Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Assessing the NFC North after Sunday's games with Brian Murphy

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Brian Murphy and Matthew Coller talk about the results from Sunday's games and how they impact the Vikings adn the NFC playoff race Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. One more podcast on the road, then I fly back to Minnesota. But joining me, nonetheless, is Brian Murphy for Monday Morning Murph. And the question to start the show, Murph, is, you know, on the Thursday night game, everybody's up late and the emotions are high and there are a lot of reactions to a loss like the vikings had but now that you've had the weekend you sat on the couch and enjoyed some football how much of a reaction should we have to the vikings losing to the rams have you cooled off have you changed your mind where do you stand on that loss?

Well, I wasn't that hot on the loss anyway, as if it was, you know, season altering. I think the news that came out about Christian Derrissaw on Friday, once the team returned, that he'll be lost for the season because of knee surgery was certainly sobering and cast the loss in a little bit more of a harsher light because that's obviously you don't just replace your star left tackle midstream without there being some disruptions either to the existing roster your scheme or will it light a fire on the on the front office to to pursue depth on the offensive line because of necessity? I still feel like the Vikings are, look, the Vikings are in great shape. I mean, they're five and two.

But look at where the schedule goes. And we had talked about this starting in August. If you mark the season through that first seven-game stretch ending with a Thursday night game in Los Angeles, five and two is a great place to be. I mean, look at the teams they're facing here in the next few weeks. The Colts don't seem to have a quarterback who's NFL-worthy. You've got the Jaguars and Titans, who are barely NFL teams. Granted, it's on the road. You know, you're in a situation where you can make some hay pretty quickly. I don't know if it's going to be enough to keep pace with Detroit right now, but I don't feel as bad.

I think the Vikings are positioned pretty well here. Plenty of things to criticize and scrutinize because I think Thursday night's loss was almost a replica of the Sunday loss to Detroit four days earlier in terms of defensive lapses and some curious drought in offensive performance. But I don't feel like today I feel any worse or angrier about the Vikings than I did maybe Friday morning. If anything, there's more opportunity right now because of where they're at in their schedule. I think that your response to what happened when it came to your article, which people could see over at purpleinsider.com, was really based around the fact that if you had said at the beginning of the season that this team would

be five and two at this point everyone would have thrown a party but the way that it happened they raised the expectations which made the two losses more frustrating but because you know that instead of being in third place now in the nfc north you would be in first place if you pull off these wins and the other part of it is that when the game is winnable and you don't come through against Detroit and Los Angeles, those games were there to be won. I think you can argue, okay, well, they only lost two games by 12 points. I don't think we should be pushing the entire franchise into a lake and starting over again. But actually, it makes it harder, I think, on Vikings fans

because you were right there in both of these games with a chance to be 7-0 at this point. And I think I gave you this stat not too long ago, Murph, but teams that go 7-0, half of them end up in the Super Bowl. So we're not there with the Minnesota Vikings. Instead, it's 5-2. After watching the games yesterday, where would you now put the Vikings in the NFC? Because at 5-0, there was no argument. They're at the top, and it's them in 1A with the Lions, but the Lions

had a loss, and the Vikings didn't. That was easy math. Now the Lions are blowing people out without even passing the football and uh you know the packers with an impressive win over jacksonville though jordan love got injured washington is coming suddenly san francisco after that win because it was a pretty solid win over dallas they're not dead yet where if you were power ranking nfc where would you have the vikings well i'd certainly have them in the top five, but maybe four slash five. You know, and let's let we can drill deeper because so much of analyzing the NFC is analyzing the NFC North. Right. So I don't think there's any question the Lions are the premier team in the NFC.

And I'm not willing to say the NFL because the Chiefs are still undefeated and they've won 13 straight games and are the reigning AFC champions. So you can nitpick their offense and what they're not doing and not scoring, but they're still the class of the league. But I think Detroit's performance yesterday against Tennessee, a terrible Tennessee team. But they did what, you know, an elite team is supposed to do against a terrible team at home, which is ragdoll them and make it an emptier bench in the third quarter. And it wasn't just offense. They didn't do a ton offensively because they didn't have to. I mean, Tennessee gave them field position drive after drive. Their special teams dominated. They've got so many weapons. They've got trick plays. Look, they are the class of the NFC until proven otherwise. It's the division now that's shaping up.

