Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Final thoughts before Eagles-Vikings and the NFC is looking shaky after Week 2

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

Matthew Coller talks about how bad Justin Fields played against the Green Bay Packers and whether the Packers have resolved their Week 1 problems after Sunday Night Football. Plus notes on other relevant things to the Minnesota Vikings, including Jameis Winston's injury and performance against Tampa Bay and the Lions and Miami Dolphins' receivers dominating. And final thoughts before the Vikings play the Philadelphia Eagles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here. A full Sunday's action to break down. This is a rare treat for me that I spent all of Sunday just sitting on my couch, watching games, complaining about the fact that I kept having to watch promos for some new cop show and unfortunately had to watch Mac Jones against Mitch Trubisky, which I joked on Twitter was like Bobby Brister versus Scott Zolak because the local games did not have the Ravens and Dolphins. And everyone always asks, Hey, well, why don't you have red zone channel or why don't you have a, whatever it is,

the NFL package, like, uh, cause I'm usually gone on Sunday. So on these rare Sundays that I sit and watch football and I'm not at a stadium, um, I, you know, just watch whatever CBS and Fox put on and boy, did I really miss what happened in Miami with the Ravens. So I wrote down a bunch of things that are takeaways from the Sunday. A lot of them, of course, pertain to the Minnesota Vikings and then just a couple of other thoughts. Um, and, uh, you know, then we'll get to some fan questions pertaining to Vikings and Eagles. You're going to want to look for it on Tuesday morning. I'll have the reaction from Philadelphia flying out first thing Monday morning. We'll be in Philadelphia for the game.

Paul Hodowanek and I will have a podcast reaction right after. So if you are a super night owl, that thing will come out after the game. But more likely than not, you'll be listening to the recap on Tuesday morning. So I'm looking forward to that. And then Brian Murphy will be listening to the recap on Tuesday morning. So I'm looking forward to that. And then Brian Murphy will be on to break down the game, Jeremiah Searles in the coming days. And then we turn things right around and start talking about the Detroit Lions and everything else.

So it's going to be a bit of a hectic week here on the show, and I'm excited for it. Of course, if you want fans, fan questions answered, then go to purpleinsider.com, use the contact us and otherwise just send them to me on Twitter at Matthew Collar. And just a quick promo that still doing the Hot Routes show. I'm not exactly sure how I'm fitting this in with my travel schedule, but the Hot Routes show has its own podcast feed. It's spelled with a Z, Hot Routes with a Z at the end. And that's where I talk about the entire NFL. We do it once a week on Tuesday. This one might come out a little later on Tuesday when I get back from Philadelphia, but that's been fun to kind of look at the NFL as a whole in a unique

way. So make sure you go download and check out that as well. So let's get right into it. Some observations from today. First, the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins, two teams that are relevant to the Minnesota Vikings. These two teams have offenses. They have receivers. They've got players. Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddell both went for plus 170 today in the incredible comeback from Tua and the Miami Dolphins. And, you know, it just kind of speaks to a couple of things about And when you pay as much as they did for Tyreek Hill, this is what you're looking to get out of him, of course.

I mean, he's one of the most explosive players in the league. When the Vikings play the Dolphins, they better have a healthy secondary because that's going to be a very difficult matchup. And Detroit, Amon Ross St. Brown is turning into a superstar. He was the guy that caught the game winning pass last year to beat the Vikings in Detroit's first win of the season. And at the time it seemed like, well, this guy looks like there might be something there. And now he is really developing into a star Deandre Swift, another player who gave the Vikings some troubles, but now, I mean, even with some offensive linemen out, Detroit did a really good job on the offensive line playing a defense that clearly is not great though in Washington. I'm not ready to

say Detroit is the next great NFL offense, but you do have to take them seriously. And there's a point to be made about Tua and about Jared Goff is that neither one of these quarterbacks are Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen or Aaron Rodgers. They are not freaks. They don't have some crazy, insane arm strength or something like that, but they can beat you and they can have big days if the right circumstances come along. So I won't go on the rant about rookie quarterback contracts with Tua or rebuilds through tanking in Detroit with Jared Goff, but this is a completely different Detroit team that does need to be taken seriously after their offensive performances in the next two weeks.

