Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Do you trust the Vikings to beat the Lions?

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about the Vikings approach to facing the Lions in Week 18 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here for the Minnesota Vikings 14-2 edition where we spend the entire week previewing a Sunday night football game coming up between the Minnesota Vikings and the Detroit Lions. On my TV, right over to my right. I have Lions and 49ers, and I'm really curious, actually, how the Lions are going to approach this game, how they're going to play, how they look, and also how they come out of this healthy. The Vikings do have an edge in this game with just the way that the scheduling has worked out. And if Dan Campbell goes full man Campbell and decides that he's going to play this game 110%

with all in with the starters and San Francisco plays hard, then they will come off a game where they don't have as much rest and they don't have as much time to recover and get back to Detroit and prepare for the Vikings. And that's the level of detail that we're at for this week. Every single thing on the show will be broken down. So here's the question of the evening. Do you trust the Minnesota Vikings to go to Detroit and win the conference next week on Sunday Night Football? Thoughts, feelings, emotions, questions, comments.

I want to hear it all from you. Manny Hill will be joining shortly. And of all the times Manny picked the Vikings schedule this year, I don't know if he ever quite got to 14. Maybe there was one time where he did. And we kept going back to, as we were picking the schedule, hey, there's got to be a letdown in there somewhere, right? They can't just reel off 10 wins in a row, right?

And they are on the precipice of potentially doing that here after beating the Green Bay Packers. So I've got some observations from that game that I think apply to the Vikings going forward. And just some thoughts on this journey of trust in the 2024 Minnesota Vikings that we've all gone on. We've talked at length about how they came out of the Jaguars game and having faced some AFC South teams, it took a while to really prove themselves against Tennessee. The game was a little bit more competitive than it needed to be.

And then after that, okay, it was the bears, but they allowed the bears to hang around in that game, even though they outplayed them. And then they had, I think maybe their worst game of the year, as far as did they outplay the other team against the Cardinals and had to find a way to win. And there was a lot of talk through that time about, Hey, can the Vikings really be trusted? Are they just getting away with one score wins? Are they really for real? Or are they just kind of eking out these wins and just getting by? And I think the turning point for this was really late in the game against the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons were playing pretty well against the Vikings. They were moving the football and it was a back and forth type game, similar to what they had had in the previous weeks. And then Sam Darnold just flipped a switch and made a few throws, including the 52 yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson in that game,

where you felt like something was happening there. The offense had been a little bit janky at times where they'd had some three and outs, and then they would have some hot moments, but they appeared to find more consistency in that Atlanta Falcons game. They put up huge numbers, they blow them out, and then they play the bears in a game where so many times over the years, the Vikings have blown that game against the bears. And then they play the bears in a game where so many times over the years, the Vikings have blown that game against the bears. And we all walk away going, Oh man, after a big win, you'll fall apart against the bad team. And they just wiped the floor with the bears. And that's where I felt like the momentum for this season started to, uh, increase with Vikings fans and really believing how good this team could be.

And they get up early against Seattle, find a way to win at the end there. But I don't think even if they had lost against Seattle, that fans would have given up at that point or thought, well, this team is a fraud because it was such a tough situation, but finding their way out of that game with a victory, with the rain, with Seattle playing for their playoff lives, all the things that were going on there and Seattle coming back in the game, they were pressuring Darnold in the game and he has to do something really special. Then we went into this last week talking about how it's a coin flip.

Green Bay is playing extremely well. The Vikings are playing extremely well. They had close point differentials. They have good quarterbacks that sometimes make mistakes. They have good defenses, good coaches, all those things. And for all intents and purposes, the Vikings blasted the Packers and then allowed them to come back late in the game in a classic kind of score effects fashion, where it's just like in basketball, if you're up 25 going into the fourth quarter, the other team might make it interesting, but we'll eventually run out of time.

And that's not to say that no concerns come from the end of the game, but it's a typical thing that happens in the NFL. And that's one of the reasons we get so many one score games in the NFL. And that's one of the reasons we get so many one score games in the NFL, but the Vikings out played a really good green Bay Packers team, which in my mind has ratcheted up the confidence to an all-time high. Now, as they go into Detroit to play a lions team that is banged up on the defensive side, we'll have short rest, but also has one of the best offenses in the NFL. They are coached extremely well. Every single game that they play against the Vikings seems to be close. And you know that Ben Johnson, their offensive coordinator,

has had a lot of answers for Brian Flores. He might be the only person on earth who has had consistent answers for Brian Flores' defense. The Vikings will get a little extra time to prepare as they go to Sunday night football to go into Detroit and face off with this Lions team that has seemed much more vulnerable in the second half of the season than it looked in the first half. So what's your trust level? If you want to give a percentage, a color, a meter, some way of saying it, a sentence, how are you feeling about the Vikings going into this game? I think that as far as the Vikings fan base and the Vikings as a team, getting the win

the way that they did against Green Bay, if they had barely survived, if they had had to come back in the game and just escaped, it would have been different than getting up 27 to 10. And it really should have been 33 to 10 at that point. Had they made two field goals from Will Riker, then they would have really had a complete blowout against the Packers rather than looking close in that box score. But anybody who watched the game would not have said that that game was close until the end. Doing it that way against the team of that strength on the big stage, 325 game, Tom Brady's

in the house, all those things for Sam Darnold to play at that level, for the defense to be able to slow down the running game of Green Bay, which has been dominant all season long to chase around Jordan Love the way they did. How about this? Eight pressures from Jonathan Grenard. Eight. He is now second in the NFL in quarterback pressures. I mean, how about that?

Like they have done it in so many different ways throughout this season. And yesterday was one of the more complete wins that they've had with everybody across the board contributing a good offensive line performance. Great job by the quarterback. They ran the football when Aaron Jones was in fairly effectively and then got a couple of big plays from Cam Akers on the defensive side. Blake Cashman was one of their highest graded players, seven tackles, a sack and a half, a couple of pressures, a couple of tackles for loss, just remarkable performances from their top players. And they have so many of their best players playing at a very high level going into this game.

So it's discussed a lot. How are you going into these late games? Like what is your team look like? What's the confidence? How are the coaches performing? Have teams figured you out or are you finding new ways to win? And I also thought that about Kevin O'Connell, that he had answer after answer after answer. And let me give you a very interesting stat. Sam Darnold was 26, 430 when throwing from a clean pocket. And in those clean pocket throws, he got the ball off in 2.37 seconds. What does that say? That says that Kevin O'Connell's dialing up the plays. The receivers are getting open and the quarterback is executing it on time. Probably the most that we have seen in terms of on-time execution.

Here's another crazy stat for you. Darnold through 26 passes that traveled less than 10 yards, completed 25 of them at 7.5 yards per attempt against the Packers. That's wild. I mean, that is just execution from Kevin O'Connell to the receivers, to the protection, to the quarterback and against the defense that is not easy to execute against. And Detroit does not have the defensive caliber of the Green Bay Packers. So if Darnold plays like that in the short passing game and is getting the ball out quickly and is not taking sacks, only one sack yesterday, they can stay on the field for a long period of time as they did against Green Bay. They hit some explosive,

but they also had some long drives as well, which is something that they've struggled with at times throughout this season. So let me get to your comments. If you got questions, thoughts, throw them out there. I think that the confidence meter and the trust meter should be in the red for this Vikings team. Every single time they have faced some sort of game

that's a prove this, prove that. They were 3-0. Go to Lambeau and prove you can win there. They did it. Prove you can play with Detroit. They lost by two points and were you can win there. They did it. Prove you can play with Detroit. They lost by two points and were one first down away. And that was earlier in this season when Detroit still had more of its defense. So they proved they could play with Detroit. Prove that you can just get rid of

these bad teams on your schedule. Prove that you could take down Kirk. Prove that you cannot have the letdown game down the stretch. Prove that you can go on the road against the playoff contender in Seattle and win there on short rest. Prove that you can beat the Packers at home and not have that same letdown game that they had in 2019. I'm sure you guys remember quite well, Zedaria Smith and Aaron Jones tearing them apart. Not this time. This time the Vikings were doing the dominating at US Bank Stadium. So this is a different type of feeling from any team that I've covered, even 2017, where I think we went into every game wondering, is this where Case

Keenum falls off the side of the earth? But the more we see Sam Darnold, it's not luck. It's not random. It's not scrambled around making a bunch of crazy plays, throwing down the earth. But the more we see Sam Darnold, it's not luck. It's not random. It's not scrambling around, making a bunch of crazy plays, throwing down the field. It's also not reliant on the run game as we saw from the 2019 Vikings, which were a very good team, but it was so reliant on a running back succeeding and then play action off of that. This offense is based on its quarterback and the passing game with its elite receivers, which just travels much better than hoping you can run the football and then playing off of that.

So I'm curious about what you guys have to say, but as far as can this team go into big games and win them against really good opponents, they have put a lot of evidence down from their coach to their quarterback, to their personnel, to the defense being more healthy than I think probably any defense in the NFL. They've shown a lot of what they can do.

