Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are the Vikings an offense-driven team now?

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy talk about the Vikings' impressive win over the Seattle Seahawks and talk about the new-found trust for quarterback Kirk Cousins. Brian thinks that he's seeing some things that have been different from the past while Matthew has stats that suggest Cousins has hot stretches just like this. When Dalvin Cook comes back, should the Vikings use a more Robert Smith-like approach and what will the Vikings' record be at the bye week? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Want to remind you before we get started, the TickPick is the exclusive ticketing partner of Purple Insider and the Blue Wire Network. TickPick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging service fees ever. Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and this time, once again, for Monday Morning Murph with Brian Murphy. I just published your column, Murph, up at purpleinsider.substack.com. When over Seattle could turn the Vikings season. How are you, Brian? I'm fine. I thought that was kind of a buoyant atmosphere yesterday. It felt like they were due for it. And, you know, fans should enjoy the moment. It felt to me like if you don't

do this or if you can't do this against a defense, especially in Seattle, that was coached maybe as poorly as Detroit has been over the last few years. We've seen teams come in here and struggle at U.S. Bank Stadium just by proxy of it being U.S. Bank Stadium. I think it makes it very difficult on road teams, but Seattle's defense has crumbled into nothingness. And if they weren't able to take advantage of that, I think we would look at this team and go, it's just not going to happen this year. If you can't beat a defense that is not covering anybody and you can't make a few key plays in that game and sustain a few drives and run over a defensive line that is just porous to say the least. So I think what it said about this team is that

they can let the offense drive their success and don't you just imagine Mike Zimmer waking up this morning and looking at the tape and wanting to rip whatever hair is left out of his head but I but I think that that's the reality of who they have to be now Murph well and you have to take advantage of this three-game home set I mean it's never pleasant to open the season with two road games as they did, but after, you know, leaving that perhaps victory on the table in Cincinnati, playing tough in Arizona, now you're 0-2, but let's not forget, I mean, you know, it's been 21 months since the Vikings had a home crowd to play in front of. I mean, we're talking December

of 19, and not only has the team's fortunes shifted dramatically, but so has the world. So we were in a different world. I think people, it would have been easy to forget what 66 plus thousand can feel and sound like at U.S. Bank Stadium. I mean, that is a very potent home field advantage. And I think there was a lot of pent-up excitement.

There was a lot of pent-up anxiety. you know, a late start on a warm day. I mean, I'm sure a few people had a few pops in the parking lot, but there was this sense that if this went sideways fast, that crowd could have turned on them and that would have really, really cast everything in a pall. I mean, we've broken down why they were 0-2, but for a handful of plays here and there and a couple of moments that people couldn't rise up to, a four-point collective deficit isn't all that awful. It just felt like this needed to happen. They had to obviously stop the bleeding. That was the main thing, triage right away. But they also really put together a performance that should hearten fans because they've been steadily building on offense in particular, a pretty diverse attack.

And, oh, by the way, Kirk Cousins, I mean, that might have been his finest performance as a Viking, maybe not numbers-wise, but as far as just the confidence you can see the rest of the roster has in him right now. And so it was a pretty key moment for him to enjoy in the home stadium, but also to come out of that one and two feeling like, hey, maybe we should be two and one or three and oh. Now there's some validation to thoughts, whereas last week, two weeks ago, you're like, yeah, well, that's easy to say, but talk is cheap.

But I think right now they're stacking together competent performances on both sides of the ball that says, hey, 0-2 is a tough hurdle to overcome, but at least it's interesting and everybody's engaged. Well, I think what this says is that if you have an offense that you can rely on and we'll see how reliable it becomes when they face some better defenses. I think the defenses that they faced in these first three weeks and the coaches that they faced are really not of a particularly high caliber. So I think that that always helps your schedule

always plays a role. And Arizona role and Arizona Seattle Cincinnati those are not the 70s Pittsburgh Steelers exactly when it comes to their defensive prowess but I think that we see that this is why having a really good offense can drive success in the NFL whereas defense is dicey what you need from your defense is what they got from their defense yesterday in the second half of the game, which was you're in command of the football for the entire second half. And you need a couple of key stops. Now, there's some close calls in there. There's a Russell Wilson fourth down bomb that comes ever so close to going right into the gut of his wide receiver. But they get the key stops that they needed in the second half and gave themselves a chance. It was very much like that in Arizona, where they gave themselves a shot to drive down and kick a game-winning field goal