So we talked about the schedule for the Vikings being a relatively easy quarterback schedule, but what about wide receiver schedule that matters? And it starts with AJ Brown, but then in a couple of weeks, I mean, right away you have Amon Ross, St. Brown. And then in a couple of weeks you end up with Jalen Waddell and Tyreek Hill. I mean, the Vikings secondary is really going to get tested throughout the weeks. Even New Orleans, who had a miserable performance from Jameis Winston, we'll get to that in a second, they've got some receivers as well. So there's going to be challenges here, except for Chicago, which just continues to not give Justin Fields a whole lot to work with. That game just ended as I'm recording and, you know, Chicago kind of

made it interesting. Maybe got screwed on a review at the goal line because the Packers played a little bit wonky. That team does not have a whole lot to contest with though, um, for against the Vikings secondary when they play. But you know, we'll, we'll get to that in a minute, that Sunday night football game, which was not a great watch. I would say, you know, when I get these rare opportunities to watch the games, I get really offended when I don't get great football. Um, but the Raiders and Cardinals ending may be made up for that. Uh, that was absolutely nuts at the end of that game. Um, so there were good games to watch and also Dallas and Cincinnati was a real battle. Uh, but anyway, the point just being that two teams that are coming up very soon on the

Viking schedule have unbelievably good wide receivers and how they handle AJ Brown might tell us a little bit more about how scary it's going to be when they go up against Amon Ross, St. Brown, and then the Miami receivers. Next thing on my list was Jameis Winston playing hurt. He has four fractures in his back and Jay Glazer reported that there's no risk of further injury despite having fractures in his back. Maybe there are doctors. I know there are, cause I've gotten messages before from doctors about injury stuff, uh, who can kind of explain to me how that's possible, but it doesn't seem like a great thing for Jameis Winston. And there were times in that game and some, you know,

times with him, it's hard to tell because he's kind of an interception machine, but it looked like there was no gas on the fastball for Jameis Winston. That defense is pretty legit for new Orleans and they have some receivers, but should they be playing Andy Dalton? If Jameis Winston is going to look like that when he's hurt, I wouldn't be super shocked if they end up having to change to Andy Dalton at some point. And the many attempts to talk about Jameis Winston as he's like some sort of underdog story during the broadcast, it's like, wow, he had this incredible

turnaround after being third on the depth chart and so forth. It's like, well, first this team has such a bad cap situation. They couldn't really afford an expensive quarterback. They didn't pay Jameis Winston hardly anything at all. At last year, Sean Payton tried to make him into kind of like a check down machine at times and tried to get him to play everything safe. And then today in a big game against Tampa Bay, he throws a couple of huge interceptions, including a pick six. I see nothing different about Jameis Winston. And it really makes me feel like as the Vikings go to London, they should be happy. If Jameis Winston is still playing at that point, Andy Dalton can have some games. He can lead a team. That's got a good situation, a good defense,

a decent offensive line, some good wide receivers. Jameis Winston just throws games away. And I think the Vikings should root for them to continue to play fractured back Jameis Winston after what we saw today. Just a quick thing. Trevor Lawrence is a guy that I'm really interested in watching because I could not have enjoyed his college career much more.

I just thought he was spectacular and super fun to watch in college. And last year, nobody had a worse situation. It's already historically incredibly difficult for rookies to step into the NFL and win right away. And this poor fella was given Urban Meyer in the most clueless coaching situation. I mean, I don't know if I want to say ever cause Lou Holtz once tried to coach in the NFL, but maybe ever.

And Trevor Lawrence just put up a great showing. And on the other side of that, if you go back to the off season, the Indianapolis Colts were one of the teams that inquired about Kirk cousins and they instead end up trading for Matt Ryan through two weeks. off season, the Indianapolis Colts were one of the teams that inquired about Kirk Cousins and they instead end up trading for Matt Ryan through two weeks. That does not look very good at all for them. And it actually looks great for Atlanta. Atlanta lost, but was plucky. And that's all you can really ask Marcus Mariota and Atlanta to be, they lost to the Los Angeles Rams, Atlanta doing that tear

down in full rebuild. If they had Matt Ryan with his contract at this moment, and they got those performances, they would feel pretty bad about themselves and where they stand. And instead Indianapolis, I mean, now it kind of looks like the Jaguars division. Houston is of course, Houston and Indianapolis just does not look like any sort of real foe. We will see on Monday night how Tennessee looks against Buffalo, but I think Tennessee is way down from even last year where they were. I don't know that they're a serious team. So it would be something for a quarterback to be drafted high. His team gets a good coach in, they add a bunch of players through free agency and then win a division. We have seen it a number of times,

haven't we? Tom Brady, I watched him play today and he is reportedly going to take Wednesdays off for the rest of the season. Now, I remember a few years ago, Gus Farratt told me that he, uh, when he joined the Vikings late in his career, Tavares was starting and the whole deal was that he was supposed to like help Tavares Jackson, uh, develop and just be the backup. And he ended up playing a bunch of games that year. I'm sure fans who are, um, historically inclined will recall how that thing worked out that Gus got benched late in the season they decided to play Tavares the playoff game he threw a pick to Asante Samuel yada yada yada but he had told me that part of his deal was that after games he got to fly home

