Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Biggest Vikings-Packers game since?????

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about historic recent Vikings games and discuss how they think the game is going to play out Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whether you own a bustling hair salon or a hot new bakery, you need business insurance that can keep up with your evolving needs. With flexible coverage options from TD Insurance, you only pay for what you need. TD. Ready for you. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here along with Manny Hill. And we were just talking before we went on about bull season has blessed us so much already,

Manny. I, I just hope that all of you folks have just taken a moment to check out some beautiful bull action because the Hawaii bull on Christmas Eve. Yes, I was watching the Hawaii bowl on Christmas Eve. Yes, I was watching the Hawaii bowl on Christmas Eve. I hope you were too. That was nuts where San Jose state needed six inches to win the game on fourth down. They decided not to go for it. That thing goes to five overtimes. And then today we get Toledo and Pitt. And I was coming home from TCO Performance Center to pick up my wife and go to dinner. And she said, we can't go because this bowl game is about to go to overtime.

It's like, first of all, A, marry the right woman. Second, yes, thank you. I come inside and I'm watching the game and it's 30 to 30. There was a fat man touchdown. They're going back and forth three different times. We think Toledo one, they ran onto the field a couple of times. The referee, no, get off the field. There's a penalty flag. No, we got to review it. And then finally Toledo finds a way to win the game after being down 10 points in the fourth quarter just sheer magic Manny what a wonderful time of year and what a beautiful uniform combination to that Pitt Toledo game just just the Pitt Pitt I love Pitt's uniforms I think

Pittsburgh's uniforms are fantastic with the blue and gold combination. And Toledo's got sort of the navy blue and gold combination there. Just wonderful. Great game. Exciting finish. I know a lot of people don't love these sort of nondescript, meaningless bowl games. I love this stuff because I love college football anyway. So I love these games, these games that are high scoring and are kind of crazy. And you get, you know, sometimes guys opt out because they're getting ready for the nfl so you kind of get a

chance to see some younger guys that have a chance to make a name for themselves um i love it this is this is the the best time of the year for me watching football so we're having a great time uh questions comments thoughts feelings about the minnesota the Minnesota Vikings will take whatever's on your mind. But the question of the evening is, this is the biggest Vikings Packers game since I spent some of my Christmas, as all people should do, watching an old Vikings game, Manny. And the one that I chose to watch, I put it out there on Twitter. I said, I'm thinking about watching a Vikings and Packers old game to get ready and jacked up for this one. And sometimes I learn things, things I didn't know before, or just different perspectives

on Vikings history. When I go back, I try to do it every week. Like I stumbled upon a game from 2002, I think with the Vikings and seahawks where seattle scored 45 points in one half you probably remember that one as a childhood traumatic event uh but i watched that on the plane out there i didn't know what happened in the game and it just said 2002 vikie seahawks i'm like okay that was right after the meter made incident with r Moss. Fred McCombs comes on the broadcast. It was just, you know, what a flashpoint there in Vikings history. So I love doing that.

And I put it out there for people, which one should I watch? I got a lot of nominations. I have seen the 0-4 playoff game with Randy Moss. And I'm doing a feature this week on the newsletter. So make sure you go over to purpleins insider.football and sign up about the straight cash homie, because that was 20 years ago coming up in January. And of course,

Vikings and Packers, but I've seen that. So I was like, okay, you know, I want to watch something I had not seen before. I watched 2012 Christian ponder versus Aaron Rogers at the dome with a chance to make the playoffs i gotta tell you manny there are not too many christian ponder moments that end up on the memorable

vikings list adrian govan going over 2000 dominating that game it's back and forth back and forth that that game was a beauty is that the last last game Vikings and Packers before Sunday that you would say reached this level of fever pitch? Maybe I thought probably 2015. We could talk about some during the Kirk era 2017. They'd go down there to wrap up the division, but I think it was Brett Hundley who was playing quarterback. So maybe not at the same level, but give me a compare and contrast as the show's official historian of what's happening right now with Vikings and Packers versus some in fairly

recent history. Well, that 2012 game was incredible for so many different reasons. I mean, you mentioned Adrian going over 2,000 yards. Adrian finished, I think he finished nine yards short of Dickerson's all-time single-season record. 2,097 yards Adrian finished with, so I would just basically say he ran for 2,100 yards that year, which was absolutely insane,

and we'll see how close Saquon gets to that with the Eagles. But that was a great game. Christian Ponder, by far and away, his best game as a pro. There weren't very many games because he was pretty much written off and done after a couple of years. But that was easily his best performance as a pro. And the Vikings needed that game to get into the playoffs. If they hadn't, if they would have lost that game, Chicago would have gotten in

and maybe Lovie Smith wouldn't have gotten fired. But Lovie got fired after the Bears finished 10 and six and missed the playoffs. And it was big. That game was big for the Packers too, because they were trying to get a first round by if they would have won. And of course the Vikings won,

end up playing the Packers the next week in wildcard weekend. And then Green Bay, of course, had to go to San Francisco playing the Packers the next week in wildcard weekend. And then Green Bay, of course, had to go to San Francisco where Colin Kaepernick ran circles around them. But I digress. So that was great. I thought I was thinking about 2019 as well at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings were a game behind the Packers in the NFC North standings.

I think a lot of people felt like the Packers were a better team, but you're that late in the season. It's week 16, and you're a game behind the Packers with a chance to tie them for the division, and who knows how things would have gone if you would have been able to finish the deal there. And then, of course, the Vikings completely no-show on offense. Aaron Jones just run circles around them. I think he had like 150 yards and a couple of touchdowns. So yeah, I mean, it's probably those two,

if you're really thinking about big games. I know 2015, you mentioned that one of, was that week 17, they went down, winning the Green Bay. Basically both teams were 10 and five, I think winner won the division vikings uh shut the packers down and won the nfc north so there have been some big ones just in the last decade i think that uh that come to mind but obviously um you mentioned the 04 game the playoff game but if you remember two weeks prior to that week, 16 at the dome, the Vikings and Packers played for basically the NFC North championship. And,

and that was a great game to Donald driver was just a thorn in the Viking side that whole afternoon. I remember the Chris Claiborne pick six and my 20 year old self thought, Oh my God, they're going to win this game. And then of course they didn't Donald driver had a, My 20-year-old self thought, oh, my God, they're going to win this game. And then, of course, they didn't. Donald Driver had another clutch play, and then Longwell hit the field goal at the buzzer to win. So it's really amazing to think that these two teams

have only played each other in the playoffs twice, but they've had a lot of really, just in the last 20 years, a lot of really huge, memorable games. And certainly Sunday's game is going to be right up there with those ones as well. And I think this is what you get when you just get competent franchises. And it wasn't always competent in the early 2000s. There was a lot of messiness to that, but they had Randy Moss.

