Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Brian Murphy wants you to ride the Vikings' wave (and for them to clean some things up)

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Matthew Coller and Brian Murphy talk about Murph's take that something special is happening with this Vikings team that they keep making big plays at the biggest moments. However, he is aware that they have to get the offense going and talks about the challenge Kevin O'Connell faces in finding the answers to what has made them middling in most statistical categories.  -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider presented by Liquid Death. Go to liquiddeath.com slash insider and learn about the Tallboy can, which actually has water. Find out where you can get it near you at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. It is a Monday morning, Murph. And what is that around your head, Murph?

Is it rainbows? Is it sunshine? Is that joy steaming out of your ears instead of rage as the Vikings are 5-1? I just read your column this morning, Murph, at Purple Insider, and I am impressed at how much you are enjoying a 5-1 start for the Minnesota Vikings. In fact, the title, which I came up with, is Winning Doesn't Have to be pretty. And that is how you feel about this Vikings team. So how are you? And explain yourself. Golden horseshoes everywhere in the sky right now. Look, it would be convenient to sit here and sling arrows and call it all a fraud and say

the worst is yet to come and don't buy in. And people here have heard that at various times for so long. What I'm witnessing just seems like these are the kinds of seasons and moments that there's something else going on here. You know, there's something, whether they've earned it, whether they are earning it, whether they're setting themselves up for a collapse, an epic collapse later, things are going well for the Vikings right now. And I know that the cynic out there is going to go,

well, the other shoe is going to drop soon. It's going to drop on all of our heads. I don't know. That's very well possible. But right now, at least in the division, we can get into how viable down the road they are as a contender. They, they would, they are literally going to have to lose this division because there is nobody coming near them. And they, they're, they're getting caught, you know, they're building

confidence. They've, they're, they're getting along extremely well. They're building some camaraderie. These things are, these things are reservoirs you can tap into later when things don't go well. But if you're talking officiating, injuries, big plays at big moments, inferior opponents meeting them at the right time, either they're hounded by bad injuries or just playing awful, a bye week at the right time, two winnable games coming out of it there's no reason this team should not be seven and one going into buffalo when the real test begins so i think that there's um there's two ways to kind of look at that i mean if you go through like everything that's happened and the numbers of which i have up to kind of present here as as an argument for why

this has to improve. That's one is like this way they're playing is not sustainable. But the other way to look at it is that when you have a group that is coming together the way they are and believing in themselves and believing in their coach and believing in the direction that they laid out. I mean, they are the ones that went to ownership and said, this is the type of guy we want. We want a Kevin O'Connell in this building. And so they're like, I mean, they have plenty of reason to support him and go along with the wild ride for him. And if they want to believe that they're going to cause fumbles at the end of every game with her about to lose.

I mean, there's something to that as far as buying into what they're doing, right? Like it doesn't have to matter how it happened. The fact that they're five and one means you can believe in the coach. But then after this, things have to be coached. They have to be improved because this team right now by the expected wins and losses, they are a three and a half win team. So that's a whole win and a half below what they actually have. And they are 20th in offensive yards, 26th in defensive yards, 14th in scoring for an

11th and scoring against, which after yesterday is hilarious because of the number of times the Miami dolphins should have scored more points and didn't. Uh, and I think that anybody who understands regression understands what those numbers say about you, that they don't say you're one of the best teams in the NFL, despite your record at the same time, you don't have to just leave it that way. Right? Like they, they, the opportunity is there. Kirk cousins has been better through his career. Adam Thielen has been way better. KJ Osborne has been better. Irv Smith has been better. Like all, all of these people have an opportunity to progress as the season goes along. And if they do, they can make it a

very good season. If they don't, you're going to probably end this thing in disappointment. I think. Yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I'm bullish for where they are at the moment. I'm not bullish where they may be in January. As you mentioned, there are times on either side of the ball, whether they take too many naps, too many big plays are allowed, an inability to put an opponent down on your own terms as opposed to them giving you the hammer to kill them with it, as as the Dolphins did yesterday as the Bears kind of did the week before all of that being said you know you never have to apologize for victory in the NFL you have to explain defeat so they'd be explaining a lot there's a lot of This team is, you're right, probably should be three and three. Five and one