There's still so much uncertainty about it because, as you mentioned, Love goes out with an injury. Matt LaFleur sounded pretty pessimistic about what that may be from a short to long-term standpoint. And boy, that's going to be a heck of a matchup next week at Lambeau Field with Detroit and Green Bay. Should give us some clarity. Chicago, I watched that game against Washington. It was an ugly game until the final couple minutes when it became a masterpiece or an all-timer. And you're right, Caleb Williams looked awful for three-plus quarters. He was able to help mount a drive, but you got an offensive guard or an offensive lineman trying to play William the Refrigerator Perry and fumbling.

And then you've got a cornerback chirping the crowd while the Hail Mary's coming, and Jaden Williams cracked ribs, injured ribs and all, heaves the ball 75 yards after having like two days to drop back and avoid pressure. It was an all-time play. I mean, that was a real cold cock to the bears so they're four and three feeling probably awful about themselves today i still put the vikings you know as the second best team in the in the nfc north but as you mentioned washington's for real they're six and two uh philadelphia seems to have righted their ship uh i'm you know that's still a a playoff hardened

veteran team i'm not necessarily surprised they were able to put together three quality wins despite the shenanigans of their head coach um i think you know philadelphia and san francisco are going to be there at the end uh some hay. It's Detroit's conference. I think Minnesota is there, but they need to take advantage of their soft schedule. And then San Francisco, Washington, and hey, don't sleep on the Atlanta Falcons and Kirk Cousins alone atop the lowly NFC South. I just feel like the Vikings really need to win these next three games. No excuses. I mean, they have to win these games and then that puts them at 10 and two.

And then again, I'm always one of these incremental guys. Let's see what happens after this stretch. Let's see what happens after this game. I'd like to really see how they adjust without Derrissaw. They have some things to clean up defensively because there has been a blueprint put out there now on how to beat Brian Flores. I don't think these next three opponents are capable of doing that, but it doesn't mean that they're not taking hard notes here. Just going two and one in this stretch isn't good enough. They need to run the table on these next three games. I feel the same way because even though the rest of the nfc there isn't a bunch of detroit lions caliber teams there is a bunch of caliber

teams that are similar to the vikings now uh both in their record their point differential the underlying stats whatever you want to look at washington philadelphia has turned a corner to me and they've really figured out where Saquon Barkley fits in this entire thing. And that's kind of a scary notion. And the Bengals aren't a great team. I thought at some point the Bengals would flip a switch and become a great team, but they're just not. You were my AFC pick for the Super Bowl, unfortunately. Well, my NFC pick for the Super bowl lost to the 49ers last night and i think that that

um maybe maybe both of us should be ashamed but uh just when it when it comes to um that team i i'm just uh i'm i'm feeling like they have a chance to be the scariest team at the end if philadelphia continues to come together their defense defense has improved, and where Saquon Barkley is, their offensive line is still pretty good, and Jalen Hurts is playing great football. We kind of left him for dead after last year. Like, ah, you know, that guy, he's just, maybe he just had one good year, but then he's playing great yesterday against Cincinnati.

So I kind of slide them up into the maybe they're equal with the Vikings when initially I would have had them a couple notches down. And I said, I don't really think that they're a contender. Washington is very interesting because they're not supposed to be here. They're like the Vikings. They were supposed to be the team of next year, and yet they're here. And with that win, the whole storyline changes because if they lose to chicago it's like

okay well washington is just kind of another team but they pull it off at the end and now their record's pretty good and with chicago i think that they're going to go on a slide here murph what what did you think after watching yesterday i thought that chicago to stay anywhere in this discussion of being an nfc playoff team needed that win because they have a really tough schedule coming up. And with Caleb Williams, we're just going to overreact to every single game from rookies. They have ups and downs, but I was watching it thinking Brian Flores is probably going to have a field day with this guy with just not getting rid of the football, not seeing the field. I think we're going to see a little redemption from the defense

in the next four weeks or so for the Vikings against these quarterbacks. But with Williams, every time he convinces you that, oh my gosh, he must be great, then he reminds you that he's a rookie and we don't really know yet where he's going to be. And correct me if I'm wrong, that's who they play November 23rd. So when I'm talking about this three-game run the table, the Bears are the fourth team on that, right? Am I on this?

