Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Are we changing Vikings win predictions after loss to Lions?

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill pick the rest of the Vikings schedule Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, let's bring in Manny Hill. What do you think, Manny? Flexed. Flexed football game. I was pretty surprised, but I like it. I mean, I think it adds extra juice. I mean, Jacob's saying, well, I don't care. It's just another football game.

I don't know, Jacob. I love showing up to that stadium at 6 o'clock at night, and then all of a sudden, you know, there's the – they used to have the fire-breathing dragon, of course, but, you know, there's the big presentation, and the lights go down and everything, and then you're in front of the nation. It's pretty cool, I think.

Yeah, I mean, I was a little surprised to see that game get flexed. Maybe – is Anthony Richardson back playing? He played yesterday and not great. Not great. He is not throwing the ball very well at all. I will see where that goes from here, but he just needs to play football. I mean, the guy played one season at Florida and then gets hurt last year. And so it's still early in his career, but we are kind of bordering on Tim Tebow the way that he's played so far with his passing.

And I thought like Josh Allen and even Jalen Hurts. Oh, well, the guy's criticized for his passing, but he's a great athlete. He'll figure it out. Thus far, not so much the case. Same school, same jersey number at that school, too, as the aforementioned Tim Tebow. Scary thought. Yeah, I was a little surprised to see that game get flexed.

I thought, you know, just kind of looking at the rest of the Week 9 schedule, I kind of thought, you know, I mean, Detroit and Green Bay probably is probably the biggest matchup of that week, but that's the national game for Fox. So they wouldn't flex that game, but maybe Dallas and Atlanta, I thought might've been a little bit more of, of a, of a candidate for that. Maybe the nation has just had enough of Dallas. I just don't want to see, but I thought if you've ever seen the office meme, where she says it's the same picture, Jaguars versus Eagles, Vikings versus Colts. It's kind of the same picture. I mean, I would rather watch Vikings Colts, but only by a hair. I mean, Jacksonville

can sometimes play well. I don't, i don't know uh but nonetheless it's always great for me i i love that whole you know the the pomp and circumstance and the national broadcast shows up and you get a million different tv views and they're talking about your team and chris collins worth saying yeah i mean here's a guy you know and this christian derisaw and you want you know that kind of thing i don't know it's just uh it feels like your team's a guy you know and this christian dare saw and you want you know that kind of thing i don't know it's just uh it feels like your team's a big deal when you're on and that could be just because it we did not have red zone when we were growing up and i didn't have any sort of sexy hbo package or whatever they had back then where you could watch every game so the national

games felt like the biggest thing in the world and every time i go to one i'm like okay i'm covering the biggest game in the world this is great um so anyway i'll get back to your questions comments thoughts feelings beliefs and so forth but it's monday night you guys know what time it is it's time for mananny to pick the schedule. Now, Manny, you picked the Detroit Lions to win the game. You were called a hater. Turns out you were right. So let's dive right into it. Five and one this Thursday night, rather than a Thursday night show with you and I, it will be me in L.A. covering that game. Do you think the Vikingsikings beat the los angeles rams uh very quickly before

i picked that game i do i kind of figured we were not going to do a show thursday night obviously because right i'll be in the box in la yeah if you want to get to it i do have my top five favorite rams oh oh would love that i did yeah i did uh think to put that list together today considering and we were probably not going to have a show thursday night but um i do think the vikings bounce back from yesterday and i do think they come away with the win the the rams i know um seem to be playing a little bit better they got a win over over kind of a bad Raiders team yesterday. But I think, despite the travel and the short week,

I think the Rams are just an inferior team. And I think the Vikings probably learned a little bit about themselves yesterday. Maybe they got humbled a little bit. I don't think they were too arrogant going into the game yesterday, but I think they're going to bounce back and come away with a win and get kind of get coaches in the league that I almost think if every year

you went into and bet the over on all of those coaches. And I think Kevin O'Connell is in this conversation. If you just bet the over every single year on them, you'd probably win a lot of money overall. And Sean McVay is on that list that he is a great coach and they've rebuilt that defense a little bit. They've caused some problems for opposing teams. Matthew Stafford is when he's hot, a very dangerous quarterback. I don't think they can protect him though. I think the Vikings are going to cause a lot of problems there. The one worry is the Cooper cup is back and that underneath stuff that over the middle stuff that's what detroit was doing and detroit just put a lot on tape for mr mcveigh to be able to use

on thursday night uh but the short run-up usually the better team wins these games when it comes to the short week so i agree with your pick uh all right vikings to six and one let's go on to this national television contest that all of you are mopey about because you got to stay up at night and watch your team uh Colts and Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium that will be rocking what do you think of that yeah the Vikings will be coming off kind of a mini-bye, having played the Thursday night game this coming week. And if it's going to be Anthony Richardson, like I've been saying for a couple of weeks when I've been picking the schedule,

I like Brian Flores' odds going up against a guy who's just really struggling to throw the football right now and make some bad mistakes. And just mechanically, it just doesn't look very good right now. He's very young and very inexperienced. I think that's, I think Brian Flores will be licking his chops after, you know,

a couple of weeks or after having to go up against Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford in the span of five days, I think Brian Flores will be able to come up for air a little bit against Anthony Richardson. And I think the Vikings will come away with a win rather handily too, I think Brian Flores will be able to come up for air a little bit against Anthony Richardson, and I think the Vikings will come away with a win rather handily, too, I think. to try to play the let's grind on the run grind anthony richardson five yard runs at times and then have them try to hit a 50 yard bomb and that is one area that i think the vikings actually are vulnerable to is the downfield the deep downfield pass if they can get somebody one-on-one what florist has done so well as he has not allowed teams to do that. But when Jordan Love threw the ball down the field, when Jared Goff threw the ball down the field,

their receivers were able to beat the Vikings corners, most specifically Byron Murphy Jr. several times so far this season. But put them at 7-1. Everyone could shake it off with the Lions' loss. It'll be far in the distance as they travel south to play the Jacksonville Jaguars on November 10th. The Jaguars did get a win

against the most pathetic team in the league, not named the Panthers, but nonetheless a win. What do you think happens in Jacksonville? You know, I was kind of looking at Jacksonville's schedule

over the next like four weeks, five weeks. It's rough. They got the Packers coming up this week. Then they go to Philadelphia, and then they host the Vikings. Then they're at Detroit, and then they host Houston. Oh, my gosh. They could lose every single one of those games. Doug Peterson might be out of a job soon.

