Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Favorite parts of Sam Darnold vs. the Falcons part 2 (and picking the rest of the schedule)

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

Matthew Coller and Manny Hill talk about the Vikings win over the Falcons and what their final record will be Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and once again on a Monday night, in about a half an hour, Manny Hill will join to pick the Vikings' final record. And I can't imagine how high we're going with that final record now, that the Minnesota Vikings are 11 and two, and we have now reached the point where absolutely nobody in their right mind, even the biggest Sam Darnold believer ever would have thought that they would be at this point in the season, but seeing the way that it played out was always the best case scenario. I don't think we ever could have said best case scenario

is he's top three in the league in passer rating and they're 11 and two. All right, that would have been a little bit too far for even the biggest Sam Darnold believer. However, I saw a lot of tweets the other day after Sam Darnold, yesterday, after Sam Darnold had one of the best games in Vikings history.

And I saw, Hey, this person didn't think that Sam Darnold was going to be any good. And this, this person said it was a bad signing for the Vikings and let's all point and laugh at them. Now, if you go back here on the old purple insider show, the reason that i thought it was a good signing when they added sam darnold was i considered the other bridge quarterback options to get to jj mccarthy and we all knew that they were going to draft a quarterback so i considered the other bridge options which were jacoby bursette or ryan tannehill or just guys with no upside whatsoever. And my thought was that what the Vikings would be able to do with their supporting cast, with their coach, with their wide receivers, with their offensive tackles,

and even an improved interior offensive line. It's not perfect as we saw, but it's certainly better than in the past. And I had seen Nick Mullins and Josh Dobbs have some success with Kevin O'Connell and these receivers and this offense and thought maybe, and I don't know how many times over the off season and over the summer, we said, maybe people would ask in the comments, could this be like a Jeff George thing or a Randall Cunningham thing where the guy shows up and it just works? And I said, maybe. I mean, I don't see why not, but I also don't think it's that likely of a thing to happen.

And as the season progressed and the first game, I was in East Rutherford and we did the post game show myself and Dane Mizutani. And I remember talking about how Sam Darnold did such a great job of game managing. And if Darnold just manages the game, makes one or two really nice plays per game, then they can win with defense and they can be a playoff team. And this could go pretty well for them and they can survive the year without JJ McCarthy. That was the thought. If he could just kind of play like that, just one big throw down the sideline, that'll work. And then, Hey, check it down underneath, get it to Jefferson. When you can run the football with Aaron Jones, play defense, and you could be one of those teams that's kind of plucky and kind of kind of solid

and maybe not a contender but you're going to make the playoffs right make things interesting and then as the first five weeks played out we had the extreme up of the roller coaster where everybody starts talking about darnold as an mvp and i we're talking about mvps through four weeks what are we doing here? And the Jets game, the two losses, they took the shine off a little bit and the Jaguars game happens. And I think even in the Vikings building, there was nervousness. And I am not saying that as if like anyone said to me, Oh, we're worried he's going to fall apart but i'm just assuming that everyone you me everyone who watches the team everyone who's around the team

was concerned that darnold was going to throw the season away because he's too reckless with the football and what kevin o'connell did in that moment and when sam darnConnell did in that moment and what Sam Darnold did in that moment was went back to the drawing board and said this is a problem that type of performance is a problem how can we make sure that doesn't happen again let's go back to the basics let's go back to the basics of the offense let's pay attention to all the details let's study what went wrong and then build off of that and go forward. And that right there coming out of the Jaguars game, that response and the way he's played quarterback since then, it hasn't been the game manager who makes one or two plays per game.

It hasn't been the guy who just is going to allow the defense to win the game for you and try not to screw up. It's been the guy coming out of that game. He was the guy in Tennessee. He was, I mean, even against Indianapolis, he was fantastic, but also had some interceptions in that game that increased the concern that that was going to be a problem. But then Tennessee, the light seems to come on for Sam Darnold,

the difference between protecting the football but also making big plays. And it felt like it just built and built and built up to that game with Atlanta. And I thought that his game against Chicago when we were doing that postgame, I thought that was the best game we've seen from Sam Darnold. And then he comes back and then tops that performance against the Atlanta Falcons with five touchdowns, all of them earned. I mean, four of them, according to PFF were under pressure, which is even more wild when you think about that, that most quarterbacks are struggling under pressure and he threw

four touchdowns yesterday under pressure and he threw four touchdowns yesterday under pressure. So it was remarkable to watch Darnold and his complete command of the offense from start to finish that game, even when they banged him up a little bit early on. And there was a lot of reaction to that and the struggles on offense, but he kept coming back and coming back and figuring out how to make plays, taking advantage of his receivers, converting on third downs, playing a lot of the game. I mean, the highlight is going to be the 52 yard touchdown to Jefferson hands down, but how about two of the red zone touchdowns to Jordan Addison, which are just good decisions at the goal line, solid passes in time and bang, you're in the end zone playing with timing and

drop it back, hitting the back foot, finding your guy, and then getting rid of the football, all that sort of stuff that Sam Darnold's never been known for before. It feels like he's just taking another step and another step and another step each week to become a complete quarterback who is fully locked in to the Minnesota Vikings offense and has reached this level that now what we can say is that Sam Darnold can take them places potentially. We never know what's going to happen in the playoffs. Well, what's it going to look like when they get to the playoffs? I have no idea. If any of us had any idea what it was ever going to look like in the playoffs, while you'd make a lot of money gambling, but we never know what exactly is going to happen when we get to the playoffs.

And one bad game could mean that everybody changes their opinion about Darnold, or he could continue to do this and win four games and be Eli Manning and be a legend forever. I don't know. But the point is that those outcomes, the highest end of those outcomes yesterday became possible. I think the entire time we're sort of going, well, he's playing really well. He's playing great. He's not turning the ball over. He's made some really high end throws. I wrote about it last week about how, uh, Darnold, his arm talent is really changing how they design the offense and how the receivers have to be ready for pretty much anything. And that was absolutely true on Sunday, but we were still at a point where we were going, ah, you know, like, we'll see,

we'll see where he goes from here. It's a big game against Atlanta. How's he going to respond? There's reports out there about his future, and everyone's talking about it. Is that going to get in his head? Is there going to be pressure facing off with Kirk Cousins? And he goes out there and has one of the best games in Vikings history? I mean, yesterday, everything got put on the table for the Minnesota Vikings. And I got questions from my friends and from you guys. Hey, why isn't the national media talking about the Vikings that were 10 and two?

I think it's because with Darnold, you're waiting for a big enough sample size and a signature type of moment, signature type of play to be able to say, no, they're in that conversation. And when we look at the other teams in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles, who apparently I just found out today, because I haven't been covering the Eagles, that they've got an issue between their quarterback and their number one wide receiver. So however much you already appreciate Justin Jefferson, turn that up even one more notch for how Justin Jefferson has navigated this entire thing this season,

where there's been some ups and downs for him. And before Jamar chase plays today, number one in the NFL in receiving yards and zero, the biggest stat on the board for Jefferson, zero drama, zero drama from Justin Jefferson, number one in yardage before Monday night football. I mean, impressive, impressive stuff. When you think about who else could play quarterback

other than Kirk Cousins, if you don't pay him, then who are you going to get? Well, part of it that had to be considered is that wide receiver is going to make everybody better. And he certainly did. He certainly did yesterday and he made Addison better because all of his opportunities are one-on-one. I don't know if I've ever seen Jordan Addison doubled and look at what he's able to do when he's got one-on-one coverage. And Sam Darnold has now come to fully understand what Jeff or what Addison can do when Jefferson's covered. It felt like for a little bit that there was this kind of, I got to force it to Jefferson, got to force it to Jefferson.

And instead, you know, he ends up throwing it to Addison on a bunch of these one-on-one deep balls because he's building that trust. Andrew, I do remember you. Yes. Andrew says, do you remember me? Asked if anyone wanted to wager me a thousand dollars that sam darno would be a top 10 quarterback and your response was uh what would the basis be the answer was it would have mattered i would have won

so i i here's the thing though andrew you got to remember you have to remember because i do remember your message and i do remember you trying to bet a thousand dollars that I wouldn't take that bet, that I would not bet against you when it came to that. I mean, somebody might have, but the possibility always was there that he could play like a top 10 quarterback. And every single thing that had to go right for that has gone right for that. They've blocked for him. He's adopted the offense. The receivers have made plays that, I mean, the receipts are there for me for supporting the Sam Darnold move from day one and then coming home from training camp every day,

dialing it up live and saying, hey, this could be a thing because Darnold had such a good training camp. No, I did not expect them to be 11-2. No, I had them at 9-8 with Sam Darnold because I didn't think that they would be this consistently good on a week-in and week-out basis. And even after Jacksonville, I wrote, the Sam Darnold experience is going to have ups and downs.

