Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Do the Vikings' good vibes increase their chances against the Eagles? Plus, Lewis Cine will make his debut

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Will Ragatz of Sports Illustrated joins Matthew Coller to do a hardcore preview of Vikings-Eagles. The Vikings' defense will face its first tough test from an elite wide receiver. Do we think Jalen Hurts is good? Will the Vikings' run defense perform better? How might they use Lewis Cine in his debut? And all feelings around the Vikings are good, could that help them in the short and long run? Or is it just a reaction to a Week 1 win over Green Bay?  -- For more of Matthew's Vikings coverage, head to purpleinsider.substack.com For bonus discussions, interview clips, and more videos, check out our YouTube channel! Interact with us on Twitter! @Purple_Insider Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar along with Will Rangitz inside of TCO Performance Center where we are prepared to provide you with a hardcore preview of Vikings and Eagles even though you have to wait till Monday. But this is the hardcore preview. Will, what is going on? Not a whole lot. Good to be back in the facility today.

And, yeah, it's going to be fun. Monday night, we're both going to be there in Philly. I'm looking forward to it. The two 1-0 teams, two teams that look like they could be NFC contenders. So, I mean, maybe that's a little premature to say about both teams after one week, but I think on paper this has a chance to be a really good game. Isn't it funny that all of a sudden Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are doing the games and they give them good games on Monday Night Football

after many years of not having interesting matchups on Monday Night Football? It was barely better than Thursday Night Football, and I haven't looked at the whole slate, but this is a good one to have the Vikings going back to Philadelphia where something may have happened a few years ago. But, you know, the thing I was thinking about going into this game, though, was and Kirk Cousins sort of avoided this question, was that Kirk has a lot of experience playing in Philadelphia with Washington, had some good games there and was really good in 2018. It might have been Kirk Cousins best best game maybe it's being aggressive here but like best win

is a viking that was not in the division that wasn't against the packers last year against the packers was pretty good but when he went to philly in 2018 and won he showed a lot of poise and toughness in that game and that was like that was not an easy situation to go back into where the team had lost in 2017 a lot of emotions for a lot of people on the team not named Kirk and pull out a win in that game so it feels like we talk about Kirk under the bright lights a lot and Monday Night Football and and all those things but Philadelphia is a place where it feels like he should be pretty comfortable yeah he has experience there Kevin O'Connell has experience there from his time in

washington uh they both talked really about how just it is one of the top atmospheres in the nfl in terms of like the rowdiness of the fans the noise the the hostility i think is a good word so yeah it's going to be a tough road environment a tough environment to play your first road game but i think a lot of players just being competitors kind of relish that, like the opportunity to make plays and kind of silence a crowd. And football coaches and players always talk about that, hey, it's our team against the world. It's us against 70,000. And I think they're going to embrace that mindset. Now, it presents some real practical challenges when you might have to go to silent counts and communication becomes a lot tougher I think it's a probably a safe bet that they're going to not only be

penalized like two or three times like they were in the first game like that's just harder to avoid when you're on the road but the key will be not having that get out of control in any way and still playing a disciplined game and being able to communicate on both sides of the ball and but yeah you're right Kirk Cousins has played there before he's played well that's not going to be a new or unfamiliar environment for him at all I want to ask your opinion on what you think of the vibes at the moment because this was something that we talked about throughout the offseason before training camp started that vibes would matter during training camp. Like how are they responding to Kevin O'Connell? How does it look

on a daily basis? And it was up and down mostly on a daily basis, but I don't think that the vibes ever really changed. There didn't seem to be a lot of frustration or annoyance or people taking shots at the coach or anything like that, which, you know, sometimes you get pretty strong hints throughout a training camp if there's something wrong. And then after one week, you could not have asked for it to go any better to have great vibes coming off of a game against Green Bay. My question is, is that actually going to help them? Like you have the coach getting slimed by Nickelodeon or whatever. You have Justin Jefferson coming with this massive game right out of the gate. Kirk Cousins plays extremely well.

And all of that covered up some things that could actually be concerns, like they didn't stop the run. Now they're playing one of the best running teams in the league, if not the best. They gave up a lot of pressure 42 pressure rate for cousins which was about 10 higher than it was for all of last year against a defensive line that's got some huge gentlemen that are going up against a weak interior so i wonder if like some of the stuff because it went so well it was easy to overlook and sort of go like oh okay well who

cares because they won 23-7 but now they face another very difficult opponent and I guess I wonder about your opinion on whether vibes can help them in any tangible way well it certainly can't hurt I think would be would be how I look at it and you're right the vibes could not possibly be higher right now around this team and and that was true throughout the offseason. We heard players rave about how much fun they're having coming to work and just the new culture and the new environment. And to start off the way they did with a win that went really well on both sides of the ball,

in front of your home crowd, against your biggest rival, it really validated, at least for one week, that kevin o'connell and his staff have been building and these players have been building all offseason now the question is yeah like like you said does that actually help them in any way i'm not sure that it does exactly but it really can't hurt to have everybody feeling good and feeling confident and just enjoying the the for lack of a better word, the vibe around the team. Now they're going into Philly and there are a lot of real challenges here. In my initial pick, I think I took the Eagles to win this game in a close one because just because you win in week

