Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Did the Vikings find something on offense in the second half vs. the Colts?

Episode Date: December 20, 2022

Matthew Coller answers fan questions from whether someone is a bad fan if they gave up on Vikings-Colts to the possibility that the defense found some answers to the offense finally using KJ Osborn to its advantage and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Liquid Death, delicious water that's bringing death to plastic. Learn more at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and I cannot tell you how many great questions I have for this fans-only podcast. I will try to give everything I've got, get through all the ones in the file, as many as I can, and we'll try to bring the intensity of the fourth quarter of a Minnesota Vikings game. So I'm not going to hesitate here.

I'm just going to jump right in. I did want to say real quick, thanks to everybody who was patient the other day when there were some issues when it came to uploading. You know, sometimes things happen with Apple and Spotify. It was nothing on our end. It just happened to be a bad day for them and the worst possible day for us considering the Vikings' comeback. But a lot of you, hopefully you found it on YouTube for the reaction and went there because we always record it live. So if you're ever having any problems with downloading or anything else, then just try to go there.

All right, let's jump into the first question. any problems with downloading or anything else, then just try to go there. All right, let's jump into the first question. This comes from at IBeLearning79 on Twitter. As fans, should we be mad, disappointed, or happy with last night's historic win? I'm all of the above. Clinching the NFC North, but doubtful going into the playoffs. Is this the inevitable future for the Vikings until the end of time? Well, yes to that second part. It is the inevitable future of the Minnesota Vikings until the end of time that throughout a season, they will give you the lowest of lows, highest of highs.

You will be completely baffled, befuddled. You will not be able to comprehend what just happened. And then also they will give you some of the most exciting and entertaining moments that you have ever seen in your entire life of watching sports. That is just who the Minnesota Vikings are as a franchise. If this just happened every once in a while, oh, this one weird year they had. Sure. But there's a ton of these. This one has really been excessive, but there's so many seasons in this franchise's history where throughout the year, you can't believe, is it really real? What's going on here? I mean, even 1998, there was a complete unexpected element of 1998. And that's why going into the season when people would ask,

Hey, do you think they can win 13 games? I would always say, look, I don't, I don't close the door on anything with the Minnesota Vikings. I picked them to win 10 games, not 13. I didn't think they'd have the largest comeback in NFL history. Uh, so yeah, I mean, you should always expect the unexpected with this team and someday, and it might be this year, they'll sneak up on you and win the Superbowl. And when you never saw it coming and maybe it is this season, if it was, if it is, then it had to be this way. It had to be in a year where nobody thought that they would actually win the Superbowl, right? It had to be in a year where the GM called it a competitive rebuild and said Kirk Cousins was just a good and not great

quarterback in public before the season. It had to be like that, where they brought back a lot of the same players that had gone 500 for a few years, and then they suddenly stepped up at all the biggest times. It can't just be a year where you're the best team in the league and you outscore everyone, right? Minnesota Vikings could not do it that way. I even said to one of the team employees yesterday in the locker room, it's kind of like, it's just never, it's never normal, right? You can't just win a regular football game, but it has been years and years now since I've covered this team. And yeah, I don't remember any normal victories or losses. It's always got to be crazy. So there is that,

but as far as how you should react to the game, I think that you can be of two minds of that game. Sure. Like, of course you want to be happy that you saw history and celebrate it that day. But when you wake up the next day, you do have to look around and go 33 points against the Colts, huh? Like there has to be a little bit of that in the back of your mind. It deserves to be celebrated. It's a crazy season. It's one game. Anything can happen against any team in one game. I wouldn't make a ton of assumptions off of a blocked punt and a pick six and the strange way the Vikings gave up that 33 points to the Indianapolis Colts. It was kind of like everything that they had had going their way crashed down at them with regression all at once in one half of football. So it wasn't like they just forgot how

to play football entirely. They kind of had some weird things happen. Delvin rips off a 40 yard run and then fumbles. And I was thinking to myself, what if the order of operations had been different? Like what if this thing had just been back and forth, back and forth and all the way to the end and didn't have to be a comeback? How would we feel about it? Probably similarly to some of their other wins, like against new Orleans or against Washington, where you thought maybe you shouldn't have let that team hang around as long as you did or Miami with the third string quarterback. Maybe you shouldn't have let that team hang around, but Hey, you pulled it out at the end.

