Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy talks about where the Vikings can improve -- quickly

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy talk about how aggressive the reaction to the Vikings' Week 1 loss should be and where they can improve from the poor start. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here and coming up in just a moment on the show will be Brian Murphy doing his usual Brian Murphy things on Monday Morning Murph. You want to check out his column, purpleinsider.com is a good place to find that. We got Murph back in the press box yesterday for the first time in a while, so that's a very good conversation. find that we got Murph back in the press box yesterday for the first time in a while. So that's a very good conversation. But to start the show, I just wanted to give you an update from a few things out at TCO Performance Center. One of those just being the injury report.

Garrett Bradbury did not practice on Monday, which is not a great sign. Now they did more of a walkthrough. So it wasn't a full practice, but it was more of an estimation of who would have practiced. I know that's wonky, but it's a short week and that's how it goes. So they would have assumed Bradbury would not have practiced with the back issue. I would suspect, and we'll see what happens on Tuesday. I would suspect that Austin Schlotman will be your center against the Philadelphia Eagles, who had a pretty good defensive line performance and Christian Derrissaw with the ankle injury limited and Marcus Davenport still limited as well. And the only thing Kevin O'Connell could really say about both guys

or all three is that they are limited and they are day-to-day. So Davenport and Derrissaw, and maybe there's a little less optimism about Bradbury, but he qualified all of them as just being day-to-day. So I don't really know what that means for Derrissaw and Davenport's status in Philadelphia. All I know is that they could really use those guys against the Philadelphia Eagles. If you look back at how the replacements for Marcus Davenport All I know is that they could really use those guys against the Philadelphia Eagles.

If you look back at how the replacements for Marcus Davenport performed, it was not particularly good by the PFF grades. It did not go well for Patrick Jones, for DJ Wanham, even though Benton Whitley got his nose in there a little bit on one play. They need Marcus Davenport back. And of course, Ole Udo also struggled in just the few snaps that he came in for Christian Derrissaw. Austin Schlotman is a proven NFL backup, but that's not ideal when you're going up against the Eagles.

And O'Connell was asked if Garrett Bradbury's back issue is the same problem that he had last year. And he said, quote, it's similar. I don't want to speculate on exactly the pinpoint area and things like that. We're still working through that, but kind of a similar response. And we're hoping he's feeling good today. And we'll see how that looks moving forward. So the thing with that is Kevin Seifert

asked Kevin O'Connell, was this something that you guys looked into last year, like the potential for him re injuring the back? And yes, Kevin O'Connell did say that it was something that, you know, they considered when re signing him and they were comfortable with what they saw from his back but I just know from a little personal experience with the lower back that I mean it's very difficult and unpredictable and just the history of NFL players not just me but all back issues are difficult to predict when they're going to crop up and not at a good time for Garrett Bradbury in week one and I thought that it really hurt the operation of the offense to not have Bradbury in there. And especially was an issue with the running game where they could not really seem to get going. And O'Connell kind of reiterated today that, you know, when you get a backup in there and sometimes, you know, there's communication or there's combination blocks, or there's, you know's getting in the wrong spot.

Running successfully is a real technical thing, and I think that was quite hard for Austin Schlotman to just be thrown in off the bench. But they may have to deal with that again. It may be over multiple weeks, like it was the last time when Bradbury was out as well. He also had that car accident last year. So it's been a pretty tough ride recently for Garrett Bradbury when it comes to that. I also wanted to answer a handful of questions because even though we do the live chats with fans, I'm still very much open to direct messages at Matthew

Collar on Twitter or emails at purpleinsider.com about anything that's on your mind. So the kind of fans only types of questions still feel free to send those. I'll get those into the show for sure if you do. And I've got five of them that I want to run through quickly before we get to my discussion with Murph. First, Marcus asked if the Vikings deal with Justin Jefferson did not get done because he wants a short-term deal and the Vikings want long-term. And I mean, I don't know that and they have not made the negotiations and the details of those negotiations public. What I know is just kind of putting together the dots a

little bit, seeing what DK Metcalf did with the short-term deal, getting a lot of money, getting an opportunity to hit the market again in just a couple of years, that makes a lot of sense for me. But there have been other players who have signed mega deals that do go for five years. And Hawkinson's went for four years, but it was essentially more of a three-year deal. So it's hard for me to say without either side putting anything out there about what the conflict was and why they couldn't get it done. All I can really say is, you know, when I read the article by Joel Corey of CBS, the former agent, is he suggested the three year deal as something that Jefferson might want. And I thought that was good perspective from a former agent. So that's kind of why I've brought it up on the show, that that's interesting.