and didn't have to show back up at the facility until Wednesday so he could be back with his family for half of the week when he was a backup quarterback. And I think that did have to change when he started, but it's not the craziest thing I've ever heard for Brady to play a game, fly back to LA, hang out and come back. But the way that he has looked and how banged up that team is, they didn't have Julio Jonesones chris godwin is a walking injury and this is why people get hesitant on contracts and guarantees and things like that because godwin you know he stays with tampa bay he's had these injury problems tom brady is either

going to pull a 2015 peyton manning where he just grinds his way and they play great defense under Tom Bull, Todd Bowles to get late, you know, deep into this season in a weekend FC and they win games and are competitive. He's either going to do that or he's just going to put the throttle down at some point and be great. And they're going to be a Superbowl contender. I don't know which it is because I didn't think that he looked very comfortable. I thought ginger was maybe the word that I would describe Tom Brady today and at least through two weeks. And there have been many times in which Tom Brady has been declared dead and then he has come back. And honestly, after seeing that picture of him at the podium, he kind of looked like he's

maybe coming back from the dead a little bit. I mean, the man is 45 years old, so you can understand why he would try to have this balance between being back home and, and trying to play. I don't know that it's going to work. And it seems like he's not really happy playing the game, but that will be a kind of developing situation throughout the year. Like, is this a 2010 Favre situation in a game that, you know, they got a win and they got a win last week. They start out two and oh, but you remember 2010 Favre, it just was not there. He had kind of retired and then came back. There is that feeling to it. I'm not saying Brady's washed. I would never say that. I'm just saying it doesn't look like the same Tom Brady,

like the same heart is in it, or there's the same juice to the fastball. Something is a little bit off there with Brady. And if Tampa Bay is not your lead dog in the NFC, I mean, the Rams certainly didn't look like it against Atlanta. They got way up and then let Atlanta come back. They didn't look like it in week one. So they don't look like the runaway team.

We'll talk about the Packers in a second, where the Packers played well, but still had a lot of problems. Dallas got a win with Cooper Rush. San Francisco, hear me out. After Trey Lance goes down, Jimmy Garoppolo plays great. Would it be the craziest thing? If San Francisco, a stack team that was in the NFC championship just last year and has won a lot with Jimmy Garoppolo ends up having this break with Trey Lance, which is awful for him.

You know, he gets this job, he's starting, he's their future franchise quarterback, and then he goes down and breaks his ankle and is out for the rest of the year. That team might be really good still under Jimmy Garoppolo, but when you look around at the NFC through two weeks, nobody is really impressing you, which kind of opens up the door for the Minnesota Vikings. Speaking of which, Arizona, in my notes, I just had Arizona and a thumbs down, and then they won the game. I mean, Arizona had, that was one of the most wacky and fun wins of the year.

The fumble at the end, one hand picking it up. Murphy runs it for a touchdown. It's like a really, really fun game. But Cliff Kingsbury at the beginning of this season, looks like he's just going to be asking Kyler Murray to play backyard football. The data came out on his two point conversion that he ran 84 yards all over the field before ending up getting that two point conversion. And then he comes through with an incredible throw at the end of that game. I think Kyler Murray is been let down by that team. He is a Supreme talent and you just don't feel like there's a lot of easy things given

to Kyler Murray, even when the Vikings played them last year and the Vikings will play them again. I believe it's coming out of the bi-. So they'll have some extra preparation. Deandre Hopkins might be the difference maker there. He will be back by the time the Vikings play Arizona, but supremely unimpressed by Arizona. I don't think that Cliff Kingsbury has really improved as a coach. And you're still writing that down as a game that you feel like the Vikings should win. I know it's a little farther down the road, but Arizona just does not look like a real contending team as crazy as the way they won was.

And they get a win in the standings, but that's not really sustainable to get down that much to the Raiders and then have to come back. Also Raiders and then have to come back. Also Raiders. Really? Uh, what is going on with Nate Hackett and Russell Wilson? I mean, another day where it was just wacky decisions, Russell Wilson, not looking like himself. And I've got a comparison and I've run it past a few people and nobody has really shot me down on this. Okay. So go back to 2012. I think it would know 2013 or 2014, 2014 where Russell Wilson gets them to a championship. Right. And they have one of the best overall teams. Uh, and I'm just going to look this up real quick.

