Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy can't get enough of the Vikings' win over the Bills

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy re-live the tale of the Vikings beating the Bills, Justin Jefferson's catch and how it reinforces Brian's plea to fans all season to enjoy the ride because it doesn't get any crazier than this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and Brian Murphy. I mean, we joked about it last week about how, Brian,

you have been on the train day one of, hey, this team is different. This is special. This is going to be some kind of year. And it may have been tongue-in-cheek early in the season, but, boy, it is not now after Buffalo. So allow me to just clear the floor and get your entire reaction to everything that happened between the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings yesterday? Where do you begin? I mean, really, you could pick five

or six different starting points to really just let this thing unfold. It's beyond charm now. You're right. I have been sort of on the unicorns and rainbows bandwagon the last several weeks, really since, you know, week three or four. They had a lot of charm things happen to them, but they earned this win yesterday. They absolutely went out there and took it. I mean, they had, first of all, you had all of the buildup and all of the subterfuge and all of the misdirect, you know, is Josh Allen on the verge of Tommy John surgery?

There's no way he's going to play. It's going to be Case Keenum. I mean, look at all those storylines and all the 2017 flashbacks. And then, of course, Josh Allen leads them out of the tunnel, and whatever the formerly known as Rich Stadium explodes, and suddenly you're like, oh, they're in the belly of the beast now. And, you know, they fall behind 27-10, and you're like, oh, they're in the belly of the beast now. And, you know, they fall behind 27-10 and you're like, well, if they can keep it within, you know, 10 points, that's a fairly respectable showing on the road against

a tough team and clearly an otherworldly quarterback in Josh Allen. But they don't do that. They come up with play after play after play by big-time players, again, in big-time moments. And, yeah, Josh Allen fumbled in the end zone and set up the go-ahead score. But they also had to overcome the fact that Buffalo just went down the field and tied the game. And I'm sure there was a large sect of Vikings fans who thought they couldn't put it away.

You know, the Bills are going to find a way to make this happen in overtime. And even despite getting down to the two-yard line in overtime, they had to settle for a field goal. And, again, you're feeling uneasy because you're giving the ball back to arguably the most dynamic quarterback in the NFL right now at home with a chance to walk him off. And what does he do? He throws a second interception of the game into the end zone to Patrick Peterson,

and suddenly the Vikings are sitting pretty at 8-1, but not just sitting pretty at 8-1. They are confident without being cocky. They've proven themselves at least to themselves. If nobody wants to buy in, that's fine. But that is a signature victory. I mean, we've been talking about Buffalo on the road for a month now, that that's the buzzsaw, and that if they could get to 7-1 and come out with a respectable loss, they're still in good shape. But to produce the type of victory they did, this is kind of beyond a charm season right now. They're almost on a mission, and the mission can end badly. I mean, there can be some mechanical error along the way, human error, but I feel pretty good that this is a team that's going to feel pretty good

about itself when the games matter the most because they, you know, Kirk Cousins is coming up big late in games. Jefferson is otherworldly. Their defense, despite giving up as many points and yards as they do, find a way to make the biggest play of the day, usually at the biggest moment of the day. Again, these are all things that you can't always measure, and I think everybody in that locker room is feeling it.

Everybody in town should really embrace this right now. So I want to talk about Jefferson because there was NFL next gen statistics that showed that Justin Jefferson had the best game of the data tracking era. So the players have tracking devices on them and they gather data. When you see someone ran 21 miles an hour or something like that's where it comes from. And so they have figured out a way to kind of determine the odds of someone making a catch based on how close the defenders were. And just the Jefferson made three more catches yesterday that had less than a

50% chance to be caught than anyone ever has in a game. So he had nine of them and that were less than 50% to be caught. And the high was six before that. So the best game of the next gen era, the best game I have ever covered. And I mean, from a single wide receiver, and not games where they didn't ever have to catch a ball open. There was no catch from just the Jefferson that was open. He had to earn every single one of those with spectacular catches over and over. And of course, that is highlighted by the fourth and 18 Odell Beckham plus reception that no matter how many times you see it, you cannot figure out how in the world he pulled it out of another guy's hands with one fingertip and yet somehow came down with that football. I guess I want to say, Murph, that I understand Randy Moss played here. I watched Randy Moss as a kid.

There will never be another Randy Moss. It's like Walter Payton. It's like Barry Sanders. These players who elevate to all time historic levels. But I think for Vikings fans, you sort of need to let it go with Randy Moss, where anytime there's praise for Justin Jefferson is like, well, look, you know, we had Randy. Like, I get it. But it was a long time ago. Even Randy Moss thinks you need to let

it go. I mean, Justin Jefferson after yesterday is the best receiver in the NFL in a league where there are just a bunch of mutants going around catching footballs all the time. Tyree kills getting 150 yard games. Stefan Diggs played a phenomenal game. Like think if they lose that, if Justin Jefferson plays half the game he played, we'd be talking about, wow, is Kirk Cousins fully gets it. He fully gets, I can throw this football toward that man anytime, anywhere, and he's going to get it. And on 4th and 18, Kirk Cousins told Justin Jefferson, I might just throw the ball up to you. That's probably what I'm going to do because there's no other better choice. And he is single-handedly making this offense very, very hard to stop in the biggest moments.

