Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy thinks the best is yet to come for Sam Darnold

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Matthew Coller talks with Brian Murphy about how to process the Vikings win over Chicago and the meaning of a big game from Sam Darnold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is time once again for Monday Morning Murph for Brian Murphy to react to another Vikings win that I suppose you could argue wasn't as impressive as it should have been. It took overtime when it didn't need to, but the Vikings are now 9-2 on the season. So Mr. Murph, how did you process the Vikings' victory in Chicago? I actually look at the way they won, the manner in which they won, as a positive outcome. I don't think anybody wants to go through the fact that they, or endure the fact that they gave up 11 points in 22 seconds to take what should have been a handy win and an opportunity for Sam Darnold to kneel down a couple of times and turn it into a gong show.

But this was Soldier Field. Lest anyone forget, strange and mysterious things seem to happen to the Vikings, both positively and negatively, in that building and has for at least the last 10 years. And also, look, the way they responded in overtime defensively and then ultimately hear Sam go win a game, go drive down the field, go get 90 of your 330 yards, make your best and most important connection with Justin Jefferson to sustain a drive, keep connecting with TJ Hawkinson and Jordan Addison, and really not look any worse for wear despite having his ankle and leg rolled up on earlier, but to basically take a game that was slipping away for some randomness

and just some bad luck and poor performance and to turn it around and come away with an overtime win that was as convincing in the last 10 minutes on the field as the previous, say, 50, I think it's a pretty good statement. I wouldn't call it a statement win, but to come away from three road games against inferior opponents and find different ways to not look good, but find better ways to win each week. I think they're building up a lot of scar tissue here that's going to pay off down the road. And I don't think anybody should be disappointed if anything. Their resilience is as strong as ever. And that counts a lot as you're heading into key games and the postseason.

And the bigger picture here is that they won four games in a row and all four games were the ones they should have won. And it's hard not to say this. In the past, they drop one of those games. You know that they do. Those past teams that they had, so often we would look at the schedule and go, hey, hey yeah there's like a bunch of winnable games coming up and then one of them they just no show and don't find a way

to pull out so the fact that they could win four games in a row against yes four inferior opponents but i also don't look at chicago through the same light as i look at some of the other teams that they beat. And by the way, Tennessee actually had an impressive win yesterday versus the Houston Texans, and their quarterback has been playing a lot better, and the Vikings were never really threatened by them. But Chicago is three or four plays away from being seven and four. They have a lot of talent on their team. Certainly the wide receivers are full of talent, As we saw, the quarterback is incredibly gifted. As we saw, Mr. Number one overall pick was every bit of that throughout that game and

every bit of a rookie at times when he took a key sack in overtime and so forth. But when you go through the talent, the defensive mind that they have, Ibraflues might not be a perfect coach, but he sure as heck is a good defensive coordinator. And Sam Darnold navigated that entire game and operated it to a tee, including hitting TJ Hawkinson once at the end of regulation to go up 11 and think he was going to the locker room to give his postgame speech. And then in overtime, finding TJ Hawkinson again, this also was about Sam Darnold for me. It was the toughest test he's faced in a really long time in the toughest

environment with an injury added on top of it. And the two was just nails. There's no other interpretation that has to be maybe the best game of his entire career considering the circumstances and to get that taken care of to get to nine and two I have a very difficult time nitpicking away with well you know this one play call or hey this you know I mean you can nitpick away at the kick return and the onside kick which is pretty random but almost everything else especially and the most important thing from the quarterback was really really good in this Yeah. And this is two really good performances in a row coming off a couple of questionable performances, at least in terms of Darnold's decision-making and his penchant for turnovers. Aaron Jones kept the streak alive with this fumble inside the five

yard line to basically let everyone know that the Vikings in the first quarter on their first drive are going to drive the ball down the field, but somehow going to give it away. Again, probably the biggest Achilles heel they've had all season is untimely turnovers, but they've been able to respond to those. And Darnold in particular, he just doesn't get rattled. He doesn't, you don't feel like this is where it's going to come apart. This is where this three and out is going to turn into a first and 10 backed up at your own 10, trying to

force a ball to Jefferson because he's only had one catch for seven yards all day, and that's going to put them in a bad position and turn it over and put Chicago and Spood feed them a momentum in great field position. It never happened. It doesn't happen with Arnold, and it doesn't happen on either side of the ball. Complimentary football is such an overused cliche, but in a lot of ways, this was their most complimentary win of the season. When you think of special teams, yeah, okay, they gave up a long return at the end. The onside kick hits Johnny Muntin the foot. He's not looking for it, but they also blocked a field goal too.

And they also, the punting unit's been strong all season. Oh, by the way, your backup kicker has only missed one extra point in his three games and has looked, you know, he delivered a chip shot winner, but it's still the first time he's going out there in the NFL to go win a game in overtime. That's a heavy ask. And defensively, as usual, they responded. It looked like Chicago had all the momentum winning the coin toss in overtime. You could just sense Caleb Williams' confidence growing. He's maturing before our eyes. That was one of his most productive and strongest performances of the season. You just had the sense that maybe they're going to march down the field and score.

What does the defense do? Arguably one of its best series. Jonathan Garnard gets a huge sack. Williams ran and scrambled and couldn't find anything, throws incomplete. Suddenly they're punting, and then it's Sam Darnold go out and win the game. And he does that. He takes the baton from the defense, much as the defense has taken the baton from an unproductive offense and really, you know, come together and produce a win that people aren't going to be talking about during this magical season. If it continues, they're not going to

look back at the Chicago game, the Jacksonville game and the Tennessee game as defining moments. If anything, they held serve, did what they were supposed to do, won three winnable games, and now they've set themselves up decently at home with three straight at U.S. Bank Stadium, four of six to finish at home. Now the quarterback competition is going to be markedly different than it has been the last several weeks, but I just feel like this is a team that's finding ways to win um that's really digging deep for for resolve and you can't you can't really measure that as well as you can measure productivity and performance uh on a snap to snap basis there's plenty to nitpick

but i just feel like as a whole this team is really positioned to do some damage. The most important thing by a million miles is always the quarterback play and the also mental state of the quarterback and the mental state of Sam Darnold is just unflappable, unshakable. He has had many times this year where he could completely melt down. And one of them was coming out of Jacksonville. How is he going to respond to the game where everyone goes, I knew you were Sam Darnold, that you were going to intercept the ball a million times. But he came out of that, played his best game of the year,

and then comes out of this with many opportunities to melt down, including a sack on the first dropback of overtime. Then he gets a completion to Hawkinson, gets a huge, as you mentioned, completion to Justin Jefferson, who played the best two-catch game ever in NFL history. This was incredible how much attention he drew, how many yards he picked up on pass interferences, and then he comes through at the biggest moment when they need a third down conversion. But Darnold also throws a dime in there and then they get a holding penalty and it brings him back.