And when we did our mock negotiation with Brad Spielberger, that was kind of a sticking point where we went back and forth and that kind of thing. So I think that it's possible that that's an issue, but also guaranteed money. There's other details. I mean, you could try to get the team to not be able to franchise tag you in the future. Like there's a lot of things you can do

when you are the best player in the world at your position. There's a lot of arguments you can make for yourself. And I guess they just couldn't come to an agreement on all those details. It sounded like there was some optimism at some point, but they just couldn't make it work. Marcus also added that he's not coming close to the panic button yet after the loss, but they will have to steal a game on the road. And that's exactly right. I mean, even if you go to 0-2, and this is why we kind of got into the 5 or 6 out of 10 range panic because yeah, the upcoming schedule is very tough and it could get ugly fast if they don't step up at the same time, even Owen two doesn't ruin your season. If you could beat the chargers who don't have a good defense, obviously we saw that against Miami, they could beat them at home. You can beat Carolina. If you can be two and three after five games or at best case

scenario, three and two, then you're fine. Like then the season is rolling because you've got the bears don't look very good. You know, you are going to play a tough game against San Francisco, but you got Denver on the schedule. New Orleans is beatable. Detroit's probably a team you can split with. Like if you can get to that two and three or three and two, then seasons on one and four or Owen three is really tough. So going on one just increases the odds of getting to Owen three, one and four, that kind of place. And so that's, that's where it gets, that's where it could get ugly. And if you win this game, go one and oh, you feel much better about your odds

of getting to 3-2 or even worst case 2-3. Now worst case feels worse. So it's not quite time, but you should maybe hover the hand. Hover the hand. But, you know, with the football season, this is how it always works. If you lose that one and win in Philadelphia, then all of a sudden everyone's going to talk about you like you're great. So it's just the nature of the beast sometimes that we fly wildly off the handle and decide we know everything after one week. And that's not the

case. As TJ Hawkinson said today, there's 17 total weeks. So they do have time to turn it around. Lee asks, is it time to question Kevin O'Connell's play calling? It looked like last year with a no show for two quarters. I mean, I think that at times I have wondered about some of the decisions and certainly the tight end screen was one of them, which O'Connell kind of defended today when he was asked about it. He sort of said, well, you know, he had a lot of green space after that or a lot of room to run, but somebody made a good tackle. And I get that, but that's a play that's worked like one time out of 10 that they've called it in the last two years. I'm not sure that

I love a lot of CJ Ham targets as much as we appreciate and love CJ Ham on the show, but calling plays that are designed for him. I don't know about that. I think he's probably better suited to be a blocker unless, I mean, even, even on a screenplay, it's just probably not the wisest thing for him. You really got to catch the other team off guard if you're getting the ball

to CJ Ham. So there's been a few things, but you know, at the end of the day, they were driving and then had Ed Ingram strip sack their quarterback. They were driving and then cousins tries to fit it into a tight window and it gets picked off. And like they move the ball pretty consistently. But then in the second half, they only had three drives.

And this has been a staple of Kirk Cousins, not just Kevin O'Connell. And I feel like we've questioned every play caller. We maybe accepts the fanski but they had delvin cook running all the time i mean we questioned d filippo we questioned kubiak we questioned other kubiak like it's always going to be a thing but you know at the end of the day you can't have those last two drives total six yards and you also have to give the bucks credit for having these long plotting drives that just drain the clock. And I think that that was a major part of their strategy, which was to deal with the blitzes by

completing short passes and keeping their offense on the field. They did a great job of it in the second half. So it was a no-show, but they only had three drives. And if it's going to be that way, then you're not going to rack up a ton of yards. So I think that there are critiques that you can have, but overall, I mean, the offensive production and the way they move the ball was good through the majority of the game, and even coming out in the second half and having a long touchdown drive, that was all good. But maybe there is still an element of not being able to figure out how to run

the ball, when to run the ball, things like that. I don't know if I feel like you're you're still on the higher end of play calling. I don't see major, major issues there where I'm just baffled and saying, what are they doing? They still got the ball to Justin Jefferson a lot, successfully spread the ball out. I think it was more of a matter of you turn the ball over and then the other team just drain the clock in the second half. Jesse asks, is it going to be, it's going to be a long season, but they will still win enough to draft in the middle. You know, that might be true, but I don't think that that's an excuse for not being able to draft a quarterback. When you look at the quarterback class and i was watching ewers from texas beat alabama and you know what he looked pretty good

and i was watching shadur sanders for colorado and he looked pretty good i mean there's there's guys in this draft and there's going to be opportunities in this draft so i also think too this is just that this is just an opinion. You can feel however you want. You can think however you want. But when we're in the season and rolling week to week, I'm not so concerned about next year's draft at the moment, like right now. You're not going to have any control over this.

