Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are the Vikings this good?

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Brian Murphy about the Vikings' win over the 49ers and then gets into a discussion with fans about the sustainability of the Vikings' start to the season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and joining the show for Monday Morning Murph is, of course, Brian Murphy. Brian, just give me a reaction. Go ahead, say what's on your mind. Vikings over 49ers, very impressive win. How are you feeling on this Monday morning? Feeling good because there's a lot to talk about. I'm feeling good because there's a lot of positive energy, a lot of positive vibes. If anything, it's bought them a tremendous amount of goodwill and time. I'm speaking of the Vikings in this kind of brutal first half.

Lo and behold, look who's sitting pretty, undefeated and in first place. First place alone atop the NFC North. You know, two games awfully early in this marathon, but, you know, the difference between 0-2 and even 1-1, I mean, I think everybody was thinking, boy, if they could just hang tight with the 49ers, maybe cover that touchdown spread, that'd be enough of a jumping-off point

for the rest of this kind of brutal stretch. But now we've got a complete recalibration of expectations. I think, you know, among the media, certainly probably the national media, you know, Vegas had them at 6.5 wins and they're already a third of the way there. So I feel like, you know, you can feel just in the comments and the talk out of the locker room yesterday, there's a lot of confidence oozing out of this roster. And it's not that sort of, hey, we told you all, finger wagging, no one believed in us. It was sort of a, hey, we had some belief in here.

Maybe we weren't confident enough to share it with everyone, but we felt like we had a pretty good football team. The way that defense is really gelling together under Brian Flores, I think that was a full blossoming of what you saw yesterday. And then, of course, Sam Darnold, it's going to be proven every week for him, but nobody's really paying attention to what he did in the Meadowlands. Let's see what you can do against a Super Bowl-caliber defense and an aggressive defense.

And boy, that 50 yard missile. You know, I'm guessing if Justin Jefferson puts on a gold jacket in another 10 or 15 years that that play, that pitch and catch from deep in the end zone to midfield will probably be on his highlight reel. So plenty to unpack, plenty to scrutinize still, but they have, the Vikings have really recalibrated expectations to the point now where, you know, if they're not in playoff contention in January, it would be a disappointment,

not an obvious conclusion to what everyone thought the season would be. Yeah. I was trying to decide for myself whether I should change my season prediction because after watching camp, I still felt like they could finish the season with a winning record. So I don't think I want to move the needle too much because I already had them above 500 at nine and eight when we did the whole pick the schedule at the end of training camp thing. And the main reason was, and I enjoyed hearing Jonathan Grenard say this because I was

like, Hey, I've been saying this. Uh, Jonathan Grenard said when they went to the joint practices in Cleveland and they played so well as a defense that they all kind of looked around and said, you know, we could be pretty good. And then right after that, I thought the timing wasn't a coincidence that they upped the offer to Stefan Gilmore and Stefan Gilmore becomes a Minnesota Viking. I think one of the other teams that was interested was Carolina. So I believe after two weeks, Mr. Gilmore is very happy with his choice to be a Minnesota Viking, but I thought it was no coincidence that they had done as well as they did against other competition as a defense and just needed this one other player in Stephon Gilmore.

And at that point, it looked to me like they could be a pretty good team, a pretty competitive team, but beating San Francisco in the way they did Murph, as weird as the game was in terms of fumbles and interceptions and crazy things happening. I didn't think that it was fluky. Sometimes even when you're on the good side of things, you lose a game and you go, well, it's kind of fluky. We had a few things that were weird that happened, but despite, you know, they block a punt and so forth, there were some of those things, but they kind of evened out on both sides. The fact that the Vikings were able to overcome a fumble by Aaron Jones that would have put the game on ice and an interception in the red zone.

Normally you turn the ball over twice in the red zone. You can count on not winning. I thought that was the part to me when we talk about expectations that raises the bar a little bit because they didn't need just goofy stuff to happen against the 49ers to win a game like this. No, and if you want to talk fluky, I mean, you could almost argue that this would have been a blowout, but for those red zone turnovers that San Francisco quickly turned into points. And yeah, the 49ers put up 400 yards of offense. It wasn't as if they were irrelevant. It wasn't as if the defense just put a wet blanket

over them. They made critical plays at critical times. I guess they call that in baseball high leverage moments. I mean, when you think about the fourth down stops, how good the Vikings were on third down, I think they stopped eight of 10. You know, the turnovers that they created, the havoc that they wreaked, it was really just, you know, even Purovers that they created, the havoc that they wreaked. It was really just, you know, even Purdy, I think you had written in your account this morning, was caught on a San Francisco area camera when he was hugging Brian Flores saying just great scheme, you know, as if to say, look, you won the chess match and we'll acknowledge that today.