with a last-minute stop of Kyler Murray, where he ran out of bounds, stopped the clock on himself, and then they got a sack, got the ball back. I think that that's what this defense has to be, and Mike Zimmer is going to, to I'm sure be working 25 hours a day to try and fix all their problems with the defense but I'm not sure that you really can fix everything that's wrong so Zimmer is basically realizing I think and and based on his postgame comments I think he's realizing we have to win with offense we have to win with throwing the football because I'm just not going to keep my job if I if I and I'm not saying they'll stop running the ball when Delvin Cook comes back or that they stopped running it yesterday but I think he's got to realize at this point that if they don't lean into this passing game and be as aggressive as they can

on offense that their defense is not going to turn back the clock to 2017 and start shutting down everybody. Yeah, well, welcome to 2021. The water's warm. Come on in. I mean, offensives drive success in the NFL. There's no question. I think what you're seeing is Zimmer even acknowledging that fact publicly by saying this was the best offensive performance I've seen in eight years. Now, coming off of his 2020 quote of this is the worst defense I've ever had. I mean,

that's a remarkable journey for him to acknowledge that my fate, this team's fate and our success hinges on what happens on the offensive side of the ball more so than on the defensive side of the ball. And also the shotgun marriage with, with Kirk cousins, I mean, I think he's finding a little bit of love and tenderness in that right now, at least the way he's, he, you know, the way he's talked about spending more time one-on-one with him during the week, watching film instead of needling him for every mistake that's been made that, you know,

which essentially becomes piling on because everybody out there is ready to pile on Kirk Cousins. He's actually showcased and brought to the surface, you know, some of his redeeming qualities and why, you know, if Mike Zimmer's coming around to Kirk Cousins as a leader, you know, the rest of the locker room is too. And I wasn't there yesterday. I'm only watching on television, but every shot you saw of Cousins on the sideline, I mean, he looked like a guy absolutely dialed in and every teammate you saw on the sideline coming up to him looked like they climb any hill and die for him too. And that's a quality that we haven't necessarily seen out of Cousins or heard from Cousins teammates over the last couple of years, both here and certainly in Washington. So that bears noting. I think, you know, the Vikings have done enough defensively to keep themselves in games. They've

made key stops, come up with key sacks at key moments. They also caught a nice little break yesterday too on that awful defensive holding call on that Seattle cornerback. I don't remember who it was that essentially snuffed a sack of cousins, which would have forced a punt in the second quarter while they were down 10 points. I mean, that was a huge, huge momentum shift. So the Vikings are taking advantage of what they've been, they've been given them. You can't harp on, you know, officiating too much the last couple of weeks. They've cleaned up their penalties particularly on offense here's the question i have i mean are they going to be able to run and gun and win 31 28 every week when just a couple weeks ago we thought well maybe they are going to have to win 16 to 13

every week so they're showing themselves uh capable of doing that can they sustain that over the course of a season they may not have any choice at this point. Yeah, they might not have any choice because the defensive issues that they have, I'm not sure how many of those get fixed. I don't know that they're going to magically find Richard Sherman in his prime. As far as cornerbacks go, you've got one unhappy cornerback tweeting after every game now, and you have another one that's getting roasted every game. And by the way, I think that there's confusion each week in the defensive secondary where guys are running wide open, especially early in the game for Russell Wilson. I mean, the tight end pulls off a 39 yard catch. There were, you know, if the opposing quarterback makes even a couple of good plays, the Vikings defense is also good for a few.

Whose fault was that? Who was supposed to have that guy? Why is that guy wide open? And that also is the NFL today. You watch any game and you will see exactly that, that there's always open receivers and confusion by any of the well-coached teams. Even, you know, last night with Aaron Rodgers, and we'll talk about this a

little later but he makes an incredible throw to davante adams when they're playing the prevent defense and they've got all parts of the field covered and yet still they find an opening because that's the nfl and that's great quarterbacks and that's great offenses so you're going to have that happen but i i don't know that there's some button to push some blitz to dial up some technique to teach that's just going to make Bashad Breland a good corner now or Xavier Woods I thought had a little bit of a tough day in the first half or or even you know the defensive line is better with Everson Griffin but it's not like the an amazing defensive line that is just taking over games I mean they were getting gashed in

