Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Bob Sturm talks about how the Vikings and Cowboys are two teams in very different places

Episode Date: November 17, 2022

Matthew Coller talks with Bob Sturm, long-time Cowboys analyst for The Athletic and The Ticket in Dallas, about the Cowboys' loss to the Green Bay Packers last week and how their last offseason decisions are coming back to haunt them despite their good record. Plus, the Cowboys can't stop the run, which could be a problem against the Vikings and the Trevon Diggs/Justin Jefferson matchup. -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here and joining me on the show uh we were just joking that i'm a first time long time a a big fan of bob stern writes for the athletic also the ticket in dallas to talk vikings and cowboys what is up bob i am a big fan i am actually a fan boy of yours i've read your work for a long time oh thank you so much i appreciate it and and certainly the follow has been mutual and love the way you handle the Vikings. So happy to be with you and it should be a fun week. Yeah, this is an interesting one.

The last time the Vikings and Cowboys played, it was the Cooper Rush game that was one of the sort of bricks that tied to Mike Zimmer's ankle that sunk him to the bottom was that loss because of the way that it came about with Cooper Rush leading a game winning drive. And the Vikings last year were whatever the opposite of clutch is. And this year, just every late game has gone their way. But I did get a chance to see Dallas while I was in the Buffalo airport lose to the Green Bay Packers at the end I want you to just give me kind of a status of the feeling right now with Dallas because I think that everyone was kind of riding high with Dak back and maybe that was a bit of a gut punch well yeah you know six and two at the bye week they felt great you know they they felt like they had the

best defense in the NFL they thought they had their quarterback back, and they also thought that Odell Beckham might be on the roster real soon. So a lot was vibing, if you will, entering this ninth game at Green Bay. And frankly, as a born-and-raised cheesehead, I fully expected they would have no problem dispatching the Packer team. I've seen all season just look ridiculous offensively in so many ways. And so that game, you know, it starts in Lambeau is kind of lifeless and kind of accepted their fate that

this ain't the year. And heck, this might not be the quarterback anymore because he's probably wrapping up his final year in green and gold. And not to go down that road, soap opera road again, but it just wasn't great. And then that interception happened in the end zone. So, so Rogers turns the ball over at his 10. Now Prescott has a chance to, to come away either up 10-0 or 14-0,

but up double digits. Lifeless stadium. Cowboys are on the trot, and the Packers haven't won since October 2nd. And so in my mind, when you hit third and 11 from the 11, take the points, get out of there with a 10-point lead, and don't risk any sort of issues. But Prescott thought he had Schultz or Lamb over the middle. It's very cloudy what he was even looking at, but he definitely hit Rudy Ford right in the chest. And when that interception happened, I thought the game flipped because the stadium came to life. Shortly thereafter, Rodgers hits Christian Watson on the bomb. So instead of 14-0 or 10-0, it's now 7-7. And things got away from the Cowboys from there. Now they did have a 14-point fourth quarter lead. And so again, they had control of

the game. And that's when this elite defense that hadn't given up 17 points in five of their six wins gave up 17 points after the start of the fourth quarter and so you know you can look at it from both sides of the ball and you can say for the Packers to outscore the Cowboys 17 nothing after the start of the fourth quarter. Is that a complete failure of the offense, going 0-4 on their drives and not getting a single point? Or is it a complete failure on the defense, giving up three scores out of four drives? And you probably have to come up with yes. The answer is yes.

Both sides collapsed there late. And so what that does is it sends the entire Cowboy fan base into a full panic that, oh, no, it's happening again. And it might just come down to that fourth and seven Rodgers to Watson touchdown because you're up 14 there. There's 13 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. And if you make one play, it's done and dusted. You're seven and two and you're strutting around like one of the heavyweights in the nfc and now you're like oh my gosh are we even going to be able to get to a wild card if we lose to minnesota on sunday so such is life in this league right it most certainly is i mean the week-to-week roller coaster the vikings won in washington in a game that taylor heineke gave

them and we all kind of went like every win win is like this. Can you really sustain, go prove it in Buffalo. And they are a QB sneak away, an interception away, all these things from not proving it in Buffalo. They're down 17. And yet they somehow find a way. And Dallas was sort of the Buffalo in this equation where it's like you out play green Bay for the majority of the game.

