Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Breaking down the Vikings-Cowboys tape and Teddy's return

Episode Date: November 24, 2020

Matthew Coller and former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Sirles break down the tape, looking at several game-changing plays between the Vikings and Cowboys. How did Andy Dalton and their offense flourish? How much blame does Kirk Cousins deserve? Why are fans so upset with Cousins despite his play? And Jeremiah remembers the game in which Teddy Bridgewater came back from his severe knee injury Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Folks, do you feel like everything these days is go, go, go? It's nonstop from work to friends to family and a million pressing issues. Sometimes you just need to take a playoff and hit the reset button.

That's when you reach for a Coors Light. It's made to chill. Hey, it's that time of year in Minnesota again to get out on the lake, go to the cabin, sit back, watch the baseball. Coors Light is the perfect refreshment to chill during these summer months. There's only one beer out there that's made to chill.

The mountains on the bottles and cans turn blue when your beer is cold, and that way you know it's time to chill. Hit that reset button with some mountain cold refreshment. Coors Light is cold lager, cold filtered, and cold packaged. It's literally made to chill. It's crisp and refreshing as the Colorado Rockies. Coors Light is the one you should choose when you need to unwind, when you want to hit the reset button.

Reach for the beer that is made to chill. Get Coors Light in the new look delivered straight to your door with Drizzly or Instacart, Coors Brewing Company, Golden Colorado, and as always, celebrate. In 2003, Nike signed 13-year-old Freddie Adu to a seven-figure contract. But Freddie didn't live up to the hype. He has turned down every single documentary project looking closely at the details of his career. Until now, people are going to look at everything he did because of the hype surrounding your arrival and what they think you can be.

I'm Grant Wall, and this is American Prodigy, Freddie Adu from Blue Wire Podcast. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is Tuesday morning, Left Guard, with former Minnesota Viking Jeremiah Scurlls. Jeremiah, not a great time watching back the film if you are an offensive lineman for this game between the Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys. As you were watching it back, and the offensive line was getting pretty pummeled

by the Cowboys' defensive line, were you A, very surprised by this result, B, frustrated because it shouldn't have happened or see well that's who they kind of are now pick one of those uh i'm gonna go a combination of b and c if that's possible because if you like at one point i'm looking at the defensive line i'm going okay tank lawrence um randy gregory you've got um oh my gosh, I can't blank on Knight Crawford, and then you've got Alden Smith. I'm like, dude, those are some dudes.

Like, those are some absolute dudes out there. Like, this isn't like the slap happy. So at times, like, it made sense, but it was for me, it's like, I've watched this Cowboys team in primetime too many times now because I was tired of seeing them. And you're just like, how are they how they shouldn't happen like two weeks ago I called on the show I was like we asked me to pick every game I was like oh we get we absolutely beat the Cowboys like they can't they can't get out of their own way well apparently they can and so like watching the offensive line just not be able to physically dominate these guys that it seems like has been

able to do over and over again especially coming off the few performances that we've had, was a little frustrating for me. I think that that's really the theme of this game, is that everything that we started to get, I want to say, excited about or say, hey, look, these things are going in the right direction, it all really came apart. And it was especially in the trenches. And the funny thing about that

is that the guy who was the fill-in player might have had the best game of anyone Brett Jones he played really well and not surprising and also should have been playing earlier this year and not Drew Samia what were you guys thinking uh but uh he plays he plays, and everyone else gets run over by a tank. And on the defensive line, we had talked about, well, hey, you know, this guy's looking better, this guy's getting after the quarterback and everything else, and Andy Dalton was not pressured at all. And late in the game, and I think this is one of the areas to be frustrated with, big runs.

I mean, not just the 42-yard run, but a 15-yard run, an 11-yard run, and the defensive line just being pushed back by a Cowboys offensive line that is also beat up. And we all, I mean, just to go down the laundry list, Jeff Gladney had played better over the last three games. Absolutely had a rough game in this one. And, you know, fourth and sixth, he's got man-to-man coverage out of the slot and he's got too much distance between him and the receiver and Andy Dalton's an NFL quarterback puts it right in

there and so I think a lot of those things that we started to get a little bit like oh everything's making progress everything's making progress it sort of reset the counter back to zero after that game yeah I mean there's so many things that you wanted to see build off of that we regressed in um i think number one was the pass rush i thought we were gonna get after andy dalton now first of all the red rocket can sling it now like i think people forget like that was a huge pickup by them in the offseason knowing that dax a running guy and like i know he struggled his first game out and then he got knocked clean out, went night-night against the – who was that? The Washington football team. The team.

The team. And so, I mean, you were like, okay, maybe he's going to struggle. But this is kind of what I expected to see from Andy Dalton when he took over. Like, it's not that dude that they had come in there and play on Monday night, the dude from Pitt, who was just the worst NFL quarterback we've ever seen. Ben DiNucci. DiNucci, dude. Wow. That was just awful. So, like, dude. Wow, that was just awful. So you were like, okay, yeah, like you said, Andy Dalton's a pro quarterback.

He's won playoff games. The dude's a good quarterback. And so he does. He knows how to take advantage of matchups. He knows where to look at things. And if you don't get pressure on him, he'll pick you apart. And I'll say this. I think the best thing the Dallas Cowboys did is move Zach Martin

from right guard to right tackle. Because that dude's an all-world right guard. He's probably an all-pro right tackle. I mean, he's going to be a gold jacket, there's no question in my mind. But then you look across the board and it's like, these guys are just dudes. They're not who you're so used to seeing. You've got Tyron Smith, who God built that man to play left tackle on the offensive line, right?