And one of the best, uh, overall teams, I mean, maybe to like ever be real quick. One of the best overall teams. I mean, maybe to like ever be put out on a field. I mean, they're just incredible. Top 10 offense, number one defense. Wilson is all over the place. I mean, just phenomenal talent, right? And Russell Wilson plays fairly conservatively as a passer that year, but was an incredible runner. He ran for 849 yards

in 2014 when they won the Super Bowl. And this year he doesn't look like he wants to run at all. And I think if Russell Wilson isn't running, he's like Kirk Cousins. If he's not escaping, if he's not making plays, if he's sitting in the pocket, if he's throwing check down, so he's not getting hit. If he's not doing amazing things like he did for the majority of his career, and he's not adding five to 800 yards and several touchdowns on the ground, He's just a guy who can really throw an amazing deep ball and has a great arm, but now he doesn't have Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf and Jerry Judy's hurt and also may not be great. Like if he's not given the situation, I mean, this might, it might be like a Kirk 2017 thing when Washington lost their receivers and had some injuries. It

just wasn't good. That's kind of old and immobile. Russell Wilson, there are limitations to where he could throw the football because he's not that big. I mean, he still has a stronger arm, but there's a lot of similarities there, I think. And when the Broncos trade for him, we kind of just assume like, oh, well, that's old Russell Wilson. That's the superstar. And it does not look that way at all through two weeks. And it is only through two weeks. But this is a sound the alarm type of two weeks for the Denver Broncos.

And if they traded for Wilson and gave him that contract and Seattle is able to not be great and rebuild, sorry to all the Gino Smith fans, he's not good. Uh, but if they win like five games and they draft top five overall, and they're able to get one of these top quarterbacks, uh, I know Anthony Richardson for Florida didn't play very well again, but there's others. Will Levis from Kentucky, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young. There's others at the top of the draft that are supposed to be very good. If Seattle ends up landing one of those guys, they will have done the right thing, just like Atlanta moving on from Matt Ryan. That's kind of how it looks right now is that Seattle picked the right time to move on from Russell Ryan. That's kind of how it looks right now is that Seattle picked the right time to move

on from Russell Wilson. And also maybe there was something to the fact everyone wanted to let Russ cook mean, let, you know, let him throw all the time, lean into Russell Wilson, as we've talked about with cousins, but maybe there was a good reason why they like to run a lot of play action and try to hit those deep shots rather than putting it all on Russell Wilson. Uh, so that is a situation to watch because it could end up looking like a total disaster there for the commitment they gave, how much they gave up for Russell Wilson. And also the coach who just seems entirely lost. And Hey, look, he was the offensive coordinator for Aaron Rogers. I'm just saying

Aaron has a tendency to make people look pretty good. Sometimes, uh, speaking of which Aaron Rogers did look good. He did not look incredible. And there were some very strange plays. I mean, there was a, a fumble on a routine handoff. There was a fumble on a snap that hit a rookie wide receiver. So there were still these things where Aaron Rodgers looked very flustered or upset at his teammates and so forth, but the perfect get right opponent for Aaron Rodgers. And he finishes the game 19 for 25, two 34, a one 31 quarterback rating. And they ran for 200 yards i mean sammy watkins showed up with a big catch yeah i mean if you thought that nobody thought this right like nobody thought that green bay was just gonna go oh and 17 or 5 and 12 or something no one thought that no one thought

rogers was gonna quit and stop playing but i don't think that this game tells you a whole heck of a lot about Aaron Rogers and about what this Packers offense can do against good teams. But the thing about green Bay's upcoming schedule is they have a lot of winnable games on their upcoming schedule. Uh, and a couple where I think Buffalo's coming up for them. There's a couple they'll be tested, but, uh, if they ever needed an opponent to just beat the tar out of, to make them feel confident, yeah, they got it. And also getting an offensive lineman back in Elgin Jenkins was big for the Packers. So they have not disappeared out of your lives, Minnesota Vikings fans.

But I have to say that Justin Fields going seven for 11 for 70 yards is one of the most bizarre and baffling things I have ever seen. He threw 11 passes. I mean, I I'm like reloading the box score just to make sure that's right. That he only threw 11 passes for 70 yards in this football game. He got a win in week one in tremendously crazy weather circumstances, but that means they don't trust him in any way, shape, or form. And David Montgomery was running great, but Justin Fields in this game had a 43 quarterback rating and threw 11 passes. I mean, that's what you would expect

from Kyle Orton back in the day when Dick Jaron was coaching, is somebody to go seven for 11 with 70 yards passing. I mean, panic button? Like, yes, yes. Panic, panic button. They play a good team and he throws 11 passes. Like that's how much they believe in Justin Fields at this point. Um, I don't know how it will play out through the season, but they threw one pass to Darnell Mooney for minus four yards. What? I just, I mean, you look around the league, Brian Dable looks like a pretty good coach. Kevin O'Connell has done well in his first week

and throughout his first training camp, but Nate Hackett, Matt Eberflus, not looking great as far as new coaches go. And you talk about the quarterback class. If Justin Fields has a year like this, it's got to be thrown into that Sam Darnold category of like, look, you can't draft a guard or something. You can't draft an offensive lineman. You have to draft a quarterback if you're Chicago, if it continues to look this way. And if Fields had been promising last year, then you would have been able to say, all right, well, this team is just so terrible. But just like with Darnold, that excuse got made over and over and over again. Okay. That's fine.