the running game in the early part of the season, but I want to talk about the Kirk is different narrative a little more. Let me take you back to the year of 2019. The last time the Vikings had fans in their home building, there is a stretch from week five to week 11. Kirk cousins went six and one completed 73% of his passes, 18 touchdowns, one pick 126.5 quarterback rating averaged over nine yards per pass between week five and week 11 of 2019 Murph. I think that this is not a different Kirk Cousins. I think what you are witnessing is hot Kirk Cousins,

which is as good as any quarterback in the NFL, but the, the Kirk coaster is real and the peaks are extremely high, and I can do that for every single season. The way he opened 2018 was mostly very good. The way that he played in 2016 is what got him here. So I think that this is who Kirk Cousins is, but they just have to hope and they have to lean into that,

that it carries on and that the lows of the Kirk coaster do not get them a loss against Detroit or against Carolina or something like that. I think that these things sort of write themselves based on what just happened. Well, and that's where starting on to you don't get that benefit of the doubt because you're already, you don't get that benefit of the doubt. Because you're already, you know, we talked about this last week. I mean, this is the 14th season they've started 0-2. They've only made the playoffs once. So at 1-2, it feels a lot better.

But it's still a very long uphill climb. So you don't have the opportunities to have a hiccup against Carolina at home or have a hiccup against Detroit. Or maybe you can't afford that hiccup against Cincinnati that will ultimately come out in the wash I think what feels maybe different about Cousins is that you know even in the losses he performed well in the fourth quarter and put them in a position to win the game you know to tie the game in Cincinnati they were driving again in overtime before Cook's fumble. He drove them into field goal range last week. Again, good clock management, strong throws, protecting the ball, making plays that you need to make as a star quarterback in crunch time when it matters. Yesterday, you know, it wasn't so much of a killer blow, but just a steady, monotonous clock eating drives that he helped engineer in the second half i mean people may forget they didn't score a touchdown in the

second half they just scored three field goals but the time chewed up and the control and the and the um the sense of an inevitability that those drives represented that was putting away an opponent and that's what you want from your star quarterback is a guy that's going to put away a team or put you in a position to either come back and win on his arm or on the leg of your kicker. Those are the things that I think people were crying out for mostly in the last couple of years. Those have come to fruition already in the first three weeks. So if you're a betting man and you're betting on cousins, okay, you're going to have the hot streaks. You're going to have the statistical peaks and valleys, strange times, the garbage time points. But right now he's delivering when it matters and that should be heartening. And that's what feels different. on this narrative a little 2000 i got two more stats 2015 final eight games of the season playing

for washington this was his first career year as a starter final eight games uh 126.1 quarterback rating for a whole half a season they went six and two down the stretch to make the playoffs in 2000 and uh in 15 i mean i i and and in 2017, he led the NFL in fourth quarter comebacks or I'm sorry, game winning drives in 2017. What I'm saying is I just feel like we we sort of blow in the wind whichever way the Kirk pushes us. by week four, you turn on ESPN and they are saying, this is the worst contract anyone has ever handed out in football history to Kirk Cousins. He is so terrible. And I was there in Chicago in week four, 2019. It was rough. But then the next week he blows away the Giants and goes on the hot streak. There's one connection that I've always found with Cousins and his performance, and that is the strength of the defense that he's playing. And these next few weeks, I don't know how strong Cleveland really is or if it was Matt Nagy who gave them a good

performance on Sunday, but Detroit is not menacing. Carolina might be. That would be a one that you would kind of look at. And I guess we'll see in two of the next three weeks, I think that there are decent or better defenses. And that's when we find out, I think all these other things are sort of put in place after something just happens. Like if he plays well yesterday and they lose, or if they don't call that penalty, and then we look at it and go, well, you know, it's a classic Kirk sack on third down. And, and he said it after the game, like, this is the razor's edge to how these things work I just don't think it's a different Kirk I don't think he's a different person I don't think that uh he's playing

a whole lot different um you can you might point to this play or that play the one where he sort of fades away and throws to KJ Osborne but you know you know, we don't watch back games from 2019. I can show you games from last year where he was running and escaping the pocket and making plays. He had a game-winning drive against Carolina. I just don't think he's different. I just think that the only way to carry this on is for Mike Zimmer to admit this is the way we have to win. And for Clint Kubiak to dial up everything he's ever looked at on paper some of it which