I mean, it really was, it wasn't a dominant performance. It was a performance with some dominant moments and they were at key moments. And they were, you know, where where I feel like, you know, teams are kind of forged in adversity a bit. The Vikings did in New York as well, showed some resilience. That C.J. Hamm fumble could have been an easy, you know, here we go again moment that just feeds into the Vikings can't control the ball in the first quarter. They fall behind and then everything's a scramble. There were moments, I think, yesterday where that dam could have broken as well. Aaron Jones' fumble at the goal line was one of those moments where you're like, you know, that would have been the dagger.

What's coming next now? And, you know, the fact that the 49ers were able to score twice off of those turnovers, that's all they did. I mean, you know, impressive 99-yard drive. But at the same point, the Vikings were able to make key plays at key moments. And those are the kinds of plays that fuel confidence, the kinds of plays that get the sideline going, get the offense realizing, you know, this is going to be a complementary team. I think that's one of the takeaways I've got so far, is that they're playing complementary football. There were question marks, so many question marks about what Sam

Darnold could do, would the line protect him, would he be able to get the ball to Justin Jefferson after J.J. gets his payday? Well, the defense, which was retooled, I think has made some of the largest strides. And I think, you know, a lot of the comments that were coming out of the room yesterday was how quickly this unit has gelled, how everybody seems to be getting along, everybody's getting a bite at the apple, and it kind of feeds on itself. So I think this is going to be a team led by its defense for the time being. And if Sam Darnold can overcome an interception like he had yesterday, which was pretty ghastly, but also take, shear the top off a defense like he did yesterday with that.

And the fact that O'Connell had the trust in Sam Darnold to take a five-yard drop in his own end zone and unleash into double coverage against one of the best defenses in the NFL and to watch Jefferson not only bring that ball in, but actually make, I think, the touchdown happen with his yards after the catch. I mean, you can't underestimate how that electrified the building, how it electrified the sideline. And it all of a sudden lets you know they've got an NFL quality quarterback with a huge arm that we've heard about. We finally got to see it.

And we have a defense with playmakers who are swarming everywhere and feeding off of each other. Look, 2-0 is a great place to be. They got another challenge with Houston coming in at home next week. But I don't feel as, I don't, you know, with Jordan Love's status uncertain, I don't feel as jittery about the Vikings walking into Lambeau Field in two weeks. And, you know, the Lions look a little vulnerable, if not completely together yet after a couple of games. The Bears seem to be scuffling. This division seems more wide open than it was going to be maybe a Detroit Green Bay runaway train.

And that's why they play the games. Of course it is. Of course it is. And that's why they give you games. Of course it is. Of course it is. And that's why they give you nine months to talk about it too. Right. One thing that I have a tough time with after two weeks is deciding whether we can make declarations about anything yet. Because lots of things can change. After two weeks, what?

The Minnesota Vikings 2017 I think in week two they had gone to Pittsburgh and lost the game with Case Keenum or something and you're like what you know what did we even have at that point the team ends up going to the NFC championship I can't ever remember a time where I totally knew what a team was going to be a Vikings team after two weeks for any season but at the same time it was one of the most impressive victories, I think, from a coaching perspective, because nobody's ever going to be perfect. And I did not ask postgame if Ty Chandler was going to try

to throw a pass there at the end. Oh, you know he was. Don't like that. Don't like that. So there were a few things uh from the coaching perspective that we can always second guess uh no matter what happens but to beat san francisco twice in the vikings building is a very very good look for kevin o'connell and brian flores and i feel like this connection between those two it's not always the case that an offensive and defensive coordinator are very much in their

roles solidified and are on the same page with how they want things done. And it feels like with these two, that is very much the case. I do want to talk more about Sam Darnold because Darnold to me has looked like he's playing with a lot of confidence through these first two weeks. And normally you might say, well, you know, he's a quarterback in the NFL. He should be playing confidently, right? He's a big, strong guy. But I think that confidence was a huge deal for him and building that in the first week and then into this game and Kevin O'Connell and his interactions with Sam Darnold and

how much care he has shown for Sam Darnold. Even though we all know that JJ McCarthy is looming in 2025, unless Darnold wins MVP, then he might come back. I don't know, but I don't think that's going to happen. The point is that the way, when we talk about the coaching and we evaluate that, we love to rip apart fourth down decisions. Oh, this play call didn't work and things like that but I think if we're evaluating Kevin O'Connell this connection with the way that Kirk changed over the two years that he was here and in terms of his leadership and now the way that Sam Darnold is confident enough to let a throw rip toward Jalen Naylor in the biggest situation there and and get a huge

