Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Hot Routez with Paul Hodowanic, Dalvin Cook speaks, and Sam Ekstrom runs down the headlines

Episode Date: December 30, 2021

Sam Ekstrom subs in for Matthew Coller. He goes over the day's news, which includes Adam Thielen's ankle surgery and Dalvin Cook's return. Then he joins Paul Hodowanic for a fiery episode of Hot Routez where they rank bad refs and discuss the greatest thorns in the Vikings' side. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, Sam Ekstrom in on the Purple Insider Podcast. Matthew Collar out at a wedding. Welcome to today's show. Hot Routes today with Paul Hodowanek. He asks the hard questions I answer and will also play the Dalvin Cook interview from earlier today. He did a press conference upon his return from the reserve COVID-19 list and that's where we begin with just a couple headlines before jumping into Hot Routes. You know how we write the rundown at purpleinsider.substack.com. We're going to do a verbal version of that to get started.

Writing solo here for just a few minutes to get you caught up to speed. A lot of transactions today. The Vikings were busy on their transaction wire. They have brought Dalvin Cook back off the COVID list they have put Patrick Jones the defensive end on the COVID list they have brought Ty Smith the practice squad corner off the COVID list and they've got Adam Thielen going to IR so the big ones there Thielen to IR Dalvin Cook off the COVID list and that's because the NFL relaxed the protocols, right? So the NFL says after five days vaccinated or unvaccinated, if you are asymptomatic and you

pass the test and you haven't had a fever in 24 hours, a couple other bullet points there as well, you can come back. So Dalvin Cook returns for the full week of practice, and we'll hear from him later on in the press conference that he conducted. But I want to focus more on Adam Thielen going to IR and some of the splits of pre-injury, post-injury Adam Thielen. So the impact that Adam Thielen had on Kirk Cousins, I think is not to be understated. Pre-injury Kirk Cousins passer rating was 101.5. Post-injury, 89.7. And it's been a noticeable hit that the offense has taken.

The red zone offense has been worse, down to 54% the last three games. It was two of five against the Rams. Cousins' accuracy has gone down without Thielen from 67% before to 62% after the injury. And I think that that's something. I don't think it's everything, but I think it's something. Because Adam Thielen's precision in the red zone particularly is amazing. His precision on third downs. And Justin Jefferson can carry the passing game, sure, but Adam Thielen is still a weapon. He leads the team in touchdowns with 10. And he has a 130.9 passer rating when targeted.

That's all very, very good. So with Thielen going to the IR now, you are basically saying, all right, we're going to go six games without Adam Thielen, with the exception of a couple of drives in the Rams game and one drive in the Lions game. It's a long stretch. And I think this offense is paying the price just a little bit for that. Thielen gets surgery and he's pretty much done for the year. So Dalvin Cook returns. We mentioned that. Heads to the scene of the crime where he scored four touchdowns last year at Lambeau Field. That should be big for the Vikings to get back. And personally, from my observation this year, I think it's never been more clear that

Dalvin Cook is not Alexander Madison. I think we often want to interchange them. And I'm the first to say that running backs aren't that significant from a team building standpoint. But when you're comparing them to their peers, I still think that there is a difference. And I think when you stack up Cook against Madison, I think the vision is totally different. I mean, there was a run in the Sunday game too, where Madison, you know, misses a cut back lane, kicks it further outside and loses yardage. Cook doesn't do that. He's so decisive. He's more speedy in a straight line. He's speedier

laterally. And I think he can get those tough yards just about as easily as Madison. His hurtling ratio is not as good. I will give Madison that one, but I think you prefer Dalvin Cook to Alexander Madison, and this could be a battle of running games on a zero-degree night in Green Bay. Kirk Cousins said he's going to have the hand warmers. He's going to have the heater on the sideline, and I'm intrigued to see how he responds to this. Because for living in Minnesota for four years, Cousins has not really had a game like this. I mean, last year they were in warm weather Tampa in December. They were playing in domed Detroit.

Didn't really have this at all. I mean, the coldest he's had, you know, New England in early December is about 30. Chicago is about 30 last week. Seattle's been a little bit chilly a couple times, but nothing like this. A couple other notes. Dakota Dozier spoke today, first time since being hospitalized with COVID-19. And I think when you see NFL players routinely coming off the list all across the league without missing a beat, you forget that some cases are more severe.