That's just how it's going to be. You've got to hope for the peak. Well, maybe there is downs on the other side of the next couple of games, but I think we've also reached a point where we could say, if you have to talk about the one bad game that the guy had over and over and over again, that means he didn't have many bad games. He has been one of the most consistently excellent quarterbacks in the entire NFL. That's where no matter how much money you were willing to put down, I mean, even you couldn't have guessed that, that Sam Darnold was going to be one of the best and most consistent quarterbacks week in and week out over and over again. It has become one of the best, if not the best story in the NFL this year that this guy has gone

from somebody who was kind of left for dead bridge quarterback, $10 million coming in here. Well, Kirk cousins is making 45 mil to be six and seven on the season. And this is what Darnold has made of it. So I'm curious about from the comment section, I'll answer some of your questions about other stuff, Darnold, uh, for another 15 minutes until Manny gets here. And then, you know then we'll pick the schedule as we always do. But favorite moments. What was your favorite moment of Sam Darnold's win against the Atlanta Falcons? Because that's one where 10 years from now,

you're going to see that pop up in your YouTube, and you're going to watch that football game. That's one where when you talk to your friends about, hey, the Vikings, it's the year 2035. Assume that the world still exists and they're playing the Falcons. Who knows who's quarterback in 2035? And you go, hey, remember that game where Kirk came back

and Darnold lit him up and that rollout for Jefferson and the people in the building. And I found this out yesterday after the game and was sad about it because the people in the building will remember Sam Darnold pumping up the crowd toward the end of the game. I only found out from social media that that was not shown on TV. That is really unfortunate because Brian O'Neill called it one of the coolest moments inside that stadium that he's ever seen. Teammates were pumped up. Kevin O'Connell said he got emotional. And the Vikings did tweet out a gif of it without the sound.

The sound, it was an explosion inside the stadium when Sam Darnold did this, when he actually showed some of the pent up emotion that has been there from, it was kind of like the whole journey coming together right there. Like, yeah, this, this is real. This is me. This is who I am. And for him to get up and, you know, swing the towel and be like, let's go. That was, that was really something. I mean, I just wish the Fox broadcast had caught it. I guess they must not have. And it wasn't even just at the end of the game. It was, I think during a TV timeout when Atlanta had the football and it was during a break that they showed him on the side and he did that.

But that'll be something for people in the building that they'll remember as kind of like a culmination of all the things that have come together for Darnold. So that's the one that I'm going to remember that in the 52 yard touchdown are probably the two biggest ones, but there was a lot. I mean, there was so many plays where it's third down and six or something, and he's got to find somebody open. I asked Kevin O'Connell today what he saw on tape that maybe he didn't realize when he was just watching the game. And he talked about a lot of the third downs that looked like pitches and catches to Jefferson or Addison or in the red zone that were much more high difficulty than that.

And it was not some sort of pumped up play action. Just say a couple open wide receivers. This was a quarterback making a high level play after a high level play after a high level play. And I know what everybody wants to talk about. I know everybody wants to talk about his future, his future. You know, I went on a couple of radio stations today as often happens, you know, just as the, as the guest and that's what the hey are they gonna resign them are they gonna what are they gonna do my thing is that's a really fun discussion to have and i think that we've all become off season pilled and front office you know playing gm type of armchair gm like and i and then nobody loves that more than me.

That's like what a lot of the show has been built on for many years. But think about this. I was thinking about this yesterday. Purple Insider started in 2020. So I've been doing the show since then. Before that, it was on 1500 ESPN and brought it over to Purple Insider. One playoff game has been covered by this media outlet. One season where they went and won 13 games and then immediately lost in the

playoffs. And that was it. Drink it in. Hold yourself back from thinking about what they're going to do in the future and just live in the moment a little, there'll be a whole off season for that. Like I want to talk about yesterday. I don't want to talk about tomorrow yet. Why don't we talk about yesterday and what a legendary moment this was for the Vikings franchise. I mean, you guys know, I like to go back and watch all these old games, watch Dante call pepper, throw five touchdowns, 2004, watch Randall Cunningham, light it up. Watch the one

season where somehow Jim McMahon got them into the playoffs or got them a winning record. Watch Warren moon. Like this is one that you're going to want to think about for a long time. And it's probably a season that you're going to want to think about for a long time. And I, and the other part of yesterday, as far as like favorite parts, was the building feeling. And Kevin O'Connell mentioned that too. And I thought there was a little bit of a malaise against the Cardinals. Like, come on guys, just prove that you're legit and let's get out of here. But against Atlanta, the momentum built. And in the second half, that place was electric because everybody was feeling,

everyone was feeling it's December. This team's 11 and two, and this quarterback's playing like that. everyone was feeling it's December. This team's 11 and two and this quarterback's playing like that. It's it's real. This is real. And that moment right there. I mean, how many, how many has purple insider gotten over, over these last, what are we on season five now of purple insider? Not too many. Not too many. The only comparable one I would say is in Buffalo when they beat the Bills. And then the very next week they lose 40 to three. So yeah, you know, can't have that happen against the Bears this week. Anything can happen when it comes to these division games. But that overall feeling as the game was coming to an end it's kind of a party atmosphere

in there when you're up 21 the 98 yard drive where it's mostly handing the football off we've never seen O'Connell do that before all that stuff was kind of this something is going on here with this team it is a special year that only comes along every so often. So we could think about contracts and all of you front office people who I love. And we talk about all the time, you know, their future and how they're going to salary cap and everything. Your team is in the driver's seat in the NFC, Detroit and Philadelphia and green Bay and you, and maybe you don't want to play the Rams. And that's it. Those are all the teams that belong in your ballpark. Philadelphia has got issues with their quarterback and receiver and Detroit's got issues with injuries and the Packers are pretty good, but you beat them.

So I don't know. I mean, this down the stretch here has got a different energy than any other team outside of 2017 that I've covered for the Vikings. Brett points out that the point differential is now plus 99. That should shut up some of the naysayers. Yeah, it was a bit of a tough day for the naysayer, but I think a lot of people... I just think the one score game thing is more nuanced.

It's not a mistake that Patrick Mahomes wins all of them. And every game around the league is a one score game. And when the Eagles barely beat the Panthers, you're not paying that close of attention of them. Uh, and every game around the league is a one score game. And when the Eagles barely beat the Panthers, you're not paying that close of attention to them. So you go, okay, they won. All right. What did the bike I'm more worried about the Vikings, right? Cause that's your team, but there's the one score games are everywhere. It's really how you lose and how you win your big games like this against the Atlanta Falcons.

I mean, that was a team that was top of their division and you blow them out. And yeah. And I also said too, that the into the, the entry fee to get into the Superbowl conversation is what it's at least 11 wins, usually 12.

So you're one win away from that and it's plus 100 and you're already there. If you got those two things and a top 10 passing game, which the Vikings have, then you're legit. Then you have just as good a chance as anybody. And that's where they're at. So it's, uh, it is quite a situation to be in man, quite a situation to be in man quite a situation to be in uh brett says i'm concerned about the bears someone should check on and you know it's i i said this all last week because kirk threw four interceptions and so i said you know just when you think you got it all figured out that something happens that completely changes or a team like the falcons suddenly just plays a really

good game. And they did play a good half and Kirk played a good half and had them in a position where he tied the game, you know, late and at 21, 21 and had a chance to be in that game. So with the bears, the way that Caleb Williams is way up and down the division game, Monday night football. You can never just assume that that's going to be a win because Caleb is extremely, extremely talented. But that franchise in the battle of the rebuilds, Vikings versus Bears, Kweisi Adafomensa is annihilating Ryan Pulse in that situation.

That was the story when they took over poles went to chicago quacey gets hired here all right let's see the battle of the builds they're gonna tank you're not gonna tank competitive rebuild versus tank how's it gonna play out well one team is 11 and 2 and has the coach of the year the other team is floundering fired their coach has lost to like theots, played terribly last week after firing their coach. They didn't even get a coach firing pop. Yikes. Pretty tough, pretty tough situation.

Rich says, Matt, don't you love how all the Kirk lovers quietly converted to Darnold? Well, you're, they're Vikings fans, right? I mean, who the quarterback is, is the person that fans are going to root for. So, you know, I think there were like with any quarterback, there were irrational cousins fans on both extremes. There were irrational to the point of thinking that the guy didn't belong in the league. And there's irrational to the point where they thought it was the right guard's fault the whole time.