Like, arms as long as his legs, big upper back, just bam, smacks people. They lose Beate as a third-round pick at center who is going to take over for Frederick, the other Wisconsin center, right? And then Cooper, the kid from Texas, is okay. And then you got Joe Looney, who's usually a guard, who's playing center. I mean, you look at them, they have as many problems as anyone in the league, and they were able to bound together and get things going against this defense. And I think a lot of it has to do with the physical run game

of just Zeke Elliott, dude. I mean, that dude just pounds at you time and time and time. I mean, from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, that dude just beats on you. You and I were talking a little bit off about that third down or fourth down stop that Kendricks had on him where they met in the hole, but you could tell Kendricks is the one who took the brunt of that blow. Like, he is just such a physical runner with the ball in his hands

versus Dalvin, who's more of a finesse runner, make you miss, not take those kind of contexts. I mean, we had two of the best backs in football going at it against this week. But, I mean, you ask about why those runs happened late in the game. It's because of the physicality of wearing guys down at the beginning of the game that always relates over to why those big gains happen in the back end so the vikings pressured andy delta actually i want you to guess he had 34 dropbacks in the game how many times do you think he was credited as being pressured by pro football focus oh it's definitely in the single digits

100 it's definitely like eight it's four oh man four times the tom brady meme four four times out of 34 you don't win too many games if you only pressure the opposing quarterback four times and uh and 34 dropbacks that's not very good at all and you know i think that part of this is also that andy dalton being not Ben DiNucci pro level starting fringe NFL starting quarterback who you mentioned I mean at one point in 2015 had 106 quarterback rating in the NFL with a very good team but it's not like this guy is someone that you you think you're just going to walk out and beat and he had the fourth quickest drop back to throw or snap to throw time. And I also thought that those blitzes that were driving Nick Foles crazy,

that were driving Matt Stafford crazy, if you just catch the ball and then release it, those blitzes don't do a whole lot to you. And that was Andy Dalton. And it seemed like as the game went on, that quick release made it harder and harder, and they weren't getting a whole lot of push from the front four and you end up with this being kind of the way to beat this Vikings defense and that's what happens when you rely on we've got a blitz without that's the only way that we can

really get pressure is blitz because the front four is all backup players the way that I'm looking at it oh man the I mean backup players have roles in the NFL. They're backup players. Like if you're talking about a team that went to the Super Bowl on the San Francisco 49ers last year, how many of these Vikings defensive linemen start? The answer is zero. In 2017, how many of these Vikings players on the defensive line start? The answer is zero.

So if you're talking about being a good team, you can't rely on those guys. And I think it sort of speaks to A, how you kind of got screwed at the beginning of the year with Hunter and Pierce going out. But B, the development is what you rely on when you have to spend so much money on eight guys on a roster of 53. And if someone like Afadi Adenabo does not develop into a starter level player or Jaleelabo does not develop into a starter-level player, or Jaleel Johnson does not develop into a starter-level player, you are left with a lot of these types of guys who can only be schemed around so much. I agree, and I think that we do have to give credit to Kellen Moore. I think that he had a really good offensive game plan going into this game. After watching, I mean, so he's watched the same tape you and I watch we're like man we're seeing some good things right he's like okay well here's

what they're doing really well let's just let's just neutralize that let's just okay if they want a blitz and we see it maybe there's a tell that i'd have to look a lot closer and study a lot harder than i did um as far as like looking for true tells of what their blitzes look like and why they're doing certain things like okay maybe this corner is seven yards off instead of four. Maybe he's on the hash or not. Like, okay, if this is the case, check it. We're throwing hitches. Like, we're throwing hitches.

We're just getting the ball out of your hands because nothing will frustrate a defense more than when they have a blitz called and the linebacker's not even crossing the line of scrimmage before the ball's gone. It almost just makes Zimmer go, screw it, I'm just going to play coverage. And then the second you do that's when they actually have a nice long drop back and throw it. And so I think the chess game between Kellen Moore and Mike Zimmer,

you've got to give it to Kellen Moore this game. And, I mean, we can focus on the Vikings' negatives, but hats off to those guys for putting together a really good game plan against this defense, seeing what they wanted to attack and attacking it. And as good as – there was some good things, I think. I mean, Eric Hendricks' interception was incredible. He should have had another one to seal the game, which was, oh,

that one was so close. You've seen him make that catch 100 times. And so, like, your big players did show up when you needed them to. But, I mean, you look at the last touchdown there, horrible tackling by my go big red, Chris Jones. I can't defend that. He looked about how the Huskers looked this weekend against Illinois yikes and uh and then you look and I can't tell but I think Anthony Harris misses the tight end on the two-point conversion or whatever it is

against down there um it looks like they're I've watched it 10 times I can't 100% tell if they're man in his own but it looks like everyone's running with motions which uses a man indicator and he just gets caught with his eyes in the backfield and loses a guy, and he's wide open. So those are the type of things that you say you didn't. You're just like, man, it's week 10. Like this shouldn't be happening anymore, but it is, and that's the frustrating thing I think when you look across the board.

But, man, you talk about two rising stars in this league, Matt, and CeeDee Lamb and Jefferson. I mean, we're going to see a lot of those guys, a lot of plays those two guys made this this week for a long time in this league yeah and that's uh the thing about jefferson where he was drafted that all the other receivers drafted in the first round are also awesome yeah i mean henry ruggs looks great and cd lamb they found ways to get him the ball and then you know this is just what it comes down to so many times in a tight game is does

somebody make a play? That's just freaking unbelievable. His punt return is, is great for 20 yards. His touchdown early in the game on Jeff Gladney, where he's falling over and makes the catch. It's like the NFL receiving has never been better. And this is why with rookie corners, you have to go like, let's give him time because that guy is the receiver you're trying to cover. So, I mean, I did mention that Jeff Gladney had a tough game.