completion and not check it down or not hold onto the ball too long and just feel like he was in command yesterday. That looks like, and I'm not saying he is this, but it looked like someone who feels like he's a franchise quarterback. He didn't act like, oh, I'm just here for a year. There's no, oh, well, he's just trying to game manage or just trying to get through it he was playing confident I'm the star of this team type of quarterback and I didn't know if I was going to see that against San Francisco in the way that we saw it against the New York Giants yeah I mean there's a lot of buzz and rightfully so there's a lot of people talking about

the 50-yard missile to Jefferson and the big play and the big arm and the big moment like that. But I think you could argue that the 14-play drive there in the fourth quarter that forced San Francisco to chew up their timeouts, and as you mentioned, the big third down conversion to Naylor down the middle in between two to three defenders. I think it was Brian O'Neill that said that was a big boy throw in a big play, big boy moment. I think that was the best quote out of the locker room that I saw because, you know, letting it fly is really just trusting your offensive line to keep you protected in the end zone. And then just using your God given natural talent to let a ball fly to the best wide receiver in the league, expecting him to beat double coverage is not as thorny as taking over. You know, you could sense San Francisco might have been coming.

They might have been smelling an opportunity to steal this game. And, you know, it was a very ugly interception that Darnold threw over the middle driving down the field earlier. But to be able to respond with the drive that essentially snuffs out an opponent. Those are the kinds of moments that are going to pay off. I don't know how many times Darnold's had a chance to do that in his career. I mean, you probably have looked at his game performances more, but with that record and those toxic environments he was in prior to settling down in San Francisco behind Purdy and

then coming here, how many times was Darnold in a position to deliver the dagger and to snuff out an opponent with a 14-play clock-chewing drive like that? Those are the kinds of moments that he can draw upon again as we get into these November-December games where every drive, every possession just takes on that much more urgency. So it's interesting to see how he's developing into, A, a game manager, but B, a big play guy who can also protect the football and make the key throw at the key moment to keep your defense off the field and then to allow the Vikings to almost cruise to a win in a game that no one expected them to come close to. So these are little things that add up,

lots of little things that add up that we can look back on in the second half of the season and draw upon that San Francisco game and be like, okay, that was a notch, not only to take down a quality opponent, but what it does to the mindset of a team later on, I think this is going to pay off in spades. Well, I think that really is the question here because they are going to face the Houston Texans. I was incredibly impressed with their defense. Chicago has a good defense. So I wasn't surprised that they held down the Texans to some extent, and that's going to be one heck of a battle for them with CJ Stroud, Stefan Diggs, a revenge game, as well as Nico Collins, who's a phenomenal receiver. So we'll, we'll get to all that and break that down

as the week goes forward here. But I think everything through two weeks has to be looked at of what is this going to be in a few weeks and building this foundation of trust between O'Connell and Darnold and the fact that Flores seems to have everything that he's going to work with through the rest of the season with these veteran players that he could do a lot with. I saw some screen grabs of people who are X's and O's showing, hey, Flores played a coverage from this alignment that I've never seen before and stuff like that. He had everybody at the line of scrimmage and then somehow played what they call a Tampa two, which would be very unusual to see something like that.

And that's probably what Brock Purdy was referring to when he said your scheme is crazy to Brian Flores after the game. And I'm having trouble, Murph, finding a place where I think, oh, you know, this is going to fall apart. This is going to go sideways. The only thing with Sam Darnold, though, is that throughout his career, the reason he still has this opportunity is that there have been situations where he has played well through a couple of games, and he has led a game-winning drive, or he's gotten a win,

and then it is regressed from there. I think that's the biggest thing is like, how high do you want to get on the Sam Darnold train or whatever? You know, how high in the air do you want to go on the Sam Darnold plane? Maybe when he has had these runs before, because he does have this level of talent. I just think the difference is that he has a coach who is very interlocked with him. And I'm not sure that he ever had that before. Right. And I don't think the Vikings or even O'Connell are being, they're not putting too much weight on his shoulders right now. I think that's key. And it looks like this is a team that can lean on its defense if it needs to. It doesn't have to be delivered to ecstasy by Sam Darnold every week.

I don't think, you know, it'd be great if you could see an attempt like he had, you know, 55 yards down the field. But I don't think that's going to be a play that's either dialed up or even possible to be dialed up week after week. If it's there, take it. But, you know, there's still some things that, you know, you're like, okay, well, they still had some turnover. There's still too many penalties right now. I mean, it's probably to be expected early in the season. I mean, as you said, no one's perfect. I think there's plenty to clean up, but these aren't devastating mistakes that they've made. They haven't cost them dearly in a game in a moment. They could.