didn't work yesterday like having Kirk run but I think that that's the only way to carry it on I think that what you look at statistically Murph is that you can't extend these streaks of Kirk they're not just one or two week things they could be a whole half a season and that's exactly what they need the rest of the way to get to three and three or four and two at the bye and then we can forget about the 0-2 start yes and i think what what i again another differentiating factor to me and i could be totally off on this but it feels like his supporting cast is uh diversifying and showing more depth yes um let's just start with the offensive line i mean we were ready to declare last rights before the season started. And then Cincinnati just validated those thoughts, how awful they were, how porous they were, penalty prone, all of that. Well, I mean,

the last two weeks, I mean, I don't think you can really put too much of a scarlet letter on any type of performance that the offensive line put in, both from opening holes in the running game, pass protection, penalties, getting off, you know, not committing poorly timed penalties, obvious penalties, holding, false starts, you know, the self-inflicted kind. That's all been cleaned up. You also had Delvin Cook didn't play yesterday. So what happens? Alexander Madison steps in and rolls for 120 plus another 50 or so in passing. You've got a three receiver threat, a legitimate three receiver threat that I don't think anybody was counting on. I mean, everybody figured, you know, Jefferson and Thielen were going to be a potent one-two punch. But, hey, K.J. Osborne has come out and he makes big plays at opportune times.

Noticeable plays, momentum changing plays, third-changing plays, third-down receptions, things that keep drives alive, things that instill confidence in every aspect of your offense. So, and, you know, Tyler Conklin, you know, I think everybody yawned when they heard, you know, Rudolph was gone and Irv Smith, this is your opportunity, and now he's out. Well, Conklin's been pretty productive.

And also as a blocking, a better blocker maybe than those other two guys combined. So you have options. So you have, you know, it's not all riding on cousins to make a big downfield play to Jefferson once a drive. You've got an ability to diversify the attack. And I was impressed again, how they controlled the clock because that really effectively snuffed Seattle more so than any big plays. They just pretty much ground them down. I mean, I don't think Seattle had the ball more than eight or nine minutes in the second half. So, you know, effectively you you've, you've turned yourself into a solid defense by controlling the clock as well. That's what I think also feels different as well, is that he has more options and the surrounding cast is improving and gaining

confidence by the week as well. So, and this is where credit deserves to be handed out in a few different places. One of them is that for the longest time, we looked at the guard situation and said, my gosh, why are you bringing in guards who can't pass protect for Kirk Cousins, especially when the rush particularly affects him on the interior? And Mike Zimmer told his scouting staff last year. Now, this hasn't didn't come to fruition in the draft because Wyatt Davis has not played and Christian Darisaw has not played. But he told the scouting staff last year,

you have to get us some pass blocking guys up front. And particularly, he was looking for bigger guards. So they move Ezra Cleveland to guard. That seems to be going okay. The first week was rough, but the last two weeks have been fine. I don't have the PFF grades yet. When it's an afternoon game, it takes longer for those to come out. But, I mean, you don't have to PFF this one.

I mean, that was a very good offensive line performance very good and uh at the right guard position they took someone that they had been developing for years a mammoth human being in ole udo and put him at guard and have improved their pass blocking there as well and so we always thought garrett bradbury could probably look better at center if you have some better guards around him and Rashad Hill was fine but I assume Christian Derrissaw is sort of the down the road type of guy Brian O'Neill's flat out terrific I'm not sure I don't think he's given up a pressure in three games I mean that that's how good Brian O'Neill is they signed him to the right contract or they made the right decision I think they may have overpaid a little but he's terrific right

and so you've you've put a lot of draft capital into it and I think took on the right philosophy to get pass blockers on the interior and then let them figure out the run thing because you have good running backs. Well, and I also think it feeds on itself, too, because it's easy to get it's easy to dismiss, you know, the game is won in the trenches because it's an old it's easy to dismiss the game as one in the trenches because it's an old cliche. But in so many ways, it's true because it starts there, but you can tell Cousins is feeding off the confidence of his pass protection. And you can tell his linemen, too, on every big play moment are there to give him proper kudos just on the field. You sense everybody you know,

that you sense everybody coming together and you sense that, you know, Adam Thielen isn't just going to, you know, give cousins a pat on the helmet. Thanks for the nice touchdown pass. He's going to come over there and give him a shot of confidence and say, you're the man, you're our leader, you're showing no fear. I mean, that's what he came out and said, that he's basically fearless right now. Any kind of confidence that you have in your quarterback, even if he's not putting up 400 yards, but if he's steadily leading drives, protecting the ball, and giving everybody on both on the offense and even on the bench or in the crowd or watching on TV a sense of confidence that he's going to play competently and they're going to take advantage of situations.