And yeah, you know, like that's how it goes with anybody. I had this conversation with someone in the NFL about how just this sort of machine works with social media and how everything has to be extremes in all of the discussions with social media. They're a team trades a player and then they're the stupidest team ever. And then wait, the trade worked out. Now they're smart in their front office. Those ones do it. Like everything is extremes all the time with, with this. And it probably is in other industries too. The Taylor Swift people probably think Taylor Swift is the greatest musical artist ever. And they fight people online all day about it. Like that's kind of being

fanatical, being a fan of it, but Vikings fans. Okay. If you liked Kirk cousins, that doesn't mean you can't love Sam Darnold. We don't, we don't always, we also just don't need to own everybody all the time. Like let's pick our spots to own people. It's like I said about, you know, this particular podcast and that there's the receipts all over the place, liked the idea of signing Sam Darnold. But if there were other podcasts or people who didn't like it, well, they had plenty of evidence to work with and we never know how it's going to play out. Like plenty of evidence to suggest maybe he wasn't that good. So I, I,

this is another thing that sometimes you just have to kind of move on from that. Like, Hey, like own the haters all the time. Like just enjoy Sam Darnold playing football. You don't have to tell all the Kirk people that they were stupid. Like they wanted Kirk to win because they wanted the team to win.

I always understood that. And nobody fought with the Kirk people more than me over the years, but I always understood the reason was they were trying to talk themselves into something that wasn't really there, but they wanted to because they wanted it to work because they wanted their team to win. So I'm not being that way. For me, it's more about Rick Spielman and the decision-making

around Kirk Cousins, the extension after 2019, continuing to bring him back, continuing to think that's the answer, how they attempted to build around him. That was always the, why did the organization keep going back to the same thing that didn't work? That's what it was more about for me than necessarily about him. But boy, you really found something in Sam Darnold, the way he's playing. same thing that didn't work. That's what it was more about for me than necessarily about him. But boy, you really found something in Sam Darnold, the way he's playing.

Tommy says, I wonder what your thought is on the difference between Fabian Morrow over Dwight McClother and how much difference in play for the vet and the undrafted rookie. If the gap isn't that far, play the kid. Fabian Morrow was tremendous yesterday. He was great. He was targeted one time in the game. Fabian Morrow has been a starter in the league for a long time. He's a good player. Dwight McCluther, Dwight McCluther is another. And, and Hey, Gabe Murphy played yesterday. I played 28 snaps. They are really gifted at finding these undrafted free agent guys or heck the the jalen redmond you know the guy who's kind of nowhere uh right so uh they're good at that and i think mcglothern is going to be one of those types of guys that they do develop into a legitimate player but fabian morrow has thousands of snaps in the nfl and can be trusted to play in high leverage of big moments.

They signed him for that. He was going to start if they didn't get Stephon Gilmore. He's an average NFL player who's just been behind a very healthy group. And McClother needs to develop. He needs to just learn the ropes, learn how to play. But he certainly has potential for the future. All right. Let us welcome in Mr. Manny Hill. What is going on, Manny? What a day it is. We've got a lot of questions and comments stacked up. So I want to answer some with you first before we get into picking the rest of the schedule. Plus there's not that many games left to pick. So we'll do that. But just give me your feeling after watching what transpired at us bank

stadium yesterday. Sam Darnold was a beast yesterday. I mean, he was, he made all the throws, man. He made all the plays. And, I mean, Atlanta's defense is really bad.

Really, really, really bad. Especially in the second half when you saw they got, like, no pass rush whatsoever late in the game. But, yeah, no, it was just, I think what we saw from that offense was just really, really impressive the way they were able to run the ball. Aaron Jones had a nice game. Even Cam Akers stepped in and made some nice runs. But the story of the game for me is Sam Darnold and his performance.

When you're talking about teams that can potentially go on a run, these are the kind of performances you can see from quarterbacks, from their quarterbacks when they can go on a deep playoff run. And that was just impressive stuff. The way Addison and Jefferson dominated the game, dominated the Atlanta secondary was just fantastic. And I think it really showed that I think the Vikings made the right decision by moving on and going in a different direction that quarterback after last year. And if you don't even talk about this in some sort of spiteful way, which is what always ends up coming back to and current parties are absolutely guilty of this, but when you just look at the way Kirk Cousins is playing a major part of that

whole analysis was the guy is coming off of an Achilles tear. And what Kirk said to us before he exited stage left was the Achilles will heal. I'm a pocket quarterback. But the thing is that the Achilles doesn't just go zoop and then it's good. And then you're all good to go. It clearly removes any ability to explode off of that leg. And I think what Dan Marino had to have a custom shoe built because it never was the same again. I know that was a long time ago.

That's also the goat when it comes to an arm. So he was able to recover from that, but, and he never was quite exactly the same as he was earlier in his career. And that's the literal, one of the best quarterbacks of all time, but you could see it yesterday with the lack of confidence, the lack of velocity. And even when trying to put the touch on the ball, it just wasn't the same. And as the Vikings went to make that decision, they had to weigh that part of it of how is this guy going to recover from that and then come back and play at a high level? And what I couldn't help but envision was if Cousins had come back and he plays a couple

of good games and then he plays a couple of good games and then he plays a couple of horrible games and we're all doing what even if they draft another court well if they draft another quarterback and he hadn't gotten injured in preseason or something we'd be doing the same thing as them is it time to bench kirk's time to move on but also they'd be hovering around 500 and what would we be talking about the coach the coach isn't calling the right plays oh well did you see the defense yesterday wasn't as good as it was supposed to be because all defenses don't just shut everybody down like it's 2000 again and i just thought about what a difference it makes three to four plays per game and i was going to ask you the headline question your favorite moment

from the game because for me it's the action as far as playing it's not a hot take it's the 52 yard touchdown to justin jefferson it's an all-world play it's an alan it's a mahomes it is a joe burrow it is a it's like only the best talents make that play and just that it all, but it's also so definitive of what the problem was. The problem was that plays not there. And if it's not there, everyone else is going to get blamed all the time. And I'm sure they're doing it in Atlanta. I'm sure their talk shows are going, well, the quarters fell down and they got to be better. And it's not all Kirk's fault. And it's like, oh yeah, that circle of hell.

And the fact that that was not how it played out here and watching it right in front of me was almost like, look at, that's what it is. And that's what it could have been. Whoa. Oh, Manny's head froze. Okay. Okay.

Sorry. All right. You're back. you're uh so what was your uh your favorite moment in that game it's it's the same one i mean you you kind of you said it i mean it's josh allen mahomes you know the ability to extend the place matthew that's a sack if it's Kirk Cousins without question that's a sack and we're talking about a completely different situation here um if that's Kirk Cousins in that situation and that's just that's not that's that's gonna sound like we're just bagging on Kirk but that's just the reality of the the difference between the two quarterbacks right now that is the difference between 36 years old never really a mobile quarterback even going back to his days in college at michigan state never really like the strongest arm and you have sam darnold who is

a really good athlete and really physically gifted and was able to maneuver around. I after the game, I just for just for kicks, I kind of went back and watched the 2017 Rose Bowl, excuse me, the 2017 Rose Bowl, USC and Penn State. And Sam Darnold, even then, you just I mean, he didn't have any plays like what he did with the long pass of Jefferson. But you just look at some of the throws that he was making. It's like, oh, yeah, that's right. Like, you know, before Adam Gaze got a hold of him, you know what I mean? It was like, oh, yeah, I was just seeing some of those throws earlier this afternoon.

That's right. Same kind of same kind of thing. And you just really it kind of re reinforces the overall like talent that this guy has. And it was on full display yesterday, the athleticism, being able to move around, extend plays, you know, even on some of the some of the simple bootleg plays that they did yesterday were really, really effective and good and executed well. I don't think it can be overstated. The decision that the Minnesota Vikings made to move on from Kirk Cousins and to go get a younger, more athletic, more physically talented quarterback in Sam Darnold. And we're getting sort of the high end of what, you know,