You're going to have to just ride the wave and see what happens because you could see it going lots of ways you could see them struggling early and you could you could see them having one of those second half turnarounds where they just missed the playoffs and then you're mad about their draft status you could see them after oh and one still having a good season and winning the division like it's a long way to go you could see see them falling apart completely. Like this can go a lot of different ways. I don't want after last year, especially to just decide I know what they're going to be. But I would also say there's no reason to fear drafting in don't think that that's going to be true for 2024. Plus, they have more draft capital to actually trade up, which was an issue for last year. Jason says, it's time to start looking at the roadmap to tanking.

I mean, you guys know from listening to the show for many years that I've always been pro-rebuild when it's time to rebuild, pro-go to the bottom when it's over. And, and 2020, when they fought their way to, you know, fought their way to just enough wins that that was one of the worst things they could have done. I, I thought because it, what was that? Was that the year that the year after that all the good quarterbacks were drafted to and Herbert, or was that, no, that was 2020.

So I don't know. Maybe they couldn't have drafted a good quarterback after that. I don't know. But the point just being that sometimes it is time to tank. But right now it's all in one. So I'm not looking at that roadmap just yet. If they lose in Philly and they lose against the Chargers, then we're having a conversation about like, how bad would this have to get to where it's not going

to be turned around? And I think we know the answer is the trade deadline is, is the deadline. I mean, that's, I think it's week eight now is the deadline trade deadline. That's when you're going to know if you're two and six, then yeah, you should look at trading Kirk Cousins but if not then they're probably going to just play it out like there's the only road map to tanking is that you're horrendous through the first eight weeks of the season or I guess it would be seven so you'd have to be one and six maybe maybe two and four would do it but I don't even know if that would do it looking at their second half schedule if they would believe that they could turn it around and still make the playoffs. So I don't know. I don't think there is a roadmap to tanking this year for the Vikings unless they are truly awful.

And that seems unlikely. And Chris asks if not playing players in the preseason game was an issue for why they looked rusty. I don't know how, well, first of all, some of the players who made mistakes played in preseason games, including Ed Ingram and Jay Ward. And I mean, does KJ Osborne bring the ball in if he's playing in a preseason game? Like, I don't know, because they had no problems catching the ball. I think they had two total drops and one of them was CJ Ham. And I'm not even sure Osborne deserves a drop for that play. And he was given one by PFF.

So I don't know. I think that's being pretty harsh to say. And I just go back to last year. I mean, they just smacked the Green Bay Packers in week one. So anyway. All right. Well, let's get to the show with Brian Murphy. Enjoy.

Monday morning, Murph is back now that the NFL season has returned. And what better man to talk to after a disappointing Minnesota Vikings loss than Brian Murphy. Brian, you wrote in your column about how the Vikings had to sprinkle dirt on the grave of 2022, that the end of game magic disappeared yesterday in Week 1. And my question for you to start the show is just how upset should people be about the loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? I think maybe more at the timing of the loss than maybe the loss in general. I mean, it was sloppy. It was rusty. You can attribute that to not maybe getting a lot of time to either dwell on it or fix what happened.

A lot of these were self-inflicted mistakes that coaches love to say we need to clean up. Well, they have a lot to clean up. They don't have a lot of time to do it. So I would be more upset with the opponent that they let off the hook, a very winnable game at home that sets an important tone, and the fact that they're going into one of their toughest matches of the season on a short week. That's what I would be upset with because this could get really ugly really soon. And 0-2 is a lot different than 1-1. And 0-1 gets forgotten in the midst of a 17-game, 18-week season. But 0-2 is going to be very

problematic. And you've already gotten a quick look at your divisional opponents. It looks like Green Bay isn't going anywhere, at least for now. Chicago maybe is choking on its own hype. And Detroit looks like it's thriving in its own hype. So you already one week into the season, sort of have a roadmap of where this is going. And the manner in which they lost yesterday, I could stomach more if the timing wasn't as bad as it was. In case you missed it last week, folks, we are starting a brand new segment on the show using the website and the app for prize picks.

If you haven't heard of it before, it's super simple. You just pick more or less between two and six players stat projections for that week. And that's it. Now you're playing. Unfortunately for me, I only went one for three last week with Jordan Love getting more than 212 yards. And I was a little foolish in thinking that Kirk Cousins wouldn't have to throw a lot versus Tampa Bay. I got that wrong. But if you think you can outperform me, and you probably can if you're good at games like this, it's time to give it a shot. Go to prizepicks.com slash purple and use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100.