And he once again finds TJ Hawkinson open down the field for a huge gain to win the game. There's along the way, probably against the Jets, there was a chance there and he gets them an extra field goal leading a late drive. Against the Packers, they're making noise. He leads it down. Against the 49ers, remember that throw to Jalen Naylor, that back shoulder throw that he let go. And we're just seeing a consistent week to week, excellent quarterback this year. And sometimes I like to try to put us in a different world and wonder how we would look at this. If we knew nothing about Sam Darnold until

this year and he got here and you didn't have pro football reference to look up what happened before, you'd be like, this is top 10 quarterback, the way that he's played. Nine out of 11 games this year, quarterback rating over a hundred at the end of the game, eight out of 11 PFF grade, either above average to good to great somewhere in there. He's essentially had two to three bad games all season long out of 11 and then needing the NFC North victory, needing it to complete the four game run to go into the final stretch this way. He puts on this type of showing. And the other thing too, put yourself in a world where JJ McCarthy doesn't exist. How would we be talking about Sam Darnold? We would be saying,

I think the Vikings just found their franchise quarterback. I don't want to have that discussion about McCarthy because they're nine and two, but I think it's just a way to look at this guy is really playing this good. And I think the whole time to the point where we got here, it's all right. When is he going to fall off? When is he going to regress? And with his talent, that doesn't look like that's coming. Yeah. I think you can safely say he's put that baggage and left it behind him and should have, I mean, it shouldn't be talked about as much anymore. If anything, what happened to him in New York, Carolina, and ultimately him settling down in San Francisco has really shaped who he is today. And that's why, you know, they talk about it being a journey with a quarterback. Two franchises gave up on him. Two franchises almost ruined him before giving up

on him. He caught his breath last year in San Francisco and followed them on a Super Bowl journey. And now he comes almost with, you know, lowered expectations and a clean slate. And he's exceeded them. Why? Because he's got the talent. He's got the makeup. He's got the arm strength. And if you watch him, you know, again, I'm mostly watching on television.

Every time I see a shot of him in the huddle, leading the huddle, coming into the huddle, on the sidelines, anticipating a next series, he's all business. He's all dialed in. I don't know if I can read his mind, but what I do see is I do see an NFL quarterback. And I see an NFL quarterback who's got confidence, who's not going to be waylaid by some of the adversity that comes throughout the course of a game or even series to series, because this is a guy that feels confident in his abilities. He's shown what he can do with not only the game on the line, but sort of really taking this franchise on his shoulders right now and taking it to a place nobody expected them to be, he's still unproven. I mean, I think he's kind of gotten to the point now where this

is the Sam Darnold that everybody expected maybe to arrive in the NFL. It just took him three or four years to get here. And you can't underestimate the adversity, overcoming doubts in your ability that were, I'm sure, swirling not only in his own head, but in every club that had decided to take a flyer on him. The Vikings just kind of created an opportunity for him, both mentally and schematically, where he could kind of grow into a system without having Super Bowl expectations on his shoulders. And oh, by the way, they're 9-2, and they seem to be an afterthought in the national conversation about elite teams because they're not doing things that Detroit is doing or Baltimore or Kansas City with their MVP quarterbacks. Darnold's not an MVP quarterback, but he is a playoff contending quarterback who's still, like I said, building his resume. And I don't think we may have even seen the best game

of Sam Darnold's career or certainly his tenure in Minnesota. I think that's to come. I think you're going to see moments in the next six weeks where he's going to have to win a game and it's going to have to be either against Green Bay and if there's the stakes are still there for the season ending game in Detroit I'd take a week 18 version of Sam Darnall against Jared Goff than a week five or six version that we had at U.S. Bank Stadium because he's going to be that much more battle tested and he's going to be that much more confident. And also he's going to be that much more Hawkinson early in the year. He didn't have Hawkinson and honestly didn't have the full version of Jordan

Addison, who by the way has now more yards per game than he had last year. And this is how it works, right? Is when you play with Justin Jefferson, some weeks you get two catches and he gets 150 yards and other weeks the other team dedicates their entire existence to slowing him down and you get 160 yards that's how it's always been for the number two wide receivers and Addison stepping

up the way that he did I mean that was a first round pick type of supreme talent performance, eight catches on nine targets. Several of them were very high difficulty or in important spots. And it just, he just had to be a little more patient. O'Connell had to work the ball to him. I think a little bit more in progressions and things like that. Darnold had to build his chemistry and TJ Hawkinson had three absolutely enormous catches in overtime. Also to try to put the game away up by 11 on a third down after the Jefferson touchdown had just been negated. He comes right back third and 12 goes to Hawkinson. Here's a crazy stat I ran into about Hawkinson. There have been nine contested catch opportunities since he came back and he's caught eight of them from Sam

Darnold, the trust there, but also his ability to go up and get it. That's why you trade a top draft pick for him. That's why he was a top draft pick. And that's why he's been a pro bowler. This is just starting to be the full bevy of weapons that Sam Darnold had. And I think you saw how many answers they can come up with when they have that. But as we go down the stretch here, Murph, what do you think the expectation should be for this team based on what we know? Because as you mentioned, there are more difficult challenges, albeit at home, more difficult quarterbacks to face, especially in comparison to recent weeks. So is it go 500 the rest of the way?

Is it win five out of six and have an all-time great Viking season? Like where are you putting the bar for this team? I like the idea of a 4-2 finish and a 13-win season. I guess we got to put an asterisk by that season-ending game at Detroit because we may be in a position where if the Lions don't lose the rest of the way and the Vikings do drop another game, the NFC North title is not going to be at stake and the Lions may be sitting people. That may be almost like an afterthought win that really doesn't have a lot of stakes. So it'd be interesting to see where they are in week 18 and whether that

Detroit game really is going to matter. But obviously the week before they're hosting green Bay, who is clearly not going away. They're at eight and three. I mean, talk about, I think you talk about stats. I think since the realignment in 2002, this is the deepest in any season that three teams in a division have had eight or more wins. So you can argue that the Vikings are chasing Detroit,

but they're also trying to fend off green Bay. They're going to have Jordan love again. They're going to have Kirk cousins coming into us bank stadium. They're going to have Kyler Murray coming into us bank stadium quarterbacks that are going to obviously probably wreck maybe aggressive game plans a little bit easier than Will Levis, who you mentioned is playing better, but, you know, Mac Jones, forget about it. And then, you know, even yesterday, Williams had a good game, but Flores and the defense

still did enough to keep him guessing and keep him on his heels. He came up with a lot of big third down stops and fourth down stops that actually really preserved the game and gave the Vikings an opportunity to rally when they had to. All that said, I feel like a 4-2 run here. You mentioned these three games. You thought, well, they're going to blow one of them or they're going to not, they're going to no show for one of them. I still don't think they've got that mulligan yet out of their, out of their way. If you look at their two losses, they were pretty good efforts against LA and Detroit, certainly Detroit more so than LA, the tough travel and whatnot. They haven't really had a clunker per se. I mean,

Jacksonville, call it a clunker. He's still one. Defensively, it wasn't a clunker per se. I mean, Jacksonville, call it a clunker, you still won. Defensively, it wasn't a clunker. But I don't, you know, Seattle's a tough place to play. They're going to have to go out there. I see, you know, maybe one of those games at home, they may slip a bit. Chicago, Williams is obviously going to be another challenge when he comes back here on Monday night. But I look at 13 wins as an acceptable bar. I don't know if that's going to make a difference because Detroit's having this season of destiny.