And so they were in it all the time. And the mooning is just such an iconic minnesota vikings moment i mean if you were to say just of the last 25 years like name the the five most pop moments the that people have stand out in their minds last 25 years it's probably minneapolis miracle one and moon, you know, uh, right. Uh, Moss mooning the Packers is probably number two. That that's one where you're making t-shirts out of it and things like that, which is, uh, why I'm doing an article about it, where I interviewed the reporter who asked Moss the question, uh, and how that interview came about, you know, with the

famous, it's kind of late in the day with the sun going down, he's got the hood up and then straight cash homie. So, uh, I'm getting the story behind that, which is really fun actually. So, uh, but you know, I think that, uh, when it comes to this game, it has to go in a pretty unique category because how many of the years that we're even talking about and the big games, would we have actually been saying both of these teams are very serious Superbowl contenders? Most of the time it was one of them is, and the other one might be, could be, is hoping to be right. And for this time, it's the Vikings that are the one that are ahead of the green bay packers they've had the better season overall they have the better record most of the

time it was well it's aaron rogers and he's getting to the playoffs thinking super bowl and the vikings are kind of hoping to get in here hoping for position or something like that the 2019 game had pretty big ramifications because that game that all year long they had beaten every bad team they faced and they had lost every good team that they faced it was like clockwork and they had gotten gosh they went on the road they lost to the Packers early in the season and got beat there with a last second Kirk interception Dean Lowry pressures him he throws it in the back of the end zones picked off and they were down in that game and then they get to the end and they've won a lot of games in their top 10 offense and defense

all right let's find out how strong they really are and that was one of those Kirk moments where it just was not good enough. I think green Bay fumbled really early on and Kirk tried to check down to CJ ham. And we knew something was kind of screwy right from the beginning of that game. And Rogers threw a couple of interceptions, but they couldn't take advantage.

If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Aaron Jones was one of the main reasons that the green Bay Packers dominated that football game. And after that was, is Zimmer going to get fired? That's where a lot of steam started to grow for Zimmer getting traded to the Dallas Cowboys, which I still fully believe based on everything that I was told leading up to that playoff game in New Orleans.

And I believe Zimmer confirmed this in his conversation with Mark Craig, that had he lost that game, he was getting traded to the Dallas Cowboys to become their head coach. That that was signed, sealed, delivered. He was going because I think it was the next day they hired McCarthy after they won that playoff game. And then the Wolf said, no, let's keep Mike Zimmer because he had such a great game plan against the Saints that was really his last time where you could say wow Zimmer put on some kind of show defensively but that whole season was not like this season the statistics are kind

of similar where their top 10 offense defense but that had such bad vibes. That was truth to all rumors with Stefan Diggs. It was Zimmer versus Kirk. They lose a game in Kansas city to Matt Moore and Kirk kind of explains something that happened in the game. Zimmer comes out and says, yeah, you shouldn't be telling you guys all that and everything else. And there was just no backing for Kirk whatsoever with Zimmer. The defense was not perfect anymore. It was starting to slip from even where it had been the year before. And you just could get that feeling. It's good, but it's not good enough. And that's exactly how it played out in the playoffs. Instead, they're going into the playoffs here and into these final two games. And of course,

they get blasted by Zedaria Smith and they just lose that game and they get the six seed instead of potentially winning the division. The vibes are so much different here. This, this team, I have never covered a team that liked each other so much that liked its coach so much that believed in each other as much as this does. And I can't imagine that's a negative thing. I don't know how much value does it have? How many points is it worth? We're always trying to figure that out. I have no idea, but I do know that this is maybe the best group

that they've had going into a game like this, where all you need to do is win, and then you can win the conference. It's the strongest and tightest knit group that they've had it sure seems like it i mean and obviously you can speak to this more than i could because you've been in those locker rooms for the last you know eight seasons and well nine seasons now um yeah i mean just the the tight knit portion of this, I think, is so huge. And what is what has me believing that this team could potentially really go on a deep run here and potentially get to the that. But the fact that they have gotten to this point at 13 and two, and they have this massive game with, you know, a division rival, the biggest division rival, um, in their division on Sunday to really kind of solidify themselves as a true, um, contender as a serious team that everybody's going to have to look at

with a lot of respect. I think it's just amazing. And again, I just think KOC and Kwasi, for that matter, too, deserve a ton of credit for just everything that they've been able to build over the last three years. You know, coming into a situation two years ago with, you know, the vibes you were kind of wondering like what the vibes were because they were coming off the Zimmer experience and things not ending well there. And the way KOC was able to sort of galvanize that group into sort of overachieving a little bit, winning 13 games, winning the division, making the playoffs, you bit, winning 13 games, winning the division, making the playoffs.

You know, they and and for last year to go the way it went and to finish not not so great with the with the six losses in the last seven games that season, you know, to to bounce back and turn things around again this year and not let the way last year finished sort of linger and carry over into this year, I think was really, really impressive as well. This is, this is just remarkable stuff. And I'm just so excited for Sunday.

I can't wait. This is going to be, um, these last two games are just going to be absolutely massive. I can't wait. So usually we wait till the end of the show. And then I ask you, well,

how do you think this is going to play out, Manny? How do you think is going to win? Whatever. I think that when it's a game of this magnitude, we should just talk about that now. And then we'll get to your questions and comments. So keep dropping them in and we'll go through all those very shortly.

But so who do you think is going to win this game? How and why? Now is why a question here how will who and how are probably the the right questions for this football game it's a tough one to pick because both teams are playing well both teams are are feeling good about where they're at and very confident um you know and let's not forget the packers are kind of in a similar situation with the vikings where they are trying to kind of solidify themselves as a serious team as well and this is a team that did make the playoffs last year and was this close to knocking out the team that eventually represented the nfc in the super bowl um and so they they are kind of on

a redemption sort of uh mission for this year as well. It's a hard one to pick. I tend to give the Vikings the edge right now because they're at home. Although, you know, Packer-Vikings games, the Packers do bring a pretty good contingency of fans every year. But I just love the makeup of this Vikings team right now. The vibes, like you said, are very good. I think they're feeling great about where they're at.

But I think KOC has also done a really good job of, you know, maintaining the focus being on just the next opponent. We're not looking ahead to, you know, the Detroit Lions in Week 18. We're focusing on the Green Bay Packers, and that's it. And I think that's going to give the Vikings an edge in this game. So I'm feeling good about the Vikings' chances, but I think it's going to be a great game. I think it's going to be really close. There's a couple of things that concern me.

One of them is Kenny Clark. Every single time until that man retires that they play the Packers, when we talk about our biggest concerns, it'll be that guy because he's just wrecked so many games, their dynamic pass rush. They have, I think it's nine players with at least double digit pressures and five players with more than 20 pressures on the season, which means getting at least one or two a game. They have a lot of different guys who could do a lot of different stuff. It will remind you a little bit of Flores' defense in that way.

It's a little more shape-shifting. It's not as static as we were used to over there with, what was the guy's name, Joe Barry. I mean, where they just played the same defense all the time, and the Vikings knew how to beat it, and they often did. With Justin Jefferson, this is a little different than that. It doesn't look like Jair Alexander is going to play, which is a break for the Vikings to not have one of the better corners in the league

go against Justin Jefferson. So that could be a factor there. And on the offensive side with Sam Darnold, every week we kind of think, is this the week where he starts to really feel it with the pressure and the reality of how good you are and how big these games are? And there are moments where you go, ooh, Sam, I don't know, you took that sack, or maybe you got away with a pass or two

last week against Seattle, or maybe it's a couple of three and outs, and you go, ah, is he is he starting to slow down now or something a couple of high passes against Chicago where I think he may have banged up his hand and there were some high throws and then it snaps back in and he's just ball in the same way he has for the last seven or eight weeks and you're always wondering is there going to be a bad game mixed in well he didn't play very well in the second half against Green Bay. They changed up some things defensively and caused some issues there. And he's had two or three games that haven't gone his way.