Sam Darnold was thought that he could be when he was coming out of USC until Adam Gaze got a hold of him. He really was a special college prospect. I mean, I went back and read this week because I was writing about his arm talent. What a week to write about his arm talent. I mean, I was asking every, they were picking on me in the media room for how many people I was asking about his arm talent for this article, purple insider.football, go check it out. Uh, and, uh, but what everybody was saying were really actually the one quote that really popped to me was Wes Phillips saying, when you have a guy who can stay with downfield reads,

no matter what happens with the pocket, if he becomes muddy, if he gets pushed back, if he has Dalton Reisner right in his face, and he could still get the throw down the field enough to Jordan Addison, everything becomes possible with the offense. And I think that's what we're seeing. We're seeing what's truly possible for Jordan Addison, which is a guy becoming a star in front of our eyes. What's truly possible for Justin Jefferson,

which is before Jamar Chase plays on Monday Night Football, the number one receiver in the league in terms of yardage. Amazing that they figured it out, how to get him the football. Figured it would be okay after a game or two where he didn't have a hundred yards, but we're really seeing the maximum of what can be done with an offense where it doesn't have to be held back by, yeah, but Kirk won't make that throw. And you got to get a more open. And I remember Jay Gruden saying this one time and Jay Gruden was a big Kirk fan. He won a lot of games with Kirk and he wanted him to stay. But Jay Gruden said something like, I can't get everybody

wide open for you all the time. You have to be able to throw it in there. And now we're seeing a guy who is willing to throw it in there into those windows. Let me give you another like low key, less noticeable favorite moment to me, which is so the Falcons score a quick touchdown to make it 21, 21. And at that point, there's still a little nerves in the building because the defense was so gassed and they get an extra day this week. I think that will help. Uh, there's another point that, that I think is important about the defense with some of the players emerging for them that maybe we didn't expect. Guys who are going to rotate in over these last couple of games,

but they tie the game and they did it very fast. It was like lightning up and down the field. And Sam Darnold gets the ball back. And the first play is Blake Brandel jumping offside or false start. So minus five. they hand off to cam acres grady jarrett still still just put it put him in that wall of fame of guys who kill the vikings every single time good job grady jarrett two yard loss it is now second and 17 and then

they uh they get a defensive or grady jared jumps offside because he was having way too much fun so it's second down and 12 and darnold finds hockinson for a 14 yard gain first down and then after that he converts a third and five with an 11 yard uh pass to jordan addison and it was just one of those like this this is what us oh yeah okay so i i missed the play i scrolled down too far but he uh so he conversed that that second down and long after they got set back then he hits addison for a huge 42 yard catch and then he ends up throwing the touchdown to addison so the drive, that's my point. Sorry, I can't read the play-by-play as well as I should be able to.

But the point is just that response drive to put them up 28-21. That was the moment where the building's getting nervous and Kirk has just let a touchdown drive and the defense is clearly completely gassed. And then you start off with a false start and a two-yard run backwards and it's like, oh boy, here we go. There is no here we go again to Sam Darnold. There is no, oh man, we gave up some points to the Packers. I guess they're going to just come back on us.

He just keeps going. And that was one of those where the game really turned, I thought, where they get that touchdown. And we have seen that happen multiple times now this year, going all the way back to the Green Bay game where Vikings have this big 28-0 lead. The Packers get back. The Packers' offense catches fire, starts to gas the Vikings' defense a little bit.

Packers get right back into the game. And the Vikings need Sam Darnold and the offense to just do something at this point because the Packers have all the momentum things are starting to kind of fall off the rails a little bit and they just answer with a drive and I think they only got a field goal out of that out of that drive but that was huge it ended up being the difference in the game because the Vikings ended up winning by uh winning by two points that day. We saw it in Chicago just a couple of weeks ago where the Bears, on a crazy, kind of fluky way,

get 11 points in 22 seconds to tie the game in force overtime. Defense gets a stop, and Sam Darnold and the offense, they just respond. They're not screwing around with the overtime period or anything like that. They get the ball back. They go down the field. Darn some big time throws and they kick the field goal and win the game in overtime we've seen this happen multiple times now where this guy just answers the call

and the offense just answers the call the arizona game i mean that i keep going back to that fourth down conversion when they had to have it or the game was over and they lose that game um and he just executes and makes makes it happen and and they go on to win the game so we've seen this happen multiple times now and and to me all it just says is that this what we're seeing is real this is legit and um i'm just excited for how this whole thing is going to play out it's going to be a lot of fun coming down the stretch here so i mean the bears game the cardinals game this game this was quarterback winning games yes it is not okay game manage see if the defense can win it for you run the football maybe hit one or two shots this was the quarterback winning

these games and what i remember us saying so many times over the last six years before this was you're allowed to overcome something you're allowed to overcome because what would have happened in the past if a safety came free and sacked the quarterback who couldn't run away we all would have said ah offensive line blocking ah they just you're allowed to overcome an offensive line performance that wasn't all that good and it wasn't against atlanta and especially in the first half you're allowed to overcome a defensive performance that wasn't that good it's not going to be every single game they've got bij Bijan Robinson. They've got Drake London. They've got good players too.

And if you're ever going to really win something, you have to have a quarterback who can overcome something. Okay, you score a touchdown. You're feeling great. Then Atlanta flies down the field and scores. You go like, all right, well, go score again. And that's exactly what he did. The response drive was just so enormous for him to

just come back to that. And there's so many now stacking up in this season and that we're seeing when a quarterback has this level of talent and plays the way that Kevin O'Connell wants him to play, that you can overcome a missed field goal. By the way, you can overcome some, you know, some mistakes as they had to overcome a fumble or two the last couple of weeks that's really been the difference it's been it's the quarterback and for so many years in the NFL it's just it's the quarterback it always is it's always going to be how that guy plays will always be the deciding factor of whether you compete for a Super Bowl or not the game that I always think about when you look back at the Kirk era, those six years,

when we're talking about this subject of needing a drive, needing a couple of plays that end up being winning plays and the difference in the game. You remember the game in Kansas City in 2019? Yes, I do. Check down to CJ ham. Yep. Yep. The Matt Moore game and the Vikings just need,

I think the game was tied late and the Vikings just need to get downfield, get in a position to kick a field goal and win the game. And I think they went three and out. And I think that was the check down to CJ ham. They, they, they punked the ball away. It's a bad punt. Yeah. Yeah. It was a CJ Hamm. They punt the ball away. It's a bad punt.

Yeah, yeah, it was a bad punt. Yeah, that's why, yeah. Yep. But Matt Moore, okay, who like wasn't even like the number two quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs. He was like the third guy. Matt Moore always killed the Vikings for some reason,

by the way, even going back to his days with the Panthers. But Matt Moore gets the ball back, and he just makes a couple of throws, just makes a couple of plays. They get in a field goal position, and Harrison Bunker kicks the winning field goal, and the Chiefs win the game. That was without the best quarterback on the planet playing in that game. And Matt Moore made a play and kirk cousins couldn't that kind of talk that that really kind of breaks down what the previous six years were

about and why it was so frustrating and to see sam darnold do this multiple times in a season is just um it's just it's just the biggest the biggest difference in in the two quarterbacks well and i just couldn't help thinking and we can move on from this and answer some some messages and get to the picks and so forth how many times we hyped up a game over those years and we said this is a big one prove it this is your this is your moment and they would just fall flat there's just so many so many times yeah over the years i remember that 2018 game where they went to chicago and they flexed the game and maybe that was one of the first years that they could flex games they flexed the game and in the pre-game speech it was they flexed this game because of us and then a total no-show

and just how many times was that the the disappointment you know in the season that they're that they do finish 13 and 4 they were going to green bay and it's a big game and it's a prove it you're kind of coming apart at the seams a little bit and you're you almost got beat by jeff saturday and required the biggest comeback ever by points not the greatest comeback the biggest comeback ever by points, not the greatest comeback, the biggest comeback. And I mean, you can't top Frank Reich in the playoffs against Warren Moon. So anyway, they go to Green Bay and there's all this hype. It's like, win this one.

You can win the conference and everything else. It's just a no-show. There were so many of those. And for Sam Darnold to show up like he did, it really just made it so obvious that it wasn't just the contract. It wasn't just, well, they paid him too much. They couldn't get corners or whatever. No, I think there was a little more to it than that. Wouldn't that game have eliminated the Packers from the playoffs too?

Let's see. Was that? That was 22. So I think that's right because they eventually got eliminated by the the lions the next game yeah unless game of the season so uh joel says outside of darnold favorite moments were the jaymond davis sack jaylen redmond tfl's gabe murphy and the defensive tackle uh making uh impact making impacts future could be bright for the defense.