And they can put two dudes on him. They can play him whatever way they want to play him. They can press him. They can do anything. And he can just go up and jump over you. He had seven contested catches in the game by PFF data. That's a full season's worth for some players, Murph. For a lot of good receivers, if you make seven out of 20 attempts

in a season for contested catches, that's pretty darn good. And he did it in a single game. I mean, I just, I cannot believe what I saw. There were so many times in the press box where we went, he caught that? How did he catch that? I don't know. How do you even contextualize what Justin Jefferson is doing right now? Well, I think it's interesting with the Moss shout outs too, because, you know, praising Justin Jefferson as the preeminent receiver of his

generation is not taking away from Randy Moss. I mean, if you're going to straight up compare the two, fine. Somebody's got to come out on top. I'm not necessarily willing to do that because, you know, this is only Justin Jefferson's third season. So there is no ceiling right now. And we all know Moss had his ebbs and flows as he went. But as far as just embrace them both. I mean, I don't think praising Justin Jefferson takes anything away from what Randy Moss accomplished. And a lot of what Moss did was physically outman coverages and change the way teams had to defend a receiver. What Jefferson is doing, there's not really much you can do to defend against that. I mean, as you mentioned, seven contested catches, the catching made down at the two yard line in

overtime might've been as impressive, if not more, considering the situation than the fourth and 18. I mean, that's a highlight reel catch that if the Vikings had lost that game, people would be showing that catch for decades anyway. But this catch that he made down at the two into double coverage when he was being mauled, essentially going up for the ball, put the Vikings in position to win. The first one kept them alive. This one put them in position to win. So what he's doing is otherworldly, but he's also embracing the moment too. I mean, he doesn't look like he's going to, you know, he's got some diva in him, but he's also got a

fire in him. And those are things that you can't really you can't create you can't manufacture with coaching or scheme or even your quarterback it's his desire to be the best it's his desire to come down with any ball that's out there and he's feeling it too I mean he he had the nerve to utter the word Super Bowl uh post game which you know you can you can roll your eyes and pat him on the head and say, silly you, you don't know where you're at. But you've got to like that. You've got to like that attitude that, you know, again,

I've been saying this for weeks now, if not the Vikings, who? They are positioned right now, they are confident right now to really be a dominant force in the NFC. And then the only team that they have right now to really be a dominant force in the NFC. And then the only person, the team that they have right now to answer to is the Philadelphia Eagles, which took care of them in week two, which may not matter come January. But, you know, you got Dallas, they got clipped pretty hard yesterday and had Lambeau coming in next,

you know, on Sunday to US Bank Stadium, you know, the Vikings haven't had a home game in two weeks. The town is really kind of embracing them right now. And I think there's going to be some energy in that stadium Sunday that you're going to be able to feel, if not a coronation. You've got a team right now that is really seizing the moment. And I think that's something special. And that's kind of what I've been trying to preach is don't worry about what, what may happen or what holes are in the lineup that may cause them problems. Everybody else around them is having problems. So you just walked into a Super Bowl contender in the AFC in their house against a quarterback that wasn't supposed to play who,

oh, by the way, combined for over 400 yards and had another, you know, Hall of Fame type performance on his end. And you made several key plays at the end to not only keep the game alive, overcome a deficit, overcome getting cold cocked again to send the game to overtime, and then come up huge defensively. You know, you think a team giving up 30 points, you wouldn't say their defense stepped up. Their defense stepped up at key moments as they have all season with takeaways and big plays. That's just everything is lining up, except their kicker.

Greg Jovis has a reckoning coming. I don't know where that's at. But the four missed PATs this year are not helping anxiety out there in general. This just has a feel to it that this is going to be a team that it probably will end up defeating itself. More so than some other opponent is going to really sideline them from where they're going in the playoffs, which should be a division title, a postseason bye. And let's see where things shake out in the second and third round of the NFC playoffs. Yeah, I think that going into this game, we saw the bar of expectation raise and we saw the sort of convergence of hype where, you you know when you start out five

and one people start to go like okay well let's look at their five and one and okay I went against Detroit New Orleans like what's really impressive here and there were no impressive wins before this there were no like oh a bad team came out and you just beat their face in and everything else so even to get to seven and one there was no win where you could really even look at whether it was on paper or just having watched the game and gone okay man wow this team can really bring it I mean they went to Washington barely escaped Taylor Heineke and you know, you're in a really great position in a really weak NFC, but I think that there was reason to go, all right, well, show us, show us that there's more to this than just, Hey, you're locked out because we know this about sports. We know this about

small samples that, I mean, how many Minnesota teams over the years of all sports have fooled everyone, the Minnesota for a great example. I mean, they get Carlos Correa, and then they're all of a sudden like rolling in, what was it, May? And everyone's saying, oh, wow, look at this team. They're the class of the American League. And then they fall off. You know, the Vikings fans have seen this happen so many times in the past.

There's a reason why you would think that Charlie Brown was going to pull the football out from under you, right? Or Lucy on Charlie Brown. But after this, I don't even think saying the word Super Bowl out loud and setting that as the expectation now, you just keep raising the bar based on what they show you. And in Buffalo, they showed you that there is no deficit that they can't overcome against any team. And yeah, Buffalo had some of its backup defensive backs in there.

And that was a factor for sure. Like, is Justin Jefferson doing that against Trey White? I don't know. But what team are you going to face that doesn't have some injuries? And the Vikings did, too. Duke Shelley got in the game late in the game. And he was a guy that they just grabbed. So the Vikings are dealing with some things to Blake Brandel had to come in and be kind of a hero of the game just to hang on for dear life there for the fourth quarter.

And I'm sure the PFF data wasn't great, but somebody had to not give up a bunch of sacks. And, you know, he just did whatever he could. So there will be other teams that are playing with guys banged up or have weaknesses. Dallas certainly showed against Green Bay that they have some weaknesses. And I think that what they've done is they've put themselves on even ground with this win with the Philadelphia Eagles. The only reason you could say that Philadelphia is better is because they beat the Vikings head to head and in very sound fashion. At the same time, that was a Vikings team that was just starting the season. It was not the same version of the Vikings right now.