They're going to get the yards that they need. They're going to get points. Maybe it's not a touchdown, but it's a field goal and it's clock control. Those kinds of things take time to build. And when they do build week after week, win after win, and that's the key, because again, there was a lot of lip service paid the previous two weeks about only one or two plays away. And there's a lot of good things to like, and, and there's a lot of positives we can build on. All of that is true, but until you get the W, until you can, you know, relieve the tension, and now

you, you get a chance, if they win at home against Cleveland, you reset the clock at two and two. Now you're like, okay, now, now you're, you're, you're, you're sensing the worst may be behind us. Or if, if something else comes along, we're going to be conditioned for it. That can, that builds confidence over time. And when you look back on a successful season in December and January, it's those kinds of building blocks that were laid early problems that surfaced and were taken care of. If you can, if you can steadily build, that's where you get the confidence. And that's where the intangibles

come in. I mean, that's where guys start believing that believing in themselves, no matter what unit they're on. And there's an, you know, there's a, there's a sense of unity on the bench and in the locker room. And even when you get the coach, Mike Zimmer, who is as crusty as they come, lavishing the praise that he has on Cousins and the offense, an old defensive guy, to lavish that kind of praise on an offense, I mean, that takes a lot to get him to gush like that. Folks, Minnesota football is back, and there's no need to exhaust yourself searching all over like that folks Minnesota football is back and there's no need to exhaust yourself searching all over the internet for Minnesota football tickets anymore because

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that's soda stick.com minnesota sports inspired goods and keep your eye out for our soda stick giveaways i think there's a point to be made about, you know, momentum is not really a thing that's easy to prove in any sport. Right. But you have to feel it. But building on a confidence and getting a win streak going is necessary if you're if you're going to do anything in the NFL and 2017 is the year we have most recently in our rearview mirror that we can see when they were really good and when they beat you know the Rams and when they then went to Atlanta to face Julio Jones and Matt Ryan had just won the MVP the year before there was a ton of confidence coming off of that game that they had beaten the Rams and sort of proven that they were a real contender and held the number one offense. And then they go down there to Atlanta, win a defensive game. Like these are the things that have to build on each other where you have an offensive performance like this, where you bail out your defense, keep them off the field for the entire second half.

You really just command the game and like a boa constrictor suck the life out of the Seattle Seahawks. I mean, that is a confidence building type of thing. And now you have to play another really good team. And that's kind of the way that this schedule is laid out for the Murph. Now they have to play Cleveland and then you've got Detroit and Carolina, but I don't think those are gimme's. I think that Carolina is a little tougher because of their defense and Detroit for as bad as Detroit is in terms of on paper, they took the Ravens down to a final field goal from 66 yards away. Yeah.

And got screwed in the process as usual. Just unbelievable Murph. Unbelievable to the bounce straight up in the air and then off the bar and then in for the greatest kick in NFL history. Well, pretty, I mean, not actually pretty impressive for Detroit in that game, except for, you know, they just blew it in Detroit fashion. But I don't think they're a gimme. I don't think that they just come in here and the Vikings win 45 to nothing.

And then we, you know, just move along. So what, here's what I want to know. I put up a poll on this. I'll give you the results after you give me your answer. Like, what do you think that they will be at the bi-week having seen what you have seen? And that is how many games total six, six, yep. Six. I'd say three and three. I say three and three safe. Um, which means they're probably going to lose to Cleveland and then be Detroit. But, uh, I don't want to get any, I don't want to get out ahead of anything beyond what happened yesterday. I mean, there are no more gimmies on the schedule. Cincinnati, in theory,