Again, good for you. And I think that's the feeling you have to come away with is look, the, the baseline of, are you a Superbowl contender is can you win 12 games? Can you go into the playoffs with a home playoff game and give yourself a chance? And because they got that win as crazy as it was, and as weird as it had to be, they're almost there at that baseline that an average Super Bowl team during the Super Bowl era has to win 12. Now, with 17 games, it could be called 12 and a half, but you know what I mean. If they get to 13, you're a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The point differential thing, yeah, might be a little bit of an issue. Where you rank in this and that might not match up with previous Super Bowl contenders.

But if you win 13, then you get to play at home and you have a chance to go do it. So don't apologize for a victory, no matter how ugly and hideous or crazy and wild it got. You can't you can't apologize for a regular season victory that gets you closer to what the ultimate goal is. If you're afraid of the playoffs, I think you're in the bin of almost every Viking fan that is afraid of the playoffs right now because you wanted to see games where they pull away from people. Even in 2019, where this team won 10

and probably could have won 11 if they played their starters, they were more like an 11-win team in Week 18 instead of playing, you know, Sean Mannion or whatever. But, I mean, that team blew out some teams. They blew out the Chargers that year. They blew out the Lions that year. And to have seen where that team went and what happened to that team and not have blowouts against the bad teams that they've faced so far this year. Yeah. I think that you're right to look at your team and go, I don't know. I don't know.

That's fair. It's been that kind of year to be nervous about the playoffs and wonder, are you really strong enough? And that's what we're ultimately going to find out. I don't know if we're going to get that answer over the next couple of weeks, even if they do smack some of these teams, especially the last two that are out of the playoff race, though, I think Chicago and Green Bay will play hard because it's a division opponent. But long story short is that I think when you look back at that game, you will remember the history of it. You'll watch it over and over again. when it comes up on nfl network you won't sit there five years from now thinking about that game or seeing it replayed somewhere or some factoid about it when you're watching another game and go yeah you know i am concerned about the three and

out in the second half you know you know what i mean i i think that uh the long term of that is that it will stay in your memory is something special, especially everybody who went to it. If you were there, that memory is going to stick with you forever or what you were doing or the moment you almost gave up on the game or if you did give up on the game and came back to it and went, what the heck, it's going to be a conversation starter forever. I don't think you should be too upset about that. Okay, let's get to the next question

here from Brent on Twitter. Is there any sign from the defensive play calling that it shifted in the second half of the Colts game? Maybe Ed changed some things or did Mike Pettin take over? I don't know that there's any sign that Mike Pettin has been involved in the play calling at all, or if even that's a conversation, Kevin O'Connell didn't completely dismiss that idea that they could make a change for defensive play calling. But I did notice one thing overall, and it's not split into first and second half, but the Vikings blitzed more than they've blitzed all year. I think that this is their season high, 41% of snaps. And Matt Ryan had a 3.5 yards per attempt when he was blitzed in that game. So they did get more aggressive as far as blitzing. As far as actually creating pressure, he only was pressured on 32% of his

dropbacks, which was 12 out of 37. They really didn't create a ton of pressure on Matt Ryan in that game, but they did blitz more. And that's what I expect down the stretch here and going into the playoffs is I think Kevin O'Connell lost his patience with the cover to stuff. And we're just going to sit back and we're just going to hope that Zedarius Smith and Daniil Hunter get it done, that they are going to be more aggressive. And I noticed it in some big situations. You also have a quarterback in Matt Ryan that has no

capability physically to deal with pressure, but I also think that's true for some other quarterbacks that they could face. We haven't seen Brock Purdy get a whole lot of pressure. How about, you know, Taylor Heineke, who will turn the ball over for sure if you pressure him. Same with Daniel Jones. He's good for a turnover if they end up facing him. I don't think Geno Smith is really that dynamic as far as playmaking and things like that. I think he's at his best when he's just stepping into throws. And they've got some injuries too as well in Seattle. So just looking at, and of course, Jared Goff. I mean, you pressure Jared Goff,