one and look good against the Packers, it's one week. We're not going to crown the Vikings as these future Super Bowl champions and everything's good and it's all week. We're not going to crown the Vikings as these future Super Bowl champions and everything's good and it's all rosy. There are real concerns still, especially against this Eagles team that we can dive into, like the interior of the offensive line. Garrett Bradbury and Ed Ingram run blocked really well, like we thought they would, and pass protect very well, I mean, which isn't a surprise from Garrett Bradbury, not really a surprise from Ed Ingram, a rookie making his first start against Kenny Clark and players like that. So that's a concern against Fletcher Cox, Javon Hargrave, this rookie Jordan Davis, who is just massive. Only played 22 snaps in week one. I would imagine that number goes up a little bit,

especially if you're Jonathan Gannon, the Eagles defensive coordinator. You're like, hey, the Vikings are starting Garrett Bradbury at center. Like, maybe let's play Jordan Davis a little more. That doesn't seem like a good matchup for Minnesota. So there's that. There's just the running game, the threat that they present. They led the league in rushing yards last year by at least a margin of at least 10 yards over the second-place team.

Jalen Hurts is like a running back. Like, the way he's built, he's like a kyler murray or lamar jackson in that he's just this incredibly fast like lightning quick gonna make guys miss all and he has some of that in his game but like he can break tackles like he's he's a sturdy sturdily built guy and then they have mile sanders who's a good running back like there are some real threats here so i think the question is going to, if things don't go as perfectly in this game, especially if they lose, especially if they lose and it's maybe not even close, which is always a possibility, what does that mean for the vibes? Like, is everything still going to be all roses and everything, rainbows and sunshine around here?

And you shouldn't get too high off of a win. You shouldn't get too high off of a win. You shouldn't get too low off of a loss. And I think this team has the leadership and the coaching and the player-led leadership to kind of stay level. So we'll see. But right now, vibes are through the roof. We kind of write the story after usually. So if they go to Philly and they lose by 20, then it's up.

They were too high in themselves. They got cocky after that Packers win. But if they go win by 20, it's oh, it's because they are so confident and because the coach has instilled this confidence in the team. I do think that any time I've ever been around a team that has won a big game, they always feel great. I mean, this is a universal thing, but what the vibes are built for, and Adam Thielen said this kind of from day one, and I think we've seen it

come through this moment, is it's built for surviving when things don't go well. And that's where Kevin O'Connell will be tested in difficult moments or even in difficult moments within games. So he's talked a lot in his first two press conferences this week about how there were things that he felt like he left on the table and there were regrets that he had. Maybe I should have called this play. Maybe I shouldn't have left this in the playbook and things like that, even as well as it went, that he's being very analytical and self-critical in that process but during a game if something's not working because they came out against the packers and they drove the field and they scored and they were up and they were never not up it was just like good all the way through

top to bottom and so we haven't seen so many different tests that will come along the way if you lose two games in a row, if you get down by 14 points early, if you yada, yada, yada, if Kirk Cousins isn't playing well, this was something that Kevin Stefanski, I thought was absolutely brilliant at. And I'm reminded of the game in let's see, Kansas city, 2019. Now they lost the game because Harrison Butker kicked like a 52 yard field goal or something to win it. But Cousins was playing pretty poorly. He had that like deer in the headlights look and Kevin Stefanski drew up like five screens in a row and they led down for a touchdown. It was like, okay, he seems to really

understand how to shake Cousins out of it. Not always. And no one ever has. But I wonder about that, because when he was talking about their communication, being in their headset, understanding what the quarterback needs to hear, trying to even emphasize certain points. And if you remember, there was that golf storyline with Sean McVay, how McVay would read the defense and then try to get some extra little pointers about where to read the defense right before the play. And I wonder if there is some advantage to having the head coach be a former quarterback, be able to emphasize certain things, and be able to guide Cousins through those tough moments

that have really defined Cousins as a quarterback. Like as great as the highs have been, the lows are he comes out and has a rough first drive and everyone goes oh no it's one of those games and it never seems to get the wheels turning until they're down 21 and then they go score two touchdowns and lose by seven like that's I think that will be sort of the true test and not only for O'Connell and not only for Kirk but in the past we've seen Kirk standing way away from the receivers. We've seen receivers throwing their arms up. We've seen Adam Thielen and cousins on the sideline. Like if O'Connell's vibes galvanize these players better, it is possible. I think

that that is the one tangible thing to work through the tougher moments better than when the head guy has set sort of this very anxious situation. The other part of it too, is the last two years they've been in the hole so early, they lost the first game. They start one in three last year. They start one in five the year before. So there's nothing happy about that because you're digging yourself out of the hole. So as much as Mike Zimmer's vibe himself was bad a lot of times, part of the reason it's been so miserable is because they're always under 500, always scratching and clawing. If they can win this game, it starts you out. There's such an advantage to getting to 2-0. Yes, winning good, right?