is a gift. I think they recognize that. It's the intangible things I kind of look, and I'm not around the team every day like you are, so I'm only picking it up on television images, postgame quotes, and vibe. And the vibe I get is that these guys are playing well for each other and they're, they're playing and they're, they seem to be enjoying the game. They seem to be enjoying this moment because they haven't been challenged or tested with major adversity yet. That's still going to come. We all know that. But right now I, the reason I'm buying in is because as you mentioned, all of these guys have had better performances

statistically, especially Kirk Cousins over the years, but I take this Kirk Cousins right now. This is the best version of, I think, as far as Kirk, not production-wise, but it's the best version of Kirk Cousins as a leader and as a producer of moments that we've seen in four years in Minnesota. So does it mean it's going to bode well in December and January? Not necessarily, but instead of explaining how they played so well and managed to lose, they're having to explain how they could be better but still keep winning. That's a great place to be. Yeah. It is an interesting narrative that cousins himself went with talking about last year, how he would come off the field and feel like they had some pretty good performances and still found a way to lose. Um, but I was trying

to look for like, what, which ones were those in the beginning of the year? There definitely were some, but they still fell way behind to Cincinnati should have won that game but fell behind Arizona they were behind for a lot of that game like I think that that's a lot of revisionist history on his part and also sort of taking the responsibility off of himself for last year like oh yeah if we could only find the guy responsible for like not finishing a couple of these games like they had the ball in Baltimore. Think about this. Like this is just the, as Kirk likes to say, the razor's edge you play with.

Last year, they're playing against Baltimore. They blow a two score lead and then they get the ball from an interception in overtime and they have this miscommunication on a third down. Kirk throws the ball to no one in Baltimore finally goes down and scores and they score 31 points in the game. One was a kick return and you could go back and be like, I don't know. I thought we played pretty well in that one. And we just blew it at the end because of our defense.

It's like, well, you had opportunities to put teams away. And this year they still haven't been putting teams away that are not good. Last year, you know, they did play, I think a harder schedule of teams that are more apt to beat you at the end. And I think that's what it's really been. Like, I don't think that necessarily there's a magical potion that's going on because the players have bought in. I think that Amir Smith-Marset who fumbledumbled the ball, was a guy who was cut in the preseason.

And I think that the Dolphins were playing a second and third string quarterback with an offensive line that could not block us. And those teams are less apt to finish you off at the end of the game. So I think that with Cousins in particular, the big deal here is that you're five and one and he hasn't played well overall. Like his whole performed body of work performance has not been anywhere close to what it's been the last three years. So if he improves and goes back to some of the numbers he's put up in the past,

then you have a better chance to face those opponents right so like you survived the bad kirk the down kirk and you get through that with five and one like that's a huge deal and so when you talk about like you don't have to give the wins back or you don't have to apologize for them and you're trying to project you should project based on his past numbers that he will be better in the future which is ironic because october is usually where he makes his hay right this is his money month uh where he puts up his big numbers where he looks like somebody that can take you deep into january until december and january come around so yes we still have that to uh to see i look at, you know, who is there one loss to?

The Philadelphia Eagles, a team that can handle anybody right now. If that's your measuring stick, then it does make your five victories look a little cheaper. But we've been saying this for a couple of weeks now. I mean, we got that three-game stretch in November that's going to tell us a lot. Obviously, you know, this game we had eyed a few weeks ago going, well, that's going to be a tough challenge down there. The Dolphins are playing well. Tua looks like he's really good.

That's a tough, hot place to win. They haven't won there since 1976. Now, granted, they've only played there four or five times, but still, it's not like they've had anything to go back on and say, well, we've had great success down in the heat before. So this was lining up to be a big challenge. And then what happens? I mean, the Dolphins step all over themselves, managing two of his concussions. Teddy Bridgewater goes out with a concussion.

You have your third-string quarterback in. He wrecks his thumb. Teddy, without a minute of practice, still put up some decent numbers. But as you mentioned, pass protection was a myth by Miami yesterday, and Bridgewater was all over the map. They attacked him as they should have. They attacked that weak offensive line. I mean, if anything, this was Ed Donatel's moment to finally take a bow

and show that I don't know if this is going to hold up long term because, again, these guys are getting older by the minute on defense. They've dodged some serious injuries, but they have been able to make some really key plays, create some huge and devastating turnovers and step up big when they've been dialed up. I mean, their pass pressure yesterday was fantastic. Secondary looked soft for a long time, closed down when it needed to. They're playing complimentary football. Every time one unit falls down for long stretches during a game, the other one comes up with a big play and then kind of binding it all together as special teams.

