Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN's Courtney Cronin gives her keys to the Vikings beating the Cowboys

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin pull out an old school approach: KEYS TO THE GAME. They break down what the Vikings will need to do in order to beat the Dallas Cowboys, assuming Dak Prescott is healthy. They talk about the cornerback situation and holding Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb down along with how the Vikings can take advantage of the weaknesses in Dallas's defense. Plus they play a game analyzing where the Vikings will finish record wise if they beat the Cowboys. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Collar here, along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin. We've got some fun stuff. We've got a game based on what we think the Vikings' final record will be. And we have got a football game with a lot of hype, Courtney, that we have to hardcore break down. And I'm excited about that. There have been so many games that we've gone into where I don't even know if we mentioned a Lions player. Like Lions week, it's just like, look, if you lose to the Lions, man, this is going to get really ugly.

And even Carolina, we talked a little bit about how they match up and so forth. But going into that game, the whole vibe was you better beat Carolina. And now it's much more. Here's how these two teams match up against each other. And I'm enjoying that part of this week, Courtney. The last time that we did this was the Browns week. That was the turning point of the season. I know Andre Patterson says that us media members create a soap opera and it's a roller coaster of days of our lives and how we write about games and stuff and that they have to play 17 of them. So it really doesn't matter what happens early in the season. But when you are

writing the story arc of the season, you have to ride the wave. And that's what we have done as two people who have been on this beat for a while and covering this team for a while of this is what a 3-3 team looks like to where now we're at the top of the roller coaster, right? And I guess maybe the roller coaster isn't the best analogy because you're going to go down. That's just what happens on roller coasters. But who knows? Maybe the car go off the tracks and it goes towards the ceiling, towards the sky if they win this game.

Because A, first time they're over 500 for the first time this season. And B, they've gotten the hard test out of the way. They go against the league's number one offense, a team that has a banged up Dak Prescott but an excellent offensive line a ton of weapons and they've got the rest of their schedule coming up over the next three weeks after that you know the swing from the east coast at Baltimore to the west coast at the Chargers and then Green Bay at home if you start out on a hot streak there you're feeling your oats you're feeling confident you're feeling like you're in a good spot where Baltimore did not look good

against the Bengals when we saw them, and that would have been the last time. It's the last time we will have seen them before they play the Vikings in week nine. So a lot at stake here. I think that this, I wouldn't say it's a game of whatever. I mean, yeah, certainly I think it's game of the week. It could very well have the capability of being that but it could also be yet another turning point as the world turns if we want to keep using these soap opera references um I don't think you got that one because you're looking at me like I'm stupid no no no I know a lot about soap operas

I don't think the Vikings want their players to end up in General Hospital. Oh, I like that one. The General Hospital injury report. I used to watch a lot of General Hospital as a kid because I grew up without cable. Sure. You got the network TV. Right. You had cartoons and then you had soap operas and whatever was on PBS. So, yeah, I watched a lot.

Yeah. But, I mean, then again, it's like, you know, circling back on it, this is a turning point game because this will be the stretch that defines their season, defines whether they're a playoff team and whether they're like a convincing playoff team or a backing your way in playoff team because you have to win games in this stretch because you're not going to be able to, you know, recoup, so to speak,

at the end of the season, starting with Detroit, September, Saturday, December 5th. Yeah. And there are winnable games, but I'm not going to declare San Francisco. I'm not going to declare Chicago an easy win because they are still Chicago. And I mean, the Vikings would be happy if Matt Nagy got fired because he beats them usually. But, you know, to your point about how Andre Patterson said, well, you guys hype up every game as if it's the game that turns the year, but that's sort of the way. That's the nature of the NFL.