That is prizepix.com slash purple. Use the code purple for a first deposit match up to $100. One of the reasons I really like PrizePix is that I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to play this game and make it part of the show. You could turn $10 into two 50 with just a few taps. That's prize picks.com slash purple with the code purple daily fantasy sports made easy. And I mean, week one losses happen. That doesn't mean anybody's season is over because there's a long way to go.

And historically there's a chart that used to be tweeted every, I don't know, like every year about how, how screwed you are after a loss early in the season. And week one was the least screwed. And that makes sense. But if you got to oh, and three, basically your season was over. Now that's probably changed a little bit because there's 17 games, but I still, I still buy that. And if you're going to Philadelphia and then the chargers are coming here, the chargers gave up a bunch of yards to Miami. So, you know, maybe their defense is a bit of an issue, but they also put up 34 points and their quarterback is really good. Like that's the snowball effect that can happen when you lose a game that you're not supposed to lose.

And I think that the main question coming out of it is really how much of what happened yesterday is going to keep happening. And that's the fundamental week question. Week one question around the NFL is, Hey, is Dallas really that good? Is San Francisco really that good? Because we kind of talked about an open NFC didn't look like an open NFC yesterday. And Oh, by the way, the Philadelphia Eagles had two of the top 10 pass rushers and pass rush win rate on the interior of the defensive line. So that could be a pretty serious problem for the

Vikings, but they also did move the ball. Jefferson had a great game. They were in position to score two times where they fumbled weirdly, the fumble that will never be repeated, the right guard strip sacking his own quarterback. And then a weird, you know, throw a little bit behind KJ Osborne that the defensive back made an incredible play and just came and stole the ball. Like those usually turn into touchdowns or field goals and they turned into turnovers, which obviously you don't get those back, but they were moving the ball fairly consistently there in the first half. So how much is actually a concern and how much is, hey,

it's just some weird stuff happened in week one? It was a lot of weird stuff. But weird stuff should be preventable in some ways too. And, you know, you've been on the field now for six weeks. Maybe you didn't play your starters in the preseason, but that was, I mean, look, Tampa wasn't as sloppy. I don't think as, as Minnesota was, I mean, they didn't have a turnover. Minnesota committed three turnovers. You mentioned, you know,

the right guard will never cross paths with Kirk Cousins in the pocket, knock the ball out. I don't know. This is Ed Ingram who stomped on Kirk Cousins' toes and feet several times last year and caused the quarterback to go down in the pocket. I don't know if Ingram's cursed or is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was a very random event, knocking the ball out of Cousins' hands when he was sort of, you know,

on his way pulling and his hand just kind of flapped back. Okay. I'll chalk that up as a once every 15-year occurrence. You know, Cousins acknowledged he tried to squeeze that pass to Osborne in at the goal line when it was a really tight window. He didn't seem too happy either with the play call or the result of the play afterwards. O'Connell said, fine, you know, look, I want him to be aggressive, But that's a blown opportunity, a really hard turnover. As you mentioned, I mean, I think they had almost

300 yards at halftime and Tampa had less than 100. And yet you're only 10 to 10. And it was easy to kind of get lulled into this sort of, well, they'll get it together. They'll find a way. And even in the last five minutes after McLaughlin hits that 57-yard line drive field goal to put Tampa up, you're thinking, how many times last year were they under more dire circumstances and they found a way to make a play on defense or offense or both? They did neither yesterday. And they allowed Baker Mayfield to essentially kneel down on a home game.

You had to burn all your timeouts, one, because you didn't line up properly on a field goal, and the other two on defense, and you never got the ball back. So there was never even a sense of – I mean, even O'Connell said, look, I thought if we got the ball back at the one-yard line, we were going to have a chance to go down and make a play and win this game. They never got the ball at all. It was just sort of a slow, it wasn't a painful death. It was just a slow, sad death. I think wherever he was looking around, like there's no

more time on the clock. It's over. Now we got to go home. What do we make of that mess? Not an inspiring start, not a cataclysmic start. Again, it's the schedule though. As you mentioned, you've got Philly on the road, the chargers coming in, they can put up some points and then, Oh, by the way, who's lurking beyond that is you've got Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas city chief. So again, not a lot of time to really get this, uh, not only figured out, but also categorized as this is a one-off instance,

or are there some patterns here that could be disturbing the rest of the way? You know, the point you bring up about the first half, I mean, the sad irony of that game for the Vikings is that they had a really good first half from the perspective of moving the football. And so you mentioned not playing in the preseason games, but when you look at how they played minus the random events, and I know you can't take away those turnovers, but they are just kind of strange events. And if you take away those, their execution to come out of the gate was good, but you can, I mean, you obviously can't have those. I mean, that's very clear, but it was to me,

it was the second half that was really problematic. Like that was where they played bad football. They gave up a bunch of short completions and the adjustments by Baker Mayfield and the Bucks coaching staff. I thought were really excellent. I mean, when Kevin Seifert tweeted out the stats or I'm actually, he was tweeting out.