And Dozier says that he had a three-day stay in the hospital as a result of COVID pneumonia. He had a pulse oximeter that was his daughter's, and it was an 82. Now, I don't necessarily know what you're looking for with that device, but he said that 90 is the target line. If you're below 90, you're in trouble. And he figured out that at 82, he was in some jeopardy, so he went to the hospital, got some medicine, said he started feeling better right away.

That sort of alleviated his fears and then spent three days there and then needed weeks to get back to full fitness. And he could play in this Green Bay game spent three days there, and then needed weeks to get back to full fitness. And he could play in this Green Bay game because Ole Udo is on the COVID list. And because of those relaxed protocols, Ole Udo could return by Sunday, but we're not sure yet. Dakota Dozier might be next in line. I get the sense this coaching staff would trust a veteran more than Wyatt Davis, even though the veteran is Dakota

Dozier, who had one of the worst guard seasons of all time last year. I still think he might get preference. They obviously activated him to the active roster for a reason. And we'll get into to the John Madden stuff a little bit with Paul in Hot Routes, but Mike Zimmer did have some nice things to say about John Madden. He's actually part of the John Madden subcommittee, and that's the group of eight coaches that gets together and isn't really sanctioned by the league. It's just sort of an unofficial group that talks about rule changes and pieces of the game they like and don't like, and John Madden was a huge influence on that. And he was on some of those calls, even at his old age, staying involved in the game. And Mike Zimmer was disappointed to hear

that the NFL lost an absolute legend at the age of 85. And the same with Kirk Cousins, who spoke glowingly, kind of hitting on the three phases of Madden, the broadcaster, the coach, and the video game maven. And, you know, I knew him as the broadcaster, the coach, and the video game maven. And I knew him as the broadcaster first and foremost. Did play the game sparingly, not much of a gamer in general. The broadcasting is what really compelled me. I'll get into that more with Paul. And you know that the generation above me probably watched him beat the Vikings in the Super Bowl with the Raiders. He spanned generations. And I think there's probably a vast appreciation for one of those three phases for everybody who's even loosely affiliated with football. You probably know what the Madden name means. And you probably know when you hear someone go, boom, who they're referring to. Hot routes,

Paul Hodowani. There's news in the NFL today, and it's time to break it down in the only way we know how. Hot Routes style, with our spin on football headlines, with a mix of frozen tundras, neck rolls, and grass-stained jersey. Hello, and welcome back to Hot Routes. Grass Stain Jersey. Hello and welcome back to Hot Routes. I'm your host as always, Paul Horwanek. And with me today is Purple Insider Zone, Sam Ekstrom. Sam, how are we doing today? Today we're pouring one out, pouring out my morning coffee to John Madden may he rest in peace um I don't know about you but I've been consuming John Madden content uh on Twitter for the last 12 hours or so and it's

been a lot of fun to to reminisce so I don't know if that was part of your rundown of questions but I feel like we should take a minute just to like discuss the John Madden impact was he like I mean we're we're both maybe a little young for Madden. Now, like I grew up with him in the nineties and then obviously the, the two thousands. Um, what was sort of your Madden exposure, Paul? Strictly I'm, I'm 22. So my, my Madden exposure was pretty much strictly the video game, hearing his calls on that. And then just hearing his historic calls, you know, going through history, but never really in my life as a coach or really as a broadcaster at any point. So I was someone who was ready to get the Madden game every year and was constantly

playing it. And for a while it was his voice on there and then it switched. But that that's how I grew up with John Madden. And it's been said all over Twitter, if you've been on it, but it's cool that we all have our own, the different generations have their own connectivity to Madden and it all kind of comes together to being one of this, one of the NFL's most important, most impactful people in general, because for me, I don't remember much as what he did for a coach, but I'm sure many of our people that are watching do.

So yeah, for me, it was strictly Madden. And I was always Madden the football game, video game. And I was always super excited to get that game. And hopefully, I mean, his name stays on it for the rest of time. Yeah, Madden, for whatever reason, Madden 2001 was the game that stuck with me the most with Eddie George on the cover. And I remember I would just run the toss sweep over and over.