He's also going up against a guy that was a complete beast and will be great for probably a long time. So let's talk about two. Well, there's two things I want you to break down. I want the sack in the first quarter because that was a real game-changing play right off the beginning. And then let's talk about the fourth quarter as a whole for what went wrong here. And then let's tie this into just the Kirk Cousins debate, which is raging on into Tuesday for how well or not well he played in this game. So the sack in the first quarter, when I looked at it on tape it was very confusing because riley reef didn't block anyone and usually he does because that's the job so explain explain

what happened there yeah so so i'm looking at this and i'm going okay why are they in base defense well it's because we're in base offense when i mean base offense means we're in 21 personnel two backs one tight end cj hams in game, Dalvin Cook's in the game, and I'm fairly certain it's Irv that's at tight end. I'm not 100% sure. It's hard to see on the tape. But anyway, there's a tight end to the left. And so we motion C.J. Hamm out into the slot onto the left side,

which then causes one of the linebackers to then walk out. The problem is they're in a base defense that has five defensive linemen in the game. So immediately you're going, okay, you're going to go what's called five down as an offensive line I mean all five of us are going to block all five defensive linemen well that now means that the running back has anyone else strong or weak scan whatever he then has everybody else and as I'm looking at this and as I watch it play out it looks to me like this is an empty this is an empty protection because right at the snap of the ball the Dalvin Cook just jets out of there just straight doesn't scan anyone he just bangs out to the left now Riley Reif is locked on his dn but he

also sees the nickel coming off of the slot over number two and blitzing off the edge and he gets caught in no man's land where he tries to block two and you end up blocking none i've done it before it's not a fun thing where you're like oh i can get both these guys and you end up pull full whiff on both guys and so i mean in reality riley should just stick on tank lawrence who's slanting inside to his b gap and basically everyone will be picked up now the dn drops from the far right side over brian o'neill and so it it's impossible to think that you can trigger a bump back from the right tackle all the way over to the left tackle and get it off in time it's just i mean that's fantasy la la land right and so in reality

what needs to happen is riley sticks on tank lawrence flattens him down and kurt cousins needs to see this blitz to his left and just dump it to Dalvin Cook on the quick out route and throw hot. It's hot. There's no one to block that guy. Unless he redirects the entire line, which he very easily could, and say, hey, we're going to full slide left, but then he's risking cutting a defensive end loose on the front side, which you don't want to do.

You'd rather just throw it hot, let Dalvin get a play. And so he doesn't throw it hot here. And, again, Riley doesn't really flatten down Tank Lawrence here. So he's already can't step up in the pocket. The guy that's coming off the edge sees that Kirk isn't even looking at him, right? He can see Kirk's helmet, the back of his helmet ends up drilling him, fumbling the football. And so it's a combination of things. Again, I don't know what protection scheme is called. I'm just looking at it. It looks like it was an empty protection scheme, and they brought five,

but we were sliding away from it, and so Kirk Cousins needs to throw hot there, and you should be okay. Or Dalvin Cook just missed the blitz pickup completely, which I don't think he does as much anymore. I think he's actually become a much better blitz pickup over the last couple years. I want to remind you to go to sodastick.com to get your original Minnesota sports-inspired goods.

There are many great designs. Someone on Twitter recently sent their John Randall shirt, and there's the Can't Stop the Feeling hats, the Tecmo Bowl throwback shirt, and much more. All of their apparel is screen-printed here in Minnesota on super-soft, super-comfy shirts and hoodies. You will love it. We're going to hook you up with free shipping on your next order. Use the code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. That's S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com.

Soda Stick, original Minnesota sports-inspired goods. Code PURPLEINSIDER for free shipping. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football. But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers. This football season is much different, and Pepsi is here to get you ready every game day. No matter how you watch, whether it's me sitting in the press box at U.S. Bank Stadium, a very empty U.S. Bank Stadium, or if it's at home on your couch,

which I've had to do this year for road games, Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power you through any game day because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game. It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. Yeah, it looks like he just takes off into the flat like the second of the snap. So with Cousins, what I think about it here is how he can be like this sometimes

with just being a little bit slow to identify something or a little bit slow to get to where he was supposed to get to but also it's a pretty big ask I mean to say like you have to see every blitzer that's coming um and you need Riley Reif to stop Demarcus Lawrence because if he does that, then maybe Kirk gets back and sees the blitzer and is at very least able to just sort of turtle if it's a free rush. We see this once a week where he gets sacked on a cornerback blitz or a safety blitz or something. I think the teams sort of know that they can sneak one in there at least once per week.

So, I mean, this is sort of a cousin staple that he's going to take these types of sacks from time to time but also kind of tough to blame it on him when you got two free rushers that and i mean 21 personnel and and 22 personnel they they invite weird formations and they invite weird blitzes because when you're in 11 one back one tight end or you're in 12 one back two tight ends like the picture clears itself up a little bit because you usually only have two linebackers in there. And you usually have four D linemen in there versus this one. You have five D linemen and two linebackers.