Well, I mean, these guys are going to have to be the present. Gabe Murphy getting in there and playing some snaps. They need guys to rotate. They've played their guys way too much. Van Ginkle is on the injury report for last week. Definitely Jonathan Grenard is worn down. They need somebody to get in there and rotate a little bit with him Jalen Redmond's just one of those finds I don't know so it makes it makes

football great the guy's in the XFL and just shows up and all of a sudden he's getting the backfield he's to knock it down passes make it plays like what the heck is going on here? XFL player. But this is another thing about the player valuation though. I never had Jalen Redman making the team out of training camp. I was just like, Oh, well, you know, practice squad guy and we'll see, you know, depth guy or something. And they're like, no, he's on the team. And I think, yeah, I think it was out of camp and everyone went like, Oh, Oh really? Okay. This is Brian Flores being able to evaluate players. And that's the way I look at this is just him and that staff are really good at it. And they're going to need those guys, Manny, because coming out of that game, there's so

much about Darnold. There's so much about beating Kirk, 11 and two, everything else. But if there is one thing that makes you go, go yeah it is how tired the defense looked late in that game and that's why that drive was so important that they were able to go down and make it 28 21 because they really were uh extremely gassed midway through that game i mean we've talked all year about this right about how it's going to be important for you know the offense to be able to sustain some longer drives, give the defense a little bit of a break, but also it's going to be

important for guys that are not starters to be able to step in and make some things happen. It doesn't mean they have to be world beaters, but they've got to be able to be trusted enough for Brian Flores to put them out there and they can make something happen they can be a difference maker um in certain situations so that's that's going to be huge and if if this team's going to go on a run they need the number ones on defense to be fresh they need Jonathan Grenard to be I mean Jonathan Grenard just with how freaking good he's been, if he is not right come playoff time because he's just worn down, that's going to be a huge, huge, huge problem for this defense. So they need someone like him, Andrew Van Ginkle,

who's a guy who's a little bit older, he's getting close to 30. They need those guys to be as fresh as possible come playoff time because, you know, you go on the road, you know, if you don't end up winning this division, you have to go on the road as like a five seed, even at like 13 and four, you know, you're going to grow up against a team that has a pretty good offense and you're going to need to be able to have a defense that's fresh enough to be

able to get some stops, you know, probably going to give up some yards because that's just kind of been what this defense has been for most of this year, giving up yards, but you've got to have a guy, you've got to have guys that are fresh enough to hold up for the entire way so that, you know, when you need a stop in a key situation, you'll be able to get it. Uh, I think also the Atlanta Falcons deserve credit for their argument for signing cousins was look how much we could put around him. Now they don't have Justin Jefferson. So it's a little different,

but the offensive line is good and they do get rid of the ball really quickly. So that could be part of the reason that Grenard Van Ginkle didn't get pressures yesterday, which is very rare for, for them. But I also think the way the run game played out in the second half, when we've seen teams stay on the field forever, Arizona ran it, the Rams ran it, the Lions ran it.

They do have to find a way early in games to put together long drives where they have the football. And they did this a few times. They did this against Indianapolis. They definitely did it a couple times against Chicago. Yesterday was predicated on hitting 40 yard passes or 50 yard passes, which is phenomenal, but you can't rely on that from a quarter to quarter basis. And that was one thing I came away with as far as moments

from the game when O'Connell kind of went Kevin Stefanski or Gary Kubiak there and ran and ran and ran and then just ran a play action was the only pass and they find Oliver for a big gain. I was like, I've seen that done before by some good coaches in the league, but not this coach. Usually he hasn't trusted the run game enough to just run and run and run and run. And I wanted to get in the elevator, go down, walk out to the sideline and say, you can keep doing this and then go back up to the press box and then go back down and go and no more freaking trick plays and then go back up to the press box. Like, but it just painful, but enough, enough of the trick place, please just stop. They're not necessary. They're not necessary. Just run the ball. Just because

Dan Campbell is throwing swing passes to his right tackle doesn't mean that you have to do trick plays too. You don't need them. It's fine. You've got two of the best receivers in the league. You've got one of the best tight ends in the league and your quarterback is kicking ass right now. You don't need any trick plays it's okay kevin why am i envisioning a josh oliver game losing interception in the playoffs he put the hand off to josh oliver he throws it up and it's picked off it's a pick six josh oliver's interception has lost the vikings the playoffs uh yeah just run the ball like that's. Like that's it. You can do it. This team can do it. And, uh, Dalton Reisner, by the way, it was their highest graded run blocker yesterday. So a very motivated, I know I didn't see that coming, but a very motivated Dalton Reisner playing really well

at right guard. You can't, it's not the best run offensive line, but you can, and you got good running backs and cam acres. Every single time the guy plays, he comes up with an explosive run at least once a game. So use them, keep using them. And maybe that 98 yard drive taught Kevin O'Connell that you don't always have to get 50 yard passes and crazy plays from your quarterback. Uh, Jay Garrett says, originally I was out on signing Sam, but I'm beginning to waver. Nothing on JJ McCarthy's college tape indicates he's got Sam's big playability. So here, here's my thing on this Manny. One thing that I did take from Kirk Cousins, because I try to personally learn from all the athletes that I cover. These are the greatest in the world. We're making fun of Kirk. We're giving him a hard time and everything.

It's one of the great quarterbacks that walks around this earth in a world where a lot of human beings want to be a quarterback. Right. And one thing he was so good at is not getting ahead of himself. So he would have a contract year. He'd have criticism. He would have whatever else going on. And he just sort of stayed the course. And he would say, I want to be where my feet are. And with this decision that will happen months from now, I would just say for all Vikings fans, just be where your feet are. And we'll, you know, we'll talk about it. It'll come up with guests and they'll get their opinions and see if it's going to come on the show and talk about it later this week. We're working out of time for that, but that, that thing's going to play itself out. However,

it's going to play out. You just won one of the coolest games you've had in what? 10 years since far. How many games like that? Kirk had the one in 19 where they blew out Philadelphia. That was pretty incredible. But I mean, there's not that many games like that, that you're going to have be where your feet are for now. And then we'll figure all that out when we get there. Like, you don't have to stress about this now. You'll have whatever offseason. After they win the Super Bowl in February, then you can decide.

Just enjoy. It's the old Mike Tice quote. Just enjoy the season. This season is so much fun. I'm having so much, just on a personal note, I'm having so much fun watching this team, watching Sam Darnold play well, watching Justin Jefferson be the best receiver on the planet, watching Jordan Addison emerge into a star. You know, TJ Hawkinson is back and he's contributing and the defense has been fun to watch. Just enjoy this. We don't need to stress about how much money Sam Darnold's going to get in the offseason. Well, should they keep him? Should they franchise him?

Should they, you know, sign him to a long-term deal and trade JJ McCartney? Like, we don't need to talk about that right now. There's still four regular season games left. We just, let's just enjoy this, guys. It's okay to enjoy this. We don't have to think about 2025 right now. It's fine. Just have fun.

Enjoy this. It's great. And yesterday, and like, again, it's not going to disappear from disappear from the show it's impossible it's like a huge franchise decision so it's not something that i'm saying it more from what i think the perspective of vikings fans if you're going to monday night football against chicago or you're looking forward to that game and you don't have to spend every quarter thinking about are they going to extend them are they going to keep them are they going to go to mccarthy and all this sort of stuff because you can you can do that another time and so every discussion about darnold's play doesn't have to be a referendum on what's going to happen in the future and the

reality is and i'm going to keep on this train that his high level play is so high level that you can only compare it to the best quarterbacks in the league right now and if that's how this ends up playing out and it's much closer to the real thing than a case Keenum that was random because of the physical talent because of the draft status because of the circumstances not changing into the future. You don't have to choose one over the other. I'll just keep saying that, that every time this comes up, it's like, whoa, it's Sam versus McCarthy. It's not because you can franchise tag Sam Darnold and then go from there. It doesn't have to be a, well, you know, his college tapers, JJ McCarthy was tremendous in training camp he sold everybody in the organization on him being the franchise guy it's just that sometimes things change with

quarterbacks how about i mean how mf-ing unpredictable are quarterbacks bryce young looked like the worst player on planet earth eight weeks ago and now everybody's talking about how good he looks and how close these games have been. And now he's had a chance to win. He gets one guy to catch a ball yesterday. Maybe they're upsetting the Philadelphia Eagles, Sam Darnold. Like, no, people didn't see this coming. Uh, so that's always going to live in the back of your mind that this wasn't the plan, but do you think the San Francisco 49ers thought Brock Purdy was going to be the dude? Like sometimes it just works

out that way. And if, and if this is, if you're one of those franchises, how about the Eagles? They probably thought Carson Wentz is our guy. It's going to be our franchise for 10 years. And then he wasn't. And somebody else comes in and goes to the Superbowl. I don't know. You can't predict any of this. Do we remember when the St. Louis Rams gave Trent Green this massive contract and then he gets hurt in preseason? I think it was Rodney Harrison that kind of rolled into his knee and Trent Green tears his ACL and he's done for the season. And Dick Vermeule goes in the postgame afterwards and he's in tears

and he says, we're going to rally around Kurt Warner and we'll play good football. Nobody thought Kurt Warner was going to suddenly step in and be the MVP of the league and then throw for 400 yards and win the Super Bowl MVP. Like, and then it just, regardless of what they gave Trent Green, Kurt Warner became the guy there for the next couple of years. Won another MVP, got to another Super Bowl. I mean, it's, to your point, like it's so hard to predict these things. Teams can always sort of map out this plan

and have a plan in place. But when something changes and a guy steps in and he plays really well, you just have to kind of live in that moment and see how things play out. And then you kind of make that decision going forward. And I think that's the situation that the Vikings are in right now. I mean, sure, I'm sure Kwesi Adolfo-Mentz has got it in the back of his mind.