and he's liable to throw it just about anywhere. So they do need to ramp that up, and they need to use, and I think they did in this game, and I'll check it right now, Harrison Smith on occasion, Jordan Hicks on occasion. The data backs up the idea that when you blitz with those guys, that you have a lot of success. I mean, Jordan Hicks was, is one of the better blitzers this year, but he's just not used very often in doing it. So let's take a look here. Um, Jordan Hicks blitz seven times Harrison Smith for Brian Asamoah to Channing Sullivan too so yeah they did they did send a little bit of extra pressure his way and i think that uh and eric kendricks actually blitzed eight times in that game so i do think that that

was the difference that they ramped it up a little more i couldn't tell i mean coverages are so hard to try to figure out on the fly you need to go back look at the film with a coach friend like our buddy cody alexander from a couple ago. If you guys caught that episode, like you really need to study it to see maybe the subtle differences in coverage, but it's not hard to spot with the PFF data if a team is blitzing more and they certainly did that. So you have to give them credit for making that change and we'll see if that continues but if they give up a ton of yards to the New York Giants it will kind of undo that I mean we are talking about the 31st ranked offense in the Colts coming in so I was ready to say it was a get right game and

weirdly it was okay yeah there's 36 points on the board and yet it was a get right game for the defense i totally think it was now how do they carry that over as they face you know some offenses that are pretty mediocre here over the next few weeks uh this one comes from david via email fans only question for you i've been a fan since 1995 when i was seven. I've seen all the modern Viking heart attacks. Am I a bad fan for turning off the game in the first quarter and taking a mental health day from the Vikings? No, of course not. Of course not. What would you say is a bad fan? I mean, in general, like, is that somebody that spends all day just yelling at other people online? I think of people who aren't even really fans of the team, who just use the team to get attention for themselves or to just fight with other people because they're taking out their anger or something.

Or fans that go to the stadium and throw beers on people. When I think of a bad, like that's what I, when I think of like a bad fan, that's what I think of. But there's a lot of different ways to be a fan of a team. I mean, there's the person who dresses up as, you know, whatever, a Viking at the game and puts the horns on and everything else and paints their face.

There's the person who sits at home quietly on their couch and watches the game and then reads purple insider recaps and, you know, doesn't talk about it a whole lot. There's people who have entire friendships based on around the team. I mean, there's so many different ways to be a fan of the team, but I think this season has been as stressful on the fans as any I've ever seen. And last year coming off of that, just as well. I mean, last year you have a lot of drama that went along with it, with the coach, with Delvin cook, with Everson Griffin, a lot of things happened last year. And then of course, you know,

the COVID stuff that cropped up late in the season there. I mean, so many things were happening last year that was stressful. And on a week to week basis, I mean, my gosh, they will just push you to the edge. And some people like that. I mean, it's thrilling when they pull one out for sure for all the fans. I mean, inside the stadium, it was insane. The atmosphere toward the end of that game when they could one out for sure for all the fans. I mean, inside the stadium, it was insane. The atmosphere toward the end of that game when they could feel it. But I also think that, I mean, if you have any life at all, you probably have stressors around the holidays.

And if you just couldn't take it that day and you decided, I'll check in, see what happened later. No, I don't blame you at all, man. I think that people do put a lot of, in a way like pressure on themselves as fans. Like, am I a, am I a bad fan? If I question the defense or if I don't think they'll win the super bowl, like, no, you're, you're not a bad fan for having opinions on the team or worrying about whether this will work out or taking a break from them. Or, I mean, I don't suggest that you stop listening to the pod, but like, if you took a

break from all Vikings content because it was stressing you out, I mean, that's okay. As long as it's not this show, that's totally fine to take a break from everyone else, but me. No, I'm just kidding. But no, of course not. Of course not. Everybody has to do that with their hobbies from time to time. And, and, and you're all good there, man. Like if they win the Superbowl, you can still be equally as happy that you took a mental health day to, you know, after the first quarter of that game. All right. This one comes from Pam. What happened with the early plan by the new regime that involves the illusion of complexity? Was that part of the offensive scheme or defensive? And can that start helping the team look as good as they should be? Yeah. I mean, I think that every single team wants to do that.