I mean, again, I keep thinking the Aaron Jones fumble at the goal line, you know, how much that could have cratered that game. It didn't. So, and again, there are more question marks than answers right now coming out of the, the trainer's room. I mean, you still have Jefferson had to leave in the third quarter with a quad injury and get everybody holding their collective breath that it was a knee or an ankle. He comes out and says, nah, not a big deal. I'll be ready to go next week. Well, I'll take that with a grain of salt in a post-game locker room on Sunday, see how he practices. Will he be limited? What kind of impact is that going to have on his speed? We all know that hamstring injury last year didn't seem like it was going to be as long as it was,

and it ended up being, what, six weeks? You still have Jordan Addison's status uncertain, but you look at that receiving depth, and boy, you get Naylor making a huge play. Powell making some plays. I mean, there's just it doesn't appear that they're in a scramble mode to the point where it was like the quarterback carousel last season, where, boy, if they can just get through the next four quarters without blowing up, maybe they can squeak out of here. This feels like there's enough depth, there's enough balance, enough complimentary ball on both sides that if Jefferson has to sit out a week, if he's a little bit more limited, maybe he's limited to a more decoy next week than he is downfield threat, I feel like this team is better equipped to handle that. They're just laying the foundation, I think, mentally especially,

to really kind of take on some more challenges, to get decked in the jar, the chin during a game, to take a punch and maybe be able to counter and not just fold. So these are things that they're building blocks long way to go, but the manner in which they've pulled out these wins, the confidence in which they're playing and sort of the cohesiveness on defense. I think that's going to be the prevailing storylines going forward.

So as a family man, I don't know if you stayed up late enough to see Caleb Williams's performance last night, but okay. Not great, Murph. Not great at all. I don't know whether to just say Caleb Williams is a rookie, and this is why a lot of teams talk about wanting to sit rookies, but they never can because of the situation. But Caleb Williams looks like he is not ready to play in the NFL to me. It just does not know where to go with the football. He got crushed over and over and over and over. I see people blaming their offensive line. That's not how this works. I know the Texans have a good

defensive line. You know who else does? A lot of people. That's not how this works. You have to get rid of the football. And the fact is Caleb Williams doesn't know where to go with the football and I don't know if he can't see the field or he isn't prepared and just thinks that he's going to scramble around and make plays what Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen do is not repeatable even for somebody who is really really that physically gifted and also Allen and Mahomes throw to their first reads a ton and then occasionally make plays. But the way that Williams played last night, I thought that they should be disturbed. I think that Chicago should be worried about that. That's not to say that, you know, he's not going to develop over the next couple of years.

But when I mean, I saw worse than what Justin Fields was doing. Justin Fields had this same problem of not playing in rhythm and with timing of the offense. And I guarantee guys are there available for him to throw the ball to, and he's just hanging onto it and hanging onto it. And then here's the Neil Hunter and here's Will Anderson meeting at the quarterback a bunch of times. And then you start to get concerned about the health of the quarterback. I mean, in a rational world where the whole universe wouldn't just collapse on Chicago, you would just play somebody else who was more prepared because it's been that bad. It's one of the worst starts to a career in terms of yards per pass attempt that any quarterback

has had in the last 20 years. That is concerning, I think, for Chicago and Caleb Williams. He's talented enough to still be a star, but that looked really, really ugly. Well, and it was to me, it was the passes that he couldn't complete in the fourth quarter on the sidelines when he did have good protection and he did have an open look. And his receivers had a five yard window for him to just put the ball where it needed to be. And either he wasn't on the same right page with one of his receivers and the other one, the ball was nowhere near him. So if he can't make the plays in crucial moments when he is being protected, maybe he's hearing things, maybe he's seeing ghosts. What's been interesting is because there was so much buildup with obviously being the number one overall pick on hard knocks,

there seemed to be showing a lot of good moments. There seemed to be a lot of positive coverage coming out of camp. Then you have Jordan Love go down with an injury that is kind of open-ended here. You've got some headlines coming out of Detroit where the offense doesn't seem to be in sync. I mean, dare we say Sam Darnold and Minnesota Vikings through two games had the most rock- quarterback offensive understanding and expectation level and production. The best in the division. It looks that way right now. And I feel like, you know, that's where these are.

You know, you don't win divisions and forge playoff success in September, but you can put yourself in bad positions where you're scrambling and not just trying to get victories. I mean, Chicago's one and one. They're certainly not buried in an 0-2 hellhole. But the way they look right now, it looks like it's going to be an uphill climb all the way with a rookie quarterback. That wasn't the sense we had a couple of weeks ago, that there was going to be an ascension there,

that there was going to be sort of a turnover in the division. It was definitely going to be Detroit and Green Bay. Chicago was climbing. And the Vikings were just kind of treading water, is what everybody thought. Well, again, look where they're at. They're at 2-0. They're stacking up some chips of house money. And I feel like, you know, Everybody thought, well, again, look where they're at. They're at 2-0. They're stacking up some chips of house money.