At that point, I felt like Kirk Cousins maybe didn't fully understand his own offense or the details of how to work with Jefferson within this offense because there were a few throws where they weren't on the same page that got intercepted. Right. And it just, it feels like, I mean, just the, I don't know, the meta stuff with this team is just crazy, but it just feels like they're on this collision course at some point with the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia for an NFC championship. And there is so far to go. And I, and it's like too early to say anything like that. But that's the game where, you know, if you had the meter, we love to do this on the show sometimes.

And it was sort of icy blue early on. We don't really know what this team is. It might just be a 500 team. And then you click it to sort of the orange when they get a few wins. But all right, you know, okay, we'll see. I mean, it's fully in the red now. It's all in. I mean, if you're

if you were if you were skeptical before there was plenty of reason to be there's plenty of justification for that but now you should set the bar at keep doing that show you are for real week in and week out and there will be a game at some point where they just don't have it work and they lose right but this is what they're capable of. This, this is the full capability of the 2022 Minnesota Vikings. What we saw yesterday to never, ever, ever be out of a football game and to be able to make big plays at big moments against one of the greatest quarterbacks on earth. I mean, you can't, you can't help, say when justin jefferson utters those words he's not crazy or he's not naive he's like no look around this is where the bar is now and

another thing with jefferson too um we all know what his capabilities are we know what his physical skill set is we know his ability to wow and we know his drive to be one of the best uh not only uh contemporary receivers but of all time he's he said that he knows he's playing in the shadow of Randy Moss in some ways but so for him to be able to do that arguably his most well certainly his most productive game in his career but it's probably most consequential game on the stage that he was on nobody really wanted to acknowledgement but this was a referendum on the Stefan Diggs trade and the acquisition of Justin Jefferson. It was a referendum on Kirk Cousins coming up with a big road win despite two ghastly interceptions, which you could look at and go, that's the Kirk Cousins

we're kind of familiar with, but we're not familiar with the gamer who, as you said, I think maybe something has clicked with him where it's like, you know what? I'm not going to check down and take the safe route. I'm going to throw it up to Jefferson because I know this guy can come down with the ball. I mean, he's proven it time after time. And then Jefferson, too, just on the national stage of a game. This was the game of the week.

Every national story I've read in the last 12 hours or so has led with this game as probably the most entertaining game so far of the season that we may see. It was an instant classic. I mean, people are going to be calling back to this game. There's going to be NFL films 20 years from now looking at these gray, overweight guys talking about specific moments at specific times and what they were thinking and how it went. The sea of Bills fans, the snow globe atmosphere, it really should have been a primetime game or at least a 330 game the way it felt, neither here nor there. It was funny the way I took it all in as well. I was a single parent through the weekend. My wife was out of town. So I was shuttling my took it all in as well. I was a single parent through the weekend.

My wife was out of town. So I was shuttling my kid back and forth to hockey. So I really only saw bits and pieces, a lot of radio. I was in the penalty box, working the visitor's penalty box. I had it on my phone with no sound. There was a TV in the lobby that people were reacting to that was like 10 seconds faster. So to take it all in, especially that fourth quarter in overtime, not watching it live, but seeing other people kind of check in and check out and, well, you know, it was good while it lasted. Oh, that ain't going to happen. Nope, they're reviewing that. It wasn't the fully

immersed experience. So I was kind of picking up bits and pieces without sound through Twitter, on the radio, other people's reactions. People were into it. People in this hockey arena pretty much stopped what they were doing to watch the last, I don't know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes of real time in that game. From the goal line stand to the fumble in the end zone and through overtime, it was must-see TV. And again, that's the NFL at its best. But right now, I think this is where the team is sort of capturing the market. It doesn't take much for the Vikings to capture the market.

They are the dominant club in town. But to see people react to the spectacular and the unbelievable, maybe they will believe a little bit more now. And again, we all know this could end badly. It may end badly, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the journey. And I would say, you know, this is about as enjoyable as it's been since 2009 when Brett Favre was throwing lightning bolts around.

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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 liquid death.com slash insider. That's liquid death.com slash insider. Isn't it funny about the Minnesota Vikings franchise that we can all name these seasons where this has happened before?

And every one of them came out of kind of nowhere. I would say, what, 2000 when they went to the NFC Championship game and 41 donutted. The expectation was probably that with Culpepper and Moss and like they should do that, right? With the way that Moss was playing. After what had happened in 98, the bar got set to you guys should be competing for a Super Bowl every year. But

98, I mean, did anybody in the entire universe think oh, Randall Cunningham, well, Brad Johnson was the starting quarterback to begin, and they had gotten the playoff win against the New York Giants. On the onside kick, Randall Cunningham comes back, but they ran back mostly the same team except for this kid out of Marshall,

wide receiver, and all of a sudden they put together one of the best offenses in the history of the NFL. To that point, it was probably a top five historic offense at the point in 1998. No one ever saw that coming. And even in 2009, when they got Brett Favre, because you look at what he did as a New York Jet, he had the shoulder injury and they fell off the map

and they missed the playoffs. And I think that there was the idea that's like, yes, it's Brett Favre, but maybe if he could just sort of game manage and make a few Favrean plays that they can be really competitive, they can win. And then it's just win after win and Favre performance after Favre performance. And then he ends up putting up the best numbers statistically, the best box score numbers of his entire career in that season for the Vikings.