Every single team and every single coaching staff will talk about on the offensive side, Hey, we want to marry the run in the pass because you want to run play actions and you want to have the defense unclear, you know, whether they're running a play action or handing the ball off. You want to, every coach wants to run the football effectively and then play pass off of that. So yes, like that's something that's an emphasis, but it's also an emphasis for literally all 32 coaching staffs on the defensive side. What that referred to is that they would play two deep safeties on almost every single down. And then after the snap, they would either rotate a safety

down into the box after the snap to indicate like a single high or to play a cover three, which means just three people deep, a single high safety, and then two corners playing along the sidelines. So they think, you know, it's harder for the quarterback when he drops back to not be able to tell, is it going to be this or that, especially if they turn their back on a play action? Is it going to be the single high? Is it going to be the two high? Are they rolling a safety this way or that way over to the number one or over to the number two receiver or whatever? There's a lot of different things to that. But the basic principle is that they show a two high look, two deep safeties every time playing way back. And then

one of them sometimes will come down into the middle of the field. They call it a robber. There's other words for it. Or they'll drop back and play deep in what people keep referring to as this shell type of coverage. And when you look at the Vikings coverage breakdown. PFF has these stats that they don't make public, but sometimes if you make a request to somebody, you know, there, you could get this information. They split up those coverages. They don't always play two deep safeties. They split up between cover three and two deep, but it always looks the same at the snap. That's what they were referring to. Now, that's a sound way of going about it, and there are lots of teams that go about it that way, and it's been effective under Vic Fangio in Denver and in Chicago.

The problem is that they haven't pressured the quarterbacks consistently, which is a big deal, and they're off coverages. I think that there's just been miscommunications or bad reads or not reading things fast enough or not making plays on the ball, and a lot of that has to come down to talent. And I'm really interested, by the way, to see if Duke Shelley keeps playing and not Cam Dantzler. We will see this week because Dantzler did not play,

and Chris Boyd came in at the end of that game. And I wonder if they feel like Duke Shelley is a little bit better of a fit for what they're doing than Cam Dantzler, which, you know after a good start to the season. It seems like he's been attacked quite a bit. He had the injury then in between, but his numbers are as bad as it gets in the NFL when targeted. So, you know, there might be something to that, but I think that every team is trying to give the illusion to the offense that they're playing a different defense than they are. And they want things to look more complicated for the offense that they're playing a different defense than they are. And they want things to look more complicated for the quarterback than they actually are. And that's kind of the general principle of that, but there's no, there's no making up for corners who can't cover or coverage busts or, you know, rushers that aren't getting home. Like those are, those are the basics

that if you played the most basic defense in the NFL, but you had the best front four and two shutdown corners, like you're probably even, even if the other team knew what you were doing, you're probably going to put up a great defense, just sort of the reality of the NFL that a lot of times it comes down to talent. Um, but I also think that, you know, them increasing the blitzes was long overdue, and we'll see how that plays out. It's the most wonderful time of the year, folks. And what I mean is that time where you put liquid death in your family's stockings just to see their reactions. No, seriously, I know you guys have heard me talk a lot about liquid death for weeks now,

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liquiddeath.com slash insider. And yes, it does fit in a stocking. Uh, this one comes from, uh, swerving Mervin on Twitter. Let's see. You said, and I totally agreed that the Vikings needed to lay a beating on the Colts. I did say that, uh, they didn't, but their offense went off and they held Indy's offense in check. The special teams were the massive failure and the easiest to correct on this team. How are we supposed to feel about this? You know, I would say that the offense is not without blame for them getting behind by 33. The fumble is kind of a random thing by Delvin Cook, but I mean, they threw a pick six. They had a couple three and outs. They looked like the pressure was getting to Kirk Cousins they weren't very much on the same page I mean they could have made up for some of those other miscues had they been rolling on offense but from the start of that game they

really weren't and then they went completely off in the second half and circumstances matter so much and I'm not taking anything away from the way the offense played. That was unbelievable. But you were playing from behind, and we know that Kirk Cousins demolishes these shell coverages or these prevent defenses. We've seen it so many times. And he had essentially an entire half of playing against prevent defenses.

I'll look up right now how much pressure Kirk Cousins faced in that game, because it did not feel like a whole heck of a lot, which is again, another truth of Kirk Cousins is that, yeah. Oh, hardly any. I mean, he was only pressured on 17 dropbacks out of 62, which is 27%. And when he was pressured, he went three for nine with, let's see, several sacks. Yeah, he got sacked a couple times in that game. So three for nine with 31 yards. And when he was clean, he threw for 429 yards, four touchdowns. So, you know, I mean, that's the fundamental Kirk Cousins for sure. So circumstances played a little bit of a role in it. I don't think we can say in the past, Hey, he's racking up stats when they're behind,

but then not acknowledge it when it happens over these last two weeks in which they did not play an offensive play from ahead, I believe in the last two weeks. And those are two 400 yard games. So I think that the offense did find some things, including KJ Osborne, including Delvin Cook in the passing game that they can carry over. I thought that Christian Derrissaw is just a great, great player who makes a huge difference on this team. So that matters. Him being back was very relevant.