And now they have one more week that they need to pull it off in order to get the one seat. And Kevin O'Connell kind of said like, Hey, we need to remember that we're in the playoffs. And that's what we were aiming for at the beginning of the season. And this shouldn't be such a big deal because the Vikings should either have the first or second best record in the NFC and they should be a two seed, but that's not how it works anymore. So they have to deal with, with this game being essentially a playoff game for them because the difference between getting the one seed and having to go on the road and

play in week one for their chances to reach the Superbowl is pretty, pretty significant in my mind. I think their Superbowl chances get cut in half if they don't win this game. And that's them's the rules. That's what they're going to have to play with. So off we go. And this is one of the most exciting weeks that the Vikings have had in a really, really long time. And I was thinking back to, you know, 2017, the way that that season ended. And it was kind of like they had it wrapped up that they were going to be one of the top seeds pretty early. And they had some bad opponents at the end of the year and just kind of cruise to the end. 2022, they played really poorly at the

end of the season. They had to come back against Indy. They had the loss to Green Bay. It never felt like the team was playing at its absolute best or had really been tested down the stretch. And here, this team was tested significantly against the Packers and passed in flying colors. So there is a different feeling going into the playoffs with this group than there has been in previous times. And 2019 was just a total mess going into the playoffs. They want to play off game, but it was a disaster with the relationship between cousins and Zimmer and all that stuff. Uh, that was just going ugly, ugly in that year, the vibes as they're raising Sam Darnold on their shoulders in the locker room and spraying them with Gatorade

way different than it was then. So let's, let's talk about it. What do you got on your mind? Edwin says, not only do I trust the Vikings winning in Detroit, they are winning the next three. I'm convinced Minnesota is going to the Superbowl after beating Seattle and Green Bay. Yeah. Well, these last two games, the Seattle game, the Green Bay game, they really did have atmospheres that would correlate to what it's like to play in the playoffs, which is Seattle's noise. The Vikings fans tried, they traveled there. They did not take over that stadium. And maybe, maybe flights were expensive or just the timing of it, uh,

with the holidays and everything, people were traveling other places. That was not a takeover and Seattle ramped up the noise to levels. The Vikings hadn't faced. And they actually talked about that having to sort through a lot of issues with the noise, which they may have to do in other places, but now they've seen it. And to put that game on the shoulders of Sam Darnold and have him come through the way he did in such spectacular fashion, that was a real prove it type of thing. And then with green Bay, it was okay. I'll outplay them, outplay them, show you're the better team as they look so equal on paper. And the Vikings did exactly that. And that's where my confidence in them would be at its highest is because I'm always looking at, let's, let's see

the kind of the real story of the game. Who was the better football team? Was it even, was it, you, you got away with it like they did so often in 2022, or did you outplay them? And the last time I saw the stat and they didn't trail at all against the Packers. The last time I saw the stat, the Vikings had led the highest percentage of games of any team in the NFL, which I think is a really telling statistic, even though they've had some of these one score wins, they've been winning the whole season long. I mean, how, how many score wins, they've been winning the whole season long.

I mean, how, how many plays can you even think of for the whole year where they were losing a handful against the Rams, a handful against, well, Arizona was probably the most in that game and they had to come back and then the lions game at the end, but they even got ahead on the lions in that game. So the whole season long, they've gotten ahead on teams. They've stayed ahead. They've made it a little more dicey than it needs to be at times like yesterday. But I think that's a better number to tell us how strong your team really is. Then most statistics are how often have you been beating the other team?

And it's basically the whole season for the Minnesota Vikings uh man juice says I can't help but feel happy for Sam seeing him in the beginning of the season and then now his entire demeanor has changed so happy for him yeah so that I think this is a combination of things that have caused that the demeanor of Sam Darnold and seeing him come out of his shell as a franchise type quarterback who has the belief of the entire locker room and coaching staff and organization in week one our whole thing if you go back and watch our post-game conversation I'm sure we're talking about how well Sam did at just managing the game. Hey, he did a great job. He didn't turn the ball over or there was the one interception that wasn't his fault. And he handed off, he checked down and then made one or two great throws.

And like, that's going to get you a long way this season. It was a game manager type of mindset. And it was, let's play kind of safe ish with Darnold, throw the cannon out there from time to time to Jefferson, but just keep the ball on the fairway. Don't screw up, Sam. That's how you're going to survive this season. That was our discussion early on. And I think through the first couple of weeks,

we saw that arm strength and that talent come out, the 97-yard touchdown. Some of the throws that he made against Houston were impressive and the same against green Bay. And then there was some confidence shakiness against the jets against the Jaguars, where he looked more like the type of quarterback that you're going to ride the rollercoaster. And I remember coming out of the Jaguars game saying, look, this is Sam Darnold here. He's going to take risks. He's going to make some mistakes, but you're just going to have to ride that roller coaster and hope that you get

an upswing at the right time. Well, it never came back down after that, because this is the thing about athletes and quarterbacks is that people can get better and they can change and they can improve and they spend their whole lives every off season trying to get better and improving and working so hard. And sometimes we just act like someone's past or their reputation is just who they're going to be forever. But with Sam Darnold, he has gone far and away to prove that the reputation, those past statistics with the Jets and with the Panthers were not who he really is. Or even if he was, then he has improved and improved and improved.

And that's his work ethic. I mean, you can be the greatest coach in the world, but if your player doesn't listen, it doesn't matter, right? Kevin O'Connell deserves a ton of credit and he had receivers running open for Darnold yesterday, but the guy has to get it right. It has to click in. He has to see it, read it, trust it, throw it. He has to learn. He has to capture the offense and master it himself and run those plays. He has to dodge a blitzer off the edge to step up and throw a touchdown to Jordan Addison. He deserves the most credit for what has happened this season. And I think he's just gotten better

and better and better. And that's another reason to trust the Vikings going into Detroit is that their quarterback just keeps getting better. There is no off the edge of the mountain. There is no regression. There is a guy who just keeps playing at an extremely high level because he's a different quarterback than he even was week one. That's a good point. Let's see. Let's see here. Greg, what are the similarities and differences between KOC and Dan Campbell?

Well, I think the biggest similarity is that they both show belief in their players over everything else that when things go wrong those guys are both going to say I've got your back I'm your guy I believe in you we can do it you can do it and to someone like Jared Goff here's another thing too that Dan Campbell and Kevin O'Connell know what's being said. They don't pretend that they don't because they have adults on the team. If Kevin O'Connell went into his meetings and said, oh, uh, I, Sam Darnold is our quarterback and, uh, I don't know anything what he did before. You'd be like, that's just a lie, man.

You know what happened before? If Kevin O'Connell went into the meetings and said, we're going to win the Superbowl. I don't know anything about projections before the season. Those players would be like, dude, you, you know what people are saying about us. But instead Dan Campbell, for example, with Jared Goff said, no, nobody believes in you after you got traded here, but we do. That's the biggest similarity. I mean, if you think about what people were saying about Jared Goff, not this podcast, what some people were saying about Jared Goff, they need to draft Malik Willis, number two overall. They need to think about the future at the quarterback position. Jared Goff's not that guy. Well,

Dan Campbell's lean into that. And the same thing with Sam Darnold and Kevin O'Connell, where he's continually said, I believe in this guy. He is our guy. We went out and got him and paid more than anybody else would to bring him in. So we think he's this good. And even if you watch that postgame locker room speech in New York, he said something to Sam Darnold, like this guy's going to take us a long way this year and then gave him a game ball for his first win. That type of energy has resonated so well

with these players. And I don't know if you had a four win team, it might not make any difference if you were just a terrible football team. But when you have veteran players like these teams do, and you treat them like veteran players who have been around and you don't try to handle them with kid gloves or tell them things that aren't true. The other thing is too, that I think that O'Connell does really well is that he takes their feedback, that he communicates with them again, like they're adults. And I think Dan Campbell does the same thing. And the difference is that Campbell doesn't call plays because he's got an offensive coordinator

who's just better at it. So one guy is on the sideline kind of being the master and commander over there. Whereas O'Connell is also calling the plays. And sometimes that does get them in a little bit of trouble, I think with the Vikings, a delay of game. And sometimes you wonder, like, hey, with O'Connell, do you realize that if you just run the football here, how much time is going to come off that clock? Or are you a little bit in, got my head in the playbook type of mode and just call in plays? That's happened throughout the season at times where you would have liked to have seen maybe a little more game manager, head coach, but this is super nitpicking when it comes to O'Connell. And I think they both are aggressive,

but Dan Campbell is aggressive to the point of complete absurdity, which I respect, but goes well beyond what we see from Kevin O'Connell. Mike says, everyone says if we're the number five seed and we have to go on the road and win three games to get to the Superbowl, but if the six and seven won their games, we end up playing one of them. We play, oh yeah. And play at home. Right. Yeah, I think that's right. There is a scenario where they could end up playing a home game still. And I think that would also be if I'd have to do the playoff machine thing. But if they ended up with the better record for the NFC championship than the other team,

then they would get the home field advantage. It's true. But if you think about it that way, if you're hoping that a lower seed meets you in the NFC championship, then you're probably, I think I said record. I should have said seed, right? I think they would need to be the higher seed to meet in the NFC championship. I don't think that that's done by record, is it? I'm going to have to brush up on my tiebreakers if that happens, but it's still, that's a pipe dream is getting to face a six or seven seed. It's very unlikely it doesn't happen very often that a six or a seven seed is going to end up meeting you and you get

the home field advantage you want to win this game it is a it is a big big advantage to be the one versus going on the road i don't think that it eliminates the Vikings chances because we've seen them go on the road and we've seen them be a good team like Seattle recently on the road. But that U.S. Bank Stadium yesterday was as amped up as I've ever seen it. Probably Minneapolis Miracle is going to be the all-timer and the Taylor Swift concert that I went to also an all-timer as far as how loud that place can get. But yesterday was close. And if you're talking about a playoff team where the fans love this team and are believing in them and are buying into them, that is a very difficult place to play versus going on the road and facing Tampa Bay where their quarterback's playing well.

Their quarterback also played well against the Vikings last year, way back when last year, a million years ago, when they played the Bucs, but he did. He played very well. We have ourselves a touchdown, by the way. Ricky Pearsall, hey, good for him. That guy, what an amazing comeback he had this season, getting shot and then coming back to play.