Yeah. He was tweeting out the blitz percentage. And then Andrew Kramer tweeted out the stats or I'm actually, he was tweeting out. Yeah, he was tweeting out the blitz percentage. And then Andrew Kramer tweeted out the success of Baker Mayfield in the second half against those blitzes after getting destroyed in the first half by them. Tampa was able to adjust to what they were doing blitz wise and found answers and move the football pretty consistently for these long plotting drives. They kept Justin Jefferson on the sideline. And then when the Vikings did get the ball, they had one long drive themselves,

but then they only had two other drives in the second half, and they gained a total of six yards. And I was looking at this, too, Murph, yesterday. When they ran the ball on first down, they ran it like nine times for 20 yards on first down. I mean, that, that was the whole thing that they talked about in the off season is this, why we're bringing in big personnel. Like this is why we're going to Alexander Madison because he didn't have as many negative runs and

he didn't have many negative runs yesterday, but he also didn't have many big runs either. I think his longest was maybe the first play of the game when he got eight yards. I mean, that's just unacceptable. And if that's how they're going to play against anybody with a halfway stout defensive line like Tampa Bay has, well, it doesn't speak well to what's going to happen in Philadelphia. But I also think that this inconsistency of, hey, we're going to move the ball in one half but not in another. And there were a lot of third and fourth quarters last year, especially third quarters for the Vikings offense, where it didn't seem like their adjustments were very good to what the, you know, the defense was doing, or they didn't have a counter punch.

And that to me is why they lost not even as much the turnovers, but in the second half of the game, if you're out playing a team in the first half completely, my expectation is that you keep doing that and win in the second half because the owe random stuff, but keep outplaying them. The fact that it was such a switch and they didn't outplay them in the second half, to me, was the more concerning thing than even the fact they had those turnovers. And the fact that you didn't put down an inferior opponent early and let them kind of linger and loiter and maybe get some confidence that maybe we can do something.

Yeah, okay, we got 95 yards at halftime, but hey, it's 10 to 10. We feel like we're already stealing a win and we're only halfway through. I also believe, I wrote this down yesterday, I don't know if it's exactly true. Did the Vikings even have a first down in the fourth quarter? I don't believe they did. I think it was only the one drive. They went three and out and then they never got the ball back. So again, you were sort of thinking, never mind even something magical or incredible or once in a generation that would happen. They couldn't even sustain a drive in the fourth quarter. I mean, I think there was a sense of, well, they're going to get it together. They're going to get a play. They're going to get the ball downfield. They're either going to get a field goal and not this thing up, or they're going to take the lead and put it away. And it never happened.

And I think that's what was a little bit shocking because we've been so conditioned to their miracles last season. This didn't even feel like there needed to be much of a miracle, just some competent play in the fourth quarter, take care of business, get an ugly win. Let's get out of here, clean some things up. But at least you're sitting at a 1-0 as opposed to 0-1. And it's interesting.

So last year they go to Philadelphia in week two on a Monday night, so they get a little bit of a longer week. They pretty much get schooled by an elite NFC team, obviously one that qualifies for the Super Bowl, but they have the safety net. And that safety net was the blowout win at home in week one against Green Bay, which, oh, by the way, that safety net was the blowout win at home in week one against Green Bay, which, oh, by the way, that could have been the game where you were disorganized and ruffled and not as

confident with a new coach and a new scheme and all of the question marks. Here, this is, you know, you didn't even change your roster that much. It's not like there were a ton of surprises here. You came out flat in a home game where, you know, look, the team is honoring the legacy of its greatest coach ever who passed away in the offseason. A lot of buzz about the 1970 Super Bowl teams. Clearly, the stakes, the team knows what their schedule, what the stakes are. It's disappointing that they came out and played the way they did, the manner in which they lost. And again, the timing really puts a lot of pressure on this team.

Now, we know they're talented enough to win and compete with Philadelphia. I mean, it's unlikely, but they can. And we know their resilience level. They had a lot of battle scars last year. They've earned a lot of opportunity to give them the benefit of the doubt. But you're quickly running out of time. It's getting, as Yogi Berra said, it's getting late early. And I think we're going to be sitting here probably contemplating an 0-2 start that puts them in a position where you're panicking and scrambling early. And then that's when you start as a team,

maybe doing things that are outside your comfort zone, either individually as players, because they feel like they need to do more to turn it around, or even as a coaching staff where you start getting more aggressive. I don't want to say panicky, but you're getting a little bit more aggressive and maybe straying outside your lane a little more. it could make big things happen. You could make up ground in a hurry,

