Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Even the sorry Jaguars are a huge opponent for the Minnesota Vikings ft ESPN's Courtney Cronin

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

Matthew Coller and ESPN's Courtney Cronin talk about how the Vikings can't afford another loss like they had against Atlanta or Dallas. They look at whether Kirk Cousins has turned a corner and how Dalvin Cook's usage hasn't slowed down since the last time we talked about it. Plus Courtney picks the schedule and decides how the season will play out the rest of the way Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Grant Wall, and this is American Prodigy, ready to do, from Blue Wire Podcast. Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, along with ESPN's Courtney Cronin. What is up, Courtney? Are you jacked for Vikings, Jaguars, Sunday, football, right? Jaguars? I mean, why did they not flex this game into primetime is my question because this is the biggest game of the year for the Minnesota Vikings.

If they lose, then what the heck? But it's just like, I don't think I've ever been more excited for a football game. This is the best news I've got this week since I heard the Sun Bowl was canceled. I've done some like, yeah, it's really tough. I mean, there's a lot of good, this is a time of year where I think you and I like get done with practice, random Friday afternoon

in December, oh, here's the TaxSlayer.com bowl. I mean, that's a real one. Like, I need, like, a funnier name than that. Well, the Beefo Brady Bowl was also real, but that was my favorite. Beefo Brady Bowl was a great bowl game. It's actually a really good restaurant for a burger, too. One thing I thought of with the Sun Bowl, if that was canceled in 2016, do we have Mitchell Trubisky with the Chicago Bears?

I mean, he was terrible in that game, but, like, I don't know. I've been kind of going down the rabbit hole with that. Like, I mean, he was awful in that game. Right. That should be remembered as the game that should have been proof that you shouldn't draft Mitch Trubisky because he was so bad in the Sun Bowl. It's the Sun Bowl, and you're not even a standout in the Sun Bowl. So maybe that should be a hint, as opposed to the other quarterback who led a game-winning

drive in the national championship against Alabama. Maybe pick him instead of the guy who's not good in the Sun Bowl. But anyway, that's a different story. This week is about Jaguars, Courtney. It is kind of ironic that a game that has no buzz whatsoever, the national media refuses to acknowledge the buzz of this game. But, I mean, even Vikings fans, they aren't saying, well, how does this running back for the Jaguars match up with the D-line? I mean, people are not doing this.

But, as you said, this game is, you better win or you could pretty much take this playoff dream and just put it in the closet for the year because it is over if you blow it to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Absolutely. I mean, I was thinking about it this week and thinking about like what's their what's their most important win of the season like what's their most important game remaining on the schedule and the cop-out answer would be all of them because they need to win games in order to up their playoff chances depending upon which you know projections you look at right now

they're between 24 and 26 percent chance of making the post season. And that's based on, you know, who they've already beaten, how other teams are seated, whatever. And certainly in week 13, there's a very important game between the Rams and the Cardinals in the NFC West, which would significantly impact the Vikings, depending upon how that plays out. But nonetheless, like they have to beat Jacksonville. And I know I'm kind of looking ahead here, but think about what they've done this year.

They've beaten one team with a winning record. Tampa Bay, technically, is their most important game left here on the schedule, because if you're going to show that you're a legitimate playoff contender, you have to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You have to beat a good team, especially doing it on the road. But in order to get there, in order for that game to actually be the most important game, you have to beat Jacksonville first. And, you know, I know that Jacksonville is 1-10 right now. Is that right? 1-10?

That's right. Yeah, they beat Indy to open the season, and that was kind of a fluke. But they've played teams tough they nearly beat Cleveland they nearly beat Green Bay they nearly beat Houston um like they have they've lost so many games by you know less than a possession and it's crazy to me how those games seem that they flipped really quick and when I'm the the, you know, if I'm the Minnesota Vikings, and I'm thinking it took us a fourth quarter comeback and Carolina completely imploding and not being able to do anything in the red zone

in order to beat a not so good Panthers team, like you can't just write off Jacksonville as being one in 10 and being like, yeah, like whatever, that's a dub. Like, you know, watch the most like Vikings thing ever would be like Mike Glennon coming back and they like win this game, like on a game winning field goal, the way that Carolina tried to last week, but it's Mike freaking Glennon, which makes it that much funnier. If it was Teddy, you'd be like, all right, respect. Love you, Teddy.