If one happens in this game, we're going to blow that way up more than it needs to for one bad game. But it's not the right time to have your one bad game. Considering the stakes right now, it's like, well, Sam, you've gone this far, my friend. So it can't be now. Their run defense is pretty good. I think with the guys that they got up front and can you run the ball with Aaron Jones? It's a really good Packers team. And the last time Jordan Love came here, and this is where I was fully convinced that this gentleman could play in the NFL as a star quarterback and all off season. I kept bringing this up and in the comment section, no, Jordan loves a fraud. He's the

okay guys. I know. But, uh, when he played the way he did at us bank stadium, after that stadium last year was jacked up they still had a chance to make the playoffs at that point packers yeah we're gonna send him home and he just went off in that game and he's another one of those quarterbacks with a lot of weapons who's got a lot of experience that has caused some problems for this defense and he does not get rattled on the big stage and does not get rattled by the blitzes and doesn't get sacked very often so you have to kind of take the ball away from him through the air because he's not going to take very many sacks it's a great matchup man

i mean it is two teams that if you if i went into the future now came back and told you either one made the super bowl you wouldn't be surprised. So it feels like a coin flip. And the pressure is a little more on the Vikings because they have more to lose. That may be a little more of a motivating factor. I don't know. I mean, this is this is just sort of as good as it gets. And I have no idea how to pick this game because it feels like a total, total coin flip to me.

It does. And that's why I said I felt said I feel like the Vikings will win, but it's going to be really close. It might end up being kind of like the Week 17 game back in 2012, different circumstances, different teams, but it feels like it might be that type of game where we're going to see a lot of points put on the board because both teams are very talented on offense. But we might also see some defensive plays be made by both teams because

both teams have some dogs on defense. So it just, it feels very much like a coin flip and it almost kind of has that feel of like whoever has the ball last. It's kind of a cliche of whoever has the ball last is going to end up probably winning the game because they're just going to make enough plays, kick a field goal at the end, get a touchdown in the last second. It's going to be, it's going to be a blast. I, you know, you mentioned Kenny Clark. He's always just always a problem. You know, he might be sort of an honorable mention for the Akeem Hicks Award that we give to, you know, interior defensive linemen who just give the Vikings problems all the time.

Kenny Clark has always been one of those dudes as well. So I'm looking forward to this. This is. This is kind of, you know, as somebody who grew up as a Vikings fan and grew up like hating the Packers. I honestly love this kind of stuff because this is, this is what you, this is what you want. If your team is going to be serious about going on a run to the Superbowl, this is, you know,

what better way to do this to go on this path than, you know, taking out a really good Packers team as well and kind of putting them in a position where they're further behind you in the standings a little bit. this is this is the kind of stuff that I love to see so I'm I'm excited about Sunday I get uh very I sort of jacked up is one way to put it also when I arrive at the stadium I get nervous like I'm playing because there's so much energy and i kind of can't wait for it to get started and see how it plays out there's always so much to do with these games and everything but one of the things that i always just hope so badly for is a good football game and you know mr journalist guy which is me if they win if they lose i'll do the same job the same way

i had a conversation with a player about that not too long ago. They asked, like, do you guys root for the team? And I was like, no. They're like, why not? I'm like, you would go crazy if you tried to cover a team and then you got mad at them every time they lost. Then you wouldn't be able to do your job objectively and so forth, and he sort of got it. But the thing I so desperately want is good football games.

If they lose by three points, 34, 31, which I think was the score in that old four game you're talking about, or something like that really close game. Then you walk out of there and you go, man, great football game, looking forward to whatever matchups come in the playoffs. Cause these two teams might see each other again. And you know, the implications are what they are but if you have one of the that night that 2019 game is as miserable of a locker room and a post game and the other thing was because it wasn't a good game we really felt like this team can't go they can't go and if the vikings lose to the packers by three points on a last second field goal uh m Crosby comes out of retirement and kicks a field goal for them.

Is it Brandon McManus? Is there kicker? And okay. Well, you know, it was a great game and that's the same as the way against the Lions. How I felt coming out of the Lions game was when they play that team again, or if these two teams see each other in the playoffs, it's going to be some darn good football and it's going to be one play here, one play there. That's how you want to walk out of it either way. Well,

I mean, Vikings fans of course, want a 50 point win over the Packers, but that's unlikely. So you want some sort of real close contest if they lose by multiple scores or whatever. This is the, this is the fear that you have going in is that then everybody's gonna say ah you were frauds you were never that good and that kind of thing i think that's one of the the number one goal here is to give yourself a chance to win the conference in week 18 but i also think it's important that they don't walk out of there and everyone says oh yeah i knew darnold was gonna fall off you guys want to pay

darn that guy you know that whole thing like i just i that would be terrible to spend a week with that so that's the one outcome that i just truly do not want i you know you mentioned the oh four game you know it was week 16 i think both teams were eight and six and the winner won the nfc north basically they clinched the division and i remember when longwell hit that field goal at the buzzer at the dome i was absolutely heartbroken but after taking a few minutes to sort of get over the sort of the gut punch of losing that game, I sat there and I thought, that was a hell of a football game. That was just a great, great football game. And it felt like a playoff game. And to your point, that's what I'm hoping for. You know, 2012 was kind of the

same thing. You know, the Packers were clearly a step above the Vikings at that point. One team had Aaron Rodgers, the other team had Christian Ponder, quarterback, so you could kind of just go with that. But even that game, it was just a great football game, and you were just happy to see it. And that's, to your point, that's what I'm really hoping to see more than anything.

Obviously, personally, I want to see the Vikings win that game, go to 14-2, and have a chance to get the number one seed against Detroit next week. But I just want to see the Vikings win that game, go to 14-2, and have a chance to get the number one seed against Detroit next week. But I just want to see good football, have this game be close, have it be back and forth, and have it be in doubt in the final minute of the game. If I get that, I can live with that, win or lose, in the case of the Vikings. All right, let's get to your questions, thoughts, feelings, emotions going into this one. I can just

all week long, whether it's social media, the comment section, my guests can really feel it. I mean, it's different. This is not preview in the Titans game. This is, this is something. So let's go start off all the way back at the top with Mike. So fed up with everyone talking daily about Sam Darnold's future. I won't be decided until March, and I trust this leadership to make the right decision. Could you make PI a no Darnold speculation zone? Thank you, Mike.

I 95% agree with you when you have a game like this and a time like this. The only trouble for me is when I have guests on like Sam Monson, for example, who's so great at seeing the big picture, breaking things down or the analytics expert, Kevin Cole the other day, there's no way I can not ask these people their opinions. It's one of the biggest points of discussion in the NFL period right now is what's going to happen. So I do feel obligated to ask those people their opinions because I think the listener wants to know what does the analytics expert have

to say? What is a guy who's covered the league for a long time have to say, but we're not doing the debate thing. We're not doing me and manny yelling at each other because i would lose the voice competition there uh but we're not going to do the the screamy show type of thing they should pay him they should pay him he's not worth it he's we're not going to do that or spend a lot too much time on it because we've got the here and now of the sam darnold experience and also you can't really know Manny. This is the thing. You can't really know until it's over.

If Sam Darnold were to the next three weeks, go Owen three with three touchdowns and seven interceptions and just melt on the big stage, it's going to influence the decision just like going three and oh, four and oh, et cetera, and throwing 12 touchdowns and two picks would also push the needle in a certain direction with this decision. You just have to let it play out.