but you could also perpetuate the mistakes you're already making. So there's a lot riding on these next couple of weeks. It sort of had a 2021 opener at Cincinnati field. Now we didn't know at the time that Cincinnati was going to the Superbowl. So at the time we talked about that. Like, this is a bad one. Cincinnati's not a great team. But the thing is that they were on the doorstep of winning that game, and they outplayed Cincinnati in a lot of ways,

but they end up fumbling in overtime, losing that game. And it was like, well, even though a lot of areas of your game were actually good, you can't just take it back. And then they ended up going to Seattle and losing. They ended up having the Titans beat them. And all of a sudden it was like, uh-oh, this thing is kind of rolling off the rails. I think it was the Titans. However it went.

Oh, it was Arizona. And then it was, I think, going to Seattle. I'm mixing up my years. It was going to Seattle. And then they lost in the last second to Russell Wilson. And then all of a sudden it was like this, this train is starting to go off the rails pretty early. And in both 2020 and 2021, they were kind of chasing from behind in the middle of the season. And that's what can happen fast here. By the way, Philadelphia opens up as seven and a half point favorites over the Vikings at Philadelphia. So if you wonder what the world thinks of this game, they do not think that the Vikings have a whole lot of a chance when you go over a touchdown for a game like this, as far as favorites go. So here's what I'm wondering about though.

Murph, do we, would we rather, would we rather talk about like what can get better or still, or just like blame people for what happened? What, what, which would you rather do like what do you rather feel like on a monday morning talk about where where it could actually improve or do we want to point some fingers i would be more inclined to point more fingers if there was a sense of defiance or a you guys don't know what you're talking about this is a one-off. They own their mistakes yesterday. I mean, they fell deeply on the swords as they had to. And I was kind of thinking about that. I'm like, how are they going to react to this? Because

that was as ugly and sloppy as it's going to get to start the season at home against an inferior opponent. So they know where they, they know where they messed up. They know a little bit of you know, who is responsible and for what and what timing. And I think, you know, the difference right now between, you know, that 0-1 Cincinnati loss is that this was the B that was sort of the beginning of the end of the Mike Zimmer era where the claws started coming out. And as we found out after he was fired, how nasty and ugly it got and how insecure and indecisive and just sort of maniacal he became in that locker room.

Look, Kevin O'Connell still got a heck of a honeymoon period here. I think they're still going to run through walls for him. He's still got their back. He was very, you know, he put a lot on his shoulders about what went wrong, and he talked collectively about mistakes and things that couldn't happen and shouldn't happen. But he really wasn't going to, even on either subtle snide remarks where you know exactly what Zimmer was saying when he wasn't saying it, O'Connell hasn't gone down that road yet either. So I would rather talk about what can get better. Problem is they can get a lot better in the next four days and still lose by 10 points in Philadelphia. So I'd be curious what you think they can do better running game, no doubt, unforced errors, no doubt, ball security, no doubt they can get better. Where else should they

really be improving right now what else was suspect that you noticed that maybe didn't get the scrutiny that it should have either post game or even today because there were so many other ugly errors you almost don't look at the systemic ones that could be more long-term problems folks i'm not sure if you realize but after this week your hometown football team in in Minnesota actually isn't at home all that much the rest of the year. They are on the road nine times this season, which means if you're traveling with the team, then you're going to want to check out game time. It's the fast and easy way to buy tickets to everything football. Oh, and everything else as well. If you're looking for other sports that are starting up this fall,

playoffs in baseball, or even comedy shows and concerts as well, check out Game Time. One of the coolest parts about Game Time is that they have flash deals on last-minute tickets and a low-price guarantee, which means if you find something lower in the section or row, they will credit you 110%. You also get images of your seat locations, which helps me a lot because those maps can be kind of confusing.

So you can buy tickets in seconds and have them arrive right to your phone. It's great. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use the code INSIDER for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code INSIDER for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again, create an account and redeem code insider for $20 off your first purchase. Download the game time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed.

And when you talk about that, of course, we have to talk about the offensive line and that's something that is hard to say. You could see getting better. Christian Darasaw looked like he was pretty beat up after that game with his ankle injury that he suffered earlier in the game and so his status is very questionable for Thursday and then what he's going to look like if he does play Garrett Bradbury that doesn't sound great he went to the locker room very quickly after going into the injury tent and if you're trying to recover in three days from a back injury as someone who has routine lower back problems let me tell you not easy not easy to do uh no matter what you do to those sometimes like there's no like tape it up when it comes to the back injury like that could be a real lingering problem and