I mean, you can get into that a little bit more with some harder numbers, but, I mean, their coverage is tight. They're stuffing, you know, fake trick plays. Ryan Wright, I mean, this guy, I mean, I would almost pay to watch him punt at this point, and I don't know if I've ever said that out loud about an NFL punter before. You know, Greg Joseph, you still think something's going to – there's going to be a price to pay for the sloppiness with missed extra points and the occasional field goal, I just feel like they're picking each other up when they're down and they're bending, they're not breaking, for lack of a better cliche.

They're learning how to win, they're building scar tissue, and they're playing for each other. Those are the things that you can't necessarily measure with numbers and rosters. It's vibe. It's creating a winning culture and it's creating an atmosphere where everybody feels like they're contributing and that's what they're riding high on right now. And this is why I don't want to say like we know who they are in the same way that we would have in the Zimmer era where eventually we just got to the point where we knew the way they were going to play with him as the head coach we knew the way they were going to play offensively and we knew what the shortcomings and the limitations were going to be whereas we don't really know that here and even when it comes to the trade deadline like

I don't think they're going to make any big splash type of moves. I really don't think they have the money to do that. I think they're second lowest in the NFL in terms of cap space available, but we don't really know because it's a new regime. We don't know how they're going to adapt and adjust as a coaching staff. I mean, you could go back and find a lot of articles about how Zimmer was always adjusting his defense and getting the most out of them. There were times over the last few years that I thought he was just pushing every button he could because the players weren't good enough.

These are veteran players. A lot of them. It's not like a bunch of young guys. So you could go either way with that. Like, will they improve as players probably not but can you do more with them as far as teaching them something different at the bye week uh to to maybe be a little more aggressive i thought they were more aggressive but also like taron armstead being out with such a huge deal zadarius smith just ate greg little alive um and that's kind of the things that have gone right for them but But I, you know, I got a few other numbers I want to talk about, um, that I just don't know like why these things are happening and they can't stay this way. Uh, one of them is Kirk cousins yards per pass attempt,

which is 6.6. Uh, that's like what Cooper rush has. That's like what Carson Wentz has. That's like Jacoby Brissett territory, Davis mills, Baker Mayfield, Mitch Trubisky. These are the guys who are in that ballpark with Kirk cousins in terms of yards per pass attempt. And, uh, that is unusual for him. He's normally been a high yards per pass attempt guy throughout his career. Um, do you have an explanation for for this i because i i'm really uh to discuss a statistical anomaly yeah well think about it this way like they're not pushing the ball down the field at all successfully why why would that

be for a guy that over the last few years has had a lot of success going down the field that's a great question i'd love to know that because it feels like at times that their play calling is like crayola i you know why what was that uh screen pass to or what is it a bubble screen what did they run to irv smith jr and why was he getting the ball behind the line of scrimmage that was odd as many as many football men have said to you over the years murph that's a great question i don't know i i don't know i thought it was just strange to see him starting from behind the line of scrimmage he doesn't strike me as somebody that's gonna make five guys miss at the line but i'm not an x's and o's guy um I also thought that there were times where

is it illegal to throw a four yard pass when it's third and three? I'm curious about that because either it's Cousins' penchant for not taking a risk on third down and just kind of folding his hand and getting off the field that he throws underneath the sticks. And I know that makes every Vikings fan scream at the television, why are you trying that? Because it's going to fail, especially if there's tight coverage. He's probably making the calculation as he usually does, I'm not going to take that risk and throw into a tight window. I'm going to dump it down. Maybe he'll break a tackle and we'll keep it moving. Now, I don't know. He was also forced to throw it away on a series early in the second quarter, and you could tell he was frustrated and you can tell he was wondering

what that was being dialed up. I mean, he and O'Connell had a, they weren't clashes, I would say. He called them intense conversations. I'd call them, you know, a workplace dispute, which of course in the NFL means it's covered by nine camera angles and dissected on Twitter. I'm wondering where that is, and maybe you guys will drill down a little bit more on that coming out of the bye, is it personnel? Is it play calling? Is it cousins? What's the, why are the Vikings, you know, beyond a handful of drives, either early in games or when they need them late, can't seem to sustain much? And all of a sudden, you know, they couldn't run the ball at all yesterday when they really needed to in the fourth quarter to milk that clock and put Miami away. I think there was a three and out with three passes in the fourth quarter.