I mean, he saved his job. Maybe he should just stop now. You don't want to hurt the career overall record. Yes. Yeah. I think the Jaguars are staring a five-game losing streak right down the barrel. I think the Vikings are going to go down there

and really take care of business. I just don't think they're very good. They got to win against maybe the only team in the league that's worse than them in New England. And, you know, good for them. But I think that the Vikings are the superior team and they're going to go down to Jacksonville and take care of business. And this is why nothing changed from my perspective after watching yesterday's game as far as

where I think this team is going, uh, that I talk about the trade deadline and everything else like that. Like, look at the upcoming teams. If you beat the Rams, there is a role to get on here. And, uh, you now have them at eight and one, and you're not being unreasonable over the next couple of weeks. They should be favored in every one of these games, including the November 17th game at the Tennessee Titans. You're probably more afraid of the Titans if they're playing Mason Rudolph than Will Levis, but by the time they got to the fourth quarter of the game against the Bills, they kind of held them down a little bit, and then the floodgates opened and they got blown out because they are a awful awful football team we've got some teams manny that you wouldn't pay 50 cents to watch play football this year i mean like carolina new england no matter how much i love football i might rather watch like troy on saturday or on a tuesday night play Akron or something I just like there's no way you can make me watch uh the Tennessee Titans play unless they're playing the Vikings but

it doesn't mean I mean because you still have a letdown game you have to use so it doesn't mean it's automatic Vikings eight and one going against the Titans what do you think yeah I've just never been a fan of the Tennessee Titans. All of their games are just miserable to watch. I mean, Steve McNair was a lot of fun to watch back in the day, but ever since he left, it's just every game that they play seems to be an eyesore. And this will probably continue on November 17th, but I think the Vikings will go down there and win an ugly game um would would jeffrey simmons perhaps be wearing a purple uniform going for a revenge game at that time who knows

i've been calling saying i'm quacey i've just been calling their office and being like hello this is someone from princeton it Kwesi. Would you trade Jeffrey Simmons here? It hasn't worked. They know it's me. They have caller identification. So nine, and that's also not even any way at all that Kwesi talks. Nine and one to go to Soldier Field and play the Chicago Bears. I'll put this down as a loss.

I think the Bears are playing well, and I think the Bears are going to come down to earth a little bit because they're going into a tough part of the schedule here. But again, I think they're a decent team. It's on the road. That's November 24th, so the weather could be nasty and I think that might work in the favor of the Bears a little bit more and so I'll put that down as a loss the reasoning on this one other than they're just not going to run the table and we

kind of kept saying that and then it's like well maybe they could if they could beat the Lions they didn't beat the Lions so we can officially say they're not going to go 17 and 0 this year uh it's really just maddie berflus he has been on the right side of things against kevin o'connell they were able to beat the vikings in a very close game with a worse quarterback last year and even when tyson bajan came in that game last year it was still Ibra Fluss's defense that gave them problems. And that was with Kirk, who is a better quarterback than Darnold. And Darnold does sometimes maybe see things that aren't there. I'm not saying ghosts.

I'm just saying that he will try to fit it into someplace that he maybe shouldn't and throw some interceptions and take some sacks that could go against him in Chicago. So now that makes them, are we at nine and two going back home after quite the road trip there? Jacksonville, Tennessee, Chicago. It's been a little bit of a tricky schedule for the Vikings this year, but they will then play the Cardinals and Kyler Murray at nine and two on December 1st. I think I'm going to use my letdown game here. Okay. Panic will be setting in for Vikings fans if they drop back-to-back games to Chicago

and Arizona, but you have to use it. That's the rule. Everybody should know that. That's the rule. Manny has to pick one letdown game because it will happen. We just don't know when to make them nine and three. So has to pick one letdown game because it will happen we just don't know when to make them nine and three so why is this your letdown game i think just because i'm looking at the the rest of the remaining five games after that and i don't really view any of

those games necessarily being a letdown if they lost it you know even the atlanta game the following week i think if they lost that one, you know, Atlanta's got some weapons and, you know, Kirk is playing pretty well. If Atlanta came in and won at the U.S. Bank Stadium, I almost called it the Metrodome, won at the U.S. Bank Stadium, I think obviously, you know, the internet will have some fun with that with kirk coming back and getting a little bit of revenge so to speak but you know i think atlanta is a quality team and i wouldn't qualify that much as a as a um as a letdown i think arizona would be much more of a

letdown type of game i'm curious to see how they play against the mobile quarterback uh i mean kayla williams is that but he's not a running quarterback in the same way that Kyler Murray is, or at least he's run to some extent. Murray's whole career is him running all the time. And with all the blitzes, it's a bit, if you don't catch him, is he going to be able to rip off some big plays? Marvin Harrison juniors has done a really good job, but I also think random results just happen sometimes in the NFL. And that's why we work that in there. So nine and three, uh, there, as they will then play Kirk cousins and the Atlanta Falcons. We think earlier in the season, I kept saying Michael panics and the Atlanta Falcons. And after yesterday, I don't know that the atlanta falcons are a funny team because they're

what four and three and they really really should have lost two of those games they were 98 to lose those two games and had they the discussion about the falcons has kind of been oh well they're you know kind of fun and they're getting their playmakers involved and they've won some and lost some. And they've been exciting as Kirk Cousins teams always are entertaining. But if they had lost those games, the discussion around Atlanta would be you're a disaster. And the thing that Atlanta, you haven't picked this yet, but the thing, in my opinion, that makes Atlanta a team that just can't beat the Vikings is they can't pressure the quarterback at all. And I was reading a D Orlando led better or, or is that his name?

