Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Giants analyst Dan Schneier thinks the Vikings will get the best version of the Giants

Episode Date: January 12, 2023

Matthew Coller gets together with Dan Schneier of the Big Blue Banter podcast to talk about how Daniel Jones' playing style has changed vastly over season under Brain Daboll, how the matchups in the trenches will probably determine this game and whether Saquon Barkley is as dangerous now as he was earlier in the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Purple Insider is presented by Liquid Death, delicious water that's bringing death to plastic. Learn more at liquiddeath.com slash insider. Hello, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here joining me on the show for the perspective of the G-Men. Dan Schneier, he is the host of the Big Blue Banter Giants podcast on the Blue Wire Network. So a couple of Blue Wire bros getting together here to talk ball. What is going on, Dan? How are you? Good, Matthew. Thank you so much for having me.

I'm really excited about this upcoming matchup it's cool because we already got to see these teams play the season and it was a last second 61 yard field goal to decide the game so now it's going to be exciting to see what happens in the second matchup what was your life like the last time the giants were a relevant football team yeah so it's 2016 i was working for 24, seven sports actually covering the giants. So it was a totally different perspective. You know, when you cover them day in and day out for like a website and you're writing, you're doing just constant content versus the podcast, but it's a very different feel. I think because in that season, despite the fact that it was a first

year head coach, that team really didn't have much hope on one side of the ball on the offensive side of the ball is basically can Odo Beckham jr. catch a slant and take it to the house. If not, there's no offense in that game. And this team has had moments of that earlier this season, but now we're starting to see, at least in these last three or four weeks, the Giants actually started to get some offense going in addition to their defense. So it's a different team. This is more balanced. That team was more led by the the defense so were you on the boats with the receivers or that's what i remember that season for is just yes how are they actually in the playoffs and then the fact that people would not let it go about the boat when i'm just going to

go ahead and say i think it was just not that good of a football team i don't think it was the boat no i think you're right i don't think it was the boat either it was an interesting coincidence that that happened but yeah i wasn't on the boat i No, I think you're right. I don't think it was the boat either. It was an interesting coincidence that that happened. But yeah, I wasn't on the boat. I was sitting in cold ass New Jersey over there. So no boat for me. Yeah. If we're going to talk about, I mean, two teams here connected by boat scandals, really

is what the that's a law. That's a long one. That's a reference for the older fans to the Vikings. Well, scan boat scandals actually pretty funny. I heard Fred Smoot. I think it was once talk about that situation on a podcast i think was part of my take you went into some serious detail and i was like okay wow that happened oh it happened and uh look don't have the kids around if you look up the wikipedia because there's a lot of details about what was

going on in that boat so yeah i guess I didn't think of that. It's the connection that the mainstream doesn't want to talk about. It's two teams connected by boat scandals. But anyway, beyond that, in 2016, I was just moving to Minnesota to work at the local ESPN radio affiliate to start covering the Vikings.

So it has been a long time. But even then, since I started Purple Insider, which was just after the pandemic started, the Vikings have not been in the playoffs either. So, but I do think there's a difference there, which is, I mean, these two teams have been through some stuff to get here, but it feels more, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, it feels more like the Giants are the we're happy to be here where the Vikings looking at the age of their roster it's you really have to go somewhere with this and then of course 13 versus 9 wins but um am I wrong in my characterization of this game for them well it depends who you ask I think if you ask the Giants players and the Giants coaches staff

they're not just happy to be here they believe that their team is ready to make a run. And I think there's some reason to believe that this team is a lot better than the team that has been there the entire season. They're clicking in a way on offense that they just haven't simply clicked on all season. It's not like there wasn't good moments in the offense earlier season, but all of those were led by the run game. And all of those were led by what Nick and I, my podcast co-hosts like to call smoke and mirrors offense it was a lot of get under center put two or three tight ends on the field sometimes use an extra offensive lineman run play action and then bootleg the quarterback daniel jones and give him a two-way option a run or a pass and that could only work for so long teams caught on to that they adjusted to it and since then the giants have adjusted to teams catching on to and

adjusting that and now they've turned the keys over to a totally different kind of offense. And there's only three games, really a film, one of them against the Vikings that opposing defensive coordinators at Donatello this week will have to work with as the new offense. The new offense is heavy 11 personnel, almost 89%. And that means three receivers on the field instead of what the Giants had, which is two tight ends, three tight ends, a lot of shotgun, let the offense run through Daniel Jones. The offense had been running through Saquon Barkley for most of the season, but it's been a lot of shotgun, let the offense run through Daniel Jones. The offense had been running through Saquon Barkley for most of the season, but it's been a lot better since they started letting it run through Daniel

Jones. So I think with that change in mind, there is a lot more optimism. Do you understand how many teams quarterbacks or offenses got their confidence by playing the Minnesota Vikings this year? It's like Justin Fields in that game discovered that he could run. And I'm not kidding. He hadn't really done it before that. And then all of a sudden it was like, oh yeah, the Vikings showed me I could do it. And it felt that way. Well, Mac Jones, for sure.