And just like Buffalo, they have a tendency maybe to just push a little too much. Like Buffalo, in multiple instances, could have just run the football and the game is over. But a lot of times it seems like teams have maybe misunderstood analytics a little. Or misunderstood aggressiveness. It doesn't mean push the aggressive button every single time, especially when you're winning. And I think similar to Buffalo, there is a huge, huge pressure on this Dallas team because of the way the last season ended. If they had gone to the NFC championship team, maybe they would or game they would be maybe confident in these games.

But you could see Buffalo because of 13 seconds, just kind of like, oh, yeah, right. I mean, it kind of feels that way with Dallas too where if you don't get it done this year when will you get it done yeah and it's just the mounting burden you know of 1996 so you know when you talk about all of the years and I know the Vikings certainly have the history books working against them as well if you look at it from whatever angle you want but this current cowboy team is not just about this current cowboy team it's about the entire Tony Romo era it's about the entire Bill Parcells tenure I mean it's it's literally about everything post Jimmy Johnson

and I know they didn't get Super Bowl 30 without Jimmy but it was Jimmy's team. And, uh, and, and frankly, um, it, it feels like groundhog day. So, so they, no matter what sort of season they have as the weather turns, not so much here in North Texas, but as it turns, uh, everybody is like, okay, so how is this going to collapse this year? And, and, you know, the first half of their seasons, they're not quite Cliff Kingsbury in terms of second half collapses, but, uh, they're also, uh, not proud of being, you know, the first half of their seasons, they're not quite Cliff Kingsbury in terms of second half collapses. But they're also not proud of being, you know, for instance, the Mike McCarthy stat. Since going into Sunday, and I'm sure this has changed, but going into Sunday, since the start of 2021. So 21 and 22, Mike McCarthy has the most wins of any coach in the NFL tied with Andy Reid.

And so I guess the chiefs won. So that status no longer quite as quite as impressive, but number one in the league and in regular season wins. And nobody even cares a little bit because those are regular season wins. We don't care about that. We've established this. We, we, you know, down here cowboy fans are desperate for something more than the

high water mark since 1995 of winning even in the divisional round they have two wild card wins uh you know over these over the tony romo era uh prescott has one wild card win so so so when they i think they have four playoff wins in 26 years, and they're all wildcard wins. They haven't won in the divisional round. That means you don't play in the championship game, let alone even dream of a Super Bowl. So they carry a lot with them, and you could see it on Dak's face on Sunday.

It looks like he's hearing the sound of silence playing in his head as he's over there on the bench as Rodgers is running around. Well, I mean, to their credit, it was a catch. I mean, Des did catch him. I'm just saying, like, that did happen. But it's funny because Vikings fans have no empathy for anyone else who's had things go wrong. But when you think about since 1996, we have contributors to Purple Insider who were not born yet at that time. So their entire life, because mine growing up, I grew up in Buffalo. So I watched Dallas win two Super Bowls against the Bills and everything. And so for my entire life, anybody who was a Dallas fan was just a bandwagoner, just a frontrunner, like forget you.

But there's an entire generation of people who have only seen the Dallas Cowboys get hyped up and then fail. And doing it last year with Amari Cooper still there and not coming through in that game against San Francisco, it does feel like the scar tissue has built up. And McCarthy is such an interesting case because how many times did they get so close in Green Bay so they won once but like all those other times they were close and the playoffs did not come through and they were the regular season heroes and it seems like that's repeating itself in Dallas now yeah yeah it's it's just a matter of comparisons right if you're comparing Mike McCarthy to Tom Landry it doesn't quite hold water but if you're comparing mike mccarthy to tom landry it doesn't quite hold water but if you're comparing him to jason garrett uh the people down here would say man you know

what we would love we would love a really heartbreaking nfc championship game loss that sounds like something we we would actually welcome and of course they wouldn't you know it's all psychology but uh but yeah it's there's there's a lot of you want to say internal pressure but with the cowboys it just feels like the entire nfl media machine is built on the backs of uh laughing at the cowboys or analyzing the cowboys or just whatever they do is somehow in the A block on these talk shows. And, you know, it doesn't totally make sense, partly because, like, the Cowboys make more money than any franchise by a mile. When you look at every year the income of each stadium and each franchise,

the Cowboys are a money-making machine. Usually of the five top games in the nfl in terms of total viewers like three of them are cowboys games every year and it doesn't really make sense why they're that relevant but even when they're losing their relevance actually grows and so it's this it's this odd thing where I think Prescott is actually a perfect quarterback for them because he does appear largely undaunted by all the noise, and I don't think everybody could pull that off. But at a certain point, it can wear him down. And I think this year, with that really weird Cooper Rush win streak,