Is that his name? The reporter from Atlanta. I feel like that's his name. I anyway, so the guy from Atlanta has covered them forever. I was reading what he wrote this morning about how they just can't get after the quarterback at all. They got Jude that hasn't helped them uh i don't even know how much he's playing and the offensive line isn't that great i just don't think it's a

very good team outside of a couple of players but i'll let you pick that yeah i i think you know i i just don't really see atlanta and it's's kind of ironic that Kirk is quarterbacking them right now. They kind of remind me a little bit of the 2022 Vikings where, you know, they're winning a lot of close games, but you're looking at them, you're seeing this team is not you know now they they're not you know winning games at the same rate as the 2022 vikings were um certainly they're not on pace to go 13 and 4 this year but you know they're kind of playing the same type of games that are really close and they win it they win a game close and you're like how did they win that game how did happen? How many times did we say that in 2022 with the Vikings where it was like, how the hell did they win that game? They're so flawed. There's so many issues, particularly on the defensive side,

same type of issues with this Atlanta team. So I think this is an opportunity where, you know, Kirk will, if Kirk is still playing by then, he'll maybe put up some numbers but i just don't think atlanta defensively will be able to do anything against sam darnold in this offense so i'll put that down as a win for the vikings the writer's name is d orlando led better it's good follow on twitter about the atlanta falcons so i just figured i'd correct that uh but to your point i really want to see how how Kirk handles those blitzes.

He practiced against those blitzes a lot when he was here, but it was different players who were coming after him. There was no Van Ginkle. There was no Blake Cashman. If those guys are healthy, when we get to that point, and also Kirk could kind of shuffle a little, he can no longer shuffle. And that was Jared Goff. Maybe the thing that impressed me the most about Goff is that he is a statue quarterback.

He was a statue in the same way that Brady and Breeze were. And don't compare to Brady and Breeze. He certainly played like it yesterday. And what I mean specifically is the way that he shuffled in the pocket. Those guys were so good at being pocket quarterbacks, but the rush is coming from one side. Just a little bit of a shift if he can't move which he hasn't been able to this year that's going to be problematic i thought it was really problematic for him against seattle yesterday he took some big hits

and there's only so many he could take there what does that leave our record at manny 10 and 3 right 10 and 3 okay uh caleb williams and the Chicago Bears, December 16th, coming to Minnesota. What happens? The Vikings win. I put this down as a win. I think they bounce back from the loss of Chicago three weeks prior, and they take care of business at home, and they improve to 11-3. Okay.

I don't have any disagreement there. Caleb Williams' first time at three. Okay. I don't have any disagreement there. Caleb Williams, first time at us bank stadium. And that just to circle back to yesterday's game again, that's the thing about Jared Goff. I was watching the decibel meter, which I've kind of become a little obsessed with. And because I'm just an objective measure of how loud it actually is. It was ever so slightly louder yesterday than it was against Houston. And yet Jared Goff, when it hit its peak, 121 decibels, that's rock concert level, that place it's doing the thing where the sound echoes kind of back and forth off the roof. Goff takes a snap, drops back, complete pass. Oh, where when CJ Stroud was dealing with it, he's freaking out the offensive lines,

jumping off side and everything's going crazy. But that's just not the case for guys who have been there. Caleb Williams has not been there. I like that as a win as well. That means 11 and three. And now the Vikings go out to a very loud place of their own and play the Seattle Seahawks who I was starting to worry about, Manny. And then they had a bounce back win.

They look like one of those 500 teams that any given week can be great or meh. What do you think happens out in Seattle? Yeah, that's a tricky one. You know, I think certainly the Vikings should be able to move the ball on that Seattle defense. I think that's been really, really kind of banged up, especially lately. But, you know, it feels like Geno Smith, who, again, is another one of those guys, is just kind of up and down. And you never really know what you're going to get out of him. When it's good and he's on, kind of like what he was yesterday. It looks really good.

The touchdown he threw to DK Metcalf right before halftime was just cold-blooded, man. There was three Falcon defenders right there, and Geno threw it right on a dime right into that number 14 jersey. So Geno's capable of doing things like that. It's just not always consistent. I think being at home, that crowd still can get kind of crazy in Seattle. I'll put this down as a loss dropping the Vikings to 11 and four. Okay.

Yeah, I think they are capable of rushing the quarterback enough and making some plays on defense. But yeah, I agree with you. If you run into hot Gino Smith and he is firing it downfield, they got the receivers to make plays. And I am interested as the season plays out to see how top notch receivers go against this Viking secondary. And, uh, will the secondary be healthy at that point? So 11 and four and the Vikings come home to play one heck of a football contest december 29th against green bay this might be a flex game everybody scheduled for noon o'clocks but i

don't know about that this one could be the game uh that gets all the attention from the nation do the vikings beat the green bay packers at home on december what did i say it was december 29th i think this is going to be the first of two consecutive games that the vikings play on sunday night football yeah i think this game is going to be flexed uh to that night and i think the vikings uh will come away with a win, completing the season sweep over the Green Bay Packers at home. I think it'll be close. I think there will be a lot of electricity in U.S. Bank Stadium, as it always seems to be whenever the Packers come to town,

and I think it'll be a close, maybe fairly high-scoring game, kind of similar to what it was at Lambeau Field or what it ended up being at Lambeau Field a couple of weeks ago. And I think the Vikings will come on top yet again. 12 and four. And then on to Ford Field. I was talking with some of the Detroit writers that I know. And I was like, I think I'm going to see you guys

because in recent years, they have played meaningless games at Ford Field and I haven't made the trip. And I think that this year I'm going to end up heading out to Detroit, but am I headed to Ford field? Maybe for the conference? I think if it's for the division, it's for the conference. I just don't see anybody else, especially with Jaden Daniels banged up a little bit. I just don't see anybody else. Who's going to go neck and neck. It's either this one or it could be the week before against Green Bay

because they're getting hot now as well. But I think it's this one. I think these are the two best teams. Is it 12-5 or is it 13-4? It will be for the NFC North. I could see Detroit coming into that game being about a 13-3. Somehow, if the Vikings win that game and both teams are 13-4, I don't have what the standings would be in front of me. Somehow, the Vikings would win a tiebreaker

if they won that game and both teams were 13-4. I think with the game being in Detroit, if it's for the division on the line, based on what I saw yesterday, I think this is going to be a Detroit Lions win. Oh. And the Lions will finish 14-3. Vikings will finish 12-5. And at that point, probably would be like the five seed going into the playoffs. And then going on the road against, you know, the worst division going into the playoffs um and then uh going on the road against

you know the worst division winner the number four seed and uh the line the lions would be um the lions would get the number one seed in the first round by yeah you get penalized there pretty pretty harshly for not winning the division i did not of that, but that could be one of those ridiculous. The Vikings are 12 and five and they're going to play the, I don't know, nine and 18 or something that won their division. I'm not really sorting out exactly playoff scenarios right now, but we've seen that happen in the past where the team with the better record