Mac Jones regrets every single game he played except against the Vikings. And Daniel Jones looked fantastic during that game. And when you were describing the offense from early in the season, I was like, wait, that wasn't what I saw at all. I saw shotgun four or five wide receivers out there, depending on where Saquon Barkley was. That's such an interesting change to make mid season for your identity. And also the thing about Daniel Jones.

And I think that what we've really seen here over the years is how you coach it matters so much. I mean, how you coach Kirk Cousins matters so much to whether he's putting up tons of yards and you're running it through him, or if he's more of a bootleg quarterback, like these things impact people. Daniel Jones went from a turnover machine to Alex Smith, like just protecting the football, not turning it over. He's running for 700 yards, despite the fact that he only was like a four, eight quarterback coming out of college and no one thought he was really a runner. Like this has been such a strange and kind of crazy transition from what we thought we

knew about Daniel Jones to what he is now. It's in a lot of ways, unprecedented. If you look at across the NFL now, not to say there's no examples of this, but there are very few examples of a quarterback in year four, having such a major, like jump in his game. There's already been three years. Like you can sometimes see it in year two. And then it's like, all right, like even Trevor Lawrence, for example, he had horrible coaching

in year one. We all knew he had amazing talent in year two. He breaks out with good coaching. Fine. It's year two, but year four, by that point, usually these quarterbacks are either are basically done. You know, there's, it's very unlikely they change. People say, well, what about Gino simple? Gino Smith didn't get three straight years, the first three years of his career to actually give it a go. He wasn't really starting for, for, I think after a second year. So it's a very unique situation and it

really makes you reconsider everything you might think of when it comes to when to give up on these quarterback prospects you draft or how long should you hold on to them because you never know maybe you do find the right coach you can maximize his skillset maybe you do find the right coach you can in a lot of ways minimize the things that he doesn't do well and that's one of the biggest things that happened here with daniel jones brian dable took away his biggest weakness by far his biggest weakness to any Giants fan. You know, you can watch the film. You can not watch the film. You still would have seen these the first three years is when he used to drop back in the pocket, he would predetermine where to go with the football. And when it wasn't available in the first window, he would just

sit on it and look and look and look and try. And hopefully what in his mind, he was waiting for that to get open in the second window. What would happen? Well, the past production would break down. He'd get sacked. He'd fumble or the throw would be late. It would get tipped in the second window. What would happen? Well, the pass production would break down. He'd get sacked. He'd fumble, or the throw would be late. It would get tipped in the air. We get intercepted. And Brian Dable said,

we're not going to do that anymore. What we're going to do here is if you don't like what you see there, look right ahead of you. And if that big app is open and they're not respecting you as a runner, just run the ball. And what have we seen this season? Well, teams that have had quarterbacks who do that.

And that's, those are considered scrambles, right? Plays where you drop back to pass, but you opt not to pass and you run it's not a design run it's a scramble on scramble plays and this was from earlier this season so this data may not be consistent right now but through week i believe it was seven and shout out to ben solak who put together this content on those plays on scramble plays where the quarterback decided to run there was an epa expected points added of over five was 0.505 i believe and on regular dropbacks the epa is 0.212 when quarterbacks decide to not run the ball so you're getting almost double the expected more than double the expected points added almost triple on these design play or on these scramble plays and that's

something brian dable did to really help daniel Jones's game. It's been remarkable how much value he's been able to add. And I can call this up on the ESPN QBR also includes like the running expected points added for the season total. And Daniel Jones is fourth in the NFL. I mean, who would have ever guessed this? I mean, not just because it's like, oh, he's more athletic than you think every broadcast says, but he really did not run outside of the time that he ran real fast and tripped. I mean, this is the only guys better than him in terms of running EPA are Justin Fields, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts. I mean, that is remarkable. And not only that, but when I look at his PFF grades as a passer,

one of the things that stands out to me is that they are not spectacular, but they are also not terrible. Like there's very few weeks where he actually ends up with a bad passing grade week eight, week 12. But other than that, almost every single week from the beginning of the year, from those first couple of weeks has been at least average. So you kind of add these things together.

And I don't know if Daniel Jones is a long-term quarterback to tell you the truth for this podcast purposes, who cares? They're playing each other in the playoffs, but I mean, he's pretty good, like pretty good from what you look at on paper when you add that element. And he did run effectively against the Vikings. If you remember the game tying drive, I think he had an eight yard run that set them up for the Saquon Barkley touchdown. Like he caused them some problems when he was able to run the ball. I think going into this game, you would probably say that he's a top what 15 quarterback in the league overall, and certainly nowhere near the worst quarterback in the playoffs. Yeah. I mean, that's the fact of the matter. Look, you can lean on some pre-draft evaluation you

can lean on what he was in the first three years when he had different situation but as far as this year goes you can't sit here and name 10 to 15 quarterbacks who have been better than him on in actual you know production from that standpoint like you could say what you want about oh this guy will be better than him long term for this reason. And those are fair arguments to make. You can make those cases. That's fine. Go ahead. But as far as what he's put on film this season, he's been one of the 10 or 15 best quarterbacks in the NFL.