And then suddenly, you know, on the turnover, you know, Dalvin Cook breaks through for 53 yards and you wonder, well, where's that been all day and why can't that be sustained? So there are glimpses here and there of what Cousins was doing last year and distributing the ball, pushing it downfield, being aggressive. But there's only been snapshots of it this year, so I'm curious as to why that is and where that responsibility falls. Is it philosophy?

Is it personnel not making the right breaks at the right time? Is it cousins being too gun-shy? Folks, those who know me well are aware that I'm not a big drinker, but when my neighbors recently dropped by, they were surprised to see a bunch of tall boy cans laying around. No, I didn't change my life choices. Those cans were liquid death water. In particular, I've become a big fan of the sparkling lime flavor. As you know, I'm a big soda guy, but I'm starting to think that water might be a little better choice for the health side. Speaking of which, it's ironic that it's better for you and it's called liquid death.

But liquid death is trying to murder your thirst and plastic bottles. Aluminum is simply better for the environment because a large portion of plastic that you try to recycle just ends up as garbage because it is not profitable to recycle. So Liquid Death puts its money where its mouth is and donates 10% of their profits to killing plastic. So give Liquid Death a try if you're not a drinker, but you want to fit in in social situations, bring a Liquid Death can of water with you. Pick it up at Target high v whole foods or go to liquid death.com slash insider that's liquid death.com slash insider and use their store locator well um i'm just gonna i'm

just gonna be a ballot check here uh i'll just look at the tape and figure it out murph um no i i really i've looked at the tape a number of times this year of course every game and felt like there were receivers open to be found that weren't found and my explanation for that was that Cousins was still getting acclimated to the offense and that once he starts to see those receivers the plays are going to be made yesterday. Of course, on the TV view, you can't see the receivers running downfield. So I will have to look at the all 22 tape, but it didn't even feel that way. Like, oh man, he clearly missed that one wide receiver. Because as you said, the TV cameras love to show the other replay. It's like, look,

someone was wide open and your quarterback screwed it up. They, We didn't see a lot of that yesterday in Miami. And it seems to me like Cousins is trying very hard not to throw interceptions, that there aren't many throws into coverage. They tried to push it a couple of times to Adam Thielen when he was up against the backup cornerback. They got a pass interference, but they have not found Adam Thielen at all down

the field. I believe he has no catches this year on throws down the field, more than 20 yards, like zero, not a single one. I don't know if that's a product of the offense or if that's a product of his speed not being there. He limps every single game. He was limping a little bit yesterday, and you have to think that that's a factor KJ Osborne not being able to find ways to get him involved I think is just a plain failure of the offense because last year we saw the guy with the ball in his hands can make plays and he's never getting the ball in his hands if they are asking him to be the type of slot receiver that Cooper Cup was last year,

because that's the guy who's playing in the slot all the time. It's not Jefferson. I mean, that's not going to be very successful. If you're going to run a screen to somebody, it should be Osborne who can break tackles. And he's like kind of a stronger guy, not Irv Smith jr.

Who is fast in a 40, but doesn't have like blazing acceleration. That was a very odd call. And that's where I think like, do we look at it and wonder, okay, is Kirk starting to hit the age thing, which I, from the very beginning of the season, I wondered about, or is it that the offense doesn't actually fit for him all that well, or is it that O'Connell's play calling? Isn't that good. And he doesn't know how to adapt to defenses remember I mean you had Stefanski and Gary here who were two of the masters of

adapting to defenses Gary's like a legend for that I mean this is O'Connell's second time calling place and the first time it was with Washington with three backup quarterbacks so I mean as far as things again that can get better and that can take a lot of looking in the mirror for the first half of the season, I think him in play calling is probably one of them. And he acknowledged that yesterday as well in sort of a cliched flowery type way that I'm proud to be five and one, but I also know we have a lot of work to do. And I know as coaches, we have a lot of work to do, which is the obvious coaches, we have a lot of work to do, which, you know, is the obvious thing to say. But it, it doesn't show any defensiveness. It doesn't necessarily reveal any insecurities that he's willing to acknowledge that, you know, this isn't

