Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy thinks Josh Dobbs just saved the Vikings' season

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy discuss Josh Dobbs' magical comeback win in Atlanta and what it says about Kevin O'Connell, Dobbs and Brian Flores and what expectations should be going forward Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. Coming up in just a second, my conversation with Brian Murphy about the Vikings' win over the Atlanta Falcons. But since I just arrived back from TCO Performance Center, wanted to give you a quick update on everything Kevin O'Connell said about some of the injuries that the Vikings sustained on Sunday, starting with Jaron Hall and KJ Osborne are still in the

concussion protocol, as we all would have expected after the hits that they took. And coaches really shouldn't speculate about when players are coming back or the severity of concussions so kevin o'connell did not do that today just said they're in the protocol they're going to go through whatever they have to do medically to see when they can return though i would not have high expectations for that just considering the severity of what we saw from the injuries and with jaron hall he has essentially been ruled out of starting this week by kevin o'connell he said that josh dobbs will be starting next week i know that i saw some people suggesting that they should just roll with jaron hall because he knows

the offense and that he looked better but considering his injury, considering everything that Josh Dobbs was able to do against Atlanta, uh, makes a lot of sense to just say right now, Josh Dobbs QB one throughout the week. And then we'll see what happens with Jaron Hall's health. That likely means Sean Mannion is going to be the backup quarterback. For those of you asked, uh, after cam acres went out, who is the emergency quarterback? It seemed like Kevin O'Connell didn't know. He joked around that maybe it was him. I mean, honestly, I don't have a great answer. Maybe CJ Ham would have been that because he knows the offense so well, or I don't know. Jordan Addison used to be a quarterback. Their long snapperrew depala i believe was a quarterback in college

so maybe that's who it would have been i have no idea it seems like they really had no answer for that and o'connell was holding his breath and kind of joked today that that would be a level of adversity that would be too much for even this team to handle and i would agree but speaking of cam acres he did rupture his Achilles and he's going to be out for the year and it's his other Achilles. So now he has had severe injuries to both of them. As far as the running game goes, I would assume Ty Chandler is going to be the next man up and whether they add another running back to the mix or it's just Dwayne McBride getting bumped up or if they just go with three, I'm not really sure.

They did have workouts for some running backs earlier this year, including Mike Davis, who's kind of a journeyman veteran running back. Leonard Fournette already signed, I believe, in Buffalo is where he signed. And Kareem Hunt is playing in what Cleveland. So the Vikings, you know, could go out and look for another veteran player really depends on if there's anybody that can help them. I would expect someone comes in here. I just am not really sure who that would be at the moment. So I guess we'll take a look at the free agent lists or we'll get an announcement very soon, but really, really unfortunate for cam acres uh even though you know the yards per carry and so forth weren't spectacular when he played he really played

hard and what we saw yesterday was a couple of big plays from him that stood out including laying out a defensive tackle on josh dobbs's big third down run that got him a first down and goal and ended up leading to the touchdown. Cam Akers just turned around and became a lead blocker. And the other thing too, is 19 yard run set up maybe a field goal later in the game to keep them rolling. So, you know, there was a lot of key plays there, a lot of key plays against San Francisco from Cam Akers. And it seemed like he was really fitting in with what the Vikings were doing. And maybe, you know, scheme and blocking and so forth was keeping him from getting, you know, better numbers fantasy wise. But I thought there was some some trust being built there.

And I wanted to see more of him. Just a really, really unfortunate injury. And Justin Jefferson, no real update on justin jefferson but he is eligible to be elevated off of ir and we'll see uh o'connell said he was going to have an update on wednesday he did not speak super optimistically about the chances of him playing next week. Again, we're going to have to find out, but it was clear that it sounded like we are going to take this as slowly as possible to make sure that he is not having any further issues

with his hamstring, because that is the last thing you want, is a re-aggravation. We saw that from Adam Thielen in 2019. They brought him back a little too early against Kansas City, and then he tweaked the hamstring again, and it became a thing week after week. We know that. We've seen it over the years that it can be a nagging injury,

so they want to make sure that Jefferson is back to 100%. Of course, their playoff odds are a lot better if they have Justin Jefferson healthy for this week and beyond. So again, we'll keep an eye out for that on Wednesday and, uh, you know, keep your eye on purple insider.com for lots more from what Kevin O'Connell said about being in the headset of Josh jobs throughout that game. It was a really interesting conversation he had at the podium with the media today. So, uh, keep an eye out for that.