I mean, it's, I, I understand at times it's fun to sort of speculate and think like, well, you know, what, what should they do with Sam if they get this far and, well, you know, what, what should they do with Sam if they get this far? And, and, you know, what, what, what will happen? What sort of decision will they make if they do completely fall apart and lose, you know, these last two regular season games and then bow out in the playoffs in the wildcard round, you know, what, what should they do? Yeah. Then you have maybe those conversations briefly and you just kind of speculate maybe on how things are going to play out. But there's also that balance of living in the current moment because this they could lose these last two games, finish 13-4, and then they would be, I don't know, the five or six seed. They have to go on the road and play somebody.

If they win these last two games, they're going to be the number one seed and they're going to be off that first weekend of the playoffs. And then there's going to be so much anticipation over that two-week period of, you know, who the Vikings are going to play, what sort of matchup do you prefer that play in the division around that kind of stuff? So there's a lot of different directions that this can go over the next couple of weeks before we really have a definitive answer on like what they should do or what makes the most sense for them to do. And it's and it's I love the fact that they are in this position because it's going to make the offseason much more fascinating on, you know, the decision that they make. But I also just still want to like live in this moment and take in Sunday's game because it's so big, because it's really going to tell us a lot of things about not only the Vikings, but the Packers as well. So I'm still like trying to kind of live in the current moment,

but also thinking about like for every, every, you know, every game that Sam Darnold continues to have with a hundred plus quarterback rating, you're going to have to really start thinking about this guy just being the guy going forward. But ultimately you just have to let things play out and see what happens. Yeah. I think it was Steve Palazzolo on check the mic podcast.

He was talking about the MVP race and going into this week, or maybe it was, he was saying it going into last week and he was pointing out that something like 23% of the season still had to be played. And even if it's only a couple of weeks, there's still major percentages of the decision that we, that we need. We're all going to weigh a playoff game, including them heavier. We're all going to weigh versus Packers versus Lions heavier in the discussion. But I will offer this stipulation. There is a scenario where week 18 means very little. And that would be if the Vikings

lose to the Packers and the Lions beat the 49ers, then the Lions would have it wrapped up and it would maybe be between the fifth and the 60, but they might not care because the result isn't very different in that scenario. And if they're not going to be playing for anything in Detroit, I will open the door for a lot of future discussion for that week because we won't be talking about a game that matters. So we can have, hey, who's going to get re-signed? Now I was thinking about today, like Cam Bynum and Byron Murphy. We haven't talked about whether they're bringing those guys back next year

because next year doesn't matter to us yet. But next week, if there's nothing to play for in Detroit, we'll have, we'll have a fun future week and we'll, we'll do it then. But otherwise I feel like it, we'd be doing the greatness of this game, a disservice by talking about too much other stuff.

JP, I think the way we win this game is by offense being consistent and having long sustained drives. You know, that is the one thing that they just haven't really done consistently throughout this season. They have had to rely on some big plays from Darnold. And at times they have, and in different games they have,

they did really well in Chicago. And I thought the first half in Seattle, they had the ball a lot in that half. They had the methodical drive matriculated down the field some might say at the beginning of the game and they get up 17-7 and then let Seattle come back in the game with some three and outs and they let the pressure start to get to them and get to Darnold so I agree with this I think it does start with being able to run the ball a little bit better, but Darnold has been, how about this for a crazy stat? Darnold has the highest PFF passing grade on short passes

between zero and nine yards of anybody in the league so far this year. And the other guys up there are stars. This is something he does well. And I don't know if he always did this well in his career and a lot of it can be schemed, but getting the ball into Jefferson's hands on those short throws was a really effective strategy. And I would like to see them stick to that as the game goes on crossing short crossing patterns, drag routes, screen passes. I keep talking about the screen game. I would love to see them do a little more of that, especially with a guy like Aaron Jones. Yeah, all of that stuff can be effective, you know,

especially in like short yardage type of situations when it's third and four. I mean, when it's third and 13, yeah, you got to, Sam, drop back and let it rip. Get the ball downfield. But if it's third and 13, yeah, you got to, Sam, drop back and let it rip. Get the ball downfield. But if it's third and four, those little seven-yard passes work just as good. Those are first downs, too. And those can keep drives going, keep your defense rested,

especially for this defense, which has been pretty good all year. There's some veterans that have played a lot of snaps through 15 games, guys who are a little bit banged up or have been banged up and could just use a game where they just don't have to be on the field as much. Now, for this game on Sunday, it might be harder because the Packers have a really good offense and a quarterback who's very good and they can do kind of the same thing that you do offensively, they can you know put together some long sustained drives and they can you know put together some explosive plays as well so it might not even be attainable to really just dominate the time of possession for this type of game against this opponent but it would be great

to see them try and just take control of that game offensively and give their defense kind of an easy night mustin sir says i told you bradbury is a liability well he is against kenny clark the recent performances by him are not atypical of who he's always been which is if it's a tough defensive tackle, he's probably not going to get a good PFF grade. The one thing I will give credit for to Bradbury is that earlier in his career, he would get beat fast a lot of times. And now it's often being pushed back into the quarterback, which is giving him pressures and negative grades, but it's not destroying Sam Darnold because he does this thing called moving in the pocket and recent performance.

There was a stretch there. See, the thing is it's always a moving target with players in a single season because there was a stretch over eight weeks or so where he was in the top 10 pass blocking grade. And then recently there's been more pressures allowed. Maybe teams attacking that a little bit more, but Bradbury is who he is.

I don't think liability is the right way to describe him because we've seen real liabilities at those positions. Dakota Dozier, Tom Compton, Ed Ingram. Those are, you're going to lose because of it. I never think that with Bradbury and his command of the offensive line is really good. So I'm not too worried about that. This pass rush has to start heating up. They have only been on late in the game and in the second

half this season, you know, this is kind of how it works with teams that blitz a lot, which is it goes hot and cold. It's like being a home run hitting team in baseball, a three point shooting team in basketball, where if they pick up the blitzes, then it doesn't look so good though. I would say from last week, here's where I disagree with that. They pressure Gino Smith. And I think like 45% of his dropbacks, he did a great job of moving around and moving out of that pressure. I went back and watch, I mean, Josh Metellus drill him a couple of times. Andrew Van Ginkle had seven pressures in that game. Uh, Jihad Ward had four more. Grenard had three more. Sometimes you just got to give credit to the quarterback for doing a great job of having

pocket presence and not getting sacked. That's why we look at pressures more than sacks to see, was he actually getting moved off the spot and not being taken down, which was really the case with Geno Smith. But it kind of, it always works this way though. Like Van Ginkle, there's been games where you go, was Van Ginkle out there today? Was he rushing the passer? Because for whatever reason, it just wasn't successful with some of the rushes. But the only guy who's really consistent, this is one little concern here,

is the only guy who is truly consistent week to week is jonathan grenard everybody else kind of fluctuates having ivan pace jr back though i think should be a really really big deal for sure yeah yeah i mean and and i think you know the i think what we all have to kind of remind ourselves of because there's there are times where i'll see stuff happen you know the seattle game i saw some of this where you know teams are just picking up chunks and chunks of yards you know we kind of saw that at the end of the first half in the seattle game where you're just you know the seahawks are moving down the field you're just like come on guys get a stop here come on like get a stop stop. Get a little more pressure. But we have to remind ourselves, the days of the 2000 Baltimore Ravens defense just holding everybody to six points and winning, that's just not a reality anymore in the NFL in 2024. Teams are going to move the ball. There are a lot of talented receivers. On Sunday, the Vikings are going to be going up against a really talented quarterback with really good

receivers and a good running game and a good offensive line. You're going up against a good team with players that have the right to try to win and try to score points and try to move the ball and take care of the ball and not turn it over, just like everybody else. And sometimes you're just going to have to just hope that the defense doesn't get absolutely destroyed and gives up 500 yards and you're behind by three touchdowns in the third quarter and you've got no chance. That's what you have to hope for. But look, the Packers are going to move the ball on Sunday. That's what you have to hope for. But look, the Packers are going to move the ball on Sunday. That's just the reality. They have good players. They're 11-4. Like, their quarterback is an ass kicker. Like, he's really good. Jordan Love's fantastic. So the Packers are going to move the ball. They're going to score some points.