You know, whatever. It's Mike Glennon. Like I've got a neck that's like 50 inches long. Unreal. He would be like 6'2 without the neck. It's unbelievable. Yeah, it's crazy. But, no, I mean, I agree with you. I think that the whole thing is, like, nobody's paying attention to this game,

and that's kind of like the opposite of what you want to do, right, like looking ahead to the rest of the schedule. But, like, that's where they get in trouble. And I'm not saying the Vikings are doing that but everybody else around them is not yeah no that's right even including me even in the and fair but even in the Friday mailbag I got multiple questions about the game against Tampa Bay and in order to get the hype of the game against the Tampa Bay Bucks which would be real and I think a game that the Vikings could absolutely win if Tampa Bay continues to struggle on offense, you have to beat the bad teams first.

And like you said, I mean, they are a 54-yard field goal from Joey Sly away from this being a completely different conversation. I mean, you're seeing Kirk Cousins, player of the month, and I'm getting questions in the Friday mailbag about his Cousins change as he turned a corner and all those things, and I'm going to write the Friday mailbag about his cousins changed as he turned a corner and all those things and I'm going to write more about that by the way on the website but I mean it's amazing how that's kind of the narrative it's like well maybe they should go you know forward with Kirk and all this as opposed to just just two weeks ago they lose to Dallas

and it's get rid of him draft whoever's available in the first round and I'm sure that would have been the same conversation if the guy makes the field goal that even though Cousins played great, it still would have been, well, you know, they didn't win the game. And they just lost again to the Cowboys a couple weeks ago. I did a comparison, Cowboys and Jaguars, where they rank in key categories. So offensive expected points added. Cowboys are 26th.

The Jaguars are 25th. So they have basically the same offensive prowess. Team passer rating 23rd versus 26th. The Jaguars are actually much better. They're a top 10 running team in yards per attempt. The Cowboys are not and still ran all over the Vikings. Defensive points allowed. The Cowboys are actually worse on defense than the Jaguars.

And quarterback rating allowed. The Jaguars are a tiny allowed the Jaguars are a tiny bit worse but they are on paper almost equal the Cowboys and the Jags and what's similar is they have some good players I mean it's not like they have no one they have a couple of decent receivers who can make plays they have a good running back they have a few talented defensive players that can make plays i mean this is one where if you do the same thing and you give up multiple fumbles and you can't catch a punt return and all you're just botching things left and right you could absolutely lose to the jaguars i'm still

going to probably pick this game to be like 28 to 10 but i you could you absolutely could because you have the 27th ranked defense in points allowed. Yeah, I think I have them at 31-20 Vikings. Like I have, that's what my final score was, the cover, whatever. But think about what happened there in the third quarter and how that game so quickly unraveled on back-to-back possessions against the Panthers. If that happens again, are you that confident this team is going to recover?

Like, I'm not. I don't know if that's something that you can pull off in back-to-back weeks. And I also don't know if it's something that is that realistic to think, like, every time that that happens, you're going to have enough offensive firepower, even when you get Adam Thielen back to make that happen. That's worrisome for me. The mistakes are what cost you. And you, you know,

who's to say if this team can have a mistake-free game on special teams because we haven't seen it since like, what, the Green Bay game? That was the last time that special teams were not talked about as being a serious problem. I don't know if that can happen. And even with the offense offense too I mean like they you know Kirk gets strip sacked and then Dalvin fumbles and looked like he was really hurt on that fumble like I don't know I I think that those are the types of things that they're

still learning how to overcome play like that where it's the mistakes that just like cat like you know just are catastrophic to what you want to do in a game um in Jacksonville I think to their credit I remember you and I were texting during that Green Bay game being like, wow, this is actually, like, a really decently okay game. Not great, but decently okay. Better than what I expected it to be. Like, this is not a horrendous team by the measure of, like,

they're not the Jets, but, like, they have some talented players. I mean mean James Robinson is like the third leading rusher in the NFL right now like I mean he's doing really well and this is not a team Vikings are you know a bottom half team you know bottom 15 team in the NFL against the run so I wonder is that is that going to be their Achilles heel showing up and hurting them in this game? I think that the Vikings have more offensive firepower to overcome things like that, but how much are they going to have to?