But 13 wins is nothing to shrug at. They won 13 a two years ago. But this is a completely different team that's better equipped, I think, not only to win a playoff game, but maybe even win a road playoff game if their lack of a division title prevents them from hosting. So I just feel like this is a team that I wouldn't, you know, put a ceiling on it. I would put a ceiling on maybe how they can match up against certain teams, but I wouldn't put a ceiling on how many wins they can accumulate because they found so many different ways to win already. Look at you getting so pumped about football that you're smacking

your computer around. So I think four and two is a very fair bar to set. And I agree with you that we don't know how to evaluate the situation in Detroit because it might be one where both teams play their starters for a half, but the playoff situation is already set, or they might have to win that game to try to hold off Green Bay for playoff position, or they might not care about number five or number six seed and how they match up against those teams in the first round. So that's yet to be all figured out. But I think that this kind of turns the conversation into what do you worry about? And if you're looking at those quarterbacks that are coming up, the receivers who are coming up, uh, Arizona, I think is going to be a very motivated team after the way that they kind of

know showed in Seattle and their offense didn't work very effectively against that Seattle defense going out to Seattle is tricky, but they also have good receivers. Atlanta has good receivers. And if there was one thing I came away with chicago going oh i don't know about that uh to channel a little tony romo i don't know jim uh it's really the secondary still remains the concern when they play against teams with really good receivers because keenan allen was able to make plays against them roma dunze dj moore that he was tough to tackle for them. And we saw the Rams with Puka Nakua. We're going to throw some bubble screens. We saw Amin Ross St. Brown.

We're going to throw these screens, and we're going to force you to play wider than you want to play or not blitz as many people as you want to blitz. And the other thing, too, to watch is Ivan Pace Jr. and his health with his hamstring. He is such a key blitzer. I think I'm a little more concerned about him than even Cam Robinson. is Ivan Pace Jr. and his health with his hamstring. He is such a key blitzer. I think I'm a little more concerned about him than even Cam Robinson, but that's a big one too.

If Cam Robinson's not at 100%, they might have to go to the rookie Walter Rouse down the stretch. And so there is some worries there. But what would be your biggest concern as they go into this? Games at home, but games against tough opponents well definitely stability at left tackle and it certainly helps that they're going to be at home the next three weeks so you're not going to have a crowd you know a crowd potentially seeping into the ears of a rookie who's taking over or a journeyman veteran in quizzenberry who might not be able to to handle uh pressure of four. So that does concern me a bit.

But you mentioned the defense. It's been that way all season. The secondary, I mean, when there are gaps, there are big gaps. When there are leaks, there are gushing leaks. And that's certainly a byproduct of the aggressiveness with which Brian Flores likes to scheme and likes to bring defensive backs up to the line, keep quarterbacks guessing. You know, there's times yesterday where Andrew Van Ginkle looked like he was going to have Caleb Williams for lunch, and Williams was able to get away from that and evade that pressure

as the number one overall pick would, because he's multi-talented. Now you're going to have Murray, you're going to have Geno Smith, you're going to have Jordan Love again, you're going to have Williams again. Jared Goff may be a statue, but, man, he is a productive statue. He's playing at his highest level. So that's where I would worry a bit is the gaps in the secondary, the impact with pace because that was a nasty-looking hamstring injury when he had basically the entire pile fall on him.

And you know how those hamstring injuries are. They can look good for five minutes, and then you're gone for six weeks. So that's something to obviously keep an eye on. But what I really want to see is how they're able to try to keep the defense off the field. I mean, it helped a little bit more yesterday. The Vikings were able to control the ball, especially later a lot more. But there have been a lot of games this season where there have been stretches, whether it's because of penalties or turnovers or just random three and outs,

where the defense is on the field a lot in very high pressure, high leverage situations. That has a cumulative effect throughout the season. And where is that defense going to be in weeks 15, 16, and 17 compared to where they were four, five, and six? Because again, you have veterans, you know, you got Jonathan Bernard, you got Harrison Smith, you got Stephon Gilmore. There are a lot of miles on these bodies. They know how to keep enough bullets in the chamber to preserve themselves. But again, these are things that they add up over time. So I think health and fatigue on both sides of the ball, fatigue on the defensive side of the ball, you know, making sure you're protected on the back end if you're going all in on the

aggressive, the blitz front. But also, what is that level going to be like going into those last couple games and into the postseason? How much pressure are the Vikings going to keep putting on that defense? It cracked last season. They've got a much better quarterback and a much more diverse offense. They should be able to control the clock more. We didn't even talk about Aaron Jones kind of getting off the schneid after being banged up a couple of days.

He gets over 100 yards. That was very helpful and promising to see as well so those are the issues that concern me but i think they're equipped uh again to play complementary ball where that might not come into play okay one more question for you uh and i just to follow up uh i think sometimes down the stretch here they're gonna going to have to score 30 points. And they've got the players around Sam Darnold to do it. He's playing like he can do it. Kevin O'Connell's drawn up the passing routes to do it.

Sam Darnold, when using play action, dominated the Chicago Bears and is the second best quarterback using play action all year long behind only Jared Goff, which I think says a lot about the coaching and Kevin O'Connell's ability to find people open and play to the strengths of Sam Darnold and his downfield passing and all those things. But they're probably going to have to score. And that's the reality of the NFL today is that even when you have a great defense, it's never perfect. The 49ers had the third best defense in the league by points last year. They go into the playoffs and they had to beat the Lions by the Lions beating themselves,

but also by scoring a bunch of points. That was how they got to the Super Bowl. They had to outscore the Packers. They had to outscore the Lions. They didn't get there just by giving up three points and then going into the Super Bowl. That's not football in 2024. But as far as entertainment value to this season, Murph, funsies, where do you put this one? Where do you put this season in comparison to years past in that entertainment

value bucket? I think they're the most well-balanced entertaining once a decade type, maybe they can make a run type seasons that we seem to see. You could argue two years ago, we talked ad nauseum about what a honeymoon season that was, not only for your rookie head coach, but the horseshoes that rained down, the golden horseshoes that rained down on that team winning all those one-score games in probably the comebacks, the cousins play. But there was never a sense of this is a team winning all those one-score games in probably the comebacks, the cousins play.

But there was never a sense of this is a team that can get hot and really roll through. It felt like a blessed team that struck midnight, maybe a little bit too early. Maybe they should have gone farther that season. But I didn't sense that they were a team that was complimentary enough to run the table. This one feels that way. I'm not saying they're going to be able to even get out of their own division if they end up matched up against Detroit. But I feel better against them matching up against Philadelphia

than I would have a couple of years ago, certainly six, seven years ago, when they ultimately got to the NFC Championship game in Philadelphia and were playing blessed football. But again, it was more lightning in a bottle with Case Keenum. You had a great defense that suddenly wasn't when it mattered the most. I don't sense this team is unbalanced like that. They lose their great rookie kicker. And then what do they do? They sign a guy off the street from the UFL, and what does all of a sudden do?