And then the same thing with 2017. I mean, at the beginning of the season, I remember picking the Vikings to go 10 and six in 2017. Thought like, oh yeah, they've got, got a lot of talent here. They've got a very good defense and you know, Sam Bradford looks pretty good in training camp and Bradford and Zimmer were on the same page. And it seemed like the teammates were really starting to gel with Bradford. But as soon as Bradford got hurt in that first game, it's like, oh, well, you know, this is going to be a grind to be in the playoffs for this team. And then, of course, they end up at 13-3.

And there was just game after game that year where I felt the same way as this year. Now, they beat teams in more convincing fashion, I thought, that year. It wasn't like, you know, one- games over and over and over again, but it was okay. They beat this team, but it's Chicago where they beat this team in Detroit and they're kind of getting away with some things and so forth, or maybe they're playing some backup quarterbacks. They hurt Rogers, you know, that kind of thing. And then when they beat the Rams and they beat Atlanta after that, and Atlanta had been to the Super Bowl the year before, it was like, okay, this is just one of those special years.

And I think it's just like a cool franchise thing, actually, that you go into seasons kind of expecting, well, maybe they'll be competitive. And this team through years and years and years, all sorts of different players, all sorts of different names. Even 1987 is this way. There's the strike season at the beginning, and then they end up in the NFC championship

game. Like it just happens this way with this franchise. And so I guess I'm saying in the moment, look around and be like, it's one of those. It's just one of those. And I think what makes it also interesting and compelling is that you're dealing with a first-year head coach and a 37-year-old head coach who, you know, really has not had to handle crisis yet. You could say that he, you know, he dealt with adversity yesterday all game long, really falling down, you falling down 27 to 10.

He's got a quarterback who isn't being protected, who's making poor decisions with the football. And yet they just kept chopping away and chopping away. And when it came down to it, O'Connell didn't hesitate in dialing up big plays. O'Connell didn't hesitate in going for Jefferson, even though they were clearly shutting him down. He didn't hesitate in going to Dalvin Cook and sticking with Dalvin Cook, even down 17 points.

I mean, you could argue that that 81-yard touchdown run was probably the biggest score of the game because they were pretty much on death's doorstep at that point. And by the way, the block that Justin Jefferson made, I don't know what the safety was, number three on Buffalo, that really kind of helped spring cook. Again, these are smaller things, too. I don't know if Randy Moss makes that block. Randy Moss was not known for straying out of his lane to do anything that didn't benefit him, but in a way, you know,

Jefferson showed himself to be a complete player because he also made another block on a safety, too, that allowed Cousins to complete, I think, a short pass to Adam Thielen earlier in the game that nobody will remember. Or that was Cook, I think, that actually made that chip block. But either way, you've got two superstars. Adrian Peterson wasn't known for his blocking technique. So you've got two superstars that can make plays offensively but also do the little things to help their offense in general. But a long-winded way of

coming around to saying Kevin O'Connell deserves a lot of credit for just as a first-year head coach, kind of recognizing who this team is, what their personality is. He's not afraid to set the bar high. He's not afraid to acknowledge, especially yesterday, uh, that they are one of the best teams in the NFL. And we're not ashamed to say that they shouldn't be. I mean, the record says they are, but it almost felt like as they were four and one, five and one, maybe six and one, and we don't want to get too far ahead of our skis. Uh, I recognize this may seem flawed.

I'm not going to say that out loud, but when I put on the film Monday morning, I go, boy, I don't know how the hell we're doing this. A lot of smoke and mirrors here, guys, but we'll see how it goes. Now, I think he feels like they are an established team that has, you know, passed a ton of tests, confronted a lot of different situations, and they've put together a team right now that, you know, you hate to say a team of destiny. I don't. That's a little cliché. But what I see is a team with confidence, a team that's really not afraid of the possible.

And that's a unique place to be because they believe in themselves. They believe in their quarterback. And they believe in their superstars. And they believe in their head coach. So that's a pretty good place to be mentally. Now they've got two home tests coming up Dallas which you know they can really shove Dallas down the ladder a bit in the NFC with a victory at home Thanksgiving night they have a chance to show the entire country you know that's nodding off to tryptophan and heavy turkey gravy that yes they are a dominant team they are setting themselves up right now to um

to really control you know how they want to go through preparing for the postseason how they want to keep players fresh how they want to keep momentum so often you're you're running around putting out fires the vikings are setting themselves up to really control their own destiny which is very rare in the NFL and certainly rare after nine or 10 weeks. Yeah. I think that with this, they still have to have the gas pedal down all the way, even though, you know, things are the way they are in the division, because if you can get that one seed, you are almost there. I mean, the way the NFL is, they take one team and they say, let's almost put you in the Super Bowl, right? And everybody else, you got to fight for it.

And I think that that is sort of an underrated thing in increasing the level of randomness, because it used to be two teams that would get the buy. And usually you know, usually I think it was like 10 straight years where those teams went to the Superbowl that got that first round. It was either a one or a two seed, but now the randomness is kind of ramped up with those other teams playing each other. You're the two seed, but you got to play in the first week and then you got to go out. I mean, the way it was like against San Francisco, where San Francisco got to sit at home and then the Vikings had to go to New Orleans, play a super physical game, and then fly all the way out to the other coast.

And I think that that affected them, that their path was very difficult. So you're chasing the Eagles. At some point, the Eagles will lose the game. They don't have a particularly hard schedule the rest of the way, but they could lose a couple of games, and you're fighting to win every single one of these the rest of the way and try to chase them down. Because that one seed is just a golden ticket for you where everybody else has to beat each other up with metal poles and weapons.

And you get to just sit around and watch it for a weekend and then stay at home. And then they got to come here for a divisional round game at U.S. Bank Stadium. And sometimes you get an upset in the first round. So you play a team that's not that impressive. And you're just super happy with yourself. Like, I mean, is that not Los Angeles last year? There was the upset. And then Los Angeles in the NFC Championship game is playing San Francisco. And it's like, hello, we get to be at home against a 10-win team.