Because you talk about that missed 54-yard field goal, even after Kirk Cousins led the team down the field in a minute 51 and no timeouts to the Chad baby game winning touchdown, even after that happened, you're still holding your breath thinking Carolina is going to come back and win that game potentially a field goal. And it didn't. And it was right. It was very close. And that's a field goal we've seen a hundred kickers make from 54 at us bank

stadium, which is, I mean, just for today's kickers, it's a extremely makeable kick. And I think that their kicker is just terrible. They had one blocked early in the game. Matt Rule had to make several of the worst game management decisions of the year. I mean, being a 4-7 team and not going for it on fourth down to try to win the game. It's really amazing. I mean, they had a receiver wide open on the play before on third down at the goal line, and then they don't go for it on fourth.

Like you just I mean, you were just able to get a receiver wide open. Why wouldn't you give that another shot and then force Cousins to drive 95 yards or whatever, 97 yards to score? And, you know, this is just the thing. I don't mean to talk about this again, but like, you know, the Vikings are going to slow it down and play conservative and kick a field goal to tie the game. If they're down three, if they're down six, they have to go for a touchdown. I mean, learn about the, how the NFL works, Matt rule. But anyway, so this is a difference though, because even though I have made fun of Doug Marone on this podcast before on the radio show that we did because I covered him in Buffalo and he is a character. Let me just say that. But I think he's a better coach in terms of like knowing football and game

planning and scheming than Matt rule is right now. Matt rule might be a better coach, but right now Matt rule is a guy who came from college and doesn't entirely seem to know what he's doing. I think Marone is much more experienced. Jay Gruden is their offensive coordinator. He knows what he's doing. And I think they've actually gotten a lot out of a team that I know we're giving a ton of credit to a team that's one in 10, but I think that they've gotten a lot out of it. And like you said, played a lot of close games and actually have some talented players to the point where if

you're the Vikings, you can't just say we're going to show up and run this team right off the field. No, and I mean, Mike Glennon has experience at the quarterback position. I think we all were expecting that Gardner Minshew would have been back from the thumb injury. But how quickly in the week Marone named Glennon the starter, like that's one thing. And we also know the Vikings are not great against backup quarterbacks. Like, I mean, I don't know what it is.

And I mean, granted, he hasn't really been the backup like in, in Jacksonville. I mean, he's, he's, you know, played quite, who was the guy Luton or something? Jake Luton. He was their six round pick. I don't even know why they bothered with that. was a very tank move I I actually respected it I thought this is exactly what you do when you're trying to tank yeah yeah no I mean but think about the way that they played

Andy Dalton backup quarterback um you know historically speaking they are not great against them and I don't know if that'll be the same case here because I just think that like Jacksonville is not that great of a team but I think it's something you should certainly keep an eye on just given what how history how that's played out historically for the Vikings got a great holiday deal to tell you about from Soda Stick if you use the promo code purpleinsider15 you can get 15% off your purchases during this holiday season when you buy two items or more. Go to SOTASTICK.COM, S-O-T-A-S-T-I-C-K.COM

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Yeah, I definitely think so. I mean, last year they lost to Matt Moore and Chase Daniel, and they had a good defense. And this year, that's what it is to me, and I'm trying to poke around and find this right now, is that when you can't pressure the quarterback, you just never know what you're going to be on a week-to-week basis. So I looked it up last week when Mike Glennon was not pressured.

He had a 97 quarterback rating and went 15 for 23 with a touchdown. Like, no surprise that if someone is a legitimate NFL quarterback, which Mike Glennon is, he's not a Ben DiNucci, he's not a practice squad wide receiver trying to play quarterback or anything like that. He's not Trace McSorley or RG3. Like, he's won NFL games before. He played well last week.

He made some good throws last week. So the fact that they just have not been able to pressure opposing quarterbacks leaves the door open for just about anything. And also the fact that, you know, you didn't face Christian McCaffrey last week while James Robinson is having a Christian McCaffrey-like year. I mean, he's one of the best in the NFL at yards after contact. This team does not tackle particularly well in the front four. So there's just, there's all these things that kind of open the door to, well,

maybe, maybe. I know. So I'm with you. It's not a complete lock and that's the scary part. Just being that they are a one in ten team but i think when the when they opened as nine and a half vikings opened as nine and a half point favorites um on sunday night i remember in my twitter mentions people were freaking out saying this had buffalo written all over it um and i understand i understand it completely i really do um and i and i honestly i was very surprised that they were favored in this game as much as they were nine and a half points is a lot like i would have expected maybe like five six even like a touchdown but

what is you know nine and a half i mean it's not like jacksonville's like running like a jv squad out there like they're trying to field a good team or at least you know they still are they should still should be tanking but you know yeah no they should still be tanking and that's why playing Mike Glennon for them is a bad plan but you can also see their team continuing to fight and play hard as opposed to just rolling over toward the end of the season now what does it say about the Vikings and their playoff chances? You mentioned what the odds are from ESPN and the different mathematical formulas. I looked at a couple different sites. They're all the same. They're all about one in four. What does it say about them that we're sitting here saying,