Oh, but it's the nature of being mediocre, really. Sure. I mean, it's the nature of being a team that's in the middle is that all of a sudden these games become absolutely huge when you have a big opponent to win. If you are a team that's five and one right now, like Dallas, this game does not turn your season because you are a number one offense though. Being a number one offense always correlates to being in the playoffs. It's often correlates to being in the super bowl. So you're pretty

confident that even if you have a bad loss against Minnesota, you're going to be okay. But if you're the Vikings and you drop to three and four, and then you're looking at those next few games, then all of a sudden it feels like you're scratching and clawing. It's felt like they're scratching and clawing really from the first two weeks of the season. Dating back to last year at this point, they were scratching and clawing. Granted, they were in a far bigger hole starting out, what, 1-5 into the bye, and then they rattle off a bunch of wins there in October going into November, but they were still in the fight to just get to 500, to just be one game above 500 if they could ever get there, and they didn't. So that's the territory they want to steer clear of,

and they gave themselves enough leeway here where they're 3-3 coming into this thing. They don't have a whole ton of room for error, though. Like, I'm not saying that it's impossible to go toe-to-toe with Dallas, but you're really going to have to pull out a lot of stops to do it because, you know, who knows? I mean, the Chargers look human. Baltimore looks human.

But those are two road games, back-to-back weeks. And, you know, at that point, I don't think you can guarantee anything. So win the games while you can. And I don't know. I get kind of the vibe that they're very confident this week. Maybe it's just coming off the bye. They feel healthy. They're in a better situation.

Like you mentioned General Hospital. Better situation health-wise than the cowboys are right now they're not dealing with an injury to their quarterback and all of that but i still think they look at this and say whew the way we played offensively the last two weeks from the execution to the conservativeness it cannot happen if you're going to beat this team no they need the second half of carolina to be the whole game not No, they need the second half of Carolina to be the whole game. Not you go through the first, you know, it used to be for a few games there, the first half, it was exciting and they would put up a bunch of points and then they would struggle.

And then in this last game, it was struggling for a half and then it was, you know, lighting the world on fire. It needs to be a complete game, or even if you're not scoring, moving the ball. And I think that that's been something they've talked about a lot this week is at least don't let the defense have to go back out there at three and outs and they lead the NFL in three and outs. So that can't happen. And there's a lot of different reasons why. But the overall up and down nature of even within games, you can get away with it against Detroit.

You could get away with it against Carolina. You could get away with it against Carolina. You cannot be able to against Dallas, against Dallas. So let's do this before I have a schedule game for you in a standings game. I want to talk about the three keys to the game for the Vikings, because to me, that's the most essential way to break down a football game, right?

When they put up on the graphic on the game before, you know, kickoff or something and it says, run the ball or whatever. Third down defense. Right, right. Don't turn the ball over. I mean, did we not just see this on the screen going up to practice? Like their lame keys to the game. It's the most obvious stuff, yes.

But no, let's go full on Fox, CBS. Like, do I get my little picture and like my little graphic and all that? Yeah, I'm all for it. But let's do a better job of it. So I would say the first key is that the cornerbacks, and this is not just Dantzler, the cornerbacks have to have a good night. They can't have penalties. They can't get roasted for big plays. And they have to at least hold Amari Cooper within check and hold C.D. Lamb within check

because they're going to make plays and they're going to pick up yards. But forcing Dak Prescott to use his running backs and his tight ends to throw the ball, they're all good. Like they have a good tight end. They have good running backs. But forcing him to work the ball to them and not to the most dangerous players, I think is maybe the biggest key here. And the other thing is, too, that you can't just fool Dak Prescott at the line of scrimmage.

No. Even Adam Zimmer talked about this, where he's very smart pre-snap. He's very smart after the snap. You can't just, oh, we're going to drop our safeties back and he melts like we've seen from some other quarterbacks. So that to me becomes much more of a man-on-man type of game because you're not just going to trick him and then get 10 sacks or something.

So I think that really comes down to Breland Dantzler being at an extreme disadvantage and at least holding their own and not having a Mike Hughes night where he's targeted 20 times by Dak Prescott because he will do that won that game they got very lucky that they won that game um thanks Kyle Rudolph but no I mean I agree with you I think that the cornerbacks here if you're just looking for a potential mismatch in terms of who's going to be favored in that, it would obviously be Dallas.