And I feel like, you know, these are the kinds of moments that you can look back on in January and say, look, you know, we needed that victory against San Francisco to give us a cushion now. But we also have, you know, sort of the resilience and we have a little bit of the bounce back attitude that we can draw from that right now, Chicago clearly doesn't have. Yeah. I mean, I just, you know, when you look around the division green Bay, what an unbelievable coaching job by Matt Lafleur to get the win that they got and just run and run and run and run against Indianapolis and with Detroit, I don't have any concern there. You know, that's just when you, when you have Superbowl expectations and you have one bad game against what I think is a surprisingly very good team in Tampa Bay, then everyone's going to freak out. You went, you lose by a couple of points, tough game. That team's really good. I think it will continue to be, but it wasn't going to go 17 and O but with Chicago, that's the one where you could be looking at. If this just goes down and down and down maybe you know the the head coach

ends up on the hot seat midway through the season and you mentioned it but I was very curious to see how Caleb Williams looked under difficult circumstances and did not look at all like he was ready for this with the the biggest thing to me was the receivers, the receivers just being like, Nope, that's not the play buddy. And that he just looks like he's not ready to play in the NFL. And yet they have to force him out there, which as we know from Sam Darnold and other quarterbacks as well, not always the best thing for those guys. So that will be something I think to keep an eye on. There will be probably overreaction to it after two games of his career. And there's been plenty of quarterbacks who have looked horrendous to start and then picked it up. But that is a low point to be at for Caleb Williams. Murph, great stuff.

Always good to talk with you on the morning after to react and go, wait, did everything I say yesterday actually make sense in the morning? And in this this case it seems like it did a great start to the season for the vikings and we will be following it along together all season long so people should check out your article at purpleinsider.com about sam darnold and uh we'll catch you later thanks murph yeah enjoy the ride football folks u.s cellular noticed that the way we use our phones has gotten ironic. We try to put our phones down for dinner, but the menu is on a QR code. That's ironic. We hit like on social media posts that we don't actually like.

Ironic. Which is why U.S. Cellular created UsMode to help us reconnect with each other and use our phones less ironically. A phone company wanting people to use our phones less ironically a phone company wanting people to use their phones less ironic let's find us again with us mode from us cellular visit uscellular.com slash built for us to get started welcome everybody into another episode of Purple Insider. Let's talk about the Minnesota Vikings and how good they actually are. I want to know how good you guys think this team is. Whether you want to say that in a win-loss record,

whether you want to say that in a, this is a Super Bowl contender, this is a playoff contender, however you feel like you want to take these two games, the accumulation of them, and present them in some way of answering that question. How good is this team? Are they really this good is actually how I phrased it. Kind of on purpose because beating the San Francisco 49ers was so impressive for this Vikings team that they outplayed them.

And when you try to evaluate a game and what it means what I like to do is try to figure out what is sustainable what's real did you actually outplay your opponent or did you bump into a victory by accident and we've seen the Vikings do that and we had that conversation in 2022 quite a bit of all right that game against Washington was so weird Taylor Heineke threw an interception and hey they were over in London and they had a field goal do a double doink but then at the same time I thought it wasn't quite fair to call all one score wins the same thing so a good example is yesterday. That is a one score win, but the Vikings won by more than one score in the way that they actually played that football game. They were better at

protecting Sam Darnold than San Francisco was at protecting Brock Purdy. They ran the football effectively. They pressured the quarterback. They made plays in the secondary. They made plays on special teams. They came through in the secondary. They made plays on special teams. They came through in the clutch moments that won the game, meaning some third downs, some key spots. Now, they did screw up some in the red zone with turnovers, but I actually thought the fact that they won despite the turnovers was something that you could look at as being telling,

where if a team is able to still find a way to win despite having a couple of turnovers and get those back on the other side to make plays to do it and to overall pass the football more effectively I thought than San Francisco even though some of their stats ended up looking good for a major part of the game. Brock Purdy was not looking as comfortable as you would expect him to look with this 49ers tremendous offense. So when you evaluate a game like that and you go over all of the data and all of the film and everything else and your takeaway is, wow, this team actually played better than somebody who was in the Super Bowl last

year and who trounced the New York Jets in week one, then I think it is deserving of saying that they are good, but that good to be able to beat any team and any contender that comes in here. I wonder how much you guys also are using next week to evaluate that same question. Are you looking at next week against Houston to say, all right, confirm that you're really that good? Or are we saying a two in one start would be so good regardless of what happens for next week. And Houston is one of the best teams in the entire NFL. I don't know that it's always fair to use every single week as a referendum on how good the Minnesota Vikings actually are, because there is going to be a game in there that