Yes. Looking for it. All right, well, now I'm going to say they need to run the table on four because you just reminded me of that. I wasn't thinking past Thanksgiving. But, yeah, it was almost as if this was the typical Bears that we've seen forever, unable to score, unable to sustain drives, unable to protect their quarterback.

It just looked like a typical Chicago offensive muddled kind of reaction or game and performance. And, you know, even though Washington was held, what, four straight field goals at one point, Daniels was throwing the ball and making big plays despite, you know, obviously dealing with a rib injury. I'm sure he had some pain meds beforehand that helped him perform. But it just felt like the Bears really were going to escape with a cheap win

because they played about seven or eight minutes of decent ball. And really, you know, they fumbled at the two-yard line because they got really greedy and too smart for their own good by handing the ball off to a lineman. I was really critical almost of Washington because I thought, all you need to do is get a first down here and you can really bleed the clock out. And granted, it was a measurement. It was close.

Daniel scrambled. But I thought, you know, that's where a real granted, it was a measurement. It was close. Daniel scrambled. But I thought, you know, that's where a real true veteran quarterback makes a difference is that you're going to pick up a first down or two and just kneel down the clock. They didn't do that. They ended up giving the ball back to the Bears in relatively good field positions. So Williams makes a play or two. And next thing you know, they redeem themselves and convert the two-point conversion. And you have that sense, well, this could be a real momentum kind of victory for Chicago. And, you know, they would have been better off just losing conventionally than the way that they lost. and the storyline behind it and the beauty of what Daniels did to create space, to create time and heave a ball 75 yards down the field

and have your home stadium erupt like that. I think Washington's going to ride that high for a long time. I mean, that's a game they probably shouldn't have won, didn't necessarily play that well. But the way they win, the way, you know, Hail Marys can have a huge effect on a locker room, both in Chicago and in Washington. So I think however Chicago responds next week will probably define their season. And you're right. There's not much to really hang your hat

on with Williams yet. So I think like, you know, the Bears are, you know, 4-3, but feel 3-4. And they may fall out of the NFC North as the juggernaut division right now. And because it looks like at least, you know, the Packers have some solutions behind Jordan Love that they could sustain their momentum. At least, you know, they've been able to do that without Love most of this season. Yeah, I mean, just to go back to Chicago, they do have a good defense and a coach who

has actually given Kevin O'Connell problems defensively almost every time that they've played, even in years that they were more rebuildy or even tanky, they still, with Matty Buflus' defense, did not make it completely easy on the Vikings' offense. So that's not one that I look at and go, oh yeah, okay, that'll be just easy, right down to win there. I even think 3-1 in the next four games still puts you at 8-3, which is not a bad place to be down the stretch with some difficult opponents i don't even know what i'm supposed to

think of seattle the vikings have to go to seattle what arizona look great yeah right arizona's the same way with those teams one week they look really good arizona looked really good yesterday but arizona also can score 10 points and lose and look tremendously bad. Uh, when you have a scrambling kind of wild quarterback who throws down the field that happens to, uh, the Cardinals. Um, but the schedule doesn't really feature a lot of monsters, uh, coming up at, at a really any point, I'm just thinking with a team like Chicago, they seem to always find a way to split with that team. Iberflues is not a joke. I'm just really curious about how Caleb Williams

is going to bounce back from a game where he struggled so much. I mean, even into the fourth quarter, he's averaging two yards a pass. And also maybe Dan Quinn is a pretty good football coach. You know, he went to the Super Bowl with Atlanta when he's with Dallas. They're pretty good. And also maybe Dan Quinn is a pretty good football coach. You know, he went to the Super Bowl with Atlanta when he's with Dallas, they're pretty good. And then, you know, he goes to Washington and they've turned things around. As far as the Packers go, Murph, they were able to win with Malik Willis for a couple of games with Jordan Love out, and they've got all sorts of weapons. I mean, the running back Josh Jacobs has had a really good year for them. They switched him out for Aaron Jones. So far it's worked out