Is he a linebacker? Is he a D end? Are we treating him as a D end? Are we treating him as a linebacker? Like there's just a lot of rules that go into base defense blitz pickup. And so sometimes I think coordinators like to get a little cute and think, well, we'll go out there in 21 personnel, 22 personnel, and then we'll invite their base defense on the field and then take advantage of a mismatch, which a lot of times you can

because, again, they don't have that nickel, they don't have that third corner on there, or you can take advantage of that D lineman that has to stand up and play in the flat or the hook curl. But then you get things like this that happen where it then invites confusion on your own side and, like, mismatches on your own side and it can get really bad i mean as i looked at i mean if he just dumps it to dalvin cook here in the flat i mean behind the line of scrimmage i mean he's directly he runs straight left i mean really it's vanderesh who is 15 yards

away that is trying to gonna have to go and try to cover him he sees it late but i mean if he just dumps it to dalvin there there's a chance dalvin's gain in 15 20 yards in this defense and this first thing ends i mean this first series ends very differently and who knows i mean any play can be the game-changing play in the nfl there's a lot of those plays in this game and it's what i love about a tight game right so where if this that happens and that doesn't happen so uh that's a great breakdown, and I appreciate that. Let's talk about the fourth quarter. Because the fourth quarter, if you were watching,

and let's say you randomly got the Fox broadcast in, I don't know, Colorado or something, and you were like, oh, I guess I'll just watch Vikings Dallas because it's on the TV and I don't have Red Zone channel. You had a fun fourth quarter. You were like, all right, I thought this game was going to be garbage. But it really begins with your Nebraska Cornhusker, Chris Jones, not making a tackle because this is where my defense of Cousins

in this particular game was strong. And I know that you tweeted something about how well he was playing and got torched by everyone for being maybe a little hyperbolic. But Cousins gives them the lead. And not that we expect a lot out of this defense, but you don't expect them to completely fail to remember how to tackle. And so let me give a try on laying this out. So this play always kind of goes that direction and has the receiver leave the corner and go block the safety. And like the goal on this play is to get the running back one-on-one with the corner. Now in past years, Trey Waynes or Xavier Rhodes is like, thank you. That's that sounds great. I'll just tackle you for four yards and we'll all move on with our lives. Chris Jones made a tackle attempt that I would equate to a punter, possibly a kicker.

Like they tell kickers, don't hurt your leg if you're trying to tackle a guy that comes one on one with you. If it's between potentially hurting yourself and allowing a touchdown, allow the touchdown is basically what they say to kickers. That was Chris Jones attempting to make this tackle. And if he doesn't play again for the Minnesota Vikings, I wouldn't be shocked because Mike Zimmer pulled him from the game and blew his top, rightfully so. But is there any other interpretation of that play than, wow, what are you doing? No, yeah, 100%.

It's a simple, it's a duo scheme, right? So there's six guys in the box, and you've got six guys to block them. And so they cover everyone up. Hats off to the Cowboys offensive line. They double-team the nose back to Kendricks. The right tackle does some crazy good things where he hits the three technique, and then he also bounces out, hits the D-end, and then also climbs up on Eric Wilson. And then the receiver does exactly what

he's supposed to call. It's called a push crack. You push the corner up the field and then you crack in on the safety, leaving again, one-on-one with the corner, because notoriously for most teams, the corners are your worst tacklers inside the run support, right? Which is how it goes. And so, I mean, if Chris Jones, all he has to do is like, really, you could just kind of throw yourself and roll here and hope to make the tackle right I mean but he gets what what we call alligator arms and he gets the old alligator arms kind of runs up and thinks we're playing two-hand touch and I mean it was horrible I have that is the worst and I know Chris Jones I like the kid but that's the worst tackle attempt you can ever make with the game on the line and to think you

mean you're still trying to make your impression of who you are in this team. Like, you haven't been here since NOM, right? You've only been here a few days or a few weeks. And, like, you're trying to merely, like, that's not the way you want your teammates to see you. That's not the way you want the rest of the league to see you. And Zimmer had every right to do what he did. And I would not be surprised if we see Chris Jones on the waiver wire here coming up soon. I was looking back at Chris Jones's previous NFL experience, which I think was with Arizona, and he graded well as a cover corner. And over the first couple of games, he had played pretty well, again, as a cover corner.

And it was like, oh, wow, I'm surprised that they let this guy go because he's got good coverage grades and that's what's most important and you know I look back at a couple of his games and looked like he was decent in terms of tracking wide receivers like oh okay maybe they found something here good scouting Vikings I think I discovered the problem I think I discovered why another team would let him go because things like that just are going to cost you the game so that that is huge there then there are other big runs on their side uh throughout the fourth quarter which are problematic but after that this is where i think that no matter how frustrated you are with how much they pay kirk cousins or some of his shortcomings or all those things you have to look at this next drive as pretty boss he makes a great throw to Adam Thielen right on time on a

hitch and then just a perfect flawless throw down the field to Justin Jefferson and we've come to expect him to just make these deep throws that drop in I was watching whatever's left of Tom Brady last night throw down the field like it's not every quarterback in the league who drops perfect dimes into Justin Jefferson's hands 40 yards down the field. It was like the perfect bounce-back drive. Get on my shoulders, guys. It's okay. You just allowed the worst touchdown of all time.

Let's go. And I feel like it was the drive that we would remember if they got a fourth down stop later in the game. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you can't ask a guy to do more than what he just went and did right there. Maybe the only thing is like, hey, could you take a little more time off the clock? Like that's about all you could ask out of him, right? Like, hey, could you not score as fast? But like it's just – it's lunacy to me that people are still getting on him for that,

and they're like, well, I guess he's got to do it again to prove that he can do it. It's like he already won the game. Like how many times have we seen the Minnesota Vikings where the offense scores a touchdown like that, defense comes out, stops them, victory formation, they play whatever they're freaking, like, the Skull Vikings, we win the game, right? We've seen that movie before.