is traveling to go face the division winner. And the Vikings might end up being that. 12-5 is a tremendous season for the Vikings. And they would go into the playoffs with every bit the chance. I talked about this not too long ago, but when I researched teams and the threshold to be considered a Super Bowl contender is really 11, but probably more like 12 in a 17- game season. If you go into the playoffs with 12 wins and a top tier point differential and a top defense and a top 10 offense, you got

every bit as good of a chance as anybody else to go deep into the playoffs, but not having the U S bank stadium advantage there to start the playoffs. I mean, that's why this game was potentially big. That's why that game could be absolutely huge. So good stuff. Very curious about everybody's reaction to Manny's list. And let's get back to some of those questions that you all left here, questions and comments about yesterday's game. But I mean, I think that that's a very fair approach here and one thing we saw manning just a little bit is you know an injury to blake cashman can kind of make this not the same i wonder if there's any injuries in the secondary if that

would be problematic we also don't know where these teams are going to stand when they face them and we don't know what they're going to do with the trade deadline. Those are all questions that have to be answered. But I don't think moving the needle very far after yesterday would make any sense. I figured that you were going to mostly stay the course and you did. But if they lost at the end of the season to the Cardinals, then Seattle, then the Lions. We probably would be doing our post-season preview podcast talking about some of the weaknesses that had cropped up throughout the year. But 12-5 would be a dream season still compared to where we thought that they would be.

Let's see. I think it's Hannes. It might be pronounced differently. I'm sorry if it is. I get confused about reading and hearing all the KOC criticisms. He's highly successful with a franchise that wasn't when he took over. It was sort of successful-ish when he took over. Like it wasn't a travesty, but it was not like recently phenomenal.

Anyway, they had won a playoff game in 2019. He takes over over 2022 it's not like they were where the panthers are or something the point though about koc is and i tried to warn everybody manny when you get to 5 and 0 all of a sudden the microscope comes out and we start to zoom in because the details matter when it comes to, are you a good team? Are you a really good team or are you a Superbowl caliber team? And I think that we saw some stuff from Detroit that was Superbowl caliber. We saw some stuff from the Vikings that deserves to be nitpicked. I think Kevin O'Connell is one of the best coaches in the league, deserves the coach of the year right now, and sign your franchise up for another decade of this man as your coach because you can win a lot of games.

But in the right here, right now, third and four, you got to convert that. You can't ask as much out of your quarterback on that play. The two-point conversion, you got to find a way. You got the guys with the false starts, the timeouts, people lining up wrong. Those things do come back to being criticized on the coaching staff. The trick play. What was that? Yeah, I've had my ranch, Manny i've had i'm on two already about that yes yeah i mean it's it's just it's stuff like that again i've i've

kind of brought this up a few weeks in a row now with when it comes to koc is um oh mike evans looks like like he's grabbing his hamstring because it looks to be down for buccaneers that's not good for them um somebody's from the ravens is down too um anyway uh you know i've talked about this for a few weeks now with kevin o'connell of just like there's just times he's a very good coach but there are times where he's getting a little bit too happy with the pass button, especially like we saw in the Jets game where it seemed like every pass from Sam Darnold was just chucking it 40 yards down the field trying to get the big play when you have a lead, you have a double-digit lead,

and all you need to do is just control the clock. It doesn't mean hand the ball off three times and punt, but it just means keep the chains moving. Keep possession of the football. Milk this game away. Stuff like that. Again, the trick plays. Why are we trying to be too cute, especially in the situation yesterday?

Why are you calling that play in that moment when you're trailing in the game and this is a huge game. It's, you know, you, you maybe try those plays against an inferior opponent that you think you can maybe, you know, like maybe against Indianapolis, you try that. Maybe, I don't know if you really ever want to do those types of things ever. You know what I mean? Cause I think it's just being too cute and just keep it simple. It's just stuff like that. I think that is worth noting when it comes to kevin o'connell i don't think either one of us or neither one of us are calling for his job

we both think he's a very good head coach he's done a really nice job overall but i think to your point when you've had that success early on when you go 13 and four in your first year and you know you have some moments last year where maybe some situations situational football wasn't always always the best and you have some moments this year where you're kind of leaving your head scratching i think it's all that stuff is open to be discussed and and and talked about and listen i, I think it's the fact that this team is five and one and that we can kind of look at things and analyze it. I think that's good. I think we should be able to do that because,

like you have said many times over the last few weeks, the more games that they win, the bigger the microscope is, the more I think the better we feel about this team overall, the more games that they win. I mean, if they're, you know, nine and one going into Chicago on November 24th, that's that's going to be a huge game. I mean, it's going to be massive. It might be bigger than the game that we had yesterday, for all we know. I mean, it's just so and I think that's a good thing. And I think that we should be able to watch and observe this team play,

nitpick some things when necessary without, you know, I mean, we don't not everything has to be pie in the sky. I think, you know, it's basically what I'm getting at. Well, and also just analysis of football is always just so extreme where if you say i really don't like this approach to this particular thing it's why are you a hater or he should be fired or whatever that no i just i it's actually you said that it's a good thing it's to me it's a great thing it's the best it's the best when we can be prying apart all the details of football games because for so much of our time broadcasting together Manny it's been what are they going to do next offseason should they do

this in the draft by the week six I was going through this with Justin Jefferson and his career. How many times by this point in the season was a Justin Jefferson team in his career going, should we trade everybody at the deadline? 2020, 2021, 2023. I mean, that's four of his seasons so far. It's only really been 2022 where we weren't talking about if they should just sell off everything and tank. So this is a barrel fun for us. But at the same time, we are not going to watch a trick play like that or the third

and four execution or the penalties and go, no, it's fine because he's a good coach. Well, that would be very boring analysis and also just not honest analysis i also think that you know how there's a get back coach on the sideline where the coach is going out in the field and they always have a guy whose job it is to be like get back and they they grab them you always see that guy on tv grabbing the coach bringing him back kevin O'Connell needs a don't do that coach. They need to give me an earpiece up in the press box and have Kevin go, Hey, I'm thinking about running trick play here. And I go,

don't do that. And he's like, okay, all right, I'll just run a regular pass to Justin Jefferson and then they'll do it. And I will save the day. That's I will be the don't do that coach for Kevin O'Connell. I'll just give him the, like he can look up to me and like nope nope that's thumbs down okay we're good we're good

that's all they need uh that's my contribution um let's see matt b says uh with riser being a full participant today should we pencil them in for the starter on thursday i'd be good with that manny uh you know they talk about the the run blocking for Ingram being an advantage I did not think this team ran blocked run blocked very well and it's not like it's been game-changing life-altering Larry Allen out there run blocking need better pass protection it wasn't the worst game that he's had yesterday but that's not really the point. I would like to see Dalton Reisner on Thursday ice game. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick.