I mean, Dak Prescott has a ton of weapons at his disposal. You remember this catch that CeeDee Lamb made last year, which ended up winning them the game. And that wasn't even from Dak. That was from Andy Dalton. You know, Amari Cooper has been terrific this year. They've got, you know, tight ends that they can rely on. I don't know if there's a more complete offense.

And when I talk about complete, I'm talking about the offensive line too. Their pass protection is so good, and that's the only reason I'd be confident knowing that, hey, Dax, even before this calf injury, he looked fine. He did not look like he was hampered by the ankle in coming back from the two surgeries last year, whatever. But now it's like, all right, is mobility going to be an issue? Is he still going to be that guy that you expect to take off and run if he really is dealing with that calf injury? Well, he might not have to because they are so complete from the front to all of their

skill guys. But Breland, here's the thing. When I look back at that Carolina game with six I think PFF had them with eight something like that like it was terrible but is there confidence in Bashad Breeland that it's the light bulb is finally turned on that the technique has been something he's finally bought into because the way that he covers here versus the way that they cover in Kansas City it's clearly very different I asked Andre Patterson about that yesterday. Just wondering, is there anything he can carry over? Cause talk about a roller coaster and a soap opera. That guy has been the focal point of it for his own 2021 season. He's been all over the place. Now he's your number one corner going into this game with Patrick Peterson on IR with the hamstring injury. So what does that look like? Don't be dumb.

Do not be the version of yourself you've been throughout your career where you're getting penalized a ton. And for Dantzler, I think it's pay attention. Stay locked in. Stay focused. Do not let them get behind you. B.C.D. Lamb's one of these guys where it doesn't look on tape like he's moving very fast, but somehow he gets behind your defense

and he has these incredible hands he can make contested catches if you're trying to fight with him and even like you know beyond that he's just so good at you know ball control tracking the ball the whole thing so how do they play them how big of a role does Mackenzie Alexander have in this too you know coming out of the slot I would really wonder if Mike Zimmer decides he wants to play a whole ton of cover to this game and uh you know just try to you know four stack into situations like that you have to throw from from a defensive perspective you have to throw the kitchen sink at them yeah I agree so your point about the slot is exactly correct I I mean, DD, uh, DD,

CD lamb, 27% of his snaps in the slot, Amari Cooper, 31%. So those guys are making up one or the other, uh, a big percentage of plays where they're lining up in the slot, which we haven't talked a lot about Mackenzie Alexander this year because he's just been fine. Uh, but that is a potential dangerous matchup there with those two guys and quarterback rating for Dak Prescott when he throws to Amari Cooper this year, 130.4. And when he throws to CeeDee Lamb, 115.3. I'll give you one more stat that is kind of scary for this Viking secondary. Got a Michael Gallup stat in there? There is. Well, Michael Gallup hasn't played as much this year because he's been hurt but contested catches dallas is 22 for 38 according to pff on contested catches so they are making

the 50 50 ball more than 50 of the time and that's why on the other side i think that the screen game is really important for the vik Vikings because they have to put together methodical drives. Everyone wants explosive plays. That's fine. And you need them to win. But when they were able to run effectively and throw screens effectively against Seattle, that's what led to a lot of those long drives.

And I think that that goes on the keys to the game. Graphic is be successful, rip off a couple of big screen plays take advantage of the aggressiveness of the Dallas defense and you've got a chance to put together longer drives to keep Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb on the sideline yeah and the aggressiveness of the defense like you bring that up but they're still giving up a lot of yards like that's something where I'm not as too concerned you know I expect this to be the scoreboard to not necessarily reflect I mean this should be a 40 point affair that's what I picked the first team basically to 40 wins but you could be seeing the 571 yards of offense type stat that you saw against