It's just sometimes it goes that way. be at home against a 10 win team. I just, sometimes it goes that way. So that one seed is really, really important for the Vikings if they can get it. So they have to keep battling down the way. You know, I just, I think that when it comes to O'Connell, his biggest success is looking at the roster and saying, I have Patrick Peterson, so Darius Smith, Adam Thielen, Delvin Cook, Kirk Cousins. These players have been in the NFL for a very, very long time. These are professionals. They know how to do their job. I don't need to micromanage these guys.

I don't need to be hard on these guys. I don't need to play them in preseason. I don't need to, in every trainingseason. I don't need to in every training camp. I don't need to yell at them, which was a big deal in training camp for the players being like, okay, wow. I kind of expected to get yelled at there, but we'll look at it tomorrow. And you know, in the film room or something behind closed doors and we'll figure it out, that kind of thing. The conversations between O'Connell and Cousins, quarterback to quarterback. I have to think that there's a major impact for these games where Kirk hasn't been great early on and then finds it later in the game

that he's having consistent conversation with Kevin O'Connell. I think that being a player's coach in this way, if you have the right players, if you do not have the right players, if you don't have the pros of the pros, I mean, Zedarius Smith is an all pro caliber player. Patrick Peterson is one of the greatest players to ever put on cleats in the NFL. And one of the smartest, one of the most impressive players I've ever been around. I mean, letting those guys run the team, I think from day one was just very, very smart. And maybe he took that from Los Angeles and they do the same thing.

Or maybe he took it from his own experience or Rex Ryan or all the people that he's played with in the past. But that really shows up, I think, on a week to week basis that the best players, they set the culture and they've got the right guys to do it. Yeah. And you can tell they're playing for him. I mean, they've been saying the right thing since OTAs, and we all know that was sort of the backlash to Zimmer. But this is for real now. I mean, now you're nine games in, and they're playing for this guy. They're not just viewing him as the best alternative to what we've been dealing with.

Now he is their unquestioned leader. And, you know, the opportunity is there. So now they really can't sort of hide behind the newfangled shiny object that looks kind of cute and they can't play the nobody's paying attention to us card. Not that anybody really was, but, you know, they are without a doubt now in the national conversation and it is going to be a week to week. You need to raise the bar. You need to play to that bar. And you need to accept criticism if you don't reach that bar now

because you've established it yourselves. And that's a great place to be. It's an exciting place to be. And there are going to be challenges. There are going to be some more injuries. There are going to be some more poor performances probably. There are going to be some more injuries. There are going to be some more poor performances, probably. There are going to be some untimely turnovers. We haven't even gotten into the officiating yesterday, which, you know, that catch that set up Buffalo's game-tying field goal at the end of regulation wasn't a catch. And the NFL acknowledged that it wasn't a catch,

but it still didn't burn them. So again, they are, you know, they're catching breaks, they're earning their breaks, and then they're avoiding disaster when breaks don't go their way. It's one thing to get breaks. It's another thing to react poorly when you get a bad break. You're going to get a bad officiating call. You're going to get a bad injury. You're going to have bad decisions out there.

How do you respond to those? How do you respond to, you know, Josh Allen putting up 300 plus yards passing, another 80 on the ground? How do you respond to getting stuffed at the goal line on fourth and one and how painful that was? Well, you put pressure on a team and you make them make a mistake.

You don't concede it. You just, you keep playing until the end. And these are the kinds of things that as improbable as that win was, you have guys you keep playing until the end. And these are the kinds of things that is improbable as that win was, you have guys now have been in those situations and that, that believe and going forward, that counts for so much. I mean, this is a very confident, but not overconfident football team, at least as far as what we can tell in their performance and their postgame comments. It's refreshing. It's interesting.

But, I mean, the greatest moments or the worst moments are yet to happen. So, as I've been saying all along, just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride because these kinds of seasons, as we've talked about, don't come very often, once every 10 years if you're lucky. Well, when we think about the history of purple insider and what those first two years were like and then compare it to this year and compare also the mental strength of the team where it felt like one of their defining features as mike zimmer's group was that they would not show up in the biggest moment.

And at least for right now, they've only had one or two, one in Philadelphia and one here. And they're one in one for those big games that really tell us who you are. And there will be more to come, including this week against Dallas. So Brian Murphy, always great to get together with you the morning after a game. And I'm glad that you, despite hockey, found a way to watch it and consume that because that that will be one where people talk about where you were, how you watch that game, what you remember about it for many, many years. So, as always, thank you for your time, sir. 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 skull related. Sodastick, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com and use the code purpleinsider for 15% off your purchase. All right, before we wrap up, let's get to some fans-only questions. We'll start with atthepurpleplague on Twitter. Says, is it totally nuts to have Justin Jefferson in the MVP conversation, or are there too many not-enough games early on? I don't know if there's too many not enough games early on.

It's really only the Detroit game where he got shut down. And in Philadelphia, it wasn't a great game, but Darius Slade getting the interceptions added to that. Aside from that, though, I mean, those are really the only two where you wouldn't say that Jefferson was dominant. I mean, he started off against the Packers with a completely explosive performance. And then outside of those other games against Philly and Detroit, he's just gone off in pretty much every single game. Is a wide receiver going to ever get MVP looks or opportunities ever is the question. And this is where I think that it's reasonable for the NFL.