for them. They've got a bunch of receivers. They've got a good tight end. They, they have a lot to work with there. And I think one of the two or three best coaches in the entire NFL, or maybe top five coaches in the NFL in Matt LaFleur. Still, though, they're going to be asking a backup quarterback potentially for a decent amount of time here if Jordan Love is seriously hurt. Where do you think that team will go if Love does not come back in the next week or two? Well, I thought it was more problematic when he was lost in week one. Then you're like, well, you know, what's Malik Willis going to do? Their season may be lost depending on the severity of this knee sprain. He was able to hold for it, and Love came back and had a great game, certainly a great second half against the Vikings,

and had really pretty much caught fire from there. I don't think it's as devastating. I'd be curious to know, I keep hearing these ominous quotes, we haven't had a real firm diagnosis. It's a groin strain. Like, I didn't know groin strains could be as devastating as maybe knee ligaments. So I'm curious as to why this feels like it could be more devastating than the week one injury, how long it lasts. But this Packers team is kind of, despite all the love's downfield prowess and playmaking and, you know, magical moments and ability to really, really put fear in the heart of defenses, it's a team built on the run. I mean, as you mentioned, Josh Jacobs is the reason this team is humming. And I feel like, you know, we're getting into November, we're getting into November, we're getting into December. These are the times teams don't like to go to Lambeau Field. They're going to have, you know, we're going to know everything you need to know about Malik Willis and the Packers this Sunday, because obviously the Lions are rolling in. So that's

going to be a real tone setter for the rest of the season for them, at least, you know, whether they have confidence that they can stay in the top half of this really, really intense division. I'm not that concerned or down on the Packers. I think they can weather this. But again, are we talking two to three weeks or are we talking six to eight? I think that's where, when that news clarifies and becomes more obvious, that you can make that kind of assessment. If you've got a longer-term injury with Jordan Love and they get shellacked at home by Detroit next week, now they're probably on a downslide. But I still feel like I'm not really willing to pull the pin on the Packers yet,

just because they are not so tied to Jordan Love because they've already proven they can win or at least maintain with Malik Willis. And they've also shown that they're a run first team that can really set a tone that way. So maybe they win some 16 to 13 games while Love is recuperating and take advantage of the slop and sleet at Lambeau. Although I don't know if winter is ever going to come to the Midwest, but if it does, that's where, you know, that's where an advantage of playing at Lambeau field can really pay dent. You know, it can get you a winter too.

Whereas other stadiums may not. Hold on. Let me silence my phone real quick. So I can tell you that us days are back at U.S. Cellular again. Exclusive offers just for customers just to say thanks. Right now, you'll get $1,200 off any phone plus $400 off any tablet. Amazing, right? Yeah, but my family is so excited about their new devices 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. This year in particular, it feels like the gap between the good teams and the bad teams is extremely, extremely wide. So it may depend just on who they play and how many games, as you mentioned, but who they play. The fact that they're playing Detroit, that is going to be a really difficult road

for the Green Bay Packers because of the way that Detroit is playing. But I also do think that Willis is maybe better than we thought. And I don't really trust Tennessee's evaluation abilities because they've let AJ Brown and Derek Henry go. That franchise is just a complete mess. So it's, it wouldn't shock me if they just picked the wrong quarterback and went with Will Levis. And it actually turned out that Malik Willis was better,

but I also think that they were pretty gimmicky when they had Willis in there. The first time that they were running just a bunch of different handoffs and confusion and things like that that they put on tape, he's going to have to be a pure quarterback at some point. I mean, his running is really, really excellent, but I think that opponents will be a little more prepared as opposed to shocked, kind of like the Josh Dobbs thing where the Vikings just sort of shocked the Falcons and shocked the Saints because they didn't know what Dobbs was going to do. And then, you know, it started to wear out after that.