Carolina in this game because Dallas is gonna they, they're going to allow you to play. They'll play, they're aggressive, they're reckless is what Mike Zimmer said, but they still are not anywhere, I mean, they're not anywhere close to like where they need to be. The screen game for the Vikings, what is going on with it this year? But that's my question. Like guys are, you saw the one that got blown up where Dalvin Cook got banged up on that one play in Carolina I'm not entirely sure what happened on that but it didn't look pretty at all those types of things can't happen what about wide receiver screens remember this team used to be an explosive wide receiver screen team why can't more of that happen like you know they did it with they did it on the in that play on the drive on overtime, where he went from Jefferson to Thielen and he audibled the line, I believe Kirk did, he made that call. So that's,

that's probably one of the better points of emphasis for this offense where, you know, you don't want to get into a match where Trayvon Diggs is taking away Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, and all you have really is that third check down read to KJ Osborne. That's not going to get it done. You can utilize Dalvin Cook in that fashion. I don't know why they wouldn't. Sam Ekstrom here, wondering if you're stuck on your company's injury report. In an unfortunate situation like that, it's good to have someone in your corner.

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where you can find a phone number to get a free consultation. This is an attorney advertisement from Kemet, Sanford, and Kramer, yourminnesotaworkcomplawyer.com. Yeah, I think that picking their spots to be aggressive, because Trayvon Diggs is so good at making plays on the ball, picking their spots and forcing them to become impatient,

I think is maybe the way to put it for me. If you throw the screens and you get those going, and then you're sort of forcing them to get frustrated by giving up eight ten twelve yards um pretty often now are you're aware of this i'm sure but i'm not sure the listening audience is that uh dallas has a player on their defense who is sort of built for this kind of thing for you know blowing up screen, playing well against the run, and being kind of a special weapon for them. Do you know who I'm talking about? J-Ron Curse has played 351 snaps for the Dallas Cowboys,

has a 90 tackling grade, a 90 pass rushing grade, of which he's done quite a bit. It's a J-Ron revenge game. And an 80 run defense grade. J-Ron Curse become like one of those players that they move all over. And it was what we saw that he could be against or for the Vikings, but he played the big nickel role. He ended up in the doghouse and never got to do it. When we talk about the Dallas defense, their aggressiveness over aggressiveness,

they're not necessarily an amazing pass rush team, but I do think they just have some guys who are ballers and curse. We know that that's kind of him. Um, every time he got into games with the Vikings, he made plays. It was just that he didn't get in that often. Randy Gregory's had a great start. Michael Parsons has had a great start. And so it's a really interesting matchup because I feel like there's opportunities to rip off big plays. There's opportunities to stay on the field and take advantage of aggressiveness with rollouts and with screens and things like that. But they're also dangerous. And that's what makes them such an interesting matchup, I think, for the Vikings. The Vikings have played safely a lot, conservatively.

They haven't turned the ball over. They haven't taken sacks. And now they've got – they have to push the pedal down a little more with a great offense on the other side, but you have a defense that can make plays. I just – I really like, from a pure football-y perspective, how many different angles there are to trying to analyze this Vikings and Cowboys matchup.

Yeah, I'm looking at the stats right now. J-Ron actually leads the team in tackles so far this year. He's got also like four of them for loss, four quarterback hits. Wow. He's having a good year. Yeah, he's having a great year. And this is somebody who we didn't think was going to be on the team. I thought he was getting cut. He made it sound like he thought he was getting cut back in September.

No, I mean, I think that that's kind of the influence that they have there where Dan Quinn can have a whole lot of different things that they do on the back end. What did Mike Zimmer call it? The Seattle zone style thing that he brought over from Seattle. It's a little different than what he was doing in Atlanta, so it's probably more like what he was doing in Seattle. And for them to come around this year and look differently,

we talked to Xavier Woods about it today. I mean, granted, he was not there with Dan Quinn, but seeing kind of what Mike Nolan's scheme was and just how confusing and just whack it was. It just didn't make any sense. He was playing up in the box a ton he was like kind of all over the place he had like two good games then he fell off well it feels like this scheme like honestly Dak coming back wonderful like I don't think it's too much of an overstatement though that Dan Quinn is easily one of the MVPs

of this team though for helping doing what he's done to change this defense around. Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, the fact that, uh, they have been as aggressive as they have been and been able to put together these types of turnovers. I mean, that's Seattle ask. And even when they were in Atlanta and they had a great offense, didn't have the best defense, they had enough playmakers to at least turn games and that's where you'd be concerned here with the Vikings it's like okay you know that you're going to get some good one-on-one matchups for your receivers you're going to break off some big plays they're going to make some mistakes that open up the door for you but did they get