We know how it ends. And so now to think that, like, well, now you have to do it again because our defense isn't very good, and if you don't, shame, shame, shame. Like, it's ridiculous. I really think it is. So I tweeted out in the middle of the third quarter, I said, when Kirk Cousins is playing lights out like this, he's a top five quarterback in the NFL.

And I don't think I'm wrong. And I don't care how many of you tell me I'm wrong. But a lot of you were like, nope, nope, nope, wrong, horrible take, garbage take. It's like the dude had 156 passer rating going into the fourth quarter. And then on the last play of the last series of the drive, everyone's like, oh, he didn't show up the big time. He throws a ball to Justin Jefferson that if it's a spear,

it would have killed him. And he just drops it. He just drops it, dude. And it's like, how can you blame all this on Kirk Cousins? Like, Jefferson's have made amazing catches, and he's going to be a superstar in this league. I do believe that. He's all the way up for me now. You're in the red. I'm in the red.

I'm in the red on Jefferson. We need some good news. And so, I mean, it's like, okay, but you can't pin that on Kirk Cousins. You really can't. And then, I mean, the two Adam Thielen plays at the end of the game, too. Like, no one's open. There really isn't. I've watched each receiver. I've watched each one. There's nowhere else for him to go with the football. So he goes back to the well and Adam Thielen, and it just didn't work out. So you can't blame this one on Kirk Cousins. As much as people want to, you absolutely cannot. So looking at his overall pro football focus grade for this year, he is the sixth best quarterback in the NFL so far this season.

Top six, excuse me. I'll edit my tweet. So you're very wrong. Now, in this particular game against Dallas, it was his third game, and just to explain in very short terms about the PFF grades, I mean, they grade the throws. So, you know, if you're down 20 in the game and you throw a touchdown, fans will go, who cares, but they're grading every throw kind of on the same curve, right? So, you know, he's got a good grade for the game against Green

Bay, but, you know, we know that he didn't play very well in that game. So anyway, when you look at like his overall grades, he has performed really, really well in about five games this year. And then there are two or three where it's been a complete mess. And I think that that is the way we would look at it just in any objective viewing. And that's always the Kirk Cousins story when he's playing at his best though, like he was on Sunday against the defense that does struggle. He did about as well as you can do. And I think at the end, he was let down on multiple levels on the last two drives, not just one,

but the last two drives by the play call, play design, and wide receivers. You go into the drive before the drive, and there's six minutes left in the game. This would be your four-minute drill kind of situation. Like, let's run the clock down on them, get a couple of first downs, and leave. And they run for zero yards, and of all the times to stop running on second down, they pick this time. And so it's two incompletions. They stopped the clock on themselves, give Dallas another chance. I mean, it just was, it was one of those things where it was an uphill climb the entire day

for him and then continued to be that all the way to the very end. And I agree that I looked back at the tape trying to say, well, should he have thrown it somewhere else? Fourth and sixth, they send everybody deep, which I don't get. There was plenty of time. And so there were a lot of things throughout that game that I thought, whether it was pressure, whether it was mistakes, fumbles by Delvin Cook, special teams mistakes again, he overcame,

which is what you want him to do and gave you a chance to win the game and I'm sorry that he's not Brett Favre or he's not Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes but I don't know what else you can ask for him from this game I also think there's this fallacy of fandom that's like we we give passes and we give oh it's okay it's it's Russell Wilson he doesn't normally do that or it's okay, it's Russell Wilson. He doesn't normally do that. Or it's Tom Brady. It's okay.

Like, I watched that game last night. How many quarterbacks would just be absolutely thrown through the absolute Twitter ringer if they throw a football, it gets batted back towards them, and then they still throw it downfield to the receiver, right? Like, how many quarterbacks would that be memes everywhere, right? Like, oh, look at this idiot. Like da-da-da-da-da. But it's like, oh, well, you know, that's Tom Brady, so it's okay.

Or every time it's like, dude, Russell Wilson, he does other things. He's throwing bad picks, bad interceptions. And it's like, well, it's okay. It's Russell Wilson. And I think that we've come like people just think it's okay to hang their hats on like, well, it's okay because. Or it's like, well, yes, that's because he's Kirk Cousins. He didn't do this because he's Kirk Cousins.

No, he's a good quarterback. There's a reason he made as much money as he did. He's not a slap. He's not Ben DiNucci, people. I don't know what it is about every fan of every team. I mean, Nebraska fans are the same way, but the backup quarterback always seems to be like the favorite position. Like everyone just thinks that like, if you fix the quarterback position,

all the other problems just go away. And so I think now that you're looking at the Vikings and you're going, well, hold on, the quarterback played really well, but we still lost. You're now trying to figure out like who to blame. And it's really easy just to be like,

well, we can still just blame the quarterback. I think that's kind of the trap that everyone falls into. And as I watched this game, to be like, well, we can still just blame the quarterback. You know what I mean? I think that's kind of the trap that everyone falls into. And as I watch this game, it's like, no, no, no, you can't blame him for this. There was so much else wrong that it's really easy to blame the focal point of the quarterback, but you can't for this one. You could for other games, absolutely, but you can't for this one.

And I'll die on that hill. And if you want to fight me, come and find me. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. That's fine. But I'm dying on this hill. And if you want to fight me, come and find me. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. That's fine. But I'm dying on this hill. 2020 has already reshaped how we work and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any other job site according to Comscore.