All right, well, if Sam keeps up this level of play and we get to the Super Bowl, you know, we have to think about giving this guy a five- or six-year contract and just having him be our guy going forward. And then we'll figure out something with JJ McCarthy after that. But if you're Kevin O'Connell and you're Sam Darnold and you're the Vikings players, and honestly, if you're a Vikings fan right now, you still got, you got to worry about the Chicago bears on Monday.

That's just, that's, that's all they can focus on right now. And I just, I'm imploring for fans guys, just, just, let's just have some fun finding a way to beat the Chicago bears. Let's just focus on that and focus on how this season is going to finish up with Sam Darnold playing as well as he is. I also want to make a point and it's an important important one, that the Kirk Cousins contract discussion, people got beat over the head with it over the years to the point where it went too far to the point where it reached.

You can never and should never pay a quarterback. And I just want to point something out about the national football conference and the standings. The Philadelphia Eagles are 11 and two. Their quarterback got paid. The Seattle Seahawks are leading their division at eight and five. They pay Gino Smith. The Rams, they're right in that mix. Good team. When everybody's healthy, they have a quarterback on an expensive contract. the Detroit lion. And they did when they brought math Stafford over, he was on an expensive contract when they won the super bowl, the Detroit lions paid Jared golf. They are number one in the conference.

The green Bay Packers paid Jordan love. They're nine and four. They're right in the mix with everybody else. The bucks, they lead their division at seven and six, all of the best teams in the NFC outside of the commanders have paid their quarterbacks and the Cardinals aren't that far behind. They're six and seven and they paid their quarterback too. And they're kind of a rising team that could eventually be good. My point is that in short windows with quarterbacks who are surrounded with the right things who can make plays and have big arms and can create explosives on their own and leave the nfl in big time throws you can pay

someone and it doesn't ruin your franchise if you manage it properly and i just want to make that point that it's sort of one of those like it became said over and over and over that it's sort of one of those, like it became said over and over and over that it became truth for everything and anything always. And Goff had a big contract when he got there to Detroit and they worked around it. So it doesn't have to be this terrifying thing. If you're going to play at this level, which is a top five to seven quarterback in the league,

then that's worth working out a contract for. And then you sort of deal with the rest. But the fact that they've got the franchise tag in their pocket to me has always meant if they decide that they want to keep him for another year and see what happens and create a bigger sample size, they can do it. And it may be so much less controversial than we think it's going to be. Brady says, am I wrong here? Or did Sam not have any old Sam brain fart moments? He had zero turnover worthy plays in the game yesterday, which is really remarkable. Also, also these last four weeks have dropped him out of the top of the league in turnover

worthy plays to still in the like mid upper tier. But for someone who throws down the field as much as he does, he's right there with a lot of the other star quarterbacks in the league. How many even old Sam moments have there even been this year? He's been one of the most consistent quarterbacks in the entire NFL for this season. I mean, that has to play into it, too. It's not just the big moments and the exciting stuff. It really has been consistency for him. Yeah. I mean, the only time you can think about is maybe the Jacksonville game, but like most quarterbacks in the league are

going to have a game like that once, maybe twice a year, like the really good ones are going to have a bad game. Like it, it just happens. Patrick Mahomes, the best guy on the planet has those games. Occasionally very rarely throws three interceptions in a game, but Patrick Mahomes will have games like that where he just doesn't play well. The hell, the first half of the season is his numbers were terrible and the chiefs

were still winning games. So it's easy to kind of ignore that stuff. But you know, for the most part, I mean, Sam has been really, really good. and the Chiefs were still winning games. So it's easy to kind of ignore that stuff. But, you know, for the most part, I mean, Sam has been really, really good. What was the stat you had that he's had 100-plus quarterback rating in like 10 of the 13 games or 11 of the 13 games? That's insanity. That's insane. But it goes to show you how well and how consistent he's been saved for,

you know, what is it? The Jacksonville game. And then I think the jets game was, was the other one where he was under a hundred. That's, that's ridiculous. And so,

I mean, I, I just, I'm impressed, man. I, I thought when they signed him, I thought that there was high potential for him to play well and have a nice productive season.

But even I have to admit, I didn't see this. I didn't see this level of play from him. He's just been he's been outstanding. He's been just absolutely fantastic all year. The only guy that did was the guy, Andrew, in the comments that wanted to bet anyone a thousand dollars that darnell could be a top 10 quarterback and i did not take that bet because i because my logic was i've seen this movie before jeff george shows up and goes crazy there's no way i'm betting you on on that and well it's been right so far and there's still almost a quarter of the season

left to go and uh we'll get to that in a minute, but there's just a lot of good questions and comments. Ron says their best six win season ever. Great job, Ron, on that, on the snark. How about this from Alex? When can we start talking about the best and worst matchups in the playoffs for the Vikings? Well, now is fine. So the weird thing about this situation is

they could still win the conference and, uh, everybody is getting behind my old city for next week when the bills play the Detroit lions. It's still on the table. I mean, the Vikings could beat the bears. They could be the, uh, Seattle Seahawks. I just booked my travel for that. By the way, I wasn't originally going to go to Seattle, but we're go. I mean, I'm not missing anything from now. So we're good there, but as far as best and worst. So the way I would rank this Manny is I think the best matchup for them would be to play the Atlanta Falcons again in Atlanta to start in the playoffs because gestures at everything from yesterday, the bucks, uh, I

think they're a little bit scary because Baker Mayfield could get hot and their defense has some serious playmakers. They're a pretty legit team, uh, the bucks and having to go to their place. That's where Philadelphia petered out last year. As far as playing in the West, the Rams would be at the top of the list of teams. You just don't want to play when they've had Puka Nakua in there and Cooper cup. They're just a pretty dangerous team. And they put up 40 points on a great Bill's defense yesterday. So if I'm ranking the possibilities, everybody in the NFC West is possible and every, uh, well, the bucks and Falcons are possible for the first game. And then it changes if the Vikings were to win the conference, but just assuming they're

going to sit in that five seed, I would say you'd want to play Atlanta first, probably. I mean, the Cardinals could still win that division, but probably the Bucks are second and then the Seahawks and then the Rams sorry if that's a little convoluted but that would kind of be my order you'd want to play Atlanta then you want to play Tampa then you'd want to play Seattle then least want to play the Rams that's how I would have the order yeah Atlanta is definitely number one on my list of teams that I would want to see them get matched up with just because I think it's a really good matchup that favors the Vikings. That defense, the Vikings can move the ball on that defense, obviously, as they showed yesterday, almost flawlessly. Yeah, Tampa's an interesting team, too, because, like you said, Baker could get hot.

It could also be just kind of nasty and sloppy weather-wise down there it could be kind of a rainy muddy type of environment which i don't know would really favor the vikings very well their defense you mentioned the playmakers they have obviously you know one of my favorite players in the league kind of biased but antoine winfield jr is fantastic an all-pro caliber player vita vea is just 360 i mean i just i we're not if you're telling me vita vea is going to go up against the minnesota vikings offensive line i'm just i'm immediately i'm thinking akim hicks just right away just big 260 pound interior defensive lineman that just wreaks havoc um that could be kind of a a problematic situation for them too so i give me atlanta and then everybody else i i think you

know i think seattle how i feel about a matchup with seattle i think will determine will depend on what i see when they go there in a couple of weeks. That'll kind of tell me. Because Seattle's just one of those teams that they're playing better the last couple of weeks. They've kind of taken control of that division a little bit, a game up on the Rams. I still kind of want to see a little bit more of them to figure out how good they actually are.

But yeah, and the Rams, I don't think the Rams are a very good matchup for the Vikings, just with their defensive front. And, you know, they have a veteran quarterback with weapons and a great coach as well. So everybody else after that though, I would say sign me up. San Francisco even doesn't worry me right now because they find a way to get in. They're just really, really banged up right now. The Gino thing versus Stafford isord is the difference maker for me. I think Seattle might be a little bit more of a complete team than the Rams.

They're both flawed, but I'd just rather face Geno Smith than Matthew Stafford in a playoff game, just period. Digit says time of possession and balance in offensive line struggles will present real challenges against good teams. The first part of that is extremely real. The second part of it is just you watch the Vikings. They have now they had struggles against the Falcons and at times against the Arizona Cardinals. But on the whole, this offensive line has been terrific. It's been the best offensive line that I have covered since I got here in 2016. I don't even think it's close.