And like you said, definitely not the worst quarterback in the playoffs. Do you like the Alex Smith comparison? I was very proud of that one. I know Alex Smith is like the go-to mediocre quarterback guy, but I really think he's playing like him with the lack of turnovers and protecting the football. And actually the game against the Vikings where they turned the ball over twice was kind of an outlier for this Giants team. I mean, even him throwing an interception, it was one of only five all year. And it's not a team that's fumbled a whole lot easier, but I don't know if I could think of anyone better in terms of like protecting the

ball, but also adding a running element to it. Yeah, I would say it's a pretty good comparison as far as what Daniel Jones has been this season. I think all Giants fans, if the Giants do make the decision to resign him, are hoping that eventually he can be something different with better talent around him. But as far as what he's done this season, you're right. I mean, if you look at the passing spray chart, almost every single attempt he's thrown has been between one and 20 yards. That's very Alex Smith-esque, right? There's been some deep shots, but not

compared to the rest of the league. Almost everything is between that one and 20 range. And I think he's added more value rushing than Smith ever has at any point in his career. To be honest, I think he's a much, much better rusher than Smith, but you know, now we're nitpicking here. We don't need to nitpick through the point. It's a pretty good comparison. And as you mentioned with the interceptions and with the turnovers, well, guess what? The giants are actually have the best interception rate in the NFL. They've only, they think they're first in the NFL. 1.1% of all attempted passes by the giants have been intercept. That's an insanely low number on offense. There's been one fumble loss. It was Jones on a design keeper against

Washington a couple of weeks ago, but Barkley zero fumbles loss. So this is not a team that turns the ball over on offense. I do want to give Alex Smith a little bit of his credit for his running. So I'm looking this up right now. Yeah. I felt like he did. Yeah. So he ever get to 700 though.

He did. He did not get to 700, but he did have a year where he gets a 498. That's pretty good. I didn't know he got nearly 500 yards rushing in a year. That's pretty good. Yeah. There's maybe there's a little like Ryan Tannehill to it, but I feel like Tannehill has a bigger arm and goes downfield more often. And just to, you know, overstate your point, 4.9 percent of passes thrown over 20 yards in the air.

Like this man is not putting the ball downfield really at all, which, again, is kind of Alex Smith ask or when the Vikings had Teddy Bridgewater, it was kind of like this as well, where everything kind of had to be underneath. And I wonder how much you think that has to do with just who the receivers are, because when, I'll admit, when the Giants came to town to play the Vikings, I looked at the receivers and I was like, nope, don't know a single one of these people. I mean, I had seen, because of my old friends from Buffalo, Isaiah Hodgins name come up like in training camp or something. And I was like, who are these people? And yet they looked quite good as so many receivers have against the Minnesota Vikings.

It's almost like if you were to design a passing game specifically to attack where the Vikings have been weak, it's all of those slants and those little underneath routes that it seems like these receivers are capable of taking care of, except for, I think, was it Richie James who had a really bad drop in the game? Yeah, that was costly. But aside from that, these receivers, it looks to me like they're just not being asked to do a whole lot. To an extent, yeah. I think there are times on tape where you're going to see these receivers win on double moves vertically the ball may not come their way the read may be somewhere else and

the button and as we you know as I outlined earlier a lot of this is what Dable and Mike Kafka are going over every week with Jones like they they want him to get the ball out of his hand fast that's the most important thing here they don't want him sitting in that pocket that was what led to all of his problems in the past as a quarterback. So I think these receivers are doing a little bit more in film Isaiah Hodgson specifically. I think he creates a good amount of separation really at all three levels of the field. He's had some chances to run double moves vertically and he's created separation. He even had one against the Vikings where he caught it. And we even saw a play earlier in that game, a switch release on the outside where they ran Kenny Galladay, kind of

the vert to take away the corner and Richie James got free along the sideline and Jones through it. So I think there's actually some opportunities in this game against this defense, at least to find more vertical, vertically oriented shot plays, I guess I would say, but you are right that the general, you know, the, the core of this system right now, as it stands with these receivers in place is underneath stuff. It's a lot of quick game and it's a lot of in-breaking stuff. And like you said, the good news, at least for Giants fans, is that Vikings have trouble dealing with that. They most certainly do.

