Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Darrisaw DNP? How many games can the Vikings win in 2025? (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Matthew Coller talks with Manny Hill about setting the bar for JJ McCarthy's return, the offensive line situation, whether the Lions are a rival of the Vikings and Manny picks the schedule. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Also, check out our sponsor HIMS at https://hims.com/purpleinsider Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Purple Insider is presented by FanDuel. So that would be four and seven out to Seattle to play Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks. I am a believer in Seattle. And I, you know, I don't know if I'm ready to call them like a Super Bowl contender, but, you know, they get themselves in a good position. They find a way to win that division. It's going to be tough with the Rams and the Niners there as well. But that, I just believe in what they're doing.

I think Sam Darnold's playing really well. J.S.N. is just a stud, man. That guy has just been fantastic for them. That offense is pretty good. And their defense is playing better now in recent weeks as well. I think this is going to be a tough one for the Vikings. And I'm going to give Seattle the win. Four and eight, don't blame you for that.

I think Seattle's a really, really good team, too. Their offensive line has some issues, but they do have a good running game overall. And the Vikings against top receivers have had no chance. And J.S.N. is exactly that. He is in that ballpark of an A.J. Brown of a lad McConkey, like he's one of those guys. And so good. And when they play these guys, the question is just who's going to cover them? I mean, they haven't had any chance at all of covering these players.

And that's where, you know, Stefan Gilmore, I think maybe didn't get enough credit last year. I'm not saying he was unbelievable, but just being savvy, being smart, making a few plays, the end of the game against the Jets, a game winning interception. And Shaq Griffin probably didn't get enough credit either because when you see guys who can't cover one-on-one and Brian Flores brought this up, he said, well, you know, we've been in position. And this is legitimately true. They've been in position and just haven't made a play on the ball because the receiver is good. And you're like, well, that is what happens when.

you have a backup player for his entire career that you signed to be your starting outside corner when you drafted mcky blackman he comes back you didn't look like how he looked but you didn't get anybody else to help him out there were corners potentially out there that you said no no we're good with jeff okuda and then several of these plays we're talking about where the corner is in the general vicinity and it's a touchdown or a big gain allowed if the last time I looked, and I hate to pile on a guy who got injured in that game because I always feel, you know, injuries just are terrible. And Okuda's had a lot of them. But that decision to me is the most shocking one that they made this offseason. Yeah, okay. So he's been targeted

12 times this year and given up 11 receptions for 175 yards and a 146.5 passer rating and committed two penalties. That's in 93 snaps. That's insane. Like that's, you can't like that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a game and a half. Yeah. That's, that's really, that's really tough. So now, I mean, maybe you're talking development of Zamaia Vaughn or, uh, Dwight Mcglather, presumably, uh, but maybe bumping up Vaugh, I don't know. Uh, it's, it's a tough spot. So where were we four and eight? Yeah, it's going to be really hard to beat the Seattle Seahogs if you can't cover anybody. Washington. commanders on December 7th at home with a four and eight record.

I think this is a game that they can win. Obviously, Jane Daniels is a stud when he's healthy, but, you know, he's another guy. It's been kind of banged up, and it's, we're seeing the kind of impact that it's having on Washington as well. I don't know if he'll be healthy by then. We're still talking, what, a month and a half down the line here before that game. So I'm going to give the Vikings a win because they'll be at home and because Washington is kind of, even when Jaden Daniels has been in there, and we know how awesome he is, but even when he's been in there, they still haven't had, it just hasn't felt like the same vibe that they had last year with the, with the exciting wins that they had during the regular season and then the run to the NFC championship game. It feels like the vibe is a little bit different with that team.

Like there's a little bit of a hangover from that season. obviously if Daniels plays in this game it's going to be he's going to be a lot to handle but I think I think the Vikings have enough to be able to beat a team like Washington particularly if they're at home well and the biggest thing there is just Jane Daniels not healthy and when that happens like everyone looks bad everyone looks bad at their job when he's not healthy and they also don't have I think a great defense it's very average defense which I'm sorry I had too much diet, Dr. Pepper. I apologize.

But yeah, I mean, I don't think they have a great defense. And if they were going to survive Daniels being out and banged up and not 100%. The other thing is, too, Terry McCorren. I mean, he fights for the big contract in the off season. I feel like we see this all the time. If guys miss a bunch of time in the off season, it's very hard to stay healthy in the season. If they're negotiating those contracts, it takes you back to the Derell Revis, holdout, hamstring, you know, that whole thing. But it does happen a lot.

And I feel like that's been Washington this year. So if McCorn is healthy, Samuel is healthy, Laramie Tunsell is healthy, Jaden Daniels, it's a really hard team to beat. But I agree with you. I think that they can beat Washington. They are pretty vulnerable. That would be five and eight. So now they play the Cowboys on December 14th.