I sense that since Prescott's returned, he's been pressing and throwing the ball into danger a lot more often than he used to. And his entire career, he's been a very efficient and I don't want to say cautious, but he's been very smart with his decisions. And he doesn't throw the ball up for grabs. Well, if you look at his three games back, the win against the Lions, the win against the Bears, and now the loss at Green Bay, he's thrown the ball into coverage half dozen times, like twice a game. And is he just not

seeing the safety or are him and Lamb on the wrong page? I mean, we can debate each play separately, but the collection of turnover-worthy plays, if you will, are much higher since his return than they were for his entire career. And I almost take that as like he's trying to prove to everybody, including himself, that there is a significant difference between him and Cooper Rush. But that can get you in trouble in this league, especially if the opponent's setting traps for you yeah there was a really funny uh tick-tock thing that went around of a guy uh talking about what it's like to be the injured starting

quarterback when the backup is succeeding is like yeah yeah yeah but like I could have done that I mean right right yeah I'm gonna have everybody forget here that yeah but I don't think that anyone thinks that Cooper Rush is better than Dak Prescott, but I totally understand where you're coming from. When you see the backup succeed, it has to get in your head. I also think there's a big element of Amari Cooper with this team that there was a PFF study that kind of broke my brain a little bit and made everything make sense where they talked about in the bigger games,

in the playoffs, having a second option is so, so valuable, sometimes even more valuable than the first option in the post season and the Vikings. This is why they got TJ Hawkinson because there just wasn't a second option. And then two big plays, one on a fourth down, another on a third down against Buffalo. That's the guy that Kirk Cousins is looking to. It just doesn't seem like anyone has filled those shoes of Amari Cooper and it's like if we could only find the people responsible for this but I mean for them trading him for a fifth round pick and then now you're hoping and praying that Odell picks you uh in uh you know this reality show that he's run there's no doubt

he's got a documentary team following him, right? That's going to end up in Dallas eventually. But heading into this game, it feels like there's one guy the Vikings need to focus on. They did pretty well with that with Stefan Diggs last week. Diggs crushed them, but nobody else did. You can only get, you know, 150, 200 yards at best as one receiver when you need 300 to win. And I feel like Dallas is going through the same thing that the Vikings went through pre Hawkinson. Yeah. And the,

honestly looking at, at, at your squad, the fact that they were able to get Hawkinson is insane to me. And, and, you know, I didn't need to see him on that roster to feel that way.

The second the trade came down, I'm like, wait a minute, they traded him in the division for that and and Hawkinson changes the math substantially for the Vikings and he's exactly what the Cowboys are missing I think that's well said um the Cowboys put the franchise tag on Dalton Schultz I'm sorry Dalton Schultz doesn't scare any secondary. He is not a vertical stretch. He's definitely not a slot receiver playing tight end. He is a tight end and he's decent. You know, he's solid. Is he a franchise caliber guy? No, there's no way regardless of what his agents try to put out there. And,

you know, he had some great stats last year, but I'm telling you, they were almost all on those rollout bootlegs and those little hook curls at the sticks. There's no vertical stretch to Dalton Schultz whatsoever, and so what that does is it allows the safeties to go look for work elsewhere, and Michael Gallup hasn't been the same since his return. We could argue he's returning too fast because there's nothing dynamic about his game right now. Jalen Tolbert, who they took in the third round, has done nothing except line up offsides in overtime on Sunday,

which I swear to you, if you look at the video, it's laugh out loud funny for this poor guy who is literally, his entire foot appears to be offsides, and he's looking at the ref to see if he's on as they will. Poor guy. It's his rookie year, and that's the impression you make is everybody's like, didn't we take this guy from South Alabama? And so it all does lead back to the Amari Cooper decision,