And we'll try to bring in some of that audio on some other shows as well, because it really was quite insightful from Kevin O'Connell. Anyway, speaking of insightful, Brian Murphy, everyone on the win for the Vikings over the Atlanta Falcons. Enjoy. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, and it is time once again for a Monday Morning Murph. And let me tell you, Murph, at about, I don't know, 1.15 yesterday, I was probably thinking Monday Morning Murph is going to be pretty gnarly of a conversation between us. And boy, did things change over about the next hour and a half of Vikings Falcons as Josh Dobbs comes in, learns enough of the offense.

He's taught enough of the offense by Kevin O'Connell and his headset by his fellow teammates to come away with a victory in Atlanta to move this team to five and four and looking like they have a chance to be a playoff team. Lay it out for me. What do you got Murph? What was your reaction to what we saw yesterday with Josh Dobbs? That was a lot of fun. Just, it was just very, very entertaining, dicey,

uncertain, unpredictable, messy through most of it. It's going to continue to be messy. But as a snapshot in time goes, that might have been one of the most, certainly since I've been here for 24 years, the most improbable, unpredictable Vikings game outcome. Now, the stakes weren't as high as some of the other big, improbable, uncertain, crazy outcomes that they've been a part of their entire history. But as far as what you saw unfold from the first quarter to there were 22 seconds left in the game, nobody would have scripted anything remotely close to that. I mean, look, the Vikings were preparing a rookie quarterback, a fifth-round quarterback, all week last week.

Let's just get him familiar. Let's triage. Let's get him in a position to make a play and stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, he goes down in the first quarter with a vicious concussion. You know, there's a guy that just isn't used to running in the open field in the NFL and learned a very difficult lesson at the goal line yesterday. But suddenly you have, you know, the move that they made last week, you know, to get Dobbs from Arizona, which was prudent, maybe a little bit of a wink and a nod toward the future,

but certainly, you know, a move that was made for the present, but not that much of the present. And to watch that unfold and then to hear the comments that you heard come out of the locker room. I'm thinking of Brian O'Neill, the right tackle. He says, yeah, I met the guy on Thursday. I was in the huddle with him for the first time on the first snap. You know, Dobbs barely knew anyone's names, let alone the playbook, let alone, you know, there was that scene of all the offensive line gathered around him as he was about to take the field, you know, taking a snap just so they could hear his voice and what it sounds like when he's calling out the plays. It was just,

it was triage at the highest level. And to watch Kevin O'Connell sort of shepherd Dobbs through some really, really devastating moments early on, taking a safety, fumbling deep in your own zone, looking lost and unable to find anything downfield, a lot of happy feet. But boy, when you've got speed and talent and athleticism, happy feet can get you out a lot of trouble. And it's certainly, you know, not only got Dobbs out of trouble, but bailed the Vikings out. And now, oh, by the way, they're five and four having won four straight. Absolutely incredible. I think the sample size is growing now from not just last year,

where it was a magical, crazy year that everybody acknowledged a lot of things went their way. But there was another part of it, too, that they were never out of any game, even when they were down 33 points. They were never out of any game. And to me, that's a lot on the coaching and what they've been able to do as a coaching staff to have these players in position to never give up to never and not the NFL players usually just roll over or anything like that but to continue that fight to make a tackle on the one yard line that saves a touchdown as opposed to you know giving up the field goal which kept them in the game early and made them feel like all right that strip sack wasn't that big of a deal it was just a f fumble and, you know, we'll move on.