I mean, yeah, they could lose to the Jaguars. This is a team that lost to Atlanta by a lot. This is a team that lost to Dallas and allowed Andy Dalton to lead a game-winning drive against them. I mean, it's really the most enigmatic Vikings team that you or I have covered since we've been here, because usually we know what to expect, and we expected one Buffalo game, as you mentioned, per year, and that was pretty much it. But we're already on two now, and it's like, it's unlimited the possibilities, but also I think that they can play up to their competition and beat Tampa Bay. I think that they could play close if not beat New Orleans even.

Even though New Orleans, to me, is a lot better than them, they have the offensive potential to even go down there and win, and yet we're still saying they could also lose to Jacksonville because they make so many mistakes on a week-to-week basis. I think it's just because you can't trust them fully. Like, what have they done, honestly? What have they done to, like, make you think that, okay, this is a good team that can play against good teams and beat good teams? They've beaten one team with a winning record,

and that was Green Bay in week eight. They haven't proven anything. Like, you know, I tweeted something out on Sunday night. It was a stat that the NFL does those seven from Sunday. I'm sure you get the email. And it was interesting to me because I was curious what the response would be. The Cousins threw for 307 yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 115.7 passer rating against Carolina.

So he has 16 career games with at least 300 yards passing three touchdowns and a passer rating of 115 or more, which, you know, surpasses Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers for the most such games by a quarterback in his first nine seasons. And so like every time I hear a stat like that, I'm like, okay, but wait, there's more like, like, let me know what the weight there's more is. Who did he that against like here's the thing i don't i think kirk cousins and his nfc offensive player of the month um you know the award that he got or you know i guess the offensive player of the week i haven't got an nfc offensive player of the month um but like deserved for sure but like why why do some fans i'll never understand this go

above and beyond like taking something like that and running with it and being like, look, all of you Kirk haters, look at the people who doubted him. Why can't people see this clearly and take off the purple colored lenses? Because he's not doing this against elite competition. And that's the thing I don't trust about this Vikings team. Show me you can beat a good team consistently. That, you know, and it's, this is the part of their schedule where they were supposed to be kind of hitting their stride and picking up easy wins here and there. And Carolina

didn't make that easy for them. Dallas did not make that game easy for them. Even Chicago, how ugly that was that they, Mike Vimmer said it like, you know, it never felt like kind of, you know, and even Green Bay can't take your, you you know didn't feel like it was ever completely over until it was over like that's the thing that where the trust factor for me comes in and trusting that this team can actually do what they're supposed to do win games that they're supposed to win and make the playoffs now that they have a window that they still kept open like they still have to beat a team like Tampa Bay or the Saints to to justify that yeah so I always enjoyed when they were one in five when people would come back and say well they almost beat this team and they almost beat that team like well okay that's true but Aaron Rodgers had the ball in his hands on the last drive

to go well I mean let's even go to Houston Houston if it's ruled a catch um in the end zone which it probably was honestly by the rule it probably was a catch um so if that's ruled the catch maybe you lose that game and you completely melt down against a bad Texans team uh Aaron Rodgers has the ball in his hands at the end the ball goes through Anthony Miller's hands in Chicago the the Joey Sly misses the field goal. I mean, you've almost lost every one of these games too. So you could easily have a much worse record. And that's just been this year.

But on the point of Cousins, I think it's always fun to watch sort of people volley back and forth between he's the worst quarterback and he's the best quarterback. It's a fun ride to follow along. I'll read what I wrote in the Friday mailbag quoting myself here because I think I I thought about how you can frame Cousins in two sentences and I I think I got it so I wrote that Cousins whatever he just did is a mirage if he's horrible one week he's not horrible if he's unbelievable the next week he's not unbelievable like he's he's somewhere in the middle but on a game-to-game basis he's horrible one week, he's not horrible. If he's unbelievable the next week, he's not unbelievable.