The Vikings just need to score more and not let it be a complete disaster on defense and just hold up score enough points to win the game that's how that's how they're going to win this game there's going to be a lot of points scored in this game on Sunday I think I think the Vikings are now third after yesterday Kansas City has jumped up in the rankings I believe after their game in points per game, the Vikings are either second or third in total points allowed. And yet it does feel like teams move the ball against them. It does feel like they are imperfect on defense. And I agree with what you said. That's the era we live in. There aren't any defenses anymore that just take out everybody. No one

can move the ball against them. They pick off the ball every time. Like if you go back, that 2000 Ravens example is really good. But even since 2015, I was looking at this not too long ago, the percentage of drives in which teams produce points in 2015 to now has increased significantly. One of the things is that all the kickers can make it from midfield every time. The Vikings are best in the league when it comes to how many drives opposing teams produce points on.

Best in the entire NFL. And yet you still feel like, well, they moved the ball on us. That team has Geno Smith and Jackson Smith, the Jigba, DK Metcalf, and the same thing goes for the Packers. The Vikings are number one in interceptions. And that is where it's going to be key for me is Jordan loves a guy. You can get to throw you a pick. You got to catch it. You got to make a play.

You got to confuse him here or there, or just when he throws it up for grabs, somebody has got to go up and get it. And that's one of those things where you don't feel like you have a schematic advantage or some coaching point it's like you just got to do it you just got to go do it it's kind of like well you got to make your shots in the paint something like that's the point you got to make them and it's the same thing with this there will be several opportunities in a game to take the ball away from jordan love you just have to do it uh kerpluppi says can you discuss how Jacobs ran against us at Lambeau? I feel like they've been facing some real squishy run defenses for a minute, and I'm confident with IP back that we hold them to his lowest in a minute. I assume

you mean offenses as far as run offenses. They haven't faced many good run offenses in a while. Would have been the Bears last week with Kenneth Walker banged up. He was having trouble running against the Vikings defense. The way that Jacobs ran against the Vikings last time was that they were winning by so much. And if you're up by 28 to 7 or whatever, I think it was 28-7. I mean, you're not too worried about them getting five, six yards a carry. And so they were playing a lot back. In fact, they were a little too conservative with some of that at times, I thought, and not going after Jordan Love quite

as much as I would have expected in that situation. But I mean, this run defense is number two in the league and is really going to be tested in this one. Getting pace junior back is humongous. I think we're going to find out when teams have been able to run, they are a different defense. This is a team that really knows how to run. They have one of the best running coaches. They have one of the best running backs. They have one of the best offensive lines at run blocking. So Harrison Phillips, Jonathan Bullard, Jerry Tillery, it looks like Jalen Redmond could be back. He's suddenly become a very good player for this team out of nowhere.

But I guess you always have to have that in these seasons. But Pace Jr. is the one who they've missed the most because he defeats blocks and he knifes in there and gets tackles for loss. But I mean, I don't know. With run defense, it's another one of those things where you're sort of good until you're not like you're, you could be number two in the league and have a bad day, or you could be average and have a good day. That one's really hard to predict. I just feel like that's why they ran as well as they did the last time, but this time will

be something that they try to establish right away. Yeah. And I think this is where you kind of look at the Vikings offense on Sunday and you say, get off to a really good start, jump up seven, nothing, jump up 14, nothing. If you can, you can force Jordan Love into a turnover early. And when you get the ball back, punch the ball in the end zone, jump up, you know, jump up on them the way you did the first meeting, know it was 28 nothing in that game um and the packers sort of got quasi back into it right before halftime when jalen nailer you know muff the the punt over his head we tried to reach up and it went back and the packers got kind of a a cheapy touchdown right before halftime uh to make it 28-7 but otherwise like you were in complete control of that game in the first half.

Something like that can really help because now you're putting the Packers in a position where Jordan Love has really got to throw them back into the game, and then that's where the Vikings pass rushers can kind of pin their ears back and go after them, and you don't have to worry about the running game as much. But if it's a tight game game which i tend to think it will be then the the the packers can kind of unleash their full arsenal of what they do on offense which is obviously where jordan love in the passing game but the running game with josh jacobs who's one of the best in the business it's just going to be something that the vikings i think are going to have to contend with and that's this is this is what you get when you're going up against a really good opponent that can move the

ball and make things happen on offense you're going to be really tested and so you know that's that's just what they're going to have to face I'll tell you a factor that I ran across previewing this game statistically that's interesting made me think a little bit is Josh Jacobs averages almost 10 yards of reception. And I don't remember the Vikings at all this year having trouble with any running backs out of the backfield. As far as the passing game goes, a couple of teams have run against them. Jameer Gibbs did Kyron Williams did, but very few other have had a lot of success rushing, but almost nobody has thrown successfully. Jameer Gibbs may have been the only one to the running backs.

That's going to be something to watch really closely in this game. Rich one, two, seven, seven. Is this team worthy of running it back for you and Manny? I mean, the part of the discussion of the Darnold thing is that it is a veteran team that is ready to win. Now. It's not like it was a rookie team that surprised us. That was actually more of the Packers last year where they had all those young players and then they get into the playoffs.

They beat Dallas. It's a big surprise. Whoa. We thought all these guys who were young players were, they're a little ahead of their time and so forth. But this is a team with, if we talk about the foundational pieces of guys who are going to be here for at least two years, look around. I mean, it's Jefferson, Addison, Hawkinson, Derrissaw, O'Neill, who knows what happens

at the quarterback position, but you have at least one under contract in the future and you can tag Darnold. So you don't have to get rid of him if you don't want to. And then on the defensive side, Jonathan Grenard, they resigned Harrison Phillips. He is really proven, I think, to be a strong part of that defensive line in the run defense. Van Ginkle is under contract. So is Blake Cashman. So is Ivan Pace Jr., Josh Metellus. And then you got to make decisions on Byron Murphy, who's going to have a lot of attention and cam bynum also probably will have a lot of interest for him and harrison smith we'll

see but there's a lot of pieces here that are going to be here over multiple seasons so it's yeah i mean that's one of the reasons you would have a discussion about running it back with sam darnold is that the environment, especially on the offensive side is going to be no different at all. And you can improve the running back room. Maybe you bring back Jones, but you can improve it by bringing in someone else who's maybe on another level than cam acres. That's a part of the formula to me when we talk about this whole thing. Yeah, they're going to have some cap space and you know if you if you bring donald back on a on a even if you just like franchise tag him i mean

he's that money's probably gonna eat into the cap space that you're gonna have but you're still gonna have some cap space to go out and bring guys in so So, I mean, my thing is, like, what's the alternative? Like, okay, if you let Sam go, you're still, in theory, in a pretty good spot because then you just turn the reins over to J.J. McCarthy and he has a really good roster around him to sort of build on and have some success in his first year as a starter

if that's the route they end up going so i mean i don't even really look at it from the standpoint of like running it back it just this is there's not really a whole lot of question marks as far as the core is concerned with this team obviously like you said quarterback position, that's still a little bit of a question mark of who it's actually going to be. But the the the foundational pieces are in place. So, yeah, I mean, I guess if you're if you're asking, do they run it back, whether it's Sam or not, you are you are kind of running it back. Because like you said, a lot of those guys are going to be under contract or part of your core. They're young enough that you think you can envision them being on the team for, you know, the next three to five years.