He gets a touchdown here. I think that's going to stand. Anyway, we'll just be keeping an eye on this. I know it doesn't really matter. Some people have told me that if there's a tie, it matters. I mean, I guess there could be a tie that's possible between the Vikings and lions. Alex asks, how much should we be worried about? Will Reichard a bit, a bit. I mean, you follow the Vikings and a lot of times I will tell you, Hey guys,

history has nothing to do with what's happening in the present, but I can't tell you to lose all of your kicker fears. When you see the kicker miss a couple of key kicks at the end of the season. The one concern that I have about Will Reichard is that he's not at a hundred percent. And that would be the biggest worry that I have about him. If he's trying to battle through it and didn't fully come back all the way, then it is a concern. And we're going to find out, I would assume soon, because if he is dealing with something, they'll bring in someone else as a kicker, maybe even resign John Parker Romo if they're worried about it. But if he's not telling anyone,

if he's banged up like what happened before, then it's not going to be the same. And to see him come short on a kick was very surprising because that's something he, I mean, think about this earlier this year, Kevin O'Connell was thinking about having him kick from 68. That's what kind of leg this guy has. That's what we saw during training camp. And during preseason, when I kept coming back and going, guys, this is the craziest kicker I've ever seen in my life it usually doesn't come short from deep like that so that's where i did say if it's just a little left or a little right maybe he's got to get back into the groove but short for him even from way out is still surprising

let's get uh let's get manny Hill involved here in the conversation. Manny, let me say something, man. I don't think you ever picked 14. All those times that we picked the Vikings schedule, I don't think you ever got to 14. I don't think no matter how positive anybody was, no matter how excited anybody was to go into a new era of Minnesota Vikings football after Kirk Cousins left. No matter how much you think KOC is good at his job

or that Sam Darnold will be better than people thought or that Brian Flores is the freaking man on defense or no matter how much you like the offseason signings or thought the kicker was great or love the training staff, whatever. Nobody thought they would be 14 and freaking two how about this man i i'm trying to think of i had a picks that pick the scheduled segment from maybe like two months ago if i'm not i had them going 14 and three or something i don't think I think 13 and 4 was the best I had them doing which that in itself is just bonkers even at the time you're

thinking like this team's not gonna win this team's gonna be good they'll probably make the playoffs but they're not gonna go 13 and 4 you know because usually a team when they go 13 and 4 you're thinking oh they're gonna win the might have, you know, one of the top two seeds, you know, that's a team that could be hosting a championship game, et cetera, et cetera. And I think all of us were still thinking like the Detroit lions were still the class of the NFC North. And that's the team that everybody's going to be chasing. And it's still kind of the case even going into to next week's

game the vikings are chasing something that the lions have kind of had a at a hold of the last two seasons now um this is great stuff man though i i can't i you know it got a little dicey at the end of the game yesterday but just the fact that they came out with a win, I think we're just really shows that this team is serious business and they are every bit as into this super bowl contention conversation as some of the other elite teams in the league. I do want to talk about, we've got a lot of questions and comments and stuff. We'll get right back to them in a second where we were right and wrong about this team. Um, I think that we were right to believe that six and a half wins was silly. And I wrote an article about this earlier in the year before the season started about when that Vegas line came out.

And my basic premise was, if you can't win six and a half games with this roster, come on, man. Like they should be able to the giants last year with tommy devito starting and tyrod taylor and so forth they won six last year and there's so many teams around the league that just i mean you can get six by just basically existing and running out you know throwing the right footballs out there and tying your cleats correctly so i thought okay well they're definitely gonna get, but I don't think that I ever saw all the boxes being checked because if you had told me, just said, Hey, they're

going to be in it for the NFC North at the end. If you had even just said that part, not 14 wins, but just, they're going to be right there. I would have said, all right, what has to happen is Darnold has to be the best version of himself that he has ever been. And that's been true. And we would have known that. And I would have said, Grenard, Cashman, Van Ginkle, all these guys have to be game changers and they have to stay healthy the whole season. Gilmore has to be a game changer and has to stay healthy. Jones has to be a game changer, has to stay healthy. Hawockinson's got to come back strong at a hundred percent.

Darnold and Jefferson, they've got a vibe correctly. KOC has got to manage the end of these games, which he has made it dicey. But I think as far as his game management, especially after watching Atlanta last night, you go, oh yeah, actually, you know, he's pretty good at this. And then they're going to need their quarterback to do some stuff that you just can't explain. And you just, okay, that guy's a freak and he's incredible at football. And that's how it's going to have to be. I would have said, those are the boxes that you have to check and the kicker, the kicker does well. And every single one of those boxes, they've checked all of them, every single one of them, right? How many times has that ever happened where we've,

we've usually thought if they check 50% of the boxes, they can make the playoffs. They've checked all of them. Well, and I think health is a big part of this as well because I think the last time the Vikings had a season that was this special, and I'm not talking about 2022. You go back to 2017, that defense was great case keenan played really well the offense was efficient enough a lot of those you know they had the

big injuries obviously with with uh sam bradford getting hurt and everything in case having to step in down they lost dalvin cook in the fourth game of the season but outside of that they were pretty healthy for that entire season the defense was healthy for that entire year and it's kind of been the same thing this year where they've avoided of course i'm finding some wood to knock on here um they've they've avoided the real catastrophic injury you know blake blake hashman missed a couple of games. They were able to survive that. Gilmore had to deal with the leg thing for a little bit, for a couple of weeks. They survived that, but they haven't had the catastrophic, again, knocking on wood here, they haven't had that major injury

where you're like, oh my God. I guess Derisaw, you could maybe qualify that as one, but they acted on that and they went and got Cam Robinson. He's filled in very nicely in that role. So even the injuries that they've that they've sustained this year, they've been able to sort of survive those. And it hasn't really like piled up. And I think that's been that's been a huge, important key to the success of this point. And everybody, you mentioned it already all the free agent signings have hit the the quarterback has hit in a major major major way

and uh it's been really really incredible to watch and the additions late or in the middle of the season gilmore has played as best as you could have asked him to play and cam acres makes a big play. It's been kind of somebody else. There's been guys who have developed throughout this season. A Jalen Redman shows up and starts making plays in the middle of the year. And we knew that that was going to have to happen to Dalton Reisner steps in at right guard. He is now 12th in the NFL and PFF grade pass blocking wise. Uh, you don't want to know where Ed Ingram was before him all the way at the bottom in terms of pressures that he was allowing and pass blocking grade.

Now you have a guy who's rating in the top 15 in terms of pass blocking grade, all these little moves that they've made. Cam Robinson has played quality well above average left tackle. How the heck do you get an above average left tackle at the trade deadline? They just fell into that situation with him. And then he was great against the Packers, legitimately great. He run blocked well, but he took on their toughest guys and gave up three pressures on the night, which, you know, you go back and when the Vikings had

some bad left tackle play, what that number might have been. So to do that for someone that they brought in the middle of the season and then coaching plays a big role of it, it really is. To get to this point, you have to have every single thing come together to get 14 wins, and they have been able to do that. Joel says, feels like the loser of this game Sunday, Vikings-Lions, won't go far in the playoffs do you agree with that statement Mr. Hill um I think a lot of that's going to depend on matchups right

like I mean okay the loser of this game is going to be the five seed I mean they could end up winning that game against the winner of the NFC South. And then these two teams could end up playing each other in the divisional round, you know, depending on how the other wildcard games go. So I don't know. I mean, I think both of these teams are very much capable still. Even the Lions, with all the injuries that they have on defense, they still have a very high-powered offense that they just scored a touchdown, as I'm talking here, to tie this game up against San Francisco, although the extra point just got blocked. So it's not a tie game. But, you know, even the Lions, with all the injuries that they have on defense, they still have an offense that's powerful enough to just sort of carry them on a run to the Super Bowl. So even if I think the Lions, even if they lose this

game on Sunday to the Vikings and the five seed and they got to go to Tampa Bay or something, they can go to Tampa Bay and win that game. And we've already seen them come into US Bank Stadium earlier this year and beat the Vikings. So it's not out of the realm of possibility that either one of these teams, if they lose on Sunday, that they can't go on a deep run. And I've been saying for a couple of weeks now, I think the Vikings are a very capable team that can go on the road and win a couple of road games and get to the Super Bowl. I think this team is made to be able to do that.

And when you think about the odds historically, if you have to go on the road, are not very good. And you really have to go back to those giants teams that found a way through, they had to play what in Dallas, in green Bay, in San Francisco, they had some incredible places that they had to go in order to make their way to the super bowl. In those years, you can see how rare it is and why it's so rare, but the team that has to do this is going to have 14 wins. I mean, that's, that's the difference is that I think Tampa Bay is a good team. I think Atlanta is a pretty good team, but the Vikings have 14 wins. I mean, that's, you've never seen, I'm sure ever in history, a team with 14 wins have to go on the road.

So it does change the calculus. And then if you're going on the road to win the first game and then go to Detroit, for example, that's a place where you've played so many times that it's, it's not home for sure, but it's also not the same effect. It's like when the Vikings go to Lambeau, it's not the same. It's a, it's an intimidating place, but it's not the same as when the Titans go to Lambeau and they're never there. And they, the weather or whatever, like the Vikings are prepared to go play at a place like this. And the home field advantage has never been less than it is now in the NFL.

That said us bank stadium is its own beast when it comes to this stuff because of the way the Vikings play defense. So it is not impossible. It doesn't to me say, oh yeah, you're just screwed if that happens. But if you lose to the Lions again, that is going to be two times that you've played them, two times that you've lost to them, and then having to go to their building. If you can be a good Tampa Bay team, that's just not the same. I asked Brian Murphy this earlier today.

You can give me your answer chances that they reach the super bowl with the one seed. Just give me a percentage out of a hundred, one seed versus five seed, one seed, a percentage chance. I'd put it at about 55%. Did you hear the show earlier? I went exactly 55%. Did you? Yeah, I did. I did not hear the show earlier.

Five seed, I'd probably bump it down to about 25%, which I still think is a pretty good, that's still pretty good odds, considering where you're seated at and sort of the path that you're going to have to take. I'd put them at about 25% through the five seed. I went 20. Yep, same sort of thinking. It's just going to be harder. It's not impossible, but it's just going to be a lot harder that week off.

You get to be the healthiest team in the world. You get to prep for the team that's going to face you. I mean, it's just a huge advantage. Cameron says, team success aside, I think the coolest storyline of this season is Sam Darnold's redemption. Seems like a very likable dude, and I'm happy to see him succeed after all the adversity.

This redemption story has brought this Vikings locker room together. And if Sam Darnold was unlikable and was not a good leader and just happened to be playing pretty well, they wouldn't have won 14 games for one. And you wouldn't see them respond the way that they do. I remember talking to Garrett Bradbury in Cleveland after the joint practices,

and I was asking him just about, you know, football and the exchange with the snaps and protections and things with a new quarterback. Cause he had played with cousins, but at some point he kind of just said, Sam's an awesome dude and we all like him. And I thought that might be relevant. It might be relevant because when you have somebody that has been picked on so much throughout their career and a lot of the circumstances are so far out of his control. Hey, congrats to Matt rule for winning his seventh game at Nebraska this year. Good job. He's a college coach. They're doing better than usual, but he's a college coach and Adam Gase. I but he's a college coach and adam gaze i

don't know what is he doing real estate at this point i mean that's the coaches that he had right he had one decent coach and they fired him in a after one year because the owner of the jets is a crazy person like this yeah he was put under circumstances that here's here's my comp for this alex smith early in his career goes to san francisco and has mike singletary pulling his pants down in press conferences like a total psychopath he doesn't have receivers he's they've just started drafted people and harbaugh comes in and all of a sudden alex Alex Smith wins 13 games because he was a freaking good quarterback, but he just didn't have a chance. And then you got a very similar situation with good defense and all that stuff. They ran the ball a lot, which is different than here, but a coach who

knew what the heck he was doing. And that's what Sam Darnold finally has. So to see him get that, the receivers who can catch it, the offensive line who's blocking pretty well for him, and the plays he's making, and the response from the locker room. I mean, Kevin O'Connell said today, basically, you know, you got to take a second sometimes and just take it in. And when they were lifting Darnold on their shoulders, you could see O'Connell just taking it in. Like, this is what we do it for, man.