But there's such an edge to getting to a couple of wins to start the season. So when you do lose, it's like, hey, we're still above 500. We're still right there in the playoff race. Not every loss feeling like it's Armageddon. Yeah. It's kind of like a chicken and egg situation. Like, are the vibes good? Are you winning because the vibes are good or are the vibes good because you're winning? And they work hand in hand. I think it's a good point that you made that like a lot of the the real test is going to be with Kirk and with Kevin and the entire offense like that relationship and all we've heard about it could not have started any better they go down they score a touchdown on their opening drive Kirk plays really well like mistake free football throw some guys open specifically Justin Jefferson

with anticipation it was it was kind of a best case scenario for the offense in a lot of ways there were a few uh drives that stalled obviously but like how is that gonna look if like you said if Kirk comes out and the opening drive is a three and out and suddenly we're okay now now this is an actual test of how do we adapt. This is a good defense. Like, how does the lines of communication work where you're in a really, really loud environment and O'Connell's trying to talk into his ear and O'Connell's getting feedback from Wes Phillips up top on things that they might want to adjust to.

So it's absolutely going to be a big part of the test of going on the road. And if things don't go well, I'm curious to see how they'll adjust. Well, all right, let's talk about the hardcore X's and O's of this matter. And I'm just going to throw out something that might be an edge for the Eagles over the Vikings. And you tell me how you think they'll counteract it.

And if it matters. So last week, 6.2 yards per carry allowed by the Vikings run defense. The reason that I would say don't get too concerned about that is because the Packers were down in the game. And when you're down in the game and you're trying to come back, what is the defense playing for? They're playing for the deep ball. Like don't throw a deep against us. We're going to play our safeties back. We're going to give up the run plays it resulted in one very long touchdown drive for aaron rogers and the packers where they just handed off to aj dylan a bunch of times and then ran a reverse but you'll take

that when you're winning by a couple scores like okay yeah run the clock out on yourself whatever else um i but how do you feel about it because i look at it and say that's part of the theory and it's also game situation dictated that number but also last year they lost two games that come to mind right away the browns and the rams game purely because they could not stop the run and those teams just ran and ran and ran and if you let philly do it they will run on you the entire game they're one of the few teams in the league that could do that yeah no they absolutely are and it starts with having a quarterback who can run uh but also the the weapons that they have the the kind of like multiplicity they have with when when jalen hurts drops back he can hand it off he can tuck in and run he can throw it they pose a lot of problems for you as an offense i agree with you that that I don't think the run defense against the Packers is a

huge concern, partially because of game script and scenario, like what the situation was with the Packers being behind. But also, like, in general, when you play the Packers, you are focusing on Aaron Rodgers and trying to stop the pass. So they're going to go into this game, and the focus is going to be we need to stop the run and get them into some difficult third and longs and make Jalen Hurts beat us with his arm and ideally beat us by throwing the ball to somebody other than A.J. Brown who he targeted like as much as he targeted anyone else like he targeted him 13 times last week 10 catches on 32 pass attempts almost half of his throws went to A.J. Brown who is going to absolutely pose a lot of problems for the

Vikings cornerbacks because he's really fast, which can be an issue against Patrick Peterson, as we saw on the first offensive play for the Packers. He's also really, really, really physical. We talk about Jalen Rager being cocky built, as Matt Daniels said, and sturdy and all those words. AJ Brown is the definition of that. So when he's lined up against Cam Dantzler, he's going to have a huge advantage in terms of physicality, which can matter when you're breaking off routes at the stem of the route and gaining separation that way.

But yeah, they have a lot of ways they can beat you. But the Vikings are going to go into this knowing we need to stop the run and slow down the run. That's going to be an emphasis. This is a different run defense than last year Harrison Phillips I thought played well he's kind of the ideal guy to have up front in terms of two gapping and and closing up some of those holes and then I think Eric Kendricks and Jordan Hicks are our solid linebackers against the run Kendricks the coverage is his specialty but yeah they're gonna they're gonna know what to expect, the coverage is his specialty, but yeah, they're going to know what to expect and the focus is going to be on stopping the run and I think making Jalen Hurts beat you

with his arm because that's still a bit of a question mark. It is, but I think with A.J. Brown, it's less of that. Oh, for sure. I mean, Quez Watkins was their second leading receiver. Of course, Dallas Goddard was mixed in last year. And I mean, what? Like they still have Devante Smith who weirdly didn't have a catch in week one, right? He did. He didn't, but last year he had a pretty good debut season, but now they have three guys that you have to worry about. And one guy is unbelievable. And it's, you know, when you do that sort of list of like rank the best receivers, there's a lot of teams that have a peer number one and philadelphia

was not on that list last year and still produced a pretty good offense and now it's very clear that as is the vikings as is the buffalo bills as is a lot of teams it's going to be throw it to our number one guy of course the raiders over and over and over and over and over again and then he's legitimately in that like yeah top eight i think yeah and he probably would have had better numbers even if uh he didn't play on a derrick henry offense i mean he was kind of like stefan digs there where he was begging to get more throws maybe not as publicly as digs but probably right to get the ball his twitter name is like always open and and somebody when eagles reporter showed his locker room in

Philly there's a little sign hanging that says always open like he wants the ball yeah and they through one week they gave it to him so we'll see how the Vikings adjust to that and it's the question like we talked about Justin Jefferson all the time how our team's gonna cover him like we thought that the Packers were gonna double him and do the cloud coverage and in brackets and all that the Vikings are gonna want to do some of that against AJ Brown were going to double him and do the cloud coverage and brackets and all that. The Vikings are going to want to do some of that against AJ Brown to just not let him kill them.