clicking as we think it should be, which is why stacking up, you know, I don't want to say easy wins, stacking up maybe undeserving wins or stacking up wins and big play moments. Because what I think what differentiates this team from what I've seen in the last couple of years is you've got several different people on both sides of the ball stepping up at really key moments. And those things build confidence, not only in the play callers, but in the rest of the team as well. If I fail on this defensive series in coverage, I also know that my compatriots on offense know how to step up and pick me up. And I know that sounds cliche and it sounds very much deep in the locker room of jock talk, but what it really does is it's the psychology of it all. Football, the NFL is such a game of huge momentum swings that if you can give up a big play or fail at a particular moment and feel confident that either your special teams or your offensive or defensive counterparts are going to pick you up, it does allow you to play a little freer. It does allow you to shake off those moments a little better or a little quicker so that one bad moment, one bad play doesn't lead to three straight failures on either side of the ball. It was amazing to watch.

It seemed like a plague of three and outs that were all over the Vikings yesterday. And I think right, did he not punt 10 times? 10 times. 10 times, which hadn't been, it was it been 30 or 40 years since a Vikings punter has offered that many kicks. So I said that they had him on oxygen on this, on the sideline. They probably did. I mean, that 75 yard beauty is something to behold.

And I, you wonder that that's where you think like, how did they win this game? Well, it's because Miami couldn't step up and win it and essentially lost it. But the Vikings created a scenario where they could take advantage of that. So as you said, this is not sustainable. 234 yards of offense is not sustainable in any grand scheme, no matter how you paint it. They are going to get schooled in Buffalo. Bill Belichick will exploit every hole and weakness on Thanksgiving night. And even though Dallas took its lumps last night, I mean, I, you know, that's going to be an incredible game as well. So they are getting their hiccup,

you know, they're getting their, you know, mistake filled games out of the way while accumulating victories. But this is not a sustainable pace of play. It's not a sustainable pace of production. But I don't see, you know, they go into a bye, they get a nice little rest. And then, as you mentioned, you got Arizona coming in here. They're a fraud, apparently. And then you're going to Washington,

which is always an off field disaster as well. And, and you know, there is absolutely no reason they shouldn't be seven, one heading into Orchard Park. I think that you have to be because now all of a sudden the second half schedule looks way different in the light of day than it did before. Because we thought some of these teams weren't going to be all that good. And by then, the Giants may fade, but I think they do have a good defense. But you look at it, Buffalo, Dallas, New England, Jets, who just stomped the Packers yesterday and might they might have a top five shutdown corner all of a sudden. And Sauce Gardnerner the way that

he played and then at Detroit I don't think Indianapolis is a total cakewalk and then the Giants and then at Green Bay before you go to Chicago at the end of the season and you know of course Soldier Field is never a gimme when it comes to this team and they only beat the Bears by one score here so the second half schedule looks tough, but if you get a cushion to the point of being even six and two is pretty good. Seven and one would be super ideal because you could have lumps along the way and you could win either three or four games and, and, and go or go 500 the rest of the way and still end up having a really, really good season and put yourself at the top of the NFC North, get yourself a home playoff game. And, you know, you feel really good about the way the

season went, even if, you know, you were kind of exposed a little bit by those tougher opponents. But what's really interesting to me though, Murph, and I think this is kind of a main point that you're making about this team being a little different is when you look at the teams that they've faced recently, the bears total bus fire dolphins. I mean, that organization's burning to the ground. Their owner is literally suspended. They're under fire from the whole league for the way they handle concussions

and then screwed it up yesterday as well with their left tackle who played the whole game. I think possibly concussed. And then Arizona, they just signed these guys to a huge extension. They want to fire them now or should want to fire them now. Their quarterback looks like a totally different version of himself from what he used to be. And then Washington, Ron Rivera is screaming at the media. Carson Wentz is injured. They are completely falling apart at the seams. And oh, by the way,

their owner is under investigation as well i mean you have these with the tiny margins between the team with no distractions whatsoever and that is really healthy by the way the vikings versus these teams that have major distractions and like that can be the small differences right and you know we're always you know we were always on notice covering the vikings as they went into a bye week I mean this is the the hangover from the love boat you're not sure when you scatter you know 50 some guys out into the wind that they're all going to play nice and come back and and and not have a 2 a.m run in somewhere so a lot of antennas will be up here in the next week I have no reason

to believe that that'll be happening anytime soon. This is a fairly, it seems like a fairly mature bunch, but as soon as you say that, you know, somebody has one too many, somebody steps to somebody in their hometown and next thing you know, there's a police report and we're gathering information and we'll let you know when we hear any more. You can always tell what era you started, right? You're always ready. You don't think, okay, we're going to go three, four days off and just unplug from football. You may unplug from football, but you're not unplugging from the beat. Something may surface, so just be aware of that.