which is well-documented in my space to be one of the single dumbest things they've ever done. And it was, it's one of those deals where, and Jerry Jones always says this, I try to avoid everything Jerry Jones says because most of it's complete nonsense, but he has said repeatedly over the course of time, don't ever let your money get mad. And I thought to myself that he violated that twice this year with Lyle Collins and Amari Cooper. Now Collins is pretty average and they've been fine at right tackle with Terrence Steele, but to have Amari Cooper at 20 million a year and to talk yourself into the fact that we're fine without him and to flip him for a fifth like okay if you're going to trade him with davante adams and tyree

kill and all those guys setting the market for what a wide receiver is worth and you know the dk metcalf deals and just all the things that have happened this summer his deal wasn't bad he was productive enough to justify 20 million he was on a deal where there's no cap hit there's like it's it's now the guaranteed money had been paid out so it's almost a pay as you go type year by year deal so they have him on a fixed income through 2025 he's a 27 year old you know fourth pick in the draft there's so many things that make no sense about the Amari Cooper thing, and it almost all goes back to the vaccination issue of last November

where Cooper missed the Kansas City and Vegas games on Thanksgiving week because, you know, he got flagged for, you know, the COVID protocols, and he had to miss, and they're all like, dude, why didn't you get the vaccine? You know, and you guys know that up there in Minnesota as well as anybody of players opting out of that sort of thing. But, you know, it didn't feel like the end of the world that Cooper missed two weeks because everybody was missing time last year. But it did feel like the Cowboys almost pushed him into he's dead to us because of that, because he wasn't compliant. And then, you know, you would also hear that he seemed emotionless or, you know, and that whole thing is crazy because this is a team that put up with Des Bryant losing his mind on the sideline.

And they would say, well, he's too emotional. Now, Amari Cooper is not emotional enough. And, you know, it's, it's a Goldilocks looking for the bed. That's just right. And it just, you know, they're, they're running to stand still now, trying to find something that if you trade him and you go get a second or a second and a third, okay, we can, we can, we can talk about this. Um, but if you trade them for what amounts to a day three mid pick uh and then

you're spending the entire year trying to find his replacement that you i guess didn't think you would need and now you're panicking it's it i could go on i've done this 25 seasons with this organization and the number of front office decisions they make that just have no real good explanation uh heck it goes all the way back to not drafting randy moss because uh they they found a moment of sanity they claimed and uh then spent his entire career wondering why they didn't have randy moss and and of course have uh have picked several guys with spotty resumes since then trying to make up for that which they never have folks have you noticed that I'm always talking about liquid death here on the show well you've probably also noticed by now that it's in the

grocery aisle with the water yes that's the water that looks like a tall boy beer and hey there's a good reason for that liquid death is not only delicious mountain water and sparkling water, but it's also saving the environment as well. Liquid Death tall boy style cans are much easier to recycle than those plastic bottles. So they're trying to kill plastic by using aluminum and by donating 10% of profits to put an end to plastic use. I've enjoyed taking a break from soda and trying liquid death. And some of you kind folks have tweeted me and said that you've done the same with great

results. Even if your family thinks that you are downing beer after beer, find liquid death at Hy-Vee 7-Eleven Target or check out liquiddeath.com slash insider. That's liquiddeath.com slash insider that's liquid death.com slash insider yeah i do recall that uh randy got a little revenge uh on thanksgiving which which came full circle on sunday how did you see that where christian watson was the first rookie since randy must have three touchdowns. How about that? I know.

How crazy is that? And as Jefferson was doing what he was doing on Sunday, of course, I tweeted this is the best game I've ever seen by a receiver. I meant that I covered not it's the best single game in history by a receiver, although it had a good case when you looked at the next-gen stats. But, of course, the Vikings fans are like, Randy Moss on Thanksgiving. Like, folks, I know. I know. I know. We all know. at the next gen stats but but of course the vikings fan like randy moss on thanks it like folk i know i know yeah i know we all know no one forgot that all right no one's attacking randy moss here but now to your point though um it's you know we did deal with that here with the relationship

between the coach and quarterback was very fractured by vaccination status and it's something that we kind of don't even remember in hindsight of how that caused so many dominoes to fall in a lot of different places, including Cousins missing a game against Green Bay late in the season where they had a chance to make the playoffs. And if they make the playoffs, it's very possible that Mike Zimmer is still the coach. It's also very possible they do a lot of the same things