I think against that particular defense, I'm going to keep saying it every week that I picked the schedule. This is going to be, I think, J.J. McCarthy's best chance to have like his best game statistically his best game against that defense yeah it's on the road but the cowboys that that stadium doesn't i don't think scare anybody certainly doesn't scare opponents um i think this is a chance for the vikings to go out and and play really well against at least an exciting team and i think kind of a 500-ish team in the dallas cowboys because their offense is so good um i'm going to give the vikings a win here i think there's going to be a lot of points scored though and i think it's

to be a really fun, exciting game. I think so, too. I think that the way that their wide receivers are playing, again, when we're talking about C.D. Lamb, George Pickens. That's got 40-yard touchdowns kind of written all over it against the Vikings. But this is one where Bo Nick suddenly looked like not just a franchise quarterback. He looked like John Freakin Elway out there against Dallas, but kind of everybody has. And this is one where it's, you needed this game to be this week. And you need in Detroit to be that week because the confidence building, hey, I can actually do this because Dallas blows on defense would have been phenomenal for J.J. McCarthy. And instead, it's like, oh, actually, you're facing a top 10 defense with players coming back. And that's not necessarily ideal.

But it will be a hard one to win and outscore them with the fact that they have a franchise veteran quarterback. So that puts them at five and nine. Is that where we're at? I think that's right, right? I think six and eight because I got them beaten Washington and I haven't beaten Dallas. Oh, right. Okay, sorry. Yeah, I got caught up in the, it's going to be a crazy shootout.

So, yeah, that one, it could be tough. It could be actually kind of fun. Maybe like a late game Christmas present of, yeah, this season's been mostly bad. But here you go. Okay, six and eight. Sorry about that. I just want to say thanks to Brett for the super chat. says a Packer fan who loves your channel.

Go to for Vikings News when you and Nagler collab. It's a must watch. I don't know if I could take Nagler in a year like this, though. I'm not sure. Like, he's, you know, he's going to be gloating pretty bad when it comes to the difference between these two teams. But I really do appreciate that. So, and also when it comes to opposing teams, when they're good, they're good.

I appreciate it. So anyway, six and eight. going to New York on December 21st. Oh, New York is magical around Christmas time, maybe less so when you're six and eight. Do you think they get a win against Jackson Dart in that team? Yes, I do. Jackson Dart has looked good at times,

but bad at other times. Yep. It's that team to me, the reason why I'm giving the Vikings a win here because the Giants just don't look like a team. There's talent there. obviously them not having Malik neighbors anymore for this season is a huge blow to that offense but they've got some players on defense there's talent there but i just don't know how good a coach

brian dable actually is and it just seems like there's just seems like there's dysfunction there and it's just the way they collapsed against denver is just not i don't how does that happen you know if you're if you're a good if you're a good head coach you know it's it just so i i think the vikings are going to find a way to win this game on the road against a Giants team that has some talent, but is not very well coached. And they'll move to seven and eight. Okay. Seven and eight at that point, I think we would be saying a lot of good things about J.J. McCarthy and a lot of good things about this team's ability to fight and get back into at least the conversation and, you know, the vaunted in the hunt graphic that they'd be at the

bottom at. And even though, you know, they'll put anybody there. If you have about, if you still have like a 4% chance to make the playoffs, they'll be like, I don't know, in the hunt, I guess. That's where they would be in this situation. But I don't know how much longer they would stay in the hunt. Christmas Day, Netflix against the Detroit Lions. I think those executives at Netflix are already saying, dang, maybe not as many subscriptions as we thought if the Vikings are not super

competitive at that point. So do they beat the Detroit Lions at home? on Christmas Day? Nope. It's going to be a short week. It'll be fun because it's Christmas Day and the holidays and everybody's going to be having Christmas dinner and sitting down by the TV and watching the Vikings host Detroit on Netflix

or locally, you know, on a television station on a regular TV, perhaps. But I think this is going to be tough because I feel like these last two games are going to be really hard for the Vikings because it feels like Detroit and Green Bay. Now, Green Bay has the tie, which is going to kind of make things interesting, too. But it feels like Green Bay and Detroit are going to be kind of jostling for the NFC North. And so they're going to be playing their guys. We know Dan Campbell doesn't really rest guys anyway. Oh, not at all.

No. Not at all. Even if he's got the division locked up, we've seen he's not going to rest guys. He's going to play it out through and through. So I think he's going to have his. is lions ready to play and the lions come in and perform well and get a win at US Bank Stadium. So seven and nine at that point.

And then the Green Bay Packers come in here at the end of the season. And it's always, you know, a little different when that game happens. And it feels like it's either been the most exciting thing to happen to them or the worst thing ever when the Packers arrived. Like, 23, Kirk's got no shirt on and Jared Hall's making his first start. And it's like, I don't know. maybe they could win this one and get back in the playoff. And oh my God.

Like it just went so horrible. And 2019, that game almost got Zimmered fired on the spot when they picked off Aaron Rogers, I think twice in that game. But Aaron Jones ran over them. So there's been, and then, you know, carrying Sam Darnold off every day I walk by in TCO Performance Center. I walk by a picture of Sam Darnold being lifted on the, the arms of his teammates to go 14 and 2. And I just think, man, what, what, what has happened since then? What is the record since

then? I guess it would be three and six since that happened since that day. And the most of the losses are horrendous. The only wins are the McCarthy comeback against the bears and then Cincinnati, which will be forgotten forever outside of Isaiah Rogers family. And then, uh, when it comes to Cleveland, who cares? Like, great, you beat the Browns on the last play of the game. Raise a banner. But aside from that, I mean, how many games,

this, think about this, how many of the losses since that 14 and 2, have we, like, hyped up? It's a big game. Go show who you really are. Go to Detroit and teach that Dan Campbell a message. And they get killed. And then they go to Glendale to play the Rams.