And there was like a glitch in the game where like the edge never really set on defense. And you were just able to get outside every time and like get 15 yards. It was awesome. I did corner strike. Corner strike, the play was always one that I could go to. In fourth and 22, Corner Strike's going to get me the yards. That was just always the go-to. Everybody had their sort of pet play that just worked every time.

It was great. And on those early games, you could find sort of the glitches in the system. But I would play it on traditional computer. But at that time, I was always thrown off by Summerall. Like Madden and Summerall were the big pairing, right? And people disagree with me on this. I was not a Summerall guy, and I still am not a Summerall guy. I think it's great to say nothing as a play-by-play guy.

Like, good for you. You're a minimalist. I get it. But it's not for my taste. Like, say something have some personality you don't have to have zero percent and let john badden have all of it you're allowed to have some give and take pat um so there's my pat summerall slander for the day i think may he rest in peace as well i don't think pat summerall's with us either um but john

bad i always appreciated i was part of like his entire run with Al Michaels in 2000. And I think he was done after the 2009 or 10 Super Bowl with the Cardinals and Steelers. And the fact that his documentary aired Sunday, and he watched it, and he was part of it. And then we don't know the cause of this passing, but for it to happen so suddenly and so soon after is just wild. Yeah. And I haven't gotten a chance to watch the documentary. Hope too soon. Hope everyone else gets a chance. But yeah, great that he was able to see that and see the impact that he had on so many people. Let's jump into our hot routes questions. The first one I think is quick, but, and not quite in our hot route style, but wanting to get it because it's Packers week and it is the last time that

Aaron Rodgers potentially could be playing against the Vikings as a member of the Green Bay Packers. And so I want to know from you, do you think it is? Is this the last time Aaron Rodgers plays as a Packer against the Vikings? I kind of get the sense that it's not. And I think that the writing was going to be on the wall for this, like the second that he decided to come back and give that extra year of opportunity for Green Bay to sort of make right. Everything you hear is that it's all kumbaya. And you know why? It's because they're winning. It's because they are 12 and three and they're going to be the top seed.

And and everything's good. Like winning does really salve all of the wounds and maybe some understandings have have been reached and maybe aaron rogers amidst all the scrutiny isn't really interested in in leaving this community that loves him and going to a media market that might be a little more fierce maybe that doesn't all seem as appealing as it once did now that there's maybe some more negative things to talk about with Aaron Rodgers. So I could see a reunion occurring or, you know, what else I could see, Paul, is a retirement. I mean, everything with Rodgers this

year has sort of felt, I don't know, a little bit like a last hurrah with the way that he does post-game interviews. And he sort of has talked romantically about the game and how he passed Brett Favre's record. Like he's reached a lot of milestones. And particularly if they go out on top with a Super Bowl, which is obviously on the table with the path going through Lambeau Field to reach it probably. I could see him riding off in the sunset. He's got this. I can't remember if it's a wife or fiance at this point wants to have kids. I believe like I could see Rogers who kind of goes by the beat of his own

drum, hanging it up and calling it good. Cause I think he has other interests and I think that maybe he just doesn't want to start over his body's hurting right now. It might feel pretty good to just walk away on top. So if he's not playing the Vikings again, I think it might be because he's not playing football anymore. All right. Wow.

All right. I wasn't expecting that to be hot at the start. And then we got there. Yeah, I think for me, I mean, before the season, it was such a foreground conclusion that if he stayed this year, he was gone the next year. That seemed to be kind of their agreement. You know, we don't know if that has changed at this point. But yeah, I'm also with you in that I can't say it's going to be his last one until we see him change jerseys. And maybe that's me growing up in Minnesota, just in my entire life, the Green Bay Packers having an elite quarterback and not quite knowing what it would look like if they didn't and what the Packers would look like if they didn't. But something tells me, like, I'm not going to count him out playing.