and have a winning record, and we're talking about Zimmer turning it around. So kind of, kind of crazy how things fall into place. But what I don't get about Dallas here, I mean, you can make an argument to me that some receivers are just not worth as much, or that you can make it up with multiple other receivers. They did not get multiple other receivers. And I know that receivers are expensive and not easy to find, but it seemed like their answer was like, just nothing like my my offer is nothing as what was that uh godfather my offer is nothing yes uh Dak Prescott can I have some receivers no my offer is nothing outside of C.D. Lamb that's what's bizarre to me is that they were just sort of hoping and praying for the rest of the receiving yeah and you, it's really ironic if you want to go back to 2018.

So that was the off season where they said goodbye to Des Bryant. And they also had Jason Witten retire. And so they lost kind of their two, you know, and Witten was, was pretty cooked by then. But, but the point is they sent those guys away

and opened the season in Carolina in 2018 with potentially Cole Beasley as their number one receiver. And again, Cole Beasley's fine as your slot. And even that, he's definitely a space cadet in his own way. But I would say that eight weeks later or six weeks later, they realized they don't have a wide receiver who can replace Des Bryant. So they trade a first round pick to the Raiders to get Amari Cooper. Like we just did this three years ago.

That's how Cooper got here is kind of the hubris of, oh, we'll be fine. We love our guys and they weren't fine. And we just did it again this year. We talked, you know, themselves, we'll be fine. We love our guys. And they weren't fine. And we just did it again this year. We talked, you know, themselves out of Amari Cooper. Uh, you know, and that's the crazy thing is they tell their fan base it's because of cap. It's a man. It's, it's the cap situation. It's a, we just can't afford all these guys. Somebody, something had to give. Well, here's, what's crazy crazy they decide to give almost all that money to dalton schultz on a very ordinary tight end that they pretty much took jake ferguson out

of wisconsin and and he's been fine when dalton schultz has missed games and uh instead uh they they have cap room and they have dalton schultz instead of Amari Cooper. And by the way, I think you probably could have got both done. You probably could have, uh, restructured Cooper's deal like Cleveland did, but it's, it's honestly very frustrating to watch this front office work. But, uh, I've also, um, been able to preserve my sanity over the years by trying to avoid making everything about the Jones family all of the time, because, uh, at a certain point, um, it does, it does sort of make your brain turn to mush. If you just always go back to that, like, you know, you're blaming the boogeyman for

everything. So, so I, I attempt to avoid, uh, the Jerry Jones, uh, you know, drinking game and all the things that go with covering this team and try to look into the details and find other reasons, honestly, just to keep the fan base, uh, entertained. But, you know, when you look at massive moves like that and heck the way they botched the Dak Prescott extension, because they spent two years putting them on the franchise tag. You know, their Kirk Cousins, uh, fun here. Uh, but if he, if you just extend him after his third season, um, you get, you're getting them at 27 a year. Instead, they kick the can two years and end up giving them 40 a year. Now, I realize over the course of time that might have evened out, but if Dak Prescott is the 20th

highest paid quarterback in the league, you're like, okay, I get it. But then you had to make them the most paid, highest paid quarterback in the league. Like nobody in their wildest dreams thinks Dak Prescott is the best player in the NFL. Nobody. And so Dak probably doesn't. So, I mean, at a certain point, you think you're playing chess, but you're playing checkers with your cap and they're not very good at it. And they really never have. So if you want to look at why have the cowboys been so bad for 26 years i mean

the same guys are running the team yeah it's the um the my favorite meme is the guy in the hot dog suit says we're all looking for the person responsible it's like the the jones family like we are all looking for the person responsible for this bad cap situation that's right but here's here's the crazy thing Bob um team's pretty good actually I mean isn't that crazy that you know the all those things but the Dan Quinn and this defense and Trayvon Diggs and Micah Parsons I mean they are a scary group for the Vikings and I saw today and this may change throughout the week but but Dallas favored in Minnesota, which is, I think, very bizarre considering the records, also where the game is being played.