Is it going to be the same story with Malik Willis? And as far as the Detroit Lions go, I know that it was Tennessee. And it was really actually quite funny because Mason Rudolph at the beginning of that game is kind of hucking it around. You're going, wait, is this going to be a game today? And then it just was not a game. Two kick returns or one kick return, one punt return for touchdown. The kick return starts to catch on. It looks like a little bit around the league, which is nice to see as the season has gone along.

But they ran over them they played great defense against them and it was like a pre-season game uh over the tennessee titans and what i've been thinking about a lot murph that i don't know how much i've ever thought about in the past but the fact that there's 17 games has made me think a lot about how tough the road is each week and how that impacts you because think about the vikings playing against detroit how hard that game was how kind of tense and emotional that game was and then you got to get on a plane and fly to la and then play an la team that gets his players back and and they got to stay at home and all that you know what i mean i think about that

stuff a lot uh and with detroit that was like a bye week I mean they didn't even have to dress starters to win that game and they could have their starter on the sideline handed hookers in in the fourth quarter I think that there's an effect of that for Detroit more than it says how powerful they were I think we already know that but when you get easy weeks like this I think it really helps you in the long run well the Vikings get the Titans in two weeks so I mean that that could uh at home or no no they're in Nashville but I mean I just I just feel like you know because the divisions are already locked up with the AFC South I mean you're the Vikings are going to get that patsy too now granted it might be a little different because it's on the road, but I do feel like, yes, the schedule makers did no favors to the Vikings, sending them to London again, making them play a Thursday night game on the road, on the West Coast after a really tough division loss at home.

But then look what the schedule makers have handed them for the next three weeks. The Colts at home, Jaguars on the road, Titans on the road, stumbling Bears. I mean, you've got, yes, you've got, you know, Arizona and Seattle, I think are both 4-4. So as you were mentioning earlier, which team's going to show up in three, four weeks, we don't know. You've got the Falcons coming here. At least they're facing, if Kirk Cousins and the Falcons are for real,

at least you've got them at home, and we and the Falcons are for real, at least you got them at home, and we know how charged the building's going to be there, you're better off playing them at home than you are in Atlanta, so I don't, you know, it's fine to lean on the unfairness of it all, and look, you know, the NFL is not going to give up a revenue stream of Thursday night just because players complain about it. It's sad, but it's true. If there's a nickel to be found, the NFL will stomp your grandmother to get it. And that's just the world that we live in. And every team has to play Thursday night. Now, every team doesn't have to play Thursday night on the road on the West Coast, for sure. But every team plays Thursday night. And the NFC North gets

to play the Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars. So everybody's getting that cupcake on their schedule. So the Vikings can get themselves well here in the next three weeks and at least move on from any scheduling disadvantages that they've had. I think that's probably the biggest takeaway from that game more than, oh, wow, the Lions are really strong. We already knew that. And then most people power ranked them either number one or number two in the league. But Tennessee is really, really down hard.

That franchise is in a full tank and type of rebuild mode. I think that there's two teams clearly in the NFL that are by far the worst. And I think it's Tennessee and the Carolina Panthers, the Patriots. I was happy to see them yesterday find a way with a journeyman backup quarterback, Jacoby Bursette. We always on this show root for the journeyman backup quarterbacks and poor Aaron Rodgers, who's left. No, no, no, no, no, not poor. No, you're right. Yeah, I was sarcasm, Murph, aaron rogers uh but he was talking about

being in the darkness uh yesterday and he just and the one thing i will say is i'll miss how hilarious it's been to watch aaron rogers fail that has been pretty good entertainment uh recently but what a failure it was hey you know what they should just get several more of Aaron Rodgers' old friends from the 2010 team to come back or whatever. Jordy Nelson at age 47, can he come out there and run some routes too? That'll solve it. Maybe they should fire another couple of coaches for Aaron. That'll solve it.

Anyway, you said you read my piece this morning about, I don't know if you said that on or off the air, about the things that went wrong over these last two games. The title of the article, which Vikings problems for the last two games are concerning going forward. And I wrote about the things that have been issues and the potential fixes, or is it fixable? How much of this from the last two games in your mind, Murph, is fixable? Well, you got to start with the penalties and that has been plaguing them all season long. We've been harping on it every week. It plagued them last season. Pre-snap penalties, third down defensive penalties, just really a lot of lazy penalties. I mean, you know, just holding penalties that are just lazy grabs.

