they don't

play Jordan Love, you don't have to give the W back. Um, so however they do it, that's the most important thing. Uh, and, and your neighbors can make their excuses if they need to, if, uh, if the Vikings win, uh, came back says, uh, feels like Kenny Clark has been smoking the Vikings for 20 years. It most certainly does. And a good point from, Oh gosh, uh, feels like that because the Packers have been rolling out, uh, Clark Daniels, BJ Raji. Yeah, I mean, even going back to Gilbert Brown. I mean, they just have always had these absolute monster defensive tackles. And Clark just keeps playing and playing and playing.

And like Akeem Hicks eventually went away, but Clark just stays there forever. Derek says the Packers don't have anyone on their roster that I love to hate right now. No far of Rogers. How can you hate a guy named love? I guess I'll find a reason. Yeah.

I mean that it has changed with this dynamic that as we go forward, maybe there will be some budding elements of the rivalry, but even with Aaron Jones, we're kind of doing the, Hey, revenge game, right? Revenge game. Right. And Aaron Jones is like, Oh no, I love them. And they love me. And, and their media is asking the Packers. So, you know, Aaron Jones is going to play against you. How do you feel about that? And they're like, we love Aaron Jones more than anything in the entire world. It's like no love lost between these teams, except for, yeah, they kind of have a lot of respect for each other.

So they don't really, we don't really see that too often. That guy from the Bengals ran his mouth the other day and then got smoked. And then everyone made fun of him. And it's almost like the internet and how easy this stuff travels and makes noise has kind of ruined trash talk and bad blood. So it's more between you than them, probably. Let's see. Ricky says, Bradbury, a DNP.

Yep. Didn't practice this week. Who would fill in if you missed time? I would guess that that would be Dan Feeney, who is their veteran backup center slash guard, uh, would be the guy and Feeney's played a lot of football in his career, but he is not as good as Garrett Bradbury. Um, I think that he probably isn't as good as Austin Schlotman who did a good job or Mason Cole previously as their backup centers, at least based on his history, but he is a guy that's played a lot of football. So it isn't like you're just going with absolutely nobody if that's the case. But I mean, maybe

this isn't the game that you want Bradbury to miss. I think what they're hoping for is that they have to get to that bye week and try to get Bradbury healthy because he's really been battling through it the last couple of weeks. I mean, maybe this is the one that you don't want him in for because you're facing Kenny Clark. And I mean, Feeney is a bigger guy than Garrett Bradbury, but that, I mean,

that doesn't necessarily mean that Kenny Clark's not going to eat his face also. Let's see. Derek says this game against the floor will be the best test so far for floor scheme dominance. If the Vikings can win sky's the limit. Yeah, I agree. It's not just the scheme, but it's also the, they've, they've played more physical than other teams so far. Are they going to have to do that? Or are they going to be able to do that

in this game? Because the Packers are going to run and they haven't had to face anyone who's playing from an advantageous situation. Earl says they have not seen a defense, this defense before. We didn't see this defense last year. Yeah, what I mean is that they saw that Matt LaFleur has seen Brian Flores a number of times throughout his career. And so it's not new. And Flores even referenced that Matt LaFleur had gotten on the right side of his defense. Must have been against Miami when he was there.

I think must have been what he was referencing. And then last year got him a couple times. So what he hasn't seen is Flores' defense with this much talent this year. But if you go back to the Miami year, they were close to this when their defense was, I think, sixth in the NFL. It was close. It was similar. They had really good corners. Xavier Howard, Byron Jones, Van Ginkles on the team.

They were very good that year. So it's similar. But you're right. They have not faced a defense this good this year, and they haven't faced this version of it, which is different than last year. They were playing really well. We were writing a lot of the same stories about Flores last year.