And they get killed. And they play Atlanta, national TV. Oh, man, McCarthy's coming off this amazing game. You know, NFC, offensive player the week or whatever. Disappointment. I mean, it's really like I, this is where I feel for the fans. There's just so many of these games, even last week. All right.

If they win this one, they're right back in the race. Just no, no, not even close. Even the Eagles, like the Eagles game wasn't a blowout, but it just, the Eagles just made every, Jalen Hertz made. every throw that he needed to make it. It was so cold-blooded where you're just like, Isaiah Rogers against AJ Brown. Isaiah Rogers is an okay player,

but AJ Brown is like one of the best receivers on the planet. He's got no shot at all. And the same with Devante Smith roasting him as well. So, yeah, anyway, the point just being that it has been a while since there's been a hyped football game that has worked out for them. But do they win against the Packers

in the final week of the season to get to eight and nine. I think this game will be a lot of fun. I think it will be tight and close. I think the crowd will be rocking because it always is when the Packers come to town. But I think the Packers are going to be on a mission because they're going to be competing with Detroit. This might be a situation where the Packers need to win this game to have a shot at winning the division. And obviously what happens with Detroit, I assume Detroit will be playing Chicago the same week. because it's division games last week of the season.

So, yeah, I think the Packers will bring it and we'll be ready to play, and I think they'll end up winning the game. But I think the Vikings will play with a lot of pride. So I've got to imagine at 7 and 9, your season is over. You've been eliminated from the playoff contention, but I think McCarthy will come out, play with some pride. Justin Jefferson will come out, play with some pride in competitive spirit, and they'll make it close, but Green Bay ends up winning the game.

Here's my suggestion for Kevin O'Connell. Should Justin Jefferson be very close to a record of any kind, please throw him the football in that week 18 game because Mike Zimmer saying, I play for wins and not stats or whatever after that week 18 or 17, whatever it was at the time loss in 2021 was there was already so many nails in the coffin. I think the nail in the coffin really was losing to the winless Detroit Lions at Detroit. Like that's where it was, okay, he's going to be fired, folks. There's no way around this.

But when he said that, when he neglected to get Justice Jefferson the ball at the end of that game, it was like, what are you doing? That was against Andy Dalton and the, in the Bears. The most important guy in the franchise, you can't get him one more catch. And also, Kirk Cousins, just come on, man. Who cares what the call was in your head? You don't have to do that. Like, that was one of those.

When seasons go down, there's all these stupid. moments where you just remember why. Why didn't you just say, oh, sorry, couldn't hear it in the headset. Here's the football. Here's eight yards, Justin. My God. And by the way, is it ever really a bad idea to throw it to Justin Jefferson anyway? Right. Even if you're trying to win the game. Right. That's not the call. Like throwing it to Justice Jefferson and just saying, screw it, I'm going to throw it to 18. Right. It's not necessarily a bad idea. Zimmer had to run the, no, you had to run the ball. Had to run the clock out. You got, you guys always want KOC to run the ball. Well, You could take it too far.

But that was, that was absurd and ridiculous. And so I would advise that, and then last year, it was Baker Mayfield with Mike Evans at the end, where he just neglected the play call and threw the ball to Mike Evans to make sure that he got. Yeah, it's a thousand yards. I think Brady also did that with Gronk. It's like, oh, yeah, you can actually do that. But I would say that this season, if they go seven and 10, that's about expected for me. but if they go 7 and 10 and J.J. McCarthy plays well and is competitive in those games to the final moments,

you're still going to walk out of the season saying, all right, massive disappointment. Everybody does have pressure now. Hot seat seems almost a little corny to say at this point. Like we're so far away from that. But yeah, I mean, pressure going into the next season, the same way it was from 7 and 10 in 2023 to 2024. And why Mark Wilf said, I don't accept that.

Like, that's not good enough. And they didn't sign everybody to contract extensions at that point. So the pressure will 100% beyond. But at very least, you could go, yeah, but you got a quarterback. And now everything else looks a lot easier and better if that ends up being the case. But I think 7 and 10 is a very fair projection for where this thing is going to go. And then you end up drafting like 12th or 14th again. And it's not second where you get Aiden Hutchinson.

but we've left the tanking conversation in the past. Mani Hill, great stuff. I want to bring you guys my discussion with Nolan Bianchi from Detroit, previewing the game in just a second. But a reminder about that Fanduil question of the day, Vikings are plus 160 on Fandul to win at least eight games. So that means they're not favored to get to eight. Man, he doesn't have them getting to eight.