I think that's one of the reasons that any quarterback has been able to look pretty successful against them. Is Kenny Galladay any type of factor in this game it's interesting because kenny galladay got finally got a chance to play a lot of snaps last week when the giants rested all their starters and played all backups and then he made a phenomenal contested catch high point everything that they brought him in to do that touchdown against the eagles at the end of that game from davis webb and you saw on the sideline after the game, Brian Dable and Kenny Galladay share a moment, which was the only part of this. That's interesting to me,

because if that hadn't happened, I would think that he goes right back to the bench and doesn't play really anything. I think he played like four snaps against the Vikings. And I it's been like, it's been between like three and 10 snaps for him for a while now. But with that in mind, maybe they do feel like,

cause I personally would bring in Kenny Galladay when they're in the condensed area in the red zone over a darius slayton type because i just feel like golladay provides a bigger target for jones a wider catch radius and better way better hands than darius slayton but i'm not so sure that's how the coaches view it right now and like you said so much of this system is based on in breaking stuff like the whip routes and things that nature and kenny golladay can't want to run a whip route they had a play earlier this season where they had slate and golladay run whip routes on both sides of like the line of scrimmage you look at the difference on film watching those two players run those routes and it's like insane to even see kenny golladay and it's not his route it's never been his route but when you watch an nfl player want

to run a whip route like he ran that whip route you're like i can see why the coaches don't want him on the field for a lot of what they're trying to do. So it'll be very interesting to see if they find a role for him in the red zone. That's where I think he can really potentially help the Giants. But I'm not sold it will happen. I mean, this is why fit is always so important. Kenny Galladay and Matthew Stafford is a perfect fit because that's a quarterback who throws contested catches all the time, doesn't always care if you're actually open or not. We'll just let it go. And that's all

Kenny Galladay does. But Daniel Jones is kind of the exact opposite. I wonder about the evolution of where Saquon fits into this. Cause at the beginning of the year, it was almost like he was playing quarterback half the time with direct snaps and things like that. Like, oh, they're going to build this whole offense around him. And I will tell you the truth. I was skeptical whether you could actually even have an offense like that. And it seems like they knew they couldn't and eventually had to transition into like a real offense. But against the Vikings, he averaged six yards to carry and he had some big plays.

And when you watch him in person, there's like three dudes who look like that where they seem to like nobody can catch him you know what I mean like even when they have a bad run it's a good run that's how he kind of looks to me him and Aaron Jones are kind of this way where your eye expects the dude to get tackled and then he just like somehow didn't like what just happened there um but at the same time the second half of the season has not been as good for Saquon Barkley. A factor maybe to get some rest last week. Like, where does he stand in this offense right now? How dangerous do you view him?

Yeah, coming out of the bye week, Saquon Barkley had a few, not a few, like four, probably a six game stretch where he was running worse. You know, bad yards over expectation, not forcing, not creating missed tackles, not forcing yards after contact, bad yards for carry overall. And then something happened where it just felt like, and he didn't look the same, by the way, during this stretch. And then something happened. They didn't have a bye week or anything, but he just randomly got fresher. It was very hard to predict.

It was against Washington in the first Washington game. And he said something that always stood out to me. You know, I don't always listen to the player speak or the coach speak. So I think most of it is nonsense. But he said that before that Washington game where you kind of started, where you saw it click back again, where the freshness looked there again, the explosiveness was back. He said, I just had the best day of practice I had all year.

And that made me think, like, these players sometimes know when their body feels right. And since that point, it was a three or four game stretch of old Saquon Barkley. The same thing that we saw at the beginning of the season. Now he has an extra week to rest after that Eagles game where they got to rest all their starters. And I expect to see the same thing. Folks, have you noticed that I'm always talking about liquid death here on the show? Well, you've probably also noticed by now that it's in the grocery aisle with the water. Yes, that's the water that looks like a tall boy beer. And hey,

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That's liquiddeath.com slash insider. How is this offensive line? Because Andrew Thomas to me is about, well, him and Christian Derusaw, we've got a battle of two of the premier young left tackles in the league. But on the other side, Daniil Hunter caused a lot of problems for the premier young left tackles in the league um but on the other side uh daniel hunter caused a lot of problems for the giants offensive line where do they stand at this moment well first let me say i hate to hear the name christian daris saw when i'm talking about the giants not that he was my number one target i want to rishon slater but like and i didn't really

have targets once we traded back but man if dave gettleman had just taken daris all there instead of cadareous tony or literally anyone instead of cadareus tony this could have been such a different playoff run for the giants in my opinion in the future so it's amazing he's done so well so far he's he's a hell of a player i loved watching him in the first game i thought he did a great job in that first game against the giants and that was a game where the giants got a lot of pressure by the way for sacks but i thought he was not not the culprit but as far as the giants offensive line goes they have one absolutely elite player you mentioned in Andrew Thomas. And then they've started to get a little bit healthier.