the strip sack do they get the interception because that's what they've done so far this year causing turnovers at the very top of the league. And the other thing, too, is that when you go through these rosters, there's just a lot of talent on the field in terms of your one-on-one matchups of Jefferson versus Diggs or Thielen versus Diggs. Lamb versus Breeland. Well, okay, I wasn't thinking that, but maybe Harrison Smith in the secondary. I was thinking a lot about, though, the matchup between Randy Gregory and Christian Derusaw. Are you ready to say that Christian Derusaw is ready for all of this after seeing one start from him, or do you need to see a lot more?

I need to see a lot more. I know that people are confident and yeah he had a great game against Carolina he only allowed one pressure didn't give up a sack handled Hassan Redick handled uh Brian Burns even though Dalvin Cook let us know that he had two blitz pickups or you know two times where he was left on him one-on-one nonetheless I think Derrissaw will figure out how ready he actually is, how much the missing the offseason did or did not impact him in these coming games because this is a type of pass rush, which it's not elite, it's not great,

and he saw two good pass rushers before. But sustaining that, knowing that you don't have another bye coming up, that you're in a situation where you have a long season ahead, what does that look like? What does that look like for Christian Derrissaw as far as, you know, being comfortable being in that spot where, you know, I don't know, Carolina is not very, very good team. So yeah, defensively, they did some good things, but I just feel like that with the bulk of the schedule coming up here, Christian Derrissaw is going to have a test to figure out, okay,

late 20s pick for him, how much did that actually pan out for the Vikings this year? Because think about it, he's the only rookie that we'll have by the end of the year, as of right now, with Kanae Wong, who's going to be back returning kickoffs, as we found out from the special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken earlier today. That's his season debut this year what other contributions have they got from gotten from their rookies they need Christian Derrissaw to play well because Wyatt Davis is not all of a sudden gonna magically like replace Ole Udo this week even though Udo has not been very good recently but I don't know Derrissaw still has a lot to prove I think just because it's such

a limited sample size like it there really is not that much to go off of outside of the Carolina game where he started. Yep, and Randy Gregory is one of the highest-rated pass rushers in the entire NFL. Brian Burns, oddly, has had not a great season. Up and down. He was not super impressive, but he did, and I was looking at this play back on tape the other day

just to see how close it was. In overtime, Burns blows by Christian Derrissaw and gets both hands on Cousins. And if he doesn't go for the strip sack, which he clearly did, he gets a big sack there in that game, and he probably should have just taken down Cousins. So if there are moments like that with Randy Gregory, I mean, it's national TV.

There's a lot of pressure on Christian Derrissaw he's one of the guys to watch here before we get to our Vikings record game who do you think in this contest has the coaching advantage I mean Mike McCarthy's really good coming out of the bye. I think he has a record in his career of like 10-4 coming off of bye weeks, most of that with Green Bay. So there's something to be said about that, I guess. I think, I mean, Mike Zimmer has seen Dak before. They beat them in 2019.

They lost to them at home last year. I don't know if I mean nothing certainly just like Zimmer and the ties to Dallas I don't think there's really any sort of carryover that you'd know it was forever ago but I'd like to say Zimmer has the coaching advantage in this just because of the clock management goofs that you constantly expect from a Mike McCarthy team but I'm not convinced they can win the way that they played in Carolina and the way that they played against Detroit I mean you heard it yesterday when Kirk Cousins was asked and I'll read it verbatim he was asked about kind

of like points at being at a premium not settling for field goals knowing that you're going against an offense that on average is scoring 10 points higher than you per game. And he said just about like, you know, how you have to approach that quote, I think you have to be aware of the team you're playing, which includes the offense and the special teams, and just be aware of the whole picture. And much of that is coaching decisions as opposed to me, the player. So what do I take from that? It's let me do what I need to do do not be afraid that I'm going to keep turning that I'm going to turn the ball over I know how this looks Sunday night football what always happens he sees ghosts he may have a good stretch I think about that Chicago stretch or the week before the Chicago stretch in 2018 he was playing pretty well Sunday night football in