Lots of people play for terrible teams like Joe Burrow, not a great start for the Bengals, but Joe Burrow played for a terrible team in Cincinnati as a rookie. And he still like had games where he was good and put up big yards. He didn't go seven for 11 with 70 yards. They just have no answers and fields is not making it better. And he's not earning their trust and, uh, how this season plays out with him will impact the Vikings, but not a good look for Justin Fields for his first couple of games of the season. And, you know, we'll see if they make excuses because it's a new group and I don't think they will. I think they're evaluating him this year to look at, do we need to draft a quarterback

next season? Because he doesn't belong to them. And Darnold is the cautionary tale of the big time throw guy. Oh, he makes like this great throw or this great play from time to time. Right. But the great quarterbacks make good throws all the time. And then great throws sometimes not terrible half the time. And then good half the time. That's not how it usually works. Otherwise Jameis Winston would be the best quarterback in the league. So there's your kind of rundown. I mean, there's other things we could discuss, but things that I thought were pertinent to the Minnesota Vikings, um, you know, that teams that are coming up or on their schedule or just, you know, some random observations. So let us get to your questions about Monday night's game. And then we'll look forward to taking off to Philadelphia, seeing their airport, the stadium, the hotel,

the airport, and then back here. I was talking to Adam Thielen the other day about just how like, sometimes it's just a business trip and that's kind of what we have going on here. I would love to see downtown Philadelphia, but it's a really far way and that's kind of what we have going on here. I would love to see downtown Philadelphia, but it's a really far way away from the stadium. If you, if any of you travel to these games, you know, kind of what I'm talking about, where sometimes the stadium is right in the middle of downtown and it's awesome. And you go and you can like plan something and see something beforehand or when you arrive, or you plan your trip to get there a day early, but I don't really want to go to Philadelphia to the airport, travel all the

way downtown, travel all the way back to the stadium. Okay. You guys don't care about that, but it's, it's a, it is a purely business trip and we'll have the content for you back here on Tuesday. So let's get to your fan questions beforehand and make sure that you are absolutely ready for this football contest. This comes from ConTK421. As well as the Vikings played, it seemed like the front seven was susceptible to the run and short passing attacks.

Is that an accurate perception? How much should fans be concerned about it? I think that this game against Philadelphia is a great test for that because, I mean, Green Bay, and again, they showed it against Chicago. Green Bay is a phenomenal running team and so is Philadelphia. So it wouldn't surprise me if two of the best running teams in the NFL had success against the Vikings.

It's also part of what the Vikings want to be is a team that says, we're going to play our two deep safeties. We're going to mess with your quarterback, and then we're going to survive on the run. And then they gave up, I believe it was four runs over 10 yards, which is too many. I think actually it might've been five, including the end around to Romeo dubs. So if they give up five runs over 10 yards, well, that's not going to work out in any way. But I also feel like part of it was, and this happened in Chicago tonight where David Montgomery averages eight yards a carry. But when you're playing from behind and you're handing off against the defense that plays two deep safeties,

you're going to get yards, but those are yards that the defense would happily allow you to have. Sure. Here's a, you know, a seven yard run, a nine yard run. Go ahead because the clock is getting run out on you. And I think that's what happened a lot with Vikings Packers. They were down. They had a drive where they had three big runs for AJ Dillon and the Romeo dubs and around. I can't say definitively that it should be a huge concern because on paper, it should be pretty good. Like Jordan Hicks is kind of a tough linebacker. Eric Hendricks, I think is dependent on who's in front of him. Harrison Phillips and Delvin Tomlinson. These are really good proven run stuffers. The one area where I would say

is a little bit of a concern is that both Tomlinson and Harrison Phillips played under 40 snaps in that game. It might've been game situation, throwing a lot, take those guys out, bring in the situational rushers. But if they are kind of committing to this rotation, because there were times in that game where they rotated in James Lynch, Patrick Jones, so forth, Jonathan Bullard, I think you're going to have some problems stopping the run when those guys are in. So yeah, I mean, I think that it's definitely something that you have to kind of decide what are you going to give up? What are you going to protect? Do you want to Island Patrick Peterson or Cam Dantzler? Probably not. You want to give or Shannon Sullivan, you want to give support to your corners. So that means giving up something