They make every kick except one extra point, including an overtime winner. So I feel like they're more balanced. But I also don't know if they're going to be able to win shootout games against Philly, against Detroit. Even if they, you know, are they going to be able to win a shootout game against Green Bay? Maybe at home. Anything can happen at Lambeau. I just feel like this is a team that I'm still not sure we've seen their best game yet. I still think it's coming.

And maybe it comes in January. Maybe it comes a little bit early and they can't get it done in January. But I would say among the teams that have made the NFC Championship game or made good playoff runs the last 15 years, I feel better about this team than I did the 2017 or 2022 teams. Not quite there with 2009 yet because that was the far factor, but I do feel like this is a team that's pretty talented on both sides of the ball and is figuring out ways to win. And we're kind of watching the maturation and growth of Sam Darnold

as the Vikings mature and grow as well. And he may peak in week 18 or week 17. He may peak in January. I think this team still hasn't peaked yet. And I think that's what we're going to see over these next six weeks. But also, you know, anything can happen in the playoffs. I don't like a one-on-one matchup with Detroit, but maybe somebody upsets Detroit and they don't have to worry about Detroit in January.

Too many weird things tend to happen in one game elimination. So I think they're in a great position to just keep adding to their resume, both Darnold, both Flores, and the rest of their team. They just seem to be gaining confidence week by week because they're finding different ways to win. It doesn't feel perfect. It doesn't feel random. I think that's the biggest thing.

And if Detroit wasn't doing what they're doing, you would be looking around and go, who's clearly better? Philadelphia is making their case, but who's clearly better? There's not many teams. So I think that's what it is for me is 2022 just felt so random. It felt like schedule driven.

It felt like opposing teams just giving them victories that they didn't deserve. And I haven't thought it was that way this time around, but we'll track the entire thing through its entirety with Monday morning Murph each week. So thank you as always for your time. And we will do it again next week and everybody, make sure you go purpleinsider.com and read Murph's column. Thanks Murph.

All right. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Let's, let's answer some questions. What's on your mind? I know you guys have been leaving comments, so I'll scroll through them and get to a lot of your questions here over the next half hour or so and continue the conversation.

But 12 wins. That's the new bar for me is 12 wins. If you get there, it is a wildly successful season, and it's always been the bar for me is 12 wins. If you get there, it is a wildly successful season. And it's always been the bar for me for Superbowl competitors that when you go through history, there are very few Superbowl contenders who go, who reached the Superbowl, who won fewer than 12 games or had less than a hundred point differential. So that's the goal. The Vikings certainly could have helped their point differential this week. Had they covered a kick? They did not cover a kick. That's part of it. Their point differential is good. It's right on track for them to still be a plus 100 team, but you have to go into the playoffs, reaching those bars, or I'm going to

think, ah, you're a pretty long shot. If you do reach those levels, then it can get pretty random in the playoffs. It sort of means you've got just as good a chance as anybody. Naturally, the top seed is going to have the best chance. Teams that run away with the point differential are going to have the best chance, like Detroit, but you're right in the mix. If you end up with an 11- six season and you're plus 48,

unlikely that you're a real contender. Once you get deep into the playoffs, another key number is expected points added through the past, by the way. And the Vikings are currently seventh in the NFL and expected points added through the past, which is a good number. I mean, you have to be in the top five to seven in order to be considered a Superbowl contender. And that's where they are right now. T6 says, I truly believe we would have beat Detroit with Cashman. We were so close and he would have helped cover a lot of those middle of the field throws. Yeah. I mean, they're just a better team with Blake Cashman and they weren't as complicated that game. I felt like they weren't as confusing.

They didn't switch as many things in the pre-snap, make as many adjustments because you just can't do that as well without Blake Cashman. He is a tremendously talented player, not just in terms of his physical skill but also his mental ability to shift things around i also think that the dynamic between him and pace you saw yesterday they were missing something with pace out so he needs to be healthy as well and they need to have that duo because cashman can move people around can drop back in coverage can stop the run and pace is just a ball of fire running at the backfield on seeming like every play bouncing off pinballing off people and kamu gruge hill is a veteran he's been around the league but it's just not the same in terms of the violence of the player

that ivan pace brings you his health is going to be a big deal going forward. Jackie says, I think we go four and two in the next six games. We're playing at home in four of the next six and in one of the toughest environments in the league. Four and two is not unrealistic. You just sort of figure that similar to the Rams game, that there's going to be one where things just don't go your way. The other team has a good strategy or they complete some passes that are surprising to you, like with Puka Nakua,

or they have the right matchup for you or whatever. And there's teams that are coming to U.S. Bank Stadium with that. It wouldn't be stunning if the Bears beat them the next time, because look how close they were. Look how talented they are. Look at the receivers they have. They always play the Vikings tough and that might happen, or you might lose to Arizona this week because they're really upset about their last loss. And they know that they're going to fall out of the playoff race with another loss. They're very motivated coming to Minnesota. They have a good quarterback. So yeah, it can happen at home. They haven't been since O'Connell took over or even just in general, they haven't been this untouchable home team, but nine and two, it is a noon game.

I think the atmosphere will be really, really good. This is not a situation where there's going to be a lot of Arizona Cardinal fans showing up in December in Minnesota, I think. So this will be an entirely purple, uh, U S bank stadium could be very, very loud. They're nine and two. Uh, yeah, I mean, you're right. The home field advantage part of it. The fact that they're nine and two with so few games at home is really, really impressive. Uh, must Sir says Metellus has been disappointing this year. Last year was great. Right now he's just been all right, has some missed tackles. It does feel like last year there were more splash plays from him. There were more interceptions, fumbles caused. It felt like he was having one almost every single game and blake cashman has been a little more of that player that's that's dynamic in the middle of the

field yeah generally i would agree that it hasn't been the same level of impact but when you look at the whole defense just as a unit and how complex they're able to be because of Josh Metellus. This is how those positions work sometimes and why they're so hard to grade by PFF and things like that is sometimes it goes your way and you make the impact plays. He had what? A couple interceptions, get a couple of fumbles that were caused. I think he did cause that fumble against the lions and maybe you make a lot of tackles underneath because that's where they're throwing the football and sometimes it doesn't go that way, but he is, I think he had more pressures last year, but he is still a big part of the overall deception. If they're sending pace more and

they're sending Cashman more, he's probably blitz less. I'd have to check that, but it feels like he's blitz less than last season. It's hard to have too many complaints about the defense in general. I just think that that's been part of the thing with Josh Metellus. You probably forget about other times where, yeah, he was beating coverage here, there for last season because he was making so many game turning plays. And that hasn't been quite the case this year. Uh, Junt 22 says this feels different. Uh, it does feel different than any other season that I've covered. Uh, definitely that, uh, because with 2017, I thought there were so many questions about case Keenum and it was