Chicago he has a meltdown and then they that's where they lost the season in those next couple games when they had Green Bay and then they had they beat Green Bay but they had the Patriots Seattle the whole thing like this is your time to like fully trust Kirk Cousins because it just doesn't feel like the trust is fully fully there and I and I don't know if it ever will be for Mike Zimmer because I feel like he thinks always around the corner there's going to be a turnover that costs them. If they can just win with their defense here and play keep away, that it'll be the way that they can win games

and get themselves in the playoffs. But I worry it's like Zimmer getting in his own way. So I still will give him the coaching advantage. I think that that's fair because I think McCarthy makes too many mistakes just from like a clock management perspective. But some of the in-game adjustments just in terms of timeouts and other things, like the Vikings haven't been like stellar. But I will give Mike Zimmer the advantage.

I think defensively he's going to have a lot of, like a lot of exotic things for Dak this week. Yeah. To me, it's more of Mike Zimmer's defense versus Kellen Moore's offense. And Mike McCarthy is not very good, like you said, at those details, when to call timeouts, when to punt, that sort of stuff. But I think that they're equal in that they're both flawed, very professional coaches. So it's not, we're not talking about Joe Judge versus Urban Meyer here, to punt that sort of stuff but I think that they're equal in that they're both flawed very professional coaches so it's not we're not talking about Joe Judge versus Urban Meyer here of guys

who just have no idea what they're doing and this will be their only coaching yeah exactly right they're just clueless this is not that these are two very good coaches when it comes to game planning preparing for their opponents and then I think Kellen Moore is one of the elite offensive minds in the league. He knows how good his quarterback is and he leans into that. That's the criticism I would have on the offensive side for the Vikings is that they don't lean into their quarterback the same way that Dallas does. And he deserves it, right? Like at this point, yeah. Until he does something, I don't think you back off of it. Yeah. I mean, it's not even, I mean, deserves it, yes, from the way he's played. But it's also, like, if you're going to go down swinging, you should go down with the guy that you went all in on as a franchise.

Sure. So, yeah, there's also hanging over this, and I just don't know what to make about, like, Dak's health. Yeah. And so that goes into the coaching,, of like, how do they work around that? Cause clearly he's not going to be at a hundred percent. Well, I mean, if you're the Vikings, you are confident in the fact that you lead the league or second in sacks, wherever they left off. Um, and that you have the top pass rush in the NFL. Yes. Your offense, their offensive line is really good, but you should be confident in the fact that a you have depth maybe you end

up doing something I mean what we heard about I mean this is Steven Weatherly there's not a lot of snaps but I'm curious to see what the second half looks like for this defensive line in terms of those rotational roles is it Kenny Willeke is getting the nod off the practice squad is your third round pick Patrick Jones going to get some of those weatherly snaps a game like those eight to 20 snaps wherever that range falls they have to go somewhere so you can keep guys fresh you can throw Griffin on the inside and have you know a DJ Wanham on the outside and do what you need to do to be able to get a get you know around that very athletic uh offensive line that they have and they're big so you know they're I think if you're Dallas you're banking on the line that they have, and they're big. So I think if you're Dallas, you're banking on the fact that you have a bunch of pro bowlers there in the middle,

specifically to be able to protect against your quarterback and his calf so he can step up in the pocket and make plays. But I don't know. I saw the thing today that Mike McCarthy said he thinks it's going to take it all the way down the wire this week. I mean, he's playing. There's no doubt in my mind that Dak Prescott is playing this week, but how limited will his mobility be?

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check out the Tanner Morgan t-shirts as wellshirts as well soda stick has tons of hats and hoodies with all their great designs on them you will love it go to sodastick.com that is s-o-t-a s-t-i-c-k check that out today use the promo code purple insider for free shipping and also follow myself and soda stick on Twitter for our giveaways. Yeah, and it's funny because that has been less of a thing for him in recent years. That early in his career, it was very much a thing I think he had to do a lot, run around. Yeah. But maybe less in terms of recently.