But if it had been a touchdown on numerous occasions, if they had allowed one more first down or one time for them to blast through into the end zone, or if they don't, you know, cause a fumble or dive into the pile like Josh Metellus did to rip the ball away at the bottom of the pile then none of this ends up coming to fruition and that's what really stuck out to me Murph and what I wrote about was it really took everybody and I think that's what Kevin O'Connell was so proud of that he's always got this team playing together caring about each other fighting until the end like all those kind

of cliches that until you see another team, that's not well-coached in Atlanta or what we saw last year from Indianapolis, when a guy came from the ESPN set, um, you know, to that game, like it really stands out when you see it, the, the juxtaposition between how the Vikings were in that game and how the Falcons were in that game. And I think it really speaks highly of the head coach. I guess your reaction to the way that Kevin O'Connell managed them through what looked like it was going to be a complete disaster after Dobbs came in. I mean, he's literally hand-holding him in the headset throughout the day,

trying to translate the terminology the Vikings use into terms that he could understand from, I don't know, one of the previous six organizations he's been with. Some things probably clicked, others didn't. You had the offensive line, you had the running backs kind of, you know, shepherding him along each series call as well. It really is a testament to the job that O'Connell's done because, you know, we talked all last season about all the golden horseshoes that kept raining down on this team and seemed to, you know, anoint them as unicorns. But there was a lot of adversity that they had faced, too. It wasn't just simply crazy plays at crazy moments. I mean, there were, I mean, we, they were down, but down against Indianapolis, they were really down and out against Buffalo.

I mean, we go down the laundry list of, you know, the double doink things that happened all through that season last year, but you know, it's one thing to, to, to get gifted things. It's another thing to take advantage of it and also create a belief. And so much of what O'Connell was doing last year was really putting a tourniquet on all the emotional and, you know, mental wounds that came out of the Zimmer era. Toward the end of the bitter Mike Zimmer era left a lot of that locker room battle scarred and skeptical. So not only was he able to, you know, take advantage of the opportunities that fell the

Vikings way to power themselves with 13 victories, but he also elevated Cousins to a new level of production and respect that he didn't have playing, I guess, fearing not to lose and not to anger Zimmer. Now you look at what he's been able to put together with his body of work now through nine games this year. I mean, you fall 0-3 and look awful doing it. You end up 1-4, losing to the Super Bowl champs. You lose your star wide receiver. Oh, by the way, the Vikings went 4-0 without Justin Jefferson. You know, that's not something to be dismissed. And we're going to talk about, you know, all the decisions that O'Connell has made and is going to continue to make with Dobbs. But the big key to me too, is hiring Brian Flores

because what Brian Flores has been able to do defensively is not only resurrect that unit, but give them a belief that, you know, if we're not producing offensively, if we're, you know, we got a laundry list of injuries we can go down and deal with as well. But that defense, they have found ways to make critical plays at key moments. You mentioned the goal line stand, the turnovers they were able to force. Look, Taylor Heineke was just asking to be picked off all afternoon, and he finally was by Byron Murphy Jr. But the timing of the turnovers that they created, the first Atlanta series after falling behind 21-13, that could have been a death knell, even if the Falcons only put up three or drain more clock. But boom, on that first series, the Vikings suddenly have the ball in positive territory. Suddenly they're turning that into points. And, you know, it's contagious. You talk

about it being a cliche, and it can be overstated that the guy, play for the guy next to you, the love of your band of brothers. You're all down and wounded and counted out, rally together. I mean, a lot of that is bulletin board material, but a lot of it is legitimate, too. And when you're part of a team that's going through extremely challenging and difficult times through no fault of your own or a lot of fault of your own, and your leader is able to make you believe either through positive reinforcement or actually doing the job, i.e. getting Dobbs competent enough to play on the fly in real time, I mean, that instills a lot of confidence in the room. So you can tell these guys are playing for each other. They're playing complementary football. there's so much uncertainty. We have no idea where this is going.

But, you know, considering what the team and fan base probably felt just a week ago today compared to what they feel now, it may be a flash-in-the-pan victory. There's going to be headaches along the way. There's going to be more errors along the way. It's not going to be more errors along the way. It's not going to be clean football, but if they're all pulling an equal amount of rope and they're doing it for each other and they're doing just enough to win, the schedule here opens up wide for them to take advantage and stockpile some wins. And look, the NFC is pretty wide open beyond Philly right now. So where this goes, no one knows. Folks, I hope you've enjoyed listening to us talk about prize picks this year. But if you've missed it, here's how it works.