really about one guy this year. There has been questions about Sam Darnold at times, but it wasn't, it wasn't the same because Keenum truly was lucking out with some of those games and some of those throws. He was heaving balls up into the atmosphere and they were coming down in the hands of Diggs and Thielen and Rudolph. And I don't see that from Sam Darnold. That's even comparing it to the best season I've covered. And it feels different from 22 for the reasons that we outlined. But the main reason just being that it never felt real in 22, never because they had such a flawed defense. They didn't make a change at defensive coordinator, which is probably the biggest mistake of Kevin O'Connell's career as a head coach that he should have made it a change at DC in the middle of that season. When he realized like,

this is just not working with the system that they were trying to play. And then it got too late when you're giving up 400 yards, every single game, that was the time to do it. First year coach, maybe he would have done it now but the defense and offense both being very strong that's different from what we've seen in the past where it might be 2016 you know the defense is kind of carrying them and then eventually that comes apart the offensive line if you look at how pff has graded their blocking this year, running and passing, they've been a top 10 offensive line. It hasn't been Philadelphia, but it's been better than in the past when you just always thought,

well, okay, but if they get the wrong matchup, someone's blowing through your guard and you just lose, right? That just hasn't been something that's happened this year outside of the right guard. And then they make that change to Dalton Rising. So we'll see about the left tackle and the situation there, though. Brett with the Super Chat. Thank you so much, Brett, for the Super Chat.

Really appreciate it. Brett says, thanks for the content. Love having the videos or the the vikings related videos to watch that bears podcast you did last week was really good i did like three of them so i'm not sure which one maybe it was uh with courtney or robert bays uh it's look i i have so much fun just covering the team in general but this for me talking it through with you guys each week on chats like this has been also really fun. And I feel like there have been times where I've had to kind of pick you guys up like, hey, you guys realize after the Rams loss, they do play four straight bad teams and the season is not over.

But also very, very thoughtful comment sections and just, you know, great questions, great comments, great reactions from all of you. So I can't tell you how fun it's been. I mean, really going back, think about last season ends. We all know that it's going to be a quarterback in the draft and all the discussions we've had together since I started doing these live shows. The draft night live show is still, I think the second highest video in terms of views for the year

because so many people popped in to talk about the draft on draft night. I don't think next year's it's going to do quite as well. But, you know, the OTAs, minicamp, the build on this thing, watching it slowly come together. And then through those first five weeks saying,

or even through training camp saying, wait, am I really seeing this right? Sam Darnold looks pretty darn good. And then he plays in the preseason. It looks pretty darn good in the preseason. And then in week one, okay, no big mistakes and some big plays and look at the cannon and okay, is this, is this going to be a thing and and it just builds and it builds and it builds and the journey of an nfl season for an individual team like this that's overachieving is a fascinating thing to cover and i always try to put myself in different situations to see if i can view it differently right like if Like if the Vikings had an over under of nine and a half this year,

would we be questioning them as much as we have throughout the season? Or would the outside world be questioning them? If Sam Darnold had played the full 2022 season without Matt Rule and then been good here with the Vikings, of course you never get him for 10 million bucks if that's the case.

If he had a bigger sample in the past, would we just assume that this is who he was, but it was only six games and no one saw them. I went back and watched them, but no one saw those six games that he played in Carolina and how well he did in some of them. And then had some stinkers there as well, but no one kind of saw that. No one watched the game he played in San Francisco last year against the Rams. I went back and looked at that training camp another part of that is i got to go to training camp each day and see this thing come together and started to buy into this idea that it could happen whereas you go to a practice or two that might be it one pre-season game so i had this sample size built up of seeing darnarnold in person and going, there's a lot of talent to work with there.

And so maybe I believe in it a little bit more than that because I'm considering the bigger sample and what I've seen up close. But the whole discussion of, is this really going to be a thing? Are they really going to be this good? How do they bounce back from those two bad games? Where do they go from here? Can they win 13? It's been great. It's been a lot of fun. So I appreciate all of you who watch, tell your friends, um, the sponsors for the show someday died. Dr. Pepper, uh, K-Max says if the best team in the NFL didn't beat them badly, they're a damn good team. Well, that's true.

Yes. And it was at home, and they did have to kind of return a fumble for touchdown late in that game. But they played with the Detroit Lions right there, neck and neck in that game. They needed a third down and four conversion. They didn't get it. Jordan Addison, who's been much more dialed in lately was not on

that play. And there was some confusion. They ended up giving up the game winning drive. But when you look at how Detroit has played as an overall team this year and you go, okay, you lost by two. Well, that doesn't make you want to walk away from the season and never watch them again. It makes you think if that's a playoff matchup, the familiarity there is crazy between these two coaches, between Campbell and Kevin O'Connell. Campbell's been there the whole time. Ben Johnson's been there the whole time. Brian Flores, the last two years,

they kind of have Brian Flores' number, but what does he have up his sleeve? All these storylines, it feels like there's a collision course, Vikings and lions in a divisional round game. And when you lose by two points, it doesn't make you think they have no chance, but they've got to be healthy. It depends on how both teams are playing. It depends on the adjustments that they can make all those things, but it certainly doesn't make you think that, oh, well, you know, you're going there and you're just going to fall apart and lose. Clifford says, I think Darnold is only going to get better. He took a year off

to really learn how to be in the NFL. Now he's getting experience with a real NFL head coach. Some team is going to get a franchise quarterback. Well, we're not really there yet as far as the answer, because if they beat the Detroit lions in the divisional round of the playoffs next year and go to the NFC championship with Sam Darnold, it's going to be very, very hard to say, okay, goodbye, Sam Darnold. Uh, and you look at Tampa Bay and they decided to keep Mayfield and Gino Smith sticking around with Seattle. Those guys signed short-term contracts with their teams after having the kind of breakout, Hey, I'm actually a pretty good quarterback type of year. And Darnold might be more talented than both of them overall, just in terms of raw ability. And

he has a better situation than most. My guess is that the front office has two different plans. One of them is, all right, if we move on, if you win 12 games and you lose in the wildcard round, okay, there's your choice and great season by Darnold and enjoy being a Las Vegas Raider or whatever it's going to be. Or maybe a Carolina Panther. No, wait. Now they're going to stick with Bryce Young after what they've seen recently. But you know what I mean? Whoever that he signs with.