Like he's somewhere in the middle, but on a game-to-game basis, he's never in the middle. You never get an average performance out of him. He's either Atlanta Kirk or he's what we saw last week against Carolina. And that's why, you know, I mean, yes, he's been playing off schedule and he's been making a lot of great throws and he leads the game-winning drive and all that stuff. But will the next week he try to make off schedule plays and throw it for

a pick six or fumble it's like you just you you have never really known with Kirk Cousins 2018 he starts out the season incredible and then it goes down and then it comes back up and then same thing you know player of the month in October and it's always this roller coaster ride of Cousins which a makes him kind of interesting to cover but b has to drive everybody in the organization crazy and even you know the fan base crazy because it's hard to just sit on one spot with Kirk Cousins and say this is what I think of him because he's always kind of changing from week to week whether you think that he's magically getting better and then, nope, he's regressing. And it's like, what is this guy? I've said this like a million times before.

He is the most hot and cold quarterback in the NFL. Like currently the pendulum swings one way and then it goes completely 180 degrees in the other direction. Like that is who Kirk Cousins is so when you have a game like Carolina and you hear the jokes of maybe though they're gonna extend him now it's not such a joke is it because those are the type of things that you're wondering is does this franchise see like yep yep that's the guy we told you we told you look at the numbers he put up who did he do it against though like why don't we ever factor that in and that to me is kind of like the biggest thing with Kirk is he plays excellent against really bad or mediocre competition he's got to prove that he can do it not just have it be a one-off by winning a coin

toss and having a really good drive in New Orleans he's got to do it more than just you know beating Green Bay because Dalvin Cook had an excellent game that that day in week eight, like, there's got to be some sort of happy medium. We've never achieved that with Kirk Cousins. Like, you know, like you said, the average Kirk game is the average Kirk game. Are we going to find out like when we are doing you're writing your next book about like the Kirk Cousins era in Minnesota that the average game was Kirk throwing anywhere from like 20 to 25 times probably um but can he consistently throw 45 times a game and win you that game the way that he had to against Carolina I think we find out that the answer is no so this year just going by his PFF grade it is by far his best career season which I think in some ways you could look at it and say well that's great he's turned the corner and you could also look at it and say well there's quite a few games

still to go and that means regression is on its way at some point and I guess we just strap ourselves in and find out because the schedule does allow I mean this week if he doesn't play well against Jacksonville it'd be shocking I mean they're 32nd in the league in terms of quarterback rating allowed. And like you said, that historically I ran the numbers on this, the Vikings since he got here are 17, four and one against teams that are ranked in the bottom 10 and quarterback rating. So he wins these games. He usually plays extremely well, much better than the average quarterback would against bad teams, but then top 10 defenses he struggles the rest of the way they only face

one top 10 defense right now in quarterback rating again so he has this opportunity to to do this and to play well but when you get to the end of the year and they go eight and eight and he's got these great numbers will you look at it and go well that's kind of Kirk for you right I mean it's just yeah it wasn't his fault it never is entirely his fault but also those down games cost you enough times that you ended up either missing the playoffs or barely getting into a newly invented seventh seed by the NFL yeah I mean and that's like I know that you can only play who you're scheduled right so the opportunities that they had like beating Tennessee almost you know having a chance to do that that didn't work out for them having a chance to beat Green Bay and you know coming back in week one wasn't able to do it like they haven't played you know historically speaking like

they have not played a very hard schedule this year I mean most of the teams that they've faced I mean they're all their all their wins except one come against teams losing records um and the competition just hasn't been to the point where you're like wow they are showing us that they can take down good teams so that's the question that's left to be answered. Like that will tell you about what this team's future and trajectory is in the playoffs, because if you can't beat, you know, if you can barely beat a Carolina team and if you can, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen against Jacksonville. I said 31-20. I still think it will be at points feel like a close game,

just because of the way this team has played, even though the score won't reflect that. You got to do it against Tampa Bay or the Saints to like legitimize your own cause, essentially. And I wonder if they can do that because that, you know, that to me is just like, you know, that's the bottom line. That's what tells me if you're going to be a good team or if this is kind of just like a facade. It's sort of just interesting looking through some of their numbers they are 18th in strength of schedule so not a particularly difficult schedule and what's really popping out to me is that Kirk Cousins is playing the best of his career and they're still 12th in terms of offense and which is okay, and that's good.