Their interior offensive line has been a mess for a large part of this season. And at times, that's the reason why they took so long to get to this style of offense that they're finally in, which is shotgun-based, 11 personnel like we talked about earlier. That's always what Dable wanted to do. That's who he is. He didn't want to be in that smoke and murder type offense, but earlier in the season, they tried to unveil it in week three against the Cowboys and the Cowboys pressure Daniel Jones that game more than any team's pressured any quarterback all season

in a single game. And that was in large part, four man pass rushes from the Cowboys, just bad offensive line play. Now they're finally healthier at left guard. They have a rotation, which you probably won't see from most teams in the playoffs. They play Nick Gates and Ben Bredesen at left guard. They rotate them. I think that will continue through the playoffs. Center spots got a little better with Feliciano, but he's hurt and he's coming back. We don't know yet if he's going to play. If not, Nick Gates will play center again, like he did in week 18. Right guard's interesting. Mark Lewinsky has been a bad player for them for most of the season, but if you actually look at the tape, he's now had like a two or three game stretch that's been pretty damn good his last two or three games and so it's like are they getting lucky here are they timing

it right with goinsky and then there's the biggest weakness on the offensive line right now by far it could have been goinsky earlier in the year it could have been the left guard center but right now without a doubt it's right tackle ev Neal, their rookie first round pick seventh overall. He's got hurt early in the year. He came back. I don't know if it's because of the injury. I don't really think it is. I think he just needs better technique and he just needs time basically in the NFL.

But right now he's a massive liability for the Giants and pass production. He's had some better run reps lately, but he's not hasn't been anything. My mind spectacular as a run blocker. But the pass pro is the biggest issue here. And the Vikings attacked him in the first game and did a pretty good job against him. This is by far what they're going to be looking at here. Whether it's Hunter, whoever they, whichever edge they put there under Smith, he's going to be a massive problem. I think the giants are going to recognize it and use a tight end to chip and release, but that hasn't been what they've really done since they moved the offense over to the new the new way the shotgun the 11 personnel so i'm very curious to see if

they go back to that that was something they were doing earlier in the season or if they're just like you know what screw it let's see evan neal let's see if you can handle yourself on an island in a big playoff matchup and if that's the case that might be advantage vikings i mean daniel hunter just shreds bad offensive linemen i mean mean, he's just he he is so technically proficient, but also one of the biggest freaks physically in the league. I mean, he's he's when they talk about why it takes offensive linemen so long to transition to the NFL. You could point to that guy and be like, yep, won't be seeing that in college. Nothing like that. So I think that like if we're talking about advantages for the vikings

probably there and i don't mean to just be going like position by position but it also does seem kind of appropriate here uh on the defensive side the health just feels like a massive deal uh adori jackson leonard williams azizo delari like those guys status seems to be still up in the air. But at the same time, I feel like we all know the deal about what could happen with Dexter Lawrence in the interior of the defensive line. And we've seen it before here with Kirk Cousins. He's not an escape quarterback. If you pressure up the middle, it's a huge problem. And we're not sure if Garrett Bradbury is going to play. It might be a third string center in Chris Reed or an injured Garrett Bradbury coming off of a back injury. I feel like that's always the biggest area just in general that the Vikings have to worry about.

But that if you're on the Giants side, you're saying that's where they can win this game. You nailed it. We talked about Evan Neal being the biggest matchup advantage for Minnesota. The Giant, Dexter Lawrence against whoever the hell they put at center. I don't care if it's Bradbury because one, like you said, Bradbury won't be 100% healthy. Also, Bradbury is not the guy who is a good matchup against Lawrence. Bradbury is a smaller center. You need to have the bigger center to take a take on the 340 pound nose tackle moves

like Lawrence and Lawrence has been absolutely phenomenal every single game this year. It's kind of insane. I've never really seen a season that dominant from an interior Giants defensive lineman in my entire life. You can maybe talk about Keith Hamilton of yesteryear, but no one's put together a season like this. No one's played that amount of snaps that he's played without coming off the field and been just as productive. I think he's going to be a massive mismatch for the Vikings here. I think they're going to have to hold him, and hopefully they don't get called. This is really what I feel like is going to be a massive mismatch for the Vikings here. I think they're going to have to hold him and hopefully they don't get called. This is really what I feel like is going to, like, even if you throw Bradbury out there,

read or Bradbury, I'm sure Bradbury is a better option. But one thing I want to know, because I really feel like this entire game, this is the question I'm going to throw back to you right now, Matthew, this entire game to me will be decided in the trenches and on both sides of the ball and on the giant side of the ball, there is Dexter Lawrence against whoever the hell's in the interior. And that's fine. Cause he'll match up against guards too. And he'll shred them as well.

But what I want to know is cause, cause Ojalary is expected to come back at this point. It's it seems very likely. Oh, a Dory Jackson should be back. That's not a guarantee. Leonard Williams will play. He's playing hurt.

He has a stinger, but he got a week off. He's going to try to play through it, whatever. But the biggest mismatch for me is what's going on at right tackle now for the Vikings without Brian O'Neill, who's playing that spot, who's guaranteed to play that spot this week. And how is he playing in past production?