That he can stand in the pocket and he can deliver. And I think he's become an excellent pocket passer. But how they scheme to deal with that, both sides, is going to be part of this. So let's, before I get to the record game, who do you think is winning? So I said it's a first to 40. And I think there's a two-point differential with their defenses. And Dallas is scoring about 10 points more per game than the Vikings. I have Dallas winning 40-38.

I think it will again be a close game. That's a lot of points. It should be a very exciting game. Some of these Sunday Night Football games have been like that. I do think, though, that Dallas comes away victorious, and they're 6-1, and the Vikings then are going to Baltimore at 3-4. So I'm going to say the Vikings win. It wouldn't surprise me if they did. Let me just throw that out there.

To me, that was a coin flip just because I was basing it at the end on the offense for Dallas. But I think the Vikings could win. And I'm going to go a much lower score. I'm going to go 28-24. I think that the Vikings will play their game and they'll keep Dak Prescott off the field and there'll be enough in terms of his injury

that it's going to slow them down just a little from this being a track meet. I don't know if that's what's really going to happen or not, but that's my projection for this. Okay, so now here's the way I want to do this. If the Vikings win win we're going to play this scenario if the vikings win what will their final record be so i'm going to walk back from the best possible record if they were to beat dallas and if you think it's not possible go blue

if you think it's somewhat possible yellow if it's really possible orange. If it's really possible, orange. And if it's definitely going to happen, red. Whoa, this is like a pie chart of things. Yeah, but you know what a meter looks like, right? It's just blue, yellow, orange, red. Blue, yellow, orange, red. Blue is never going to happen. Yellow, orange. Yellow is maybe.

I'm telling myself this so I can write it down. Hold on. Blue. Oh, my gosh. It's any meter. Any meter you've ever seen. I've never seen a meter before in my life. You've never seen a meter.

Orange, red. Okay, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. All right. So the Any meter you've ever seen. I've never seen a meter before in my life. You've never seen a meter. Orange, red. Okay, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. All right. So the best possible record they could have if they beat the Dallas Cowboys would be 14 and 3. Blue.

Yes. So now I'm going to walk back. Okay. So how about 13 and 4? Blue. All right. 12 and 5? Yellow.

Okay. So you think 12 and 5 is possible if they beat Dallas if they beat Dallas because then they'd be on a roll like I think Baltimore they're so banged up maybe the buy helps them um San Francisco for example I know you said you're not ready to count them out I'm not either but what the heck is going on there they are a mess so if it's like those two and then you can like you know maybe the chargers i mean they've they've been taken down to the wire by baltimore by um the browns they've they've had they've had some humanizing moments so i think that that would factor into the beatable games but

yeah i would say it's more yellow ice yeah you'll hear where i'm at here okay shortly 11 and 6 this is again if they beat the cowboys orange okay so now you're thinking 11 and 6 is very possible because you'd be a sixth seed at that point like they're not winning the division green bay is winning the division so one of those final three seeds i think you're the sixth seed at that point so does that mean if they beat the cowboys you have a lot of confidence of what they can do in the next stretch that does not derail them that they mostly get through that okay they're not going to go four and oh during it right no but you'd believe that they could go three and one maybe three and one two and two okay that's in the orange two and two is probably

my more orangey bet how about ten and seven ten and seven red that would be a perfect one that'd be my complete confidence meter because i still think that this is a team that gets into the playoffs but barely like they are the last team they're probably the six or the seven seed yeah I think they're better than New Orleans because Jameis Winston is yes and I watched that Monday night game I wish I didn't yeah you'll never never get that time back the horror that that was uh How about 9-8? Red. I agree on red on that. I think 9-8.