And he had a good year last year, and they still ranked, I think, 10th in terms of offense. And their scoring percentage in terms of how many times they get the ball versus how many times they score, they're 18th in the NFL, which is just not particularly great. Kansas City, no surprise, is number one, Green Bay number three. So there are a lot of teams that are scoring on half of their possessions, which has never really happened before in the NFL for multiple teams to be scoring on half of their possessions. So the bar has to be raised.

Even though you say you're playing really well in a lot of areas, you still don't have an offense that would be in that conversation for going to a Super Bowl because the last, I think, what, 10 teams that went to the Super Bowl all had top five offenses in scoring. Like you're still not even in that conversation despite your quarterback playing at the best he's ever played. So what does that say? I wonder. I mean, I don't know if it says something about Cousins, if it says something about their offensive philosophy,

if it says that the downs were so down that it drags that number down a bit, I don't know. But it really stuck out to me. Speaking of the offensive philosophy, I ran some numbers on Delvin Cook. to run 400 times over 16 games, which, and actually to have the second most touches, meaning receptions or rushes ever since they started keeping track of that, I think in the seventies. So yeah, that doesn't seem like a sustainable model either to run him like he's Sean Alexander.

And here's the thing. I know I like beat a dead horse with this, or at least that's what it feels like every single week. And it's not that he can't do it. Like no one's saying like, you're not strong enough. You're not good enough. You're not X, Y, Z. It's just like, it's not smart to run somebody who just got this massive contract into the ground in year one like who would ever think that that's a good idea and I know Dalvin you know this week was saying well you guys don't ask Derrick Henry these same questions about workload about load management which I know is an NBA term but it's kind of it should be applied in the NFL why don't we do that

because Dalvin because Derrick Henry has never been hurt so to the degree Dalvin has and I'm not like faulting Dalvin for that. I'm just saying that's a thing. It's a fact. You know, there's things. And every time that he gets hurt and he looks like he's out there dying, like, that's a serious problem. Like, he looked like he was seriously injured on Sunday.

That's why those questions happen. And also, just to call a spade a spade, Derrick Henry gets better as the season wears on. In December 2018 and 2019, he's rushed for over 500 yards in each of those months like if history repeats itself here it's it's out of the question he's going to win a second rushing title in a row um and I just wonder like is Gary Kubiak kind of like the middleman between Dalvin Cook and Mike Zimmer of like Zimmer wanting to you know let the player decide everything it's funny like you know, let the player decide everything. It's funny. Like, you know,

imagine one of his defensive players getting that same sort of treatment of like, well, he said he wanted to play. Like he said, he wanted to do this. You want to do that? Like, I'm like, yeah. Okay. Like who's the coach? Who's the player here? Like you're, you know that you have to ride Dalvin Cook or at least that's the way that you want to win games. So of course you're going to be like, well, he said he could play. He said he's fine. Like you're going to're gonna you know it's just not like who's the adult in the room um i love how that only applies to like certain entities of this football team but you know with all that said i wonder what they do with cook here let's say they get up early in the game and it's like 21-3

or you know if they have a three touchdown lead do they shelve Dalvin Cook the fact that Alexander Madison um you know has literally done nothing the last few games and probably no fault of his own his number just hasn't been called I mean he ran twice um against the Carolina Panthers and he totaled six yards like just I don't understand that and so I just I don't know the part of me is just like this whole thing that they're going to do what they want to do regardless and Dalvin's gonna you know eclipse 320 330 touches whatever it's going to be this year um if that stays on that pace like that's just like so negligent in my opinion that it's just like not going to end well for the future seasons

it's a good point uh that most running backs historically with this type of workload have a couple of good seasons and then they fall off the edge of a cliff i mean it really we saw ezekiel elliott who's still a powerful runner and a smart runner i think but did not have the burst of tony pollard when we saw him in person. It's very clear which guy was running because Tony Pollard looked quicker. And Todd Gurley is a shell of himself in Atlanta. Devontae Freeman fell off very quickly after a huge workload in Atlanta. I mean, this happens a lot when guys get banged up.

I mean, it's just what history says about it. And I've got a comparison here to what they're doing with Delvin Cook, Mike Zimmer's philosophy with Delvin Cook. I think it's like if you're in a NASCAR race and you are hanging in there for a top 10 finish and everybody goes in for gas and you're like, no, I am not gonna go for gas.