If anyone cares about this, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think that there's probably a lot of players who care about this to either put something in where everyone else can get consideration aside from quarterbacks, because right now it's a quarterback of the year award is what MVP is, or have the offensive player of the year be not a quarterback. Like offensive player of the Year award is what MVP is, or have the Offensive Player of the Year be not a quarterback. Offensive Player of the Year minus quarterbacks would reward the best non-quarterback player, because I think everyone knows and always has when you look at the MVPs historically, quarterback is the most valuable position. No shock to anybody, and I think mostly it's voted on that way.

For a few years, running backs were getting it and then everybody moved on to, it's Peyton Manning every year, it's Tom Brady every year. And it's kind of been pointless in the league because of that. At least if there was an offensive player of the year award,

then it wouldn't have to be just, hey, it's the quarterback. If there's ever, by the way, been a receiver who's as valuable as most quarterbacks that are not named Mahomes or Tua or maybe Hertz this year or Allen, it's probably Justin Jefferson. I mean, he is, I think, the most valuable offensive player in the league. Tyree Kill is the only other one that I would put in his category. Stephon D dig certainly deserves

consideration for that when you look at the rest of Buffalo's offense and how much of their offense has to go through one player but they also have a quarterback who can run for 70 yards at any time in in Minnesota this offense lives and dies with just Justin Jefferson and it has done a lot more living than dying this year because of what he's done. And he single-handedly won a game for them on Sunday. How many times can you say that about a wide receiver? But if there was ever a year for it to happen where a quarterback would not win MVP, even in today's league and the way things are set up, it could be this year. I mean, Patrick Mahomes, of course, has been amazing, as you would expect, and he's winning all the time, and so he's going to make a case for himself.

Tua right now is basically playing like greatest show on turf, Kurt Warner. He has been that good. He has nine yards per pass attempt, highest graded by PFF, 18-3 touchdown to interception ratio. But if he hits the skids at all, or if he gets injured at all again, which he does, you know, have a tendency to do, then, you know, if he only plays like 13 games or something, his stats are not going to win him MVP. Then who's up next? I mean, Allen could certainly do it. You guys saw that. But Gino Smith, is Go Smith winning the MVP of

Roger Goodell's National Football League? Jalen Hurts, is he winning the MVP? I don't know. I mean, I saw Dan Orlowski on TV saying that he thinks Justin Fields deserves consideration. And to me, that says more about the status of the league this year and how there's been so few amazing performances by quarterbacks than it says about sort of the hotness of that take, which of course doesn't make a bit of sense. I mean, yes, he is the entire Bears offense, but I think that you probably have to win games in order to get the MVP and maybe throw for more than like a hundred something yards and then run. But I mean, what Fields has done in recent weeks, very, very impressive, but I think it speaks more

to, there is not an obvious answer here right now. And so is it possible that voters would look to another position and that puts Justin Jefferson right in the limelight? I don't want to totally count that out. I really don't like based on history, you kind of want to. Uh, but yeah, I mean, yeah, like this year, as you guys have seen is the most unpredictable out of control NFL season. And, uh, I think that adds to it. I mean, even so I just got done watching the Philadelphia game and look at that one. Like you talk about unpredictable. Oh my my gosh like how many times did Philadelphia have it won but they fumbled and then they fumbled again and the refs missed a face mask and then there's this crazy kneel down penalty it's just like the the percentage of close

games is higher than ever and the the quarterback performances have kind of been squished together as opposed to 10 guys or seven guys who are running away from the pack competing for MVP. And it's Tua, it's Mahomes, it's Allen and Hurts and Geno. And then like everybody else, there aren't those huge numbers that you've seen in the past. Joe Burrow certainly has the potential for it. So does Lamar Jackson. But they have not had a first half of the season that would really justify MVP conversation.

So I do not want to dismiss that after what I just saw in Buffalo. I do not want to dismiss that. And that is a, uh, a career defining catch as well, which the entire universe woke up talking about the next day. Um, so maybe, maybe if he keeps playing like this, maybe. Okay. On to the next question. This one from Neverres Louise on Twitter.

Was it just me or did it look like Kirk was throwing the ball with more velocity against the Bills than earlier in the year? Also, I've been to a few West Coast NFL games and the parking lot tailgating could be categorized as chill even for big games. Can you go into a little detail of what is going on in Buffalo pregame experience? So I'll start with the first one. I think these last two weeks, Cousins has definitely been throwing the ball with more confidence, and maybe that's what it was.

Like we were kind of asking earlier this year, like, why is the ball kind of floating out there? Like, why does it seem like there just isn't conviction in some of these throws? Is he losing the arm strength? Is it going Matt Ryan on him? Or is it just that he is not believing in some of the throws? Like, why does it seem like sometimes they're just fluttering out there? And I mean, you look at some of the big time throws that he's had these last two weeks and I can, I can check on this, how many it's been, but it's, it's been quite a few of these last two weeks for Kirk cousins. And it just does seem like he's putting more into it. Yeah. Okay. So how about this six big time throws in the last two weeks, the entire season before

that he had eight. It is not just you. There is more confidence and conviction in him throwing the ball, especially in Jefferson's direction. And I think that that's where the pop is coming from or why it looks more natural is because there's just more juice behind it. There's more him believing this is the throw I'm trying to make. This is where I should go with the football. Now there still was a confusing interception in that game. And I don't know if he, I don't recall if he explained what happened on that, but it seemed like, you know, something kind of went haywire, but just overall, I think even in his demeanor, I don't know if it was because they started putting chains on them on the flight home or whatever it is, but it's kind of right there

in the numbers that he has been willing to make those throws a little bit more in the last couple of weeks. I think that's a really good sign for the Vikings offense overall that, you know, their offense could drive a victory against Buffalo, but also that cousins has looked as good as he has the last two weeks in this category, as far as being confident, putting his entire body