I want you to give me a stat line for McCarthy that would get them there. I had 17 touchdowns, six picks, call it a 94. quarterback rating, 2300 guards. I think that's required. And oh, by the way, the most importance that would be playing all 10 games for J.J. McCarthy. But as always, Manny, we tried to make the best of the conversation, even if at this moment, it's not the most joyous to have. But thank you for your time, as always. You got it. Of course. Football. All right. I got together with Nolan Bianchi, great reporter from the Detroit News there in Detroit. to preview the game so here is that discussion if you guys have been wearing hats or trying

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Don't miss out on this limited time offer. Uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary. All right, let's get a Detroit perspective on this upcoming here football game. My friend, Nolan Bianchi from the Detroit News, covers the, here, hot Detroit Lions coming off a biweek face of the Vikings, Ford Field. That all sounds great for a Vikings team that is struggling. But you know, Nolan, here's where I want to start with this. This offseason, all I heard from the big brains was about the regression of the Detroit

Lions. They'll never be the same. And look, there was some reason to think that with Frank Ragnow retiring with the change of the coordinators, but haven't seen it. I also haven't really seen them be truly tested a lot. I think this season in terms of the schedule that they faced, really great win against Tampa Bay, obviously. But some of the other ones, you know, Cincinnati might have looked a little bit better on paper when we first saw that one. So tell me, though, your perspective on why there has been no massive regression

of the Detroit Lions this year. Yeah, you know, it's funny. We were talking off season about this gauntlet schedule that was ahead of them. And, you know, the back half of the schedule is still pretty tough. A lot of good games against a bunch of good NFC opponents. But, yeah, we're through eight weeks here and feels like they haven't, to your point, really been tested outside of two games, week one being the Packers, and then they're lost to the Kansas City Chiefs a few weeks ago.

I do think that Bucks game was a big game for them. The Bucks, I think we're a little bit fraudulent coming off a lot of late heroic victories that I think a lot of people put too much. much stock into. But yeah, I mean, overall, it's been really fascinating to watch this team, because I do understand, and I was one of the people who was wondering how this would look when Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn, but more specifically Ben Johnson and the host of assistants that he took with him, it would look when they walked out the door. And obviously, through one week, wasn't very good. But I think what we kept saying all along was that if there's

anybody capable of getting passes of of being able to reinvent themselves it's dan campbell and a dan campbell led team and i think so far that's pretty much come exactly to fruition like this team i think is still trying to figure out its identity in terms of things that it does well but i think in terms of the the attitude that they want to play with how they want to play the aggression all that stuff it's all the same and i think in the game of football that matters a lot so are we giving dan campbell some credit for the offensive side of the ball now And look, Ben Johnson's offense has been pretty good in Chicago and I think that Caleb Williams still has some Caleb Williamsy problems, but the receivers are open and creating separation the same way that they did in Detroit. But the offense looks like the Detroit Lions offense. I haven't watched it and thought, oh, wow, they overhauled the system completely and asked everybody to do a lot of different things.

What I see is a lot of short, successful passing, but a lot, you know, possession, long drives, Laporta, St. Brown, same sort of stuff, building off of the run. Not former wide receiver, Mr. John Morton. What is he done as the offensive coordinator to keep this train on the tracks? Because there were plenty of examples of teams that lost their great OC and then it looked completely different later. Yeah. And he said from the moment he came in, I mean, we talked.

to him for the first time at the combine this year. And one thing he kept reiterating was, I'm not changing much, which I think to your point kind of lends itself to this idea that Dan Campbell has had a lot more to do with this Detroit Lions offense than he's probably been given credit for over the last three, four years. When they designed this offense in 2022, it was Ben Johnson, obviously, in his first year as Lions offensive coordinator. It was John Morton working as a senior assistant. It was Dan Campbell and it was Jared Gough. So, yes, you lost one big piece of that puzzle, but you still have three out of the four pieces of the puzzle. And they didn't go, when they designed that offense, they didn't go, all right, Ben, you're a genius.

Like, what do you, what do you think? What do you see out here? No, they went to Jared and they said, what do you like to do? We'll build a playbook around it. And so, yeah, so one thing that I think Ben Johnson absolutely nailed was the relationship with his quarterback, the ability to listen to him and the players. and I think he was an amazing situational play caller and play sequencer. But I think Dan Campbell is probably pretty decent at all of those things that we thought were Ben Johnson's best qualities, while also possessing the offensive knowledge that I think that many of us thought was purely Ben Johnson.

So none of this is all that surprising to me. And I think it's just kind of validation for Dan Campbell, not just his ability to run a program, but to your point his his offensive mind well in the way that a lot of this stuff works because we like to assign everything to one person like oh it's just ben johnson as if all the other people on the staff do nothing they just watch him do his thing or the head coach does nothing but a lot of times it is such a collaborative effort and quarterback is very involved in this the other coaches on the staff whether it's running back coach receivers coach like they're all putting it together into a pot and then the guy who signs off on it is the big boss man for each

one of these game plans like that's how it's put together throughout a week so i guess it shouldn't be that shocking that dan campbell would be the one signing off on the game plan and jared goff would be the one signing off on the game plan because usually what happens is uh i think it's either thursday night or friday or saturday whatever depending on the team there's a meeting between the quarterback and the offensive coordinator where they go through the plays that the quarterback is most comfortable with. Bruce Ariens wrote about this in his book about they would do all the third downs. He would let Carson Palmer just pick the third down plays. It's all you, man, go with what you're most comfortable with. So that operation all tying back into having a quarterback

who knows through all of his experience what's going to work best for him, I think is probably one of those sustaining things. Here's the other thing, Nolan, got some pretty, Pretty darn good football players on this football team, right? I mean, I think where it's really started for me is the offensive line has not fallen apart. And that was the biggest area that if golf is pressured, you know, he's not one of the better quarterbacks at escapability or a dealing with pressure. Why is this offensive line continued to work despite losing Zitler, despite losing Frank Ragnau? Yeah, that was a huge concern.