the fact that he had it last year also is pretty concerning. So I would guess that they're going to have Austin Schlotman up front and possibly only Udo at left tackle against the Eagles, which is a huge problem. And, you know, I thought that you mentioned Kevin O'Connell's comments. The only time where I felt like he was a little pointed, not in a Zimmer way, because that's just calling people out. And like you said, making passive aggressive, snarky comments. It wasn't like that, but I got the quote here. O'Connell said upfront, I think we just got to get a little bit more movement, a little bit more

connectedness on our combinations and try to get efficient as we possibly can. And then have ways of generating explosives in the run game. I mean, to me, that's as pointed as he gets like you, you need to block. I mean, even Kirk cousins after the game saying like Alexander Madison ran hard all day is basically saying you need to block and they didn't. And that was the concern the whole time leading up to Tampa Bay was whenever an opposing team has a great couple of defensive linemen, we always sort of send up the radar, put it on alert, like this could be a bad one. And you go to Philly and they got this great defensive line. I think that's something that can't really be fixed. What can be fixed is you can have some

run game because they had none yesterday. I also think that just when you're coming, like there are some things that Kevin O'Connell does, or that maybe it's Kirk Cousins decisions where I think it's three or four plays a game where I just go I don't really get it man I'm sorry but I don't really get it a tight end screen I don't get it you have the best weapons in the world that that play just needs to be burned throw it out back in the pit in the fire and light it up that thing gone never throw a tight end screen ever again. Just don't throw to C.J. Hamm. Just stop it. And I think that this idea of C.J. Hamm

playing on third downs where he's going to be the pass protector, the problem with that is that he can't be a weapon because he just isn't. I mean, they tried to throw to him a couple times. He dropped one of them. It's just that's who he is. He's just not a weapon.

He's a traditional fullback. And I think that there's just a couple of plays there where you could say, you know what? Get the ball to Osborne. Get the ball to Addison. Get the ball to somebody else. Throw the ball down the field to TJ Hawkinson if it's not working. And sometimes

if you're going to throw a quick pass to somebody, let's not make it CJ Hamm. And get the running back screen game going like there's play calling stuff in the second half of that game where you kind of like i think that i don't like criticizing play calling because if it works then they're a genius but there are some things that just logically speaking could be thrown in the trash after that game that might help them get rolling a little bit more but it's going to be hard Murph

to overcome that offensive line if they are not healthy they're not even to me trustworthy when they're healthy well picking up on that thread a little bit too you I think you mentioned that the tweet that Kevin Seifert of ESPN had put out I saw it this morning too where the Vikings blitz was at 42.7 percent or 43 percent of the time top in the league. Well, guess who was number two? Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay said, you know what? The Vikings have a soft and suspect offensive line, especially in the interior. We're not going to give Cousins time to set up shop. We're going to attack him. We're going to go after him. And especially in that first half, Cousins absorbed some wicked hits. There was a lot of free defenders coming at him.

And everybody, I keep thinking of that Netflix documentary where he was down on the ground moaning. And you could practically hear his ribs cracking on the mics. How we knew he was taking hits last year. We didn't know the extent to which they were borderline knocking him out of not only a game, but long term. And now we had to manage that throughout the season. We only saw that in retrospect. Well, you don't think Philadelphia is licking their chops again at the notion that they can attack, especially at home, with crowd noise?

So, yeah, getting the ball down the field sounds ideal. I don't know if Cousins is going to have time. He didn't have a ton of time yesterday, and when he did have time, he was a little bit inaccurate. So I'd like to see, okay, if you're going to patch this together with backups on the road against one of the fiercest defenses in the league, you're going to have more problems. So they're going to have to be more creative in getting him some additional protection, rolling him out maybe a little bit more, creating time to get that ball downfield because Tampa decided, you know what, we see a vulnerability, we're going to attack on the road

and we're going to, you know, roll the dice and see what happens. Well, it worked out fairly well for them defensively. Yeah, you know, if you go back to 2018 and this is how long we've been talking about the offensive line issues, it's just remarkable. But in 2018, I know it didn't work out long-term with John DeFilippo as their offensive coordinator, but I thought he went into Philadelphia with a great game plan, which was to get the ball out of Kirk Cousins' hands as fast as possible. And I know that Kevin O'Connell wants longer developing routes. He was running a lot of play actions, which I thought some of them worked extremely well. But with Philadelphia, they have had this good defensive line, it feels like, forever. That's kind of how they won the Super Bowl in 2017.