was a gimme. When you start 0-2, there are no gimmies. There may be a gimme in November or December if this keeps rolling, but right now, no gimmies. I want to see how they respond again to. OK, now you've had a week of success. You're going to have a lot of people pumping your tires all week. What you got another home game against a really exciting opponent and sort of a scrappy opponent in Cleveland. You know, Baker Mayfield is a gamer. If there ever was one. I mean, you know, if there's a game on the line down the stretch you know there's three or four quarterbacks you want Brady, Rodgers, Mahomes I mean Mayfield's getting there I mean he's an exciting guy to watch and let's not underestimate the I mean this is going

to get talked about it may not have a tremendous impact on the game but Kevin Stefanski coming back here as well I mean here's a guy that the Vikings didn't know what to do with and just kind of let get out of the way. Didn't probably think he was going to make too much of himself. He's going to go to Cleveland and wither and die. And he's put together an excellent team and program there that's gaining respect by the week. So just to have him back in the building, you know, having him going against Zimmer, I think this is going to mean a lot for Zimmer. He's going to want to prove that it wasn't a mistake to let him go. Two and two looks an awful lot better than three and three. So I like the idea that they're going to have to now challenge themselves. How do we handle our success? As fleeting as it is, it's a week-to-week

narrative. Build them up, tear them down. They were torn down mightily over the first couple of weeks and responded with an excellent performance yesterday. So it's only as good as your next effort. And being at home, they have to make hay because as you get into the meat grinder beyond the buy, that's where injuries are going to pile up. You're going to have some other turnovers are going to probably resurface. Penalties are going to resurface. As we've talked about, it's always whack-a-mole. You know, there's only so many times you can keep, you know, keep tamping down problems. So

I want to see how they handle success. I want to see how they handle another emerging or at least established NFL quarterback. How are they going to handle him and really put this home field advantage to use? This would be what they call a kitchen sink game where you just everything in the darkest corners of the playbook, you just bring it out because Mike Zimmer knows how familiar Kevin Stefanski is with his defense. So he has to do something differently, right? Then he normally does because otherwise Stefanski is going to be able to take advantage of knowing all the rules and all the switches and all the things that all the pass rushes and everything else that Mike Zimmer does because he was there in the building for the entire Mike Zimmer era. So that will be a

fascinating matchup. I mean, it's one of the smartest offensive minds in the league versus a defensive mind in Zimmer, who's going to be highly motivated to mess with Kevin Stefanski as much as he can. It's also the best offensive line in the NFL. And I don't mean to get too far ahead of us talking about Cleveland, but it's the best offensive line in the NFL and a running game that's really, really good with Nick Chubb versus a run defense that has been problematic so as we have heaped praise on the offense for driving the success of this win Murph I think we also do have to stop and say you know if the defense had been on the field for the second half of the game I wonder how this goes because we were we were just a couple of plays away from 24 to 7 we're a penalty away a punt away a big

play or a long drive or a long handoff away if that game goes to 24 7 i mean there's just no coming back from that at that point probably so uh it's really interesting the way that football games swing and it's probably why it makes it the uh america's most favorite sport because there's just so many things that you could pick apart in a game but i think we like need to not forget on defense they were just shredded in the first half of that game and they were shredded by the cardinals for 400 yards for kyler murray and in the big moments uh joe burrow came through for Cincinnati, created big plays for them.

They ran the ball successfully. Like we have not seen a good defensive performance by the Minnesota Vikings yet. Yeah, and that bears noting because so much of their history and so much of their identity under Zimmer obviously has been their defense. And everything, that's where the money was spent this year

was to shore up that defense. I want to see, you know, can this team, even just three or four games into a season, if not publicly, at least behind the scenes transition into a offensive driven squad? Because if you look at the numbers, that's what, that's what this is saying this team is right now. You are going to probably have to put up 25 to 30 points, and you're going to have to make plays at key moments down the stretch

as opposed to putting the game in the hands of your defense. This may be an opportunity to kind of redefine themselves on the move. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe Zimmer doesn't like to acknowledge that, but at the very least, you know, they're showing signs of, of kind of being up to date, of being more of a contemporary attack in 2021. That should be heartening. You know, this, this really easily gets lost in the, in the footnotes, but I mean, no pun intended but uh you know greg joseph comes back and has a perfect foot notes footnotes as we say footnotes yeah um kicker nothing nothing necessarily mattered with any of his kicks but the cumulative effect of hitting them all

on the psychology for him the team the fan base i think helps a lot. You didn't want to have, you know, anything lingering from that 37-yard mishap in Arizona. I think special teams has continued to show, while not making huge plays, that they're actually, you know, they're putting the opponents in bad positions, certainly in the punting game and whatnot. So, again, these are minor things, but it's not like there's leaks elsewhere that have suddenly sprung. It's the, it's the usual ones right now on defense. They're not stopping the run. They look a bit confused in past, past coverage. Okay. You've seen that the last few weeks, you can continually working on, continue working on that. The offensive line cleaned up its penalties. They're, they're opening holes.