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on micro decisions within games so we'll say you know, he didn't go for two or what are they doing on this fourth down play call or why didn't they punt or whatever? We kind of analyze coaching through that lens. But the more, I guess, difficult way to do it is trying to figure out one, how do your players respond to things that go wrong? And also, how can you make the most of that go wrong? And also how can you make

the most of what you have? And this is where the coaching staff, I think for the Vikings is really exceptional, not just Josh Dobbs, but I mean, that is incredible to be translating in your brain as you're sending in play calls. All right, Josh, this play call here is called F right wing, whatever X 22. You probably know it as Western Southern 47 61. And because Kevin O'Connell has this breadth of knowledge as a former quarterback and someone who's constantly studying the game, constantly talking to everybody else in the league, other coaches and everything else, but has such this incredible experience that he can do that on the fly and to have your head coach be able to do that and not just have an assistant or something else

is i think super valuable i mean how many head coaches are over there breaking down you saw him pamper miming like here's what you want to look for and like he's holding a fake ball kind of thing on the sideline trying to teach it but to have the head doing uh like footwork drills right yes right on the fly and to be able to teach it and to be the guy who's guiding the quarterback and have the quarterback be an extension of him at that point but also all the other players who had to help him as well. And what we saw was lots of different guys step up at different times. The running game was terrible.

And then Cam Akers breaks off a 20-yard run that makes a big difference. Brandon Powell catches the ball in the end zone. Brandon Powell is a punt returner. This guy has barely ever caught any passes. I mean, he was like a little bit of a receiver last year for the Rams. Now he's a key receiver for them. David Questenberry, they traded for this guy or signed this guy right before the beginning of the season, just as extra depth on the offensive line. Now, all of a sudden he shows up at the stadium and

he's starting when he never would have expected that. And we see the same thing on the defensive side. No one had ever heard of Ivan Pace Jr.'s undrafted free agent. And now he's making plays in this game against one of the best running teams in the NFL. And you have a lot of defensive linemen and things like this. If you looked at the number of players who played snaps for the defense yesterday, it's like 18 guys are getting on the field on the defensive side and to me that's where you see the coaching is not only how the players like respond and gel together with each other but also how do you make the most out of every single guy here and there was no better example than that from kevin o'connell and brian flores yeah and you touched upon this i think it's a

good point for i mean i think the public knows this, but even if they don't, that like, you know, this is where we get to see real-time high-pressure decision-making by your head coach. But the other 90% of his job, none of us see. I mean, we ask people, we try to find out, you know, back in the day when I was in the locker room, you're trying to get a sense of, are these guys just spewing platitudes?

Are they saying what they know their boss wants to hear? Or do they actually believe what's coming out of his mouth? And that's what I think it's, you know, we don't know all of the effort that went last week, at least what it looked like. There was no contingency for having Josh Dobbs in this game. And there might not even have been a contingency this week to get Dobbs into a game. This could be a several-week kind of an emergency process that played out within less than 15 minutes into their first game together with their two new backup quarterbacks. So I'm interested, and I think the Vikings have done a really good job, every team is doing this now,

of posting the post-game videos, the speeches in the locker room. And look, there's been a lot of wins. You know, the Vikings have had they've had 18 regular season wins under this guy. So there's been a lot of those kind of aha behind the curtain moments that reveal a lot about somebody's leadership style, somebody, you know, how men kind of, you know, rise to the occasion for each other and are willing and capable of following somebody wherever they go. You see all that in the raw footage of those five-minute post-game speeches. But to watch Josh Dobbs come into that locker room yesterday, it was really, you know, look, I didn't get misty or anything. But that was a really cool thing to see him come into that locker room and get greeted like a conquering hero. As we've said, this could be a snapshot in time.

He could be a disaster for several more starts. There could be some costly turnovers that really, really punish the Vikings and their injury list is really growing and getting very, and it cutting, you know, bone deep into their depth. But for this moment, I mean, I don't, I don't think you can argue that the Vikings have certainly made the right decision and not only who they want to lead this team, but now who they've got in charge of their defense. And also just watching them kind of rally around each other and come together around an

unknown quantity, like Josh Dobbs, was kind of heartening to see. And this is why we tune in. I mean, this is what it's about. It's about seeing things you never expect to see, seeing how people react to adversity, how they rise to the occasion or fail to rise to the occasion. It's why we tune in every week. It's the greatest form of unscripted entertainment with a week to build up and a week to tear down. So we can all bask in the Dobbs phenomenon today, but then the injury report is going to come out and now it's going to be another, you know, how do you get him ready in not just real time on the sidelines, but now that you've got a little bit more time, what exactly is he going to be able to absorb? What's your game plan going to look like?