into some throws that maybe wasn't quite happening early in the season. And as far as the tailgating experience, yeah, chill is not exactly how I would describe it. Now I don't think it's like violent. So I, you know, I walk through and I've seen the tailgates many times before, I'm sorry, Bills games. And the one with the Vikings, because the Vikings are not an opponent that Bills fans hate, you saw some joking of like giving the bird to Vikings fans or whatever. But there wasn't like a whole lot of Philadelphia NFC Championship style throwing beers at at, you know, Vikings fans and violently cursing at them or anything like that as they were going into the game. It wasn't that kind of thing for a game against the Vikings. Now the dolphins, there's a long rivalry there, New England,

there's a long rivalry there, but I think it's just a little bit more like is like homogenous, the right word. Like it's all bills fans i mean there's a handful of vikings fans smattered about but it's just all bills fans and it does get a little crazy when people are partying away from the stadium so there's a stadium lot where it's very calm it's just people you know grilling up hot dogs or whatever and things like that but as you go farther away, then it starts to get a little crazier. Then it's people showing up super early in the morning, jumping through tables, all sorts of stuff like that. And these people, the other thing too,

is they will start getting hardcore when it gets colder. I mean, like at the end, when we were going for our Uber, which is a whole other journey in itself to leave. I mean, we just see this one flaming bucket out there. It's like, how long has that been on fire? Right? Like there's just the, it just kinda, it does get like that, um, pretty nuts out there. So I wouldn't quite describe it as chill, but I also don't think it's like violent. Most of the time it can just be like a little more intense think about it like the difference between going to a pop concert with your kid and you know and there's sort of probably some people pushing and shoving a little bit during the songs or getting into it versus

going to like slayer that's kind of that's kind of the difference um but yeah i mean it's it's part of the whole thing that the experience i mean it just goes on and on like outside of the difference. But yeah, I mean, it's part of the whole thing that the experience. I mean, it just goes on and on like outside of the stadium for all these lawns turn into parking lots because this is not a downtown stadium. This is a stadium out in the woods. It is in the absolute woods like there's a creek running through. I mean, it is the woods. So the houses of this suburb out in Buffalo, if you can even call it that, it feels so far away from the city. You know, they all turn into these big kind of party atmospheres. So there's, you know, cars on lawns and people showing up and spending hours and hours getting ready for the game.

And then the atmosphere inside the stadium is I mean, it's hard to match when the bills are good. That was, I mean, the first run stop of the game sounded like they had scored a touchdown. It was like that loud. So it's, yeah, it's a very, a very impressive atmosphere to go into. All right. Let me get maybe one or two more here. This comes from DTPKLL. Heard you talk about self-reflection on the show and looking in the mirror. So the question is, halfway through the season, as Matthew looks himself in the mirror, what has Matthew gotten the most wrong or right from his preseason ideas about the team? Well, you know, I think that when you look at the entire season, it's impossible to predict the number of close games, just period, right? We know that this Vikings team kind of has a tendency to do this over the years, as we have seen them do this many times, where it's, you know, this was 2021.

Every single game, you're gripping the edge of the chair and it's coming down to the final moments. But this is excessive. In fact, it's record setting. This is a record for the most wins in a row that have come by one score. And no one would have ever predicted that. But I think on a micro level, there's a lot of things that I laid out as possibilities, right? Like, is it possible that Zedaria Smith goes back to 2019? Yes. Was it super likely? No, but we knew if he did, it could be really special with him and Daniel Hunter. And it is, uh, was it possible that the new defense for Ed Donatel would fit Patrick Peterson better? Yes. Did I think it was super likely that he would go back to five years ago and be all pro caliber? No, but he has. And with Jefferson, like, was he going to take it to another level? And my thought was, well, he's already one

of the best receivers in the league, but what we just saw was that man take it to another level. So there's a lot of things that I looked at is maybe less than 50% chance, the health that they've had. And I mean, how about, you know, Delvin Cook has had these huge runs. I don't think it's been as consistent as in the past, but he's sitting there right on the fence of the running back age curve. And he gets an 81 yard touchdown run where he reaches a peak velocity that was the third highest of the entire year although normally you don't get to run totally free toward the end zone so I think that plays into the peak velocity but I think that there was reason to think here

comes Delvin Cook approaching the typical time where a running back falls off and that has not really happened. I mean, again, just like Cousins, where early in the season you wondered because he got banged up and it didn't look quite as explosive. And yet here you go with another huge play and a big performance from him overall against Buffalo that was totally game changing. And you can kind of go through the roster with this. Was it possible Christian Derrissaw could become a superstar? Like, yeah, but I thought that he would kind of incrementally grow, not go from a total rookie to one of the top five players at his position.

I think there's been a lot of things that have had to converge here that we talked about as the best case scenario, which is really how I do the show, right? It's like a lot of different scenarios rather than predictions. It's not a gambling or a fantasy show. It's more of talking about the different ways that things can go and what's most likely and what's not very likely. And to win the close games like this, to have Sedarius, Patrick Peterson, like all these guys playing at the level that they're playing and to drive the offense the way they have with Jefferson to have what five fourth quarter comebacks I mean these are things that are completely unpredictable and that's what makes

it great right like that's what makes football so amazing to watch every single Sunday because when you settle down in your chair, you have no idea what's going to happen. And it's kind of the point about this season where Brian Murphy, who you've listened to already on the show, has been imploring people from day one to enjoy the ride, buckle up, ride the wave, all these different phrases, because this is one of those years where things come together in a way that you didn't necessarily expect. And, you know, overall for this season, if we want to go back to the part where we did make some predictions, I went with 10 wins. And when they hired Kevin O'Connell, my thought was,

this is the, this is right. Like, don't go with John Harbaugh or I'm sorry, John Harbaugh would be great. Don't go with Jim Harbaugh. Go with Kevin O'Connell because it's a much more stable option, much less volatile. And it's a guy that came from winning the Super Bowl, offensive mind, former player, player's coach. This is the right pick, right? And I think that it's been best case possible scenario with him too, that even when there's been learning curve moments for Kevin O'Connell, they've always been covered up.