And all of that coming together for Darnold. Absolutely. Because I'm guessing that if he had been drafted by a similar situation, the Rams or something, one of these teams that knows what they're doing, he would have been this quarterback. Eventually it just took longer because he was never in the right spot. And everybody knows that. And I really respect about koc and the team they don't shy away they don't pretend it didn't happen they're like no it happened and it's this makes it

so much more better because all but he had to go through all that stuff and when you look at the teams that he played for you know not including the 49ers in this because he was just a backup last year but when you look at where the Jets and the Panthers are, those teams and the Panthers have kind of come along here later in the season. They're playing a little bit better, and maybe there's some sense of direction, and maybe Bryce Young is going to turn out to be pretty good.

Who knows? But you look at the overall state of both of those teams right now, they're both kind of a mess. The Jets especially, just a bigger dumpster fire right now than even the Panthers are uh because the Panthers at least maybe have a sense that maybe they found their young quarterback we'll see and there's a little bit more stability there now it seems like they're headed in a decent direction the Jets are just like what what do we do is Rodgers gonna come back should he even come back?

If he does come back, how good are we going to be? You know, what is going through Woody Johnson's head? Like, all these veteran guys that they brought in, Hasan Reddick, like, what are they going to do with him? Like, there's just so many question marks with the Jets, and they stink, and they laid an egg again this past weekend. There's no center direction. They've been a dumpster fire.

They were a dumpster fire before Sam Darnold got there. They've been a dumpster fire since. And I think when you look at all of that and you look at the situation that Sam Darnold is in now, a organization that does it the right way, a coach that does it the right way, they've made great free agent signings. People like playing for the Vikings.

They like playing with Sam Darnold. We saw that reaction in the locker room after the game. This is just a remarkable, incredible fit with this quarterback and this organization. I don't know what's going to happen after this season, but for 2024 into the 2025 playoffs, this looks like a really incredible story and circumstance. And I just love to see it. Dustin says, and I agree. It's the story of the year in the entire NFL.

Thanks by the way, everybody for joining the party just now. I don't know. I've gotten questions about that for Vikings fans all year long. I don't know what to tell you because I don't work as a producer or executive at the national TV programs. So I can't tell you why they ignored this team. I think the problem was that they lack drama. I don't think they were dramatic enough.

I don't think they had enough receivers tweeting stuff or enough people melting down on sidelines or fighting with each other or, or whatever it is. I think they were just good the whole time and that's not exciting and that doesn't spark debate, but on this show, we, uh, we dive a little deeper. So that's why you watch us anyway. Uh, Dustin says, you think the game plan of the Vikings is to run up the score as high as they can, as fast as they can, and then hold on for dear life. It seems to be a trend. Uh, no, I do not think that that is the strategy necessarily. I was just pulling this up though. Point differential for this season. We'll see what happens tonight with Detroit. No one's over 200 and the Vikings are fifth. There are two points different than the Packers. Funny enough, because that should have been a lot more. And the Eagles are at plus 153.

That's 30 points ahead of the Vikings. The Bills 164 in the in past years back in the day, I think even maybe 10 years ago, I think we used to see teams get a little farther out ahead than other teams when it came to point differential. But it's just the league that when you have a lot of good quarterbacks, a lot of good wide receivers, a lot of good coaches, it's hard to protect a lead like that. Now you would prefer that they just bury the Packers and never speak of them again after the second quarter, but that team's just too good. They have

good players. They have good players. They have good receivers. They have a great coach. I mean, you just can't say enough how great of a coach Matt LaFleur is. And that's what happens. I mean, if the, if the Vikings had gotten down 27 to 10, we would expect them to make a run at it, right. As they did so many times with Kirk, because they have a good coach and they have good receivers. And I think that the NFL is also sort of built for that. Um, even, and I'm not, I'm not, this is not conspiracy or anything, but Jefferson makes the one-handed catch and it's coming back for whole day because we are on national TV, my friends, and we want green Bay to have a chance. That's mostly tongue in cheek,

but it does happen a lot. It's sort of the way that the league is built to have a chance. That's mostly tongue in cheek, but it does happen a lot. It's sort of the way that the league is built to have close games. And these teams are extremely close. So I think the same thing for some of the other games where they've had teams come back. It wasn't often totally bogus teams coming back on them. Maybe, I guess you could say that about the Jets, but that game's in London. It's mostly that back and forth is the way the NFL works. It's really hard to stop a team when you're trying to play super conservative, but if you play wildly aggressive and then they throw touchdowns on you, you've got the same problem.

I do think it's something they will look at though. And I would like Kevin O'Connell to look at a little bit. I'm going to be aggressive. I'm going to be aggressive. That's phenomenal. Love that. But, but it is six minutes left and you're up by a couple of scores.

You need that clock to be, to be moving. You can't have incompletions. You need a screen. You need a quick throw. I know you're going for the dagger, but you need something that can be completed. And then he figured that out at the end and ran the bootlegs and stuff, CJ ham.

But there is a little bit of that, that it's been the offense that has opened the door more. So I think then the defense just because, or just as much because they haven't been good at running clock on the other team. It's like a basketball team when they're up 17 points in the fourth quarter and they shoot a three early in the fourth quarter and they shoot a three early in the shot clock you go um don't do that so there's there is a little bit of that too

yeah i mean and and that's kind of been the thing that we've seen for most of the season um and you just hope that come playoff time that it's not something that continues and that they kind of rectify it a little bit and are able to put some of these teams away. But, you know, honestly, it's going to be harder to do that in the playoffs because you're just going up against good teams every single week. Every team that they play, even if the Vikings are a five seed and they have to go to Atlanta or Tampa Bay, those are pretty good quality teams that they're going to be playing. And so the reality is you're just going to have more games that are that are close. And I think what you what you're hoping for is that when certain situations arise, like yesterday, where the team that is coming back, that you just have you remain aggressive, but you have sort of controlled aggression, if that even makes a lot of sense. I mean, you know what I mean when I say that. It's like, all right, Kevin, you want to throw the ball. That's fine. You've got good receivers.

You've got a really good quarterback. Your offensive line is playing really well right now. You've got good running backs, but let's, instead of throwing the ball 25, 30 yards down the field, even though Sam Darnold can do that, those are lower percentage passes. Let's just keep it simple. You know, do the high percentage passes like they did late in that last possession that the throw to see the throw to CJ Ham was just great. Like, I love that. Like, like throw to CJ Hamm was just great. I love that. But that's the kind of stuff that if you're going to throw the ball, because it was a little bit hard for them to run the ball yesterday.

Let's be honest. There were a couple times where Cam Akers carried the ball and he got knocked back three yards. You don't want that to happen either if you're trying to milk the clock. But keeping it simple, the throw to C.J. Hamm was great. The throw to Jefferson for like eight or nine yards was really good. And even the pass to Cam Akers, it's a little dicey, a little bit of a shorter throw. I think Sam wanted to put a little bit more on that pass.

He even admitted that in his postgame interview. But stuff like that i think is fine and works just as good because when you're late in games when you're trying to milk that clock you just need first downs you just need to convert first downs you don't necessarily need more points you just need to keep the chains moving keep keep the clock moving um so you can milk that game away. Sam Darnold was 25 for 26 when throwing it through the air, less than 10 yards.

Do that. Do that. Yes. I mean, it works. It's working. It's the short passing game. That's where they've gone from a, okay.

Their office is pretty good, but they're an elite defense and that's how they're going to have to win to, oh, they can drive the conversation with the offense. And I saw Aaron shots tweeting out the DVO way, how they've been a top 10 DVO way in offense and defense in the second half of the season, rather than mostly defense. And then, Hey, they've scored when they needed to, uh, but it's been the short passing game execution. That's something you can do trying to go for the dagger every time deep down the field. It's not necessary anymore. I thought,

I think it might've been before early in the season. And there was a little bit, it's almost like he kind of glitched a little bit there for a second, trying to go down the field. But that, I mean, this is it's nitpicking. The guy is incredible at winning these games that

are close. And it's just been proven over this entire sample size of three seasons for Kevin O'Connell. They win way more than they lose of these close games. And the only games we really saw them botch that were close were like, okay, the playoff game against the giants. I don't think the check down was the play. Uh, but you know, Dobbs throws a bad interception. Nick Mullins throws a bad interception, but 2022 for the most part. And then this year, the late game execution has been really excellent. I mean, the biggest complaint is, man, when you're up by 17, like, what is your problem? It's like, that's, that is quite an issue to have.

Marley says the Lions offense is insane. If they can force a's, that is quite an issue to have. Uh, Marley says the Alliance offense is insane. If they can force a turnover, that might be the difference. My concern is that Ben Johnson has never had any issue with beef flow and KOC has never been as consistent as Johnson. Yeah. I mean, I think that the lions have just had a lot of answers for Brian Flores. And it's funny because they did pressure golf the last time and he was just awesome under the pressure and they ran well and they got some explosives. And that's why this could be the same kind of battle that Detroit had against Buffalo, where it's just back and forth because KOC has not had any problems with Aaron Glenn either.

And with that defense, they play a lot of man. He just shreds man. He understands what they do. So I just think, I think it's two teams that are dead. Even I would take Detroit's offense by this much. I would take the Vikings defense by quite a bit, but that can be mitigated because Detroit has played so well against this defense. Both have kickers who can kick it a long way, but maybe have had some questions about them. I don't know, man.

I mean, the offensive line of Detroit, the receivers of the Vikings, this is as coin flip as 50-50 of a football game that you're ever going to see in the NFL between two absolute behemoths of the league. This is as good as it gets for football this week. This is a heavyweight championship fight. This is fight of the century. This is like, you know, this is like a regular season game where you get like, you know, if it's college football and you got the number one versus the number two ranked team in the, know what do they call it the game of the century type of thing the the michigan ohio state game from from oh six this is the same kind of thing where you just have two extremely good teams and they just

happen to play in the same division slash same conference and they're both really good and they both have stars and elite level talent and they're both well coached um this is this is for a regular season game and it being the last game of the season this is this is about as much as you can ask for as far as theater as far as the the quality of of talent that we're going to see on the football field we're going to see a lot of fireworks we're going to see a lot of offense. We're going to see a lot of fireworks. We're going to see a lot of offense, I think, because both offenses are good. And, you know, we've seen KOC have a lot of success against this Lions defense, and it's a Lions defense that's banged up and missing a lot of guys.