And O'Connell's been, you know, giving lip service to this for weeks. So I'd be curious, like, what's he going to do about this? Not so much because we're not going to see what they're doing behind closed doors, either on the field, whether it's fundamentals, whether it's drilling, but is there a discipline aspect to it? You know, I'm not saying you should be benching Stephon Gilmore or some of your better players because they're committing bad penalties at bad times. But, you know, is there a kangaroo court in the locker room that can at least make, you know, there's got to be some accountability here because you can't just keep preaching,

we need to clean this up and I need to do better. And this is on me. And you know, that's not working clearly. And this is on O'Connell. This is his biggest challenge yet, I believe. And that is cleaning up the mistakes and the glaring weaknesses that have been exposed. And he can farm some of that out to Brian Flores because he's got his issues to deal with on defense. But how many times have the Vikings been late getting a call in, burning timeouts in the first quarter, false starts, illegal formations? I mean, these are penalties that add up over time and cost you, you know, second and two becomes second and seven, which becomes, you know, third and seven if you're incomplete. You become more predictable, more one-dimensional.

All of this, it accumulates over the course of a game. That's what I'm really concerned about most is we're seven games, eight weeks into this season, three years into this regime. You shouldn't still be harping on penalties like that. That's the biggest concern I have. I mean, you can get into the, what did Detroit and Los Angeles either expose or take advantage of? Again, you're talking two major elite quarterbacks in Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford, ironically, big blockbuster trademades, found ways to carve up the Vikings. Now, you've got Trevor Lawrence is still a threat, but I don't see him putting fear into Brian Flores.

Anthony Richardson looks like a mess right now. He may be too tired to play next week. Who knows? You've got whoever, Levitz. I couldn't name three people on the Tennessee Titans, and I'm sure you'll hold me to that one day. But these are games that the defense can get well at. It's a game where you could almost make the kind of mistakes the Vikings have been making

and get away with it, but that's not good enough. I mean, I want to see a two- or three-penalty game out of them. That's what I want to see most is cleaning up the penalties, tightening up defensively, and really taking advantage of struggling quarterbacks, non-elite quarterbacks, elite quarterbacks who are struggling. It's all right there in front of them. Now, the Vikings under O'Connell have kind of bounced around in terms of total penalties over the couple of years here. They're in the top five heading into this week. So I'll have to look at where they rank now,

but among teams that had played seven games heading into the week, put it that way, they were in the top five, uh, way too penalized of a team. What really concerns me there Murph is that in 2022, 2023, and presently the Vikings are the top team in terms of delay of game. Like that's just, that's just silly. Why, how could that be happening? And I think with O'Connell, when we talk about cleaning things up, I just am not sure. I think schematically he can clean things up because he's really strong that way. But in terms of the things that might be on him, like game management and, you know, getting the call in and stuff like that, it seems to be three years of the same kind of stuff that we're critiquing there. The game having the feel for the play calling at times in a game.

At least there were no trick plays against the rams that we freaked out against although i will say chicago did top anything o'connell has done by trying to give it to the lineman definitely definitely uh not one of those funny passes where the lineman is wide open but instead you have to actually turn him into a true fullback this is not 1985 chicago what are we doing here but anyway uh that's that's where i i do want to see it as well i want to see the operation look much sharper because the vikings right now have some very disturbing stats in terms of time of possession time per drive plays per drive that even though they're putting up points overall they are stalling out

way too often and when you have a delay of game when you have a false start and also stop blowing timeouts for a delay of game that's another thing because that's going to hurt you at the end of games when you play you know in all these tight games around the NFL those timeouts end up being worth their weight in gold that's something that I'm not sure is fixable. I do feel like on the defensive side, Cashman makes things a lot more fixable. The offensive line part of it now is much more of a question. That wasn't really that big of a deal with the Lions and Rams games. I thought their performances from the line was fine, but now with Derisaw out, then suddenly that becomes a thing they have to fix personnel wise. But I also think schematically

and Sam Darnold getting sacked, Murph has become far too much of a trend. Another thing that's kind of interesting, Murph, is that the Vikings have become a run first team on first down where they are running a lot more than they're passing. And I think that they're going to have to lean into Sam Darnold and just ride the roller coaster. It feels like they've wanted it to be kind of a, hey, take your shot when you've got it, and let's hand off to Aaron Jones.