And honestly, if the Vikings win this game, as much as we have been down in the dumps about their playoff chances, if they win this game, there's a chance that could be a 2-7 matchup in the playoffs. It might not even be the last time they play this season if they win this game uh there's a chance that could be a 2-7 matchup in the playoffs it might not even be the last time they play this season if they get this win because then obviously groom bay loses they lose a little bit in the first round by i think they might even have to lose in week 18 to to lose that as well but i mean it's a possibility there um so it couldn't it might not even be the last time they played this season, depending on how Sunday goes. But yes, something tells me this isn't his last time here or his last time against the Vikings. And I think that feeling is just never going to go away until he's actually on the Broncos or he's retired or he's on the Steelers or something else like that.

But that's just how I feel. Yeah, I think we can safely assume, though, that he's not going to make the same mistake as Favre. He's not going to endanger his legacy there and come to the division rival Vikings. I think Vikings fans were hopeful there for a minute that he was so disenchanted that he was going to make the jump a la Favre. But I get the feeling that that's not going to happen. All right, let's move on. I want to play a little, I want to rank some things, and I want to rank the officials because it has been a controversial season

a few weeks, last week, every week it seems like officials are making some decision in the Vikings game or in any other game. Looking at that Green Bay-Cleveland game specifically on Christmas or some of the calls that were made in the Vikings Bears game. But the officials have not been good and it has been a large talking point. And so I wanted to put in perspective, like I think every sport complains about officiating. And so I want to take this time to kind of stack up the NFL officials against the other major sport officials. Just if we can see, are they the worst of the worst? Or is this just, you know, it's the time of the year where football is on.

And so we're going to complain about those officials. But now once they end, the NBA playoffs come, then we're complaining about those officials. Like, how bad is it? Let's rank the top, you know, the four major sport officials. Yeah. Okay. So I did give this a lot of thought i think hockey is the best okay um i think hockey officials i mean they stay out of the way they're

they're rarely the story um you know every goal is reviewed so it's not like points are getting put on the board fraudulently i think the the biggest gripe for hockey officials is when power plays are awarded when they shouldn't be or vice versa. But you know what? Even if you give a team a power play, they don't deserve. There's still like a one in four chance they convert. I just think that there's less to screw up for hockey officials. And honestly, you have to look to at like what the review system is for the sport, because if their mistakes can be challenged or overturned fairly easily,

then I think that mitigates some of the issues too. And a lot of stuff now in hockey is reviewable. Every sport is trending that way. And I think that's the case in basketball as well. Basketball is crazy because the whistle blows blows i think more than any other sport and for that reason it almost dilutes the officials impact during like the major like the meat of the game but then you get to the final two minutes right that's when the like the nba releases releases the officials report and sometimes it's pretty ugly um the the fans are probably most vociferous in like hating on basketball officials and yet i still feel like they do a pretty good job i think that most of their mistakes can be overturned

or reviewed in in the critical parts of the game um and they've got a really tough job they also have like they can still see the whole floor. Typically they're not missing calls. And a lot of this stuff they do miss can be fixed. So now we're down to baseball and football, which I think are the two worst. I think baseball home plate umpires are atrocious. I think they need a better system. I think robot umps for the strike zone would be great. But at the end of the day,

baseball hitters still get four at batsbats a game. They still get three strikes. So if they miss a strike call in an at-bat, which happens all the time, the hitters still have a chance, right? There's 27 outs in the game. If one out is recorded at a bad time, you still have 26 more outs. I think football is the worst because it is literally impossible for them to see all 22 players. And every play just carries more meaning. Like if you are given a team, a bad PI call for 40 yards, it just, it like swings the wind probability more than any other sport, I think. And then you run into these weird, you know, wrinkles in the rule book where like Cooper Cup fumbles the ball and forward progress is ruled and you can't review it all of a sudden.

That's weird. It seems to be harder sometimes to correct, you know, you can't really correct penalties in the NFL because it's just not, it's not a reviewable place. The officials have a lot of power and that power swings the game drastically. So for that reason, I think that that NFL officiating for its inconsistency, constantly moving the bar and changing the goalposts.

I think that's the worst officiated sport. All right. I had a very similar list, but I'm going to say something that probably, yeah, you definitely don't agree. I don't think the MLB officiating or umpiring is as bad as the NBA. So I have NHL, then MLB, then NBA, then NFL. And then I just threw in college football last because they're even worse than the pros for me. But my thing with MLB is I, it goes back to what you said in that one strike isn't going to affect the

game as much as a pass interference call is going to. And maybe it's sympathy for seeing the ball go a hundred miles an hour path, like right into that strike zone. Like it can be hard. I think that one, MLB umpiring has to be, especially behind home plate has to be one of the toughest jobs of an umpire that you can, that you can have as much as the catchers are trying to fool you and how they're moving the ball around.