Cam Robinson's done a great job for them. Yeah, I mean, sometimes the other team's going to create pressure. And one of the things Darnold's doing a good job of is take a sack if you have to, but don't lose the football, right? And he has not been giving up the football on some of those sacks. The offensive line is, look what they did. They needed a big drive at the end of that game. They get the ball at the two yard line after the interception

and the offensive line is pushing bodies and they're running and running and running and running. And in the second half, Darnold had time to throw the football. I just think that around the league, defensive players are so skilled and so talented and defensive minds are so good. You're going to get beat sometimes, but every time you get beat one, you can still throw a 52 yard touchdown as Darnold did, but everything get beat. Every fan of every team is going to be like our offensive line is not good enough, but this offensive line is good enough to play against good teams. The playoff is not like the Dakota Dozier, the Tom Compton.

It's pretty solid, but you know, if you need, if your quarterback needs five offensive linemen that are all pros, you're never going to have that in the NFL. What you got is good enough to, I mean, look at these numbers for the last couple of weeks.

How, how could we look at the line and be like, I don't know. I mean, I mean, they went for a hundred yards rushing against Chicago and through for 300 there. And then, uh, you know, two weeks later here, we're putting up an all time game and they were going, I don't know about this guard. I mean, that's just, I think that's just a mechanism of having watched this team struggle with the oldline for a really long time. But the time of possession issue is very real, Manny, and I think they do need to resolve or have an answer for that if they're going to win and go deep into the playoffs.

Because you can't play four playoff games while having 53 plays and the other team has 75. Yeah, that's going to be sort of the number one thing I'm looking at now over these last four games is just how they sort of manage, you know, possession time, you know, can they get, can Kevin O'Connell get kind of creative with some of the play calling to kind of keep things simpler a little bit. You can still look for the, for the big plays, the deep shots down the field, the 30 yard completions and all of that. But, you know, the shorter, sort of easier,

more sort of routine throws for Sam Donald to make, the screen game, I still think there's a chance for the screen game to be effective. Just, you know, mix it up a little bit more. Not every play has to be a 50-yard bomb. Those are great when they happen and they work. But if you can kind of mix in, especially in certain situations where you know, okay, my defense was just on the field for 15 plays and the opposing team just scored a touchdown

and took like seven minutes off the clock. Let's understand what the situation is. Let's realize we really cannot afford to have a three and out right now. Let's play complimentary football. Let's try to keep the chains moving here a little bit, give our defense a break and, uh, you know, kind of maintain some possession here going forward. And I think, you know, when we talk about just the, the guys on the defense that have gotten worn down, that's been a big part of it is because they're on the field for so many plays. Those guys just get tired, especially some of the older players, the older veterans on the

defensive side. So if you just can kind of sustain more longer, you know, 10, 11, 12 play drives, I think it'll bode well for really the entire team. All right. Let's let me answer two real quickly here. Matt says Eagles Packers and Lions have a lot more two score wins. Just for you, Matt. I looked that up. Not the case, my friend.

Not the case. Philadelphia Eagles have four two score wins. The Minnesota Vikings have four two-score wins. The Minnesota Vikings have four two-score wins. Everybody in the league is playing close games, my man. The Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers, the Detroit Lions. The Detroit Lions barely escaped against Chicago, who is a tire fire. I don't know. That happened to you too because they play in the league also and like that's how it goes sometimes the two defending Super Bowl champions seemingly are playing every they played another one last night another close one possession game

that comes down to you know needing to make a field goal at the end, needing to block a field goal at the end, needing an interception or whatever, needing one big throw. That's just kind of this league. I thought that's why we loved this league because these teams that there's, there's a lot more parody and these teams play a lot of close games and these games are exciting. Isn't that why we love this stuff? This is what Roger wanted for us. I just looked it up. The Packers have four, four, two score wins. So look, I look at point differential.

You guys know I've said it for years. Plus 100 is important. It is a baseline for being a Super Bowl contender. If you look at the last 20 teams to reach the Super Bowl, 16 of them have been plus 100, at least. The Minnesota Vikings today are plus 99. If they finish plus 100, or relatively close to that, that's the baseline for me. If you go into the playoffs with at least 12 wins, which they very well could get too soon. And then plus 100, you are as you have as good a chance as anybody else going into the playoffs has ever had.

And the road could be harder because of the lions, which was the last question before I want to pick the schedule here with you. Uh, Jeffrey says four games to go. What's the realistic chance you get to the number one seed if Detroit falters and the Eagles get the number one? Well, or I guess maybe that's two questions, but the realistic chance is not that high. It really isn't. I mean, I think it's going to be tough for the Vikings to keep winning at the same pace. It feels like they're going to just have to win every game. But if the Lions go to Buffalo and lose, definitely a place you could go and lose and the Vikings win on Monday night football, then that week 18 game could ultimately end up being for

the entire conference. And I don't know, the Eagles keep playing close games as well. So I don't know. I mean, it's not the greatest chance, but maybe one out of four. It's possible the way that the Vikings are playing, but it feels like they're going to maybe hit a bump in the road at some point here, which means we need to pick this schedule. I had promised it a half an hour into the show, and then we just, you know, a lot of great questions and comments today. So, Manny, the Vikings are going to play the bears on Monday night football,

December 16th at us bank stadium to go potentially 12 and two. Do they reach 12 and two? Do they beat the Chicago bears next week? I think yesterday kind of told me a lot about where the Chicago bears are at. I thought maybe with, you maybe with Thomas Brown taking over as interim head coach that maybe they'd get a little bit of a jolt going up against a banged up 49ers team. Maybe the Bears could find a way to sneak out a victory. They're coming off a longer week, having had the longer half-bye sort of the longer sort of half by type of thing after playing on Thanksgiving. Yeah, they no showed. That's pretty bad. The Bears are not good.

And there's talent. The young quarterback is obviously very gifted. He's got weapons. They got some players on defense. But there's just they're just they're just not in a good way right now. It just doesn't feel like a unit that is together right now, even after firing their coach,

which you would think in some cases would unite a team. I think the Vikings take care of business. It could be kind of a closer game because of the Bears are still a talented team and some crazy things could happen but i think the vikings being at home playing with a lot of confidence after yesterday's game um that extra day i think will help you know rest some bodies a little bit on the defensive

side especially and uh the vikings take care of business and get a win division games always closer the one thing though was matt eberflus always kind of gave some problems to Kevin O'Connell. Not that he was a good coach, not that he didn't deserve it, but he just always with his defense. There was a handful of plays per game where it seemed like he would mix up coverages or get pressures or whatever. Stop the run. Then that's then they fired him.

So I don't know if they're're gonna be able to still do that and certainly this guy uh trying to be a head coach and call plays if is he calling he must be calling the plays and being a head coach really hard thing to do i think yeah they're in a very tough spot probably the worst some of the worst vibes in the entire nfl then they go out to seattle uh a game that i so every year i put in my list to Vikings PR of the games I'm going to travel to. And this one against Seattle, I initially left off the list because I kind of thought, eh, maybe there'll be out of it by then. I don't really know. I guess we'll see, but I'm not sure that one's the juice worth the squeeze. Well, today I sent them a message and said, put me on the list.

I'm headed to Seattle December 22nd because every game is worth it at this point. So you people better subscribe because it's not cheap to fly to Seattle. So subscribe. Anyway, 12 and two headed out to Seattle. Do they win that football game? I've been pretty consistent with this, calling this a loss the last several weeks for actually most of the season,

just because I've always kind of felt like Seattle was a tough place to play. Although the Seahawks this year have actually been a better road team than they have. I think they're only like three and four at home this year, five and one on the road. So they've been a better team away from that field. But I think they're playing better.

They're in first place in that division. I think they kind of realize they have a chance to maybe grab a stranglehold of this division, depending on what happens with the Rams who are kind of right behind them. But if Seattle can beat the Vikings and go to, I guess they would be, I don't know who they're playing next week,

but you know, if that is potentially them trying to get like a 10th win, let's say that's a big opportunity for them. And I think they'll show up ready to play. So I'll put that down as a Seattle win, dropping the Vikings to 12 and three. What if Seattle's home field advantage was just the friends we made along the way?

Like, what if it was just, what if it was just, what if it was just Marshawn Lynch and like their defense and Russell Wilson, maybe, maybe it was, but this one does make sense for them to kind of run out of gas against a team that's playing desperately for that spot in the NFC West. Fair enough. So third, 12 and three, then the game of the year Packers, December 29th, us bank stadium, whatever it was in there yesterday. It's going to be more for that one.