I'm gonna try to make it to that finish line. And I'm gonna try to get in that top 10 by trying to cheat system a little bit here or take this big risk and put it to the floor and see if we can just, you know, get across that finish line before the car runs out of gas. It's like put the pedal to the metal on Delvin Cook, because I want to win these football games and nothing is more important than winning these football games including the future of Delvin Cook so ride him ride him ride him and I get it because when you get into the game and you get to the 25th carry but you're in a three-point game you're saying well I'm not going to put in a backup now I'm going to go with one of the best players in the league at the same time like you're saying it is borderline irresponsible and they didn't do it in games last year remember

when they had that drive against Dallas and they had 10 runs in a row I think Madison had like six of them I mean so he was in in key spots that was a game-winning drive where they handed off a bunch of times and they have just gone completely away from that I think it's because Zimmer just wants to ride his horse when it's close games as opposed to trusting Madison to be decent at football which he is and to me that that's got to be like Gary's job to relay that right I think Gary called a good game against Carolina the fact that they were like throwing on first down a lot of those passes came off play action like that's just not something the Vikings like were really doing a whole ton of uh before and

so it's like keeping teams off balance like if you know that they're gonna run the ball why don't if teams know that you're gonna do that like why not change it up why not try to like throw some other wrinkle in there to make it a little bit less predictable like I think that they're in a good spot right now to use Alexander Madison more than he has been you can't tell me he's like a terrible backup because we saw him last year. Right. In several situations. I just don't understand like the lack of usage right now.

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That was the argument people were making before they paid Dalvin Cook of like, well, look at him. He technically had better yards per carry last year than Cook. Right, right. Obviously, a much smaller sample size, but still, nonetheless. And a lot of it, too, when you look at the differential between them, this is across the board with a lot of teams where their starter and their backup have similar yards per carry because it's usually scheme. And it's an offensive line that, at least when Brett Jones isn't in there, has been built to run block. And I think that that is part of what you lose when Brett Jones is in there versus Ezra Cleveland. And we'll see if Ezra Cleveland plays this week or not.

But, you know, that is part of what you sort of have a drop-off on. And the interior of Carolina was able to corral them to some extent in the running game. But usually it's scheme and circumstance and matchup and all those things. And then Cook gives you that extra 5% that takes you over the top to get 75-yard touchdown runs. But can you play Madison routinely a lot more than this throughout the game? Yeah, I think you can. And they are really risking his future, I think, by riding him as much as they are.

And I can see why Delvin would be defensive about this because he's probably tired of hearing about it, but he's also down on the turf every week. So, I mean, that does make a difference for how we look at this. I want you to tell me if you think Gary, and it is well chronicled our appreciation for Gary, if you think he's got his fastball going, if he took a little while to, like, you know, warm up the old arm and get the cobwebs out

but Seth Walder your teammate at ESPN sent me the pre-snap motion from week to week now last week they didn't use a lot of it but it's gone way up the play action has gone up he has made in-game adjustments on offense Kirk Cousins is playing his best football like I think what we were concerned about early in the season about Gary struggling a little bit has not been the case in the second half of the season or really past, like, the third or fourth game. I mean, he hasn't called plays before this season, like, truly been, like, the one doing it,

scripting every single week since he was in Denver several years ago. Like, of course it was going to take some time to get back in the saddle, no matter how long you've done it, the games change. He had to adapt. He had to adjust. He had to learn what worked and what didn't. And I think he's called some really, really good games here and kind of relying on some of those staples. Like what did they not do in the first half much against Dallas? They didn't run a whole ton of play action and they figured, Oh wait,

that's actually the key to winning games here for this offense and I think that you know sticking to what you're good at and like learning what you're good at is something he's had to do in in both respects this year and it's just like not easy like you know when you have a quarterback who needs everything kind of perfect around him. Sometimes that makes the play caller's job really hard. And when Kirk Cousins locks in on a receiver, I know he's going to tell you that he goes where his reads take him and things like that. If that truly is reliant upon the play caller,

like Kirk said it was this week, then Gary Kubiak's got to scheme somebody else open differently that's not named Adam Thielen, potentially not even Justin Jefferson. I just, my biggest fear for this offense would be Thielen comes back, 13 targets go his way, Jefferson's back down at five or four. That can't happen. Like, I'm not saying Jefferson needs to be getting, like, double-digit targets every single week, but close to it is probably,