And in general, pretty much every other call is either reviewable or they get right. It's really just those strike calls, but you're not getting really any, any more, any problems with he was safe at first, he's not safe at first. Like they have the technology to solve that. They have the technology to solve

pretty much every other scenario except the home plate umpiring. And so maybe it's a sympathy I have for it as a former like fifth grade umpire and not even being able to accurately have a strike zone for like fifth graders throwing like 40 miles an hour and me struggling to do that. So maybe it's my own sympathy and bias coming in, but I'm going to put the MLB a little bit higher. And I think robot umpires, at least for home would maybe bump them up all the way to the top if they can get that

solved. But that is definitely the one bad thing. But I think it rises above some of the NBA calls that we have been seeing, especially if you're a Timberwolves fan and you've seen some of the recent calls. Maybe that's more of my bias coming up, but there have been some tough calls on the Timberwolves this season. So I'm moving it will be up just a little bit. Let's move on to our third hot route. And I want to talk about, I want to compare NBA to NFL again in this way, because if you've been watching the NBA, you've been seeing, I mean, the Timberwolves just signed Greg Monroe. Random people are being pulled that you have not heard of for three or four

years to come in and play games because that league is insistent on playing and they're insistent on no matter how many guys you have out, we're pretty much going to suit up. And so I want to know for you, if the NFL got to that point where, and we're getting there, but if they're just signing random people off the street, which like three players would you like to see come out that isn't currently in football? They're not even playing in football. Like Greg Monroe is either playing in China or not even like playing anymore. Like we're bringing people outside of the sport that have been out of it for a year or two. Who are you bringing back in for this COVID emergency time?

Yeah. I mean, a lot of people probably would have said Kyle Slaughter for the Vikings. And oh, look, they signed him yesterday. He's got a cult following, right? I think that probably would have been on many lists. I hear Brett Favre has all these, right? I think that probably would have been on many lists. You know, I hear Brett Favre has all these money problems. I think he probably could use a good game check or two to help him out down there in Mississippi. So I think Brett's still got some bullets to fire. I think he's still got, you know, the old gunslinger can dust off the old shoulder. And I see pictures of John Randall, too, man.

He looks like he could still kind of get off the ball and get around some of those mediocre guards in the league. I think that Randall could be a nice veteran pickup at this stage in his life. These are all completely unrealistic. I think that's part of the fun. Yes. I love Percy Harvin, too. I mean, Percy Harvin is not that old yet. um these are all completely unrealistic i think that's part of the fun yes i love percy harvin too i mean percy harvin is not that old yet he's still like his football playing age um i would take percy back in a heartbeat i think i want to see jared allen is kind of switched to curling now

you know that's his thing but if we could bring him back for a little bit let him get going outside on the edge might not be the worst thing for the Vikings. That's where I went. And then everyone's favorite reoccurring Viking that has popped up in the Knights of the Era, where's Terrence Newman? Why can't he just do it again? I mean, the corners that the Vikings, I mean, get rid of Breland, why not? Just bring Terrence Newman in.

It can't be that much worse. And, yeah, I mean, those are two former Vikings. I'd love them signing right now. And then you've got the obvious ones, obviously, like Phillip Rivers might be signing with the Colts by the time you listen to this. Maybe he is now that Carson Wentz is out for a week with an injury. It's funny that we, Drew Brees could be in this hypothetical, but he turned it down already.

He said, I'm good golfing. I'm good being on NBC. I do not need to be doing this. That's kind of how I hope most former NFL players, especially if they were top level, would decide to do this. Like Marshawn Lynch, you don't need to come back and play. Again, just like let your legacy be your legacy. Drew Brees, let your legacy be your legacy.

I don't need you to come back for one game to be a fill-in. Same thing with Jared Allen. But, yeah, I think my top two are Jared Allen and Terrence Newman. Bring him back. Bring the Vikings some fortification here in these last two games. Give them a last drive. Zimmer's going to go out. Go out with your guys.