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that they keep texting me during the show. They're all about us days deals like $1,200 off any phone and plus $400 off any tablet. Terms apply. Visit uscellular.com for details. Yeah, I think, you know, not to just pile on Ed Ingram here. There's just instances that I see in games where it's just, you just kind of wonder, like, when is the play going to happen where it just blows everything up?

Because Ed Ingram whiffed on a guy, and Sam Darnold gets blasted, and then Sam Darnold gets injured, and he's out of the game. Almost. Almost yesterday. I mean, and now you've got Nick Mullins playing, and we all know that that's not good. If Nick Mullins is playing the rest of the season because Sam Donald got hurt,

the season's done. It's over. Right. I don't care. Zero sacks last year. I, he's, uh,

this is his thing. He passed protects. Well, so let him do that. I think you just, Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Oh, well, this is a good one for you, Manny. I think people know my feeling on this. Benjamin says, did anything you saw yesterday solidify or change your mind in terms of trades that they should try to make at the deadline?

What do you think? It didn't change anything for me because I think that they should still strongly consider making a move rather they would have won the game yesterday or not. I mean, I think you're in a very unique situation in that you're one of the two best teams in the conference and the other best team in the conference

just beat you yesterday. And even if you would have found a way to win that game, if they would have tried to kick a 70-yard field goal with Will Rikert and he drilled it and you won the game 32-31, I still would have came out of that game thinking, yeah, maybe they need to trade for an interior defensive lineman to get a little bit more pressure. Maybe they do need to make a trade for another corner to add some depth back there in case one of those guys gets hurt or because

Byron Murphy Jr. is struggling a little bit. I don't think it changed really anything for me because I think this is a unique opportunity for them to maybe go on a run here. And if you can make a move to help solidify a position to kind of help you out, I think there's nothing wrong with that and there's no shame in it. I agree with you.

If the opportunity presents itself do it uh jackie says our fans are so knee-jerk and terrified of failure enjoy the season folks we're five and one and uh lost by a hair to one of the best teams in the nfl we are about nine one eight and two r-e-l-A-X. One thing is that what would Vikings fans be if not terrified? I mean, would they understand the feeling of not like existing, watching football and not being terrified? I'm not sure that that's possible based on all the things that have happened. Enjoy the season, folks. Remember my mantra for the whole thing is let's just see what happens. And I have changed that a bit because they've raised the bar. And so the, let's just see what happens has now been raised to you have real

expectations. That's also scary because let's just see what happens. If it was every other week. Oh, that was a great game. That was a bad game, whatever JJ McCarthy's in the future. But that all of a sudden,

well, actually when you lose, it hurts a lot more because you are being talked about as one of the best teams in the NFL. So I think that that's what got people a little worked up is that six and all would have been so good for this team. Yeah. Not quite there. And by a hair is correct. Uh, Joel says the Vikings have faced defenses every game this year

that have been in the top 11 in past defense by epa per pass the next seven rank in the bottom half except the bears thoughts my thoughts are that manny when you pick the schedule that we factor this in uh because they they don't have a very difficult schedule coming up. And we could see Sam Darnold start to get some momentum and really get on a run here in the middle of the season because you're exactly right. They have faced a lot of very good defenses so far. And I don't know if I would say the Lions are a very good defense without Aiden Hutchinson.

That's a big factor there. But Darnold played really well in the game. They have playmaking guys. Some of them made plays. But overall, yeah, I mean, the Jets, San Francisco, they've played good defenses. I expect Sam Darnold to get on a roll here. I do too.

I think especially if you, you know, if you insert Dalton Reisner into the lineup and the pass protection improves, you get TJ Hawkinson back into the lineup here pretty soon, too. I think that's going to help with some of that short to intermediate stuff that maybe we're not seeing enough of out of that tight end position. Because I just don't think a lot of respect for Johnny Mudd. I just don't think he's that guy that can really do a lot of that. As we saw yesterday, four catches for eight yards is not going to do it. Having a guy like TJ Hawkinson back in the lineup,

I think will help with some of those like nine to 11 to 12 yard passes for Sam Darnold to where he doesn't feel like he has to push the ball down the field all the time. And I think that's an opportunity, especially against lesser opponents, defenses that aren't as good as what you've been seeing so far. I think that's an opportunity for this offense to get even better. Got to stay healthy, obviously, avoid the major injuries. You know, Aaron Jones, who was good again yesterday, man. I mean, you know,

continuing to have him as healthy as possible is going to be huge too. Uh, let's see. Hold on. Sorry. Uh, let me go to the, Oh, the fans are, uh, largely in favor of the trade. Uh, Deontay says, uh, everything's saying, make a splash trade, get the guy that'll send the team over the top lee 72 need the need to go full rams for a defensive tackle quacey can identify free agents but drafting is a different story i'm not just real quick quacey's drafted so few players that i really think i mean if you took a random sampling of rick spielman's draft picks you could make him look like the best or worst GM ever. What is, what is like 15 picks over the three years? And one of them is Jordan Addison. Anyway, they've also been really good in the undrafted free agent market. We don't need to get into that whole thing, but

I don't think you're running away from drafting people because you think the GM is bad at it. I think the reason that you're looking at free agents and trades is because your team is five and one and you're ready to win. And they did a great job in free agency. So just want to throw it out there. 2022 was a bad draft. People it's over. Let's let's just move on.

Forget about it. We've moved on. It's been pretty good since then. You know, Josh Metellus, who if scene works out, doesn't play again, made a big play yesterday for them as he's done all the time. Football's funny like that. The Drew Drew Bledsoe was the number one pick in the draft and Tom Brady was the sixth round pick and one of them was a better quarterback.