And really, after five years of watching, you know, Cousins kind of like a statue in the pocket, you know, deliver some beautiful passes, put up some great numbers and absorb some really wicked hits. What's it going to be like now to have a dual threat? What's O'Connell going to be able to unpackage, unwrap in his gift box to see what this offense can be? You got Jefferson coming back. Addison's obviously been ascending all season. Hockinson's banged up. Osborne's banged up. But now Brandon Powell has emerged as a playmaker. So Akers may be out. We can go through all the injuries here in a minute. But I just think there's so many moving parts and so much uncertainty that it's both exciting, daunting.

And look, they may end up winning three more games. Or they could win another six and turn this into not just a lost season that they salvaged, but a potentially potent one in January. And that's what I want to talk about next, but just to respond to what you're saying, this win, no matter what happens going forward, will resonate for a long time about the coaching staff and about both sides, about Brian Flores as as well which people are already asking like he's going to earn himself a head coaching job isn't he and the answer is maybe we'll see uh you know i i don't know about that i don't know how the rest of the nfl and their

owners are feeling about hiring him as a head coach and could be to the vikings benefit if they are holding a grudge yeah i mean he's still su's still suing the league. So let's acknowledge that. They may not be willing to hire him right away. Right. But you can also see why the man was successful in Miami and turned around their defense as well, because he is made for a massive change here. And then, of course, O'Connell empowering the leaders of the team

the way that he did to rally around Josh Dobbs, I think really, really shines here. So even if this doesn't go great to the end of the season, because you are playing a backup quarterback and yeah, the schedule is easier, but look at the end of the schedule when you play Detroit twice and you play Cincinnati, that looks like a legitimate Superbowl contender after beating Buffalo last night. Like it's not going to be a cakewalk to the end. There are two more, you know, divisional games even against Chicago and Green Bay, which regardless, they tend to split even when those teams aren't that good. So we'll see. We'll see how it goes. But this one will be memorable for my impression and my analysis of Kevin O'Connell going forward. Now let's talk about the other part of it.

KJ Osborne was hurt pretty seriously. You don't want to see him come back right away. Cam Akers tore his Achilles. That's likely a season-ending injury. Feel terrible for him. He seemed to have really assimilated well into this team after whatever happened in Los Angeles. What is realistic in your mind?

Did Josh Dobbs save the season and potentially set up for something magical here? Or are we getting too ahead of ourselves after a three point win where a lot of stuff, you know, I mean, the interceptions and goal line stands where they had to do everything under the sun to make that happen? Yes. And yes, that's the short answer. Yes. He did salvage the season at this very moment. And yes, there was a lot to not like in that game, to not like in the, the, the widening and deepening injury report that makes this, you know, it could be, you know, a fool's errand to think that this is going to spark some magical run. I mean, there was a lot of feel good vibes, but there's still a lot of practical problems

that are confronting this team. All of that being said, what gives me, you know, the most confidence that they can ride this a bit is because by my rudimentary math, I mean, their next four opponents are 14 and 21 collectively. So that's a 40% winning percentage, not much there. So if they can make some hay with that, and then of course, you've got, you got to go to Cincinnati and you do have two games out of the last three against, you know, the division front runner

Detroit. So this is, this is not going to be a cakewalk, but you can build up an awful lot of equity and a lot of capital in the next several weeks against opponents you should be able to beat. Doesn't mean you're even going to be favored to beat, but should be able to defeat. Again, what are they going to do with their depth? What are they going to be able to do with the lineup? How are they going to reintegrate Jefferson? Is Jefferson coming off IR this week? Is it worth being a little more prudent with him? Because we all know how wonky hamstring injuries can be. I'm sure he's chomping at the bit to get a taste of this new offensive look. Watching him and Addison really work as a tandem now, as opposed to one hand or the other