It's not an easy place to play, though Dak has generally been okay here. Or actually, no, he's only played one game here. It was Andy Dalton and Cooper Rush beating him. Maybe they should sit Dak. I don't know. Well, trust me. Trust me, there's a big portion of the fan base that won't that narrative won't be lost on them that Dalton and Rush won up there what's Dak's problem of course but uh the the defense why has it been as good as it's been save for some mistakes against

the Packers because their pass rush is unbelievable and and so and so, you know, if, if you and I were constructing a team and we, uh, just went on the simple fact that the Cowboys for whether we believe it or not, it's, it's not really an opinion. The Cowboys were the number one offense in the NFL last year based on yardage. So I have massive issues with that watching the team in the second half of the season, but I can't argue the numbers. I mean in the second half of the season but I can't argue the numbers I mean the numbers I just sit there they don't have opinions and the Cowboys had more yards than anybody in the league and whether that's important or not we could debate I think they were fifth in points but I mean they across the board the Cowboys statistically had a

great offense last year even if the 49ers playoff game has a laugh at that possibility. So if you're designing a defense to complement the number one offense in the NFL, what do you do? Well, I'm assuming I'm going to be a head late in games. So I want my pass rush to be awesome. My run defense, not as important because teams aren't going to be able to run the ball because we're scoring so much. So on paper, they did everything perfect because they do have arguably the best pass rush in the NFL. They get pressure all the time. They get sacks all the time. Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence are both beasts in different ways. And honestly, it makes sense. The problem is, of course, there is no defense without some place to attack at some level. And the Cowboys do seem susceptible to the run.

And you say to yourself in the offseason, but that's okay because no team is going to be able to run because you were scoring 30 a game. That's why the Amari Cooper thing actually affects the defense, but we've already been there. So the Cowboys are getting all this pressure by not really blitzing there. They get there with four, which makes them a lot like Buffalo and a lot like San Francisco, except the, this team leads the league by a mile in stunts. So they're not blitzing, but they're also not staying in their lane. They generate a ton from movement, from twists, from games, the whole bit. And so that's awesome.

That causes chaos, and it makes you wonder, will the whole league see it and start doing it themselves? The reason coaches hate doing it, though, is because if you stunt at the wrong time, especially on early downs into a run, you have just opened up a massive hole and allowed a massive run without the offense doing a whole lot to get it. You just gave it to them. And we saw that in the Aaron Jones touchdown on Sunday, for instance, um, they, they, they have a stunt where the, the tackles are going outside the ends and the

ends are slanting inside well one of the ends Dante Fowler didn't get the memo and so he stays in his lane the tackle joins him in his lane and that leaves Aaron Jones a space for an F-150 to drive through and and you know that's that's the issue so the cowboys love to stunt their line they love to play seven in coverage uh even though on sunday against rogers they were in man all day which is totally counter to what they've done this season and and usually and and it was interesting to see the packers remain stubborn running the ball because if the packers would have done that all season they'd probably be seven and three right now themselves, but they have never been stubborn about running the ball. They, you know, Rogers loves to opt out and all the RPOs turn into

passes and we, we know the issue with them, but that clearly is the recipe to deal with the, the, the Cowboys defense. Um, they love to play little like everybody these days. They love to be in dime. They love to be in nickel. They love to be in big nickel with three safeties on the field. And then they love to stunt up front. And what that leaves, especially if Parsons is playing defensive end is a pretty small, but very dangerous defense and attacking your quarterback and thus generating takeaways, but it doesn't make them terribly stout. Uh, and so you can kind of get after them. Do the Vikings have enough guard center guard and in their running game to, to expose that, you know, we can certainly debate that. Um, I like

the Vikings tackles way more than I like guard center guard, but I, I assume that doesn't make me terribly original, but, uh, but you know, if, if you are playing 31, 28 games and you know, you are trying to get that sack late in the game to end it, the Cowboys are set up for that style of game all day. I just don't know that, uh, they're set up for what the 49ers might throw at you in a playoff game again, because, um, these last couple of weeks, I mean, these last couple of weeks they have been run on comfortably. And that's, it's, it's Justin Fields and it's the Packers. So, so maybe it's just a blip, but I think we'll see on Sunday, plenty of,

plenty of cook, plenty of Madison and you know, plenty of what the Vikings have seen on film. Folks, if you're looking for a way to celebrate Minnesota's insane football season, go to SodaStick.com. See all the different designs from Kirko chains to the gritty to everything Skoll related. SodaStick, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com and use the code PurpleInsider for 15% off your purchase.