Because if Ojalary does play, it doesn't matter if they move Thibodeau over there or Ojalary, that should be a really good mismatch for the Giants. It most certainly is. So it's going to be one of two candidates. We're not really sure. Ole Udo is the one who played the last two weeks after brian o'neill got hurt and he was playing right guard last year graded out as one of the worst guards in the nfl which i thought was deserved and played two games of

tackle last year which pff had him under 40 so not great but also it really tracks when you look at how this uh coaching staff has treated him i mean he's been the fourth string tackle but their third string tackle blake brandle just came off the injury list he had gotten hurt earlier this year but when he filled in for christian derisaw he gave up seven sacks as a fill-in guy over like four weeks wow so it's not good there i mean there are no good backup tackles in the entire NFL anyway, but this is one where you'd prefer to have someone who's like experienced and that old guy who's kind of been around and could hang on for dear life for a game or two.

But I don't know that that's really the case. Like this is the thing that's through the whole season, the Vikings offense outside of those couple of games where Darasaw was banged up has had everybody. They haven't missed two players on offense at any point all season until right now. And I think if Bradbury doesn't come back, he's limited in practice as we record this. I don't know. I mean, I think it's going to be really hard for him to come back. Hasn't practiced in weeks and it's not a full practice when he's getting out there two, three days before the game. I mean, I think that's going to be really hard for him. But even if he does, you know, it's still a tough situation with a back injury for a center. I mean, this is the mismatch right

here because the Vikings offense will move the ball against the Giants. I have no doubt about that. Justin Jefferson's not getting shut down like it was against Jair Alexander or something, no matter how hard they try. But it's always, and for both sides, it kind of goes this way. Can strip sack, like interception, tip ball, like who's going to have that? Because there are mismatches in the trenches and which quarterback is kind of going to blink first, because I think both teams can move the ball against each other. But this weakness cannot be understated I mean you're going from literally like a top five right tackle in the entire NFL to someone who is pretty much proven to be not good either way if it's Brandel or if it's Udo I think they trust Brandel a little bit

more and the other thing too is that Brian O'Neill is an A-plus run blocker. Yes. And I don't think that these other guys are. And already, I saw the stat today, the accumulation of run yards over-expected for starting running backs. Delvin Cook cost his team the most yards of any running back this year. So they've already had a pretty putrid running game with a running back who hit the wall that we kind of all expected to happen, and now he doesn't have one of his best run blockers. I mean, this is, this game is on Kirk Cousins, basically Kirk Cousins adjusted Jefferson are going to have to go win this thing.

And it's going to have to happen with pressure and cousins face. Yeah, you're right. And I think another key factor in this is going to be TJ Hawkinson, who tore up the giants in his last matchup giant. So really have an answer on paper for him, but at times I've seen some really good reps on film of Xavier McKinney against tight ends now that was before Xavier McKinney was playing with broken fingers and a club on his hand and I really think in his game in his game back uh two weeks ago against the Colts it really did impact him he should add an interception that just like clearly was just he can't catch with this thing with this club on but as far as matching up against a tight end,

like Hawkinson, you got to get physical. You got to use your hands as well in within that matchup. So I'll be interested to see if they do use McKinney in that role, because they're going to have to figure out a solution for stopping Hawkinson. Cause against the Vikings, what they did was a lot of what they did against McLaurin the week

before, when they played the commanders, it was role coverage to his side. And by the way, for all the people on the Packers side, we were like, Oh my God, you're Alexander shut down. Justin Jefferson, the same matchup. the way for all the people on the packer side were like oh my god you're alexander shut down justin jefferson the same matchup if you actually watch the tape the packers were uh the packers were rolling coverage with safeties to

his side all the time so it was like yeah i guess he kind of shut down jefferson at the same time it was schematic that's like that that's coaching too like you're moving the safety over you're taking extra resources away from players like hawkinson and Cook in the flat or whatever it may be, Thielen and Osborne. So I'll be really interested to see if the Giants go back to that with the Dory Jackson. If he is back on the field, I think he will be. Or if they just rely on a Dory Jackson against Justin Jefferson, that will be the one of the most interesting things that from a schematic standpoint, I'm looking for.

I would suggest putting a safety over him at all times. Oh, me too. Force anybody else to beat him because KJ Osborne has played better down the stretch. No question. But that's a little bit of a paper tiger because a lot of it came against Indianapolis in that massive comeback game. Some of it came against Green Bay where they were getting absolutely demolished. Some of it came against Chicago. We had a 66 yard catch. Like these things are not like playing in the playoffs against another very good team in the New York giants. Let's talk, let's talk vibes, Dan sucks and vibes. These teams got vibes. Like there are

teams who are going into the playoffs that are just sad buses. Like the Miami dolphins, for example, like I just, you just feel bad for them. The quarterbacks hurt the Ravens, right? Like there's just, you know, it had Washington made it. You would have been like really Washington. Seattle doesn't feel great. Right. Thanks for coming basically. But you had to kick a field goal in overtime to beat the Rams and their coach wants to quit and go join TV.