hand, will be fascinating to watch. The running game continues to really not do much, and now they've lost acres. I don't know what's salvageable there. Madison, either the line blocking just isn't working or he's just not finding the holes, but it just doesn't seem to be working the way they thought it would when they said he can replace Dalvin Cook. So there's still a lot here. We know that defensively, you know, they're they're one or two blown assignments from having a game blow up in their face. And let's not forget, they were facing Taylor Heineke yesterday, you know, just as they were facing the gong show in Chicago, just as they were facing Bryce Young and in Carolina. They haven't exactly you know, they weren't able to beat Mahomes. They weren't able to beat Justin Herbert. And, you know, they've got Joe Burrow staring at them at some point here too. So there's a lot

there to question. But I think that's what makes it so intriguing to watch is that it's really going to be difficult to kind of handicap because it's going to be such a week by week, series by series, opponent by opponent evaluation on what they're going to be able to do with Dobbs, what he can bring to the table that gives them a new look and a new dynamic that teams really can't scout for. They can scout his tape, obviously, with his seven organizations and his work with Arizona, but the Cardinals are terrible. The Vikings are not. So I feel like in some ways, the Vikings are kind of stumbling around a little bit in the dark, but I think their opponents will be too coming up and they're generally inferior

opponents. So I don't think this team was as bad as the 0-3 and 1-4 marks labeled them as, and they've shown in the last month, month and a half that that is the case. I think, you know, belief in each other and momentum are real. And these things, you know, they're hard to quantify and they're hard to, you know, disrupt if they're going well. So I just feel like there's a lot to build off this week that just gives the team a real chance to reset both schematically but also emotionally after losing Cousins. And to really, you know, they wake up this morning and suddenly they've won over 500. They actually have a winning record. I don't think anybody thought that was possible six weeks ago.

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I mean, beating San Francisco and then being able to carry it over and not have the letdown game and then fight through this. Very, very impressive. It is hard for a team to have the most emotional victory every week, though. Like that's, I mean, think what they've gone through the last three weeks. And this is what I wonder about for projecting the rest of the season. There's a couple things that make me think that they can do this. Jefferson coming back at some point is one of them. The way that, you know, Josh Dobbs found ways to produce first downs,

even if something went wrong, or even if he didn't know the play, he just ran for it, which, you know, imagine, but I mean that Flores' defense, I think Flores' defense could keep them in any game against pretty much any opponent, even when we're talking about those better teams. And in the NFL, if you could stay close, you can have a chance, right? All you need is B. John Robinson to have the ball popped out, and then all of a sudden you've got a chance to win

if your defense can keep the game close. But I do wonder about San Francisco on Monday Night Football. That is a chance to win if your defense can keep the game close. But I do wonder about San Francisco on Monday night football. That is a hugely emotional win for them. They go to Green Bay, they lose their starting quarterback, and then they come to Atlanta and have this. And so three weeks in a row, they've been a major national story. They've been at the center of the spotlight. They've had these crazy emotional wins and they've also gotten beat up like you saw t.j hawkinson in this game just sort of surviving his way to the end of the game but that man was banged up he had an ankle injury earlier this year now he's got

whatever happened to his midsection that he was able to stay in the game osborne is hurt who knows about christian derisaw's status going forward, if he's going to be in and out, or if he's going to get back to 100%. The defense is healthy at the moment, but if you have some injuries there, where do you stand? So there's a lot of roadblocks in the way for a team that has to have crazy week in, week out. It's like the cardiac kids of what was the Cleveland Browns, the one year where they had all these crazy wins and then eventually it came crashing down. Kind of happened to the Vikings last year

in the second half of the season where they came crashing down in Green Bay and then they played the Giants and obviously came up short there that it's just hard to live. And the all-time example is Minneapolis Miracle to Philadelphia. It's just hard to live on 10 out of 10 for a whole season where you never have like an easy week. And I don't know if that's this week. I don't know

when that will happen, but I do think that regardless of that, this team has the will to keep going and the, the, the culture, if you will, to keep going, the coaching to keep going and a quarterback who can make a play here or there. And I think the more he learns, the better he should get considering the offensive setup they have. A lot of the passes that he threw were to open receivers because this is like what Kirk Cousins has been doing is throwing to a lot of open receivers that are either really talented

or schemed up really well. So I don't think it's unreasonable to look at the playoffs, especially with the NFC, and say, this could be one of those years that we remember forever where Josh Dobbs showed up in a trade for a pick swap. I mean, he's already made the trade worth it just today. Like the pick swap, more than worth it. You won the trade already just by getting a win out of that.