And, I mean, you're just going to have to find those answers with the quick passing game because there won't be that many opportunities to just sit back there on a long developing route and throw 20, 30 yards down the field to Justin Jefferson. So I do think that, you know, what Kirk Cousins said after the game about the skill players playing well, I thought for the most part, the receivers did have a good day and showed everything you have there. Like Addison can play his third down route. Like his touchdown was nice. Cause obviously he just ran by the guy, but he had a third down in 13 or something like that, where he got right to the sticks ran a really nice route made a play got a

first down like that's the weapon that you have now and and so i think they could build on that but if you have no running game and every time you run on first down you start on second and eight and that hurt them last year and it's going to hurt them again and i think the best we've ever seen kirk cousins i know a lot of people would say last year was it's going to hurt them again. And I think the best we've ever seen Kirk cousins. I know a lot of people would say last year was it. I think it was 2019 when he was operating with a great running game and a lot of comfort where the defense had to respect the run. The fact that they don't now is, is problematic.

So Murph, last thing. Okay. So we're like the panic meter and everything, you know, it's probably pretty high after this. But if there's one reason to not freak out completely, it's that Brian Flores had a pretty darn good debut on the defensive side. That Tampa Bay team put up like 240 yards.

Completely different look from what we saw last year. What did you think about the way that kind of this new look defense came together? Well, it looked like they were, I mean, we knew they were going to blitz more. That's how Flores came as advertised and they did. And they were able to stifle, I mean, again, it's Baker Mayfield. So what are we making a Baker Mayfield point, you know, 5.0 or whatever version this is four teams in four years, whatnot. I thought he was regressing toward XFL levels there until the fourth quarter when he did make a couple of key plays, both with his legs and his arm, that mattered.

Well, Baker Mayfield is not Jalen Hurts. So they're going into Philadelphia. How aggressive will Flores be? Will it be even more aggressive and more rolling of the dice in a more hostile environment where one mistake or one blown coverage or one big play can really set the tone early and get that stadium rocking? Again, where I would say I feel good about the Vikings' chances of maybe pulling an upset more this year than I even did last year, even coming off of that big Green Bay win,

is the fact that they have accumulated so much resilience and so much trust in Kevin O'Connell and so much trust in each other, those that are back, that I feel like there's probably going to be a little bit more panic out in the media, out in the fan base because of the circumstances than there would be in-house. Whereas two years ago, I feel like the panic was in the building as well. So that's the one thing that I can build on is that I think they are in a better position to correct mistakes, stop the bleeding, and maybe pull off an upset, or at least play well enough to give you confidence that, look,

if they're coming out 0-2, it's going to be a long uphill climb. But I have a feeling they're not going to get blown out of the stadium on Thursday night like they were last year on Monday night. So if they're going to reward that faith, or are they going to just blow it up and really find themselves in a hole? I'm going to be watching to see how they kind of react mentally, because one thing, there was some chatter in the room yesterday, too, and this is something that they can draw on. We all remember that Dallas home game last year when, I mean, I don't know, 30-plus point blowout. Then they had to follow up four days later against New England now granted they were at home but another national television audience and they played arguably one of their better games against

New England not only how they played but how they responded so how are they going to respond to this latest challenge knowing that 0-2 is going to look and feel a hell of a lot worse than 1-1 will I also think you, I saw a lot of people yesterday, and they were asking me, like, hey, is it time to tank or something? It's like, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, everybody. It's old one. It's old one.

Last year, they went to Buffalo, and they beat the Bills in a game where they were something like 10-point underdogs or whatever. I forget what it was. They were big underdogs against the Bills, and they won the were something like 10 point underdogs or whatever. I forget what it was. They were big underdogs against Bills and they won the game. Like it happens. It happens all the time that when in the NFL, when you have a good team and they have a good team, if they're a little better than you, then the odds are like 60, 40, which means four out of 10 times you win that game.

So, you know, I think that you shouldn't write this one off. And especially it's a short week, which I think benefits the Vikings to put it behind them quickly. And yes, they have to travel. That's annoying. But, you know, travel, it's not as big of a problem as it used to be back in the day. I mean, back in the day, home field advantage was massive.

Even in Philadelphia, the actual numbers for home field advantage are not that impressive like they used to be before travel is what it is and everything else. So, I mean, no, it's not time to completely throw this season in the trash. We're going to play football until January. So there's plenty of time here. But if you get an upset win, then all of a sudden it's all gone. Like it's right back to square one and you're kind of good to go, and expectations return to the same.

0-2 is a lot bigger of a hole to dig themselves out of. So this is a huge swing game for how we feel about the season. Make sure you check out Murph's article. You're from inside U.S. Bank Stadium, by the way. Last year's Magic put in the rear view in week one. That's at purpleinsider.com. Great stuff. Great to have you back inside the press box as well, Murph.

And we'll be doing this every Monday morning, including even with the Thursday night game and everything else. We'll just be doing it Monday morning again. So great to have you back on Purple Insider. I'm excited for what's to come this season, and we will talk again soon, Murph. Football.