And like he said, there's a lot of really good players on this team. Like when I was going into last season before they lost Frank Ragnow, because I do believe that was a huge loss. And you can't, it's one that you can't really quantify, right? You just have to kind of see how it plays out after he's gone. Before that happened, I was looking at this team going, yeah, they lost a play caller. But all of these guys are like, young. Like St. Brown, in theory, should still be getting better.

Tamir Gibbs, in theory, should still be getting better. Sam La Porettah, Jameson Williams, Isaac Tislaw, the guy they just drafted. And so, sorry, remind me, what was the, what was the question? The offensive line. Oh, the offensive line. And, and so. You got caught up. There's so many good players on the team.

You got caught like this guy and this guy, this guy. I got lost in the sauce a little bit. Circle back to the one we were concerned about. Yeah, the, you know, coming into this season, I think before Ragnow retired, it was, they drafted Tate Rattage. They had Christian Mahogany, who they drafted the year before, he had to, he had to, you had to start two games, one of them being a playoff game, played phenomenal. So I think a lot of us were kind of penciling him into one of the guard spots as soon

Zyla left, yada. But I think one thing that there were a lot of question marks around was Graham Glasgow, the center. And he came back in 2023, and he played right guard, and he was pretty decent. And then Kevin Zyler showed up, and they switched Graham Glasgow to left guard. And he was pretty bad. And he was getting older. I think he's somewhere 32, 33 years old.

And it was kind of like what is going to happen with this offensive line because they don't really appear to have a center. Like you didn't really feel good based on how we'd perform the year before about Graham Glasgow going and playing center. He's been phenomenal. Like there are obviously some things to clean up in the run game, but from a past protection standpoint, which was his like fatal flaw the year prior. I think he had like 45 pressures allowed or something like that. He's got eight through eight games. And I know PFF stats, you know, they're not perfect. and be in the center maybe you don't you're not on the hook for as many things whatever but

his play i think has stabilized the entire unit because another thing to think about with with it too taylor decker like it's not just the interior offensive line taylor decker the line starting left tackle did not practice pretty much all of training camp he was rehabbing from a shoulder surgery he practiced once all year before week seven like once in season he played five games missed two games, but like to do all that with a guy going into center who you don't really know if he has any good football left. And then a starting left tackle who can't be on the practice field, not even for training camp.

It's not like they even built that work up during the summer. Then it's like, oh, well, you know, he might not be in practice. But and the two new young guys in there, obviously Pinesu will help stabilize a lot. I feel like I was just like doing the movie Moneyball where I didn't like mention the actual reason why everything was so good. Benet Seul has been phenomenal, obviously, and that helps a lot. But I think, like, that has been, I don't want to call it a surprise, but I think the resurgence of Graham Glasgow, I think it's been huge.

And I think the, the young guys inside have just kind of followed his lead. No, it was actually Scott Hatterberg and not Miguel Tejada or Barry Zito or Tim Hudson. That's right. It was all the guy that they moved from catcher to first base. Now, but really, though, it is a. unit, an offensive line that is only as good as its weakest piece. I mean, even the Vikings struggled against the Philadelphia Eagles with four of their starters in. And for those four starters played well, but one guy was

attacked over and over the center, Blake Brandel, and he ends up giving up six pressures. And it can be that way. This is where I, I do wonder about the weak points because Tate Ratledge, you mentioned the PFF numbers, leads in pressures allowed, which you don't see a ton from a guard leading a team in pressures allowed. How do they deal with having a rookie out there against a Vikings defense that is talented when it comes to rushing the passer from the interior? Well, I'm sure they'll, you know, do their best to help them out in any way they can. But I think for him, like, it's just been really up and down. I think that goes for him and Christian Mahogany. Like, especially in a past

protection standpoint, like one game, I think both of them are, have been phenomenal as or phenomenal is probably overselling it a little bit, but really, really good. as run blockers. Pass protection is where things really start to dip off a little bit. And I think the interesting thing is it's not like a, it's not like a consistent thing. Like if you look at like Christian Mahogany's PFF grades and his past blocking grades, it's like one week he's 78. Next week he's 27. Next week he's 65. Next week he's 30 something. You know, and so that's obviously going to be a problem against his Vikings team. And so I'm curious to see how they have the answers for that. Yeah. And I think that it all starts with as always for the Detroit Lions, the run game. You know where I was going with that. But before we get into Jemir Gibbs, the run game and just why it's continued to work when run games are inconsistent. Why does Jared Gough do so well against the Minnesota Vikings? I mean, I've joked with you before that I am the largest Jared Gough defender, probably in part because every time I've seen him in person, he's been awesome. I mean, I've

mean, I don't think I've ever seen the guy of a bad game, maybe except 2017 against the Vikings number one defense. He wasn't that great. But aside after that, that was his second year. He's been outstanding time and time again. Even the tanking lions got their first win. Jared golf was good in that game against Mike Zimmer's defense and the Vikings. Is there something that you see when you review those games? Because you know, I'm always looking for the Viking side. Oh, their defense got beat here, got beat there. but when you're analyzing it from a lion's side versus the Vikings defense, why does this seem to work so well for him?