This is, sign me up, man. Get your popcorn out, dude. This is, I cannot wait for Sunday night. It's going to be so much fun. I feel like every show is kind of going to be like that, and it matches the tone of where everyone's at, even the bikies. I mean, they've done the 1-0 each week thing over and over again, but even now, I mean, it's actually true that you just have to go 1-0 here

to get the home field, but you can feel it. I mean, you can feel it with them, the excitement, the energy around this game that they're as jacked up as you are, which is also a cool feeling. I think that I don't believe we've seen a coach and a team connect with the fans as this team has. It really feels like the fans are a part of this thing. I don't know how to describe that exactly. Maybe just because they're so open about who they are. It felt like with Mike Zimmer that everything was some sort of state secret.

Unless somebody stunk, then Zimmer was the first one to tell you, this is someone stinks. But everything else was, it was a big secret. And everyone liked Zim being rough and tumble and stuff. but I think with O'Connell and with this team in general they have really allowed the fans behind the scenes that's why earlier this year I sat down with O'Connell to do that story about his post-game speeches which feels like a pretty good story now uh considering he's had a lot of those post-game speeches and I remember someone well, they don't show the ones when he loses. I don't know if he gives a postgame speech when he loses,

but they haven't lost since I did the article. So I'm just saying. But the point being that, you know, they show you, their media shows you that moment with Sam Darnold. And in the press conferences, O'Connell is really detailed about things. And he sits down with reporters like myself to do interviews and tell us who they are as a team and as people. And I think that that has allowed the fans to really understand how unique this group

is and buy into them the way that they have in, in ways that I haven't previously seen. Uh, K Mac eight 50 with a high-end passing game and a defense that makes plays, they can do the thing. So when we talk about what correlates to going to the Super Bowl, and I'll probably do this article at some point, just looking at their statistics, maybe at the end of the season, I'll do this.

And comparing it to teams that went to the Super Bowl, I've done this before in the off season to try to say, how far away are they? And could they actually get there? And so many times what would happen, you'll never believe it with cousins is I would always come up with, it's good enough, but it's not good enough. It's good enough to be there, but being, being 12th and passing expected points at it, it's just not, it's not good enough. It's good enough to be there, but being, being 12th and passing expected points at it, it's just not, it's not good enough. And the a hundred point differential I've obsessed over this on the show, because you just don't get a ticket to the dance without beating other teams

by a hundred points. And the Vikings would have to lose by 22 to Detroit to not do that. That's the, that's the marker. You must be this tall to get into the dance of being a legitimate Superbowl contender. And that's a plus 100 point differential. And they are there right now. They have not been there outside of 2019 and 2017 and 19. We understood the limitations of that team. And with this, there just doesn't, when you have a quarterback who can get rushed and then escape and throw a 40 yard touchdown, there just doesn't feel like limitations. When you have a quarterback, there's a throw yesterday. It's going around as it does every week. The social media where Jefferson's breaking between two zone defenders and Darnold's just like right in the middle of this thing. What? But we shouldn't be shocked. That's his arm talent. Like that's what he does. When you have a high end passing game that travels more than anything. I know people are concerned about the run, but it's really always in forever. The passing game that will drive you where you're trying to go in the

playoffs. They have those things. And I agree with what you said. They have as good a chance as anybody to go to the Super Bowl and they can match up with anyone because they have those two things. Well, when you look back at, you know, the last time Kevin O'Connell coached in a Super Bowl, which was three years ago, I mean, that's what the Rams had. They had a high-end, high-octane, efficient, dominant passing attack with a quarterback who had a big arm and could make throws that very, very few quarterbacks in the league could make.

And they had a running game that was just serviceable enough, and they had a defense that could pressure the quarterback and make plays. Like, that's, in a lot of ways, the Vikings are very, very much similar to that Rams team from 2021. Same type of thing. Physically gifted quarterback, you know, decent enough running game, offensive line that can protect, defense that can get after the quarterback and make some plays, and force turnovers. That's kind of a formula. You know what I mean? I go back to, I think about the 2012 Ravens that went on that run with Joe Flacco. Again, big arm quarterback with talent, serviceable running game, offensive line that could protect, defense that could make plays and get stops and get off the field.

And that team was 10-6, but they went on a run because they had all the things that typically can win you championships and take you on deep playoff runs. So the Vikings are built to do this. It's not a guaranteed if they will but they have everything that you could possibly want in a team that could go on a deep run as the detroit lions score another touchdown to potentially tie the game again jameson williams this time yeah it's interesting uh joseph said the lions are playing their starters and they could potentially have more oh wow did they just do that did they just the the trick play kings remain the trick play kings

that was incredible um are you a little you might you might be a little bit ahead of me oh i'm ahead of you okay yeah oh no okay i see what i see what they did okay yeah yeah yeah maybe you weren't looking and you just saw him run into the end zone. Yeah. They caught a pass and did the hook and ladder and went for a touchdown with Jamison Williams, who if I guess if the Vikings drafted him, they wouldn't have drafted Jordan Addison. So all's well that ends well. But wow. What a play, what a play. You can guess that there is going to be some chicanery when it comes to them in the Vikings but them playing the starters tonight there was a play just a couple minutes ago where a 49ers player dove headfirst and he actually hit his own teammate he hit Nick Bosa

in the shoulder and Bosa had to go into the blue tent but he was this close away from hitting Jared Goff it It is risky what Dan Campbell is doing. I think after the first half, he should probably just take everybody out and say, we got our sweat in tonight. Thanks boys onto the next. And I know people have brought up, well, what if it's a tie? When was the last tie? I mean, I guess it's possible. Yes. That the Vikings in some scenario could be tied at the end of the game and just run the clock out and tie. I mean, I guess it's possible. Yes. That the Vikings in some scenario could be tied at the end of the game and just run the clock out and tie. So you do want to try to win, but the chances of a tie are very, very low. I think it's the chances of an injury in the NFL

versus a tie, much higher chance of a key injury. They've already lost some, a ton of guys this year, including David Montgomery, Aiden Hutchinson. If I were them, I would be pulling starters after this. But that's not Dan Campbell's game. It's kind of weird that you have a week 18-esque type of scenario in week 17. In the case of the Detroit Lions, where this game with the Niners means absolutely nothing, like whether they win or lose it, it doesn't change anything as far as next week is concerned. So I wouldn't have, if I was Dan Campbell, I wouldn't have played any of my guys tonight. I wouldn't have, I would have let Hendon Hooker start the game at quarterback.

I wouldn't have even played golf tonight and just give that guy, especially that team that has been kind of banged up, especially on the defensive side, to just get as many of those guys, keep as many of those guys healthy as possible because they really can't, I don't think they can afford to really lose any more of their key pieces. Otherwise, it's going to be really, really hard for them to go on a run. I mean, even if one of their receivers turns an ankle or something, they need every piece.

You're right, offensive line, I don't know yeah i dan campbell's gonna dan campbell and this is where you know we talk about o'connell's aggressiveness i do feel like it's a little more on the controlled side as opposed to the i just drank a liter of coffee and now want to fight a pro wrestler, which is the vibe that Dan Campbell gives off, like taking it personally to take your starters out of the game. We'll see what he does here, but that's kind of how it feels to him. Like how, how would I ever do that? And like, well, it's actually the right thing to do that.

They're showing a montage of the trick plays from the lions. I could just see, I could just see i could just see koc at home watching this being like we could throw the quarterback right no if you're if you're watching this live stream kevin while watching the game as so many of your closest friends are don't get any ideas yeah he actually is really backed off it he hasn't run a trick play in weeks and i don't know if that's because he's saving it or if he's figured it out. It's just a bad idea.

Swerving Mervin. Can we talk to Manny about how angry everybody is in Green Bay in Detroit about the celebration videos? Yeah, this is where I think I do a good job of not being too online when it comes to this stuff. I am not aware of other fan bases being angry at celebration videos, but I will say that for the first time

since I've covered the team. So my wife, as you know, Manny, you know my wife well, she is a sports broadcaster. She broadcasts for the Lynx. She is doing a game in Evanston, Illinois tomorrow. She's doing an outdoor hockey game for big 10 network in a few days. It's going to be awesome.

So she, you know, she knows her stuff. She has never cared about my job or wanted to talk to me about the Vikings. Just never. She, during the whole Kirk era, she would come pick me up from the stadium after the game.

Just be like, did they win? I wasn't watching. I'm like, come on. This is what I do. What are we going to talk about? She's watched every game this year.

And in part it's because how much she has enjoyed watching the players like Cam Bynum and Josh Metellus and how much fun this team is having being around each other. And this Manny is the biggest difference between any other team that's been competitive. The 2022 team definitely had a good locker room situation. They related to KOC pretty well, but it was also a lot of guys who were kind of getting their last shot. Um, Zedaria Smith is on this lion's team, but it felt that way at the time and Kirk and Thielen and digs.

And it was, uh, or not, I'm sorry, cook, not digs. Uh, but there was a lot of, yeah, I don't know if I'm going to be here next year. And I just like, we need to win this. And they were, they were a little tight at times because of that. I thought in the locker room, it was a lot of veterans that were kind of trying to do their job and so forth. Patrick Peterson, just like, come on guys, one more before I end up having to retire or something. This is, I think a little bit different than that. The way that they've come together and

had a lot of fun while doing it. And guys like Cameron Bynum and Josh Metellus, you just don't run across people who have this kind of energy. These are also one of the funny parts is these are also two of the smartest guys in the NFL. One of them went to kale and Mike Zimmer in his first mini camp called him brilliant. And I believe him. And, uh, Josh Metellus was going to be a lawyer or something. If he didn't, I think he was going to go for his law degree, went to Michigan. I mean, these are, these are two really fun people who have made it from places that you wouldn't expect late in the draft.