And I think they're going to have to get to the line scrimmage on first down and 10 and start firing away a little bit more if they want to keep these drives going because they've stalled out just far too many times. Well, they certainly found a way to get the ball to Justin Jefferson over the middle of the field early in games, too. That was something I was keeping an eye on because I didn't think he was targeted enough against Detroit. And look what they did in the first and second quarter. And Jefferson put up some decent numbers because of that. So, again, just get it in his radius, right? I mean, he's going to find a way to make a play.

And I don't know if it's Sam Darnall being a little bit gun shy about throwing into tight coverage and worrying about interceptions. Or if it's, you know, Kevin O'Connell wanting to be multidimensional and sticking to that game plan, it's like, look, you can take risks with Jefferson. If you get it in his area, he's going to find a way to make a play, or at the very least, he's going to find a way to keep a defender from getting the ball. I'd be curious to see how they integrate Cam Akers here, because I think that will certainly give them a change of pace look, other than Aaron Jones, because it seems like they just don't have faith in Ty Chandler right now as a backup. So a dual threat could help diversify

the running game and also maybe open up the passing game a little bit more. Let's not forget, we haven't even mentioned that TJ Hawkinson seems on target to come back this week, that's going to be a huge plus for Darnold and give him another outlet if he's under pressure. But yeah, you're right. I mean, I do feel like this is a bit on O'Connell to really show what he can do to correct some of the things that are plaguing him and keeping this offense from sustaining drives because this is a defense that has been on the field a lot. It's been challenged a lot. It's at its core, a fairly veteran group that we are now, you know, only seven games into a 17-game season. Where are they going to be at in mid to late December going into January in terms of their health, in terms of their energy levels?

You know, stealing drives and stealing time of possession now is going to have a cumulative effect down the road and keep your defense from being put into really challenging, exhausting scenarios that this team has been doing the last several years. So that's on the offense to be smoother. Look, it doesn't even have to end in points. But three and outs aren't helping anybody. You know, if you can sustain drives, get a few first downs, chew up some clock, keep that other defense playing reactively and burning energy, that'll help your defense conversely. So I think a lot of these things could look very different

in three weeks statistically for this team. Three or four weeks, I guess, if we stretch that out to the Bears game. The Vikings, pro football reference, had them as the second toughest schedule so far in the entire league, and they are 5-2. I remember in Lasgas when you and i did some shows out there and you said man if they even got to you know it two and five at this point they could i was thinking three and four would be satisfying right so when you put that

into consideration where they could go from here uh it's easier to clean these things up when you have easier opponents now going forward, but I think that's a test in itself because if you can't, then I'm not going to believe that later on you're going to be able to go toe-to-toe with some of the best teams. Just one more thing, Murph, before you go. How many wins do you think the Vikings finish with this year? I'm going 10-11 right now. I still feel like, you know, they've got Green Bay and Detroit that are going to be problematic late in the season, the final two weeks of the year. And they're not going to roll through everybody here. I think they're, you know,

they're going out to Seattle, Arizona, you know, Kyler Murray could come and put a show on. I, you know, I, I still feel like they're going to stumble a little bit, but I do really feel like they are certainly positioned for 10 slash 11, which gets them into maybe a home wildcard game. That's how I feel at this point. I think 11 is probably where I'm at. And if they have a meltdown in one of these games then we'll reassess that but this week of Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts I wonder if the league is going darn it

we really thought that would have gone yeah I think that they probably felt that way after Thursday night but Monday morning Murph never changes it's always on Monday when we record it so thank you so much, Murph, for your time as always, and look forward to talking to you early in the morning after I have covered Sunday night football between the Vikings and Colts. Thanks, man.