He just has the answers. Like that's the only way that I can explain to this. Like when he walks up to the line and that's what I think makes him so good. That's what I think is the most underrated part of this game. And you and I were going back and forth. I was random about this on the timeline a couple weeks back. But just like what he does when he gets to the line. Now, I don't know why he's so particularly like uniquely good against Brian Flores.

but I think kind of what he does to Brian Flores is just an extension of what he does to literally everybody else is just kind of shocking because we don't really see anybody else do that to a Brian Flores defense. So I think that's probably part of the just shocking nature of it. But I think that that's his like greatest asset is his like pre-snap, like thought processing and his ability to get his guys in the right play. And I don't think that enough people look at that as a skill, but his ability to look at the defense and go, okay, this is a play that's going to work, get into it, execute it, and keep the chains moving. I think is absolutely huge. And, you know, maybe there's a degree of familiarity with Brian Flores where he's seen him a couple times so he knows the answers. But, I mean, I don't know.

I don't really have a good explanation for it, to be quite honest with you. And because there have been times where he struggled, like you look at the early part of the game in Minnesota last season. When the Vikings go up 10-0, it's like, man, the lion's got absolutely nothing for Brian Flores right now. But I don't know, maybe it was something that he had going on with Ben Johnson and, you know, maybe it was Ben Johnson who had Brian Flores his number. I don't really know. But yeah, he seems to not feel the discomfort that a lot of other quarterbacks feel when they face that defense. And we're starting to build up a sample size of Jared Goff playing at the same level of guys that we have deemed some of the greatest. Like I saw, you know, somebody put out one of those

side-by-side stat things with Drew Braes. And look, those are generally ridiculous, like putting Ryan Tannahill up against Troy Aikman as if they played in the same era and football is exactly the same as 92. But at the same time, it has that same feeling where Breeze was not the most physically gifted and did have some weaknesses to his game, but pre-snap, knowing where to throw the football, familiarity with the offense and supporting cast. And I don't think he's as good as breeze, but it has the same sort of feeling of true, like pocket quarterbacking. And I, I think he's excellent at picking through things. And I also think that there's no ego about the way that Jared Goff plays. Like, I'm sure that every quarterback has to have an ego like I'm the man and,

you know, like the Rams were wrong and I'm right and things like that. Right. But if he's going to throw a three yard pass 47 times in a game because that's the best way to win, he will do it. He does not have to, hey, I got to show off the cannon or I'm not feeling like I'm doing enough. He will continue to swing past to Gibbs. He'll throw little hitch routes for five yards for Amman Ross St. Brown. And they stay on the field forever because he's, he doesn't feel the need to show off the cannon all the time. Yeah. He, before the 2023 NFC championship game, I went to his, uh, his high school to do like a story on him because they were playing in, uh, Santa Clair, which is pretty close to where he lived in Marin County, California.

And I remember I was talking to his high school coat. Well, first I saw this quote in his yearbook. It was like John Wooden quote. And it was like, do not be influenced by praise or weakness. It is a flaw to like be influenced by the one. Like that was like 17 year old Jared Gough, you know. And I remember I brought that quote up to his high school football coach. And he's like, yeah, that's the guy.

That's the guy coach. And that's the same guy that you have here. Like the way he handled his exit from the Rams and coming here. And don't be wrong. Like he has a chip on his shoulder. There's a lot of stuff that I think he took personally. I think he does a really good job of hiding it. But I do think that there are some things that motivate him.

But he just does such a good job of keeping that all under wraps. And being a quarterback. Like I think that's an important trait of a quarterback is to not like, obviously when they played the Rams in 2023, everybody wanted to win for Jared Gough, right? But I don't think anybody was, I don't know, like, he wasn't making it about himself. Like, he was doing everything he possibly could to not make it about himself. I almost like he has like the Gen Z quality of like he doesn't like to be perceived at all, I think. And so, yeah, just a super fascinating guy.

And I wonder what it's going to take for him to, I think it's probably just a Super Bowl. like it's probably just that simple like he went a super bowl and all of a sudden oh wow you really are like like drew brees or something like that and you know whatever that's the game is the game but uh if drew brees doesn't if drew he doesn't win his super bowl or if matthew stafford doesn't win his super bowl then we talk about those guys differently and the same goes for elie manning pushed the other way yeah you know because he did so i i agree with you um when it comes to the run game the vikings have really struggled to stop the run which means that the lions are smelling some meat to eat on the Vikings defense. Anyway, so the over under on this on Fanduil for Jemir Gibbs is 72 and a half. Maybe it should be like 142 and a half the way the Vikings defense is played. But year to year running backs are tricky. And we see this even from Saquan Barkley where halfway through the season, the guys averaging

three and a half yards of carry after going for 2000 last year. We've seen a lot of regression for running backs. not so much Mr. Gibbs. Why is that? The, well, so the interesting thing is his numbers are a little bit skewed by his performance against Tampa. He set a career high in scrimmage yards. I think it was 221 or something like that, 218 maybe. And that that was the breakout game that they've been waiting for because it was a little bit less productive than it was in seasons past because they were trying to to change up the flow of RB1 and RB2. Now, to, to, to be a bit more. To, here gives first two seasons of league he's with dave montgomery david montgomery was for all intents