And I think that it was the biggest thing we didn't see tested at all in week one. And this is one of the reasons why weeks one are so hard to take evaluations from because who you played, how they looked, I mean, matters. I mean, the Packers,

if you play them in week seven, I bet that Aaron Rogers has made somebody his guy or Lazard would have been back or the lineman would have been back, whatever factor, but you played them without their number one guy at this moment. Sammy Watkins just got there. They have rookies who can't catch the ball when you throw it right to them for easy touchdowns.

I mean, like there was a lot of problems there that Philadelphia just won't have because they have this elite number one wide receiver. And so now we're going to get the biggest test for, I think what is the biggest question mark on this entire team. And as of right now, today, Thursday, we're recording this, that Booth Jr. is not going to practice today, which means even if he does play on Sunday, I'm sorry, Monday, he will probably not be 100% if you're not practicing the first day or he won't end up playing at all. So the next man up is a Caleb Evans.

If anyone goes down, that is not a great situation. And not only that, but Peterson, as you said, got roasted. We haven't seen Cam Dantzler tested. We haven't seen Chandon Sullivan get tested. And we've sort of decided that Cam Bynum is good, but we don't really know because Aaron Rodgers refused to throw to his wide receivers. Like now we are really going to see a lot of that. And I find myself, you could tell me where you stand on this,

being sort of really defensive of jalen hurts because we just love to say that guys who run a lot can't throw just it's like just the thing that's always existed like oh yeah but you gotta make him sit back there and throw it like he had an 80 something passing grade from pff for that first game his passing grades were not that terrible last year i think there's a little bit of bailing on first reads but if your runs are successful then like where is the problem with having a running quarterback and so if we're going to always talk about how running quarterbacks mobility that's all great and everything else like oh you need that and then

we're going to go well jalen hurts he's not that good like well i i think he might be good that doesn't mean he's going to kill the Vikings, but I think that he might be good, and he also has about as favorable as a situation with the line and with A.J. Brown that I think that the Vikings should be pretty concerned about Jalen Hurts being good in this game. Yeah, I didn't mean to be overly critical of Jalen Hurts' arm. I just think the first thing that you maybe focus on is the

legs because he's so dangerous with that. He's also really dangerous as a passer. I mean, he got better for sure from his rookie year to last year in that area. They made it, they put him in a really good situation now by trading for A.J. Brown, giving up a lot of resources to do that. And he has other weapons. He has Dallas Goddardard who is a really good tight end that can pose some some matchup problems in the seam davante smith was a heisman winner like he's they're gonna they're gonna i think make an adjustment there and find ways to get davante smith involved um i agree that i think we can be too critical of time like jalen hurts is not like a trey lance or a justin fields where we really need to see more because they're super young like he's a third year quarterback he was high really highly productive in college obviously

and yeah I think in general you're right like Lamar Jackson I think gets way too much that's the perfect example like that dude is an amazing passer and he gets all this this criticism of being a running back because he can run but guess what these guys can do both and that that poses major problems for for defenses i think there's a lot of quarterbacks in the league who's throwing isn't that different from those two guys but it's just the focus with those guys like okay maybe carson wentz is that a bad example but like carson wentz has been a pretty good nfl quarterback and they throw it not for a while but yeah i mean his overall career is okay yeah like the one horrible, horrible year. And then last year he let down Indianapolis.

It would be looked at differently if he was like a third round pick and not number two overall. Yes, yes, yes. But as far as a passer, like one of the issues with Wentz is that before that injury in his first year, he was kind of making plays out of structure, and he hasn't since. But if you took even just the passing of Wentz that could be a little wild at times but it's still won a lot of games overall and you put it with

somebody who runs that can counteract some of the wildness like I think that's that's a good quarterback that you have that's not it's not Patrick Mahomes and I also think that every quarterback that's not Patrick Mahomes we sort of of are like, yeah, you know, not that good. But when it's on a rookie contract and you get that much out of Jalen hurts that they're in a pretty good situation, which is what I was going to ask you before we get back to like position versus position and things like that is there is a universe where the Minnesota Vikings could have drafted Jalen hurts. And they may have known at the time that Kirk Cousins might not be their forever quarterback. They would have gotten probably destroyed for it. Had they done it, it would have been like, why aren't you drafting things to win right away? But Philadelphia was destroyed for it

because that, Oh, well you have Wentz. Like what's your problem, right? Why are you drafting a second round quarterback? I guess i was imagining a world where jalen hurts was the quarterback of the vikings and in let's just say that same universe justin jefferson feeling delvin cook in the backfield a run blocking offensive line a tight end that we assume is going to play more and be good eventually like i think then you'd be talking about a lot of money also spent on other parts of the ball that probably would have helped you be in the playoffs last two years it was it would be interesting because Cousins signed the the two-year extension in March 2020 so like a month