And they've come a long way to do it. And when they do stuff like that, they show who they are and the fun that they're having playing the game. That's one of the reasons they've got here is because they're smart, but they also have they love playing the game. And that's just another window into who this team is and what has made it so likable along the way. A lot of unselfishness. You can probably, I mean, you can speak to this more than I can because you, you, you talk to these guys and you're in that locker room, um, weekly, but it just feels like there's a lot of

unselfishness that everybody roots for everybody else's success you know again the the video of sam donald going back into the locker room yesterday where they dumped all the water on him and so you know i don't know who it was like dalton reisner and somebody lifted him up and and all of that like that's you know some people might you know i don't know lions fans and packer fans might see that and think oh that's cheesy that's corny whatever but when when a team that's 14 and 2 that just beat their their division rival like what do you expect you know what i mean that stuff is that's good stuff man like you can't you can make fun of it

all you want but this this team's 14 and 2 man and there's a reason for that and the the the celebrations that they have the sort of the choreographed celebrations that the defense does and then the postgame stuff and o'connell's postgame speeches all that stuff is that's what goes into a team that's really successful and really, really good and really together and has great chemistry. And that's how you put yourself in a position to contend for championships. You know, the Lions, I would imagine, have the same type of thing. The head coach was talking about biting kneecaps when he got hired. Like this is football, man. You're going to get characters. You're going to get stuff that some people, if you're not a fan of the team, some people are going to have a problem with it. But if you're a fan of the team and you follow it and you see the team having

success to me, just keep doing it, man, because it's working. So you can't, you can't knock it. If the Detroit lions are really given 100% here defensively, they should be pretty worried. They're getting shredded right now. Yeah. By the way, it's been a tough year for Brock Purdy. I still think he's good.

I do too. I think he's played well in a lot of these games and just hasn't had the guys that he usually has, but his actual performance has been pretty good. Anyway, they got 20 points going on 21 here already in the first half. There's six minutes left. This is the difference between the Vikings and the Lions. And the Lions have had answers for the Vikings defense, but this is the difference.

They haven't stopped anybody since those couple of injuries the bills put up 40 something points on them i mean even chicago got a bunch of yards against this team and chicago is horrendous and yet they had their best performance in weeks against detroit twice on thanksgiving and then again when they just most recently played them the vikings have to be salivating here a bit watching this. If they're really trying, I mean, the guys, they know like I'm going to make business decisions. This is kind of a preseason game for us in the middle of the year, but still there's open receivers. There's opportunities right there for Purdy to scramble. He hasn't been under any pressure. I think, I mean,

the Vikings are going from facing one of the best defenses in the league and having Darnold put up, what was it, 377? To now facing one of the worst defenses in the league. Just want to add a quick reminder about our friends at Underdog Fantasy who sponsor the show all year long. And I'm trying to pull up as I talk and do this,

what we had for those hires and lowers the other day, Manny, because you went crazy on hires, expecting a shootout. And I think you nailed most of it, but may have missed on the Packers side. Uh, our friend, Jonathan Harrison tweeted out a ton of stuff on the account. So I'm trying to go back and find it. Where did we have it? We went all hires in this game when we did our, we always do on Thursdays, look at the hires and lowers. So we went all hires and the Vikings defense did come through specifically

against Josh Jacobs, who I think, oh, here we go. So we had Jordan love was over 246 and a half. He didn't get there, but Darnold Jefferson did. And Jacobs, we had 96 and a half combined yards, and he was well below that.

So we did miss, but in the best way possible for this show, in doing our hires and lowers. Anyway, if you want to play along on those pick-ems or get into fantasy playoffs and pick all your favorite Vikings and so forth, you want to go over to Underdog Fantasy. Use the code PURPLE and you get a special pick up to $1,000 in bonus cash to play along during the playoffs. It will make your experience more fun, I guarantee it. So must be 18 or older, terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. I think, Manny, though, the connection with the underdog fantasy pick'ems and the actual performance is that underdog, who is great at their job setting those hires and lowers, they thought Josh Jacobs was going to be a problem for the Vikings. The fact that he wasn't the way that they've played against the run against Kenneth Walker,

who's a good player. And then against Josh Jacobs. Now they're going to have to face Detroit. They are one of the best run defenses in the league. It has to show up at Ford field next week in order for them to win that football game. And I think that there's more confidence maybe than ever after the way they played against Josh Jacobs. Yeah, I mean, it's a run defense that has been really, really good all season long.

Maybe was it the Atlanta game? Maybe they got gashed a little bit. Or was it the one game they got somebody ran on them? Arizona too. Yeah, Arizona. Yeah, and I don't know if that's just scheme or whatever, maybe just a bad day for the for the defense but also it's it's just for the most part they have not really allowed

anybody to run the football on them and it has i think that has also paid a played a big role in them being able to get out to big leads early in these games is because teams aren't able to to run the ball and they get forced into you know passing situations when they might not want to when they want to control the clock a little bit more and teams aren't able to do that and so it gives the Vikings opportunities to get up big in some of these games and then teams have to kind of throw their way back into it and that's why you might look at the defense in terms of past defense and the numbers might be a little bit lower, but the fact that they've been able to stop the run for most,

most of this year, I think has been, has been huge. And, and you said, they're going to have to bring it next Sunday because this, this Lions team can run the ball as, as well as anybody with,

you know, with just with Jameer Gibbs is he's going to be, you know, somebody that they're going to have is he's going to be, you know, somebody that they're going to have to keep their eye on. But we thought that about Josh Jacobs too, and they answered the call with that. So, uh, we'll see how it plays out on Sunday. Uh, Jason says with all the rumors about Calais Campbell being released by Miami, do you think B flow could talk him into coming here? If he's released? Is that, is that happening? I haven't, i haven't seen that uh that would be

really something if they release a player right before the end of the season i guess if you're gonna do it you do it with the guy who's 38 and is going to retire and then what wasn't it uh charles haley who came back for the playoffs and the the vikings tried to convince terrence newman to come back for the divisional round of the playoffs. And I think they even brought him in for a workout and then decided, oh, yeah, he hasn't done anything in a year. So maybe that's not a good idea. Oh, who was it for the Rams? Was that Eric Weddle? Was it him that didn't play all year?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. Look, obviously I'm in. I mean, if you just randomly add a great player to your defense. Yes. I don't know what there's no real analysis needed there. Yes. I mean, if you could just randomly add a great player to your defense, yes. I don't know. There's no real analysis needed there.

Yes. The answer is yes. High character, leadership, one of the great guys, been a Walter Payton Man of the Year candidate. I think, I don't know if he, did he win it one year maybe? He might have. I don't know. I know he's been a candidate many times.

He's still good though. Yeah, he's still a good player and he's a great locker room guy all those things so yeah if the dolphins decide to move on and he's available yeah bring him in and that would actually be a really cool thing for them to do which would be you know you know this guy's career is over and he's going to walk away after this so release him and let him sign with somebody else because they didn't trade him at the deadline and that that was my top target for the Vikings. Cause I thought that they would trade him at the deadline and the Vikings could pick up an extra defensive player. Uh, Jalen Redman is, has rose to the occasion, risen to the occasion. And, uh, you know, he's been great for them. But another rotational defensive lineman,

it's really something that they've been missing. And Redmond got banged up a couple games ago. It was much harder for the D-line. I thought there was a really important stat against the Packers that Harrison Phillips played 30 snaps. And when Harrison Phillips plays 30 snaps, he's grading as one of the highest players on the team. He, at full strength, is tremendous. If he's got to play 60 snaps highest players on the team. He at full strength is tremendous.

If he's got to play 60 snaps, it's so much harder, but if he's playing 30 and he could just do his job and go stuff to run and so forth, then you're in, you're in a great position. If you could play 15, 20 snaps a game with Calais camel, of course, of course, usually you just don't expect uh that to happen uh with somebody that comes available at this point in the season so i guess we'll see if that's what they do then the vikings will be one of the top teams those guys always seem to go to kansas city but uh the vikings have a better point differential than kansas city now so i don't know uh mustin says you should ask Flores about the defensive meltdowns at the end of the first Packers and bears games. Bears was a little bit

of a special teams meltdown. I think as much as it was, and I don't know if we're allowed to call it a meltdown. If you still win the game, I am not so sure. I think a meltdown has to happen when you lose. They were still able to survive. This game was more than Reinhardt. Reinhardt. You wrote Reinhardt, but it's Reichardt. Misses. Yeah, I mean, it was a...

Well, the first Packers game, we had a Sam Donald interception, I think. Fumble. Yeah, he also had... It was a fumble. Well, there was the Jalen Naylor, well, over his head. Andumble there was the there was the jaylen nailer well over his head and then there was a strip sack so and the defense also picked off love and caused the fumble at the end of that game so i don't know if it was quite a meltdown i just think this is how it goes they're they're good the packers are very good And when you're up by 17 in the fourth quarter,

they're going to make plays. And I'm sure we'll talk to him about it. But I just think when you're playing that type of drop into deep zones and try to keep everything in front of you, the other option is the blitz like crazy. But we've seen that not work in the NFL either. If somebody gets one-on-one deep down the field, you're giving up a fast touchdown. There's no real easy answer in the league when you're playing against a good team to just keep them out of it. Remember the bills were up by a couple of scores against the lions a few

weeks ago. And the lions made it interesting down to an onsite kick because they're good. And the Vikings did this to everybody for the whole season in 2022, they would get behind and then cousins would bring them back because they have good and the vikings did this to everybody for the whole season in 2022 they would get behind and then cousins would bring them back because they have good receivers it's just hard to stop teams and keep them completely off the board but since they won both of those games i mean i don't know i don't i i don't i don't put it under meltdown i think that they made it more interesting

than it needed to be yeah and the bears game like that the bears scored 11 points in like 20 seconds like that's you obviously don't want that to happen if you're the vikings but that doesn't just like that doesn't happen all the time like that rarely ever happens so it's kind of more of i put that kind of more in a fluky kind of category of how that played out and then they got into overtime and they got a big sack on Caleb Williams. You know, the defense did. They forced the three and out and got the ball back and went down and scored.

So it's also, it's not a perfect defense. It's a very, very, very good defense, but it's not. And I don't think anyone has one. It's not perfect, flawless. It's just going to stop everybody. That's not the world we live in. Tim says, does KOC have a hard lesson to learn

about clock management before we get to the Super Bowl? He calls pass plays even when it's completely unnecessary. He's won 14 games anyway. I also think that he's 26 and nine in one score games. So I think this is like not it. You can have this opinion that there have been very clear times where they should have just run the ball and not been aggressive. The Jets won and the Packers won drove me crazy where they threw not this last week,

but in Lambeau where they threw the interception to Xavier McKinney when just handing off and kicking a field goal puts them up 31 to seven. The game's over. Instead, they opened the door back up. And the same thing, you know, this interception that Darnold threw was kind of one of those guys you're backed up in your own zone. Do you really have to run a 20 yard deep out to the tight end? Like, is that necessary? So I, I feel you on that. And that's been one of my bigger critiques, but you got to see the matrix a little bit here with this, because when you look at the way NBA teams play by shooting threes all the time, and you look at the way baseball teams play by swaying for home run all the time.