And I mean that in like that veteran players have been able to kind of take the reins. So if he wasn't happy with his own play calling, and he's talked about this in press conferences where he should have done this or should have done that. But in every game, except for the Philadelphia, they've come through. And so even if he didn't have the perfect game plan, even if he did make a mistake with a play call, good examples that fourth down, like they get third and two, they don't run,

they go fourth and two, they don't run, they fail. But somebody comes through on the next drive or the next whatever throughout the rest of the game to make a play and cover up for that. And that gives him more confidence to do that again. Maybe next time you do hand it off twice to Delvin Cook. But what I mean is go for it in that situation. Gives him more confidence to do that. Gives him more confidence to try things with his scheme when he knows that Jefferson and cousins are so much clicking right now.

And, uh, and then all these things are, they start to play off of each other. So I felt like O'Connell would be a guy who would connect. He'd be a guy that would do everything he could to keep them healthy, which I know I've like mentioned that a hundred times, but like, that's, that was one thing that was really big for him coming here and getting them to connect with each other. You never know how that's going to go from day one, but I thought this is the guy who has the best chance to do it. And wow, have they done it? So yeah, I mean, there's, there's parts of this that, you know, if you bet on this team

to win 15 games or something, show me the gambling receipts. I don't know that anybody predicted that, but you should have predicted that they were going to be good. It was really, can they be great? And the environment has set them up to be great. But what's interesting is to see them get better. And Buffalo was a get better game and get closer and get more familiar with the scheme. And again, like you don't know how those things are going to go over a really long season. So yeah, I mean, we're always talking about what's the right direction. What are the right choices? What are the odds of things happening? And they have just had everything fall into place for them. And I mean, the way that a

lot of these players have performed fall into place, not just the things that went right, like the double doink. I mean, even, but more so the players who we wondered about their health. We wondered about adjustments to the system and everything has clicked. There are still some statistical elements that you look at and go, all right, can you play with the big boys week in and week out? Is it going to work in the playoffs? But that's the conversation we're having now is the rest of the way. Where are you going to be seated after Philadelphia's loss? And do you have the indicators of a team that could potentially win the Super Bowl? And that's a heck of a place to be. So I agree with

Murph that the rest of the way here, we're going to be evaluating kind of on a week to week basis. What are they going to look like when they get there? What how confident will they be? How much momentum will they have? How injured will they be? How is every individual playing when they get there? And that will be very, very interesting to look at. So, uh, okay. Maybe one more, one more, one more. All right. This from, uh, let's see from at Joel Sott on Twitter. Well, the Vikings beat the bills. Do I have to start believing in them now? And if so, when will I get my heart crushed again? Yeah, I totally understand why you guys feel that way. I mean, you've been through a lot.

You've been through a lot. And somebody tweeted me today and said they didn't care about the Bills game. Wake me up when they win the Super Bowl. And I just think that's psychotic. I mean, I think that that is that's just like I get it. I get it. You've been you've been through a lot. But Gary Anderson was in 1998. OK, I mean, Brett Favre was in 2009 and you didn't get

screwed by the case Keenum game. Your team just got beat. Okay. In Philadelphia, you just were not as good. It's not like it wasn't a sports travesty. Your team wasn't as good as the other team. And that's how it goes. Uh, but this team, as you compare it to Philadelphia, which is a very, very good team, but not so much better, and when you compare it to Dallas, we're going to find out head-to-head, but I look at Dallas as being very similar with a lot of talent, but also some holes. You look at San Francisco, that seems to be kind of a juggernaut, but also not perfect, and Jimmy G can melt,

and they don't really trust Jimmy G all the way. So every team that you're categorized with in the NFC right now, if you were putting percentages on it, what is it like 20% for four teams? And then the rest goes to the rest of the field. And you're one of those four teams. And that is, that is a exciting place to be for you as as Vikings fans so you know I guess if you think about the whole time when are they going to crush my soul well you know look 20% chance even then is high odds but it's not that high like that means four out of five times you get your soul crushed so yeah I mean more than not, they won't win the Super Bowl, right? That's just the odds. I bet if you look right now, their odds to win the Super Bowl

are maybe like 12%. So that means 88% of the time it doesn't happen. But on a week to week basis, if you haven't had fun with this, then it's almost like talk about, look yourself in the mirror, like look yourself in the mirror and think about this. Like, think about like, if you're spending all this time being afraid, it's kind of like if you were dating somebody and you're having a great time and you're afraid the whole time they're going to dump you, you're never going to enjoy it. So look, YOLO, enjoy the season. It'll be very interesting as we go down the stretch. I think we're going to have a great time discussing it. And enjoy the conversations. Enjoy the conversations with your friends about the games, right? I mean, think about that Buffalo game and how long into the

future you'll be talking about it. Those are the special things that you should grab onto with every season that goes right for you. And I think in the long run, you always do. Like you always remember Randy Moss against Green Bay, right? In the long run, you will, no matter how it ends. But the fact that it has a chance to not end the way it's always ended. I mean, how can you look away from that? So anyway, well, of course, you know it, I'll be here every day and we're going to have everybody, the usual suspects popping on and plenty of guests. And I'm really looking forward to it. So as always, we will talk to you guys soon.