A New York Giant. How about that? Back to New York for Sam Darnold. The worst possible idea. If they go to the NFC Championship, though, there might be a different path that they have to take. And it's going to depend on the salary cap. They're going're, they're going to have to build something and it's a little bit different. And the thing is that Jefferson and Hawkinson and Addison,

Darisol will come back. O'Neill, all these things are going to be there for him for next season, but it would hold you back from signing that $18 million guard. It would hold you back from signing another corner. You don't have a lot of draft capital. It becomes tricky. It really does become tricky if they want to bring him back, if he plays well enough to make an argument. But one thing you could do is franchise tag and then plan to go to McCarthy the year after. I don't know where we have reached the point though, where if it's relationship status, old school, Facebook, it's complicated is where we've reached though. After that bears game, I'm at it's complicated because that was really freaking

good quarterback play. That was no joke. And that defense is no joke. And that defensive mind, Matt Eberflus is no joke. That stadium is no joke. And to go out there and go six for six after a sack and two penalties and win that game. I mean, that was, that was big time. That was big time quarterback play that makes you buy into that's a real quarterback more than, oh, well, that's kind of an aberration that Kevin O'Connell is, has just juiced up or the receivers have just juiced up or the receivers have just juiced up. The throw he made to Jordan Addison is disgusting. It's unbelievable. So there's so much talent there that it's hard not to think, well, if he goes so far, if he takes you so far,

then there's no way to just tell Sam Darnold to take a hike when he's the proven commodity and the other guy's not proven. Rob says, should teams back off triple teaming Jefferson knowing we have two other receivers that could put up a hundred? I think if you're Sam Darnold, you're thinking, that's okay. You can keep doing that. Should they, you just, there's no easy option against the Vikings. That's what you trade for Hawkinson and draft Addison for is a couple of years ago, a guy who now works in the league wrote an article, Eric Eager, about the importance of number three wide receivers and how he looked historically at the impact, especially in playoffs of having secondary receiving options number two number three receivers i will just count hawkinson as a

number three wide receiver it's what his usage kind of suggests he's just a tough number three wide receiver because he does go downfield and it was more correlated to success with the number two and three than it even was the number one, because you're always going to get the ball forced there. You're always going to have teams doing everything they can to try to take away that number one. But if you can make them pay, then it is worth its weight in gold. And they were doing it pretty well without Hawkinson. But if we replay the games, Vikings in Detroit with Hawkinson in Vikings against LA with Hawkinson. But if we replay the games, Vikings in Detroit with Hawkinson in Vikings against LA with Hawkinson in, I mean, maybe some of those drives go longer. Maybe you have fewer three

and outs. Maybe you are extending a little bit more. It's that valuable. It is that valuable to the offense. So if teams want to keep doing it, then keep throwing to the other guys, try to get Jefferson as touches where you can, but also you don't want it forced in there. And there were just, it was a great game from Justin Jefferson, 35 yard pass interference down the sideline. Third down, he makes a great in cut, gets grabbed pass interference. He's blocking out there. He makes the 20 yard catch at the end.

When you watch it back, you go, okay, this guy was all over the field. It just didn't work out to get receptions. And he probably, I don't think he catches a 40 yard touchdown. If Brandon Powell doesn't act like he's Dennis Rodman out there setting a physical pick, but he still is open, I'm guessing, and would have made a big reception on that play. So Jefferson will still get his receptions, even if other teams are trying to do that to him. It was just under these circumstances, the big plays were there for the other guys. So Sam Darnold did the right thing. There was also a great play by a Bears linebacker. Darnold was rolling out, scrambling, and just whipped it to Jefferson. Jefferson was right there, ready to catch it.

Bears linebacker dove full out and just got a fingernail on it. It would have been probably a 15-yard catch. It just didn't work out for that game, but it will. He'll get his catches still. I think opposing teams over the rest of the schedule are really going to have it tough with the way that TJ Hawkinson is playing right now and Jordan Addison. Matt says, Caleb Williams really impressed me.

That run on fourth down, he's going to be a problem for many years for the Vikings. The NFC North is going to be a grinder for years to come. Yes, it is, which might shape the way that they decide to handle the quarterback position and i'm not sure which way i think that means like darnold can make plays with anybody that's what makes this hard if this was jacoby brissett you'd go oh well good year, Jacoby Brissett, and best of luck to you because there's no upside. This, there is a lot of upside, it seems, to Darnold. I mean, eight, wait, no, is it nine? Nine out of 11 games over 100 quarterback rating?

That is ceiling. That is high upside. Jeff says this team would destroy the 2022 team. Well, yeah, if the current Vikings played the 2022 team, Jefferson, they wouldn't cover anybody. So Jefferson would end up with 180 yards, Addison, 150, Hawkinson, 110. They'd throw for 400 yards. That team could not stop anything.

And if you're talking about the difference, that's the difference is that that team couldn't stop a thing. And they played backup quarterbacks left and right. Skylar Thompson, Teddy, Mike White, Taylor Heineke. This team has played real quarterbacks, even for mediocre teams. But still, Will Levis is a top draft pick who's very talented and just had a great game. He's their starter. He's their real quarterback.

And okay, Mac Jones. Yeah, that was a backup. They got away with that. That was the melt. He's their real quarterback. And okay. Mack Jones. Yeah, that was, that was a backup. They got away with that. That was the meltdown game. They got away with. That was the one they got away with. Cause if Trevor Lawrence is the quarterback and they play like that, they probably lose. That's the only one all season where I could say, well, they got away with it. Uh, Jason says bold prediction lines lose two of the next four games, Buffalo and Chicago beats them. Chicago beating them would be tough, but Buffalo beating them is possible. Hey, if Buffalo beats them and the Vikings win against Arizona and Atlanta, I mean, you got yourself a race. I haven't counted that out yet. I have not counted out the idea that it could be a race

and Detroit's not perfect though. They had their meltdown with the five interceptions and they found a way to win their, their defense maybe could be had. They haven't really had teams test them. I watched back a little of the Anthony Richardson game. The guy played really well and they dropped passes and they committed penalties and all sorts of stuff, but there were open receivers. Detroit's defense feels a little bit fragile. They've had some injuries over there, uh, that Buffalo and Chicago might be able to take advantage of. No, I, I think that they've got something in there for another loss or two, the rest of the season. But I also think that the Vikings probably do too. Sean says Detroit one, Minnesota two, Green Bay three, Philly four,

until Philly shows how they respond to good teams. Baltimore and Pittsburgh, sure. Saquon is MVP covering holes. Well, you know, that is another point is that if you're going to have Saquon Barkley need to run for 250 yards all the time, but they have also blown some of these teams out. The fact that they've done that and the Vikings do have some pretty good wins on their resume. It's very close. One, two, three, four is very close. There is a extremely clear

top four and then down. Now, right here, this, this one, I love this comment because this is getting funnier and funnier by the week that people are hanging on to total BS like this. Tyson says, KOC play calling is hot dog water trash. You got to show your work show your work how about this first that when sam darnold is running play action this year he has 137 quarterback rating who do you think is responsible for calling those play actions and designing them and setting them up they've run the ball so much better this year than they have in the past. They are distributing the football to multiple weapons, creating explosive plays left and right. They have a top seven expected points added passing.

And the quarterback whose career rating was 78 this year is a hundred. You're going to have to show me some proof that the guy can't call plays because that seems like pretty good. I think there's a difference between there's two or three plays per game where you go, did you kind of lose your mind a little bit there? Or you got a little too cute. Too cute has been a thing we've used in the past.