of purposes alliance opener um and the lines closer like he would kind of get the early game and end of game carries and then gibbs would you know cross up all these tired legs in between and it worked perfectly but then montgomery gets hurt at the end of last year and we saw culminating with a week 18 finale against minnesota what that can bring and it was like next level super stardom. And everybody was like, oh, why don't they do that more? Like, why don't they just give him all the carries? And then I think it, like, messed up the flow, the run game a little bit. Like, I think that's probably one of the biggest things, like outside a third down offense. I think probably one of the biggest things that they wanted to clean up during this

biweek is just the consistency of the run game because he was, his yards per carry was down, like an entire yard per carry going into that bucks game. David Montgomery, he was a little bit more efficient, but his data was also skewed by a big game against Baltimore. So that was kind of the coming out party for the run game, last game against Tampa. Now, what I will say is that I kind of have a lot of confidence that this is just going to keep getting better as the season goes on because, you know, Tate Rattlidge and Christian Mahogany inside, they keep getting better. And like I said, like I think they're pretty solid as run blockers.

And you could get to a point toward the end of the season where I think you look at that, unit as a whole. And you go, oh, it's one of the best of the league again. I am curious to see how they follow up that last performance. Because in coming back from these big games, I mean, like David Montgomery rushed for 151 yards against Baltimore. It comes back the next week, and I think he has like nine carries for like 12 yards or something like that. So on a week to week basis, it hasn't been great. They've had some flashes. Gibbs has ripped a bunch of long run or a couple of long runs and have really skewed the like average carry stats and stuff like that.

But I'm, I'm like not entirely convinced that they're just going to come out and run the problem with no with no pro or run the ball with no problem because it has kind of been a problem for them at times this year. It all depends on for me, just how the game goes. If the lines are on the field all day, then it's not going to be an issue for Gibbs to break out some big runs. And if the Vikings can get them off the field or sustain long drives, then maybe you start to put a little bit more pressure on them. I also think that what you're talking about is the nature

of the beast with running backs where one week you get, you know, 200 yards. The next week you get 50, you average 100 or whatever. That's not the right math. But somewhere in that ballpark and you get six yards to carry one week, three yards to carry another week and you end up with five. But, you know, I haven't seen any drop off in the burst, but I'm also going off the last game against Tampa Bay. Yeah, 100%. He is still the same guy. And I, and I think it's, just maybe some miscommunication on the offensive lot like that that obviously plays into what you're losing you lost kevin zitler and frank brag now you threw in two rookies and then you moved a 33 year old veteran position so 100 percent like i i think this is something that

will just keep getting better as the season goes on all right i want you to praise me and congratulate me because right before we recorded this we were talking about aiden hutchinson getting his extension and it came out and we said all right let's take a guess at it because we don't have the numbers yet I said 45 mil a year nailed it right on the money 45 mil a year for aiden Hutchinson yes yes that's right hey maybe I should cover the lines maybe you should cover the lines maybe I should you have that do you have like a nice cool nickname for when you predict stuff correctly I don't I don't know Nolster Damas oh really noster Damas okay everyone goes the Domas though no one ever goes with

any other future that's true that's true so you have to work on that Um, Aiden Hutchinson is really good at football. So he's worth 45 million a year. I think we know that the rest of the defense. This will be fascinating because we're seeing J.J. McCarthy come back. So what is J.J. McCarthy going up against? We know Hutchinson's great. We know he's going to be a problem. Brian O'Neill will be coming off of an injury. So that matchup, uh, is worth watching really closely. How healthy is the secondary going to be? I think is probably the biggest question going into this game. Yeah. The health of the secondary, like, aside, J.J. McCarthy is going to face the best Detroit Lions defense that I've covered since Dan Campbell arrived in 2021. This is a defense that is playing, like when we talked about the offense, all these guys like getting better, that's what's happening on the defensive side of the ball. Jack Campbell looks like one of the best linebackers of football. Derek Barnes, one of the other linebackers having another great season after having his 20. 24 campaign cut short by a knee injury. And then the defensive line has been rolling.

I like it. Tileak Williams has been pretty promising DJ Reader has been awesome inside for them. And they just got to leave McNeil back, which should only like, I think that is a complete game changer for this team. Like you think of like a defensive tackle who maybe not doesn't have like super gaudy pass rushing stats, but he just does so much for everybody else on that defensive line. And you already started to see it against Tampa. where so many, so many dropbacks he was under duress, like the second he hit his hitch.

And I just feel like that defensive line or that front seven can hold the line for as long as they need until the secondary gets healthy. And the secondary is getting healthy. I think Terran Arnold's going to play this weekend. Brian Branch is going to play this weekend. He's back from a one game suspension. and and just Calvin Shepard, I think, when he got hired, I assumed it was a good hire. Like it, not to, not to, you know, show a little homerism here, but like Dan Campbell has

showed an ability to make good hires. And I didn't know it would be this good. Like, his ability to craft a game plan like from scratch every single week, like with a pretty high rate of effectiveness is absolutely incredible. incredible like they um they played the baltimore ravens in week three and the one thing that they had never been able to do under aaron glenn is stop a running quarterback and uh they sacked lamar jackson seven times by using a qb spy who like Calvin shepherd is like always said that he hates cuby spies and then we asked him after the game like do you still hate cuby spies he's like

i wouldn't pay attention to anything i say in public schematically in these things so like he's like a little like he's enjoying it like he's young he's got a ton of energy and And, you know, like he used after the Ravens game, he's like, yeah, I used a game plan that the bills used against Patrick Mahomes to stop Lamar Jackson. And then they play Patrick Mahomes and they're like, okay, well, they'll probably do something a little bit similar. And they blitz like three times all night. Now, it wasn't very successful. They got 30 points put up on them. But they were really, really, really banged up in that secondary.