Even if they beat the Cowboys and think that is still a very realistic thing for them, just knowing what's next, knowing the defenses that they have to face, knowing that they still have Green Bay twice. Chicago is not a complete sweep at this point because they still have to go to Soldier Field and they're like we never talk about this but there's Pittsburgh at the end of the season good defense which yeah I mean Ben Roethlisberger I do not think will be playing at that point but like you still have to go against a very good defense or he's just still

quite bad but you know the defensive lines have always been a problem for the Vikings it could end up looking like a Cleveland game. Eight and nine. If they beat Dallas, I would say that that's probably going into yellow for me. Oh, okay. And anything under eight and nine then? Is that all blue or do you think seven and ten is still on the table? Could they win and then have disappointment after?

Oh, you can easily do that. This is the Minnesota Vikings. Like, you can easily have a big win there and then collapse and then detroit gets their first win of the season on december 5th i think that's a um what what was i saying so it's a 7 and 10 7 and 10 is yellow then yeah i put it in the same category that i had is like an 8 and 9 and anything less than that is that blue or no i think that i mean still on the table anything less than 7 and 10 be anything less than that is that blue or no i think that i mean still on the table anything less than seven and ten be like six and eleven yeah probably blue that would be a complete collapse that would be like yay we beat dallas and then just stop playing i mean

unless somebody gets hurt but like like we talked about the last time that we podcasted kirk has never had these stretches where it's like amazing kirk and then off the cliff kirk he's had lulls but he's never gone like completely off the deep end where he's like tanked the rest of the season so I don't anticipate that being the case but you know with that said could this still be a team with a losing record sure absolutely but in my mind they're not winning the division I never picked them to win in the division they will be a six or a seven seed at most this year yeah and i wanted to because i got a comment on the website about this from a listener and so i wanted to clarify

because when we talk about kirk and his hot and cold stretches that you like you said it's usually not so bad that a team goes all the way in the tank and just loses and loses and loses when he has a down stretch i think the point is he hasn't had one yet and he's always had them within seasons where there's, you know, a lot of really good games and then there's lesser games, which, you know, yes, does exist for a lot of quarterbacks, but you're three and three. And so the margin for error is very thin when it comes to that. So when a quarterback has not had any downturns really for the whole season, even in the bad scoring games, he played all right against Cleveland and against especially Detroit.

I thought he played well, and they just sort of let him down with their play calling. But so when you haven't had a down stretch or a three interception game or something that he's tended to have for his entire career, you know, the fumbles that he's tended to have for his entire career, you know, the fumbles that he's had have bounced back into his hands or been ruled not a fumble against Carolina when I was pretty borderline. I think then you say there's a very thin margin when you're three and three, or when you're fighting for a six or seven seed, that if that does happen, you can dip below what you should be able to reach as a team. I think that's the point point and that's where you would have a very reasonable concern that that's around the court that's the

point well because how does he play when the margin for error is very thin he plays tight so either he's doing either he did a better job of blocking out the noise or he just kind of felt like screw it this like that's what he knew he had to do and yeah the team did let him down in moments in the three and three stretch but they still got to three and three how can you play how do you play how tight do you play or how loose do you play when if you have a winning record if you're four and three knowing okay i cannot let my foot off the gas right now that's the type of cousins because they've been in that spot before. Remember when they were 8-3 after Denver in 2019 and what happened down the stretch there to become 10-6?

They had a five-game differential between wins and losses, and they ended up as a wildcard team. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility, but that's what I think people look at when they talk about Kirk and like what's around the corner it just kind of always feels like that's I mean the head coach clearly the decisions to play for field goals and things like that have kind of all plays into the hand of how he what he thinks about the quarterback yep it's always lurking and there's opportunity though, for him the rest of the way

to get the extension, to take this team to a place they haven't been with him at the quarterback position. And to show that later in his career, he can put together a full season, not a, well, you start one in five and then you come back. Or like you said, you start, what was it? Eight and three. And then you sort of fade back to the pack and end up 10 and six that kind of thing um so that's what they need here they've because of those first couple of games they've left very little margin for an atlanta game like from last year and so it just it always feels like one of those is coming and this year it's probably detroit if it comes at all could be well they I mean the fact that Detroit actually plays defense now yeah that's different um so anyway I'm excited for

this one and it'll be good one we will be there and we will talk next week about everything that happened as always so thank you for your time this was fun we'll do it again