Indeed helps you find quality candidates quickly so you can focus on hiring the person you need to keep business going. Unlike other sites, Indeed gives you full control and payment flexibility over your hiring. You only pay for what you need. You can pause your account at any time and there are no long-term contracts. And now Indeed's new way of matching you with candidates instantly delivers a short list of quality candidates whose resumes on Indeed match your job criteria and that you can contact the moment you sponsor a job, making Indeed the only job site that can move as fast as you do. 73% of online job seekers in the U.S. Right now, Indeed is offering our listeners a free $75 credit to boost your job post, which means more quality candidates will see it fast.

Try Indeed out with a free $75 credit at Indeed.com slash BlueWire. This is the best offer you're going to find anywhere. Go right now to Indeed.com slash BlueWire. Offer valid through December 31st. Terms and conditions apply. Football is in full swing and you might not be at a game this year, but you can still be in on the action at BetOnline. BetOnline is going the extra mile to make sure you can get in on every possible chance to win this season.

From game spreads and totals to team and player and coaching props, BetOnline gives you more options to wager than anywhere else. Head to BetOnline today and take advantage of all the great sign-up bonuses. Don't forget to use promo code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag. That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I would not advise fighting you. I met you you're very big um so uh but well i would say this too it's two different discussions of is he worth it should you pay him the contract can you ever win when you pay the contract should they have signed an

extension knowing that they had so much to rebuild and knowing that they could have given themselves quarterback flexibility to draft? Like those are all different discussions from when Kirk Cousins is playing well, he gives you a chance to win a lot of games. There's the other side of Kirk, of course, that no shows against Atlanta plays from the first snap terribly and you can't win. And that's always been my criticism of him is the Kirk coaster is very real. And, you know, through a 16 game season, there will be five games where you go, what, what, why, how? And it doesn't matter how well you played and you won't win. So I think that everybody can be right here unless you say, well,

he didn't, you know, win on the last drive. So he sucks. Like, okay. That, that to me to me is too aggressive. Sorry, Jim. You look around the league, and I'm generally curious. So if you're listening to this, please tweet me and tell me, who would you rather have gotten in this offseason? Let's play the hypothetical game, the end of the year, the Vikings last year. Say, you know what?

We're not going to extend him. We're going to trade him. Or say he gets traded. Or say they just release him, right? There was a lot of quarterbacks on the market, this free agent. Like, who would you have liked to see the Vikings go and get? Because if you're looking around the league at all the guys that got moved around, all the pieces that got moved, it's not like anyone is like, oh,

MVP candidate. Like, okay, Cam Newton looked good the first few games in New England. Looks like crap now. Not playing good ball. Teddy Bridgewater's playing good football, but he's kind of on a bad team. Phillip Rivers has the best offensive line in football, but he still kind of has a noodle arm at times, right? Like Drew Brees, you knew he wasn't leaving the Saints.

Jameis Winston's a backup. Like, you can go through all these quarterbacks that had, like, making moves, and Tannehill got extended. Like, I don't think anyone's playing better than Kirk Cousins is right now in the NFL that was a free agent this year. So the whole idea, like, if we would have moved on from Kirk, we would have been fine, I don't think is a logical argument, even though I've heard it get made about 100 times this year.

So let me get Galaxy Brain on you. Let's do it. I'll explain how it could have been better for their organization long term if they had traded Cousins this year or not extended him. So if you go into this off season and you say, all right, so Wayne's is leaving, Rhodes is leaving, Joseph, Griffin, all these guys, Alexander, we're not going to be able to cover anybody. We're probably not going to be able to pressure the quarterback.

Our offensive line still has its problems. We're trying to develop that. You know, you wouldn't expect going into the season, Jefferson is an immediate superstar. Like, that's not something you expect. So, okay, our receiving core, pretty weak outside of Adam Thielen. All right, we're going to have to rely on Delvin Cook a lot. So this year is not a year where we can win, realistically.

If you look at, you know, just going into the offseason, it's not a year you can win. So if you moved on from Kirk in a trade to somebody who could win, then you bring in whoever it is. If it's a Nick Foles or if it's a cheap Cam Newton or whatever, just to make sure you have an NFL caliber quarterback and it's not Ben DiNucci. And you win four games. And then you go to this quarterback draft and you go,

Beck Wilson is now our quarterback. Look at him for BYU. It's so magical. And then you have a pretty good setup on the offensive side with what you've done. You rebuild the defense with money that you have because you're not spending it on Kirk. And long term, you're in better shape. And I think this is where all this frustration draws from that. Every time he loses a game where he doesn't lead a game winning drive.

I don't think it's an objective analysis of like, let's look at the entire context of the game. I think it's what the hell they pay this guy so much money. He's supposed to drag them to victory. And it always comes back to how much money he makes, which I think is fair in some ways, right? But that's the, like, if you were completely resetting it to the beginning of March, how could you possibly be better in a long-term situation considering the quarterback contract?

That's how you get there. Yeah, I think you and I have talked about this before. I don't think the Vikings thought like that. The Vikings thought they could win this year. I really do. I think the Vikings thought like that. The Vikings thought they could win this year. I really do. I think the Vikings went into pre-agency. They went into the combine going, okay, what are the one or two pieces we're missing to win this year? Right?

I really think, I mean, if, yeah, if they were to think, hey, let's just go scorched earth, burn it all down, and build up the new empire, that's exactly right. But I think that they walked in there like hey yeah we got some young guys but we really think they're going to come along we think they've developed and like we haven't really seen them during otas so maybe they're doing pretty good we think they are like we'll be all right which is why they're like okay let's extend cousins and let's go win some games this year let's go let's go win the north and go to the playoffs and body boo but i don't think that's how that works and so for where the vikings thought they at, I think they made the right choice. Right.