They're protecting Kirk. So you're limiting sort of the amount of whack-a-moles that you got to sit there and continue pounding. So I'd say right now, I think they're in a position where if they make this transition into an offense first team and aren't ashamed of that and are able to build some success, then you have an opportunity to kind of to shift the grand narrative of this team, which is, well, if they can only win, if they can win 16 to 13, you know, maybe they grind their way into the playoffs. Well, maybe it won't be that hard.

Yeah, I think this has to be more of a throwback Vikings offensive driven team. So I guess I was connecting the defense and some of the issues there to what their record will be after six games. I would agree with you. Three and three of the issues there to what their record will be after six games i would agree with you three and three is the safest bet uh just looking at the poll most people agree with 700 votes 26 think they're going to be four and two uh 56 think they'll be three and three 13 two and four and there's a few human beings out there who think they'll go one in five. So most people are leaning heavily toward three and three. I would say the same.

So long as the offense takes a page out of the Robert Smith book, Murph, that Robert Smith, a lot of his success. And he was a great football player, maybe one of the more underrated players of the era. But I think a lot of his success had to do with the fact that nobody could stop their passing game and they could you know push the safeties back and hand off and have the uh pass rushers worried

about rushing the passer and then all of a sudden they have to defend the run if they switched the philosophy to have Delvin Cook be that player as of when he comes back as opposed to he's got to drive our whole offense and then Kirk throws when it's ideal I think that they could be different from what they've been I don't know that that will happen but that's that's the route is the offensive line stays healthy and continues to build KJ Osborne I think is not going anywhere. And then that that philosophy changed to be pass first, then run to put the dagger in the opposing team, as opposed to we've got to run first, run first, run first play action. And you have seen this actually in the numbers playing out. Part of it was playing in shootouts and down in the first game. haven't been a big play action team so far. I think that they will increase that as they go forward, but it's because they've been, I think, throwing just more to drive the success and they have to do that with Alexander Madison. And I think if they continue that philosophy, then you've got

a chance to go three and three, to reset your season, to be right there in the middle of the NFC going into the harder part of your schedule. Well, I think it'll be really interesting to see depending on how long Cook is out. If he comes back next week, two or three weeks, I mean, it didn't look very promising that he's going to be back anytime soon. And if it's a dreaded high ankle sprain, it could be several more weeks. But let's say he comes back against Detroit or even after the bye, and they've had some relative success in this newly oriented pass first scheme. Does Zimmer and Kubiak kind of stubbornly go back to their original blueprint? And if so, for how long?

Or do you adjust and redefine yourself? And as you said, use Cook in the running game as a way to win games, not to start off games, but to put opponents away. That's almost as impressive as, you know, staunch defense, because now you have a chance to control the clock, keep your defense fresh in the fourth quarter, and systematically put opponents away, keep Cook fresh later in the game. I'd like to see how that decision gets made as they start reintegrating Cook, because right now, what you had yesterday might have just been an anomaly, because I don't know what they're counting on for Madison going forward. Right. Does it save them from themselves a little bit, or maybe show them that it doesn't have to be that way? And I will give Clint Kubiak

credit for this. His short passing game has been good. As long as he's not running Adam Thielen out of the backfield, do not do that again. He's not fast. He's not fast. This is not Tyreek Hill, okay? That's not a good idea. But other than that, he's actually working the short passing game, which I thought they didn't really do last year.

Murph, your column is terrific. Purpleinsider.substack.com. Win over Seattle could turn the Vikings' season. And we do this every Monday, Monday morning, Murph. Final thoughts, Brian, before we go. Just again, enjoy the ride, folks. I know it can be maddening. The rollercoaster is steep, but what other entertainment are you going to, unscripted entertainment, can you enjoy right now?

Yeah.