So I don't know. Football's just funny like that anyway uh let's see mike says uh still believe they should do what they can to add interior pressure rusher in the best corner they can get at the deadline if those things are possible uh steel horse travel says am i crazy to think darnold is a high-end backup. Well, let me see here. Sam Darnold currently has a 104 quarterback rating. That doesn't sound like a high-end backup to me. If you've looked around the league at the backups, Nick Mullins might be a high-end backup. I mean, the high-end backups, Marcus Mariota is a high-end backup. Mason Rudolph is a high-end backup. I think what

Sam Darnold has proved through these first couple of weeks is that he is a starting quarterback at the NFL. The issue sometimes though, is that players exist on this fringe where they're talented enough. And this might be Mariota, honestly, that if they're in the right offense and they have the right coach and the right receivers and the right line, that they can look like a very good starting quarterback. And if they're not, then they can look like a high-end backup. And I think that it's been proven over these six games with Sam Darnold that we can see exactly what happened in the past in his play. Now you can also see when he throws that ball to jefferson and he floats through the air in slow motion i want nfl films music behind that thing you go that's what didn't

happen in the past when sam darnold was playing so no i think he's clearly a starting quarterback on a good team that can win a lot of games and be right in a game i thought he i thought the way that he bounced back yesterday manny in second half, that's not something you expect from a backup quarterback. That's something you expect from a guy who is a starter on a team that's competing for something. I think rather it's the Vikings or somebody else, Sam, somebody is going to pay Sam Darnold a pretty good chunk of change next season. And he's going to, he's going to deserve Sam Darnold a pretty good chunk of change next season, and he's going to deserve it, and I think he will have earned it. And he will have earned an opportunity to be somebody's starting quarterback

next season, whether it's here or somebody else, who knows. But I think he's done enough in these first six games to justify, like, if you have him as your starting quarterback, if your roster is at the bare minimum solid, you can go in with Sam Darnold and compete and be all right. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think Sam Darnold is fine. I think overall he's been pretty good. And that's that. It's fine. I've got he's been pretty good and that's that it's, it's, it's fine. I've got no gripes with them right now, really. And I really think that it's a good point by the commenter earlier about the defenses that they faced and that are coming up, that there is a

opportunity here for Sam Darnold to really show how good he can be. Uh, and he's done that in spurts. He's done that for full games, sometimes for half games sometimes. And yesterday was a little more of a half game. But when you look at the end of the day and you have nine and a half yards per pass attempt and what an 80% completion percentage and your team put up, and I know they got the defensive touchdown, but X number of yards, the same number of yards as the Detroit lions. They need a little bit of play calling there not to do the trick play. They need a third down conversion. They need that interception not to happen, but those are things that would maybe go on. If your quarterback was Jared Goff instead of Darnold, that's an elite quarterback in the

league. Your quarterback is a good one. And they're continuing to elevate his play over a stretch that is now almost half of the season for Sam Darnold. And if we were to add up, how many good games has Darnold had versus bad? We just put them in those buckets. I think it's probably five good games and one bad game just against the Jets. And they found a way to win that one. If he even gives you 50-50 the rest of the way, they can beat some of these bad teams without great performances by Darnold. But if he even gives you 50-50, and at the end of the season, you're talking about 10 or 11 out of 17 really good games from your quarterback,

that's starting quarterback level stuff. And that would be totally worth what they paid him and give them an opportunity to potentially go deep in the playoffs. Just a Superbowl. Like RB two needs to be acres starting Thursday. I agree. The,

the holding penalty on Ty Chandler, you just went and there it is again. That's why Kevin O'Connell keeps running out. Aaron Jones, even if he's dragging a leg uh is hawk and cash playing thursday night hawk and cash is a 1980s movie with sylvester stallone and john claude van damme uh hawkinson i think yes cashman i think no for that one but uh you agree it's that cam acres should be in the game after this yeah i mean if if not why'd you trade for him why'd you bring him back you know i mean i think

i think the idea of bringing him back uh was that so he could be rb2 and he should be rb2 and you know maybe you can still mix in ty chandler in some spurts if you think you can hit him on a big explosive play some. He's got the capability of that. But, yeah, the holding call, the misses and pass protection that we've seen, you just can't have it. You need Sam Darnold to be healthy. You know what I mean? And you just got to have everybody clicking on all cylinders.

You got to have guys out there that are going to do what they need to do to be on the football field. So I think it makes all the sense in the world for camp makers to, to be out there in the backfield much more often than Ty Chandler at this point. And even though they made up for it, you can't wipe a 30 yard play off because you, and I think it was a blitzing, maybe linebacker safety. It wasn't like he got matched up with one of their big defensive linemen or something. They just need that.

And Cam Akers over his career has been a top notch pass protector. I'm sure that's one of the reasons that Kevin O'Connell likes him so much. I agree with Preston here. Cashman is the most important piece on the defense and the way Jonathan Grenard has been playing. But I definitely think that we saw that. Yep. They missed him yesterday big time.

Yeah, I mean, because he's just the head of the operation. He's like the manager out there. He gets the calls. He makes the changes. I got to think that maybe some of those blitzes would have been a little bit different or the adjustments would have been a little bit different. Ivan Pace is a guy who I would much rather have just playing with his hair on fire. Just go out there and don't think Eric Hendricks was kind of like that where Eric Hendricks,

when Anthony Barr could handle all of the things, uh, that they were, that Mike Zimmer was asking him to intellectually allowed Eric Hendricks to just go play fast. And that was a great dynamic for them, which I think is a great dynamic with Cashman and Ivan Pace Jr. But when he's out, I, they, you're just a different defense. So, uh, as far as his performance coming back from the turf toe, whether it's Thursday or the next week, I'm guessing it's the next week. You're going to see, I think a different feel to the defense when that happens. Let me scroll. Let me scroll. Let's see. I'm trying to get to the point where people are reacting to what you were, your, your picks. There's a lot of back and forth commentary. Sometimes it's sort of funny about how um this is actually funny

Derek says 22 22 23 and 2024 Addison and Reichardt as far as the draft uh Jalen Naylor looks like a pretty good uh draft pick also you know who else looks like a pretty good draft pick or at least the use of one TJ Hawkinson that looks like a pretty good use of it too. And if that's what they end up doing with their next year's draft pick, I think that's why I'm comfortable with it, Manny, because you can get players on contracts that will help you win right now. And you've got the cam, the cap space to be able to use it that way.