But they were wrong about where they thought they were going to be. And, but yeah, right. But, but you went into the season with Holton Hill. Who's like, eh,

and Mike Hughes always hurt and a rookie Jeff Gladney in a rookie cam Dantzler in a league where everyone throws 65% of the time now. And no one to pressure at all. So that's what outside of you would have thought you had Daniil Hunter. Michael Pierce is not a pass rusher. So you would have said one pass rusher is going to carry the entire pass rush the whole season. That wasn't going to happen.

So I think that they were unrealistic and that if you were to kind of reset the whole thing you would do it differently and so I get where that frustration comes from plus we've just seen a lot of these we've seen a lot of these times where it is down by seven got the ball in his hands and he doesn't win and then the times that he does seem to get ignored like Green Bay Week 2 2018 or the playoff game or whatever. So, I mean, I think most quarterbacks, a lot of quarterbacks probably go about what he does that aren't Mahomes. So anyway, put that all aside. Yes. They play the Carolina Panthers.

I am not talking about playoff scenarios now because, especially with a Rams win, you basically have to hope that the Arizona Cardinals fall apart and they have a pretty easy schedule the rest of the way so they're damn good they're a damn good football team I think they are it's gonna be tough now just the ironic thing will be that they'll beat the Vikings for a playoff spot by one game because that Hail Mary against Buffalo you know it you know that was not a catch by the way he dropped that football you can't tell me otherwise. I'll die on that hill, too. I'll fight you, too,

Matt. Okay. No. No, thank you. I'll just allow the opinion and roll my eyes at you. That's what I like to hear. Teddy Bridgewater, starting quarterback, NFL, 2020, the year. You were there when he got hurt. I mean, just, like, this has to,

for someone who was there when it happened, I mean, this has to be amazing for you. Dude, I've been watching him as much as I could this year. So I was there when he got hurt. I was on the field with him when he took his first snap back. I got to go in there. I was playing right tackle against Cincinnati Bengals. I'll never forget that moment of getting a chance to run out there with him

when they put him in there for the first time. And then seeing the success that he's had the his leadership talking to some guys that are on that team and just how much they love teddy is not surprising to me at all um but i just i'm so happy for that guy man i'm so happy for what he's been able to overcome what he is as a quarterback we i i think vikings fans should be a little envious that he's not in purple still i think i think when we drafted him we were hoping he was going to be the guy that never left and was here for 10 years, and we'd have to worry about signing Kirk to a giant deal. We were just going to extend our first-round pick

and just keep working our way through it, right? And if he doesn't get hurt, I think that truly is what happens. And I understand what the Vikings did to have to move on. I think as a business decision, they probably made the right choice there too. It's hard to pay a guy coming off an injury like that a bunch of money to be your guy, right? I mean, you don't know what's going to happen. You don't know if he's going to make it back.

And so as much as it sucks, and I wish he would have stayed there, he didn't. But to see him coming back in here into Minnesota this week and a chance to play against his former team, I hope he's healthy um I hope he's going to be able to play I know he's a little dinged up still but I would love to see and there's gonna be a lot of guys on that team that remember Teddy that excited to see him too there's another world where Drew Brees retires and he's the starting quarterback of a Saints team that is going Super Bowl bound right now considering how bad the NFC is uh I want you to say more with your mouth about the game against Cincinnati when he came back. Because from a reporter perspective, I have never seen anything like that.

I will never see anything like that again. Case Keenum is on the sideline doing the skull chant saying, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy. 65,000 people cheering Teddy, Teddy, Teddy. I know that his pass was intercepted that went off Jarek's hands, but like that moment of coming back on the field is something that will never be repeated. No. And I mean, for guys that were there when he got hurt, there was still a lot of us there on that team when he made it back. There wasn't a lot of turnover that year from 16 to 17, that team stayed pretty tight. And, and really, I think that's one of the reasons we were as good as we were.

But the fact that all of us got to see Teddy come onto that field again, and I can remember the emotion on the sideline when they're like, hey, Teddy's going in. There wasn't – I don't want to say people were crying, but there wasn't an emotional feel that everyone didn't have. People felt deep down like, dude, he did it. We watched him grind. We watched him work in the training room.

We saw him around every day, and he still was an amazing teammate and doing everything he could to help us win and to see that moment when he got out there and to get to be out there with him. And you could see in his eyes the excitement, disbelief, incredible. Like he was all over the place too. And I can just remember hearing the stands chant and you look over the sideline everyone's on I mean there's not a single guy on the bench

there's not a single person sitting down in the entire stadium and it was just such a cool moment and it's one that they'll never be able to take away from me regardless of what happened in my career that's a moment that if people ask me hey what's your one of your favorite moments in the NFL that's one that immediately comes to mind, regardless of the outcome of the drive, like just the ability. And then you tell people, like, yeah, I was there when Teddy got hurt, and then I was there when he took the field the first time. And people are like, wow, like that's pretty neat.

And I still have the jersey from the game because I'll never take that jersey away. That's amazing. Yeah, that's incredible. Case on the sideline. Yep. Those two built a relationship behind the scenes. There was the game against Washington where Teddy pointed something out to Case on the sideline that he saw, and then it turns into like a 40-yard touchdown or something.