Everybody out there is a little'Connell kind of rides the success. Because as much as responding or dealing with adversity, it's also managing success. And I don't think they're getting way out ahead of their skis. They know how fortunate they are to have come out of some of these games. And they know they haven't played their best they know they've been probably chasing the standard they set in week one ever since against Green Bay but what I think was it has got to be interesting for them as they look around we've already kind of ticked off some of these surprise stories in the NFC namely the Giants Giants and Vikings are probably being compared as sort of unlikely five-and-one clubs.

We mentioned Dallas. We mentioned Phillies, the class. The West seems kind of wide open right now. They've got to feel pretty good about the struggles that Green Bay is having right now, because those seem very more systemic and not as easily fixed. And this is sort of what happens when you unload your elite receiver and think you can fix it with a 38-year-old passive-aggressive quarterback who doesn't always like to necessarily rise above the fray in Aaron Rodgers. And now they've got two painful defeats at home, including an ugly – I mean, I don't even know how to describe that yesterday. Either the Jets are really, really good and we don't know it,

or the Packers really have some serious issues and are kind of lost right now. So to have a two-game division lead and three division victories in three games is, I don't know how much more house money you can be playing with right now if you're the Vikings. And the fact that they recognize that and realize that they have some things that they need to improve upon also bodes well. So they're taking advantage. They're saying the right things. They're being humble. That's why I've been kind of bullish as every week goes on here, because I just I just, I sense something a little bit different in the air. Well, the interesting thing for me, and it is a first in

purple insider history. Um, I don't, I don't know. I don't know where this thing is going. Like I, I know what the statistics tell us right now about whether they're good enough, but I also know that I don't believe in the Packers really at all at At this point, I think there's only so many cleanses you can have. If you're Aaron Rogers before you just don't have it anymore. The other thing is that's very clear to me is that the offensive line of the green Bay Packers is not what it used to be. Even from a year or two ago, they have really come apart at the offensive line and without the security

blanket of Devante Adams being open all the time they are just without answers completely and like you said Rodgers is not going to teach anybody the offense if you get it wrong as a young receiver you're just banished from his target share and he used to be able to do that when he could throw to the same receiver over and over again so I don't believe in them at all. Detroit is just completely off the map. Chicago's completely off the map. I mean, you're kind of running a one man race and the only thing is don't step in a pothole and fall on your face. Uh, that's it. Um, so it's, it's really interesting, uh, now to see where they go with this and how they improve. And the question I think is not,

can they win the NFC North? It's And the question I think is not, can they win the NFC North? It's almost like, I don't know who's going to win it instead. The question is really, can you go into the playoffs as a high seat? Can you really compete with the big boys? Can we be saying, as opposed to you're a second-class citizen to somebody like Philadelphia, like, are you competitive with Philadelphia? I mean that game they said we want to see Philadelphia again we want to match up with that team again uh and they are the class of the NFC so um just just a different even for us than previous years where I just felt like the fate was written from pretty much day one and I I mean, it was three

or four weeks into the season. We'd be like, oh, all right, well, we'll just play the rest of this out and continue to talk about it. But we all know where this bus is going. I don't feel that way about this team. I don't think anybody does in town. I don't think fans do on Twitter. I don't think any of the pundits do. I think they're just, they're kind of as, they're curious onlookers just like we are. And that's, I think that's part of the entertainment value of it. You know, again, it's the week-to-week narrative, but it's also like, should I be happy with this?

Should I invest in this? Should I be leery? Should I be skeptical? It's like you run the gamut of emotions if you're a fan of this team for any number of years or decades. You're leery about totally buying in, and then you expand it out to this market, and you go, well, you know, look at the Gophers. Look at the Wild. You know, we thought they'd be decent, and now look what they're doing. So I think Vikings fans have a bigger set of psychological tools to employ as they go through this.