Go out with Newman. Give him a chance. Let him run. So that's what I would say there. Let me hit you with a just knee-jerk reaction because you bring up Allen, beloved figure. Vikings have had a lot of big defensive ends that have kind of had that popularity. So I'm thinking like modern defensive ends, let's go Allen, Robison, Hunter, and Griffin.

What rank the popularity of those four? I think because of where the Vikings were, like the big games they played in with Jared Allen and kind of the reputation around that defensive line when Allen and Robinson were in there, those feel like one-two to me. And then Everson versus Daniil, I mean, it's weird to put daniel forth in terms of how much people care about them um because he's probably the best one out of them but i think

everson just has such a connection to this fan base even when he's on the lions he's tweeting about the vikings everyone's wanting him to come back and then i think you know part of it is they connect with him and they connect with the struggles that he's gone through. And I think he's really become a fabric of the Vikings organization. And so Everson would slot in for three. And then Daniil Hunter, weirdly, weirdly, is four. Yeah, I would go Allen, Griffin, Robison, Hunter. But yeah, Hunter's just like the cold-blooded assassin who really has no emotion.

He doesn't resonate. He's not quite as marketable, has no emotion he doesn't resonate he's not quite as marketable maybe because he doesn't want to be he's just not that personality even though he's a probably number one in the list of amazing football players all right we're running a little long but we're going to do one more here i want to know biggest thorns in the viking sides i was hoping to do this question last week we didn't get a to, but after the Akeem Hicks game again against the Vikings, just always a big thorn in the Vikings' side. And then this week, the Vikings have always been a thorn in Matt Stafford's side. So we saw that again this past week. He did not look good. And if you stack Stafford's performances up over his career against the NFC

North teams, obviously the teams that he played the most other than this year, the Vikings are easily, easily, easily the team he has performed worst against. So kind of taking that back, but then pushing it back onto the Vikings, these Hakeem Hicks type players. I want to know, maybe it's not like, maybe we're not going to like an Aaron Rogers level. Cause he is a thorn in everyone's side. He is just the roadblock. But if we're just talking about annoyances, people that you just didn't like to see people you were worried about, maybe not wrecking the game, which always consistently seemed to get the Vikings number. What, what, what are some of those names where like your top two or three? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you can help me out with this one, Paul,

because it is a little tougher in football when you do only play three teams every year. It's not like baseball where, you know, you think, oh, A-Rod, you know, they played him every year or Jose Batista there for a while where he just murdered him or Nelson Cruz when he wasn't on the Twins. There's those players that you,

every year they come across and they destroy you. It's not like not that way in football. You might only see some, some really good players once every four years. Alshon Jeffrey weirdly came to mind. There was a stretch there in the early 2010s where he was totally dominant against those porous Vikings defenses with Jay Cutler. And in that same timeframe, Calvin Johnson was also crazy good. And I could probably throw Greg Jennings in that mix as well.

Like basically any receiver who played the Vikings from about, I don't know, 2000 to 2015, there were some bad defenses in there with some good ones as well. But there were a lot of porous defenses that kind of got victimized by the nfc north's top receivers more abstractly what about winless lions teams they always give the vikings problems i mean they've now beaten them twice in 20 in a 20-year span and they almost beat them twice more in their actual winless season in 2008. Not only once did the Vikings almost lose to them, but twice that season, Minnesota flirted with disaster against the 0-16 Lions. I mean, how many teams get that many opportunities to lose

against wretched opponents that have no wins? vikings seem to make an adventure every time yeah no that's a really good one i stuck with players and like you i stuck with uh nfc north players just because those are the guys that they're going to play uh very often i akeem hicks has to be mentioned although we mentioned off the top but in 10 games against the vikings he has eight and a half sacks uh eight and a half sacks for a defensive tackle, for a defensive tackle, 14 tackles for loss. So absolutely owns that thorn in the side and could even rise above that. Some interesting ones just from my childhood. I remember as a Vikings fan, always fearing Devin Hester, four of his 18 return touchdowns were against the Vikings. So that's, you know, basically 25% of his touchdowns came against the Vikings,

which is obviously not, not, um, doesn't line up with the amount of times he played the Vikings. That is much more than any other team. And then another one, just a sneaky one. Marvin Jones, uh, has been weirdly 10 games against the Vikings, 50 catches, nine touchdowns in 10 games against the Vikings. So consistent threat. Didn't really come to mind off the top of my head.