just doesn't go their way and doesn't work out. So I don't think we can, if they lose this week, say, well, they were never that good and they were a fraud. Yes, Tycoon, it is a week-to-week league, as we very well know. And maybe that is one of the parts that makes the NFL so fun. And so compelling is that everything we thought we knew changes every single week. But, um, I, when we try to be steady and evaluate what they can actually be, this is why some people have invented statistics for this, like DVOA, the old football outsiders that was basically invented to try to help you start to come to the conclusion and through a very small sample size that they can continue to be this good and that they can be a double-digit win team. The other part of it too is just how the competition looks. When you start to look around

the NFC, you go, okay, well, I do believe Detroit is still a very strong team despite the fact that they lost to Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay actually looks surprisingly strong. We're going to get more of a sense tonight about the Atlanta Falcons and some other questionable teams, but Washington, New York, we can already check a number of teams off of the list of someone who could be a surprise or could be competitive. Arizona made their case as a potentially interesting team. San Francisco still belongs in the conversation. Green Bay being able to win with their backup quarterback

against the team that is supposed to be good, that makes them dangerous. So I would not slide Green Bay or Detroit off the list of teams the Vikings will be fighting with. But I think already you can say that there's a few of them, all right, that they're not even in this discussion. The Saints are much better than I ever would have expected the Saints to be. Clint Kubiak, man, wow. The last two games for Clint Kubiak, what an incredible performance from their offensive coordinator with the weapons they have. That's going better than I ever would have expected. But the, so the NFC South might be a little bit stronger with more teams fighting for playoff spots.

So all of those things kind of play into how tough is it going to be? How tough is your schedule going to be? The Jacksonville Jaguars are on this schedule. They don't look very difficult. I can't imagine what will Levis will do and what madness might happen with him against a Brian Flores defense. And those are games that look a little bit more winnable. But when we go through the positions, the offensive line is worth a discussion because there was only nine pressures

on Sam Darnold in this game, according to PFF. And that is amazing. And as part of it is Darnold getting rid of the football and he did a very good job of that. But this is an offensive line that you guys and us have picked apart so much over the years and deservedly so at times. game, the way that they're running the ball to have actually a duo running the ball in the backfield with Chandler and Jones, where I'm struggling to find is a serious weak point in the offense or the defense, a catastrophic weak point. And if they were going to be tested, it certainly would have happened with the wide receivers of the 49ers, but the secondary was able to hold up. Stephon Gilmore looks great out there. Shaq Griffin has been fine. Byron Murphy missed a couple tackles.

That seems to be like it's going to be an issue from week to week, but that hasn't been too much trouble. I think that Jerry Tillery has solidified that interior D-line and even Takitay Amani, the random undrafted free agent. I was watching the film back going, Takitay Amanani, the random undrafted free agent. I was watching the film back going, Takitayimani, everybody. I had a few very good reps against the 49ers, and suddenly this team

is deeper than we expected them to be. And when we say, are they really that good? Depth is a big part of it, that it's something that this team has just not had in previous years. And as I kind of bounce back and forth, how about the depth of the wide receivers? The fact that Jalen Naylor could make that catch in a huge situation like he did. Not only that, but we also saw Brandon Powell get open. He's somebody that's developed over a couple of years. And we've also seen somebody like Tristan Jackson even farther down.

He didn't have any impact plays yesterday, but someone that could be trusted to go out there when they need to. This is depth that they just have not had in recent years. Losing somebody like Jordan Addison would have been a big problem, but the fact is that it really wasn't in yesterday's game against the 49ers. So there's a lot of things there that you could talk about week to week being sustainable for the Vikings, even being able to work their way through a handful of injuries is such a big deal for them.

And that is something that we weren't really sure about going into the season, because even though it looked that way in training camp and even though I came out of training camp probably feeling better about this team than a lot of people did who didn't watch practice which is why I do this to tell you what's going on out there and we kept going man Sam Darnold keeps completing these deep passes to Justin Jefferson and I present you with Sam Darnold to Justin Jefferson. And you know what? This defense is dominating in those joint practices. We did two podcasts each day about how good they were in the joint practices. And then when it came to the questions, all right, how good is Stefan Gilmore going to be at this age? The answer is pretty darn good. How good is Jonathan Grenard and Andrew Van Ginkle going to be

as guys that are stepping into a new team? And the answer is pretty darn good so far, especially Andrew Van Ginkle, but that's not to downplay Jonathan Grenard. Jonathan Grenard has been their leader in pressures through the first couple of games and Blake Cashman and all these things. I mean, this is where so much of the conversation was focused on one position and one player. And that was Sam Darnold slash JJ McCarthy and the quarterback situation. And I understand that, but seeing the new players come together. And also I think what you're seeing too, and I'm not saying this will happen to the Vikings, but you're seeing why veteran teams are usually the ones that win the Super Bowls and not young teams because of experience. The fact that a Blake Cashman can show up on a team that plays a totally different scheme