in the run against Philly. It could be problematic. And so there's a lot of weight on the shoulders of the defensive tackles. If they slow down the run against Philly, they will win this game more likely than not. That is Philly's bread and butter. They led the league last year. They led the league after one week. That is what they do. It's kind of on those defensive linemen, especially in the interior to slow that down. But with Jalen Hurts, I mean, he's going to be able to break out from time to time and run himself because he's really a great running quarterback. But as far as on the ground, Miles Sanders was also extremely successful. And this is a great

offensive line in Philly for run blocking. So I think it's a great test for them to find out, is it a concern or not? Because what week two of the NFL did tell us as it always does is, Hey, some of the things that you saw from week one might've been a mirage. So maybe it was, maybe it was a mirage based on game situation, or maybe there might be something there to be concerned about. I'm not certain of that yet, but against this team, they will be tested big time. And I think we'll have mostly an answer after this week of, of whether it's a concern or whether, you know, that was just one week against the Packers where they didn't stop the run very well. Next question comes from Skulltoast18.

What's something you'll be watching for in Vikings-Eagles to show you this team is truly an NFC contender? Well, I think looking at the NFC, if you put jerseys on and tie your shoes correctly, you are kind of an NFC contender. I mean, go through the teams. Like, who is it that's running away with the NFC where you're saying, Oh no, no, I couldn't play with them at all. I mean, this is going to be as wide open, at least how it looks right now, as wide open as it has been in a conference, AFC or NFC, in quite a long time.

That's how it looks as of this moment. As far as what I would need to see, there isn't really anything in a single game that this early in the season where I would walk out of Philadelphia, they could win 45 to nothing. And I would not walk out of Philadelphia and say, this team is a Superbowl contender because they won in week two. There have just been too many times throughout Vikings history where they have started off really hot, had some great games,

come back to the pack, injuries happen, randomness, luck, all those things throughout a very long season. But what I would say is if we're talking about the most encouraging signs, I mean, number one is going on the road to a place like Philly. I wrote about this a little bit that home field advantage has kind of washed away in the NFL, but Philadelphia is a place on Monday night football where you could make a case and it's Kevin O'Connell's first road game. It's Kirk Cousins on Monday night football. Kirk Cousins confidence matters to this a little bit, not a ton because he's been good in Philly and he's been good at other times in his career and then drifted back. But certainly how Kirk

Cousins handles himself in this situation, how the communication works, how Kevin O'Connell handles the game situations that come up. There were basically no game situations that Kevin O'Connell was asked to make a decision against green Bay. There was one time where they kicked a field goal instead of going for it, where I thought, man, maybe they could have gone for it, but it just didn't matter. They might get tested in this game if it's close. The secondary will get tested in this game. That might be the biggest thing that I'm looking for is how they perform against A.J.

Brown will matter a lot to me. If AJ Brown goes for 150 yards on 10 catches, I'm going to look forward in the schedule and say, they've got some good receivers on this schedule that they are going to struggle to stop. And if they do really well against AJ Brown, then I think my assumption would be that Ed Donateel was able to scheme really well because there's nobody that's Jalen Ramsey that can shut down AJ Brown one-on-one. So you have to do it as a family back there as the secondary and the front and confuse the quarterback and all those things. My confidence in Ed Donatel could be much higher after this game because I think Philadelphia

has on the whole a very good offense and now a passing game with AJ Brown that's worth being concerned about with him. I mean, he had the second most yards in the NFL in week one and number one was Justin Jefferson. That's that that is the biggest thing. The offense, I think, is mostly predictable. Mostly predictable. Like, as of right now, I would say that there are going to be days like it was against the Packers where Justin Jefferson is open all day,

Kirk Cousins is on point, and he's sharp. And there will be other times where there are stretches throughout a game that they go cold and they score three points and a half, and the fans are frustrated what's going on with him checking down to Johnny Munt or something right uh but in those moments over the last two years the defense let them down many many times and if this defense doesn't let them down when there are those moments, then you're talking about a playoff team because the only teams that are just scoring constantly all the time are the top five offenses. And I'm not quite there to say that I think this team could be a top five offense. Like I was impressed. I was impressed. But I don't know if I want to quite go that far. I do think, and this could be quickly old takes exposed, that they match up pretty well against the defensive scheme of the Eagles.

So that could be a good sign. But I wouldn't be ready to go super far on the offensive side or super far on a big picture, but I could be convinced more so about what the defense can end up being throughout this season. And if it's a good defense and you're, you know, winning 10 or 11 games in this NFC, you could be a contender. Uh, this comes from shield. Brian on Twitter is Lewis seen spying on Jalen hurts, plausible given scenes speed. I would be very surprised if we see a ton of Lewis Scene in this game.