I had to do some research and was just looking at some of the common Vikings, you know, weapons that they were going against. And Marvin Jones popped up, basically averaging 75 yards a game in a touchdown. Not game-breaking numbers, but certainly we're talking about Thorns was always a red zone threat and just seemed to be one the Vikings couldn't figure out. But, yeah, Akeem Hicks has to be up top, and I think Hester's another good one. Hester's a great one.

I mean, there was probably a three-year stretch where I think he had a return every year, and there was one notable game where it was Peterson's rookie year. He had a huge monster performance and the Vikings did end up winning, but the bears had a return touchdown from Hester. And then they hit Hester on a deep go route with like one minute left to tie the game. And it appeared like it was going to go to overtime, but then Peterson went back for the kickoff return. He took it into Bears territory. And I think he was either Longwell or Edinger. Go with, go with, I think it was Paul Edinger at the time. I think he walked

them off with a field goal. Could be wrong on who that was. Someone will correct you. Yeah. Someone that, yeah, I'm changing my mind. It was long well i think and the vikings won that game yeah no great ones and oh again of course hester has to hurt him hurt the vikings with his receiving not just his return so he was hurting even in one of the biggest moments they let the kicker turner do something really really good on the offensive side of the ball i think that's's symbolic of a Vikings thorn. So, Sam, thank you so much. Vikings going up against probably their biggest thorn ever, Aaron Rodgers, coming up this Sunday. Sam, Matt, we'll have coverage of that.

Sam, thank you for your time. You can check out all of our YouTube content, including all the Hot Routes shows on YouTube. Subscribe to the Purple Insider channel for free for multiple weekly shows and weekly videos on the Vikings. We also heard from Dalvin Cook today. He spoke to reporters over Zoom. Upon returning from the COVID list, he got into the cold

that he'll be facing at Lambeau Field this weekend. His latest thoughts, or lack lack thereof on his vaccination status and what it's like to not have Adam Thielen on the field as he returns. Just talk about how frustrating it was to go on the COVID list and miss the game last week. And then how glad are you that they changed the protocols yesterday so you're probably back about three days earlier or so? Yeah it's frustrating to be put on that list especially how important these games is during the season so you know I wanted to

be out there with my team wanted to compete with those guys those guys know how much it means to me to be out there to help them contribute to a win so that was frustrating just watching it on TV. I wish this rule would have came out next week, so I would have been back kind of earlier, but it didn't. You know, I'm just glad everything worked out that I'm back this week. Dave Campbell, then Andrew.

Now when I'm just wondering if there's been extra just tension, I guess around the building with the cases being so high across the league and so many key players going out, do you just sense any extra caution on everybody's part? Yeah, we're doing the right things, taking the right steps to not have the close contact, to not have more guys outside the building if they don't have the COVID. So we stand six feet apart,

we enlarge our meeting rooms, keeping our masks on, stand away from each other basically. Gotta talk from a distance nowadays, stuff like that. So just doing the right stuff so our team is in the right position come these next two weeks. And for you, is vaccination something you're still considering? I wouldn't want to talk about it right now. But, you know, everybody got their own thing they do.

And, you know, just right now, I wouldn't want to talk about it. Hey, Dalvin, just to clarify, because these rules are changing so much, you don't have to test anymore, right? Because you tested positive. And I think the rules were? Because you tested positive, and then I think the rules were if the player tested positive, they don't have to test anymore moving forward for a certain period of time. I got to look into that.

If I don't got to test, that's big. That is important for my sleep in the morning. I might be wrong then if you didn't know. No, because I did test when I got back, so that's probably real. So it's like that's probably true. That's probably true. Okay, gotcha. Just wanted to clarify.