than what he was playing last year and have an impact like he did on Sunday, that's not just an edge rusher. That's a complicated position. And Brian Flores' defense, that is a big upgrade over what they had. It is a big upgrade to have Andrew Van Ginkle over someone like DJ Wanham last year. And even to have Tillery in the middle to be a solid player is a big upgrade. And I just look at what they have here and I don't see where it's going to collapse into the ocean. Now, of course, the health of the corners is going to be a big deal. The health of the offensive line and the tackles is going to be a big deal that goes for just

about everything. But it really comes down to if you can have Sam Darnold play with any form of consistency like that, then the Vikings are really this good. Then they are really a contender to, I don't want to say go all the way, but you know, to be in the NFC and in the playoffs and a serious team that you would put up there with your best teams in the NFC. They can be that if they have the type of performances that they've gotten from Sam Darnold for the last two weeks. How many of these can come from Sam Darnold over a 17 game season is really the question

here. And Steve Palazzolo tweeted out an unbelievable stat about Sam Darnold is that through the first three weeks of a season in his career, any season through the first three weeks, his grade was something PFF grade was something like 85 and 45 after week three. So I guess after this week, we're going to keep a closer eye out. But when you have Jefferson, when you have Kevin O'Connell's offense, dialing up some easy touchdowns, like the last two weeks to Jalen Naylor, I think consistency becomes a lot more plausible for Sam Darnold than it's been in the past. And if you get eight, 10, 12 performances

like this, there are games down the road that the defense can win themselves. If they continue to be this good, the defense can beat Tennessee. The defense can beat Chicago. You're not going to have to be perfect like Sam Darnold nearly had to be the one interception there, but he had to play an A plus football game to beat the 49ers. There will be games where he doesn't have to do that. So let's get into your thoughts here, questions and comments about how good this team really is, or are they really as good as the team that we saw yesterday. Digital Plains Media says, feels like this Vikings team can win games in multiple different ways.

The first time it has felt like that since 2017. Yeah, you're alluding to the exact same point that I was just making is that there will be games down the road where you don't need Sam Darnold to outplay the other quarterback by a million miles. Not that he outplayed Purdy by a million miles, but he definitely outplayed Purdy that the defense is going to be able to keep them ahead in games. And they've already had one of those games. I mean, Darnold was very good in week one, but even if he had been mediocre, they're still winning that game because the defense is so good. And Daniel Jones,

who's not a great quarterback, who is a mediocre to bad quarterback, looked like he shouldn't play in the league. And Brock Purdy, who I consider to be a great quarterback and did make some seriously awesome plays in yesterday's game, even more than I remembered when I looked back at the tape, they made him look mediocre at times. So if this defense is going to knock every opposing quarterback down a peg, or at least a good number of them, then the door is open. And then also when Darnold does have a rougher day, then you can have the defense win you a game. That means to me that they might really be this good, but I guess that depends on your definition of this good. This good meaning better than the 49ers this year? I don't know about that.

Although Debo Samuel got hurt, so no guarantees that that team is going to go back to the Super Bowl with some of the injuries that they've had or be the best team in the NFC. Digital Plains Media also says, Zim and Kirk years lean on teams with the running game and play through the defense. KOC and Kirk put up 30 points across your fingers. Seems like a one cohesive team for the first time, right? You're kind of, I see what you're saying. You're kind of combining the two, the two philosophies, but those philosophies were pretty much formed out of

necessity in a lot of ways for KOC having to score 30 points. That was what he had to do because they were so short on defense. And it really shows you what some money will do on the defensive side when you can go out and sign players who are perfect for your defensive coordinator, who are aggressive, intelligent, experienced. And Brian Flores is really just doing the same thing he did in Miami. When he got to Miami in 2019, they were not a good defense that first year for him.

And by the second season, they were a top 10 defense. And they added free agents and brought in players that he was experienced with. And it worked out extremely well for Brian Flores in Miami. And he's just done the same exact thing here. He's able to identify really well what types of players work for him. Blake Cashman is a great example of that. This is a guy that I don't know how well known Blake Cashman was. He was to us because we're in Minnesota and he's a gopher, but it's a, to sign a guy like that and know that he's

going to bring as much as he has to this team already in two weeks is just really good ability to identify which players are going to be difference makers for your type of defense. That's something Flores seems to be excellent at. And then also identifying undrafted free agents who could step in as well. But experience matters so much with the defense. And they've just got a bunch of guys out there who have played so much football in their careers that they can run different looks out of stuff that you wouldn't expect. You could put a lot on their plate for a game plan. You can give them really difficult matchups. And then we see a