I think they're going to play their guys. They're going to play Cam Bynum. They're going to play the starting defense. I don't know if three safeties is a thing, and I don't think that Lewis Scene is the guy to do something like that. He is fast, but there's just a difference between being fast and playing fast at the NFL level. And he was fast in college. And this is just how different the game is. Like in college, he's blazing fast. He's coming downhill. He's blowing people up. He was decisive in everything

he did. Everything is so much simpler in college and he was playing one of the best defenses ever. This is, I think an adjustment. Maybe it shouldn't have been as big of an adjustment as it is, but it's definitely an adjustment. I don't think you for, for a role that's really important in this big game against an NFC opponent that could be there with you at the end fighting for playoff position that you want to say, Hey rookie, who couldn't get first team reps during training camp, go out there and spy, you know, the best running quarterback in the league, not named Lamar Jackson. Like, I don't think that's a, a super wise thing to do. I don't

hate the idea and I see where you're coming from. It's just that I, unless someone gets hurt, my guess is at least as of right now, you will not see Lewis seen playing a ton. They may mix in some three safety, depending on the situation, but Cam Bynum is just a better NFL player at this point. That can change.

Usually though, when you get out of training camp, it has been my experience that not a lot does change. Like last year we got out of camp and there was talk of like, Hey, should they try Wyatt Davis at right guard? It's like, well,

if they wouldn't put Wyatt Davis on the second team during camp, that's not likely to change during the season. Once you get to the middle of the season, it is entirely about game planning, how you're beating the next team. You are not developing young players. You've made your decisions on those players during camp. And now it's go time. Uh, go time probably includes combine him. That could change. If he struggles, that that could change if something in practice means they're really impressed with scene. And,

and I'll be counting how many, how many snaps he gets. I think it will be telling how many snaps he gets on defense. If the answer is what I suspect it might be, which is not very many, then that's what his role is likely to be throughout the season. Um, unless there's an injury, uh, if they were to do that, that would be a great call on your part. Uh, it would just surprise me if they did, because if you're going to spy with someone, it's more likely going to be

a linebacker and, uh, Eric Hendricks. Uh, all right. But you know, Hey, it's a, it's a new defensive system and I don't know it outside of one game. So maybe Ed Donatel will surprise us. This from Vikings Couch. What is the more important key to victory? Kirk Cousins keeping the offense on the field and the Eagles offense off the field or Vikings linebackers proving themselves against the Eagles run game. Yeah. I think that, uh, the idea of like time of possession is probably not that important in the NFL. Uh, I mean, I don't know if it's that important in college. Usually teams just blow each other out all the time in college, keeping the other team off the field, but also you're trying to hit big strikes, right? Like you're trying to score.

You're not trying to like play always up-tempo and scores quickly every time, but you're trying to hit explosive plays in this offense. They send receivers down the field. You have Delvin Cook in the backfield who comes up with big runs. I don't know if there's any emphasis whatsoever on, on trying to like keep Jalen hurts off the field. Every possession is just trying to get big plays and score a touchdown. Um, so more, more than that is how many explosive plays can they get? How many times is Kirk cousins pressured up the middle? That is number one for me. And can the Vikings run at all? Because I don't think that this is established the run. I think it's, you have to show people you can run the worst that Kirk Cousins has been in years past is usually when the other team completely takes Delvin cook out

and can use a lot of different coverages and their defensive line dominates. This defensive line has the talent to dominate the Vikings interior offensive line. If the Vikings don't have an answer, if they do that, well, they won't be keeping the Eagles off the field on offense because they'll be punting all the time and they won't be hitting on explosive plays because cousins will be under pressure. And we've kind of seen that story play out. That's the one big concern about Philadelphia and how they handle that will be again, another test of Kevin O'Connell game planning. They had an extra day to game plan for this defense. It's been the Achilles heel of the Vikings in years past. Can they make that different against this defensive line? And as far as the linebackers being tested against the run,

I think that it's much more like linebackers kind of clean up for the defensive line. So if you have the defensive line causing a lot of issues for the opposing offensive line, stuffing gaps, then you can have somebody like Eric Hendricks or Jordan Hicks shoot in and make a tackle linebackers being conflated with shutting down the run game seems a little bit like Ray Lewis or early two thousands ish, or, uh, you know, counting Dequell Jackson's tackle numbers or London Fletcher's. I'm not sure those were ever really good metrics to decide, or if those were really the guys who are shutting down the run game, there have to be guys who are better than others at stopping the run.