And then, you know, Jordan Love kind of throttled them. Okay, Kerpluppi says, how comparable do you think last year's Flores scheme is in comparison? Feels like we were working with a 94 Ford Focus last year. Now we have a shiny new Mustang. Yeah, I don't think that the defense is wildly different. I just think they can do more. I think they can ask for more. And the main thing is that they just don't have

to blitz every week. Last year, they were blitzing all the time. Blitz, blitz, blitz. That's what they, that's just what they had to do because they couldn't create pressure with four. Now they could create pressure with four. So more dynamic would be the answer. More options to throw at the other team. More adjustments that they can make. I'm going to try to get, I'm going to try to speed run comments here because, so normally I tell you guys, I'm going to probably wrap it up

and then I'll talk for like another hour because you keep asking great questions. But I actually do have to go to the Lynx games. Lynx, Mercury should be very exciting. They can advance in the playoffs tonight so i'm going uh but it starts at 8 30 which means you know we're getting close to that so let me speed run let me speed run through comments here uh ryan says if darnell throws for two plus touchdowns has another high rating this week how big will the bouquet of flowers be when Manny comes on next week I mean Manny's

going to get to the point if they win where he might just pick them to be 17 and 0 I think if Darnold has another great game if Darnold has another great game I mean I do think that we're going to go farther down this road of this is getting, this is getting real. And it's getting toward that conversation of, are we going to have to discuss what they do with Darnold in the future? But this is the one where if you go to four and O and he has a great game, we are really talking about, I don't think this is going to fall apart. I don't think the wheels are going to come off. This is probably going to keep going because they've done a lot of stuff that have, have really, uh, been impressive from him running the scheme.

It isn't like he scrambled around like crazy, just tossed the ball up and Jefferson's caught it. There's a lot of throws that are on time. I mean, that's what has sold me more on Sam Darnold is that it's by design. He's throwing it where he's supposed to throw the football when he's supposed to throw it. There's routine stuff that because you've seen Kirk cousins do it for so many years that you're just like, Oh yeah, okay. That's a throw. That's a routine play, but it's, it that's, that's what most of the offense is, is chaos. He's going to give you the answers. Now you have to execute them. And he has probably

executed them at a 75% rate where he's hitting the right person on time. And I don't know how to like normalize that stat for you, but I, that's, that's just how my brain is working. Like three out of every four dropbacks seem to be like doing the right thing for Sam Darnold. And if you keep doing that, there will be a couple of weeks where he's just not good because that exists for everybody. There might be a downturn somewhere that exists for everybody, but if he can do what he's done so far, which is play on time and not have to be a hero and then make a couple of amazing throws that, by the way, I don't know how many of you have the nfl.com package where you can watch the coaches film and stuff. It's kind of expensive. So maybe you don't. So I'm just, I'm just telling

you about what I see on film. Sam Darnold's throw to Jalen Naylor was a four yard touchdown in the back. But when you got the coaches film, you get to see right behind him for what he saw and the pressure that was in his face and how he threw that ball. You're like, that is some very serious football throwing right there. And so if he could do those other things, not make mistakes, his turnover worthy play rate by PFF is in the top 10 so far.

If he could do that play on time and then occasionally wow us then you're talking about a a potentially great season if he wins this game that's a quarter of the year of great football and you're gonna buy in more i think uh let's see uh is that shah haram sorry if i got that wrong i salute you you for, uh, I salute you trying so hard not to be sucked into the vortex of Homerism. This, despite your audience's best efforts. Oh, I mean, no, this is a great dynamic for me. It really is an enjoyable dynamic for me because my mindset is, is one way on covering everything the best I can and presenting with the information I gather and then applying that to what you guys are asking. And you guys are rabid

lovers of this football team, which of course is how you come up with all these great questions and everything. But I don't fully understand things the way that you do and view things the way you do. So it's a great perspective to bounce off of each other because I'm sitting here going, Hey, this game, huh? How about this game? Those Packers look pretty good. And you guys are saying burn down Lambeau. I think, I think it just makes for a good discussion. So I've really enjoyed it uh derrick says no way that love plays this week it would be foolish to spend so much time game planning for love to play uh my source is my training and behavior and body language and watching packers pressers okay uh

well look if you get this one right derrick we may need you to study other opponents press conferences and tell us whether it's smoke screens or not. I could buy into either way, which would be, hey, you don't play Jordan Love if he's not ready because you could ruin the rest of your season if that's the case. And you've been winning with Malik Willis. So just keep playing him. There's no panic.

So I could see that. I could also see it. And I could look at it in the way that this is a game they have to win. So get back out there, Jordan Love, and play some football. I'm not sure which way that's going to go. He also might be healed and they could be saying limited in practice when he's actually 100%. Wildfire's podcast says, do beat reporters that cover one specific team get Super Bowl rings? And if they do, are you ready to get one?