I think people have a really tough time accepting that their core their coach is just great their coach your coach is really good you got used to in the past you could question everything mike zimmer did and you could have a good day on the coach or on the couch you could sit there on the couch and go zimmer's punting again idiot and you had a good day for you because he would it'd be a dumb pun and then they give up a score and they blow a lead to a bad team or something and you could i told you ah yeah this guy this guy should be coaching the team not him koc makes that pretty hard on you all he's done is win when he's at his starting quarterbacks when he's at his starting quarterbacks.

When he's at his starting quarterbacks healthy, what's KOC's record right now? 4-4 last year, 13-4, 9-2. I mean, when Kirk got hurt, they were the seventh best scoring offense from the time he took over till the day he got hurt. So let me do some math. So that's 13 and two with starting quarterback in or 13, well, 13 and six plus 13 and four is 20. Help me out. Somebody are they 26 and eight? No, that can't be right. 20 to 10, 26 and 10 with the starting quarterback with chaos.

He's your coach. I guess he must be a bad play caller though. You know, who's a good play caller is probably you. You're you're the really good play caller. Probably. I just don't get that criticism. I think it sounds senseless. It sounds like where is any evidence of this? 26 and 10 with the starting quarterback playing? I don't know. You're really lacking in evidence there. Really lacking in evidence. I mean, that's what, you know, Daniel, of course, stepping in a predictable play calling

has gotten Darnold his best season. Doesn't look predictable to me when receivers are wide open. I don't know. Sometimes from occasionally during this season, I have specific plays where I can go back to and say, you know what? Fourth and one, do you need to go empty? Probably not. To have no option of running the football at all.

No fear of running the football at all. And then you're forcing Darnold to, and then you're not running any flat routes there, which I think is what you do on that situation. Remember when Chad Henney threw on fourth down for a first down, it's you put somebody in the slot, you run a little flat route and just catch, get the ball right to him, get a yard. Like that's a better idea than having guys run hitches, six yards, seven yards down the field. They tried to run a little pick play, I think on the left side and it didn't really work. And that was what threw Darnold off. It was the routes on the left side. He probably should have just scrambled and dove forward for

a first down on that play, but you can, you can question that. Of course you can. I went berserk when they didn't run the football of 28 to seven against green Bay. And they're in field goal range with the best kicker in the league. Just hand off, go up 31-7, start packing the bags. All of us can do that without making some big statement that the man can't call play. Look, just watch another football game around the league. See if your first-round wide receiver and tight end are just wide open, running for 70 yards or running for 30

or 40 yards over and over again. I don't know. I think you just got a really, really good coach to build around for a long time. And maybe that's hard to deal with. Maybe that is hard to like wrap the brain around. Like, is this really happening? No, no, he must be bad at uh play con that's what he's bad at there's no evidence of it but you know it's got to be something right uh sean says i know he's a rookie but uh what about dwight mcglothern he has the speed to keep up not really a burner uh for mcglothern that wasn't really his thing coming out of college he's more of a playmaker, more of really good at making plays on the football when it comes his way. But no, that's not a guy that's going to do it. He's not going to be the one they bring in unless they have to. As much as I like him,

it's for Brian Flores, we see this with Dallas Turner. He's just not going to lean on young players. If he had to last year with Ivan Pace, cause he was the best option. Then of course he had to, he had no one else to put in and pace was exceptional and probably beyond his years in terms of football instincts and they could put them in the right position. But for the most part, if they have veteran players, it's complicated. There's a lot going on. They're going to play them and they've really shown no interest whatsoever in rotating anybody. It's Gilmore and Murphy out there for every play and Griffin comes in sometimes and that's it. Scott says it's nonsense to believe a rookie quarterback could win 13 games or more,

but still agree correct path next year in all likelihood is a regression. Yeah. I'm not thinking too much about what their record is going to be next year. I don't even know who they're playing, but as far as like JJ McCarthy and the expectations, what this year makes you believe is that whatever the best version of JJ McCarthy is, is what he's going to be because of his circumstances. And when you say it's nonsense, okay, I feel you, but the San Francisco 49ers had the Jimmy Garoppolo to the Brock Purdy. And that's kind of the model that you've built here. When you look at how they used all their weapons and got the football into the hands of all their weapons and maximize what their

quarterbacks can do. That's what the Vikings have been able to build. There's no rule that you couldn't run into two good quarterbacks. I mean, the same goes for the Green Bay Packers with Jordan Love. They went from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love. They kept winning because they're a very sound organization without a cuckoo owner and a really good offensive coach. And then they put weapons around the guy and he has success. And that's what they would be hoping for with JJ McCarthy. 13 wins is a tough bar to reach. Yeah. And if you, well, they won't have a first place schedule most likely. So if they went 12 and have a second place schedule, but that's getting too far down the road the general thing that they're going to

have to answer at some point as it gets uncomfortably good for sam darnold is do you think you can repeat this what they saw in jj mccarthy he was making things very, very interesting in training camp. So if he was on the practice field, making things very, very interesting with Sam Darnold, who's had a great year, you could conclude that they might think that they could repeat it with him. 12 and 13 win seasons are hard to repeat. I do agree with that. Jeff says, can any defense consistently shut down a good passing game? Don't those games come down to turnovers? win seasons are hard to repeat. I do agree with that. Jeff says, can any defense consistently shut down a good passing game? Don't those games come down to turnovers? Individual game, that stuff can happen. Weather can happen. Lots of different things can happen. Lots of different things can happen in a single game. A good defense can shut down a great passing game in a single game. Over a hundred games,

no. The most repeatable thing is going to be passing. That's just the most valuable thing is passing offense. And when you have this many weapons, it's really only turnovers. It's really only big mistakes that can cost you. Because for the most part, if you have this many weapons, it's really only turnovers. It's really only big mistakes that can cost you because for the most part, if you have this many weapons running around, there's just no team that has enough players to be able to stop them. 32 teams. There's not enough talent on most defenses. And when we look at the NFC and teams that they might play and even teams that they have down the stretch, well, who's got an elite defense that you're terrified of? Detroit's been pretty good. San Francisco hasn't been the same. Tampa Bay is pretty good on defense. I think they're a good defense.

Maybe even a little bit better than that at times this season, but they've also had their mistakes. There isn't a defense that you look at and go, whoa, man, what would the Vikings do against them? The Bears might be a better defense than anybody they're going to play going forward. I would have to cross-check that statement, but they're close, right? The Bears defense. Scott says,