Yeah, could be similar to the time they ran i think nine times in a row on a touchdown drive or something a couple years ago uh in dallas it's interesting about the middle of the vikings offensive line you will not find too many uh offensive lines that are different in terms of run and pass as much as the Vikings are in the middle. They, but I just checked PFF. They are the second highest run blocking graded group, and they are one of the worst against the past when they have two elite

tackles. And although it will be very interesting to see this week, if Christian Derrissaw practices and plays because he left last week with a concussion and Blake Brandel came in and played, he played great. He didn't face Micah Parsons though. And Gregory Rousseau was out of that game. So it was Vaughn Miller and I was surprised that Buffalo didn't move Vaughn Miller over him, but they had to give Blake Brandel a lot of help,

a lot of chips, a lot of extra guys over there. And if Dallas has an entire week to prepare for a guy playing his second game ever, that's going to be a massive advantage there. But I think that what you've said is hits it on the head. The Vikings always have to succeed on the back of Delvin Cook starting first. And last week was a bit of an anomaly because they're playing from 17 down and they're getting turnovers and they're throwing it up to Justin Jefferson. But in games this year where they've gotten their run game going, defenses really just don't have an answer because they get very anxious when Delvin cook is running 10 yards after 10 yards.

You've seen this happen in front of you before that the team started like, okay, we got to creep up. We got to creep up and whoops, there's Justin Jefferson for 47 yards. But if Delvin is stopped, then it's like, you really only have one option. And that'll now kind of a secondary with Hawkinson, but it really throws them off when that happens. And I think that that could be a defining element of this game. But also I wanted to ask you about Trayvon Diggs versus Justin Jefferson. I mean, we are blessed in this game, Bob. We are blessed.

Micah Parsons, Justin Jefferson, Zedarius Smith, the megastar talent that will be on display for this football contest is really something, but no bigger matchup, I think. Do you think that – I don't know how they play. Does Diggs follow the top receivers? Do you think that's going to happen with Jefferson? He he doesn't follow a ton but there are times where where he he certainly uh petitions to do so and it looks like it's almost a group decision which which always makes me nervous because what's the corner gonna say you know i don't want to i don't want to deal with

this guy no digs digs is always looking for the big matchups. The downside to that, of course, is Jefferson. I mean, I hate to typecast him. He's a superstar, so he can do anything. But when he came out of college, we thought he was a slot. And, of course, we were all wrong. The entire NFL industrial draft complex had Justin Jefferson wrong, which is ironic given how the entire recruiting system had him wrong going to LSU. I mean, it's unbelievable to see what Justin Jefferson has become,

and it's not lost on the Cowboys, who could not believe their luck that CeeDee Lamb fell to them, and Justin Jefferson was right there as well. And, of course, the Eagles have a story to tell on that front uh to say the least and and and there's probably countless other teams but I don't think I like Diggs nearly as much against the slot type the guy with massive fluidity versus the bigger wide receiver that challenges you outside the numbers. So Diggs is best against those bigger guys. He plays in phase. He practically runs the routes for them, and he has great success.

I think Diggs is tremendous, and I think the slander against Trayvon Diggs over the years has been overdone. But in fairness, like Marcus Peters, some of these guys are willing to give up a lot of yards and a lot of highlights to go get that ball. I think Lattimore down in New Orleans is another guy like that. And so, you know, it's that type of situation is really where the Cowboys are susceptible because they don't have a lot at corner besides Diggs. And so Rodgers just avoided Diggs the entire day. And I'm sure Rodgers is terrified of him, but it's just smart

because Anthony Brown left the game in that long Watson touchdown with a concussion. I don't know if he'll be ready to go on Sunday, but he's their only other veteran at all. And so Jordan Lewis is on the IR. So they've been playing a rookie at slot when Daron Bland, who's a nice slot, but he's limited. He's a fifth round rookie for a reason. And then they bring in Calvin Joseph, the second rounder from Kentucky in the 2021 draft to play outside opposite digs. And so, you know, Rogers is like, okay, I got the

rookie slot and I've got this uh you know backup corner who has has really not played much at all in the nfl i'm just not going to deal with digs all day long and and he had an incredibly efficient quarterbacking day uh which which uh you know is is rather rare here in 2022 so if the cowboys should have done something at the deadline everybody screams Odell Beckham and things like that I say man they probably should have went and got another corner because they're pretty thin right now and that's why I think they have to stay in zones way more often which is its own problem but but and they can do that with a four-man pass rush they don't