They do not, no, nor would I accept one. I have nothing to do with it. Now, if I was the play-by-play broadcaster like Paul Allen, they will give Paul Allen a ring. They do give broadcasters a ring. I was never, so I did play by play for four years for a minor league baseball team. We never won, but the franchise had won before. And I was friends with the previous play by play person. They gave him a ring. I never felt great about that. I did nothing. But everyone in the

organization gets one because they all earn it. The person who sells the tickets, the person who is in charge of the operations of the stadium and the secretaries. I mean, it takes everybody to win a Super Bowl to make a franchise run and they all deserve it. We don't deserve it. That's not what we're doing. We are not contributing to victory in any way. We're not contributing to the revenue of the team. We are not contributing to victory in any way. We're not contributing to the revenue of the team. We're not contributing to the success. The only thing that I'm doing here is just talking about what's going on,

bringing you guys facts, information, fun discussion. That's all I'm doing. I have nothing to do with whether they win. However, if I call a play or if, how about this? If Kevin O'Connell reads an article, purpleinsider.com and he goes, oh man, you know, old Matt's got a good idea here. I'm going to use it. And then they win the Superbowl with it. Give me the ring. Actually, I did once influence a decision I did with an article and I still wouldn't have deserved a ring either. And net net. No, no, it's not a thing, but, uh, the decision. So there was a, who was it? It was

Holton Hill. You guys remember Holton Hill. I interviewed Holton Hills high school coach, uh, just about his whole journey. I don't know if you guys remember that whole thing. And he had told me Holton was a really great kick returner in high school. I was like, Oh, cool. So he sent me a clip. The coach sent me a clip of him kick returning. And it was honestly pretty impressive. The guy made the NFL. So naturally. So I put it in the article, the highlight and the Viking special teams coach, Matt prefer read the article and they do. They'll, they don't even actually say anymore that they don't read everything cause they do so. Uh, and they can't hide it, but so he read

the article, he saw the clip and he decided to have Holton Hill, uh, do a kick couple kick returns in a preseason game. He was really good with it and it made the difference or at least played a factor into him making the team that he could perform on special teams. So that is the only time that I knowledgeably or that I've ever been told because prefer brought it up in a press conference that anything that I wrote made a difference. So that's it. Other than that, I never have. And if I do, then they can give me the ring, but otherwise, uh, otherwise no.

So there you go. Um, I probably got to run. I really do. And you guys left a bunch of other great comments and questions. Uh, so I'll try to answer a couple more Harrison Smith hall of famer. I think he deserves it. I don't think he'll get it. Um, just that sometimes it can be not a popularity contest, but like a pro bowl contest.

And we just haven't gotten to the point yet where they're using the PFF data to make these decisions. Cause if they did, Harrison Smith would be talked about as a hall of famer. Maybe he does. Maybe by the time he's up for it, they'll use more data. Conrad said, Willis isn't a great passer accuracy wise, but his running and quickness adds an X factor. His passing has been really good.

I think they only give him throws that he can actually make. He hasn't had to do a lot of it, but he's done it effectively. Rob says, how will the Packers secondary attack Jefferson doubling all game pressing? Got a feeling we're in for another big game for Naylor. They, everybody always does everything they're

going to try is jair alexander on the scouting report also or i'm sorry the injury report seems like he always is yep uh limited jair alexander limited uh they will try to get jair jair alexander up on justin jefferson and the vikings will try to move Justin Jefferson to get him open. And we'll probably have some success, uh, with doing that in the past. I don't think that they're going to let Jefferson have releases where Jair Alexander can get right up in his face. Uh, let's see. Uh, Addison can add a whole new dimension. Yeah. I mean, that's right. And Naylor also. Yep. Absolutely. So, okay. I'm sorry, guys. I would actually keep going probably for another half hour, at least if not more. But I have to run and I'm really excited. So hopefully you guys

tune in for this Lynx playoff game, Lynx and Phoenix Mercury. That's where I'm headed out right now, but, uh, great stuff. Awesome stuff. These Wednesdays where we get together and I just answer your questions have been absolutely phenomenal every Wednesday night. Usually I do it a little bit later, but great crowd here tonight watching. So thank you so much. And it's also great that I figured out how to get the comments on the screen so we can get back to doing it that way.

Uh, thanks everybody for your time. And I will talk to all of you tomorrow night with Manny and we will hardcore preview this game and the rest of things going on in the NFL. So take care of everybody and we'll catch you next time. Football.