But you can't not at least enjoy what they're doing because, again, as as critical as you can be and you can easily, you know, take out any number of components and they would be, you know. Two and four, one and five, very easy. But I don't think people are willing to do that because I think it's a breath of fresh air. I think they're seeing something completely unique in that it's all three phases. Again, it's not just the offense coming together with a game winning drive when it mattered. It's not a field goal at the end. It's not a defensive stand. It's everything. It's everything fitting together at various times throughout a game. And when it, I mean, when the clock runs out,

you can look at mistakes on every, in every aspect, but you can also look at great accomplishments, great moments and stepping up in every category. So that makes it, you don't know what's going to happen next and you don't know who's going to carry the team next or fail the team next. And that's, that's why we keep coming back for more. Oh, and we most certainly will be back. And, uh, the bi-week bonanza now kicks off Murph. So, uh, we will talk again soon. Thank you very much for your time, but, uh, there, there will be a, there will be a lot to discuss Murph and, and we will be here. Every time.

Not next Monday, but every Monday after. Every other Monday. Every other Monday after that. Okay, before we wrap up, just in my attempt to get through as many of your fans-only questions as I possibly can, just wanted to read a couple of quick emails before the end of the show, and we will have many, many more fans only questions answered throughout the week. So feel free to send them purpleinsider.com or to me on Twitter at Matthew Collar. This comes from a longtime listener, Warly Owl via email.

Fans only question for you as we enter the bye week. What have we learned from this season so far in respect of the implications for next season? In other words, get us a status update on the competitive rebuild. Okay, that's really good. That's a really good question. You know, I think that as far as competitive rebuild purposes goes, there isn't a whole lot to speak of as far as rebuild, which is kind of what we expected. I mean, the players that they signed

as older veterans, I don't know that there's anyone that looks like they're a long-term solution. I mean, Zedaria Smith signed a multiple year contract and he's played well overall, I think, and had his best game against Miami. PFF gave him 11 pressures against Miami, which might be one of his best games of his entire career. He has stayed healthy so far, which there was reasonable concern about that. So he's going to be part of this as far as competitive rebuild things goes. Patrick Peterson, there have been some concerns naturally about the system that Ed Donatel plays but I think Patrick Peterson has been a great fit in this system and there doesn't really look like any reason he can't come back and do it again if he wants to stay in Minnesota so some of the older players can be a

part of this but when you look at the draft class Lewis seen it's hard to say when or how he's going to look when he returns from such a severe injury andrew booth jr hasn't gotten on the field yet brian asamoah is just starting to get involved and will probably be their starting linebacker next year but there isn't a whole lot of long term to this team and as far as how the quarterback looks which is what every timeline is essentially built upon um kirk cousins just does not look like he is going to be here that much longer even at five and one the way that he's struggling to execute some of the things kevin o'connell is asking him to do and the fact that he's putting up career worst numbers under O'Connell, if that doesn't

change, which I think it's very reasonable to believe that it can, but if that doesn't change, even if they were to go 10 and seven, 11 and six, even, I still think you're talking about drafting another quarterback, because if you look at his stats at the end of the year, and he's averaging under seven yards a pass and his quarterback rating is in the 90s and his pff grades in the 70s you can't make a bet for the future with somebody of his age and also the limitations of his game versus say a more physically gifted quarterback that doesn't mean you have to bail on him after this year because he is under contract for another season, but there could

be the plan of succession in the draft for next year. So I think that's maybe part of it that as well as they've played as a whole to be five and one, we have not seen Kirk cousins take that quote next step or be an MVP candidate or any of the things that were talked about in the off season. And again, there's lots of time for that all to be determined, but if this is how it looks, the ups and downs and everything else, uh, I think that you're talking about like addressing the quarterback in the future. Um, some of the bets that they made Harrison Smith with an incredible play against the

dolphins. And I think Harrison Smith is just always good, but some of the bets they made in regards to Harrison Smith, Adam Thielen, like maybe we're not the best choices so far. And, and look, if it takes them deep into the playoffs,

then they were, if it doesn't, and they end up as a middling team still, then there's going to be a lot of work to be done with the salary cap, potentially moving on from players. Even with Delvin Cook, he had that big breakout run for a touchdown, but overall has not consistently been that effective. Like could someone else who have been the running back been as consistent? And I also don't think that he's

necessarily a long-term part of this. So there's a lot of parts that after this year could change. I mean, it could be kind of a 2019 to 2020 with all the adjustments that they're going to have to make after this year, or going to have to hope that they can continue to ride what's left of the aging players. Uh, that's why it is really important that they make the most of a season where the red carpet has been laid out for them, for the rest of the NFC, and they are right there, and the conference is mostly for the taking outside of the Philadelphia Eagles and maybe a couple other teams that are equally as competitive and flawed as the Vikings. So yeah, I think that it really is the competitive side, and there's almost nothing to speak of as far as the rebuild part goes.