need blitzing and to man up to get pressure. They've demonstrated they have plenty, but for some reason they played so much man on Sunday. It really was a very odd situation where I think they panicked. They saw Aaron Jones getting so much success, and they just said, you know what, get everybody up in the box. You guys have to play man up on the outside. And they didn't stop the run or the pass on sunday so so i guess that's what happens if you overreact well uh with the vikings there really hasn't been a coverage that

has given them trouble with justin jefferson i mean the only game that was a problem was jeff okuda following him all over the field and also and I'm not to blame the refs guy, but like they let Jeff Okuda commit several assaults in that game. And the Vikings should have had a better answer, but what they started doing after that was moving him around a lot more. About three out of 10 snaps come in the slot. But if I'm Dallas, I mean, I don't want Trayvon Diggs away from him if he's got a chance to go down the field. And what I want to see I don't want Trayvon Diggs away from him if he's got a chance to go down the field. And what I want to see is jump balls between Trayvon Diggs and Justin Jefferson, because Trayvon Diggs has, I think, the best hands.

Tell me if this is over a hyperbolic. I think the best hands of any corner and ball tracking that I've seen since Deion Sanders. I mean, he's like a receiver out there. And then you're talking about the best contested catch receiver in the league. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think Diggs is phenomenal.

I think when you hear the stories of certain guys switching positions, you're like, really? This guy used to do it? But in the case of hearing Diggs went to Alabama as a wide receiver, you're like, yeah, that definitely is true. He definitely could go play wide receiver after a long training camp. If you said he can't play defense anymore, he is now a wide receiver. I don't know how good he would be, but I bet you he'd be extremely believable very early in training camp that this guy knows what he's doing.

And that works against him sometimes. He's talked to us that he may not be the most diligent film study guy because uh he he likes the idea that he understands the route tree better than almost any db like he feels like because he was a receiver and because he's the brother of stefan diggs that he knows the stems and he knows uh you know what every scenario is and he's kind of playing an internal chess game, almost like some of the hitters who roll up from the Dominican and they don't want to read a scouting report. They just want a see-ball, hit-ball sort of thing,

and I think that's what Diggs wants is the uncluttered mind of too much coaching. Just let me go out there because I instinctively know what routes are. And so teams set him up with that by the way teams lay traps for trayvon diggs with double moves and and with uh a number of ways to kind of play into his scouting report of uh you know he he just likes to play instinctively and so teams are like okay well let's use your instincts against you yeah and i think eventually he's gonna have to change that probably. Oh yeah. I think film is a, is a pretty tried and true way for preparation for players of all skill levels in this league. It's just too good a league.

Listen to Patrick Peterson. Talk about his interception to win the game. Uh, Bob, this has been super fun, but I have to ask you the toughest question of the podcast appearance. And it will, it's always the most difficult question for any appearance that you'll ever do. Who do you think wins? Man, I have to tell you my, my initial instinct is that I have seen this episode before and the

Cowboys have to demonstrate to us that they can win a game like this before I'm willing to go out on the, on the limb for them. I was pretty troubled with the two games that you would call a major road test for them at Philadelphia without Dak and at green Bay with Dak. And in both cases, they went from looking elite defensively to pretty ordinary. So based on that, it's a show me game.

And therefore, my predictions, the week of a show me game will probably be to play the odds that they haven't shown me yet. So I would, I would think, uh, I would think any sports book telling you the Cowboys are favored are begging for a Vikings wager, in my opinion. Not that I endorse putting your mortgage up, because football is a crazy game. Yeah, I think that if I were to guess, because there's no other real explanation,

it might be some sharp people look at what you did the week before and the emotional game and how many plays you played and they might be saying but both of these teams had long emotional games so right um maybe derisaw's status will change this a little bit because of just how much parsons impacts again we could uh we could talk ball for for much longer than this bob but you have a life and you have things to do um but uh no you are the best man when you publish something that you put out on the athletic I always go and read it uh love your breakdowns really appreciate your work and uh it will be very interesting to see how this one goes so

thanks so much for your time man my pleasure and let's do it again sometime