Like, like vibes are not good. Vibes are good with these two teams. I mean, the Packers took some took some uh as Mike Malarkey once said sails out of the wind um for the Vikings for sure and Vikings fans were a little down after that Packers game but overall you're talking about new coaches who have breathed new life into organizations I think this is like two two teams that are coming in feeling about as happy with themselves as they possibly could i think you're right this is i mean for giants it's all house money the vibes are all good with this giants team they have been for quite some time there was that six game stretch where they went one four and one and things were starting to get boiling over a little like you'll even

have a situation where it's so funny too because they they change so fast but during that little stretch where the giants are struggling they were so there was a good contingent of fans who are like, fire, Mike Kafka, fire the offensive coordinator. Now he's getting two head coaching interviews and they're like, no, no, no, please don't go. Please don't take him from us. And it's like, well, you just said fire him a couple of weeks ago. And he's done an absolute phenomenal job.

Those people were just as dead to be blunt about it. And I'm sorry if you are one of them. I'm not trying to offend you, but they were dead wrong about wrong about it i mean he's revamped the red zone offense it's been dead in the water for a half decade maybe more and he's turned it into the seventh best red zone offense i mean it's insane what he's done as a coordinator in his first year but like you said those vibes are gone now and it's back to the good vibes right the giants blew out the colts in a must-win game yeah it's the colts but this giants team ofesteryear, even in 2016 when they made the playoffs and grinded their way there, they had no blowout wins.

There wasn't a must-win game to get into the playoffs like that Colts game two weeks ago, and they won it, and they blew them out. It was a celebration-type game for most of that game at home as well. You're right, man. The vibes are great for the Giants right now. It does feel a little house money-ish, like I said, because it's different versus the Vikings who won a lot more games and are so further along in this thing like this is only year four of daniel jones and a lot of people consider it year one because it's

year one of daniel jones and dable i don't think that's such a bad take but with cousins we're in year what now for the vikings i don't know i don't know what it is but it's longer down the line uh five year five right so it's different different mindset i feel well and when they brought back cousins this is where the bar got set i think for the giants it was like just prove that your coach isn't a fool i mean because like the last several hires that they've had uh i we liked pat schirmer here everybody was impressed with what he did in 2017 coordinator bad head coach that's probably the case also circumstance. I mean, you're inheriting someone who is just decrepit at that point for a quarterback. And this is the most Eli Manning respect podcast over here that you're going to find outside of New York.

I mean, I've always had a ton of respect, but at that point, he was not good at all. So, tough situation for Pat Shermer. Also, doesn't have the leadership vibes of somebody like brian dable but you know what i really like about this matchup dan is that whoever wins whoever wins then somebody gets to say see we were a contender all of you who accused us of being fake contenders isn't that i wrote i wrote an article about this if the matchup just couldn't be more perfect like both teams have weaknesses both teams have stars and all season long both teams defied the numbers the expected win loss has the giants is more of an eight win team and also the

vikings is more of an eight win team their point differential is about the same people called them frauds people expected them to regress and somebody gets to walk out of u.s bank stadium and go aha like we weren't we were for real so do you think if the obvious the obvious question is do you think that will be the giants i actually do think the giants are going to win this game and i have been not if you look back i make a prediction every single week on our preview podcast and i've been insanely hot on these i think i got like 80 right or more this year which is crazy and there's losses in there that i predicted there's wins i predicted i just personally look at that first matchup and i think in my mind the giants were the better team that day they turned the ball over twice in the red zone a

daniel bellinger fumble which was the first fumble this season for him and it's not going to happen again a daniel jonesception, which could happen again. When he's throwing on that horizontal plane, he throws behind the receiver sometimes. That's very possible, but it was still an interception. The Richie James drop, incredible. And then after all of that, despite all of that, it required a 61-yard field goal after a third and 11 blown screen defense

by the Giants to even lose that game in regulation. And so I look at these two teams. the Vikings are getting worse from a health standpoint. The giants are getting better from a health standpoint. That's the key factor to me. It's who's getting healthy at the right time. And the biggest advantage in this game on either side of the ball, some may say Justin Jefferson and that's fine. It may be the case. And I'm okay saying that, but if you get, tell me the one side has its biggest advantage at wide receiver, the other side has its biggest advantage in the trenches, where I think the Giants' defensive line versus whatever's left, the Vikings' offensive line is, I think that will tell the story of this game.