And these things have just been found that in the long run, it works out better. How many times, those are the times it didn't work out and we circled it and said, ah, KOC, why didn't you run the ball? But how many times have they been aggressive with leads that have led to them winning and putting up more points, right? And they've scored a lot and they've had a really effective passing game. They don't have the most effective running game that can just ground and pound the game to an end. So I think O'Connell looks at it like we've got a score on every possession. That doesn't mean he's perfect at it, but the results are really telling the story on these things. It's working and it's, and it's, and it's not just working this year. It's worked over a long period of time. And the only time I

would have said, okay, Kevin, this is getting ridiculous is when Josh Dobbs was throwing four interceptions. That's when it was ridiculous. So even though I agree with you that there's a couple of times where they should have just played it safe, it's third and 18 against the jets. You've got the lead, just hand off, punt the ball away, make them go the whole field again against your defense and i would say the same for six minutes left to score lead make sure that clock remains running but these are nitpicks in games where they were winning handily the entire time in part because they come out and put the gas pedal down the entire time so it's really hard to say wow koc's screwing this up they've only won 14 games you know it's like every one of the best seasons and it's really hard to say, wow, KOC's screwing this up. They've only won 14 games.

You know, it's like every one of the best seasons. And it's the second time he's done it. It's not just that one random time. So I'm living in both worlds a little bit with this opinion. Well, and I think you have to look at the rest of the conference too. And even the elite teams in the conference have question marks. And they have things that you can nitpick and just say like, ah, boy, I don't know that. Is that going to be, you know, are they going to be able to get by with it? You know, the, the lions were just, you know, lauding the lions for all

the trick plays that they run. What if they run one of those trick plays in the playoffs and it, it's, it doesn't work and it's a disaster and it costs them the game. You know, they've got all these injuries that they're dealing with on the defensive side you know philadelphia you know jalen hurts is coming off you know concussion protocol and everything how is he going to be you know when playoff time comes there's been question marks about you know that locker room this year there's been question marks about you know how good that passing game is because they've been able to run the ball really well this year. And obviously all the teams

even below the Vikings in the standings have some question marks. I think even just like the Packers, you just kind of wonder like, they're really good, they're really talented, but are they, with what we've seen now with them going into US Bank Stadium, is this a team that can actually really go on and run?

There's question marks with every team is basically what I'm getting at. And so the Vikings have won 14 games. So it's like I'm just ready. I'll take my chances for what they've done. There's always things to nitpick, but give me KOC, give me Sam Donald, give me Justin Jefferson, give me this defense, and let's just go. I'll take my chances against any team that's in the NFC right now. So the Lions just failed on a fourth down in the red zone. I'm curious if 49ers go and score, if they will pull their starters or if they're going to try to come back and win.

I don't know. O'Connell nails a lot of the other stuff. I think one of the reasons they have so many late game wins, comeback wins is of course the confidence of the quarterback, but also his late game and big moment play calling has just been unreal through, through the years. I mean, going back to Kirk and all those big comebacks and things like that, I think his play calling and his connection with the quarterback is just so excellent that they win a lot of those close games, even if he doesn't handle it flawlessly with some of that other stuff. But I, I in general agree though, if you get into a playoff game and you're up by 10 points in the fourth quarter and you throw a couple

incompletions and punt the ball back you are opening the door where you could have you know eaten out a couple of uh minutes out of that clock and that's what they really needed to do in that game but again they they all played them by a lot they still won the game so uh that's that's how it goes uh as far as uh let's see sir Sir Pablo says, talk about Turner having a bigger role with Patrick Jones' injury. So Patrick Jones is going to be okay, it sounds like, from what Kevin O'Connell said today. But every week now, going on about six straight weeks, Dallas Turner has made a play.

And he gets a sack, gets an interception, had the big hit on Kirk Cousins a couple of weeks ago. He's really starting to develop into a key player. And I just think that they're playing better football than they've played for a lot of this season with this defense, because somebody like him, Jalen Redman, these guys are emerging and Jones has been good this season. He's got sacks, but he's had some big games with pressures. He's a rusher up the middle of times. So he is important, but a hundred percent like Dallas Turner becoming a 25 snap, a game

guy who comes in and makes a big play. It is a huge development. And that's why all year long, we've said, you just got to give it some time. You're gonna have to let the kid develop. He's going to either sink or swim eventually. And the answer has been swimming lately in a good way. Like he's, he's just started to figure it out in coverage. And then he's made some real plays in the pass rush.

And that's life. When you draft one of the youngest players in that entire draft, and then you teach him a new job. And I think we really saw when he intercepted that pass. Oh, this is why Brian Flores, you know, here's what we've never had, Manny, since I've been covering the team. We've never had a situation where the coaches, a lot of times you just go, they probably, they probably got this right.

I mean, with Donatello, there was so much to question that first year. And with Zimmer, it was the stop running all the time. And why aren't you playing Brett Jones at guard? And there was like a million different things. Why are you assaulting your offensive coordinator? Why won't you just like be nice to Kirk? There were just so many things right through the years that we could question about what the coaches do. And like when they benched at Ingram, here was my thought. Well, I'm guessing KOC knows what the assignments are and can evaluate offensive line play with his former NFL guard offensive line coach. And so they're probably making the right decision.

So I came on here and said, this is probably really good for them. And Reisner's history had been good. And, and lo and behold, here we are. Reisner has been a game changer for them. And Reisner's history had been good. And, and lo and behold, here we are. Reisner has been a game changer for them in their past protection because this coach knows what he's doing. And like the same thing with Flores, where Flores is like,

look, I'm developing the kid. Give me some time here. All right. And we're like, okay, I'll buy. I'll make my bet on Brian Flores,

knowing what he's doing. And then here we are weeks and weeks later after there's all that. Oh, it was a terrible draft pick. They gave up so much and all this stuff. Fire Casey. And they're like, oh, maybe Brian Flores knew what he was doing. It's a hard adjustment to make. And I think that a lot of Vikings fans have really struggled on game day with this.

You see it, all the tweets in the chat, what are they doing? This is so bad. Like, Oh, they won again. And it's just like most of your lives. I'm sure watching football,

probably after Bud Grant was done coaching the team to present, you probably spent every Sunday yelling. What are you doing at about 20 things a week outside of a couple seasons 98 09 so forth this is just one of those seasons where they know what they're doing and they've done it right and they did it right with dallas turner weren't we kind of talking about early in the season i think it was even after the giants game the first game of the season where because people were kind of wondering like you know dallas turner had the sack in that game and people were kind of wondering like where's why are we seeing more dallas turner remember i said

like this is actually a really good situation for dallas turner because there's not a lot of pressure on him to step in as a 21 year old rookie and make an immediate impact. And it was nice to see him make that sort of immediate impact in that Giants game, first game of the season. But, you know, he kind of fell off. I think he had a little bit of an injury and then, you know, missed some time. And then when he was back healthy, wasn't quite seeing as many snaps and everything. And people were wondering, but it was low key, like a great situation for him because there wasn't a lot of pressure for him to step in and produce right away and be a major cog of this defense. Because you had veterans that you went and signed in free agency that were stepping into that role right away and taking a bulk of the workload.

And now as the season is progressing, and I said this, as the season goes along, you start easing Dallas Turner a little bit more into the mix. And more and more, he starts seeing more playing time. He starts making plays and starts making things happen. And now you're set up pretty good for a playoff run where, you know, if you need to take Grenard out for a couple plays, you need to take Van Ginkle out for a couple plays. Or if you just want to put Dallas Turner out there with those two guys and make something happen, he's now better prepared to be able to do that because he's been kind of eased into this. And now he can just kind of be sort of a,

I guess, I don't know if you use the term change of pace for, you know, a defensive guy, but it's kind of like bringing in sort of a gadget running back on the offensive side that can just make things happen. He's not going to carry the ball 20 times for you and run for a hundred yards, but he might make a couple of plays when he, when he does get the opportunity to get out there. And I think that's kind of the situation that Dallas Turner's in. It's a good situation to be in. And he's just getting more and more comfortable each week and he's playing faster each week. And his sack against Chicago was a very confident pass rush.

And I thought that about the interception where he identified something. And I remember saying in OTAs, I think someone asked, well, how does Dallas Turner look? I'm like, okay, come on, guys. They don't even put on pads. But one thing I noticed was they could catch the football. I said, if this guy played tight end, he would catch a lot of passes. And I think they saw the same thing. Uh, but one thing you'll notice about football analysis at large, and we'll get to, uh, play off the machine and then wrap up the show.

Um, but I know you're just going to be watching the rest of this game, Manny. So you're not busy, but, uh, we got a fourth down here coming for the 49ers up gonna kick a field goal to go up 24 13 i wonder if that means that they will rest starters or if dan campbell is just totally against it i guess we'll find out uh but a lot of the missed it oh uh a lot of the analysis world if you notice is based on saying that the football people are doing it wrong the you're analyzing the bears like they're they're coaches or have the wrong scheme and they've all got all the wrong players and their people need to be fired and so that's that's a lot of what football analysis is is just second guessing everyone that had something go wrong and

criticizing them and whatever. And that's like, that's, it's a very intense sport. I understand. And it goes on inside the NFL buildings too. When teams lose, they all point fingers at each other and everything. Cause that's how we all overreact to football, but where you can really figure things out with this Vikings team is just by listening to them. And I've had a lot of things that have been right that they just told us about where players stood or what they were doing with them. And if you believe that this team has competence, which I have for some time now, I mean, look at Kwesi in the competitive rebuild. He just told us, how did I know that Kirk was going to end up in Atlanta and they weren't

going to bring him back? Because Kwesi had told us right from the start that great quarterback play wins Super Bowls and Kirk's just good. He didn't mean to tell the reporter from Yahoo that, but he did. And the competitive rebuild, well, what are they doing? Getting rid of Cook and Thielen. And I remember some analyst on Twitter saying, oh, the Vikings are tanking. Like, no, they're not tanking.