little bit of development, Patrick Jones playing an excellent game yesterday. There's a little bit of development there. And I think we've seen that from some other players as well. That's, it's been quite impressive. So are they really this good? I don't know if that means they'll finish the year with a better record than San Francisco or that we should start putting them quite in the discussion of, for the best team in the entire NFC. One of them might be playing tonight with the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, wow. My Dallas is great. Took a real hit yesterday. Wow. I never saw that coming. I thought that was going to be a good game between the Saints and the Cowboys, but they just got completely run out of the building. We've seen Zimmer make his adjustments

before, but that whole Dallas is the best team in the NFC. After one week, it looked great. After two weeks, not so much, but at least the Vikings, because of who they beat, get to be in that conversation for this week. John says, it's through this community where I set aside draft negativity, recognizing the converse brilliance of free agency and roster building into today's salary constraints. Well said John eloquently put to not worry too much about that 2022 draft, which I have not heard about recently, especially since two of the players from the draft,

they weren't taken high, but they were pretty big yesterday. Ty Chandler and Jalen Naylor. We can't forget as we talk about that draft that those guys came from that Ingram at a better game. It wasn't a good game overall, but it was better. And I believe he only allowed one quarterback pressure, which is the most important stat there. The grades weren't great, but it might've been a hang on for dear life type of thing. So, you know, I mean, at least he is a starting player. We'll see how much longer that continues, but Chandler and Naylor really had big games yesterday, but yes, what you're talking about is you can never really just hope that the draft solves all of your problems. It kind of speaks to what I was talking about with everyone loves younger players.

Everybody loves this draft pick. And I like that guy coming out of college and you have to hit on some. Well, they have hit on some. Jordan Addison's really good. Ivan Pace, I count them as draft picks if they're undrafted free agents because your team identified the guy and went and got him.

So Ivan Pace, they are filling in with Takita Imani, but draft picks have to be developed. They also have to be guys who are fitting into spots where they can grow over a couple of years, not answers to immediate questions. And I think that that was maybe the mistake with some of the moves that they made in that 22 draft was trying to, with those first few picks answer every question on the roster and maybe that was a miscue but going into free agency and having that money to spend and also it can't be downplayed and this is why i saw some people say hey extend o'connell now we'll have that conversation as we go forward but it cannot be downplayed that these free agents wanted to come to Minnesota.

Cashman, okay, he's from here. Everyone loves Minnesota who's from here, but Jonathan Grenard, Andrew Van Ginkle, Van Ginkle's family might be Vikings fans also. So that could be a factor for him. Maybe they had that element. This is an organization that has proven itself over the last couple of years as a destination for free agents. You just needed the money to be able to get them to come here. And that's what they got in moving on from Kirk Cousins, because you could structure the contracts, even for these free agents and Stefan, well, maybe not Stefan Gilmore as much, but the other guys to have bigger cap hits down the road. And you could structure it that way. And that ended up working out pretty well to be able to

bring in all of this talent, but you got to have the cap space to do it. And then once you do, they can continue to build on this through free agency. So teams will, people will say, don't build through free agency. And I think that that is largely true as you can't create a whole free agent roster. It's not Madden, but when you already have some key pieces like Harrison Smith and the others that they have built over a couple of years and the tackles and the receivers, then you can go fill in those last spots. And I want to get into, I'm going to record a podcast with John Krasinski later in the week about the Vikings roster building and timeline. Cause he's really sharp on stuff like that. But I've been thinking about it a lot, how this free agency, they went in and identified

perfect guys for them and were able to get them, which has been really the difference maker between, well, they're an up and down defense to, well, veterans are veterans for a reason. They're more consistent. Aaron says 2-0, did not see it coming. My preseason pick 10-7 is bearing out, but they might be better if they beat the Texans. Uh, how good can they be?

That's really the question. If they beat the Texans, then we are having the discussion about the best team in the NFC. We truly are because Houston, if you watch them last night, they are such a, such a good team. I mean, top to bottom, great receivers, great quarterback. If Mixon is healthy, that's something to watch this week. But if Mixon is healthy, they have a good running game. The one thing that they don't have is maybe the greatest offensive line.

So that might be something to watch for this team that now suddenly pressures quarterbacks consistently. And on the defensive side, Stingley is fantastic. They're edge rushers. We know them. They are wonderful. So that if they can play with Houston and if they could beat Houston at U.S. Bank Stadium, then we are going farther with this discussion than kind of saying, you know what, I think they might be this good, but I'm not ready to totally say it yet because I need bigger sample and I definitely need bigger sample from the quarterback. But the early returns are much better than I think anyone expected.