It's just for this particular defense. I think it really starts with the defensive line. Okay. Last question here. Okay. Actually we'll get in, we'll get in a couple more, um, two more. This from, uh, let's see Hank Seth on Twitter, which team will Randall Cunningham root for? It has to be the Vikings, right? It has to be. I know that he had a big portion of his career

in Philadelphia, but the way that things went at the end with Philadelphia and Randall Cunningham, the Vikings brought him back and not only brought him back into the league, but allowed him to prove that he was a great thrower that Randall Cunningham, it was always, Oh, you know, it's Lamar Jackson deals with some of this stuff. It's, Oh, you know, he's a running quarterback. He's not a good enough thrower. That's why he doesn't win in the playoffs and this and that. And the other thing, right. These kind of, I don't know. I think that there are, there, there is something to a great defense being able to stop a running quarterback. I think there's something to that,

but I also look at the way Lamar Jackson has thrown the ball throughout his career and say, that looks like a pretty good thrower of the football to me, not somebody that you should have asked if he should play wide receiver. And Randall Cunningham, when he played for the Eagles, was also a great thrower who largely played in a ridiculous Buddy Ryan offense. And then when he had an updated offense, I think, what was it, Rich Kotite later on? Was that who it was? Later on, they updated the offense a bit.

Cunningham put up better stats. It kind of went that way with Cam Newton too, that he was asked to stand back there all the time run around do all these crazy things to win when maybe he needed some simpler throws and of course with Randall Cunningham he was throwing to a couple decent wide receivers but not Randy Moss and Chris Carter so he got this opportunity to come back he won a playoff game the first year, a crazy one in 97, and then took him to the NFC championship. One of the best seasons ever, throwing the football by a quarterback,

like a cool, cool redemption story for Randall Cunningham. One of my favorites. And so I think he's going to root for the Vikings, but I really don't know. Every once in a while he shows up, somebody calls him. So maybe someone will call him uh all right last one from at rat trapping on twitter uh since witnessing the week one win firsthand this team might be truly special i've seen some good vikings teams up close and the buzz around this team hasn't felt like this since 2017 where is the line you draw between saying this team has the potential to

be special and to actually crossing that line? Um, I mean, do you mean like to proving that they're actually special or like, as far as hype machine goes, the way I look at it is this, they have some very favorable circumstances and they have a lot of things going for them. And I'll just say it over and over health is number one. They are very healthy heading into Philadelphia that could change in an eye blink. And the minute they're not healthy, they're not a good football team. If they are to lose three or four starters, they're not good anymore. So it can change really fast because the backups on this team are just not great. I mean, with Andrew Booth Jr. out for

this game, the next man up is a Caleb Evans and someday a Caleb Evans might be awesome. That day's probably not today. Like rookie corners usually get torched and fourth round rookie corners usually get really torched. Um, so, so things can change very fast within a season. And I guess I'm, I'm always very hesitant to say this team is special. It was in 2017, as far as crossing that line to say that was when they beat the Rams 24 to seven at home. And Mike Zimmer schemed the heck out of the number one offense in the NFL at that time and completely shut down the Los Angeles Rams in that game. And that's when I felt like, yeah, this team is really good. I, and then they went down to

Atlanta and had a great defensive performance against the good Atlanta team as well. Uh, but that one in Los Angeles or against Los Angeles at us bankS. Bank Stadium. That was midway plus into the season. That's how long it would take me for this. Because if they win this game, they beat Detroit, they beat New Orleans. I mean, they could be 4-0, very reasonably 4-0. Coming back to play Chicago, I mean, right? Like, you could talk yourself into that pretty easily, that they could go on a run to start the season.

But that doesn't mean that the season's over at that point. There's a lot to prove here because I think this team still has weaknesses, but they have a lot going for them. They have an offense that's modern and exciting. They have a superstar receiver who's unstoppable. They have at least as of this moment, a vibe around the team that is very energetic, very enthusiastic, very seeming to support one another, which was a part of 2017. Mike Zimmer was always cantankerous. He was always frustrating for the players, I think at times.

And nobody liked the fact that he was kind of like trashing Case Keenum, saying that he was throwing too many interceptable passes, which actually by the numbers wasn't even true and so forth. Um, but for the most part, like that team had an incredible locker room. They galvanized around each other. And that was, it was something that was special that year, especially on the defense. If we see that same effect throughout this year, then yeah, we'll start to say it at some point. We're a far way away from that. It's week one. Now we're going into week two. If they beat Philadelphia, that is a pretty significant step toward that because it would be a road victory, hostile environment, Monday night football, kind of a bit of a prove it game.

As far as are you for real type of situation? Uh, if they come out with a big loss, I'm not going to say the season's over. Like it's just what we're supposed to do is overreact to everything we just saw. I try to fight against that a little bit while also reacting to what we just saw. It's a delicate type of thing, but, um, yeah, we're, we're a ways away from saying this is special, but it's not the craziest thing to say that the stars are aligning a little bit for the Vikings early on, especially with their schedule. So great stuff. Great questions. Thanks all for listening and look forward to, uh, tomorrow morning. You will wake up with a Christmas gift. It will be a podcast

breaking down Vikings and Eagles. I can't wait. I'll see you guys from Philly.