And there are good things to walk away from the last two weeks where you feel like they're finally doing some of the stuff that you expected them to do. But also we have to go, all right, was that in part because Indy started to get really, really conservative with the way that they play defense? And is this really reflective? And I'll give you a good example of this. This is a crazy stat. Kirk Cous blitzed six times, the whole game six this year. That's when he's been at his worst of his career against the blitz this season.

And the Indianapolis Colts blitzed him six times and they just let, wow. I mean, look, I'm, I mean, remember that one forever. Give all the credit due. So not, not a criticism, but holy cow. Can Jeff Saturday not coach, right? Like, wow. Six blitzes the whole game and they just let the Vikings rip them apart. So I would say that there's a lot of things actually to feel great about with the offense. And there's some stuff to go. I wonder about the context and circumstance and if you can carry it over. But Osborne, I don't think you can underplay. Osborne being a big part of this

and Delvin Cook in the passing game. Where has that been all season? But if it shows up now, absolutely better late than never. As far as the defense goes, again, there's definitely some signs of progress. I mean, mixing in a player like Asamoah, having him blitz, having Harrison Smith blitz, things like that, things that we've wanted to see, but it's also the 31st ranked offense.

So you kind of, and not only that, but it's the 31st ranked offense playing from way ahead. So they're playing to their most conservative, not pushing the ball down the field almost at all. And let me see if I can just sort of make this point with Matt Ryan and his passing depths for that game. So let's see here. As far as depth goes, yeah. So five passes behind the line of scrimmage, 12 between 0 and 9, 9 between 10 and 19, and three attempts over 20 yards, which is to say that they were throwing the ball short almost every time. And Matt Ryan, when he threw between 10 and 19, went 7 for 9 with 124 yards. So he actually performed quite well

throwing a little bit down the field in the intermediate areas, but they didn't keep doing it after succeeding on it early. So there's context for sure, but I think you walk out of that one saying you survived, you found some things that you can keep using,

you found more belief in yourself. Like that's what I was saying earlier. Like you can't look at this and say, say oh what a terrible thing that they came back i mean you know look the the bills team that did it went to the super bowl so i don't know like it happens that you get behind and finding a way to get back is good but i wouldn't take all the conclusions away from that to say wow that like now they have this elite offense or this elite defense, but I think they moved the meter in a positive direction in both areas. Okay. Let's see. Um, Matt friend of the show, the Vikings currently rank third in the NFL in

team war produced, pulling out the defensive numbers. They are sixth. If I calculate correctly in total war produced compare that to the bills for example who fall a decent bit lower than the vikings yet are one of the best defenses in the league help me understand this it seems to me like the bill scheme is a huge factor and differentiator and while the vikings is not what am i not considering here that could impact their strong war defensively yet lack of defensive success? So when you look at, and you're talking about wins above replacement, when you say war, just in case people don't know that PFF does have a metric for this, they just don't make it

searchable or public. It's kind of like those coverage stats I was talking about earlier, but every once in a while, their personalities will tweet it. And I think it was Ben Brown who tweeted it. Here's how I would explain that. I mean, one, certainly scheme has been very questionable to the point where even the head coach is questioning it. So it's not just you and it's not just me, right? It's the head coach as well saying we have to look ourselves in the mirror and be honest.