And I think that as a reporter, it was really fascinating to talk to people and get kind of a specific feel of why everyone loves Teddy. It's like it's not just because he smiles. It's because he makes people better around him. I mean, I remember Adam Thielen telling me, like, oh, he would talk to me about routes, and he would talk to me about what quarterbacks see and how I can be better and things like that, and he made me a better receiver. And that was the theme to me is that he just seemed to want to bring the best out of everyone.

And I think even Carolina being like halfway competitive this year sort of shows you how they feel about him too. And they were in a lot of games. They almost beat the Chiefs. I think that that is a trait that so few human beings have to be able to do that for other people. It's never about him. And I mean, it never is.

He's such a team guy. And even almost to a fault where it's like, dude, like take some credit, Teddy, man, like you've done some awesome stuff, but you nailed it. He's constantly working about how do I make the guys around me better? And because I think he truly believes that by me helping them like makes me better too and so like I think he understands that like I elevate them they elevate me it elevates the we right and I think that that's a really cool trait that Teddy always had and you don't see him in the off the field stuff there's no issues there right there's nothing there's never been an issue there's

he's always the guy that when you meet him everyone's like what a great guy like there's nothing you can say like I've never heard somebody like oh Teddy he's an a- that when you meet him, everyone's like, what a great guy. Like there's nothing you can say. Like I've never heard somebody like, oh, Teddy, he's an a-hole. Like you've never met him. I don't believe it. Sounds ridiculous to say that. Right. And so I think that's another piece as to why his teammates love him so much,

why I think the fan base wherever he goes loves him so much is because people can just see him and just respect him as a human being. Let's wrap up on love to see it, hate to see it. What is on your mind for this week for loving and hating? And you can't use Nebraska. I won't. I won't. They're dead to me.

So a love to see it but kind of a hate to see it is Tom Brady throwing 500 balls. Just, I mean, 500, cherry bomb, boom, straight up in the air over the middle, and you're just like, whoa, bud. Like, that is not what I'm used to seeing here. I mean, how many times was it like, oh, you left a minute and a half on the clock. I know. You're going to lose. You're going to lose.

And now he runs out there and he's like, oh, he's human. Like, so that, I don't know. I think that's a hate to see it, but it's also kind of a love to see it. I'm going to go with more of a hate to see it. I'm going to go with more of a hate to see it. I'm going to go with more of a hate to see it today. Like TB12 not working as well as he needs it to work for him still. I was also thinking about that game, and I'll go both from that game too because I'm sure people just watched it.

I love to see it, Sean McVay, and just finding a way to make it work there are so many times where it's like a guy comes into the league we talked about this with Matt Nagy oh he's got this sweet scheme look at him he's a genius oh my god and then it lasts a year and that's about it and McVay Kyle Shanahan I mean Koobz has been this for his, where it's just like just continues to have great offenses, reinvents himself, makes changes, and to see them all of a sudden say, you know what, we're going to throw it 50 times against this team, and we're just going to throw something completely different at them. I thought that was very cool.

And also Robert Woods being great at football. I covered that guy in Buffalo. He is an amazing guy, like an amazing person. So love to see it with Sean McVay still working out I I think that's really cool he's kind of like I think he's like a young Andy Reid that's going to just keep reinventing himself and be great for a long time yeah okay so I'm gonna I'm gonna go with that as my hate to see it my love to see it is when they put up the playoff picture and it's like playoff picture the nfc and it's like eagles

three and five and one like go into the playoffs and you just you just start laughing like you can't help yourself but like this is the most asinine thing i've ever seen like and then it's like the wild card spots like seven and four or like eight and it's like it's like dude these dudes are really gonna get into the playoffs and you know what i would i i almost bet anything like they're gonna win somehow by the grace of something like wentz just gets it dude like week 19 right week 18 he gets out there and they win a playoff game and it's just gonna blow everybody and everyone's gonna be like cc this is why this is why but i i just love to see it when they always put up the playoff graphic and they go through all the teams.

It's like Eagles, and then it has all these in-the-hunt players that have like seven, six wins, and it's just so funny. It's so funny to me. I've always wanted them to change it. Now I think this does it. I think this will do it. It has to. Right.

When a team wins five games and gets into the playoffs, this will do it. All right, we'll finish off on hate to see it for me was just Joe Burrow getting hurt. And the report is not just an ACL. It's much more, which gets you into Teddy territory in terms of a long comeback. And I hate to say this, but I think if you're Cincinnati and Zach Wilson, you just draft them. Stop it. I think you do. I think you have to.

Stop it. I think you have to. No it. I think you have to. No, no. He's young. Joe's young. I mean, he's young. You got to see how he bounces back. I mean, if by March, okay, I'll give you that.

If by March or April you're like, he may never play again, sure. But if he's on track by the draft to be back maybe middle of the year, towards the end of the year, you absolutely build pieces around Joe Burrow. You don't draft above Joe Burrow. That'd be dumb. That's a dumb take, Matt. I don't like it. Fight me.

I don't like it. Come to Minnesota. I've got an exercise bike I've been riding, okay? I'm in great shape. But then who do the Vikings draft? Do they draft your guy? They're going to draft a three-technique defensive lineman, and you know it and i

know it if it's not a corner um when i when i hear structural damage it's like is the guy ever going to be the same again that's the question so yeah i don't know you look at guys that like saquon those guys are gonna be back just fine that's the difference that like acl okay acl mcl structural damage is a different story for me and if you're talking about another franchise quarterback when burrow comes back you trade him to somebody else get a good player galaxy brain jeremiah you think so big sometimes i know exactly big uh that that's uh that's why i podcast um i love it i love it It's great stuff. Really appreciate it as always. And we will do it again after Teddy beats the Vikings in his revenge game.

Hmm. Football.