So, yeah, run it back. That's what you're going to be doing if Sam Darnley is your quarterback or not. Let's rapid fire here so we can get through some more of your questions and then get to our underdog fantasy pickums for vikings and packers alex says don't the packers have a better point differential and higher dvoa than the vikings by a smidge both of them are by a smidge dvoa i think the packers have moved up to second after their blowout of the saints and the vikings might be sixth in dvoa and then it's a six point differential it's plus 120 to plus 126 i mean that's six points over 15 games so or yeah 15 games so yeah i mean it's this is as close as it gets and that's why we're

talking about right that's why we're talking about this that's what we're doing it's as close as it gets, and that's why we've been talking about it. Right. That's why we've been talking about it this way. That's what we're doing. It's as close as it gets. Corey says, do you think that the culture of the Vikings is enough to keep Flores around? Seems like he could build something special with another offseason of cap space. Yeah, I mean, the fact that they did this with a little bit of a limited budget at times. I mean, they still brought in three day one free agents, but maybe the little bit of the extra spending after that was limited. Maybe not though. They spent a lot. They brought in Stefan Gilmore for 10 million bucks right before the season. They did spend a lot already on this defense. And I think it has been a special defense. It's top two in the league in terms of total

points. But to your point, I just, I don't think that Brian Flores is going to go anywhere. Maybe if they win the Superbowl, then someone comes in and says, we need a defensive head coach and gives them a look and so forth. But that sort of, again, falls under the category of we'll talk about it when we have to talk about it for right now. I just don't see anything different that is going to happen with Brian Flores than it did last year when they had a really good defense with him and overachieved. So I don't know why that would change where the league feels about him. If it does, then we'll discuss it for right now. I'm assuming that Brian Flores is just going to

continue to be here, but it can't be overstated. What a great job he's done. I mean, this is a dream scenario of the defense that Brian Flores has been able to put together. And once again, a year ahead of where we thought it was going to be, I thought it was going to be a real good defense, 10th, 12th, not second, but there's two games to to go they could still end up 10th or 12th against these offenses but i don't think that's going to happen he's he's just done an unbelievable job for this team if he does get snatched up by somebody and becomes a head coach i would assume they would just elevate somebody dorante jones would be the guy I would think yeah there's really Brian Flores tough guy to replace yeah he's a very he's a unique dude he is a unique dude

especially with his ability to all this play calling also his ability to galvanize the room and have this team defense he's created his player evaluation ability. I mean, this guy, he's got Jalen Redman out there making plays. I don't know. Maybe he knows what he's doing. Let's see. Teddy says this team, speaking of Teddy,

how about that? Back into the NFL for Teddy Bridgewater. Good for him. The other Teddy says this team feels different than years past. How do you guys feel about them competing in every game and even better winning these games the fact that there is two losses by a total of 12 points to two teams that are going to be in the playoffs i've not seen that before every year that i've covered the team there's some ass whoopings in there and except for 2017 where they had the only times they lost were close games i feel like the camaraderie is different than what i've ever seen before even 2017 they were kind of working in spite of the coach instead of because of him at times this is a quarterback

who's doing things that i haven't seen since i've started covering the team yeah it's different the only thing is it's a season where three other fan bases are going, are we different this year than we were before? Because there's these three other teams that I think are really equal to the Vikings. So I can't say that that means they'll win the Superbowl, but from those aspects that you brought up, yes, they are different. For me, it means that I like their chances. And I would, you know, I would feel confident that they have a chance to win against any of these other teams in the NFC. I said it, you know, the last show on Monday where I felt like this team, if you told me that the Vikings had to go into Detroit to play the Lions in the NFC championship game.

I'm not going to guarantee that they would win that game, but I'd be like, okay, they can do that. They can go in Detroit and beat the Lions. You know, I still feel that way. Now, if they go, you know, if next week is a big game for the division and they go in and the Lions blitz them by 31 points, then yeah, maybe that'll change my opinion a little bit but as of right now based on what what i've seen what i saw how they handle that environment in seattle this past week i think they can go on the road and play with anybody and have a chance to win and i think this team is is capable of going on a run to the super bowl doesn't mean i'm guaranteeing that they will, but I think they've got the goods. I think they've got the makeup. I think they've got the head coach and the personnel and everything to, uh, to get it done. Brad says I've been here before 55 years as a fan. I don't

expect much from them anymore. Brad, what would you like this team to do for you that they have not done this year? What can they do for you? I mean, I just, I know it's when the Lombardi bring it to your house and let you kiss it. I get it. I get it. They're 13 and two, man. Can we save Brad? Can we save that for some other year

when they're like seven and 10 sometime, some other time? Can we have done that maybe last year? How do I get all of you folks to stop doing this is there a way like i've been a fan for a long time they've let you down they have well i haven't heard i mean how do we how do we just how do we just move on from that sort of thing it's it's like this let's say you were married for a while and uh the lady cheated on you and then you were thinking about getting remarried and every time you met someone you were like nah that other lady cheated on me you're like

bro it's been 22 years maybe you should just move on because mary is not like tanya okay like the 2024 minnesota vikings have nothing to do with fr Tarkenton or Gary Anderson or anything else. Brad, you love football because you're here. I love football. Why don't we talk about the football that's currently happening and see what happens? That's my that's my that's my pep talk. I can't guarantee you anything. All I can guarantee you is that that's not fun.

I guarantee it's not fun to live that way the fact that they are in this conversation as a team that could go to the super bowl should be enough fun for you to want to continue this without worrying about what sort of heartbreak is inevitably coming like i don't i don't know if this team matthew this team could go to the super bowl and win it they could very well do that like and again that's not a guarantee that they're gonna do that but the fact that they have a chance to do it is enough for me to remain compelled and remain excited about seeing how this whole thing plays out and if they don't make it to the super bowl they get beaten a wild card round we can break it down we can analyze what happened we can talk

about you know sam donald's future and all of that stuff and then we just go on to the next season we start focusing on next season that's you know the players they play these games and they deal with this heartache more than any of us watching this stuff. And they can't do anything about it except move forward onto the next season. So that's the way we that's just the way we got to do it. Otherwise, you're just going to be miserable. It's like, why are you watching if you're going to keep thinking about Gary Anderson missing a kick 27 years ago? This is what I've never adapted to. There is a different fan mentality here than there was in Buffalo.

They will say constantly, I believe, and it's very cheesy, you know, believe bills, but there, and I understand there's a little difference in the market size and the, there's a lot of teams here who have let down people as opposed to just two. But there was always a thing there that they thought the next year was going to be the year that they finally did it. And they were confident in that. And I've maybe told this before on the show, but when the Vikings drafted JP Lossman, my dad diehard bills fan is probably watching right now.