But when you think about war, it's like creating wins is big plays for one. They've had a ton of big plays. They've had individuals who have been outstanding. I think Zedarius Smith has made a case for defensive player of the year. I don't know if he's getting attention for this or not, but he has 71 pressures. That's nuts. That's number one in the entire NFL. That's going to rack up a lot of wins above replacement. And as much as Daniil Hunter early in the season struggled to adapt, he has the same PFF grade as Zedarius Smith. And he has been good against the run. He's got 54 pressures now. I mean, he's really ramped that up in recent weeks. Patrick Peterson, corners are worth a lot when it comes to wins above replacement. When targeting Patrick Peterson, opposing quarterbacks have a 70.7 quarterback rating. I mean, all these things

from their top end players have been a huge deal. But when you go down to the bottom, when you're looking at all the PFF grades and you see a bunch of other corners who have struggled, I mean, Cam Bynum, of course, a safety has had a lot of big plays against him. Caleb Evans, Andrew Booth Jr., you know, Chandon Sullivan, their weaknesses have really caused them to give up a lot of explosive plays. And I think that's what it is, is that their weaknesses, the linebackers haven't fit very well into the scheme. Eric Kendrick's coverage numbers have never been worse. Those types of things, while they may not be counteracted by the war,

they do show up in the total yardage because they're attacking kind of the same players. That's the best way I can explain it. But of course, Sean McDermott is one of the best defensive minds in the entire universe. And that's how he got that job. Not by being flashy. He's the least quoted coach that I ever see. I don't see anything on NFL Network. Oh, Sean McDermott said this or that.

He's not a self-promoter. I mean, I just think he's a great defensive mind, which is what got him there. The other thing too, is that in Buffalo, I think it's more of a complete effort. So the Vikings have these three or four players who have a ton of war or a ton of the contributions. Whereas in Buffalo, maybe instead of one guy getting all the sacks, there's like five guys that are spreading out the sacks. And maybe instead of one guy getting a lot of picks, there's a couple, you know, a couple different guys that have spread out the PBUs and the picks. Unlike with this team where it's mostly Patrick Peterson, that's the best way I can explain it. Uh, I think So, you know, you take a lot of different stats

and try to kind of get as close to the truth as you can. And I think that this defense has enough great players to make big plays at huge times and enough weak players to always give up big plays at the worst times. That's the best way I think I can explain it. Folks, you have just days left before Christmas. So make sure you're going to SodaStick.com to get all of your Minnesota sports inspired goods.

That's hats, t-shirts, hoodies, SodaStick.com, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.com. Use the promo code Purple Ins insider there for your last minute holiday shopping. All right. Next comes from Aaron. This is the most bizarre Viking season I can ever recall. And a few and few off field issues makes everything more strange. I have a fan's only question.

KJ Osborne had a career day. What made this game so different? And can that success be repeated going forward? Also, what's the probability you write a book about 2022? I don't know about the probability of me writing another book about a Vikings season, but I will tell you if they get to the Super Bowl, then it will happen. If they get to the NFC Championship game, it might have to be by a miracle for me to do it again. But, you know, the Minneapolis miracle was really something. And I am working on a book, but it's about something else at the moment, which I cannot reveal as of yet.

But it's not about the 2022 season. We're going to need a couple of more of these crazy games in order for me to get there, because that's quite an undertaking to write an entire book about it. But I mean, this is, it's getting to the area of being worth it. I think just, you know, the playoff success, that's probably what's got to happen. But to your question about KJ Osborne, and it is a good one, and I don't really have a concrete answer to this. You know, I think that KJ Osborne has been open at times throughout this season, and he's just been missed. I mean, when I look at even kind of the percentage of receptions

that he's made on a week-to-week basis, there's been a lot of games where he was targeted eight times in Buffalo. One of the passes just goes flying over his head, turns into an interception. New England, he was only targeted twice. Again, though, just a bad throw went to him. And with this one, my guess is that Indianapolis was putting so much attention on Justin Jefferson that it just opened up the door for KJ Osborne to be open and make plays. And one thing we do know about KJ Osborne over the last two years is that he has the talent. I don't think that it's a talent issue. I think it's really been a fit

issue that so much is aimed at Justin Jefferson that maybe they haven't been getting to the second, third, fourth options. There's also another element of possibly TJ Hawkinson playing a role here that having TJ Hawkinson be a concern for opposing teams as he gets more and more comfortable that that might cause more attention to go toward him and leave KJ Osborne open could just be kind of a random thing like sometimes the order of operations influences us so much so last year here's a good example of that so last year KJ Osborne started off super hot like crazy hot I think he caught his like first 15 passes or something and then you look toward the end of the year and he faded. I mean, even when he was called upon a little more middle and end of the year,