before that draft but yeah they I mean you can always look back and say hey they they had a chance they took Jefferson they traded back with that 25th pick they could have traded back even further maybe and and considered that and um just we've talked about it a lot the the value of having that quarterback on a rookie contract is is pretty immense um i think it's i think it's worked out fine uh for for both parties i think i think jalen hurts went to a really good situation and kirk cousins i mean it's been one, but it looks like he has a chance to kind of change the narrative of who he is a little bit with this offense, with having a really good play caller who instills a lot of confidence in him

because of their relationship. So, yeah, it's an interesting hypothetical for sure. I think, like, the Mac Jones type thing in 2021 or, or other guys in 2021 is like a little bit more blatant because he hadn't just signed the extension. Like that would have been a strange thing for them to do maybe, but Hey, you never know. Well,

it could have been you, you draft the quarterback and then the next off season trade cousins in the same way that Philadelphia did with Carson Wentz. They just waited until the next year and traded them. I think it comes down to a comparison of like, which team do you think is in a better situation, Philadelphia or Minnesota short and long-term. And I think that it's pretty even as in the right now this year,

if you told me that both teams ended up with 10 wins, I would say that sounds about right. I think Philadelphia ceiling is a little higher because their roster is me that both teams ended up with 10 wins i would say that sounds about right i think philadelphia's ceiling is a little higher because their roster is stronger and maybe a little more resilient to injuries that this team is very lucky at this moment and probably very smart in the way they've handled things but i think if a few people get hurt then we're going to really be tested in what they can do long term the flexibility of ph. I mean, if there's an unhappy quarterback next year, where's he signing with the team with AJ Brown and Devante Smith, right?

And they can move on from Hertz anytime they want to. They don't have to sign him to some huge extension unless he's amazing. And then they can sign him to a huge, huge extension. It will continue to work out. Like, I think they've given themselves a really good situation with that in part because they did an unpopular thing drafting a quarterback in the second round who was said not to be able to throw the ball and so forth i think it was a really good process for a team that i i also think the vikings look at as being influential toward them to how they want to handle in the future so they're they're interesting to me from that perspective but uh on the what what makes this this matchup so interesting and like really

i think is going to be hyped up i mean the monday night thing like obviously the vikings have some history in philly like there's going to be a really big game feel i but i i looked at it coming into the season like hey these are going to be two teams maybe battling for a six seven seed in the wild card i think just through one week obviously it's overreaction central but you said 10 wins i think both of these fan bases right now would be disappointed with 10 wins i think these are teams that like on paper look like they could be 11 12 win teams and maybe that's wildly overreacting especially on the viking side of things but um I think this could matter for seeding right away. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I was looking at this week's schedule. There are only two matchups in the NFC of 1-0 teams. The Vikings and the Eagles is one of them. And I forgot what the other one. Oh, Buccaneers-Saints is the other one. Oh. So you're only guaranteed to have two 2-0 teams.

And then the other four 1-0 teams playing 0-1 teams are like Washington against Detroit. Washington could lose that. The Giants against the Panthers. The Giants could lose that. The Seahawks against the 49ers. The 49ers at home will be obviously favored. And then the Bears against the Packers. The Packers will obviously be favored.

Like there could be two or three 2-0 teams in the NFC after this week. And that matters. I mean, it's so early to be talking about playoffs and seeding anything, but just like you said, like the vibes of being 2-0 and kind of getting some momentum and confidence, and then you go into week three, you play the Lions. Like, at home, you should probably win that game, and you start to, like, see how seasons can change,

and you're not going to win an NFC in the first month but you can as we've seen in recent years you can put yourself out of the race pretty quickly in the first month oh for sure and I do think that based on the strength of both teams being fairly equal and and long season of course there is a chance that they're fighting for seating at the end of the day whether that's in the middle at the top or at the bottom of the playoff race i don't know and i i'm probably just more grizzled when it comes to this because the 2016 team went five and oh and i was watching that team too i wasn't covering it right right i know i know but i was like you know what i mean yeah they were five and oh peter king is naming sam bradford mvp yeah they're being called super bowl favorites

and one thing happens and it all comes apart and they won three out of their next eight or whatever it was i i forget what exactly it was but uh the whole season kind of comes apart there's adrian peterson drama and everything else so i'm not willing to move off my initial prediction which is 10 wins for this team because of what they did against the Packers, though I was impressed. But I think both of these teams have kind of a lot of the same arguments of going into this game of like, our vibes are good. Our quarterbacks played super well. Our top receivers played super well. Of course, the Vikings defense play a lot better. And this is where I think there's a huge edge for the Vikings in this game is I just do not believe in what Philadelphia is doing defensively scheme wise. And Kevin O'Connell talked about it today where he said,

well, now it's on tape, right? And the teams are only guessing before we put it on tape, but now it's on tape. So now they have a real idea of what we might do on a week to week basis. But I think if we're doing an advantage coaching wise, the offense is probably even for both teams. I think they're both really well coached offensively, but defensively, it looks to me like the Vikings are much better coach than the Eagles with the way that Detroit lit them up and the way they play defense last year it was just very vanilla so they've got talent but i'm not sure they have scheme but then this is all counteracted by fat men in the middle that can blast through and squish kirk cousins and so i'm kind of conflicted on the the uh eagles defense against the vikings offense the vikings interviewed