They're doing the thing that the GM just said they were doing. They didn't pretend they weren't going to draft a quarterback. They told everybody, we're drafting one of these quarterbacks. We're going to visit them. We like them. We're their friends. And then they did. It's very odd because most

times, and I think it really proves something about football. Most times teams are like, we're not telling you anything. You don't understand football. And this team has been like, okay, here's what we're doing. And it's been, and it's been right out there. And we've understood a lot of things, including the development of someone like him or, you know, what they're looking for from certain players or changes that get made. Anyway, the whole point is that it's very unique in this way. If they were maybe a six-win team, it wouldn't be like this, but they're a 14-win team, so they can do it. Oh, I wanted to also make an announcement. I want to welcome all the National Football League reporters

and aggregators and bloggers who cover crappy teams. Welcome in to fake J.J. McCarthy trade season. I am wishing you the best with all of your clicks that you're going to try to get from fake JJ McCarthy trades. I saw it from a jets reporter today. You know, I'd be good with the jets training for JJ McCarthy. Oh, you would. Well, that's fantastic because it's never going to bleep and happen. Not this off season. They're not trading JJ McCarthy. So all of you people who cover the jets, the Raiders, the giants, all these teams who are making up your fake trades, go back and look at all the fake trades

that you made up for Justin Jefferson last year. Look what your click numbers did. Celebrate them. Do it again. Rake your clicks and waste your time. They're not trading JJ McCarthy to your crappy football team. Okay. Let's just put it to bed right now. When you guys go online and click around and you see, Oh, there's a trade proposal from some dope who covers the jets. Let's see what he's thinking. What can we get for him? The answer is you're not getting nothing for him. Cause they're not doing it. Okay. They're not trading him. And I mean, I've just had so many people like text me or whatever DM.

And they're like, well, what can they trade Darnold for? What can they trade McCarthy for? Look, these are your quarterbacks for next year. We don't even have to talk about it. It's too, it's too big of a game, too important. But I just have started to see that crop up all over the place from i cover the raiders could they trade for mccarthy no i cover the giants could they trade for mccarthy no i try it's not happening they're not drafting a guy 10th overall

and then giving him away okay they're They're going to wait. Good God. I mean, what, how much it must suck to cover those teams. I don't, I just like, I have a lot of compassion for all of those reporters and all of those freaky people who take little 10 word articles and post them that have 50 ads that pop up and melt your laptop. Like all those people need their content in order to make money with those clicks. You got to post 50 things a day. So why not make up some BS trades and try to get as many pennies as you could pinch away from the poor football fans who think there might be something to your horse crap. But I'm telling you guys, you don't have to bother with it. Okay. Let other fan bases

waste their time and get a bunch of spam that goes onto their computers, not yours. By the way, no ads in the purple insider newsletter. Um, just so you guys know. So, uh, anyhow, I just needed to get that off of my chest because I saw it and my head exploded. And I was talking to my wife earlier tonight, and I pretty much said the same thing. Like, I can't believe how lazy this world is that they made up all these BS trades for Justin Jefferson last year and wasted everybody's time.

And now they're doing it already with another guy who's not getting traded. So best of luck. Why? You know, J.J. McCarthy seems like really nice, really nice young man. Nice kid. Really talented. Nice arm. Won a lot of games at Michigan. MJ McCarthy seems like really nice, really nice young man, nice kid, really talented, nice arm, won a lot of games at Michigan.

Get rid of him! Why? Why would the Vikings do something so despicable like trading him to the New York Jets? Right, right. They like him, right? That's a good point. Okay, that's a good point.

They like him. He's a nice kid. He's really talented. why would you want to send him to the jets yeah like why oh yeah this uh wade makes a good point and says uh this is as close as we can get to have him discuss the 2025 draft this week yeah you're right about that oh man nobody likes it more than me the longer a season goes where the football games matter. I'll talk about the draft when we get to the draft. Aaron says, well, you have intern Haley on before the game.

Well, here's the thing about intern Haley. She works for the Detroit lions. So no, she's can't come on a podcast. But I hopefully, well, I will see intern Haley. I don't know if you never met a Haley English Manny and people might not know what I'm talking about. Uh, two years ago had intern Haley English, brilliant analytics mind. She worked at PFF for a while.

PFF stupidly laid off their interns when they had some financial issues. So someone from PFF asked me, hey, we've got this really talented person. Could you bring her on? Could you have her come on your show and do some writing and stuff like that? She did unbelievable work for about maybe four months, I think, for Purple Insider on the draft,

on free agency, all that sort of stuff. And then the Detroit lions hired her and she has moved up the ladder there with the lions, uh, and become one of their key analytics people. And she's maybe 24 or something. I mean, she's just, she's just a freak. And, uh, I mean that in the most complimentary way, it was an honor to have her as part of this show, but now she is literally helping the Detroit Lions try to win against the Minnesota Vikings. So how about that for a cool Purple Insider story? So let's finish this off with this, Manny.

We got the, let me screen share the playoff machine. Let's get our little tiny heads at the bottom here. And for this final week, I think that we should look at it. Let's just say, since it doesn't matter while the tie thing matters, let's say the 49ers just take care of business tonight in the second half here.

And we go into week 18 in the national football league. And we'll just, we know what the scenario is for the Vikings winning. If they win, they're the one seed. So we'll pick the game on Thursday, but let's say that they don't. And the different matchups, why don't you pick the different matchups?

I don't know which ones matter and which ones don't. So we'll just pick all the teams that could be relevant to this. And we'll go through them and see what it would mean for the vikings so who do you think wins between washington and dallas i will take washington okay how about i think arizona's out of it san francisco how about the bucks and the draft analyst, favorite quarterback, Spencer Rattler and the new Orleans saints. Michael panics look pretty good the other day. So,

uh, bucks and saints. I will take the Tampa Bay bucks. All right. Falcons and Panthers. That'll be interesting, but I'll take the Falcons. Okay.

Yeah. Panthers have, uh, they, they showed themselves to have some spunk, but not a lot of talent there. How about the Rams and Seahawks? This one,

I don't think actually matters anymore, but we'll pick it anyway. Yeah. Cause the Rams clinched now, right? Yeah. So with the Vikings winning strength of schedule, all that.

So yeah, I'll, I'll give it to, you know what? I'll give it to Seattle because I think Sean McVay will rest some guys. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Actually look at that. That actually could matter. Oh really? Yeah. The, yeah. Actually, look at that. That actually could matter. Oh, really? Yeah. The playoff machine glitched when I changed it to Seattle. But you're right about that. Yeah, you're right about that. Their coach in Seattle is going to want to win,

and Sean McVay will definitely sit starters. Okay. That I did not expect. Did that just bump the Rams down to four and put Tampa Bay at three then? It did. Yes, it did. Okay. So maybe with the Rams, well, they don't really care if they're three or four.

I wouldn't think. Maybe they do because of, well, or because of the matchups. Yeah, the matchups go on. Okay. Interesting. But they won't know if they're the four seed. They won't know if they're playing the Lions or Vikings because the Lions or Vikings won't have played yet.

Green Bay and Chicago? Green Bay. The Bears are... They don't even need to be talked about anymore. Hey, the Giants, they got Drew Locke now, but they're playing the Eagles and just to make sure we pick it all in the NFC, who do you

think wins that one Giants and Eagles I think I don't even know who the Eagles third string quarterback is even if it's that I would give it to the Eagles uh you should know it's Tanner McKee um oh the Stanford guy yep the Stanford guy so let me remove our our heads from the view here how do I do that there we go so here's what you'd have if the Vikingsikings lose the exact situation we've talked about not wanting yeah so look at that okay so if the rams win then the vikings would go play the bucks and if the rams lose under this scenario does this change anything oh actually that does change something okay but. But not relevant to us, right?

Oh, the six and the seven. Okay. No, not relevant to us. So yeah, I mean, we're really, it looks to me like the Bucks game against the Saints and the Seattle LA would determine who they would end up playing. Cause if the Bucks lost, oh, then it would be Atlanta if they beat Carolina. So they could still play Atlantalanta if the bucks lose what about if both of them win if both of them win tampa bay oh because they have the better record boy that was a devastating loss for atlanta yesterday now now did now do we think

about it that way like they have they need to beat carolina and they need help just to win the division wow that was a great game it was a great game uh what i would say for the vikings is you might want to win it now because jayden daniels might just win a lot in the future so maybe this year is your time uh er Eager also cannot come on the show when he's working for the Carolina Panthers. But it is funny though, because early in the year, it was all the Panthers are the biggest disaster and everything else. And now they kind of look like a team that could build around Bryce Young in

the future. And once again, we get another, Hey, maybe we shouldn't decide on a guy after like 12 starts, whether he's good or not. But anyway, that's, uh, for a Panthers podcast to be concerned about. We're worried about Vikings and lions.

So on Thursday we will hardcore preview that game. We'll do the, all the over unders, uh, I'm sorry, the higher lowers for a underdog fantasy and go from there. We'll have a lot of fun. So much coming on the show, uh, working on getting Chris Trapasso on who's been our draft analyst for so many years.

But I, I texted Chris and I said, you deserve this man. He's done all the off season coverage with us, but you know, the regular season, he's doing his thing for CBS sports and working on him. Eric at home from NFL.com,

uh, Hobie, our Teague, former Minnesota guy who is in Detroit. So I am incredibly excited about this week. We are going to grind like we're playing in the game. That's what we're going to do.

So I'll see you on a Thursday night, Manny. Great stuff, uh, as always, and great stuff from all of you. Awesome questions, comments, thoughts. I can feel the energy and excitement in all of you guys. So, comments, thoughts. I can feel the energy and excitement in all of you guys. So it's made it really fun. So, oh, wow. Brian, thank you so much for the super chat coming in at the last second. Wow. I really appreciate that, man. All super chats appreciated. Also, if you want to go over to a purple insider dot football, that's a good place to sign up for the newsletter. All my writing over there, just over the weekend, just to throw this out there. I did a story on

the one and O mantra that they've adopted on the straight cash homie, where that came from, from Randy Moss, which Ian Rappaport retweeted shout out to him. Thank you so much to him for retweeting that story, but that was a cool one. And also about Aaron Jones and what he's meant to this team. So the writing side is grinding and I got to actually go do more of that right now. So thanks, Manny. Thanks to all of you.

And we will see you all again very soon. Football.