And, you know, I think that he's got enough talent and experience to at least grind them the rest of the way. I think you only need nine wins to get in the playoffs, and it feels like they're going to get there. Yeah, it feels like they're going to get to nine. The question is, can they get to 10 or 11, which maybe buys you a home game, although that didn't necessarily play out as they expected last year against the Giants.

But, you know, the emotional maturity that the team has kind of, I think, experienced extends to last year. I mean, you know, they faced adversity. They faced this sort of week-to-week, living-on-the-edge mentality that we all embraced because it was so fun to watch. But you're right, I think there was a toll that they ended up paying, and they did pay it at the end, because they just weren't able to rise against a really, as it looks today, a really inferior New York Giants team that you needed to beat at home to really put the bow on that season of joy, so to speak, last year. But now it's been tested the opposite way. I mean, they've had to fight for everything. They've had to hammer and tong their way back into contention.

And that's not easy to do when not only are you, you know, you lose your star wide receiver, but then you end up losing your starting quarterback right at the moment that he had sort of galvanized the locker room. Or really, you know, you could tell even pregame, these guys were wearing all those graphic t-shirts yesterday in Atlanta, you know, honoring cousins, just because I think there's a real deep respect and appreciation for how he's evolved as, as a player and as a leader under O'Connell. And I think that the team really was devastated to lose their sort of alpha. And so now you've got a guy they're just starting to get to know. But what a first impression and what a way to kind of ingratiate yourself to an uncertain locker room by stepping into an impossible situation. And for your head coach to not shy away from that impossible situation.

I mean, it would have been look at the Vikings got rolled yesterday, we would have understood it. I mean, you would have almost empathized with the terrible hand that O'Connell was dealt late in that first quarter. But instead, I mean, they turn it around and they gain confidence. And look, you know, Atlanta's not a great team. They're good defense, not a great team, poorly coached. I Not a great team. Poorly coached. I mean, Arthur Smith's, you know, unhinged meltdown against Kurt Warner last week just tells you everything you need to know about his leadership skills. I don't see O'Connell losing his locker room like that. Or look at Josh McDaniel in Vegas and what a mess that is.

You know, O'Connell, I think, has as much political capital right now than he may have in a long time. Same with the general manager. I mean, you know, Kwezi Adolfo Mensah did not afford himself too well in his first draft. And, you know, you can nitpick some of the decisions he's made there. But to say, look, you know, we're not going to throw in the towel on the season. We're going to essentially swap picks for a guy that looks like're not going to throw in the towel on the season. We're going to essentially swap picks for a guy that looks like Arizona's ready to kick to the curb again. That was not the move made last week, was not made to start against the Falcons.

But suddenly now Dobbs is that guy. And it's going to be interesting to see how this team in this town sort of rally around a guy who's going to be flawed going forward. We know that. And how much leeway is he going to have in terms of understanding and empathy? This kind of win on that kind of stage and that kind of moment kind of buys a lot of that time. But he's got to keep producing. They got to keep winning. Otherwise the good vibes,

they tend to don't last very long in this league. As Jerry Glanville said, NFL, not for long. He was, he the only one that said that. I feel like I've heard that maybe one or two other times, but the first one,

I think the NFL films might caught it. So everybody else has been. Yeah, no, it's good good I'm just kidding I probably heard it 10,000 times since but uh yeah I mean it it has the potential to be something that Vikings fans really remember for a very long time it also has the potential to run out of gas and peter out and have it be that one game that was really fun and that's it and i guess that's the next challenge for the vikings that they will face and then at some

point we will get to other conversations about the future of the quarterback and so forth but i think that's gonna have to wait for a little bit to see how this plays out uh murph always great stuff great column purpleinsider.com see your your reaction to what Josh Dobbs did yesterday, saving the Vikings season, and make sure you go read that there. We will talk again next Monday, and we will only find out what is next for us. Murph, it has been unpredictable as always,

so we will talk then. Saddle up, folks. It's going to be another fun ride.