a lot of people for their head coach vacancy the one that never made a lick of sense to me was Jonathan Gannon. Totally agree. The Eagles defensive coordinator. Like every single other one I could be like, I could talk myself into, hey, that makes sense. Like D'Amico Ryans. Yeah, sure. The 49ers looked awesome on defense, but I forget all the other ones. I mean, even Jim Harbaugh, like track record of success, all that. I didn't get the Gannon thing. Just watching them play defense. they were a wildcard team last year but throughout the regular season as well it just didn't seem like there was anything super innovative or really impressive scheme wise like they have some good players Fletcher Cox is one of the best defensive tackles in the league still uh Javon Hargrave is really good in the middle there as well like

Darius Slay is a good corner like they have good players i just didn't see it from a scheme perspective so i i agree i think like coaching wise defensively i was really impressed by what ed donatel did now there were some plays that could have uh shifted the the way we look at the vikings defense really easily most notably that that long touchdown that was dropped by christian w Watson but yeah I think the Vikings will have advantages in some areas I think to segue a little bit into like the revenge games that people always talk about Jordan Hicks I didn't realize this he told us today in the locker

room this is his first time going back to Philly he played there for four years then he played for Arizona for three so I assume that that maybe happened in there but no this will be his first time going back and I look at him as kind of the x factor for this defense like I think even more so in this matchup than usual um you know what you're going to get from Eric Hendricks we've watched him play for a long time like you know that Zedaria Smith and Daniel Hunter are going to be productive pass rushers the secondary is a little bit of a question mark obviously but I think Jordan Hicks is going to be really important because the linebackers matter so much when you're talking about trying to slow down a rushing quarterback and a running game in general like

the keys that he has to have and and the the eyesight on the quarterback and um not like going to the wrong gap and giving up a big lane and or losing contain on the edge things like that i think jordan hicks is going to be a really important player not only not only in the run run game but defending the pass as well where he got victimized kind of badly by by matt laflora and the packers last week i believe pff said he gave up eight targets on eight completions on eight targets in his coverage 100 yards something like that. He's going to be a big part of that, especially against Dallas Goddard, the Eagles tight end. So I look at Jordan Hicks going back to Philly for the first time, and he needs to play well. He doesn't need to be spectacular. They're not asking him to be Eric Kendricks exactly, but he needs to be a solid guy in that defense for both phases phases for the Vikings to play well I think on the Vikings defense we talked to Louis Seen briefly today and he is of course very excited

about getting out in the field for the first time the question that I have about Louis Seen is will he actually get out in the field for the first time. Now you could talk yourself into an advantage for the Vikings of having a three safety package in which Louis seen plays a role. And if you're talking about a team that has several good receivers or running quarterback that having ideally an extra safety who can chase down that quarterback would be helpful. But at the same time, we don't really know if Louis seen is capable of playing, if they have any confidence in him playing, or if we're going to see first-round pick special teamer Louis Seen

against the Philadelphia Eagles. What do you think will be Louis Seen's role in this football contest? Well, I tried to ask him this in the locker room today, and he gave the smart answer of anything the coaches want me to do they need me on the defensive line offensive line i'll do it and you know that that's a good answer that's what he should say um i was hoping maybe he would spill the beans a little bit on what he anticipates his role being but i could see a scenario i mean he's gonna play on special teams for sure get his get his feet wet in the nfl I could see him playing like seven to ten snaps

in various different packages. Any more than that I would be surprised by. Yep, me too. Because Cam Bynum is a starting safety, and that's not in question. It could become in question several weeks down the line if Louis Seane gets in games and starts to flash and things like that, plays well in practice,

now that he's back to being healthy with a knee. But I could see him being mixed in in different packages. It's the same thing with the other revenge game, Jalen Rager, where he is going to be the punt returner, but will he get a handful of snaps on offense? Because we didn't see a single offensive snap from him. The Vikings literally only used three wide receivers last week. He is that number four guy.

I was surprised that he didn't – I mean, I wasn't't surprised but you'd think like kevin o'connell maybe occasionally they'd go four wide they had they do have two tight ends that they like as well but i wonder if i i really don't think that you can let this matter but like would it ever enter kevin o'connell's mind like just for morale purposes to throw rager out for like six snaps against his old team and get him a touch or two as a gadget guy. I mean, and he has legitimate skills like that made him a first round draft pick two years ago that the Vikings could potentially use on like a screen or an end around or something like that. Like they're not going to throw it to him 10 times, obviously. He didn't play a snap last week but i those are those are

two guys rager and scene we know they'll play on special teams i'll be curious to see if they get a handful of snaps from the the run of play and okay how about this how about this jaylen regger first play from scrimmage it looks like it's an end around but he hands it to justin jefferson who throws it on a bomb to kj osborne because the eagles are like oh rager's out there he's definitely getting the ball they all run after him you're not going to commit a revenge whoop and then uh you end up with a touchdown the first play with a throw from justin jefferson i like it let's get that to let's get that to kevin o'connell yeah i'll submit it i'll toss it his way. Um, with Louis scene though, it wouldn't surprise me if he played zero defensive snaps. I mean, he just never did during training camp. And maybe

when they were doing their walkthroughs, they were putting in some of this stuff. Maybe they're practicing it all week for a couple of different packages, but you mentioned Jordan Hicks. I thought Hicks played pretty well last week. I don't really see any reason not to keep Jordan Hicks out there all the time. And this was sort of what we talked about with like the three, four, four, three. How different is it? It's like, didn't really look different at all. It was like a four.