And I still like admire just the willingness to be like, you know what? they think we're we're throwing him a fastball let's own a curveball and um and just the willingness to kind of try those things and and really not be afraid of the consequences of oh we're getting away from this to we you know it just like go win the football game and i think that's one thing he's done a really really good job of well and my uh criticism of erin glen was it's cover one man i mean it was just over and over incredibly stubborn right yeah right and it didn't really change a whole lot. And you went into a game kind of knowing exactly what you were going to face if you're the Vikings. And now I probably the only game maybe I didn't watch was the

Cleveland game of Detroit. I didn't find that to be necessary. But the other games like this is a different coverage look. This is a different front look. This is a different pressure look. Every one of these games. And I think that that made life difficult on Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay. It also hurt that Mike Evans got banged up in that game. But there was there's just different looks that they're throwing each week. It feels very modern, feels very up to date, which I thought that Aaron Glenn was kind of playing maybe a Jets defense that he had used to play when he was in the league. And he might still be doing that with the New York Jets. So this to me is a tougher challenge for Kevin O'Connell, tougher challenge potentially for Justin Jefferson that he's faced before. And not the easiest team to go up

against for J.J. McCarthy, whereas if you'd said this to me last year or, you know, two years ago, I might have said, all right, well, this is a team that you might want a young quarterback to come in and face. But I think the challenge is going to be very difficult for J.J. McCarthy against this lion's defense. Yeah, especially like I said, with Alim getting back, like that changed everything. You could feel it from from jump. He had a pressure on, I think Baker's first drop back on one of his next ones. He just took the right guard and he just drove them back like a blocking sled on wheels and it was like oh yeah this guy's unbelievable um so yeah it was uh that i think is is something that would terrify me if i were a viking fan going into this game is after one game

of a lead mcneal being back it looked like that now coming off a by where the secondary is healthy where you have brian branch back there instead of lauren strickland and ericallet i think uh is is terrifying for J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is. So let's let's end on this then. The over under for this game on Fanduel, or I'm sorry, the line on this game on Fanduel is eight and a half lions favored. I would take the Lions to cover in this game. Do you agree with that? Yeah. And I think if you like money and you like to bet on the NFL, you should probably just bet on the Lions every single game.

This is not gambling advice, but it, uh, Like, Dan Campbell doesn't lose against the spread. It's kind of remarkable. So, yes, and one thing that they've done very, very consistently over his tenure, and especially as they've gotten good starting in, like, 2023, is they've just beaten the bad teams. Like, they don't, they don't really play a lot of these games that you see the Packers have played lately. We're like, okay, fourth quarter game, three-point game, like, what's, what's going on here?

And then, you know, they'll pull away. Like, what they did the other night in Pittsburgh was impressive. but I do feel like they just find themselves in a lot of these situations where things can go wrong and the lions don't do that and there are some people out there who would you know argue that that's not a good trait or like oh they like they only beat up on crappy teams and it's like well that's not true they just beat the bucks 24 to 9 but I think that that's like one of the best thing or like features a team can have is just like when you play a bad team you just beat the bad team and you move on blowouts are generally much much more predictive even if they're

against bad teams this is a this is a basketball thing like the teams that have the most blowouts and you could say well it was the wizards why you are or the pistons from a couple years ago uh but uh that that signifies a mentality right you know like that the ability to go out and play your a game against the wizards on january 8th when it's minus four degrees outside like that that is a that is a positive side for the mentality. Right. And letting, uh, the say the Cleveland Browns almost beat you and having to get a final drive may be predictive in the opposite way. Uh, Nolan Bianchi, it is always great to get together with you. I am excited to see you and all your Detroit friends that we've

gotten no over the years there, uh, on Sunday. So, uh, hopefully the weather's nice, because I don't know how the football is going to look here for the Minnesota Vikings perspective. But your perspective is great. Thank you for coming on the show. Thank you. And, you know, it's a one o'clock game. We got that call for us. So that is something that we can all, we don't,

we don't got to stay up until prime time for this. I think that's, that's one thing we can all be thankful for. And I know I'm not going to make the same food mistake I made week 18, where I was like, oh, I need to do something before the game. I'll just right before kickoff, pop over and get what's left of the food. So it's all gone.

Yeah. And even if it hadn't been all gone, it probably would have been very good. Probably the worst thing. that happened to week 18 to anyone from Minnesota. Yeah. What's on the menu for Christmas? Do we know? We're like, where do they serve for Christmas at US Bank? Best press box in the league, by the way. U.S. Bank does it great. In terms of setting and like being able to be in the open air press box and you're at midfield, you could argue it's a better perspective up top and Ford Field. But I like feeling like I'm like in the crowd, you know. So yeah, it's unbeatable. I know that they're going to bring their A game.

they usually do so we'll see all right somebody is i'll have breakfast before the game thanks nolan yep thank you