And long-term players here, I mean, I think there's a lot of things that are going to change after this season. So ride the roller coaster, my friends, because this is, this is it, uh, in a lot of ways for some of the players, uh, that are still here and on the older side. Um, I guess that's, that's how I look at it right now. This comes from at Miles Hunzee on Twitter. Miles Shaughnessy? It could be either way. Sorry if I'm screwing that up. Let's see.

After the Miami game, do you think that the Vikings are a team that will play up or down to their opponent's level, or will they actually start to figure things out during the buy and beat bad teams handily like they should yeah playing up to the level has not happened this year um clearly the Packers are more not good than good and that win kind of looks worse every day that the New York Jets just did the same thing to the Packers that the Vikings did in week one. Uh, and they had some injuries that made them in even worse team than they are now. And when they played the one good team on their schedule so far, they got beaten down into the ground. So they have not played up to any competition or had really even the opportunity outside of one game to play up to their competition.

It's almost entirely been playing down to it. And if they continue to do that for sure, they're going to have some disappointments. Like they're going to be the team that fumbles at some point, or they're going to be the team that has the injury at some point that ends up being costly in the next few weeks or when they face, you know, flawed teams in the future. I, I think that the way I want to put it is I, I know less about their ability to adjust and adapt than I have with the previous regime or at any other time that I've covered the Vikings because it was always during the Zimmer era. And I always felt like I had a good idea of when they were going to be able to fix things and when they weren't. And it looks like

in Chicago that they had found some things that worked or against Chicago for the offense that really fit with Kirk Cousins. And that was where I was projecting the offense to start taking off like, okay, they've got some answers, but then we saw the same stuff with the interior offensive line get blasted. That's happened in years past against Miami. Uh. The passing grades, I can pull those up here for the Vikings in this game, the pass blocking grades, but I think you guys know what they are. They're extremely bad. Garrett Bradbury graded a 20, Ed Ingram, a 36 in pass blocking, Ezra Cleveland, a 45 in pass blocking against the team with a good interior defensive line.

So I think there's still kryptonite there, but there are adjustments that can be made. And it's really Kevin O'Connell's big test. You're five and one. You've, you've gotten away with some things. You haven't played maybe your best football, but things have to be coached. Things have to be changed here. And that's the best I can kind of do. Because if I'm asked to predict it, I would probably lean toward this is who they are.

It's who they'll be all season. And there are a lot of times where we're going to be frustrated. But there's also times they're going to pull out wins or have really impressive sections of games where they're finding Justin Jefferson and creating big plays and when we get to the end of the season we'll look at it and say they had a lot of potential at times and they also were very frustrating at times and that's kind of what a middling offense is which is what they've been since Kirk Cousins arrived is a mid pack offense. And that's what every mid pack offense looks like. I think that's more of who they are, but Kevin O'Connell has an opportunity to go into the buy and find some things and make adjustments and fix that. I don't know that it's going to happen because you can't change the players. You can't change who the quarterback is. You can't update Adam Thielen or go back in time with a hot tub time machine five years

with Adam Thielen. But I do think that there are some things like getting KJ Osborne more involved, getting Irv Smith more involved that will be helpful. And for me, that's what the fascinating part of this season is going to be is not knowing and finding out as we go along how good is kevin o'connell at taping things together that might be difficult to get to stick with this offense and get them to be just consistent enough to put themselves in a spot where they can have a home playoff game. And then you go from there into the playoffs, it's all matchups and everything else.

And, um, you know, we'll see how it goes from there. But yeah, I mean, a lot of the questions at the bi-week are, Hey,

where's this thing going to go? And I think a lot of my answers are going to come back to, I'm not really sure. Let's find out. Um, so anyway, it'll be, it'll be fun.

We'll bi-week Bonanza. And I really appreciate the questions. Keep those coming, and we have a lot of good stuff for you guys over the next two weeks. You have to wait a while until Arizona, but everyone's earned it. Take a deep breath. Every game, as usual, almost, has been super tense. So take a deep breath and enjoy the show.