It was like a four, three nickel. So the third guy ends up being Shannon Sullivan with twoivan with two deep safeties like that's that's similar and then they just mixed up some coverages maybe that would have been a little different than what mike zimmer liked to do so it's like not that different what it always comes down to is the players uh and if jordan hicks plays like that now if jordan hicks were to get hurt then or eric kendricks then you might have to start figuring stuff out with because brian asamoah is the next man up and he has no experience at all in the nfl then or Eric Hendricks, then you might have to start figuring stuff out with, because Brian Asamoah is the next man up and he has no experience at all in the NFL. And he just ran after the ball at all times during the preseason and nothing else. Uh, so it looked pretty good doing it,

but it was, it was the preseason on certain plays he did. And on certain plays it was like, no, sir, that's not where you're supposed to run. Yeah he did it really fast. Yeah, so I think that we will not see much of Lewis seen on defense, maybe a couple plays to get him in there. It would only be like, let's say it's third and 14, and you throw out your four pass rushers, like three edge rushers, and maybe Tomlinson stays out there, or you go all four outside linebackers. Obviously, Kendricks is going to be on the field, two corners your two safeties and and chan and sullivan that gives you one more spot maybe there would be situations where they would like having seen in there over jordan hicks just purely for coverage

i don't know if that if that'll be the case if they have a package like that but that was the occasional times during training camp where they're running the situational stuff and it's third or fourth down and it's a pure passing situation and you throw a bunch of defensive backs out on the field. That's maybe how a scene could get a few snaps. So I have a few quick Philadelphia and Eagles questions for you. Okay. Non-related to football necessarily. Well, a little bit. Anyway, but first, who do you think wins this game?

My official pick that I wrote down yesterday was Eagles 30, Vikings 27. I think it'll be a somewhat high-scoring game because I think these offenses are both really good, and I think the defenses could be a little bit suspect. I think it could totally go either way, which is a terrible answer because any NFL game could basically go either way. But I think the teams are pretty close on paper. I would just give the Eagles a slight edge with what they have in the middle of their defensive line. I think that's going to be a problem. And then with A.J. Brown and with Jalen Hurts.

We need to see a little more from the Vikings' defense before we crown them a top 10 unit. I think I'm going to go a little more from the Vikings defense before we crown them a top 10 unit. I think I'm going to go a little more grindy with two teams that can run the football. Maybe 21-17 Eagles. But I don't know. I mean, both teams. We both picked the Vikings last week and they won. Yeah.

So this is bad news, I guess, if we're both picking the Eagles here. Well, my track record is not better than anybody else's it's not either individual games which weird is that in the last few years i think i've picked their record their final record within one win each time but so you picked around 500 and then they were around 500 the wrong order though of all the games you know because you never would expect like one in five. Right. So, yeah, it was right. It was just like this is a 500 team. But yeah, like I wouldn't be surprised at all if that ended up being 24, 21 or something like that. I just think it's a really, really good matchup that should go back and forth.

And I think both teams are capable of some mistakes if pressure is on Kirk the way it was last week or Jalen Hurts turning the ball over like I think all those things are possible and you I want to touch on something you said at the very beginning of this podcast like I think it's just cool that it's Joe Buck and Troy Aikman like oh yeah that just makes it such a big game feel compared to when it was like Steve Levy and or like Sean McDonough or whoever like no disrespect to those guys great broadcasters but Buck and Aikman like that they make it feel like a playoff game. For any criticism you want to have of them,

it just feels like a big game when those two are announcing it. So I think that's pretty sweet that it's a Monday night. It's like an 8.30 local time start because they have the weird – there's two games on Monday night that are going to overlap for a bit. This is going to be fun. Those folks in Philly will be prepared for that game it will not be over no they will not and the last time i saw that there was full beers being thrown at vikings fans who decided to wear their viking horns and stuff to philly folks if you're going

don't do that just wear regular clothes and enjoy your time do not wear all of your stuff yeah it's not minnesota it's not green bay this is the east it is different i'm telling you if you didn't figure this out a few years ago you will figure it out this time if you're going this is this is good i think you're you can wear a little purple if you do though you open yourself up to being a target so just yeah i wouldn't be obnoxious like talking trash or anything because that will get thrown right back at you when pat elfline got hurt they were yelling at his mom in the stands i mean that it's it's a ruthless town it's just people people could not comprehend it like they just were like oh yeah i mean green bay doesn't like us and we all tailgate

together like different this is not like that here okay so anyway uh few philadelphia questions for you uh do you know their mascot's name um it's an eagle i would assume good guess no i have no idea his name is swoop is their mascot's name. Do you know the name of the stadium before it was what it is now, which is Lincoln Financial Field? I should. When was it changed? 2002. So no.