People ask me all the time. If games are getting flexed, I'm going to tell you the truth. I have no idea. I find out when you do, could that, could they flex that one? Are they going to flex that? I don't know. I don't know. They don't send me an email first it's not like they they come up to me and whisper flexed in my i don't know we'll see but this this game deserves flexed but i i don't know if it's going to be so let's just assume it'll be a very exciting noon game for everybody for a 12 and 3 football team facing the Packers. Is that a win or a loss, man? I've been pretty consistent with this one as well, calling this a win for the Vikings at home and sweeping the season series with Green Bay. The Packers are talented and Jordan Love is really good and they're well coached. It just kind of seems like with them sometimes when they've got an opportunity to get like that big win, they don't quite do it.

They had a chance to beat the Lions this past week, and that was a big opportunity for them. And they just couldn't get it done. They were right there, and they just couldn't do enough. And that's a Lions team that's kind of reeling right now with all the injuries they have on defense. So they're going to have an opportunity to really kind of make a statement game again, going into U.S. Bank Stadium. And it just feels like they're just going to come up a bit short. I think it's going to be a great game, highly tight, close, competitive,

maybe even high scoring, much like the game in green bay was uh but i think the vikings will have enough and uh come up come out on top 13 and 3 they win that game and vikings fans will be all all all in uh lions let's assume it matters i don't know if it will the way that we're playing out we'd have to also pick the Lions and every other NFC team schedule to see, or maybe we just have to pick the Lions. I don't know. But if they're 13-3 going to Detroit with the game mattering, do you think that they could pull off a win in Detroit?

Let me throw something funny at you. I was thinking about how the old cliche is it's hard to beat a team three times. Do you want to lose this game because it's hard to beat a team three times? In case you play them in the playoffs. Right, obviously the answer is no, but I thought about how that cliche, oh, it's hard to beat a team three times. Like, is it?

I don't know. How often does that even come up? So do they win this one or not? Wasn't too hard for the 99 Titans against the Jaguars. Probably a sore subject for the current Vikings wide receivers coach. But also, of course, you would say that. Yeah, of course I would. I kind of has me thinking about it now a little bit just because there's,

I don't know, man, Detroit has been kind of just, I don't want to say playing with fire, but they've been kind of getting, they've been getting by, you know, which could mean a couple of things. It could mean that somebody is going to get them in the playoffs, or it could mean that they have all the intangibles needed to win a championship and go on the way to the Superbowl and win it win it uh so there's a couple different ways you could play that i'll i'll call it a i'll call it a lion's win and lions secure secure that number one seed and the vikings will have to settle with the number five seed at 13 and four think about this so that would just be a two and two ending to the season which i think is reasonable and talk about playing with fire the vikings have at times also recently in recent

weeks so someone's going to beat them uh over the rest of this season but that would mean two of the first three seasons of kevin o'connell's head coach he finishes with 13 wins and think about this too if they even finish two and two what is what is Kevin O'Connell's record when his starting quarterback plays? So not Dobbs, not Mullins, Jaren Hall. That was not a memorable night. Uh,

but what is his rate? So last year, four and four, 13 and four the year before. So that'd be 17-8. That would be 30-12. What is that percentage? And they've run the worst trick plays!

What is that percentage? 30 out of 42. 30, wait a minute. 30. That's a 714 win percentage. That's if they go 2-2 the rest of the way. 71% of games. But he can't call plays, apparently.

It's amazing. He's overcome this inability to call. We talked about this a few weeks ago, but how's the rest of that coaching hiring cycle from 2022 looking right now? Yeah. Oh, Nate Hackett's doing great in New York. Yeah.

Good job over there, man. How about, can we just stop real quick? Just stop right now before you leave, because we're getting, we're getting close to, I mean, we've got most most of the answers right now can we just talk for a second maybe we could do more of this on thursday about how everything is played out in the nfl this season like what

because the vikings are the most unexpected you never saw it coming just thought just off the dome i'll give you a second i'll i'll y. We'll give you a second to think about this. The biggest things for you where teams results, where we're at, where you're like, man, can't believe it. Or I freaking told you so. The biggest I freaking told you so is probably the Atlanta Falcons. But the second one has to be the Jets. Oh, really?

You're going to bring in a broken aaron rogers who's been drinking strange teas and living in trees and going to egypt rather than practicing and i'm sure it'll be fine you just hand hand your organization over to a complete sociopath and it'll be great he'll just drop back and wing it. Just like it was 2010 again, bait. Are you serious? The guy looks about 20 or 30 pounds lighter than he did when he was at his best. He play, he wants to play an offense that was at its best 10, 12 years ago. He manipulates everybody around him. He's convinced the owner that he deserves to be coach gm trainer whatever else right and they won three games it's not it's not even enough like they were much better with zach wilson it's not even like what it is not even enough not even enough to say you got exactly what you deserved.

Exactly what you deserved. Think about what they have, too, in terms of the talent on the offensive side. The receivers, Garrett Wilson, good. They traded for Devontae Adams. They traded for Devontae Adams, one of the great wide receivers of this last decade. You know,

I mean, they gave Alan Lazard a pretty good, a pretty good chunk of change too, which was probably kind of dumb. But, you know, and now they're sitting there

at three and 10. They've blown out the head coach. Yep. They ran the GM out of town. Yeah, it was Robert Sala's fault. Yeah, they have a worse winning percentage since they fired Robert Sala than they did before they fired him. Then they ran Joe Douglas out of town,

which how often does a GM get fired midseason? I know, not too much. You never see that. You know what I mean? So now it's all on you aaron you're three and ten how are you feeling and there was talk of like you know and i don't know how serious people were being but there was like talk of like maybe bringing him here next year no no it's like no no absolutely not he's gonna be 41 do you really want with everything that's happened with the jets

for the last couple years no way that was ever even remotely serious the the everything that we've seen just the way things ended in green bay aaron rogers has been a clown show for the last three seasons yep why would anyone want anything to do with that after this season couldn't happen to a worse guy so uh anyway well i'm sure his family has enjoyed the season but uh what's uh the biggest surprise for you that's my biggest like i told you so uh what's the biggest surprise for you? Um, it's, well, I, I was thinking about, I was, I was kind of hoping we would see a bounce back year from Jacksonville. Oh, this year. And that's been kind of a, I mean, just with how bad it's gotten. I think, you know, I thought maybe things could get kind of bad just because of the way things finished last year, but I didn't think it was going to be this.

Now, I know they won yesterday, but I didn't think it was going to be so bad where they go in Detroit and they're getting beat by 40 points or whatever. And I'm still surprised that Doug Peterson still has a job. But the way things have just really fallen apart for them, And the thing with them, too, this seems to happen often. And I don't know if it has anything to do with ownership or what. But, like, we've seen them kind of have these pop-up years where they're good. And then things just kind of, we saw it with Doug Marone, too. They go to the NFC title game and then they just fall apart after that. They can't sustain what they're doing.

They have a great playoff win a couple of years ago with Trevor Lawrence who come from behind, win against the Chargers. And they're looking pretty good the first 10 or so games last year, and then they just fall apart. And they've been a disaster this year. So I think that's kind of my surprise is just not that they were not a playoff team, but just how bad it's actually gotten for them again this year.

It's just really unreal. I'll give you mine. I don't want to talk about it. I thought the Cowboys would be really good this year. I don't know. Sorry. I thought they would be. I thought Zimmer would turn around that defense

or get them playing at a really high level. Did not expect Micah Parsons to miss a huge part of the season and also, uh, Duran bland and also Trayvon digs. So that's probably been why, but you know, they just, they,

they completely failed to launch this year and petered out and, uh, they still kind of compete, but they're just not a good team. And Philadelphia, I thought Philadelphia with Nick Sirianni was going to go in a bad way. They did. I did too.

Thought that Washington would need another year. Yeah. I thought the Eagles would be a train wreck this year, honestly. Even after getting Saquon, which turned out to be maybe the free agency signing of the offseason for the entire league. But I thought – That's right. Yeah, Sam Darnold. Yeah yeah that's right good good catch um but yeah i thought with just all the drama and the way things ended last year and then like

the the locker room guys the the the jason kelsey's and the fletcher cox's just retire the guys that you thought were like the glue of that locker room with those guys going away i thought oh yeah this is going to be like eight nine nine and eight philadelphia eagles and sirianni would get fired but they they look fantastic right now still feels fragile to me that that locker room and that team still feels fragile with i don't know if you saw but brandon graham talking about how there's no relationship between aj brown and Jalen Hurts. It just feels like still a little bit tenuous there. So anyway, a lot of drama still to come.

Manny, thank you for your time. Thursday night, we will. It's usually more of a hardcore preview where we dive in, but we'll have to figure out because you did your favorite Vikings and Bears game. We'll figure out a Bears angle that'll be fun for Thursday night. And we'll have turned the page on this and start getting ready for Monday night. But we'll have some fun then. So thank you for your time, sir. We'll catch you Thursday.

Football. See you guys.