Merry Christmas, dad. And, uh, he would say to me, I think this is our year. I think we found our guy. And I'd be like, probably not. And then they get, then they get Trent Edwards and he wins a couple of games. I think they started a season five and one. And he's like, he's the guy. This is our Joe Montana.

Like this is, this is our guy. He wasn't. They draft EJ manual. He leads a game winning drive or something. And guess what I hear? Like EJ manual. This is, he's, he looks really good. Telling you, I like this kid.

We're going to make it. This is our year. It wasn't. And then they found Josh Allen and he says, Oh, we, we got our guy. And I'm like, I don't know, probably not. Remember the first couple of years were a little rough there and then they did. And then he was right. And now every single season they go into it, they think we're going to win the super bowl this year. They think it right now. They're so angry at my home's hype. I've still follow all those people. They're so mad that he, my home. No, this is our year. It's a, it's just, it's different there. I don't know why. I don't

know if it's a coastal thing or it's just a, because here I've never adapted to the fact that everyone wants to constantly tell me instead of me telling my dad, that is probably not going to work out with JP Lossman. Marshawn Lynch is probably not going to like take them to the Superbowl. Uh, instead I'm like, Hey guys, your football team is pretty good.

And every one says, no, what is your problem? Why would you ever suggest they were good? Why would you suggest they could do something? I'm like, what did I do something wrong here? Am I supposed to say they're not it's gonna someone's gonna miss field goal they got a good kicker even i don't know i just i can't i just can't and i've lived here matthew my whole

life and i've grown up cheering for the vikings and the wolves and the the the wild when they came around and the twins. And I mean, like I suffered through twins baseball in the nineties, man, when it was 10,000 people at the Metrodome and they were losing 95 games a year. But I can't live in just constant assumption that misery is coming.

I can't operate that way. I'm going to go crazy. I'm going to be stressed out all the time. The only thing I can do is when the teams are good, just enjoy the ride. And you hope that they go all the way and win the championship. And then when they don't, it sucks. It's heartbreaking, especially when it's in heartbreaking fashion. But then you just say, all next team up you know if the vikings don't go to the super bowl this year my attention is going to focus now on the wolves which right now tough team to watch right now but you know but that's just how you that's just how you have to do it otherwise you're just going to be if, if you constantly harp on the misery and sort of wear that as

like a badge, you're going to become a little bit insufferable. I can't, I just, I can't, I can't live that way. Maybe it's just me. I just can't, but I can't do it. What I think about is how many great moments, players, things that happen that you spent a lot of you going well it's not a championship it's like okay well that's true but our i mean we're here for the all those moments along the way i thought that that's why we do it. And, you know, it's not always going to work out and it hasn't so far, but it feels like,

would you have been the person who was mad at Randy Moss the whole time he was here? Cause he didn't win a ring or the person who said, what good is it to have Adrian Peterson? If he doesn't have ring, like, I don't know. How do you live this way? How do you live this way? I don't know. I'm sorry, Brad. Like, I don't know. How do you live this way? How do you live this way? I don't know.

I'm sorry, Brad. I, I just, that I've seen it so many times this year. I just don't know how you live this way. Let's run through a few more, Manny. You got time? You busy? Oh yeah. I got plenty of time.

Let's do it. There's, there's not a Thursday night game that I want to watch. So yeah, let's see. A major says, how do you, and and in capital letters so i have to yell this how do you feel about t.j hockinson being the x factor in this game since he missed the first matchup uh major this is a library we don't talk in capital letters here uh well i feel uh good about that major i mean i i do think manny that when we look at when did sam darnold start to have that light go on we've pointed to jacksonville but hockinson had just gotten back in that game and those two connected a lot in that game and since then

he has been a different quarterback so i think hoockinson is a huge factor. Absolutely. And he's a guy, I mean, he hasn't scored a touchdown yet. That can be something that we might see on Sunday. I don't know. But yeah, I mean, he's been absolutely tremendous that the,

the game at soldier field. I mean, he was just, I mean, that was a Jordan Addison game where he was great. And we saw Justin Jefferson make some plays in that game as well. But TJ Atkinson has been seriously underrated in this offense right now. I mean, he's been just, he's that safety net.

I mean, he is the guy that, you know, this is an extreme example, but, you know, you look at what Travis Kelsey is for Patrick Mahomes, where it's just, he's always open. He's always reliable. You throw the ball in this direction. He's going to catch it. It's more than likely going to be a first down. That's kind of, I mean, TJ Hawkinson is kind of a light version of that where you just throw it to him and he's going to catch it more often than not um and it's going to be for a first down he's just going to come through so he's yeah he's going to be absolutely huge in this game love it uh teddy says if we lose to the lions uh or losing the lions win this week

could we see danny dimes week 18 i think he'll be active to get the conditional pick yes would playing him give us a conditional pick? Yes, it would. Most likely a sixth rounder because someone else will sign him as a backup or he might sign here and then you don't get a conditional pick. And Teddy adds, you know, we love a conditional pick. I know you guys are freaks when it comes to conditional picks. You want conditional pick answers all the time even right now we're talking about vikings packers and you want conditional pick answers uh mike says did you see

the stat comparison between sam darnold and josh allen his stats are better in just about every category but running he'll barely sniff mvp uh there really isn't a conversation for Sam Darnold over Josh Allen for MVP for me. And when you say, but running, it's kind of a big deal when it's 11 rushing touchdowns for Josh Allen. That's a lot of touchdowns, my friend. And I think it's something like 800 yards rushing. He has had to be mostly that entire offense all year. He doesn't have Jefferson or Addison. Their best receiver is what maybe as good as addison on a good day being amari cooper and they only got him halfway through the season uh yeah no josh allen i mean come on josh allen and lamar jackson are neck and neck

mvp if they gave it to both of them i would totally agree with it i would not put darn old there i would if we're talking about all people ranking everyone i would have them fifth sixth somewhere in that range so it's not a disrespect but the rushing stats are a pretty big deal when it comes to that we can't just kind of go eh whatever right i mean i think that we have to acknowledge that allen has been their whole offense and their whole team and that's actually what they're probably afraid of in Buffalo is that they rely so much on him to be Superman all the time. Whereas Darnold does have a supporting cast with a lot of help for receivers.

Bat Masterson comes back from the thirties here to comment on you. Who is Bat Masterson? Is that like a, who is that? Is that like an old gunslinger or something it was no idea cowboy okay uh bat masterson was let me see here wikipedia a u.s army scout lawman professional gambler and journalist known for his exploits in the late 19th and early 20th century. He died in 1921 at the age of 67. And they made a TV series out of him as well. So I don't think this is the real Bat Masterson asking the question. It says, I warned the naysayers on Sam.

How many of us humans get a chance like that? He got a chance to drive the same Ferrari as Kirk and was driving it with more natural ability. Yeah. I mean, yes, like this is a Ferrari to be able to drive. And Sam Darnold just seems each week like he is more comfortable behind the wheel. And that's, what's really impressed me, Manny, is that even when things haven't been perfect for him, he's still found a way to keep the offense moving. And then there's these off-schedule plays and things like that that he just seems to be on the same page as Jefferson. And I want to make one point about how good this is of a Ferrari.