Okay. Well, it was Veterans Stadium before. Yeah, that rings a little bit of a bell. Silver Linings Playbook, great movie. I love a good rom-com. That's one of my favorite movies. It was a dump. It was a huge.

You talk about a violent atmosphere, though. Yeah. Veterans Stadium. Okay. Who was the quarterback before Carson Wentz in Philadelphia? Before Carson Wentz, it was... Oh, man. My mind is just not working right now. I know that Donovan McNabb was there for a long time,

but that's too far back. Correct. There's in between. I'm trying to think. There's a connection.. Correct. That's too far back. There's in between. I'm trying to think. There's a connection. Yeah. Local connection. Local connection?

Local connection? Like Twin Cities connection? Well, like Minnesota Vikings connection. Brad John. No, that's not it. Brad something. Brad Fur. Sam Bradford.

Yes. There you go. And it was Mark Sanchez before that, which was what I was going to ask you. Well, maybe I'll give you an easy one. Who is their all time leader in sacks? Um,

Reggie white. It's Reggie white. Yeah. It's a tossy and easy one. It's like when I asked Alec, the new reporter from the, uh, athletic the other day,

if he knew who Randy Moss was, it's like just trying to check, trying to make sure. So basically you don't know your Eagles very well. so i'll give you two more philadelphia questions um who did the uh city famously boo like what famous person did they boo and that they've been known for for a long time oh come on i would i don't know santa claus they booed Santa Claus. Yeah, yeah. I have heard about that. Okay, that's a good one. All right.

That's Philly fans right there, yeah. There was a Viking fan who went viral before the NFC Championship game. Was it 100-year-old Millie? What did the sign say? Oh, man. The Philadelphia fans made a sign that said uh i let me how about you you tell me this one it was bleep millie i mean it was like the yeah come on yeah come on folks that is perfect when you are like talking trash to a 102 year old or whatever, that shows that, yeah, you really,

you're just gonna go for it regardless of any wholesomeness that's involved. Okay, last thing on Philadelphia. How many founding fathers can you name? Oh my God, I'm being put to the test here. All right. So there are seven people that are technically listed as the founding fathers.

Yeah. And I'm not kidding. One of them I have never heard of, but the rest of them I have. All right. James Madison. Correct. Thomas Jefferson. That's right.

John Hancock. No, he was the guy who is famous for signing the thing. He signed it, yeah. He doesn't count. Not Johnny H. No. Is there Adams? Yeah. Yeah. He signed it, yeah. But he doesn't count. Not Johnny H., no. Is there Adams? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John Adams? John Adams, yep. So you got Jefferson, Adams, Madison. Yeah. George Washington? Yeah, that's correct. Okay, I was overthinking that one. Yep, yep.

All right, I might be satisfied with four here. There's a couple obvious ones still, I'm sure. One more that you should really, really get. One is a little bit of a surprise. It's not Ben Franklin. It is Ben Franklin. I was a little surprised by that. But Philly, Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin's big Philly guy.

Big Philly guy. Yeah. Now, also keep in mind, I just Googled this, and this is what came up. So if this is wrong, but these sound right. These sound like founding fathers uh the last one the last one is the most presently famous the most presently famous yeah yeah like he's still big in pop culture somehow um because of a because of a piece of art yes yes alexander hamilton now there is another one listed. John Jay, who I thought was an outfielder for the Cardinals. Oh, I have heard of John Jay because I thought it was funny because there's a baseball player, John Jay.

Yes. Yes. There's an H in there, right? Yes. Yeah. The outfielder, I think, is just J-O-N. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. He apparently was the second governor of New York and the first chief justice of the United States. But he is listed as one of the seven. That sounds right. I mean, I remember this from being in school, which was not that long ago for me, actually. But I should have remembered that.

I'm going to give you a C plus for your Philadelphia knowledge. Well, I will say I have never been to Philly before. This will be my first time being there i'm looking forward to like doing going to do the stupid touristy stuff and like see the liberty bell you're gonna do the rocky um i'll do the rocky steps for sure and um i plan on having at least two cheese steaks i think okay i think like over under one and a half or two and a half two and a half would be high i think over under one and a half and i'll take the over okay uh the last time or the last two times see the thing about the stadium is it's like out near the airport and it's not so you're gonna stay there for a couple days with a friend but uh my cousin your cousin but for me i'm flying in flying out so not really making a trip

to the actual city of philadelphia yeah it's more just hang around at the hotel go to the actual city of Philadelphia. It's more just hang around at the hotel, go to the game, come back. Yeah, I'll be there for Saturday through Tuesday, so that'll be fun. Some of us are grinding. Yeah. Not partying in Philly like you are. Anyway, well, Will, thanks for your time. Great stuff as always, and we are ready for this football game that we now have to wait a really long

time for, so we'll talk to you then. Football! Monday Night Football.