he had a game with 10 yards, 20 yards, zero yards, 19, five, 47. That was a middle part of the season, but you don't remember that, right? Because you remember he started out hot and you thought, oh, well, okay, they've got their receiver. So he's got 45 catches right now. He ended last season with 50. I mean, doesn't that feel crazy that that's the case, but that's kind of how it goes sometimes is if a guy has a hot start, you remember that more than you remember some of the slow games that they had. And plus, Jefferson was so good in a lot of those games that maybe you wouldn't notice

if KJ Osborne had 10 yards or something. But this year, the offense has sputtered a little more and you notice. But overall, I think he's a good player that the more he's involved, the better you are. And I also think like Kevin O'Connell, you can trust these other guys, like these other guys to make plays. Adam Thielen's been stepping up more recently. Osborne and Delvin Cook, you know, in the passing game, like trust them. This one comes from Derek via email.

I've heard you say that there's not much of a difference between the 2 and 3 seed. I agree that health is more important, but are we underplaying the significance of the two and three? The two seed comes with a second home playoff game. As far as Super Bowl chances are concerned, I think a second home playoff game boosts the odds quite a bit. It shouldn't be prioritized over health, but I think that there's still a lot on the line this season. It's a great question, man. And I'll tell you, I don't really know. I don't really know how they're going to view it. I know from my perspective that I think, and I could be wrong, I think the home road thing is probably a bit overrated.

Now you might say, hey, it's U.S. Bank Stadium, man. Like, that's the place. That's where you want to be. And that's true. That's true. The Saints came back from down 17 in the Minneapolis Miracle game against the number one defense in that place. Dallas beat them 40-3 in U.S. Bank Stadium.

I'm sure that they're a better team there than they are on the road. That's probably true. But I just have this in my mind that if you play your starters and you lose somebody of significance that hurts you, like, what are you going to do? There's no answer. It's not like they have another receiver. We saw Jalen Rager's weaknesses. And that's why when people were asking, Hey, could he take over for Osborne? It's like, no, probably not. Uh, because he has weaknesses as a receiver. You can't have him out there as wide receiver three. Uh, you know, I don't know Irv Smith's health situation, but if Hawkinson got hurt and you're playing Johnny months, that's a

huge loss. Zadarius or, or Daniil, like you got no pass rush at that point. Patrick Peterson, who are you playing at corner? Like there's so many tenuous situations here. I feel like you have to win. This is just my opinion. This is not saying what the team's going to do. I don't know. You have to win the first to win the second. And I guess I look at it that way. And usually there's a, you know, there can be upsets on the first weekend and maybe you're going to play at home anyway. Like, I don't, I don't know. It's a really hard choice. It's a really hard choice. I, if I said it super definitively, which I may have, you know, I'm, I'm not like I lean like 55, 45 on that. I just think the health is so important.

Somebody rolls an ankle. Somebody takes a pot shot at Jefferson. Just anything could make this so much harder as far as getting all the way through the playoffs. And if you look at, you know, who succeeds in the postseason, health is one of the number one things. I mean, even, you know, there's been teams that have had to go on the road in the playoffs before, and they've been able to win. I'm trying to think about last year. So Cincinnati played at home against the Raiders, right?

Did they go on the road in their run? They must have at some point, right? So I don't know. Like, it's a hard one. It's a hard one. Um, if you go by Vegas, they believe that home field advantage is now overrated. They used to give three points. I don't think they do that anymore.

Just because they've run all the numbers, it might be different in the playoffs. I'll ask. I will ask guests and get their opinion and try to ask around for the analytics on this if there are numbers that can tell us that. But man, if you lose Christian Derisar, Brian O'Neill, or like anybody who's a key member of this team, it's going to be hard to convince me they can go all the way through the playoffs. That was my logic. And again, you know, I might be wrong. Okay, let's see. Can we do, can we do one more here, one or two more? Let's see.

This one comes from Brent. Love the podcast. Hypothetical GM question for you. Let's say you are Quacey GM. Kirk comes to you at the end of the season, loves being a Viking, wants to play four more years and retire in Minnesota. Let's toss out the current contract. Give me four years, $ million guaranteed. Oh no,

buddy. It's going to be more than that. It's going to be more than that. Yep. In the current, in the current state of things with quarterbacks, it will be more than that. I would assume that he'd be asking for, uh, anyway, would you consider it given, uh, given you could have a starter for the foreseeable future space to add players, extend Jefferson, and the ability to draft and mold a new quarterback. I am going to tell you that Kirk Cousins will not take any deal that's not great for him. And that's not a criticism.