Jay says, whoever comes out of this division will have earned it and will be battle tested hoping it's uh this is a lions fan lions of course but i think the competition benefits both the lions and vikings f the bears in green bay that's funny jay um how would you do it right now manny we got to kind of update this each week of the final standings for the nfc north well how do you think that that would end up playing out? Well, right now I've got the Lions finishing in first place, the Vikings finishing second, Packers third,

and the Bears finishing fourth, which is pretty much, I think last week that's how I had it as well. Maybe I had the Vikings finishing in first place and the Lions second. But, yeah, I mean, I think the Bears, I think this division is really good and deep. I think all four teams are good and competitive. I still think the Bears are going to come back to earth a little bit.

Their schedule just gets tougher. But them coming back to earth might mean them being like eight and nine or nine and eight. And I think for where they're trying to go, you know, improving off of last year, I don't think that's a bad place for them to be, considering that they'd be starting a rookie quarterback for the whole season. So if the Bears are nine and eight and finishing last place in the NFC North, I don't think that's anything for Bears fans to be upset about or ashamed of. All right. Let's do a-in on my pickums for tonight's monday night football game as it stands right now and see how we're going and we'll talk

about underdog fantasy for a second and then i want your all-time rams before we check out for the evening so here's what i had on underdog for tonight i had lamarar Jackson lower than 231 and a half passing yards. Baker Mayfield higher than 259.5. Isaiah likely higher than 26.5 receiving yards and Justin Tucker higher than 2.5 extra points. So let's take a check in for how that's going right now. Lamar Jackson is 121 yards passing on six throws and two touchdowns so I just need one more extra point from Justin Tucker to hit on that one Isaiah likely has one catch for 10 yards I feel pretty good about that he's only got to get to 27 and what is my other one Baker Mayfield so how is he doing if they're playing from behind. It's got 133 yards. That's almost exactly halfway there to 259.5.

Maybe I will hit on this one, and that will be exciting. And you can play along, too, with our pick'ems over at Underdog Fantasy. It's something we've been doing all season, and you guys have done a great job using the promo code PURPLE. Sign up and play. It helps the show. It's a ton of fun, easiest place to play fantasy sports. You know how long it took me to put that together.

Manny about 11 seconds is how long it took. I scrolled, I saw, I picked, and then I was playing and you can do that too. So we'll see. I might, I might go four for four there.

And if you go five for five, you can win 20 times your money with the pick-ems as well. Also, just a reminder, NBA season is kicking up and Underdog Fantasy has plenty of deals and free picks and offers and things like that for the NBA season kicking off. You'll want to play along when you go to Wolves games, of course.

So make sure again that you sign up with the code purple to claim your special pick and first time deposit offer up to $1,000 in bonus cash must be 18 or older terms apply concern with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. Now, Manny, I am extremely curious to know who your all-time favorite Rams are. Fire away. I want to hear this. There are so many options.

Yeah, there are a ton of options, and there's some guys who I really love as players that I am not including on this list. Some guys who, a couple guys who have jackets, gold jackets in Canton as well that I'm leaving off this list um some guys who a couple guys who have jackets gold jackets in canton as well that i'm leaving off this list but uh number five uh is a guy who left on this list that uh does have a gold jacket one of the greatest running backs of all time eric dickerson um just uh just an all-time great uh kind of had a very unique running style kind of you know when agent peterson came into the league he drew some comparisons to eric dickerson just with kind of the upright running style that he had and um ed was just uh one of the one of the one of the best or one of the all-time greats i mean the all-time season from eric dickerson but more than anything

players now have kind of their standard stuff they wear sleeves they wear leggings whatever it is where's a guy with goggles where is a guy with goggles where is the one thing that somebody has that they wear that makes them stand apart? Eric Dickerson had those. I don't, I wasn't quite enough to see a lot of Eric Dickerson when I was growing up. I believe I remember, if I'm not mistaken, he had a very brief run with the Raiders at the end of his career. And I kind of remember how sad that was. But I mean, of course, one of the guys that you would put on the mount

rushmore all-time rams eric dickerson uh great neck roll too had they oh yes yeah it just kind of flopped around what it was even doing there it just flopped around as he ran it didn't protect anything or help him it was just a vibe that's what i'm saying players don't just wear random crap on their bodies just because anymore they like have a reason for it uh number four there's a couple of reasons why this guy is is on my list of favorite rams of all time one because he actually had some decent moments as a as a player uh quarterbacking the Rams in the late 80s. It's Jim Everett. Oh, really?

Yeah, Jim Everett's one of my favorites. I mean, everybody remembers the Jim Rome thing. Obviously, it's kind of unfortunately, that's what Jim Everett is mostly remembered for is the Jim Rome incident. But, you know, Jim Everett took the Rams to the NFC Championship game. I think it was 1989 and a really good season that year with the Rams. You know, by the time he left and went to New

Orleans, wasn't quite as good towards the end of his career, but I played really well during his time in LA with the old Rams in the eighties. And he also follows me on Twitter as well. Really? Wow. Okay. He does. So that's my kind of thing. Is that your most famous follow on Twitter? The most famous person who follows you? Might be, yeah. I think it might actually be the most famous person

that follows me on Twitter. I didn't think who mine would be. Okay. Wade Phillips is definitely up there. Once upon a time, Wade Phillips accidentally blocked me. And then I had Wadeade phillips on my radio show and convinced him to unblock me so wade phillips then not that followed me so there you go there's the wade phillips on twitter uh okay so jim everett i mean he was huge arm big giant dude and made a huge mistake going to the new orleans saints because before drew breeze there

was no more comical franchise i think than them they had so many close runs with the don't patrol and then they were just a joke the entire time that he was there uh that was too bad but um also i mean what jim what jim rome did then would just get you so fired now by far and kind of tells us a little bit where we've gone with sports talk that that used to be like an acceptable thing to do. And I was on Jim Everett's side and 100%. Number three. Number three is a guy in Canton and absolutely deserves to be there one of the greatest offensive linemen of all time was a heisman trophy candidate as an offensive tackle at ohio state i think it was the year if i'm not mistaken it was the year that eddie george his