Hawkinson can ruin games for defenses doing this. He had 120 targets in 2023. Yeah, I mean, you just can't understate how important it's been or overstate how important he's been. Randall says, good news, bad news,

bad news. The offense and defense never play great in the same game. Oh, that's not true. Randall. That's not true. Good news is that when one is bad, the other covers,

that's not true. They've had games like that this year where they've both played well. I mean, I would have said yesterday, if not for the kick return and then the onside kick that they both played well. Houston is a game. San Francisco is a game. Green Bay, they played really well. Green Bay, they played really well for most of the game. And then it was just at the end, a bunch of crazy stuff, a bunch of like wild throws from Jordan love. They were playing kind of not to lose there, but they had a good defensive game before that. So yeah, no, I think they've had complete games this year. Kai says we have things to work on

and I'm fine. If most consider us not in elite category, that's better than people doubt us. I will take this squad against anyone. We just need to complete games. They do. They do need to complete games for goodness sake. Um, they, they do each week. They have played around with these teams. They have let them hang around. They've made just silly mistakes, fumbling at the goal line, stuff like that. It just did things that should not happen to let team. I mean, they could have put Chicago away pretty quickly yesterday, score a touchdown early,

score a touchdown again. And that you're, you're talking about starting to run away with that game and putting them in desperation mode. And they didn't do that. That's been the most frustrating part of these last few games. The same with Jacksonville score a couple of touchdowns there, start up the plane, go home. And it's, ah, there's an interception. It's been the kind of big mistake, Indianapolis. There's the interception that lets them score and lets them hang around. There's the fumble that goes for a touchdown that obviously should have been a penalty, but still, uh, you know, those, those

catastrophic miscues have been something that under O'Connell's era, maybe because he plays aggressively, or I don't know if there's another explanation for the fumbles since he's been the head coach is that the last two years, they feel like they've fumbled a lot. That's, I mean, the pitch, the two pitches being fumbled this year, the fumble at the goal line, the fumble against San Francisco, so many opportunities to put teams away,

and it's been fumbles and picks. If you don't do that, I mean, what are the scores of the games if they don't have silly fumbles? That's what I mean by they've outplayed other teams by a lot this year by more than even the score is reflecting but they've had silly mistakes like giving up a kick return david says o'connell has to continue to get a better feel in short yardage situations in the red area is it feel or is it they just don't have the push to hand it off and run it in how easy was it to be norv turner when you had uh adrian peterson or when you had just for example in norv turner in the 90s with emmett smith and

their offensive line well with the goal line What do I do as a play caller? Emmitt Smith, touchdown. Okay. Not quite the same as Dalton Reisner. Blake Brandle is up and down from week to week, depending on the matchup. They just don't have that easy button to push. So you have to dial up something, which needs to be executed on multiple levels by multiple players. And that just becomes a little more tricky, just a little bit more tricky to do, but you're right. I mean, the short yardage stuff, they lean on the past probably too much.

And that, however, the numbers, I looked this up maybe two weeks ago, so it might've changed a bit, but they were in the middle of the league in short yardage. And I looked third down in three or less fourth down in three or less middle of the week. We watch every game from the same team. So every failed fourth down is like, let's criticize it. But every other fan base watches their team miss a fourth down and go, wait, wait, why did the coach call that play? It's just that I think we microanalyze to the point where we lose bigger perspective.

That's why I try to focus on the statistics and what they say. So I agree with you that getting too cute has been a consistent issue. And fourth and one was probably that yesterday. And the trick plays luckily haven't showed up again. Very often. I got, I got a feeling it's Arizona. There's going to be some trick plays coming out and maybe they'll pull off a

big one at some point. But aside from that, aside from a few times where you're going, we'll put this team away, but you're up 28 to seven on green Bay. Am I supposed to say the guy to the coach, right? Doesn't know what they're doing. They're only up. They screwed up when they're up 28 to seven on green Bay. Am I supposed to say the guy to the coach right? Doesn't know what they're doing. They're only up. They screwed up when they were up 28 to seven. Uh, Edwin said is, is a Dallas Turner going to play more the rest of the season? He's so fast.

Yeah. The way he ran down the guy was remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. Is he going to play more? I don't think so. I, what it appears to me on tape that they are doing is they are trying to create the next Andrew Van Ginkle with Dallas Turner. He is a very unique talent. He can cover, he can rush, he's smart, he's motivated. But Andrew Van Ginkle took several years to be that you have Andrew Van Ginkle on a couple of your contract. So you create another player that is a copy of him, only a faster copy, but it's not going to happen this year because you're not subbing out. Certainly not subbing out Jonathan Grenard. You're not subbing out, certainly not subbing out Jonathan Grenard. You're not subbing out Andrew Van Ginkle to put him in for 40 or 50 snaps. Don says, I'd much rather go into the playoffs,

potentially with the team getting little respect and taken lightly. KOC does a great job of keeping them hungry. They have not been a part of the discussion at all nationally. They're not even the cute story. They're just not a story at all. So you're right.

This is the least controversial team in football. The biggest controversy is for fantasy freaks who are mad at Justin Jefferson for last week. That's the biggest controversy that there is. Purple Kool-Aid said, Donald still holds the ball way too long, especially when we play playoff defenses will struggle. Depends on the playoff defense. Depends on who it is. They've done a good job of past protection. This is another part of the KOC philosophy. The quarterback has to hang in the pocket and let these routes develop. And when they do, and they hit that route that Jordan Addison is running, he goes all the way across the field from one side to another.

Takes a while. So he's going across, across, and Darnold's got to hang in. And he's got to wait for that. And sometimes that results in sacks, but they're going to hunt the big plays at the same time. Darnold has done a much better job recently of not hanging on to the ball as long i think and the fact that he can make plays also adds to his ability to do that that when finally they start to close in on him he can escape and scramble out of the pocket. It's a, it's a yin and yang with guys like that. It really is hang into the pocket too long, but also come up with big plays,

right? It's just that, that that's what you have to give up something to get something in the NFL. If you want to run a short pass offense, but never hit big plays, well, you can do that and you can get the ball out of his hands quickly, but you're not going to hit the downfield throws. So what KOC wants to do is run play actions, long developing routes,

and Darnold is supposed to hang in and wait and wait. And he's had to be really tough. And this is how Matthew Stafford through a lot of interceptions when it came to, uh, to the 2021 season, because he was doing the same type of thing. He was staying in the pocket for a long time, ripping passes down field and also making mistakes too. And in doing that, uh, you, you give or take, um, that type of thing. That's their offensive philosophy. And when it hits, it's like it was yesterday, which is really, really effective. So anyway, uh, Oh, this, this is true. Skull Vikings, uh, the refs better call the Justin Jefferson mugging that he gets on every play. They're never going to do that.

They are never going to do that. They're never going to do that. They are never going to do that. They're never going to do it. And everyone's going to dare him to do it. Every team is going to dare the referees to call it. And Jefferson's got a way. He's just got to find a way to fight through it. Anyway, so it's going to be a fun week this week. Thanksgiving.

I'm looking forward to football, but we'll continue to do shows. I imagine we won't do a live show. Oh, I said Manny for a live show on Thursday. We might have to pre-record that one because I still want to do a show with Manny, but do you think he has a family? He probably does. Yeah, I'm guessing he does.

I didn't even think like football, just, you know. So we'll see what happens Thursday night night maybe i'll just do a live stream anyway maybe we'll connect on friday with me and manny that might be what we do we'll see i'll have to work it out i totally forgot about that anyway we'll definitely be live i'm thinking wednesday night searle's coming on alec lewis and i are going to record tomorrow so we'll have a show with him and lots to come as the Vikings nine and two racing in the playoffs. It's a good place to be for all you folks.

So thanks so much for your time as always. And we will talk to you very soon. Football.