It's just a reality. It's just a reality. And you know what his agent's going to say? Hey guys, you gave me the best deal, as I always get, Mr. McCarthy, his agent, and you won a lot of games, so I guess you can do it. I guess it wasn't my client's fault, right? I mean, aren't you saying that if you're his agent? But I look at what happened against Indy as the tipping point to definitively say Kirk Cousins signs an extension.

I mean, hey, look, you know, anything can happen. And sometimes we say things definitively and they don't come to fruition. But in this case, are you telling me that this team's going to win 12 or 13 games and have a comeback like that and all the comebacks they had and then they're gonna come to the table and say no no sorry kirk we're going the alex smith route like i'd be very surprised i'd be very surprised at this point i think that was a tipping point game where they're going to say let's make him the viking quarterback for life we've proven that we can put ourselves in a chance to win. And the only way that this could be changed,

and we do know this ownership will change on a whim, is if they go into the first round and score three points against Washington and lose 21-3 and get booed off the field and Cousins throws for 140 yards and gets sacked five times. Maybe, maybe. But all the things that he's shown this year, the way the team has come around him, the way he's connected with the coach,

the way he's gotten Jefferson the ball, I just have a very tough time thinking that he's going to just, you know, or that they're going to just be like, okay, well, sorry, Kirk, we're going to, you know, you're getting older, so we're going to just be like, okay, well, sorry, Kirk, we're going to, you know, you're getting older. So we're going to sign somebody up. Like this is, this is kind of a Joe Flacco or Matt Ryan situation with the contract where those guys went to the Superbowl. And you know, if that happens, we'll see, but like you've had so much success that they're probably going to react to that and bring him back. You know, I instantly dismissed the $80 million guaranteed over four years.

Let me take a look at some other contracts real quick before we're kind of done with this conversation. I mean, okay, so think about Russell Wilson, right? Now, we didn't know Russell Wilson was going to be a disaster, but this is the best comp. Russell Wilson signed a five-year deal for $165 million guaranteed and $124 million at signing. And guess what year Russell Wilson was drafted? The same year as Kirk Cousins.

They are both the same age. That is the price. It's not $80 million. That's the price. It's $120 million. That's the price. It's 120 million is going to be what it costs. So there you go. There you go. Uh, okay. So I still have some more questions to get to at some point and I will try my best to get to as many as I can. Actually, there was one more I was going to try to fit in here. Okay, from our buddy who asks a lot of good questions

at Rattrappin. Time of possession and number of plays on defense seem to have had a direct correlation for how we perform the week after. The Lions game, the defense was on its heels all game and been on the play

for 85 plays against the Jets. Do you see a way for the offense and an eventually healthy offensive line of making a deep playoff run with the ability to control the clock and keep the defense off the field? You know, I think they've wanted to throughout the year, and I just don't think that's the way this team can win. I fully believe that some of the conservative play calling from Kevin O'Connell,

the short passing and things like that, part of it has been that they wanted to keep the defense off the field, and I just don't think it works. I think it has to be all gas, no brakes, like just lean into pushing the ball with Kirk Cousins, opening up the offense, and the best way to make life easy on the defense is probably to just outscore the

other team. I mean, because I, I don't know that there's any way around it that, you know, you have to get stops to not be on the field. Right. And you can't turn the ball over. That is a problem. I agree. I just don't think there's any solving that issue. This team does have three and outs. So you have to be aggressive and try to score on every opportunity that you can if you try to play to keep the defense off the field it's just it's probably going to result in a lot of punts which puts them back on the field uh the best way is to get first down after first down big plays keep them standing over there while while you're you know putting up points i think but yeah i mean i've always thought you know that was the whole thing. It was like, how can we keep Brady off the field?

We'll run the ball. It was like, yep, you're going to run yourself right into punts. And then Brady will say, thank you. So yeah, I don't think there's any easy answer to that one. Appreciate all the questions. We'll get to more as we go along. And what a crazy week. What a crazy week.

It always is. But man, who is not looking forward to purple insider covering a playoff game? Huh? Have not had that chance in the two years of existence. So in year three, we get that opportunity. So we'll all do it together. Thanks so much for all your questions.

We will do this again very soon.