ohio state teammate actually won the heisman uh but orlando pace one of the all-time great left tackles in the history of the sport. Good guy, great player. And, you know, the fact that an offensive lineman can be nominated for the Heisman Trophy is just absurd. But I think it also goes to show you just how incredibly good he was at Ohio State and obviously ended up being a great player in the nfl as well and of all the players that you know get credit for the whole you know greatest show on turf and everything else i mean there were so many weapons and everything else the offensive line just doesn't get really talked about uh but when it came to orlando pace his size and his

ability to move at that size there are things that derisaw does that remind me of that um there's a clip that's going around of derisaw flipping around back the wrong way to block somebody that he just sort of sees escape and head toward his quarterback. And it results in a huge first down for Sam Darnold. That's the type of stuff that Orlando pace used to be able to do just anything that rock solid guy over there in left tackle position. So no disagreement there that he goes under the category of guys that I just wish I saw more of like on television, his career,

because I feel this way about Andre Johnson when he was going to the hall of fame. And I just wish that there had been more games that I got to see because of the lack of red zone and the lack of, you could go to whatever random internet website that streams the game that might be illegal. Uh, we just, just didn't have as much of that. Number two on the list. Number two is Kurt Warner. And the reason why Kurt Warner is one of my favorite Rams ever is you literally, I know they turned his story into a movie. It was a pretty good movie, by the way, Underdog, a couple of years ago. Yeah, it was pretty good.

I enjoyed it. I didn't see it. I'll check it out. It was a little on the cheesy side, but i enjoyed it i didn't see it i enjoyed it it was it was a little on the cheesy side but you know i enjoyed it it was it was entertaining they probably i think they did mike martz a little bit of a disservice in that movie they kind of portrayed him as being not a very nice guy but um i don't think mike martz was happy about his portrayal in that movie either but um but still like i know they turned kurt Kurt Warner story into a movie, but you couldn't,

you couldn't make his story up, man. Like the, the way he just came out of nowhere and only was playing because the guy in front of him got hurt. And then to step in, be the MVP of the league, be the Superbowl MVP and have a season for the ages like that. And then turn around a couple of years later and win another MVP, almost win another Super Bowl, then to kind of revitalize his career in Arizona and get them to a Super Bowl. Just a remarkable story. I know he had that down

stretch when he went to the Giants, where it kind of looked like his career was going to be over at that point. But his run in St. Louis for those couple of years before he left there was really unheard of and just an awesome run for him. So Kurt Warner's number two on my list. With Kurt Warner, I'm glad that it happened then and not now because everyone would have ruined it the same way that they did with Brock Purdy last year. They would have just ruined it. It would have been, he's not even that good. It's just his receivers.

It's just Orlando Pace's left tackle. It's just a Marshall Falk. He's not even any good that it would have been a hundred weeks in a row until they actually won the super bowl of people complaining that it was fake. And he wasn't actually that good because he wasn't drafted and nobody had a draft grade on them and whatever. They just would have been miserable to watch that team. And instead we just let it play out and didn't have all that noise and constant questioning and everything else. We're like whoa this guy's amazing and that was it and sometimes manny i wish for simpler times i wish that i could go to a ballpark and have a ticket that got me in the game simpler times instead of having to download an app but the 5g isn't working you walk into the gate we dealt with that with the links a little bit uh the other

night so number one on your list my number one favorite Ram of all time is really couldn't be anybody else. It's Torrey Holt. I absolutely loved watching Torrey Holt run routes, make rig heat. The guy was just an absolute machine. Wasn't a super huge wide receiver. I mean, Justin Jefferson's obviously all world and amazing, but I think the way Justin Jefferson is so detail-oriented with the way he runs routes, the way he catches the football, it reminded me a lot of what Torrey Holt was at his peak with the Rams. Obviously with Kurt Warner, but later on when Mark Bolger

was throwing in footballs in the mid-2000s, he was absolutely incredible and without question my favorite Ram of all time. I love that. The ball tracking, always and forever. Yeah. Really, really the ball tracking is where anything that gets put up in the air, and this is where we that gets put up in the air. And this is where we shouldn't penalize quarterbacks who put the ball in the air for their receivers to go get it.

And that's what Kurt Warner did with no fear for Torrey Holt down the field. One of the most exciting players. I always liked him a little more than Isaac Bruce for that reason. I just, but of course, Isaac Bruce is a phenomenal player. There's so much here. So I'm just going to run through a few. If we go way back, Roman Gabriel, one of the all-time great quarterbacks, six foot seven, super fun, competitive quarterback way back in the day, fearsome foursome Deacon Jones, Merlin Olson. Uh, my, some of my youngest memories are merlin olsen doing color analysis on tv but they were just phenomenal for many years and then you get into the era you're talking about which is when i we were both growing up you had anias williams was a great story game changing

player for me marshall falk was one of my probably five favorite players of that entire era because he could do everything. And I just remember how much they talked about running backs in the future all going to look like Marshall Falk. And it turns out that they don't because you can't do all that stuff. And Aaron Jones sometimes reminds me of him. When he ran a deep over like wait a minute how that's a marshall falk type of thing you almost never see a running back running

an over route and catching a ball full speed on the run the way that aaron jones did uh so he goes up there dexter mclean mclean uh london fletcher the undersized linebacker who was just a beast uh for them and then you kind of have the dark ages a little bit of the rams and the most recent rams andrew whitworth another left tackle good broadcaster really smart guy and a mountain over there and i always thought that the shift in that franchise from they are a joke, they drafted at the top case Keenum was their quarterback to what they're the top offense. I think it started when they signed Andrew Whitworth over at, uh, at left tackle. So this game, this game, I think is, is probably going to give us a lot of entertainment.

I think the Vikings should win. Uh, I will clearly pick the Vikings to win're the better team in this game, but I also do not think that you should completely dismiss the Rams just because they've had some tough matchups. They barely lost to the Packers. They're coming off of a win. They're getting a little bit healthier and they have one of those great coaches in the league. So anyway, great stuff, Manny. Great stuff, chat. And we'll have Jeremiah Searles, the usual run up to the game as condensed as we can make it.

And then the post game from the press box in Los Angeles, if I can find it. That was a discussion at TCO Performance Center today. Who will be able to actually find the press box in LA and get out of it because it's not easy so anyway great stuff manny thanks so much for your time as always man appreciate it you got it

football football and uh thank you all so much and we will catch you all in the very near future see in your future. See ya. Football.