I think the Giants' defensive line will have a dominant performance in this game and will set the tone for the entire game. And the Giants' offense, in my mind, won't have to do as much as they did last game. And the biggest factor, too, for me, is just the matchup. NFL's such a matchup thing and the vikings just don't match up all that well in my mind against the giants why is that well the vikings are a very strict zone run blocking team and that's just not how you should play this giants team the giants have stopped all the zone heavy run teams the seahawks the vikings but whenever a team uses power and gap they get crushed the giants so the worst defense in the n NFL against the run with power and gap. And we went into that first

Vikings matchup, like, will the Vikings do it? Will they actually play to the tendency and try to break what the giants do wrong? And they didn't, they ran all zone that game. And we talked to Sean side, who's a, who's a, um, X is a nose film guy who covers the Vikings. And he was like, yeah, man, like I could tell you maybe fewer than a handful of times a season. I I saw them use pullers or I saw them use that's the system and he's a great coordinator by the way like that's my final point I think the Giants have a coaching edge because I think Mike Kafka is is just gonna honestly just to just be honest I feel like he does a much better job than and Donatello and he wins that match a lot but I think O'Connell is gonna beat Martindale he beat him the first game and it'll be him again. The difference though, between Kafka and Donatello and O'Connell and Martin

Wink Martindale to me is, is much bigger. Um, and so I don't want to knock Kevin O'Connell. His passing concepts are unbelievable, but he ran a lot of zone against a team that can stop zone, but can't stop power and gap in the run game that I didn't think was great, but I understand, look, they don't practice it all year. So it makes sense. But with all that in mind, I do feel like the giants will win this matchup by three points. Well, I I've also got it as a three point game, but I don't even know. I mean, I, I think like, I've just been talking about a coin flip all week long because I really feel like it's that close when it comes to how these two teams match up that you can make the case either way.

I totally agree with you about Ed Donatelloel it's something we've discussed a lot how bad the scheme is um and i also think that for kevin o'connell running the football is just homework like i don't think he doesn't want to run that ball right it's just like it's eating your vegetables for him it's like i want to have some balance no i don't i don't throw the ball throw the ball just like i don't even want to i don't even I don't throw the ball, throw the ball. Just like, I don't even want to, I don't even care about this. Throw the ball. And that also probably plays into Delvin Cook season because it's not Gary Kubiak who loves the running game more than you love anything in your life. So last thing for you, how old were you in the year 2000? Great question. Yeah.

2000, I was 11 years old and I was at that game. Oh, you were. Okay. So do you know what we call it here? Our nickname for it? I don't know what you call it here. We call it a celebration by me. Cause that's what it was in the stadium.

What do you call it there? 41 donut is what it is referred to here. So before we close this out, how many players on the offensive side for the New York giants in that game? Can you name that either because you know obviously Kerry Collins was the quarterback but that either caught a pass or ran the ball how many can you name little trivia for you to end the show okay Greg Camillo the fullback caught a touchdown great start with the harder one tumor yep Hilliard yep barber he must have caught a pass yeah yep yeah that's four and how many were we trying to get to or or ran the ball either ran or ran the ball okay yeah let me see how many

there are one that might be it i know it was a very diverse he threw it around to a bunch of different players that game i might be it though for, for me, from my memory, there was nine total. I'll give you some hints. One of them, one of these running backs was known for his, his girth. Oh, Ron Dane was on that roster. Ron Dane. Ron Dane. That's right.

How about this guy was, let's say that every broadcast would have said, you know, I'm just impressed with this guy's grit, this wide receiver, just so gritty toughness he's a real yes joe jervis okay i don't know if they would have said wes welker type yeah but you know what i mean i know exactly wide receiver uh there's one other running back who actually had 43 yards in the game but his longest was eight so i'm assuming he was the third string running back and i'll be honest i don't know this guy and then maybe eric ward right it was joe montgomery and joe montgomery i do remember joe montgomery damn i should that one i'm mad i didn't get a third string tight end or second string tight end who actually had some moments with the giants he originally played for Jacksonville, not Dan Campbell,

right? It was not, it was not man Campbell, but sort of barking up the right tree. One of those guys, Jacksonville. Damn it. No one cares. It's,

it's Pete Mitchell. Pete Mitchell. And I wouldn't have gotten that. That's the one I wouldn't have gotten. And I will not traumatize Vikings fans by looking at the box score in which Dante Culpepper, one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in history, had a 13 quarterback rating and threw for 78 yards. That was an insane game to be at. It was one of those games, man, where like I think a lot of it is was determined by those first five minutes of the game. The Giants came down opening script. Great job by Sean Payton, who was their offensive coordinator at the time. The Giants have had Sean Payton and Bill Belichick as coordinators neither was their head coach it's crazy to me but amazing

opening script right or right touchdown kick the ball off fumble right away by the Vikings on the kickoff ups down seven nothing then it was 14 nothing that was it was one of those games where like once the momentum swings like that it's totally over they're chasing the rest of the game on offense and as you saw it it obviously impacted Cult peppers numbers and they didn't even have to score after 12 minutes left in the third quarter to win 41 nothing it could have been 65 7 like the uh championship game uh well it's uh it's been it's been fun and this is going to be i think for both fan bases who have kind of gone through some struggles um and that might be putting it lightly on your side, like a lot of struggles recently,

but the Vikings have spent several years out of the playoffs as well. So it's been fun to get together with you lead up to a playoff game. And we're kind of milking it for all we got here because it's been a while. So follow him on, on Twitter at Dan Schneier NFL and the big blue banter giants podcast. Thanks a lot for getting together, man. This was fun.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Matthew. This was a great time.