Appreciate that. I'll check on that. I got to check on that. We'll go to Ben. Yeah, Dalvin, congrats on the extra sleep, I guess. But with the game this week going into Green Bay, you had the big day there last year with the four touchdowns at Lambeau. What is your mindset going into this one,

just knowing what's at stake and the performances you've had against the Packers the last couple of years? Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. You know, every time we go into Lambeau, we know it's going to be a – well, last year they didn't have no fans, but we know it's going to be a, well last year they didn't have no fans, but we know it's going to be a hostile environment. So prepping these young guys, getting everybody else ready who haven't been to Lambeau to get their minds right

for a hostile crowd. But you know, our mindset is right now, we got to win all the rest of these games. No matter how we win it, no matter how we do it, we got to go win. Chris. Hey, I've got two things if you don't mind Dalvin, No matter how we do it, we got to go win. Chris? Hey, I've got two things, if you don't mind, Dalvin. I know I asked you a month or two ago about the 2017 draft class

you'll be going against on the other side, Aaron Jones. What do you kind of think of his game, and does he kind of remember that fraternity too since he's in that 2017 draft class and he's done quite well? He's definitely one of those standouts that wasn't expected to see expectations. He went later on in the draft. I think Green Bay definitely got a steal with AJ.

Just playing him over these last couple years, we have grown to have a friendship. That 2017 class, like I said, in my eyes was one of the best. So AJ is definitely one of those guys that put the class up there with the best. And then I also wanted to ask you, the is probably gonna be in single digits, maybe even close to zero on Sunday night in Green Bay. What are the challenges, I mean, you guys live in a cold weather climate, but you play indoors. What are the challenges of playing in those kind of temperatures?

And what do you think of what they're going to be like on Sunday? Yeah, I live here, but I be in the house. Like I be inside, like I don't be outside. Let's Jim tell us to go outside. But with me, with this cold thing, like I just love playing football. And once the pads and the cleats come on and everything else,

it's not cold no more. It's not, it's not none of that. I don't know how this single-digit weather about to be, but we about to find out. And, like, for me, it's like another milestone that I'm checking off. You know, I get to play in another good atmosphere that I dreamed about playing in when I was a kid. I've seen these games on TV, these cold games. It's fun.

It's football. So I'm trying to go have some fun on Sunday night, get these guys to go have some fun and win a football game. Any final questions for Dalvin? Kobe? Hey, Dalvin, you look at their record and it's been tough to beat the Packers this season. Only three teams have done it this year. Beginning of the season, the game where Aaron Rodgers was out and the one that you guys won.

So what made it so effective? What made your team so effective last time that you could potentially carry over into this one, you think? I don't think it was nothing special. We didn't do nothing out of the ordinary. We went out there and just stuck to what we do, just play good football. With Aaron Rodgers, you gotta play clean football. We can't have those mistakes.

That's gonna put us behind and do stuff like that. So we gotta go out there and play a clean game. We gotta kinda control the football, keep everyone off the field. And, you know, I think, you know, we do those things, we'll be in the right place to go ahead and succeed and win the football game. Hey, Dalvin, if I could just jump in.

The Vucs just announced they put Adam Thielen on injured reserve, so he's done, you know, for the season. What are your thoughts now on moving forward not having adam yeah first off you know thoughts to my brother president my brother hope he healed up good hope he you know get everything intact get it right um since i got here he's been a true brother like a true meaning of a brother like not even football related just just being there for me so i'm gonna do the same for him know whatever you need but we're gonna miss him out there on the football field he's that vocal guy you know he's that

guy that bring that juice every day you could expect the same Adam every day and no I'm gonna miss him I it really haven't been too many games that I touched the field without him so since I got here and you know just just that relationship I'm gonna miss on the field just having them out there last question to Craig you know to follow up on that just what Adam means when you guys get to the red zone and like all the touchdowns he scored down there, how does the team adjust to offset that loss? Yeah, he's a magnet when we get down there. I always tell him that.

The ball always seems to find him in the end zone. But we're going to miss that a lot. We're going to miss that in that red zone. And that's why in the NFL it's the next guy up mentality. We've got to have some younger guys step up. We're going to have some guys make some plays that nobody's not going to think make plays. So we've got to have some younger guys step up and make some plays in the shoes of Apple. And that's all we've got today. More coming

tomorrow. Matthew Collar should be back with you. I'm Sam Ekstrom. Thanks so much for listening and an early Happy New Year to you.