Last week, and what Darnold can do with it. Last week, there's a play where Darnold's rolling out to his left. Okay. It's a bootleg or he's escaping or something, and he's rolling to his left. So he's turned completely toward the sideline where he's got to flip around and throw the ball. Jefferson is coming across the field from the far side, all the way across. Now, rather than run straight across the field, Jefferson realizes there's an underneath defender and he starts to stem the route out into space. More Darnold spots him, flips the hips, fires a rocket, and it hits Jefferson right in stride.

Jefferson is flying. I mean, he must be going 20 miles an hour flying across the field and is right. It's right. It's like, that is the perfect combination of greatness at the receiver position and stupid talent with your arm to be able to be running that way and then flip and throw. And it's on a line right to Jefferson in that open space. This feels like about the maximum of what you can do with these offensive weapons is to put yourself in a position where you have an elite passing game in terms of expected points added before Kansas City and Baltimore played their fifth and expected points added from their passing game that that

is as good as it gets that's why Sam Darnold was drafted third overall. Yes, correct. I mean, and that, that's where like, you know, the, the, the more he continues to play well, the less, I think surprised we should be by this because a lot of the plays that he's making, the throws that he's making, you know, the game winning touchdown in Seattle, that is talent. That is skill. That is the ability to run around and escape. You know, he's not Michael Vick when he's running with the ball as a quarterback, but he's athletic enough to where he can move around and extend plays and make things happen.

And he's got the arm strength to be able to make just about any kind of throw imaginable that pretty much any quarterback in the league can make you know or or the best the elite quarterbacks in the league can make this is this is why he's doing what he's doing i mean because it is physical talent and you know the the element of koc getting involved and and sort of channeling that talent, having the right system, the weapons, all of that stuff, Justin Jefferson being the best wide receiver on the planet. This is why this has worked so well all season, because it is a talent type of thing with that position. Kirk was great for six years, but there were just times

where there were just plays that were not going to be able to be made because he couldn't get out of the pocket or he didn't have as good an arm strength to be able to make some of the throws that we've seen Sam make this year and you know we're talking about Garrett Bradbury earlier you know and sometimes he gets pushed back and everything if this were still Kirk and again I hate to keep bagging on Kirk here, but if this were Kirk Cousins still operating this offense, yeah, Gary Bradbury getting pushed back would be a problem. It would be a huge problem because we would know that Kirk can't get out of that. He can't get away from that when Bradbury's getting pushed right into his face. Now Bradbury's getting pushed back into Sam Darnold.

Sam can just slip to the right, slip to the left, and make something happen and extend that play. And that goes into the physical skills that this quarterback has. Okay. We're the worst at rapid fire answering these questions. I know. You and I both. I'm the worst at it.

Let me truly rapid fire. No, we are both extremely guilty. I said let's rapid fire, and then I went off on a 10-minute rant about always thinking the team's going to lose. Vike Will Wins has been a fan since 72, attended the championship game in Dallas as a Minnesotan and have never felt so confident that I do. Right now, let's have fun.

Well, there you go. There's the attitude. I just prefer that a lot more than because what am i supposed to say i can't answer it when someone just says we're gonna lose and like i don't know maybe probably i don't know what do you want from me i'm not a as rick spielman once said i'm not a soothsayer uh marley says uh nailer's disappeared since the muff punt i know wide receiver three essentially hockinson's role but it would be great to get some production rather than one catch for five yards every game i agree uh he's run a lot of clear outs there's a lot of love for the game routes there that are made to get uh someone

like justin jefferson or jordan addison open i mean they've passed the football extremely well in this stretch and if you're going to pick a guy to not be involved it's going to be jalen naylor but there's also been some opportunities to catch the football that he has uh you know like not made and there was one of those last week i know a guy was kind of jumping onto his back but it was a first down chance and it just didn't happen he didn't make the play there was the touchdown against tennessee that he just drops like he the rams game the one yeah i am game that he drops yeah right you know i really do think that maybe maybe trent surefield should be playing a little bit more but nailer has speed and he presses the defense with his speed and his deep ability, which is more just

a threat of deep ability because he hasn't actually shown it in quite some time, but he's been in that. The problem is you can't just take another guy always and say, just do the same thing because he's been in that role since camp. So when it's the whole season long, but they could, they could use something out of them. Uh, okay. Last, last one from Hunter here. Are the Vikings going to win the Superbowl this year? Probably not because 31 teams won't win the Superbowl, but why watch the team? If you're refusing to let yourself get excited when they're good. Well, the big thing for me is if they do win the Superbowl, do you really have wanted to spend the whole time like mad at them right like the whole time you were telling everybody that you would listen that they're not going to

win and they're always going to blow it and you don't expect anything what do you do when they actually if they actually did would you just i don't know say sorry to everybody like i don't know what you do then i you spent the whole time being mad anyway uh let's get to these uh underdog pickums manny you don't get paid overtime for this show so i gotta get you out of here uh underdog fantasy a major sponsor of this show and i greatly appreciate it and guess what the underdog fantasy season comes nowhere close to being over despite a lot of house leagues that are playing in their playoffs and so forth but the pick'ems carry on every sport into the playoffs all those things they have playoff fantasy leagues to check out it's the easiest app to download to sign up to play you use that code

purple get the special pick and then you get your first time deposit offer up to a thousand dollars in bonus cash which is great for you uh get you going right away you must be 18 or older terms apply concerned with your play call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org so here's what we got manny i'll give you three of them higher or lower jordan love 246.5 yards will he go higher or lower i'll say higher okay i agree with that i think he's gonna have to throw the football a lot in this game how about sam darnold for combined yards so rushing and passing 277.5 yards i'll say higher you're thinking shootouts in this game that is how it sounds well i think we're gonna see a lot of points in this game i think so too two good defenses overall but the quarterbacks the wide receivers usually rise to the challenge versus

good defenses as we see every week in the league how about mr josh jacobs combined rushing and receiving yards 96.5 would you go higher or lower on that it's a lot of josh jacobs yeah i'll go lower okay how about justin jefferson and and i that's such a good number because if he gets 80 yards rushing and a couple of passes then you're there depends on what kind of shootout we're talking about though if that's how this ends up playing out and they're passing all the time then maybe jacobs isn't rushing like that, or if they're playing from behind at all. How about Justin Jefferson, higher or lower? 87.5 yards.

This is the easy one, higher. I'm going to go higher on that. Also, his higher for his longest reception is 26.5. That seems like a lock that it's going to be higher than that. And one last one, a revenge game game of sorts though not really getting revenge against anything aaron jones higher or lower 63.5 rushing yards i promise you rapid fire um i'll go i'll go higher everything going higher in the manny world uh for this game lots of offense to come so if you want to play along again underdog fantasy promo code purple

that bonus cash is huge when you're playing with the pickums or if you want to join playoff fantasy lots of fun stuff there so speaking of fun stuff great great stuff from all of you tonight thank you so much for watching slash listening and tomorrow night it'll be my recorded conversation with andrew kramer the hardcore preview that we do every week and then it is vikings and packers myself dane mizzitani press box i don't know what time we're talking maybe like eight o'clock after you know about an hour and a half after the game after we get back from the locker room from inside us bank stadium so make sure you are looking for the live show there it is one i cannot wait to see how this ends up playing out so thank you so much all of you and thank you manny and uh we will catch y'all later

thanks for watching and listening say it manny fight ball