should be expected. He should be getting seven to eight minimum every week from here on out and that's on Gary but that's also on Kirk too I have a long said just throw it to Kyle and last week was exactly that I mean he averaged almost 10 yards a catch he caught every ball except one that came his way he gets right in front of the sticks and then boxes out the defenders and makes a catch and it was really interesting to see like you said cousins distribute the ball to everybody seven catches for four different receivers or three right four different receivers yeah four different receivers each had 60 yards or more right i mean that is something that i think is

what he should be doing as opposed to targeting the same guy over and over although jefferson's 13 targets the right way to go, just saying. But being able to mix it up to different wide receivers is key. And it doesn't look like Irv Smith's going to play in this game. So you still have to do that because Tyler Conklin is just not the same weapon as Irv Smith is. So before we wrap this up, I want you to pick the rest of the Vikings schedule and see where we're at here if you are so obliged to do so.

I would love to. Okay. So you already said they're beating Jacksonville. So they're back to 500. From 1-5 back to 500. What a long journey it's been. And then the game of the year, they go down to Tampa Bay and what? I think because Tampa's going to be coming off of a bye,

that makes this game so much more challenging. There's parts that you can pick apart here and say that Tampa's vulnerable. I think that they will end up winning the Tampa Bay game. And it's not just, oh, Tom Brady can't throw the ball down deep, like you're going to be taking away intermediate throws then because he's not going to be able to rely on what was once his bread and butter and the offense is broken, yada, yada. They couldn't run the ball effectively in that Rams game.

I mean, that's what they needed more of, and that's part of the reason why they lost. So I think there's a lot of flaws offensively that i don't know if the buy will really fix but we but we shall see so i think that actually that's going to be a win wow okay and that would give them great positioning because i know if they win this week and i think that it's next week when they play them if that happens and they jump into like the seventh seed and Tampa Bay's out for the time being of the playoff picture. After that it's Chicago at home. I think that they will win that game.

Oh, okay. So you got them going from one in five to what would that be? That would be eight and six. Yes. And I have them. I, I know I've, we changed this a while ago because I always had them beating the Saints. I think they lose the Saints on Christmas day. And Detroit's a toss up right now. I mean,

I think they're a nine and seven team. So I guess that would have me, I mean, there's seven and nine or nine and seven, either one. Like, and there's kind of that like discrepancy of, well, is it because they lose their two big ones that are left on the schedule what is it um but i don't know what this detroit team's gonna look like with you know daryl bevel in charge and in a new and hopefully a different defensive scheme and doing things that actually play to the strengths of your players who knows but if they're nine and seven they are in the playoffs

in that race but I could also see seven and nine and not necessarily them losing just Tampa Bay and the Saints that could be like coming down to a loss against Chicago but Trubisky looked terrible on Sunday night football like just awful horrendous and like right yes like decision making just mechanics the whole thing and I I don't know what's going to happen to that team like that to me looks like you're looking at a staff that might not be there at the end of the year um which I don't think any of us thought was the case like if Matt Nagy's calling out people in the media being like you know have your heads up like have some pride like that's just a recipe for disaster um but I could also like I don't think they're

going to lose to jacksonville like my kind of like more locks than not would be losing not losing to jacksonville um losing in new orleans and you know let's say beating detroit at the end i don't you know something about me says the chicago game will be a loss for chicago but who knows and who really knows about the tampa bay game with them coming off the bye? And this is why it's so hard to pick this team because everyone – You can't trust them. You can't fully trust them. You can talk yourself into it.

Here's the statement that I will make. And you write it in, I don't know, pen or permanent marker even. Or a Sharpie. One of the two games that we think they're guaranteed to lose or against much stronger teams that we think right now, Tampa Bay or New Orleans, they'll win. They'll win one of those games. But one of the games that we say, no way can you lose this game against, you know,

Darryl Bevel or against Matt Nagy, whose team is falling apart around him, or even this week, they will lose. One of those games that they are absolutely not supposed to lose. And so I think that they end up with eight and eight. And I think that their fate is determined ultimately by just what happens in Arizona. Arizona is not a great team. No, you're right. And I think that the stretch of week 16 and 17 with those two, the NFC West has like games against each other in those weeks. That's going to be, you'll be scoreboard watching the whole time,

figure out if you can actually get your way into the playoffs. Yep. I think that's how it ultimately plays out. Well, it is turned interesting from where we were at one and five, certainly to be in this place. So Courtney, we will see what happens and we will talk again very soon. Thank you for your time.